StreetCowboy

I'm just saying I like a drink. Back in the day, we could take a drink, without being stigmatised.

This song does not remind me of Hong Kong. It does not even remind me of Redcar

I think it's great that the OP has posted a simple question, and everyone has used that as an opportunity to Virtue Signal by abusing their imaginary racists, without actually constructively considering the question, nor discussing what constitutes racism. Until we understand our own prejudices, we cannot condemn prejudice. We can only complain about it. SC

Another thing that racists and alcoholics have in common is that one does not need to be an alcoholic to enjoy a bit of a drink.

I love a bit of spicey mutton. More flavour than lamb, and just as tender if you treat it properly. My mutton lady has not come back from her holiday in Singapore, and I am on the brink of starvation. I've had nothing to eat but chicken for weeks now.

Maybe that was the best thing, and not realising was the worst thing. Back in the day, according to rumour, and consistent with the evidence, I was stabbed in the back, but it takes more than that to spoil a friendship. Things happen, and you can resent them, or not. Resentment won't rectify them, and rectification may cause you endless conflict. We all live our own lives, and if I'd wanted to be Rambo or David Watts, I'd not have been me SC

Back in the day I suffered a mishap that resulted in a permanent impairment, and I am not sure that was the worst day of my life. It did make me appreciate that the biggest problem that I had was that I did not have wings... We go through life with our limitations, and sometimes as we get older our limitations change. If I was to identify the worst thing that had happened to me, it would be my biggest mistake, and to identify that is a gargantuan challenge that I am not willing to attempt. SC

It's hard to be a teenager nowadays, when you're 50.

I was out the other day, riding briskly to meet up at the start of the ride, and I changed gear by one gear on the road bike, and didn't want to change another. But if the gears had been two teeth apart, instead of one, I don't think I would have changed back. I've been quite enjoying going out on the shopping bike, with the flat handlebars and the basket, although the wider handlebars mean you need to concentrate weaving between the wing mirrors - and also remember the pannier on the back.

I was expecting a story about a young goat. I feel cheated.

Does this song remind you of your first trip to Hong Kong?

I stepped off the plane at Kai Tak with two colleague compatriots who had worked in Hong Kong the previous year as graduate and student. We met the young lad's brother and went for dinner and beer (as I recall, it may have been a liquid dinner), and the Chinese waiter says: "Whair'r youse boys fi? Ah'm fi Dunfermiline" Anyway, somehow I woke up the next morning back home, and as no-one else had woken up, I went down the street, down the hill, down to some shops selling all-knows-god-what; it looked like you were supposed to eat it, but I cannot imagine why. Down that street, to the main road, with the clanking trams festooned with Chinese advertising, and across the road... And my ears pricked up. I followed the sound of the pipes, and there, down a side street, in the courtyard of the Royal Hong Kong Ambulance Corp Logistics Depot, was the Ambulance Corp pipe band in full tartan regalia having a Saturday morning practice. "Aye, mebbe this'll be a'right" I thought to myself. Some months later, the police were called to our handover party, which had started on a chartered tram and subsequently adjourned to our company apartment. Twice, if recollection serves me well. We didn't test their patriotic patience any further.

I suppose we have no choice but to make allowance for people that don’t understand sarcasm, and for those of us with limited talents, at least it allows us to exercise our superiority complex.

You are right. We should not be forced to tolerate or make allowances for gay people, handicapped people, non-smokers, people with allergies… The tyranny of the tolerant is unbearable, as they promote all these minorities, but deny the sullen majority the right to their prejudices.

I am with you. Liberal freedoms are elitist. People should be allowed to do the limited things that I do, and no more.

Orange skin Toothbrush moustaches Scraggle-haired cockwombles…. Threats to democracy do not look like you or me, nor like our lumpen proletariat. If the proletariat want serfdom, who are we to deny it, despite our misgivings and wish for liberty? I think a substantial proportion of the population would willingly forego elements of freedom and wealth to be able to blame their woes on Johnny Foreigner rather than their own stupidity. Only space and stupidity are immeasurably infinite, and scientists are addressing the former.

I think he means “turn things around” as in “down the U-bend”. It’s a plumbing term.

I might still be able to find a great video of lightning landing near our depot, in approximately the same space twice within a few seconds, each strike lasting a significant fraction of a second. Here, lightning deaths are almost exclusively male - mainly golfers, and construction workers in buildings where the earthing is not complete.

If you’re not a cutie you might as well be obtuse.

Did you even do the search? Do you even ride a bicycle? The point of the question was not about the range or spread of gears (though I admit that I did not make that clear) but the number of gears between the maximum and minimum. My shopping bike (2x8) ranges from 46-11 to 30-34, while my road bike (2x11) ranges from 50-11 to 34-28. Despite having fewer cogs over a wider range, I have never thought while on the shopping bike “I wish I had something in between these two”.

Humans are plural. "There are only ..." There's pedantry, as well. There are only two problems - Humans - Pedantry - Superfluous gears You can google the Spanish Inquisition on Youtube yourself SC

As you know, my buddy and I finish the first part of our bike rides, and after the cycling, solve the world's problems. To cut a long story short... What is the point of all those gears? For normal people, who are not honed athletes, and can cycle at varying cadence, why would you want 10 or 11 or 12 gears on the rear cog? On my two bikes, I have 2 x 11 and 2 x 8, and I really enjoy the wider range of the 2 x 8. The best thing I can say about the 2 x 11 is that I can easily shift two gears quickly. So why not have a 5 or 6 or 7 or 8 speed rear cog, with a narrow chain, and allow more space for a more symmetrical wheel? Why take up more space than the disc brakes? Remember 0 you heard it here first...

The comedian has no idea how funny is his joke. And if he had to explain it, he has failed. I will assume you are just being obtuse.

This forum has been like a morgue recently, so I thought it was time for a cryptic thread. Post a cryptic description of where your bike’s been, and let others describe the photo; please quote the original description, as I fully anticipate there will be loads of challenges running in parallel.... then a week later, or sooner, or later, as you see fit, post the photo.

I was undergoing medicinal treatment from the chaps at Boon Rawd, and browsing this forum at the same time. I chanced to happen upon some remarkably entertaining threads, and thought perhaps, with a jolt from the old electrodes, and a judicious post or two, they could be brought back to life.... But then I thought "Is that what the good doctor would do? No - of course it's not. He wouldn't give the kiss of life to any old team and let them flounder as before. He'd bring in the best from around the world, he would scour the planet to the ends of the M62 and back to create a veritable dream thread. But did I have the courage to do the same - to create a best of best thread, with posts stitched together from whatever moribund sepulcher they could be rescued? I knew where to turn for inspiration.... Yes, yes, I would do it.... And so, I give you - DOCTOR FRANKENSTEIN'S THREAD! Cobbled together from the salvaged remnants of the long dead and more recently demised - and, perhaps, in the spirit of my compatriot doctors, the imminently fondly remembered. Perhaps I should put the ball into scrum, as it were, with a couple of examples of my own...