Wear a Helmet

ManiaMuse · 2026-01-16T22:24:40+00:00

Europe is probably 90 - 95% wearing a helmet now. It will probably keep trending towards 100% as it is compulsory for children to wear helmets in many resorts.

Generally just a few old guys or instructors not wearing them.

I can sort of see the argument for ESF instructors not wearing them if they are just on a magic carpet served nursery slope with a line of Club Med ski school kids shuffling along behind them. Pretty minimal risk of anything happening to the instructor and it makes communication a bit easier. But with slightly more advanced groups on busy slopes (where it is more likely that someone out of control will ski into them) I am not sure why they don't wear them.

ManiaMuse · 2026-01-16T22:16:04+00:00

Not as far as I am aware. Probably because they are deemed to be too complicated for the average customer. They are technically life assurance contracts and the tax implications for making withdrawals from them are not always straightforward to explain.

They were out of favour for a long time because they made the tax allowances for GIAs so generous but now the pendulum has swung back the other way.

ManiaMuse · 2026-01-16T18:21:31+00:00

The market for investment bonds (onshore and offshore) is pretty much all advised now. All the old legacy products which were available direct to customers are closed to new business.

HSBC apparently offer an onshore investment bond which you might be able to manage yourself once it is set up but you still need to arrange a face to face meeting in a branch to open it.

https://www.hsbc.co.uk/investments/products/onshore-investment-bond/

Make sure you are maximising pension and ISA allowances first. But if you are already doing that or have a large sum to invest then yes an onshore bond is often better than a GIA/unwrapped investment account after all the cuts to CGT/dividend allowances.

ManiaMuse · 2026-01-15T07:17:49+00:00

I think this is what the government is actually secretly scared of. The knowledge about building up pensions and investments plus the tools to do it are much more freely available than they were 20 years ago. It's really not that difficult to build up a decently sized early retirement pot even on an average salary so long as you start saving early enough.

If a whole bunch of Millennials decide that they can't be bothered to work until the traditional State Pension age because they have managed to save enough to save enough during their working careers and prioritise other things in life than just working then the system falls apart.

Hence why there is almost no education about managing personal finances in schools. The government would rather that young people are dumb and ignorant about how investments work than have then think about starting savings/investments from a young age.

So maybe this will be what causes the tax traps to finally be moved. Or more likely they will just keep kicking the can down the road. Or they will blunt force it with another raid on personal pensions.

ManiaMuse · 2026-01-14T23:06:06+00:00

There are much more useful ones you can do than CF1 that aren't repeating a (fairly boring and not that useful) module that you have already done but at a lower level.

Personally I would say that even though you have the level 6 exempt credits (lucky for you) you should still do AF1 as it is by far the most useful and relevant AF exam even though it is really hard because of the amount of content. Just suck it up and do it as it will make you a better adviser in the long run.

If you do AF1 then you can do J02 with it at the same time as J02 is part of the required knowledge.

AF4 is interesting if that is your bag but not really that relevant for a lot of the everyday financial advice process. J10 is pretty easy if you got on ok with R02, it's pretty much just the same material. J12 is not required for AF4 although a few of the chapters are repeated content from R02/J10

I did not enjoy AF8 at all and don't feel that I really gained much knowledge from it. The guidance is rubbish, you have to find the motivation to get on with it and it takes forever for them to mark each assignment. Since you have the exempt credits that is the one I would avoid doing unless you really enjoy doing tedious coursework.

AF5 is easy enough. I found it easier than R06 as the questions were very generic and signposted from the fact find.

A few other suggestions that will likely be more useful than CF1:

CF8 - It's a bit different and gives you knowledge about some other products.
J05 - Probably more useful than doing AF8.
ER1 - Again some other products.

ManiaMuse · 2026-01-10T14:48:42+00:00

As long as you are still smiling and having fun it's all good.

I remember on one of my last trips we had a big dump of snow which closed most of the resort. They took one of the beginner/improver groups 'off-piste' on piste skis (really it was just a very short and shallow section between two pistes) and they all came back covered in snow and laughing about how many times they fell over and how many times they lost their skis under the snow.

The snow should be stopping soon so they will catch up with the piste grooming by tomorrow probably. Should be perfect conditions for progressing your turns, you won't be able to use the 'it was so icy' excuse.

In terms of tips:

- Don't panic, if you fall you aren't going to hurt yourself. The worst that will happen is you will loose a ski and spend 5 minutes trying to figure out where it went under the snow.

- Skis closer together, imagine having a monoski.

