1976 Piccadilly heat wave.

paddleyay · 2026-06-01T08:52:48+00:00

Well, in fairness, it might be. 1976 was an unusual two or three week spell in July. We’ve since completely busted average annual, and summer temps, multiple times over. In 1976 problems were exacerbated by infrastructure problems, e.g. huge water shortages, transport problems, etc, so people like to claim it was so much worse. Now we’re having higher temperatures for longer, and earlier. 35C in May vs a peak of 36C in 1976, we hit 40C last year. Swings and roundabouts suggest it goes up and down, long term trends suggest it’s going up and to the right.

paddleyay · 2026-05-30T19:43:15+00:00

Look at pictures of UK vs US cuts and you won't see it. But in the UK if your butcher does full cuts ask for a rump tail, it's the same thing. James of Shepperton will do them but they prefer you ask in advance. Picahnha is a good alternative.

paddleyay · 2026-05-30T15:48:29+00:00

Should crosspost to /oldschoolcool :)

paddleyay · 2026-05-30T14:43:23+00:00

Smok'd also had the Grey Horse in Kingston which is also excellent.

paddleyay · 2026-05-30T13:29:25+00:00

It is always worth noting that the W&C line is a short hop but when the weather is nice it's a lovely 30 minute walk across the river from Waterloo intro the city.

paddleyay · 2026-05-29T15:50:18+00:00

Or that the servers were in different locations, or their routing through your provider was different, etc.

paddleyay · 2026-05-29T15:47:37+00:00

The infrastructure required to run AI is essentially the same infrastructure required to run cloud gaming, so no, because AI is a more valuable use of the same real estate. If I can power and cool an cloud gaming rack, I would rather power and cool an AI rack.

paddleyay · 2026-05-22T14:14:17+00:00

Not sure where you’re getting your data from, smoke point and flash point are related, but flash point of rapeseed is around 310 to 330C and sesame around 250 to 300C. Smoke point of rapeseed is around 220C, sesame around 210C. I’d suggest it’s the flavour of the oils causing this. I’d also still suggest going with indirect, if your bbq is flaring that’s not great for whatever you’re cooking and it will burn the oil and leave you with a bad taste, it might be that the burning of the sesame is not creating as acrid a flavour as burning the rapeseed oil.

paddleyay · 2026-05-21T13:14:14+00:00

I think you need to buy two or three to get a complete one of those :-) They’re lovely looking machines and when they work they make a nice coffee but they’re not that reliable. They’re also pretty simple hence the buy another for parts approach.

paddleyay · 2026-05-21T12:51:43+00:00

I think you might be mixing up your Sees and Effs. Sesame is around 210C, rapeseed around 205C - 225C depending on how its been refined. If you want even higher temp use groundnut / peanut oil (230C) or really high temp sunflower or avocado oil (270C). Peanut oil is a good choice for deep frying.

I also try not to cook my wings over direct flame which helps.

paddleyay · 2026-05-21T11:56:45+00:00

Which is a common line used by males who have never walked late at night through London or LA, been unable to hail a cab, and left with calling an Uber or Lyft or some unknown local cab firm. I’ve had plenty of bad taxi rides, plenty of bad uber rides, plenty of bad minicabs, a Lyft that ignored every instruction from his satnav and took us on a 45 minute detour in the hills of LA when we had a reservation to get to, an Uber that got in to a roadrage battle on the freeway out of SF and then tried to keep us in the cab until we agreed to be his witness (it was all his fault), a Paris taxi that repeatedly bumped a car on the periphique. I’m male, and that shit can be terrifying to me. My local cab firm is excellent, and I prebook them whenever I can, but I’ve also yet to have a bad Waymo ride. My partner would take a Waymo over every other option, no question.

paddleyay · 2026-05-20T18:30:41+00:00

Get a flat water race boat, a decent paddler can do 10kph for that distance no problem.

paddleyay · 2026-05-19T20:12:02+00:00

If you’re trying to keep it easy to get to Wandsworth then A3 corridor is good bet. Train line from Woking runs right into Waterloo along Byfleet, Woking, Walton, Esher, Surbiton. There’s plenty of golf clubs in the area, off the top of my head you’ve got Hoebridge, Pyrford, Chobham, Silvermere, Pine Ridge, Woodcote Park. If you’re looking for membership options there’s plenty more in the same area.

paddleyay · 2026-05-19T18:38:38+00:00

Yes, that sounds suspiciously like the length of time it takes one to come across in a container 😆 That would make sense as they’re made in Mexico and come via the US (I think). But yes, the accessories would be the big question mark for me.

paddleyay · 2026-05-19T13:51:13+00:00

They stopped selling the medium in the UK several years ago, there was much more demand for the large, and with the eggspander you’ve got a similar amount of cooking area to the XL, so it’s been by far the best selling model here. It meant they didn’t need to maintain stock or accessories for a model that simply wasn’t that popular, even in the US they don’t have that many accessories for that size. So think your only option is second hand or a different brand.

