Tango

And vegans?

The Queen of Denmark has abdicated.........does that count?

Feeling pretty grumpy today (and not one of the 7 dwarfs), as I had heartburn all last night, which stopped me from sleeping. Antacid tablets didn't sort it out either! Ironic that I didn't suffer over Christmas after eating all sorts of rich foods, but after one of our home cooked dinners! I think that this afternoon I will mostly be dossing on the sofa, listening to Prog Rock radio!

I agree that it's a bike forum and these subjects can get out of hand very quickly. However, do you also ban subjects like Climate change, EV's, wars, personal identity, etc, which all also elicit strong polarised reactions? Sorry, I'm just playing devil's advocate here.

Funnily enough, they are not taboo subjects in France. People can have a right good discussion on either subject, agree to disagree and then break open a bottle of wine and have a drink together with no hard feelings mostly. I think that a lot of the problems in the UK now are down to people who "don't do politics"! Also too many people don't "do" critical thinking. Their opinions are spoon-fed to them from whichever media channels they frequent. Maybe things would improve if there were no taboo subjects? When I started my apprenticeship one of the first things our trainer said to us was that politics, religion and football were out of bounds subjects in the training school!

I'm going to change my bike in the spring, I hope. There's a ton of ruined castles in this region that need exploring. Plus I'm desperate to explore some of the Pyrénées and Andorra. Probably venture over the border into Spain too. I'm limited to days out, as SWMBO has lost her biking mojo, so I can't venture too far, unless she's away for work for a few days, then I could venture a bit further.

So, how does the Old Testament tie into this? My thoughts were that God sent messages to people of the earth via various means, as told in the Old Testament. Rules, if you like, on how people should live their lives. When it appeared that these messages weren't getting through to the people, then God sent his son to teach and reinforce those messages. So, for me, it's the messages that are the main thing? The teachings of Jesus, but not the man himself? You say about false religions, but what if it is one God? He reached some of humanity through Christianity, but there were other parts of humanity that he couldn't reach with that, so he sent other messengers to reach them? Again, these other religions formed around the person of the messenger rather than the actual message?

I'm not going to try to belittle your beliefs, but do you think that most religions have lost their way in placing more importance on the messenger rather than the message itself? Serious question.

I've had to put the heating on ffs!

Nominations?

I think that fireworks are only allowed here in organised displays. I don't think that Joe Public are allowed to buy them. So the French kids create their own displays. Apparently 740 vehicles were torched on New Year's eve, which was 10% down on the previous year, so the government are claiming this as a success!

No surprises there then, Pete. Well deserved by both of them!

Yes, Pete. We flew back yesterday morning.

We survived our trip to blighty! We actually managed to catch up with our entire close families. It was the first time in 30 years that I spent Christmas day with my family. It was pretty manic, but a good time. We had to get up at 3am yesterday morning to get our flight back here. Friends in the village invited us round to theirs for dinner and drinks last night, which was very nice of them. We managed to keep going until 1:30am and then wandered home and went to bed about 2am, so we didn't get up to much today, as we were recovering!

Happy New Year to you all. 🏍

Busy packing for our trip to the UK tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to seeing my family, but not so much the grey and grimy streets of Dartford!

I voted for Six30, as I believe his flounce tally has exceeded all the others put together. Consistency is the key here for me!

I voted for Saul, as I like the diversity of his posts. That's not to say that I don't enjoy the other contestants posts, but Saul's posts always entertain me.