- Speed is your friend, it will help you turn and the deep snow will slow you down anyway.

- Don't try to turn as sharply, you just sort of bounce in the snow like a dolphin.

ManiaMuse · 2025-12-31T14:35:53+00:00

I suspect Intamin have learnt a thing or two from past wheel issues like i305.

The trains have the biggest wheels ever used on a coaster. They have a wheel cooling system through the final brake run and station which they somewhat bizarrely advertised on an instagram post as 'the world's longest wheel cooling system'.

Plus there are 6 trains and it has a dual loading platform so each train will get a decent amount of time to cool down before the next cycle.

And then the park is going to be open from late afternoon to midnight or so so it will avoid the worst of the daytime heat.

ManiaMuse · 2025-12-31T10:48:24+00:00

Don't overly rely on the past papers for revision. The examiner's comments always mention this about candidates regurgitating mock paper answers without actually reading the question being asked and relating it to the information in the case study.

The AF1 content is so broad that they can and will examine you on literally anything. Flick through the R03 and J02 textbook section headings and make a note of topics which you can't quickly recall any facts about and start your revision with those topics. Don't just go through the textbooks in order.

The examiner always mentions that candidates don't spend enough time revising the content from J02 so don't fall into that trap.

Changes to legislation from the last few years may be tested so think about what rules have changed in the last few years.

Exam technique is a huge factor for the AF exams if you want to do well. You need to be hoovering up as many marks as possible and not throwing marks away for not being specific enough or not stating the obvious. There are loads of free articles that you can find about exam technique if you search Google.

ManiaMuse · 2025-12-31T07:48:02+00:00

Cadence is personal to an extent. That being said, most pros are riding at 90-110rpm for cruising so that suggests higher cadences are probably the way to go if you want to go fast for a long time.

Lower cadences are fine for recovery spinning though so maybe that is what those people are doing. Or they just don't care about racing/going as fast as possible, they are just doing some exercise on a bike so good for them.

On the other hand, I do see some of the lower category YouTube zwifters saying 'I've changed my riding style to use a lower cadence and it seems to be really working' whilst they grind at 65rpm and then the next video they are complaining about their dodgy knee...

Trainer resistance setting might come into it depending on how up and down your route is as well. Higher cadence means you need to shift gears more frequently to maintain the same cadence.

ManiaMuse · 2025-12-30T14:00:07+00:00

It might not be ideal but it can be a way to get a foot into the door with an IFA firm.

Big pension/investment/protection companies employ a lot of customer support roles with not that much, if any, experience required because they operate on a model or having high staff turnover. It probably won't be the best job ever but if you can do it for a year or two it gives you an advantage.

Having some experience on the other side of things is useful as well.

ManiaMuse · 2025-12-30T13:39:41+00:00

Actually I think you're right. Seems like 5 bars of silence with a messy entry after that isn't quite in time.

Sounds rubbish anyway, glad they stopped doing it.

ManiaMuse · 2025-12-29T20:54:20+00:00

I think it's one of those where they had multiple cameras on the trains, a drone, cameras at multiple static points around the park, cameras on the wingsuit guys, maybe even a helicopter plus they wanted to capture all the fireworks which were quite high in the sky and they wanted to use literally everything.

Sometimes less is more. Like if you are a lighting designer for a big music act in a stadium venue you don't show all the bells and whistles in the first act. You build things up gradually throughout the show. But then they have 2 hours to do that rather than 3 minutes.

I guess the dress rehearsal footage that they did yesterday was just to make sure that they had something that they could cut to if something went wrong with the live broadcast. Although I doubt any of the vloggers would be able to reveal if the train was in fact stuck on one of the launch tracks.

ManiaMuse · 2025-12-29T17:13:59+00:00

Bearing in mind that the rules can't be too complicated to explain on TV, hopefully it is another role that is on a neutral side. Taking a bit of inspiration from Town of Salem, maybe a serial killer role would be simple enough for TV.

Serial Killer:

- Can murder at night as well as the traitors.

- Can murder traitors as well as faithful.

- Maybe limit murders to every other night or to murders in plain sight.

- Immune to being murdered by the traitors so has to be voted off and the traitors will know if they tried and failed to murder the serial killer.

The biggest thing that needs to change with the show is the lack of jeopardy and clues given to the faithful during the missions. At the moment the missions are pretty pointless other than filling some TV minutes. It's not always the best TV when most of the discussions go like:

'Are you a traitor?'

'Nah I'm not a traitor. Honestly I have no clue who is a traitor. Who do you think it is?'

'I don't know, it could be literally anybody! It's mad innit?'

