Family Matters

[Stanley]

I still have the bikes in the hall..... But the kids are in the new house now so there is a glimmer of hope!

[PanBiker]

I have my bike in my hall as well but I am going to get shut. Can't ride it safely any more due to my drop foot problems. We passed Sally's bike on to our Carla last year. Had my moneys worth out of mine did hundreds of miles on it before I was poorly.

[Stanley]

Ever thought about a tricycle Ian? I've seen some pretty smart outfits.....

[plaques]

I have my bike in my hall as well but I am going to get shut. Can't ride it safely any more due to my drop foot problems.

Probably a wise move but for the wrong reason. The dangers from traffic have increased exponentially over the last few years. Lorries and arctics have reached enormous sizes. Cars have so much power that no account is taken of traffic flow or the need to read conditions ahead. Go as fast as you can and close the gap to stop others sneaking in is the mantra. Very few drivers give a thought to the fact that a narrow gap could be filled with a bicycle or motorbike. Cycle lanes in towns are a joke terminating at the point of maximum danger and generally considered to be somewhere convenient to park the car.

Perhaps when we go completely electric cars and they become too expensive for the plebs to afford we may see a resurgence of the bicycle.

[Tizer]

These look great but I wouldn't want to ride one in today's traffic, whether urban or rural, for the reasons Plaques mentions. Jorvik

On the other hand, this might do the job! CAN-AM

[Stanley]

I'd go for the tricycle because it's legal to ride it on the pavement. I've seen a lady on the electric version and it looked very practical to me.....

[PanBiker]

Today we have different memories of our Dan, (we think of him everyday of course) but today is his birthday. He would have been 43 today but will be forever 32, is it really 11 years ago?

A long time ago somewhere in the Lakes.



All grown up and one of my favourite photo's of our boys.




Sally and I are going out for lunch today and will raise a glass.

[Tripps]

Lovely pictures Ian. Great resemblance. I shall also think of you and your family today.

[PanBiker]

Thanks David, we went to a local bistro/bar and had a meat & cheese platter to share with bread and crackers etc.

I have an update regarding the first picture with all three kids. Sally took it and it was in the Howgill's not quite in the Lakes. We went on so many walks with the kids that I forget where some of them were. We were skint at the time and going stir crazy during the summer holidays, Sally found a caravan let in a farmyard outside Sedburgh. It was down a cobbled track and had a beck and free ranging ducks and chucks. The farmer said we could have any eggs we found. Kids loved it although it rained most of the time. They played about in the beck and got mucky as well as doing the egg hunting for breakfasts. Despite us going on some brilliant camping trips in the UK later and then onto the continent to foreign parts. All the kids agreed that the simple break in the farmyard was one of the best holidays we ever took them on.

I think the photo was taken on the way up to Cautley Spout on the only fine day we had.

[Stanley]

That sounds like an ideal holiday with kids Ian.....

[PanBiker]

No distraction with IT and WiFi Stanley, it didn't exist anyway and wouldn't have worked at the bottom of the farmyard. Looking forward to our week with the three grandchildren although WiFi will almost certainly feature as it's available of course. One good thing we always know where they are. Ruby is 14 now and Isla coming up 13, Finley goes up to Secondary School after the holidays, time flies. Blessed that they still want to come with us.

[Stanley]

My great grandson Alex in Australia has just gone up to middle school from primary.... You're right, time flies.

[PanBiker]

Met Carla at Skipton railway station when I dropped Sally off for the train to Leeds to meet Ruby. Got Isla and Finlay and all their stuff for the holiday, glad I put the top box on the car. Sally has just rung and she has scooped Ruby and they will be back in Skipton at 14.39. Noticed as I went past the filling station that sods law says that petrol has gone up, just when I need to fill up.

[Wendyf]

Wow!

[Stanley]

I am so glad I haven't got a car now. It must be a constant worry especially for you Wendy, you are so reliant on the car.
I often think that was one of the big plus factors for Peter when he moved into Taunton from the levels.....

[Tripps]

Wow!

I think that may be a response to a post I did - and then quickly deleted, because I thought it wasn't working correctly - seems it was !


I

[Stanley]

I did wonder David! I think that's so impressive! She'll be climbing chimneys when she gets older....

[Tizer]

Marvellous, she can put that on her CV when she gets older!

[Cathy]

I don’t agree. A 4 1/2year old - who’s being brave here?
Did she really understand?
If she was keen, which I can only believe that she must have been, I think she should have been strapped to her Dad, or an instructor.
And, can you imagine the uproar if something had gone wrong?

[Tripps]

I was in two minds whether to post that video, but since it was already in the public domain elsewhere. I did so.

I rarely mention my family or personal circumstances - which is probably a good thing and a policy which I will now resume.

I've deleted the video. Thanks for the positive comments - all was done with willingness, enthusiasm, enjoyment and complete safety.

[Wendyf]

I was in two minds whether to post that video, but since it was already in the public domain elsewhere. I did so.

I rarely mention my family or personal circumstances - which is probably a good thing and a policy which I will now resume.

I've deleted the video. Thanks for the positive comments - all was done with willingness, enthusiasm, enjoyment and complete safety.

My 'Wow!' is gratuitous once more.

[Tripps]

My 'Wow!' is gratuitous once more.

I had to look that up - it doesn't mean what I thought. :

What is a synonym for gratuitous?
1. unnecessary, superfluous, redundant; causeless, unreasonable, groundless, unprovoked, unjustified. 2. gratis.

Let's move on. . . .

[Wendyf]

My 'Wow!' is gratuitous once more.

I had to look that up - it doesn't mean what I thought. :

What is a synonym for gratuitous?
1. unnecessary, superfluous, redundant; causeless, unreasonable, groundless, unprovoked, unjustified. 2. gratis.

Let's move on. . . .

I looked it up too, and thought it fitted perfectly. A redundant, unnecessary and superfluous wow. (Not those other things.)

[Tripps]

I looked it up too, and thought it fitted perfectly.

I agree. I thought it meant giving thanks - as in gratuity or tip.

Brought to mind (like you do) yet again, Roger Bacon's quote

"Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man; and, therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not". Francis Bacon



PS I just noticed that Bacon (1561-1626) used what I thought was a modern style - saying 'need' instead of (my) preferred 'should'.

I bet he never said 'what goes round comes round' though.

[Stanley]

Off piste I know but you remind me that Francis Bacon was one of the few Western scholars to realise that the losses of knowledge after the decline of the great library at Alexandria (LINK) could, in part, be made up by reading Arabic translations of many of them. This was how much ancient knowledge percolated through to Western Europe. One example is Bacon making gunpowder and being suspected of black magic as a consequence. (Look into Algebra and our modern system of numbers and letters....)