StreetCowboy

Don't let indecision or ignorance kill you with hesitation. Leap in, both feet first, commit irrevocably to a course of action, and find out what can go wrong. Learn from your mistakes - or mistake, if it is very serious.

In the spirit of the thread - if you were hit by a bus you would be lucky to be somewhere with good public transport. Or vice versa. Or if you were somewhere with good public transport you might be lucky to be hit by a bus.

Nice shoes make your feet more comfortable. Generally, I would recommend against clips, but if you are trying to make a quick getaway from the Skylane, you might need all the marginal gains you can get.

Fly into Suvanabhumi with all your worldly possessions in a small backpack, taxi to the sky lane, rent a bike and disappear into the sunset. After a week, start looking for a shop that sells laundry detergent and maps.

We’re not the ones complaining. Maybe you need to get a life instead of whinging about being here. I hope that the couple of minutes I spent typing this encouraged you to get out and about, but if not, I did my best to be constructive.

You are lucky to live somewhere with good public transport

Get blootered on the flight over and trust the taxi man

I’d stay at home, because it’s handy for my office. There might be nicer places (although I remain sceptical) but they’re either more expensive or rougher, and generally a worse commute. With fewer pubs and not so nice for cycling; If heaven is better than this, then I should be picking up the pace on my repentance.

Work on early December if you want to join Pubcycle 2022. Remember - you heard it here first.

We went back out on the DASH highway, as it looked like it might be opening soon - some of the high construction barriers have come down, and it looked not far off when we rode it six weeks ago. I invited our former Project Director (you may recall we lost him in Federal Hill, but he still got home before us) and Young J, who is used to riding the future SUKE highway (“it’s like a gym at the weekend - cyclists, joggers, walkers, rolerskaters…”. I thought the PD would like it, as he is a highwayman at heart. “Oh, this is terrible - look at that discolouration; the waterproofing membrane between the tarmac and the concrete is not properly bonded; this will all need to come up in a year or two…” To get the kilometres up, we took a detour after the end, along the aptly named Jalan Paip, replete with roadside mains water pipe, and through a couple of cemeteries; I suppose if I’d thought about the return journey I’d have enjoyed the 60 km/h down towards Jalan Paip less. You may recall that last time on DASH we had a painless journey (bar carrying our bikes through the section where there was still deck concrete to be poured) until a security guard gave us a bit of a whinging just before we reached that section on the return journey. This time round, we probably saw as many cyclists as workers, but a gentleman in a car (I’m not sure how he got there - we could easily lift our bikes over the barriers, but he would have needed four particularly burly passengers to deal with his car) told us we were not allowed on the road “yeah, yeah, we’ll leave at the next exit”; he went on his way, and we carried on ours. Unfortunately, he was returning as I was about to shift the plastic barriers to block his progress, and I thought that to do so in plain view would be unhelpfully confrontational. Fortunately, there was a concrete barrier shortly after that we could cross more easily than he. unfortunately, he must have called ahead, as we shortly came to a couple more cars and a security guard. The concessionaire had called out the Contractor, who explained in quite apologetic terms that he could not allow us to proceed through the construction (which was a fair point) and he escorted us off to the nearest passable exit - the same that we had left at last time. This time we took a different wrong turning, and had to u-turn across eight lanes of Highway toll plaza. Anyway, it’s a lovely road to cycle on, it will be better when all the expansion joints are installed, the gradients are all wheelchair-friendly, and from what we saw, much more popular with cyclists than motorists. #pedestrianiseDASH

I used to rely on "poot thai mi dai", in strong bar girl tones, to make it sound as if I understood a lot more than I was letting on. I have no idea what it means.

The month before you go. I would avoid being there over the holy month of Ramadan, as some food and drink places will be closed during the day time, and if you are bothered about the weather, then you might want to find out when are the rainy seasons. My experience is that in the rainy season, it rains heavily most afternoons, and in the dry season, it sometimes rains in the afternoon.

I might add that other people will be substantially safer if you cycle to the pub instead of driving there, though they will still feel free to criticise you roundly for it.

Cycling. It’s a great way to build up a thirst, and keeps you out of the pub until later in the day.

English is the only acceptable language on this forum - it should have been changed to Guava Pub

I am sorry that I did not appreciate (did not properly notice or understand) the irony - it was too close to a credible opinion of some of our fellow posters. My fault, for not knowing you well enough.

I think generally people don’t use the term “political correctness gone mad” when genuinely offensive terms are changed; normally only when terms that they deem inoffensive (like ‘blackboard’ or ‘nine-man’s-Morris’, or ‘mantelpiece’) are banned. Although Britmantoo postulated that the name change might be because of sensitivities over the term Farang, it might just be a way of bigging up the Aseannow brand (if I can say ’bigging’ on a public forum - or ‘brand’ )

I don’t understand; please can you explain that to me?

It might be worth replacing the rim tape, and before that, checking the tension of all the spokes, brush the rim carefully with a brush, and while you’re about it, make three 360 degree turns to starboard in front of the Tin Hau temple, to avoid capsize. We did not get to where we are today by blindly relying on common sense and our own meagre understanding of the world around us. You might also want to sprinkle talc inside the tyre whenever you replace the tube. It might do less harm than good, it might help you feel that you are doing your best, and it come in handy as an explanation if your wife queries the talc.

I take it by "newly bought" you mean recently bought, not new but stored in the cupboard for years. I have had unused but old tubes fail on the fold where they are pressed for wrapping. I have also had tyres fail on the seam, both of which I found difficult to patch effectively. Have you checked the manufacturing date of the tubes? Maybe they have aged in the shop before you bought them, rather than after you bought them. Were they all bought from the same shop, despite different brands? As CharlieH says - try tubeless. Although I am not ready to do so myself. I believe that there is a different set of skills for dealing with them, and since I lack the skills for inner tubes, I don't fancy my chances on something new and innovative.

How old are the tubes? I think I might start throwing away my spare tube and replacing it, if I have not used it in a year.

I used to think that curling was like chess, until I watched a serious chess competition, and I realised that the only thing they had in common was a Norwegian in the final (not the same Norwegian).

Who else watched the Wakey - Toulouse game from Magic Weekend at Newcastle? I was all set for switching off at half-time and accepting that Toulouse would be fighting for promotion again next season, but Wakey dopey ill-discipline and a remarkable half-time team talk saw Toulouse blow Wakey half way into next week, where Toulouse went on to beat Leeds. I think that they should give the promoted team a bye vis a vis relegation in their first season in Superleague; probably with no relegation or promotion If they finish bottom, so that they get lots of neutral support from other championship team supporters…

That’s appalling censorship, and not specified anywhere in the forum rules. I reckon you should only be allowed to close a thread on the basis of a Jingthing poll, with maybe a 50% majority, or 75% majority if the request for closure is not from the OP… No - mods, please forget that suggestion ; I can see how vulnerable might be the Live Rugby League thread.

I was in Sids one night, and there was a lady from PNG wanting to get a game in a local ladies’ rugby team - she was playing for a Gaelic Football team, … … from here, I am going to lapse into fanciful imaginative narrative, and I wish to make that clear to avoid maligning the lady in question… though when I saw her outside, I thought hurling might be more her sport.