@contrarybass.bsky.social
Housing, France, bicycles, food, inept sewing, sport, and anything else that piques my curiosity. Hythe (Kent). My Like might be just a bookmark. #NotAllPPEists
Grand Designs home of the year - that Suffolk house over four separate buildings - why didn’t anyone ask about how they manage when it’s raining? Or when they’ve got flu? Some attractive bits but overall seems hugely impractical to live in. #silly
December 10, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Grand Designs home of the year - that Suffolk house over four separate buildings - why didn’t anyone ask about how they manage when it’s raining? Or when they’ve got flu? Some attractive bits but overall seems hugely impractical to live in. #silly
Local High Street full of independent shops - tonight is the annual late night opening, Xmas lights, Santa, children’s choir, buskers, wind band, mince pie stalls, hamper raffles, many people, much jollity …. And a Reform UK stand giving away pens and mugs. Urgh.
December 5, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Local High Street full of independent shops - tonight is the annual late night opening, Xmas lights, Santa, children’s choir, buskers, wind band, mince pie stalls, hamper raffles, many people, much jollity …. And a Reform UK stand giving away pens and mugs. Urgh.
Went swimming & asked why it was more expensive this time. Was it (at 8:58 am) peak rate, and should I wait till 9?
“I’ve charged the off-peak”
“But last time I only paid £3.60”
“They must have charged you the senior citizen rate.”
OUCH
(I’m barely 50 and have hardly a grey hair on my head!)
“I’ve charged the off-peak”
“But last time I only paid £3.60”
“They must have charged you the senior citizen rate.”
OUCH
(I’m barely 50 and have hardly a grey hair on my head!)
December 1, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Went swimming & asked why it was more expensive this time. Was it (at 8:58 am) peak rate, and should I wait till 9?
“I’ve charged the off-peak”
“But last time I only paid £3.60”
“They must have charged you the senior citizen rate.”
OUCH
(I’m barely 50 and have hardly a grey hair on my head!)
“I’ve charged the off-peak”
“But last time I only paid £3.60”
“They must have charged you the senior citizen rate.”
OUCH
(I’m barely 50 and have hardly a grey hair on my head!)
Not a lawyer, but I confess I quite enjoy dipping into the judgments in VAT cases like this.
Fans of VAT food and drink cases will enjoy this decision, where the Tax Tribunal was entertained with two days of argument on whether Ferrero Nutella chocolate biscuits (pictured) are “covered in chocolate”. caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukftt/tc/202....
October 28, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Not a lawyer, but I confess I quite enjoy dipping into the judgments in VAT cases like this.
Sharing in case I know anyone who cycles and can afford an Economist subscription.
October 11, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Sharing in case I know anyone who cycles and can afford an Economist subscription.
In 2019-21, my timelines full of Hard Brexit, someone said “it won’t be a disaster, it’ll just be years of things becoming gradually shittier, and us noticing on European holidays that they are wealthier than us”. I’ve just come back from hols and want to shake their hand: it felt exactly like that.
September 29, 2025 at 10:44 AM
In 2019-21, my timelines full of Hard Brexit, someone said “it won’t be a disaster, it’ll just be years of things becoming gradually shittier, and us noticing on European holidays that they are wealthier than us”. I’ve just come back from hols and want to shake their hand: it felt exactly like that.
Had a punnet of strawberries in France last week and every single one was so sweet, so flavourful that now I realise that “strawberry flavouring” isn’t an unnaturally sweet chemical concoction, it’s what strawbs taste like! Just not UK strawbs (yes, even most home grown ones).
September 29, 2025 at 7:05 AM
Had a punnet of strawberries in France last week and every single one was so sweet, so flavourful that now I realise that “strawberry flavouring” isn’t an unnaturally sweet chemical concoction, it’s what strawbs taste like! Just not UK strawbs (yes, even most home grown ones).
Mind completely blown. I always assumed synaesthesia was a unique personal response to sensory input. The idea that this response could be replicated in others (in some way) is …wow. Going to have to re-listen to it!
on.ft.com/3UV2EsR Why Beethoven is good for your brain - free shared article.
on.ft.com/3UV2EsR Why Beethoven is good for your brain - free shared article.
August 30, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Mind completely blown. I always assumed synaesthesia was a unique personal response to sensory input. The idea that this response could be replicated in others (in some way) is …wow. Going to have to re-listen to it!
on.ft.com/3UV2EsR Why Beethoven is good for your brain - free shared article.
on.ft.com/3UV2EsR Why Beethoven is good for your brain - free shared article.
How the other half live, FT newsletter edition.
July 31, 2025 at 10:05 AM
How the other half live, FT newsletter edition.
Any recommendations for best beaches in the Morbihan for swimming in September? (Not just for kids paddling). i.e. calm waters, safe (no strong currents, etc) and not too cold?
July 28, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Any recommendations for best beaches in the Morbihan for swimming in September? (Not just for kids paddling). i.e. calm waters, safe (no strong currents, etc) and not too cold?
Reposted
I’m so going to miss #ITV4 coverage of #TdF. Insightful commentary from Gary Imlach, Ned Boulting, David Millar etc has opened up the sport to so many armchair cyclists. Losing rights to TNT is a minor tragedy. www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/jun/27/cycling-tour-de-france-gary-imlach-channel-4-itv
‘A three-week drama in daily episodes’: curtain to fall on free-to-air Tour de France coverage
Gary Imlach prepares for one final race as La Grande Boucle moves behind a paywall after 40 years on ITV and Channel 4
www.theguardian.com
July 27, 2025 at 3:30 PM
I’m so going to miss #ITV4 coverage of #TdF. Insightful commentary from Gary Imlach, Ned Boulting, David Millar etc has opened up the sport to so many armchair cyclists. Losing rights to TNT is a minor tragedy. www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/jun/27/cycling-tour-de-france-gary-imlach-channel-4-itv
@bekahryder.bsky.social Thought you might be interested in this, if you’ve not seen it already.
