StreetCowboy

I don't normalise other people's values

He was probably trying to show off his English ability; if he’d wanted to look hard, he’d have not chosen an elderly farang.

You were lucky you did not start a fight. Being assaulted is one thing; getting in a fight is another.

You can’t generalise from your own experience; I am as normal as a fruitbat - a normal one!

You were lucky you were not armed. Don’t take your guns to town.

Keep a ready smile to hand, and don’t be afraid to use it. Simple apologies are better than debate.

Why would anyone attack him in preference to the other two? He’s probably asking for advice in case any of his mates are subject to random attacks, but did not want to let on the company that he keeps. Which brings me to my recommendation for lion attacks - make sure you can run faster than your travelling companions.

The 9th Tour de Damansara is scheduled for 4th December, for those that wish to join. We’ll be visiting the pubs tomorrow to confirm their participation. Then the detailed route planning, poster preparation, sponsorship and riders…

You might have to spend a lot of the winter sleeping indoors, and in the summer, I'd be nervous that the midges would make me short-tempered if I spent too much time galivanting in the gloaming.

Where do you think has better haggis?

We have some of the best haggis in the world

I’d like to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather, not shrieking with terror and horror like his passengers

Ha ha! Job done!

That might’ve just been the first day

Parts of China are East of there. The Japanese have certain views on the world. Probably Koreans as well. The Americas are East of Thailand, and beyond that, Europe. You do know the world is round, right? Like a banana.

Back in the day, I could plumb the doltish depths of any person I met, regardless of their stupidity. Now, I cannot. That is laziness on my part, not wisdom. If you cannot understand stupid people, what can you understand?

I am guessing you have more sense than money, but still enough money to replace the bikes if you have to. Assuming you also have plenty of time on your hands… Buy a new cassette and chain of the same number of rear cogs as you currently have. And a chain whip, and a socket to fit the cassette to remove it. And another one, until you get the right one. If it was a modern cassette, and you researched diligently on the internet, you might get it right first time. Buy new cables; consider buying new sheaths, if you really want to push the boat out; and a set of cable cutters, for the sheaths. If you don’t buy sheaths, clean the old ones by feeding string into the sheath so that as you draw the cable out, it pulls the string through. Don’t cut the string short, as it is going to come off, and you are going to have to pull it out the way it went in. Maybe you should’ve soaked it in petrol or meths first, as well. dismantle the derailleurs as far as you can be bothered, and soak them in petrol and scrub them with a nail brush. Your mother would tell you to wear marigold gloves while you are doing this, but then you wouldn’t be able to feel how clean they were. Leave everything to dry in the sun for the afternoon while you enjoy a beer, and come back to it the next morning. Fit back together again as much of it as you can remember, and still find. Put a drop of the heaviest oil you have on the cable sheaths and the end of the cable before you push them through. Fit the new sprocket and chain. Tinker and fettle until everything works fine, or frustration gets the better of you. Lubricate liberally, spin to work the oil in, wipe until there is no visible lubricant, and you’ll be good to go after refreshing your weary brow. Alternatively, if you have more money than any one of sense, perseverance or spare time, take it to a bike shop that has a pub nearby. They could do that four times faster than you could, and you can kid yourself that they did, even though it took one tenth of the time.

My buddy and I were discussing this very subject this afternoon, while undoing any health benefits we may have gained from our cycling. Would you rather be fit, or healthy? There are plenty of tales of athletes passing away on the sporting field, and there is no doubt that they are fitter than a butcher's dog, but my objective is to stay healthy until I die. Few amongst us want to live until we wish we were dead, and fewer still till our families wished we were dead. Now that my children are grown, I would rather die too soon than too late.

Black and white are just extreme shades of the same colour.

there is nothing worse tha... OK - I am not going to talk about the things that are worse, but suffice that it is quite embarrassing to accidentally take a wrong tuning out of one's hotel bathroom and find oneself in the corridor naked. I can imagine that is may be similarly embarrassing for a fellow guest to come across a naked person trying to get into their room, although my view was that it was laughably entertaining - albeit 30 years ago we were all much younger, and times may have changed. My experience is that any time you think to yourself "This could not be any worse", fate conspires momentarily to prove you wrong. So anyway, to respond to 1FO's comment above - lock it securely, and keep the key nearby on the way out.

That is a fair question. There is some doubt about whether our perception of reality is accurate. Harping back to the thread on "Tradition..." I would place my faith in existence, but I am a conservative, while you may be not.

"...only fish on Fridays"

Twains. We should not ridicule speech impediments but one of the fundamental principles is that there is an Up Line and a Down Line, and they are segregated, and any potential cross-over stops the opposite movement, and never the trains shall meet. Neither one of them (how can one train meet?) nor the twain.

There are two views on that. 1. It is fate, and you go when it is time to go. 2. What you do determines when you die. People with the latter view may be less likely to ride motor cycles through red lights, less likely to smoke or drink excessively - I don't have statistics on that.

Who can be bothered counting to 140? I reckon I have two feet of shirts hanging in the wardrobe. I can understand why blokes like that don't have time for cycling, but I reckon their fitness would improve if they spent less time counting their shirts and more time sweating in them.