La Flamme Rouge **off topic discussion**

tomasrojo

Yeah, one of my daughters (seven) does Capoeira, which I think I'd have rather enjoyed, judging from her descriptions of it. In her version, it's rather more like dancing, and I do like to cut the rug.

Daroxtar

Capoiera??? Yoga??? Zumba????
We just played Gaelic or soccer and the girls played basketball. Flat out, both breaks, everyday. Won plenty of provincial and even an all Ireland. No one needed to be taught how to catch a ball

Seth Brundle

Daroxtar wrote: »

No one needed to be taught how to catch a ball

It's different nowadays...
Many children here can't run, throw or kick a ball properly by time they are 10
'Current generation say sport is not fun,' warns report

eeeee

Seth Brundle wrote: »

It's different nowadays...
Many children here can't run, throw or kick a ball properly by time they are 10
'Current generation say sport is not fun,' warns report

That's so sad

cletus

Seth Brundle wrote: »

It's different nowadays...
Many children here can't run, throw or kick a ball properly by time they are 10
'Current generation say sport is not fun,' warns report

It was never like that, really. There's always been kids who don't like sports, were awkward, picked last on teams. They were just ignored.

When we all remember our childhoods being outside kicking ball with all the other kids, really we're just remembering the other kids who liked sport.

dastardly00

For the day that's in it...







2018 L'Enfer du Nord

eeeee

Anniversary of the liberation of the liberation of Bergen Belsen today.
Not a cheery one, but an important one to listen to IMO.

tomasrojo

Daroxtar wrote: »

Capoiera??? Yoga??? Zumba????
We just played Gaelic or soccer and the girls played basketball.

Yes, but we now have plenty of people in this country who hail from Brazil, India and Zumbabwe.

Cosmic kids yoga on youtube :mad:

Made a pitiful attempt at the flossing followed by the other activities with the kids. They were disgusted at my flossing abilities , their mam walked in and joined in with ease like it was ****ing nothing and me there swinging my arms like an ape

Some of the stuff is physically taxing and they were ready to go again before bed the eldest was getting the remote out to go to youtube to put it on

Enduro

magicbastarder wrote: »

i guess one of the limitations of the time window available to you with each class is that it's hard to work with or cater for kids who might tend towards long distance or endurance sports? i'd have possibly been one of those kids (though i never excelled at anything physically), who as mentioned, was not suited to team sports and didn't (and don't) have the physique for most field athletics.

Oh snap! I actually enjoyed it, despite being crap at pretty much everything we did over the years. Especially hurling, which was the go-to sport in our school (I remember getting away with point blank refusing to use a proper hurling grip on the grounds it could wreck my "golfing" grip for pitch and putt, the only sport I was any good at in my school years). In retrospect everything was speed / explosive power focused. Nothing for endurance. If you'd have picked who was least likely to be successful at sports as an adult I would have been near the top of the list for sure. Strange how things turn out in the end.

magicbastarder

the one thing i was good at in PE was rope climbing.

one thing i have not heard of in years which affected a few people i know and took them out of PE for months (my brother being one, and the sportiest guy in my class too) was - if i have this right - osgood slatter syndrome. it was a buildup of cartilage below the knee at the front of the shin, caused by excessive impact from running and other activities on hard surfaces, IIRC.

cletus

magicbastarder wrote: »

the one thing i was good at in PE was rope climbing.

one thing i have not heard of in years which affected a few people i know and took them out of PE for months (my brother being one, and the sportiest guy in my class too) was - if i have this right - osgood slatter syndrome. it was a buildup of cartilage below the knee at the front of the shin, caused by excessive impact from running and other activities on hard surfaces, IIRC.

Osgood-Schlatter is still a thing. It's an overuse injury from running and jumping, all right, but it's not a build up of excess cartilage. Rather it's a swelling, and sometimes fragmenting of the area where the patellar tendon attaches to the tibia. It affects teenagers because of the growth plates of the bone being in that area, if I remember correctly. Maybe stressing the growth plate too much

LollipopJimmy

I've just unfollowed a heap of the cycling 'campaign' type pages on twitter. Full of angry angry people. I appreciate the work done but jaysis it would put years on ya. Topped off with one of the prominent campaigners this weekend giving the Garda twitter page hassle about going after real criminals, thos when they'd posted about taking a milkman off the road who had been caught driving under the influence of weed.

Cyclists need a voice when it comes to infrastructure, but these argumentative types who only have their own vision arent the voices I want speaking for me

P_1

LollipopJimmy wrote: »

I've just unfollowed a heap of the cycling 'campaign' type pages on twitter. Full of angry angry people. I appreciate the work done but jaysis it would put years on ya. Topped off with one of the prominent campaigners this weekend giving the Garda twitter page hassle about going after real criminals, thos when they'd posted about taking a milkman off the road who had been caught driving under the influence of weed.

