Watcha Doing? Version 2015 Showing 1,901-1,950 of 3,365

[Sarah]

It went on my cycling lesson today. Quite proud of myself actually. Now I know a bit about positioning on the road I feel much more confident that I'm not going to get myself killed. Pretty tired now though as it was a 2 hour session with hills involved.

[Stephanie]

Way to go Sarah!

[Sandra, Moderator]

Great, Sarah! I never know those kind of courses existed. It's really interesting. I myself am scared of riding my bike.

[Lisa]

That's great Sarah! I used to love riding my bike and would like to get back into it at some point in the future but I'm not sure I would be brave enough to go out on the roads with the amount of traffic there is around.

[Sarah]

There is a company called life cycle which operates in the Bristol, Bath and North Somerset areas which is part funded by local councils so if you live in the area you get subsidised lessons. I paid £10 for a 1-2-1 lesson which lasted 2hrs. