Mr_Odwin

I only have experience of Garmin, which is what I and most of my running friends used. I'd be looking at the forerunner series.

We're just on the HD plan. About 90% of the time my wife doesn't wear her glasses so she can't even tell the difference between SD and HD, so it would be wasted on her, and she watches it the most out of all of us.

Running was great in that sense. Wherever I went I'd just pack my shoes, shorts, shirt, socks and my GPS watch. I ran wherever we were. But it's not entirely free because I'd burn through trainers every 5-6 months or so, and I liked Nike Air Pegasus, which got more and more pricey over the years. And then you buy special running socks because you got a blister on one run. And the phone GPS tracking just doesn't cut it anymore, so you buy a garmin. And then you buy special sweat wicking shirts, or a jacket for running in the rain. And then you buy offroad shoes. And one time your hands got cold so you buy running gloves.

This is a pic of my house taken a few years ago for google maps. I like this image because it shows one of the kids scaling the window. We're not even sure it was because they saw the google car, or if they were just doing it anyways. Current living arrangements are great, but soon the left side of the picture will be filled with a single storey extension - new porch, extra lounge area, a utility room and a downstairs toilet, which apparently my wife has been dying for for years. I love living where we do - we're really close to the town centre and local amenities (250 steps to Co-Op, 300 steps to Sainsbury's), but it's quiet enough, and we're ten minutes drive away from the Peak District. I grew up in Billingham, an economically deprived industrial town in the North-East of England, so Macclesfield has a really different feel. The worst place I lived in was a flat that i rented as a student in Newcastle. It was £30 per week (it was 2002, but even then that was mega cheap), but we were in a relatively dodgy area and there were so many slugs in the kitchen at night. Once, in the middle of the night I blearily walked through the kitchen barefoot to go to the loo, and I stood on a slug, and it squished under my foot. Horrendous.

I kinda knew something was wrong with my gait, as the wear on my trainers was quite different, with a lot more wear on my right sole. And now it's my right knee that I've got issues with. I just ploughed on though, ignoring it.

When I was running I would always wave away worries about knees by thinking about olympic runners, and how many of them are still running in their old age. I don't think everyone that runs will end up with bad knees (of course it's never as simple as that) but it will be a contributing factor. Just for runners you'd have to take into account all of this: shoes, road vs off road, hilly vs flat, weekly mileage, average pace (higher pace is more impactful), weight, and the way that you run (heel strike vs midfoot vs forefoot), and so on. Oh, and it happened in one run too with no prior warning - I went out for a run feeling 100% and halfway through it started to feel like bones in my knee were grinding on each other. Turns out they were!

In 2018 I started having knee pain, and after going down the physio/GP/x-ray route it turned out I'd worn away a lot of cartilage in my knees (essentially osteoarthritis) so running is gone forever. I was super sad at the time. For a good few years I was hammering out 20-40 miles per week, so it's partly my own fault. Mileage coupled with a lot of hilly road running wrecked my knees. So then I started going to the gym at work instead of just using it as a changing room for outdoor running, and I've made okay progress for a noob. I've been using Stronglifts 5x5, but without the squats (knees can't handle them), and it was going well, and I've been doing some HIIT stuff cross trainer. So running was off the table but I had a decent gym routine. Since lockdown I've not been able to go to the gym, so any small progress I was making with weights is gone. I tried making some home weights but it was not great, as I had to rope my kids/wife into helping me. AND OH MY GOODNESS, how expensive are weights at the moment? I don't wanna pay £300 for a bar and a handful of weights. It's nuts. So I've upped my cycling, and I try to do at least 5 miles each lunchtime, and then 10+ on a Saturday morning. Still, the corona curves are creeping in.

@Goafer In that bottom pic they almost just look like little insects. In the late 90s I lived in Slough, which is close to Heathrow. Every now and then Concorde would fly overhead, which was kinda cool because it was so very very loud.

Until reading the last couple of pages of this thread I've not known of anyone that was still buying physical media like BDs. Everyone I know just uses streaming services, or just don't rewatch things, I guess.

I wasn't a massive fan, but maybe I went in with expectations that were too high. I mean, the hype was huge.

Can you get an accountant to do it for you? I have a few friends that are ltd companies and they get accountants to do their accounts. Can they do the initial setting up too? (But I get the feeling you're far too independent for that!)

Did you just diss Killing Eve? I loved series 1 and 2, and while 3 was a little weaker, it was still great to kinda root for a murderous sociopath.

Was that the Lotus? I think that might feel a cut above a family car!

