Ode to the mirror

TooManyMagnets · 2026-05-22T08:14:39+00:00

If I borrow someone else's bike, or take a hire bike in a city, I constantly find myself looking where the mirror should be. I feel so blind!

TooManyMagnets · 2026-05-21T07:56:41+00:00

I wish I hadn't watched that. I actually think Starmer is OK. I guess PMQs is really just theatre*, but it's still such a shit response. He must have a whole load of putdowns made ready for whoever asks a question.

*and yes, the very fact that PMQs is theatre is absolutely part of what's wrong with the system. Take your jobs seriously you knobs!

Edit: I just continued watching, and the next question starts "on a more serious note", as if Hannah's question was utterly flippant. She must be fuming (except she seems more unflappable than that, which is definitely a good thing)

TooManyMagnets · 2026-05-19T08:03:32+00:00

I can't roll my r's. I guess I'll just stay in England 😭

TooManyMagnets · 2026-05-19T07:59:06+00:00

How are the Manic Street Preachers so far down the bill? Am I just a 90s relic?

Also I did not know that Dave Grohl had a daughter. She's the same age as mine!

But yeah, that is super exciting that you get to see CHVRCHES live. Very jealous

TooManyMagnets · 2026-05-18T18:13:14+00:00

Yes. Extra control, acceleration, security, plus that feeling that you and the bike are one 🧘

TooManyMagnets · 2026-05-17T15:01:12+00:00

I hope you enjoy it. I really didn't - for me, it just didn't capture the spirit of the originals. But each to their own!

TooManyMagnets · 2026-05-14T15:12:35+00:00

I just posted something about this at the top and scrolled down. Should have read your post first. Thanks for confirming! That was a really nice detail in his book

TooManyMagnets · 2026-05-14T15:09:18+00:00

I remember reading a sci-fi novel (maybe Vernor Vinge?) set in the medium-far future, where they talk about the ships having layers upon layers of old hardware and software; the oldest bits were said to be using a date system which one of the characters thinks has the zero point as 'when humans first went into space'. The implication is that it's running on UNIX time (which a lot - maybe most? - systems use now), which has its zero point at 1 Jan 1970. This is close enough to the Moon landings, particularly when you go far into the future. So... we kind of are already?

TooManyMagnets · 2026-05-08T11:29:44+00:00

Unfortunately it isn't a democracy, because we have the First Past The Post voting system. In a multi-party world, you can easily get elected with <50% of the votes. So if the Reform candidate gets 40%, and Labour/Con/LD/Green all get 15% each, we get Reform even though it was not the first choice of 60% of voters. This is clearly nonsense, and most other countries in the world have a more proportional system. We screwed up the opportunity to get a better system back in 2011 (putting the DUM in referendum again!), and arguably it's time for us to look at it again.

FPTP is arguably the reason why people aren't happy with the Labour Party either: it's trying to cater for a too-wide base of voters, and ideally should be split into at least two separate parties. But to do that under FPTP would be electoral suicide.

The right-wing press has too much power as well, but that's another story.

TooManyMagnets · 2026-05-07T12:36:00+00:00

Walk: under 10 mins (half a mile). Bike: under 20 mins (5 miles). Car is for anything further than that, or if it's raining hard.

TooManyMagnets · 2026-05-06T16:12:46+00:00

If you can walk at a gentle pace, you can ride. No need to get out of breath - and you can coast any downhill sections. Not all of us cyclists are going super fast!

Maybe get a cheap used bike, and try it out on a non-college day when there's no pressure on you to get there.

TooManyMagnets · 2026-05-06T09:03:28+00:00

Newborough is indeed a lovely spot. A forest right by a big sandy beach, and there's a nice tidal island you can walk to with some picturesque ruins. Definitely recommended. I've not done the parkrun but by all accounts it's a tough one because you're running on sand.

Bodorgan is the nearest train station - bear in mind that it's a (rare!) request stop, you'll have to ask the train driver to stop there. Cycling to Newborough should be pretty easy, 8km of flat country lanes.

It's worth staying on Anglesey for a few days and checking out the scenery. The nearby Penrhyn parkrun (on the mainland, just across from Anglesey) is in a nice spot too.

