h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This morning I went to the grocery (it's actually called a bakery, and they do sell (and bake) bread, down the road from Castle Gosho and conveniently on the way home from work, which has a fine-ish selection of foods from around the world including McVitie's, Bird's Custard Powder, Bisto, Golden Shred and suchlike, but mostly I go there for tea. Lipton's, Yellow Label, Orange Pekoe, loose.

Normally it's $3.59 for the half pound, but this morning when I bought my usual two boxes, one was at the usual price of $3.59, but the other was $5.95 When I queried this with the lady on the till she checked on it, and apparently that's the new price

That's a hell of a price jump! It's still relatively cheap compared to plenty of other places and teas. One of the local foodie supermarkets, for instance, sells Yorkshire Tea, and that's around $9.00 for a half pound. But still... a dollar and a half price jump? If that happened in the UK they'd have to send in the army to quell the riots.

Actually, they probably wouldn't, on second thought. Everyone's too bloody anaesthetised by ing Pop Idol and Britain's Got Talent and Strictly and Bake-Off to give a monkey's about taking to the streets any more

Unless they increased the price of paper fairy cake cases by 50%

In fact I've just looked Lipton's Yellow Label up on Amazon - it's nearly $10 for the same size! And it's not half a pound, it's 450g, 15.8oz, so that *really* puts the price of the Yorkshire Tea into context, and the way that some of those places hike up their prices.

I reckon I might have to take another trip to that Indian grocery a few miles further south. They're even cheaper for tea than the bakery (and in catering size packs ), plus they have a wider range of British foods, plus they're so much cheaper on spices, plus they have, well, curry

Problem is, even though it's only about four miles from here, and in a car it'd take about ten minutes to get there, it's a three-bus journey that can take up to an hour and a half because the bus you want to connect with always seems to arrive five minutes before the one you're on, meaning you have to wait 25 minutes for the next one

I tell a lie. There is another, two-bus, way of getting to the Indian food shop.

Here are the times, in the morning, the first bus arrives at the place near to where I'd pick up the second bus:
09:22am 09:49am 10:22am 10:51am 11:21am 11:53am 12:28pm

And here are the times the second bus arrives, at the stop about three minutes walk from the first one:
09:25am 09:51am 10:21am 10:51am 11:21am 11:51am 12:21pm

You have no idea often that sort of thing happens when I need to get somewhere on the buses in this town

is a bicycle any sort of solution for you?

that Yorkshire Tea is worth twice, nay thrice, the price. of course.

Somehow I knew you were going to say that, Sho

My cycling days are behind me - too many things ache Besides, the drivers in this town are evil murderous toerags who don't take any prisoners. I don't thinks there's a single person I know here who rides a bike and who hasn't been knocked off it at least once

You could hijack one of the tanks from the thread title.....

he could... you know.... after all these years, living that* side of the pond; sort of adapt a bit more to local culture! and stop having to hunt down UK produce quite so.... furvently (yeh... right... who am I kidding!)

You should test ride a recumbent or semirecumbent.

You even have a shop in Austin that offers test rides. When I finally stop procrastinating and make a trip out there, its one of the places I must visit. http://www.easystreetrecumbents.com/


It was because of aches and pains I stopped riding my standard/mountain bikes. So many aches. My back, neck, wrists, ass and tweenis* all screamed at me after even a short ride. Then I found my BikeE. Suddenly a twenty mile ride was like... enjoyable! If you look around on eBay you can find used BikeEs for pretty cheap. I just checked and found some recent sales from between $200 - $800. $400-500 is a reasonable price for one in good condition. There are plenty of other similar bikes that are currently in production as well.

As for being hit, I just ordered another one of these for my new bike. http://glowwhips.3dcartstores.com/ These are nearly impossible to miss. I first saw one on the back of a Jeep from a LONG way down the road. I knew I needed one for the bike.



*Male 'taint'.

As far as the aches are concerned it's *while* riding (or doing anything that involves moving either the knees or the hips, including walking) not afterwards, that I hurt. I need replacements, if not now then soon.

And the idea of me giving up tea... well, that would be like expecting 2legs to give up bacon, towel-folding, good bread, cheese, and... other things

Ah... Yeah, a recumbent may not help with that. My dad had a very bad knee and tried to ride my BikeE when I first got it. I think he would have been fine, but he tried to start from too high a gear and overexerted. You're basically in the same position as you would be doing a bench press so you can push even harder than you can on an upright bike where you're basically limited to the equivalent of a stair climb.

It might still be something to look into if you think it might provide a bit of rehab for your knees and hips. The stresses can be much less on a recumbent as long as you keep it in lower gears to maintain a higher RPM to reduce resistance. You're not supporting your own weight on a 'bent and that might help.

I saw some pics of the recumbent riders that participated in a rodeo sponsored by Easy Street Recumbents. Many are much older (and much heavier) than your typical spandex clad biker so I'm sure they have their fair share of joint problems.

From the price of tea to knee and hip replacements in nine posts. Oh h2g2