You guys are making me feel good about not watching it. I've seen people on FB singing its praise, so it's good to know at least some people think I'm not missing out. I've just started watching "The man in the high castle" on Prime. It's a 50s/60s drama set in the USA when Germany/Japan won WWII. Just that drama side alone would be interesting, but there's also this plot thing about weird videos that someone is making. I'm liking it, but I'm a bit confused at how the video plot fits into it all.

This is for you. Just you.

Old car being cleaned by the plebs: New car: It's almost exactly the same car. It's had a very small face-lift to the front. But we liked the last one and that's why we went with it again. You get so much tech in the basic model, I love it. It's also ridiculously practical for a family car - boot is massive.

I get a car through work (still have to pay for it, but there are benefits to it) and today's the day when I get a new one. It's every three years, so it's quite an exciting thing. Unfortunately/fortunately I'm getting the same car as last time as we've enjoyed it so much. So I'll be saying goodbye to my Civic and hello to my new Civic. The twist? Goodbye sonic grey, and hello brilliant sporty blue! @Goafer did you know we had similar cars? (Or at least one of yours - see how I know you have more than 1 car?) Remember, I'm James Pike. Do you even care about me as a person? Eh? EH? EH?

We have something similar at work and it's resulted in some changes. Whether they're just cosmetic or not we'll find out in time, but it's there at least. We're having a set of gender neutral toilets built. We have some space dedicated for religious/meditative reflection, and recently we had an email where we were told we could include preferred pronouns in our email signatures. The company as a whole has been on it with BLM, and we had a company-wide day off to reflect on it. I know things like that were kinda slated on twitter as not being the point, but it's a big action for a large company.

That's the guy from "The Princess Bride"? Why do I get old and he just more or less looks the same as 30 years ago? Why is life so cruel?

I hate it when people make assumptions about others finances so feel free to ignore this entirely. But in the future your circumstances might change. You'll not be saving/paying for a wedding anymore, or a honeymoon. Contributing, say, an extra £50 to a pension or savings pot, could make a big difference in 30 years time. Or maybe if you or Jim get a payrise you funnel all of that towards savings? Like I said, I don't know the intricacies of your finances so this could be way off. But maybe things might change. 🙂

That's me. The video blog is mainly so far away family can keep a tabs on what we're up to, but just posting it to facebook is super convenient.

Ha ha. Question is, which of my personalities did you prefer? :-p

It's something I appreciate, but they've actually stopped offering it to new hires and gone down to the government mandated minimum because we mainly employ new graduates and it wasn't something that was swaying them. They give it low importance when comparing job offers. A shame really because it's just pay that you'll get later, but i can understand that it's low importance when all you really want to do is earn enough to save for a deposit and buy a house.

I am pushing for FIRE - Financial Independence Retire early You might have seen people on talk about this in news articles under the scenario that they retire at age 30, or something else like that. I have lower goals (especially given that I am already 41). The principle of it is that you save as hard as you can and then live off the savings - studies have shown that a 4% withdrawal rate should see you through a long period if you invest in a certain way (5% risk of failure). So if you want to live on £25000 per year then you need to save up a pot of £625000. That sounds massive, but in the UK at least you also need to take into account that you (and maybe your partner) will have access to the state pension (if it still exists) at a certain point. Each month the wife and I are saving about 50% of our net income (me via a company pension scheme, and an ISA). I'm lucky that the company I work for have a decent pension scheme - they double my contribution up to a 5%/10% split. I'm currently at 12.5% from me, and 10% from them. Long term plan is to retire at 53, live off the ISA for a few years, until I can access the private pension pot (at 58), and then the state pension will top that up when i hit the right age. All my investments are in global equity index trackers weighted appropriately. I did have some bonds, but I decided to live on the edge, and I've got 10 years so it'll probably be fine. If you're just chucking stuff into an ISA, make it a stocks and shares ISA, and find a cheap tracker fund - Vanguard Life Strategy is well regarded, and you can easily go for the bond options to bring in some bond stability.

This was me, from that thread: James Pike - Still true! 31 - Even worse; 41 ! Mormon - My heart doesn't lie here anymore. It's my people and my culture, but not who I am. My family is deeply entrenched so it's difficult. Statistician - Now Senior Statistical Scientist, because the world discovered machine learning and data science Married at 23! - Still married! Two kids: Anna (4!) & Caleb (20 months) - Now 14 and 11. Joined C-E in Jan 2004 - Still true! Originally from Teesside, but left when I was 19 - Still true! Live in Macclesfield - Still true! Feel really settled here, and we're about to build an extension on our house so it'll be a suitable forever home. (Slightly nervous about such a financial commitment during these times, but if everyone stopped spending then that would be a shame.) I really love cookies - - Still true! Made a special trip to Sainsbury's last night for essential shopping and cookies were on the list. However, this batch are a bit crunchy for my liking.