The Silver Fern

@Victor-Meldrew said in New Years Resolutions:

I'm going to (a) get my ankle sorted out and (b) clear out decades of shit I've accumulated.

I'm happy with a pair of socks for Xmas these days.
Seriously too much clutter in our house as well

Well, it's not been a great week.

I have a training plan that involves the bare minimum to get to the start line - c. 12hrs per week.

This week I managed about 3.5 hours. If I wanted to be generous and count the trainer as 2x being on the road (which I think is fair), we get to about 5 hours.

In short, I'm fcked

Monday - 30mins on the trainer Thursday - run club intervals, 12 x 75s @ 3:49/km pace Saturday - brick: 50 mins trainer into 4km run at 4:34/km Sunday - 40mins on the trainer

10 weeks to go

@mariner4life said in GOAT 10:

@magpie_in_aus said in GOAT 10:

I haven't been on here in a while. Seems like you have all lost your marbles.

Beaver

Day light
Day light
A leap year

DC

What this guy said

I'll have some of what he's smoking

@voodoo fuck, there are more than 10 days in July!? oops

@nta said in Music production software:

The Boy had Garage Band for his Macbook. Given that a shot? He successfully coordinated one of the Dwarf songs from The Hobbit using himself as 5 bass vocal parts + 1 guitar...

He's got student access to the full Adobe Suite now of course, so is doing his music, stage production, and multimedia with that.

Haven't tried recording to it. He messed around with it years ago on ipad, haven't had a go since he has started getting serious.

@NTA said in Happiness Scale:

Well, just to fuck life up when things seemed to be getting on track after the recent episode:

Boxing Day 2023 I woke up with a bit of vision loss in my left eye. Hospital is always fun that time of year (not) and after spending most of the next day there and running all sorts of tests, they decided to pump me with steroids and sent me off to see a Neuro-Opthamologist.

The diagnosis was optic neuritis. But they wanted to know what was causing it.

And today - after over a year of mostly waiting between tests - the same specialist reckons the diagnosis is Multiple Sclerosis.

Now for another MRI to see if it has advanced, so we can look at treatment options from there.

Given the extended and repeated kicks in the balls our family has received over the past 8 years, I fully expect to win the lottery any minute now.

On the plus side, the doc said it was caught very early and treatments were becoming more and more effective. We're a long way from people being wheelchair-bound by the time they're 50 (I'm turning 49 in June).

He's talking 10-20 years before any impacts to lifestyle at the moment, but needs the next round of tests before being sure.

I've got 5 caps to get for the rugby club to get above two other blokes (absolute peanuts) who don't deserve to be there TBH, and then refereeing. A trip to Europe and other shit once my daughter finishes school this year.

Get busy livin', or get busy dyin'

Nick, just read this. Keep on keeping on, lots to live for mate. Cliche I know but wordiness is not my strong suit. All the very best. You’re a good person.

@Machpants said in Players to build the team around?:

As another aside, I’m worried Wales will ditch their coach by the end of the year - and Razor will be on his way to get the ‘required’ international experience. Leaving us stuck with Foster or A N Other coach not contracted until RWC

That is the most depressing thing that has happened today, and I have literally just come home from a funeral.

@Crucial great thinking

@voodoo Might be better down there. Had an email about QT today as well and they are hopeful of some good snow fall this week. How many lifts operate will be interesting.

*We’re stoked to be back on the mountains and gearing up for opening Coronet Peak on June 26 and The Remarkables on July 4. Work on the new Sugar Chairlift is charging ahead and we’re getting pretty excited with the forecast for early next week!

While Covid-19 requirements continue to change we are adapting our planning for the season as your Health & Safety remains our number one priority. You can read about our level 2 operations and updates for winter 2020 here, keep checking back as we regularly update this page. We will be flexible throughout the season and consider scaling up our operations if there is demand.*

Doing special prices for 3 peak passes as well.

@Snowy said in Fern Helpline:

My post just got upvoted by a cop. Things get more humorous by the day.

What can I say? I love my dark humour...

@Bones said in South Island driving route:

@Snowy said in South Island driving route:

@Bones said in South Island driving route:

@Snowy I thought there is? Is it only on the LH side?

Nope. Just side of the road sign. Pisses my Welsh wife off no end that we don’t have the roadmarking. She is actually correct for once.

I like how you have to make a distinction as to which wife you're talking about.

To be Mr Serious briefly - they have the arrows in the UK and she has been caught out in head on traffic due to lack of them here.

I struggle dealing with one wife, so you can keep your Middle Eastbourne polygamy ideas to yourself.