A fascinating, and accurate, piece of research which gives the lie to the (now) common complaint that the civil service is too slow/seeks to frustrate the delivery of ministers’ objectives open.substack.com/pub/ukcivils...
Policy Making in Theory and in Practice
A recent doctoral research paper by Dr Laura Hilger combines the best academic thinking on optimal policy design with the recent real-world experience of several civil service policy teams. Some of th...
open.substack.com
June 13, 2025 at 6:33 AM
@bekahryder.bsky.social Thought you might be interested in this, if you’ve not seen it already.
Reposted
Absolutely surreal to have lived through the Napster days and watched as the titans of industry moved hell and high water to lock down any possible chance that someone's song might get swapped online without giving the studios a cut and now those same people are just like "well we gotta steal music"
Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry
Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry
Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.
buff.ly
May 26, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Absolutely surreal to have lived through the Napster days and watched as the titans of industry moved hell and high water to lock down any possible chance that someone's song might get swapped online without giving the studios a cut and now those same people are just like "well we gotta steal music"
@metoffice.bsky.social Why do your forecasts have a daily high (top left) which frequently differs by 2° from the details? Why isn’t the daily high figure the maximum value off the hourly numbers? There’s a big comfort difference between 17° and barely 15°!
May 23, 2025 at 6:26 AM
@metoffice.bsky.social Why do your forecasts have a daily high (top left) which frequently differs by 2° from the details? Why isn’t the daily high figure the maximum value off the hourly numbers? There’s a big comfort difference between 17° and barely 15°!
Every day is International Tea Day in this house.
May 21, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Every day is International Tea Day in this house.
Bellingham (or maybe Beckenham) / Catford Borders?
Wtf is "the BeCa"????
May 6, 2025 at 9:51 AM
Bellingham (or maybe Beckenham) / Catford Borders?
Reposted
Reform councillors also about to discover that all their budget is committed to adult social care and children's services
They are also going to find out that they can only act within the law
They are also going to find out that they can only act within the law
May 3, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Reform councillors also about to discover that all their budget is committed to adult social care and children's services
They are also going to find out that they can only act within the law
They are also going to find out that they can only act within the law
Reposted
April 27, 2025 at 1:56 PM
The local film club’s screening this week (film chosen and scheduled months ago)?
Conclave, naturally.
Conclave, naturally.
April 21, 2025 at 9:05 PM
The local film club’s screening this week (film chosen and scheduled months ago)?
Conclave, naturally.
Conclave, naturally.
Today in Modern Life Is Rubbish (digital edition), I have been on the phone for 2.5 hours simply to upgrade my phone. I am now completely frazzled. Is this middle age?
April 14, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Today in Modern Life Is Rubbish (digital edition), I have been on the phone for 2.5 hours simply to upgrade my phone. I am now completely frazzled. Is this middle age?
Been a while since I knitted a sock, had forgotten the trauma of Turning The Heel: that phase of groping in the dark, following the pattern in blind hope, a chaos of needles and random bits of knitting, and then… gradually emerging from that confusion, something unmistakably like a sock.
April 11, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Been a while since I knitted a sock, had forgotten the trauma of Turning The Heel: that phase of groping in the dark, following the pattern in blind hope, a chaos of needles and random bits of knitting, and then… gradually emerging from that confusion, something unmistakably like a sock.
Which sadist at Highways England schedules an M3 motorway closure for the first weekend of the school holidays?
And then, just in case one isn’t delayed enough already, sets the M25 speed limit at 50 on all gantries because “testing the system”?
And then, just in case one isn’t delayed enough already, sets the M25 speed limit at 50 on all gantries because “testing the system”?
April 5, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Which sadist at Highways England schedules an M3 motorway closure for the first weekend of the school holidays?
And then, just in case one isn’t delayed enough already, sets the M25 speed limit at 50 on all gantries because “testing the system”?
And then, just in case one isn’t delayed enough already, sets the M25 speed limit at 50 on all gantries because “testing the system”?
Reposted
I'm currently looking at councils charging people for adult care services - interested in speaking to anyone grappling with care charges or active in this area - my DMs are open
March 25, 2025 at 5:37 PM
I'm currently looking at councils charging people for adult care services - interested in speaking to anyone grappling with care charges or active in this area - my DMs are open
@sambarton.bsky.social Hej! Obscure offer ahoy: would you like (or know someone that would like) a book of Danish School Songbook (Danish folk songs in 1/2/3 parts)?
March 17, 2025 at 11:43 AM
@sambarton.bsky.social Hej! Obscure offer ahoy: would you like (or know someone that would like) a book of Danish School Songbook (Danish folk songs in 1/2/3 parts)?
Holiday planning ...just bought a virtual coffee for this excellent website. buymeacoffee.com/freewheelingfrance
And now for a real coffee.
And now for a real coffee.
Freewheeling France
All information, advice, maps and downloads on my Freewheeling France website are FREE to access and use.If you find my website helpful, you can make a donation to help me to help other cyclists.
buymeacoffee.com
March 9, 2025 at 9:59 AM
Holiday planning ...just bought a virtual coffee for this excellent website. buymeacoffee.com/freewheelingfrance
And now for a real coffee.
And now for a real coffee.