In the news

This guy's in my (very small, and very local) club!! Shocked to say the least. You never really know someone etc.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12685457/El-Chapo-Cotswolds-5m-drugs-racket.html

Kingpin drug smuggler and he wears Castelli? Embaressing. Doesn't he know how to sponsor himself.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/treasury-ap-dutch-washington-department-of-homeland-security-b2221572.html

Appears to have had US sanctions against him/his companies since last yr... Clearly you have the wrong types of conversations on a club ride. ;)

bath salts

Not exactly Pablo Escobar territory?!

Can't tell if you're joking or not so....

Not entirely serious, but also can't really say that I keep up with designer drugs.

Would you expect Mail readers to know what they are from 'psychoactive bath salts'? I probably need to get out more.

Not meaning to belittle the shock and surprise felt by @aniki btw which I'm sure is very real!

Please sign!

https://www.change.org/p/rescue-britain-s-loneliest-sheep-stranded-on-scottish-cliffs?recruiter=208745731&recruited_by_id=ba5b0400-97d6-11e4-b01b-25cecbdcb1ed&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=instagram_story

Story:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/oct/27/britains-loneliest-sheep-marooned-at-foot-of-scottish-cliff-for-two-years

BBQ thread>>>>>>>

rep

Noooo! 😔

Johnson’s former principal private secretary Martin Reynolds said he couldn’t recall why he had turned on disappearing messages in a WhatsApp group with Johnson shortly before the Covid Inquiry was announced.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-67262984

He obviously explained the reason in WhatsApp but appears to have deleted the message.

Thats it, proved that better quality kids bikes were a viable business model. Medium and long term as it builds a new generation of people who ride because they had a positive experience when riding a decent bike as a kid instead of an utter misery with the junk that makes up the vast majority of the kid bike market*
Then other companies jumped on the band wagon, healthy competition. Though tbf through the guardian reading west end, honda jazz hybrid driving, parent park volunteer maintenance team families, they buy, sell and resell islabikes, frog, squish, hoy and woom bikes religiously. Not a dig at folk in this group, I'm probably almost in this group lol, just thats the ideal target market for the original purchaser.

*Yes price, not everyone can afford a £550 bike for a 7 year old. Thats why I say long term, as the number of decent quality kids bikes in the used market helps sort that out, providing £150-250 used decent bikes that you can use for 2 -3 years with minor cost to operate as the parts are decent and then you can resell for usually the same you paid for it. Cost of ownership through the kids 2-3 year growth spurt = negligible.

Ceasing production and sitting tight for a few years is a very sensible move on their part, absolutely no point trying to forge ahead in the UK right now, baton down the hatchs and try to survive.

I recall a guy I knew, who I stopped talking to that very night, reverently refer to some guy he was talking to in a fucking sad pub on Halloween as ‘the el chapo of hitchin’ (sic).

Utter dogshit. Not only because it’s a laughably ridiculous comparison, but also because it’s romanticising 1) a toxic industry, and 2) a psychopathic cunt who directly ordered men, women, children kidnapped and murdered, ordered hundreds of bodies disposed of by dissolving them in acid, among countless other nightmarish shit inflicted on the people unlucky enough to live in the area he operated in.

El chapo of the Cotswolds, get to fuck. 120 years in a US federal pen and seizure of his gains will serve him right.

a psychopathic cunt who directly ordered men, women, children kidnapped and murdered, ordered hundreds of bodies disposed of by dissolving them in acid, among countless other nightmarish shit inflicted on the people unlucky enough to live in the area he operated in.

And that guy was in a pub in Hitchin?

He was at large at that point in time, so he could have been.

No need to fat shame.

Good point. Amended. (Not sure I was shaming though, was highlighting difference between one character and the other)

He was at large at that point in time

It was just a bad joke about being at large.

Please fill out a form to oppose closing railway ticket offices

https://www.transportfocus.org.uk/train-­station-ticket-office-consultation/

Rail ticket office closures in England scrapped in government U-turn

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/oct/31/rail-ticket-office-closures-in-england-train-operators

Wow. Amazing! Thanks for the update I missed that.

A very strong jetstream over the Atlantic today. Currently we are
tracking 6 aircraft with ground speed above 650 knots.

https://twitter.com/flightradar24/status/1719304898943111283

1203 kmh.

I know there are bits of it here and there on the Tory thread, but if anyone hasn't dipped into the covid enquiry they really should. It seems to be very under reported in the media.

You called ministers useless fuck-pigs, morons, cunts, in emails and WhatsApps to your professional colleagues. Do you think that contributed to a lack of effectiveness on the part of ministers of the cabinet?

No. I think I was reflecting a wide-spread view among compitent people about the caliber of the senior people dealing with this crisis extremely badly.

Eurgh.

I've had a couple of really rough overnights back to London with a horrible tail wind. Turbulence was super strong.

Golf club but I was once upgraded to business class with a bed and got zero sleep because of it. It was so bad that I had to hold onto the fold out screen otherwise it would just flap around, the plane was moving so much.

Utter dogshit. Not only because it’s a laughably ridiculous comparison, but also because it’s romanticising 1) a toxic industry, and 2) a psychopathic cunt who directly ordered men, women, children kidnapped and murdered, ordered hundreds of bodies disposed of by dissolving them in acid, among countless other nightmarish shit inflicted on the people unlucky enough to live in the area he operated in.

Totally. I have friends who find it amusing that I don't get on the gear with them because of what the trade involves and the impact it has rather than just having an anti-drug stance. They find it worryingly easy to disassociate themselves from the trade they're supporting when they fancy a toot.

Also, I'm enough of an asshole already.