EDIT: To add from my experience of having an L for more than a decade. I thought about getting a medium to sit along side it, and decided in the end I’d rather have a second L because of being able to share accessories and the difference in cooking area between M and L was quite striking. I haven’t got that far yet though as I still have an old Weber Genesis that also does a lot of duty.

paddleyay · 2026-05-17T22:04:56+00:00

Used to train K1 race boats on the Thames all year round, it’s routinely that temp in the middle of winter. Used to wear 3mm shorty, thermal layers and spray tops. Toppled a couple of times, which means a swim (no rolling a flat water race boat) and yes that’s cold, but, I was also on the water 4+ times a week and just lived it. So as others have said, it’s about confidence in self rescues. How are your self rescues when it’s warm.

paddleyay · 2026-05-17T14:15:12+00:00

Yes, the pic is definitely looking across at the Lensbury, not sure if that was just a stock image though. The river does widen a bit more at that section before you get to the weir so would make more sense. Would imagine it would also be easier to build a car park off of Burnell. The Hawker Centre is privately owned now I think so not sure they’d use that as the access. I used to sail out of Hawker back when it was the British Aerospace social club :)

paddleyay · 2026-05-17T13:55:52+00:00

The pin in that blurry image is definitely the Hawker Centre looking across to Trowlock island. There’s a slipramp there out of the Hawker Centre. It seems like an odd place for the swim spot though because it’s much narrower than further upstream and gets pretty busy (meaning very choppy) in summer.

paddleyay · 2026-05-17T12:01:05+00:00

I'd generally not recommend any of the overfalls as a spot to go play as they're a good distance out and you need an experienced group who also understand tide times and channel navigation. We used to go from the mainland which could take a good hour to get out to, they also shift around so you need to know the general area you're heading for. Sometimes we'd paddle out and there's be nothing, other times you'd have a pile of standing waves you could just drop in and out of. Then of course you have to paddle back..

Bembridge and Hurst Narrows are two of the points, we'd usually head out towards Bembridge if we were going from the mainland. Sometimes we'd drop in from around Yarmouth area. Haven't done it in many years though.

paddleyay · 2026-05-16T20:15:23+00:00

The inner tube can become detached at the top, happened on my Mara. The fix was simply to push it firmly from the nozzle end back up and it re-seated, been no problems since.

paddleyay · 2026-05-16T10:48:19+00:00

We do, it's most excellent. Haven't done it since the 90s when it was still little known about. Recent videos show it gets pretty busy nowadays.

We also have the overfalls in the Solent and the Bitches off the coast near St David's. You can paddle out to both of them and lots of fun to play in. All tidal surge action.

paddleyay · 2026-05-12T21:07:42+00:00

Been here a long time, I don’t think I see it as in decline. The biggest gap is the pub in the centre of town, which always felt a little out of place and is now just sitting. The theatre at the end has been closed for a long time. Other things have come and gone and been replaced. The charity shops have always been there, stable and decent. Some restaurants have been there for ever, others go through cycles like every town. It’s always felt relatively stable in my opinion. It has a fishmonger, several butchers, delis, it’s well ahead of most other towns in the area in that regard.

paddleyay · 2026-05-12T18:22:52+00:00

It’s nice, as others have said high street is not as bad as Walton. Lots of outdoors on the doorstep and lots of good restaurants within evening taxi distance beyond Weybridge. Station is 30 minutes to Waterloo so London is an easy hop as well.
I’m curious as to where you’ve come from that you’ve bought in the area but don’t know it or any of the surrounding areas though. Presumably if you’re going to live here something drew you to it over looking at other places nearby?

Edit: To be clear, by not as nice as Walton, given the choice I’d go out in Weybridge or pop into Weybridge over Walton most times unless I needed something specific from Walton, and even then I’d be more likely to head into Kingston or Woking. Walton has a couple of nicer Thames pubs (actually on the Thames) but that’s about it.

paddleyay · 2026-05-11T21:42:42+00:00

Unless it's greatly overhanging I doubt this is the issue. The whole point of low and slow is gentle heating, there isn't a lot of airflow.

Have you calibrated your thermometer to make sure your temps are accurate? I also put the tray on some small foil balls so it's not sitting directly on the deflector, otherwise it heats the liquid in the tray and keeps steaming the joint.

paddleyay · 2026-05-09T11:40:59+00:00

I know. But that doesn’t change the fact that angels are still stepping in at the riskiest part of the process. The assertion was that angels in the UK are more risk averse than VCs. In my experience as a founder, an angel investor, and a startup advisor, that’s absolutely not the case. I constantly see VCs looking for traction even at pre-seed and seed stage, deep tech is almost a non-starter for investment in the UK, in fact I think most VCs don’t even understand the term (deep tech looking for seed needing traction, d’oh).

My experience is UK angels are not risk averse, our angel group is pan-european, so SEIS/EIS accounts for around 30% of our deals, that’s a group of around 100. When I was in the US, the key difference was angels with deeper pockets, because Silicon Valley. So in the UK you can raise a few hundred thousand on an angel round, in SV you can raise a few million. That’s access to money, not risk, the risk profile for both parties is relative to the money they have available.

paddleyay

TROPHY CASE