Cyclists need a voice when it comes to infrastructure, but these argumentative types who only have their own vision arent the voices I want speaking for me

They're all too used to urban cycling, sometimes getting outside the M50 on the bike is good for the headspace, but yeah, some of the negative antagonistic, inspiring folk to do something commentary on Twitter can be a bit much. Really it's an awful website that inspires binary arguments

LollipopJimmy

LollipopJimmy wrote: »

I've just unfollowed a heap of the cycling 'campaign' type pages on twitter. Full of angry angry people. I appreciate the work done but jaysis it would put years on ya. Topped off with one of the prominent campaigners this weekend giving the Garda twitter page hassle about going after real criminals, thos when they'd posted about taking a milkman off the road who had been caught driving under the influence of weed.

Cyclists need a voice when it comes to infrastructure, but these argumentative types who only have their own vision arent the voices I want speaking for me

Had they any take on the Garda time wasted having to escort this clown off the M4?

https://twitter.com/GardaTraffic/status/1249316852939005953

magicbastarder

LollipopJimmy wrote: »

I've just unfollowed a heap of the cycling 'campaign' type pages on twitter.

actual campaigners or just the vocal types on twitter who mistake passion on twitter for actually achieving something?

eeeee

LollipopJimmy wrote: »

I've just unfollowed a heap of the cycling 'campaign' type pages on twitter. Full of angry angry people. I appreciate the work done but jaysis it would put years on ya. Topped off with one of the prominent campaigners this weekend giving the Garda twitter page hassle about going after real criminals, thos when they'd posted about taking a milkman off the road who had been caught driving under the influence of weed.

Cyclists need a voice when it comes to infrastructure, but these argumentative types who only have their own vision arent the voices I want speaking for me

I don't identify with or follow any of the cycling advocacy stuff. I'm sure a lot of it is good, and balanced and inclusive but a lot of what I see is nitpicky and argumentative instead of advocating productively for change. There also seems to be an anti club cyclist/ lycra cyclist mentality with a lot of it which completely alienates me.

That said good cycling advocacy is really important and should be supported, I just don't see one that wants to represent all cyclists. In fairness though I haven't looked very hard, and I don't really follow it. I thought the staying alive at 1.5 campaign was excellent though, I do support them.

LollipopJimmy

magicbastarder wrote: »

actual campaigners or just the vocal types on twitter who mistake passion on twitter for actually achieving something?

Well the one who cribbed about Gardai arresting a drugged up milkman was the one that I believe runs the Dublin Cycling Campaign. Tweet since deleted but a mate sent a screenshot.

But in the main I've unfollowed what seem to be actual campaigners. No disrespect to anybody here or anywhere that might be involved, it's just off putting

CramCycle

Deleted User wrote: »

Had they any take on the Garda time wasted having to escort this clown off the M4?

https://twitter.com/GardaTraffic/status/1249316852939005953

Should have fined him, there is no excuse there IMO but that is at the Gardas descretion.

As for the campaigners, some are good, middle of the road (not literally), who take a balanced view, there are others though who only have one view and anyone who does not agree is to be lambasted. Unfortunately social media and the media in general rarely favour having the most appropriate at the forefront, and even the decent ones seem to get surrounded by an echo chamber of the extremist which slowly moves them to the extreme themselves.

tomasrojo

I do find it hard to reconcile the "it's a jungle out there!" version of Dublin on cycling Twitter with my own experience.

But, then again, the Velo-City people said much the same thing as cycling Twitter, so I'm willing to believe at least some of it is just me.

Large bottle small glass

tomasrojo wrote: »

I do find it hard to reconcile the "it's a jungle out there!" version of Dublin on cycling Twitter with my own experience.

But, then again, the Velo-City people said much the same thing as cycling Twitter, so I'm willing to believe at least some of it is just me.

You remind me of a time years ago when I played a lot of field sports including hurling, without a helmet.

I never gave it a 2nd thought, but my many visiting American cousins over the years genuinely thought we were deranged. My brother
who never had any interest in sports referred to it in conversation along the line of "how was the faction fighting this year".

20 years later I know I was deranged 😀

magicbastarder

tomasrojo wrote: »

I do find it hard to reconcile the "it's a jungle out there!" version of Dublin on cycling Twitter with my own experience.