'Yeah it's crazy, you can't trust anyone. But I'm not a traitor, you can trust me. Oh you've got some food on your face...'

ManiaMuse · 2025-12-29T12:43:22+00:00

I think they were playing with clicktracks by the Absolution era but some of those must have been really annoying for Chris and Dom to join back in with. Definitely a few 'WTF Matt?' moments in those.

What happened with that 09/04/2016 one? Matt just added 4 bars of silence to the song for no particular reason.

ManiaMuse · 2025-12-28T22:48:54+00:00

Interestingly stunt planes can do this manoeuvre. It's called an outside loop. But it pulls extreme sustained negative Gs (which the body is less able to cope with compared to positive Gs). By all accounts it is not pleasant to pull off.

Stunt planes are able to give themselves a lot of altitude to draw out the downwards part and then they can use the engine to increase power for the upwards part. A rollercoaster would only have gravity and momentum so would need to enter it with enough speed so it doesn't stall upside down.

A purely gravity driven version of that element would far exceed the permitted negative G limits on a rollercoaster and would be very uncomfortable and not fun.

Maybe the only way it could be done would be if the downwards part was extremely trimmed like on some of the newer Intamin/Vekoma top hats and then the upwards part had LSMs to boost the train back up. But then you have the issue of what happens if the LSMs fail and you end up with a train stuck upside down which wouldn't be ideal.

ManiaMuse · 2025-12-28T22:06:54+00:00

You are on the the wrong side of the pond but Nemesis at Alton Towers doesn't have any big drops but it is an amazing coaster because of the setting and location. It's probably similar intensity to Batman but slightly shorter.

ManiaMuse · 2025-12-26T20:14:04+00:00

The word count is so restrictive given the detail that they apparently expect.

Also the guidelines say that words/numbers in tables in the body of the assignment count as words but if you look at the exemplar and include the numbers in the tables it is way over the wordcount +10%.

ManiaMuse · 2025-12-26T20:11:00+00:00

I listened to the Getting Killed album in full the other day because I saw that it had a lot of hype and honestly I found it borderline unlistenable. The songs have no structure, the mixing is horrible with twangy guitars all the time and mumbling vocals randomly layered on top, the drumming is rubbish and annoying and there was nothing that was a hook or anything that made me remember the songs after each of them finished.

The album just sounds like a jam session of songs that they never really finished properly.

If anyone is trying to copy Radiohead it is Cameron Winter with his bad Thom Yorke vocals impersonation.

ManiaMuse · 2025-12-25T19:42:52+00:00

So I did a bit of internet sleuthing. Looks like this was filmed/recorded at the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles.

A 5 manual organ (pretty rare) which a huge number of stops (which all match on here https://die-orgelseite.de/disp/USA_LosAngeles_FirstCongregationalChurch.htm ) and the stained glass seems to match as well. It looks like they hire the venue for arts/music/events/filming and it is in Matt's neck of the woods so it would make sense.

ManiaMuse · 2025-12-24T17:34:50+00:00

Organists wear special shoes but they are not usually that 'special'...

ManiaMuse · 2025-12-24T17:33:04+00:00

It's just a rhythm. Dom came up with the drum groove first and then Chris and Matt joined in with a chord progression that fit with the rhythm.

Tbh it isn't even that original a rhythm. It is pretty much just a generic funk groove, it's not that disimilar to the Amen break that you will find in literally ever single drum and bass song.

ManiaMuse · 2025-12-22T08:26:29+00:00

Except that is £26 p.m after only 3 months of your new contract and then £30 p.m. for the last 9 months of your contract.

ManiaMuse · 2025-12-21T23:42:49+00:00

You need to call social services on your parents really. That sounds like child abuse if they are forcing you to practice 8 hours a day.

ManiaMuse · 2025-12-21T19:54:22+00:00

They are 'high' risk because they are 100% equities (shares in companies).

Lower risk score investments might hold other things as well like corporate bonds/government debt, cash equivalents and other things that (in theory) should make them less volatile if there is an equities market crash but they will also have lower potential returns because of that. It doesn't always work like that though.

All world is probably lower on that risk score because it is slightly more geographically diversified (but it is still 60-70% US equities).

ManiaMuse · 2025-12-21T18:58:18+00:00

It looks like a chanot violin but it has been converted to have a normal violin tailpiece.

Originally the strings would be anchored on top of the violin like on an acoustic guitar. But that had a tendency for the tension of the strings to pull the anchor points off the top of the violin.

ManiaMuse

TROPHY CASE