@Hooroo said in The Local:

@Crucial said in The Local:

@pakman said in The Local:

@Crucial said in The Local:

@pakman said in Coronavirus - UK:

@Crucial said in Coronavirus - UK:

@Catogrande said in Coronavirus - UK:

@Crucial said in Coronavirus - UK:

@Catogrande said in Coronavirus - UK:

@pakman said in Coronavirus - UK:

@Catogrande said in Coronavirus - UK:

@pakman @Victor-Meldrew

A good friend of mine is part of the set up at St Austell and we were talking about how the beer had improved (it was truly awful at one point). He told me that this was down to a new head brewer following retirement of the former HB. The previous one had been there man and boy but couldn't brew beer to save his life. They are very loyal employers.

That's rather like Youngs before and after they moved brewing to Bedford. I liked the head brewer, but Ram Brewery was Dickensian.

Were brewing at Eagle for six months before they told CAMRA, etc.. In mean time were many reports of beer being on good form!

Was never the same after they cleaned up the Thames and the Wandle.

Clean? The Wandle isn’t too toxic but the Thames is only “cleaner” not clean.

The ex head brewer at Young’s is now the owner/ brewer of Wimbledon Brewery. His Autumn Ale is lovely. Had a great evening with him one night at a Young’s Pub.

What shocks me is that Young’s have renamed their standard Bitter. I was usually a Special drinker but I did like an “Ordinary “ from time to time.

These things are relative of course. Back along if you fell in the Thames the odds were on you dying of poison before you could drown.

I always favoured a pint of mixed. We have a couple of Youngs pubs down here and I get met with blank looks when asking for same. It is particularly galling having to explain the concept at every round that is purchased - even in the same session.

Mixed or Ram and Special are pretty standard orders in the Young’s pubs I frequented.

For a brief period there was strong rumour that bottled Ram Rod was Special!

Ordinary, Spesh and RR all all pretty much the same just brewed out to different ABVs

Always enjoy Winter Warmer when the cold sets in. Did you have any particular Youngs haunts?

Our local was a Youngs (Hand in Hand - Wimbledon) and as the best dog pub in London the place was often more like the dogs taking their owners out.
Our 'weekend away day local' was also a Youngs. The Dolphin in Betchworth. We would often go for a walk or ride in the Surrey Hills and spend the afternoon by the fire chatting to the locals there. Good setup with friendly folk. The best thing was timing a walk from the pub on a Sunday morning through the nearby farmland on a loop to Brockham and back arriving just as the door was being opened as the first pints pulled.
Lots of Youngs pubs in Wimbledon actually H&H, Crooked Billet, Rose and Crown, Dog and Fox, The Alexandra. Youngs has a good relationship with the AELTC so during the tennis each of those gets some sort of boost (D&F is the players drinking spot, R&C get minor official dinners, H&H do the lunches for the parking attendants) That parking lunch gig turns over £1,600 a day for 3 weeks during a quiet time of the day.
It really is the biggest thing I miss about living over there and would often make up for the crap aspects.

Edit: a painting of the H&H by the head barman that they presented us with on our last night. (Must have spent a lot 😉 )

E13A5BD7-358F-443B-8094-B7269A60AB0F.jpeg

Sunday arvo's in a English Garden bar always seems better than a NZ garden bar. I don't know why.

When I was in London last year, my brother picked me up from Airport and I was shattered but we went to a pub on top of a hill for a sandwich and a pint and I felt as though I had never left. My tiredness disappeared and I was just so happy and content.

Britain knows how to do pubs!

That grassy bit in front of the pub is part of the Wimbledon Common and along with the Crooked Billet two doors down this gets filled with deckchairs on a fine day with loads of people spilled out having a drink while the kids run around. An aspect of licensing in the UK that is good and would be seen here in NZ under our very restrictive policies. Turns having a beer into a long slow social get together rather than a 'let's get pissed session.

Up at Brewtown in Upper Hutt they have this ridiculous situation where, because areas for consumption must be strictly laid out and ring-fenced, you have these little pens outside where you can only drink the beer from one place. There are also signs that tell you that you can't take a sip while crossing the driveway to the designated piece of grass.

BTW the ale named 'Common' by Wimbledon Brewery is basically the same recipe as Youngs 'Ordinary'. It is the brewer's little joke

@mariner4life said in Books:

@Chris-B said in Books:

For sheer gob-smacking "truth is stranger than fiction" Mike Tyson's "The undisputed truth" is the best sports biography I've read. Page after page of WTAF!

you read it and wonder how he ever won a fight

Other fighters being scared of him was a massive factor. The ones that weren’t did much better.

What a fascinating fellow he is.