But, then again, the Velo-City people said much the same thing as cycling Twitter, so I'm willing to believe at least some of it is just me.

i avoid the city centre on the bike; the notion of cycling on d'olier street or westmoreland street or the like at rush hour just strikes me as madness. i've gone down cardiff lane a few times at rush hour and over the new bridge, and it's not fun.
and i'd be a confident, assertive cyclist, i like to think.

these people are catering for the likes of my wife, who would like to cycle but sees all sorts of nonsense from her viewpoint of the top deck of the bus and decides 'nah, i'm safer here'.

tomasrojo

I think it's maybe because I don't go through the city centre, as such. I do, when there's no lockdown, work around that general area, and I have a route that's reasonably quiet. I spend a good while iteratively refining my route until I don't find it stressful (*).

Not sure that would be possible if I had to go round by Trinity, for example.

I'm not disagreeing with the people campaigning for infrastructure.


(*) For example, the Grand Canal cycle route tempted me to try the Rathmines Bridge-Bleeding Horse-South Great Georges Street route into town for a few weeks. The day I decided that that route was pointlessly antagonistic was a happy turning point.

tomasrojo

Not sure people who know me would describe me as deranged!

Harrybelafonte

I think this is generally a rule of life. If you hold a belief that is regarded as "out of the norm", especially if it's based on moral or ethical principles, you find yourself part of a group that is ultimately and usually fractious based on differing strength of convictions and theories on the progression of those convictions in the wider world. All based on their own individual experiences. It's fundamentally why so many factions exist in socialistic and left wing groups.

The issue then in the "real world" is that normal society groups you according to its own limited understanding and experience of the most extreme of those who hold similar beliefs. Then uses that unrealistic concept of your views as a means to attack you. Prime example would be vegans lately.

I think this is why I find it so unfortunate that members of what society at large considers to be minority groups, like cyclists, can't take their experience of discrimination (no matter how severe or not) or general poor treatment and learn to empathise with our societal outliers.

Second to that, our experiences as humans, and therefore cyclists, differ. I generally have no issue on the bike, commuting or training. I'd have the odd poor pass. But if someone says they're constantly getting poor passes, I used to think that it was their fault ultimately, as I figured we were cycling in the same environment, how many other variables could there be. Then I had a bit of an eye opener while driving my wife's car. She always mentioned how terrifying she found the M50. I never have an issue with it. I knew she was a fine driver but sometimes nervous so figured, meh, nerves. She drives a Micra, I drive a large SAAB estate. The first day I had to borrow her car, I hit the M50. It still stands as one of my scariest driving experiences. I found a few more variables.

There's a lot to be said for that day in my shoes cliché.

magicbastarder

I think I've mentioned on here before - I've told not cyclists that if they're not willing to get in a bike to learn what it's like, just stick an L plate up in your car for a few days, especially driving around non-urban roads.

tomasrojo

tomasrojo wrote: »

But, then again, the Velo-City people said much the same thing as cycling Twitter, so I'm willing to believe at least some of it is just me.

As I said, I don't think they're imagining it or being unreasonable, and the Velo-City attendees backed them up. I just find myself the odd time being asked about the experience and how dangerous it must be (implication, at least, that I'm reckless often accompanies this), and I can only say if I'm being honest that I don't *personally* find it dangerous or stressful.

I guess the "some of it is me" part might be taken as saying "most of it is them" and "them" might be taken as people who are inexperienced, so sorry about that. But by "them" I meant people on cycling Twitter, and they mostly aren't inexperienced cyclists either (the ones I'm following or the ones Twitter puts into my timeline anyway).

magicbastarder

tomasrojo wrote: »

and I can only say if I'm being honest that I don't *personally* find it dangerous or stressful.

are you the frog in hot water though?
i know i am - i recently went for a cycle with my wife, her first time on the bike in over a year and we went up the side of the airport (we had a specific destination to get to).
i was acutely aware that for me, an artic blasting past me at near 80km/h is normal, but for her, it can be quite alarming till you get used to it.

tomasrojo

magicbastarder wrote: »

are you the frog in hot water though?
i know i am - i recently went for a cycle with my wife, her first time on the bike in over a year and we went up the side of the airport (we had a specific destination to get to).
i was acutely aware that for me, an artic blasting past me at near 80km/h is normal, but for her, it can be quite alarming till you get used to it.

Oh yeah, that's completely possible.

And there is obviously a very large difference between cycling on a network of calmed streets or car-free infrastructure and trying to make your way down a four-lane street with slip lanes.

Chips Lovell

The fact that one person can regard commuting to work by bike as utterly mundane and another person consider it as "taking your life in your hands" demonstrates very well that people's perception of risk and danger isn't very reliable.