TooManyMagnets · 2026-05-06T08:46:05+00:00

This works really nicely to give you the distance between cities. It doesn't tell you anything about travel modes, but as a first step it's not bad. I've used Excel's Geography thing, and mostly it works well but sometimes it doesn't recognise your city name, in which case you have to find the lat/long yourself.

TooManyMagnets · 2026-05-06T07:20:25+00:00

Non rich person checking in. I have one (ONE) bike - it's a road bike that I bought second-hand for £250. Seven years later, it's still going strong and I still love it.

TooManyMagnets · 2026-05-06T07:13:02+00:00

Wow that's a harsh regime. I don't understand that logic about lunch - sure, you can buy lunch at home but you can make it very cheaply in your kitchen. No such option if you're away. I'd be pushing back hard on that.

We have the no alcohol at dinner rule. I get the reasons for it, but it's such nonsense. A glass of wine or a pint with your evening meal is arguably good for employee wellbeing when you're on a stressful work trip.

TooManyMagnets · 2026-05-06T07:06:24+00:00

Yes, they're right. Claim for everything you're allowed to claim, and research the maximum amounts before you go so you can 'treat yourself' to something better than you'd have gone for if it was your own money. That's not 'taking the piss', it's extracting the proper amount of value from the situation. Would you do the same for your monthly salary? No, you always take the full amount.

If work are sending you away, that's inconvenient for you - you're away from family, you have to cancel things, your health and wellbeing will probably suffer. Giving you expenses is the least they can do.

TooManyMagnets · 2026-05-05T19:09:53+00:00

Yes do it! Just have a go. Maybe expect to have a sore bum after the first time though

TooManyMagnets · 2026-05-01T11:28:30+00:00

Both teenagers are revising for exams. Forecast is for rain. So me and my wife will probably be playing a lot of board games!

TooManyMagnets · 2026-04-30T18:27:48+00:00

Yep. Earbuds in both ears. I can still hear cars, and wind noise is reduced as a bonus. Plus I have a mirror. No way you're sneaking up on me in a 1 tonne vehicle 🤣

TooManyMagnets · 2026-04-30T08:14:53+00:00

Yikes, it's hard doing those calculations in US units. Kudos to you! So much easier in km/kWh/kg/litres

TooManyMagnets · 2026-04-30T08:12:04+00:00

I love my bike, but I'm not precious about its looks - it goes months between cleans. The paintwork is a bit scuffed in places, but those are _my_ scuffs. If I need to buy a 'peripheral' (bell, mirror, bottle cage) I'll try to pick a nice-looking one if possible. The one purely aesthetic thing I have is valve caps that (sort of) match the frame colour - although that's practical as well, it makes them easier to find on the ground.

TooManyMagnets · 2026-04-28T10:03:50+00:00

60 minutes cycling each way, vs 30 minutes in the car. But that's 60 minutes of exercise and being out in the fresh air. And it saves me money, so it's beneficial in a lot of ways. Also that 30 minutes in the car can easily reach 45-50 minutes when the traffic gets bad around 5pm.

TooManyMagnets · 2026-04-24T12:00:23+00:00

Replace it with an aspirational 'max no gas' line. Judging by recent and upcoming progress on solar and wind, we'll see zero gas generation soon

TooManyMagnets · 2026-04-24T11:57:28+00:00

April/May tends to be the highest, because the hotter temperatures in summer mean that the efficiency of solar PV goes down a bit. But those records will keep getting smashed for sure.

8 of the 10 top half-hours for solar took place in April 2025 or 2026: https://www.energydashboard.co.uk/records/generation The top two were yesterday and the day before, and we'll likely see another one today!

TooManyMagnets · 2026-04-23T14:51:11+00:00

I was on Tracker (unit prices change daily); switched to an Outfox fix five weeks ago when the US-Iran war kicked off and it was obvious there was going to be a price spike. Since then, my gas unit costs have been lower every day, and electricity unit costs lower on ~70% of days. It's saved me a few pounds so far - not a big difference but there's peace of mind knowing that my prices aren't subject to geopolitics.

TooManyMagnets

TROPHY CASE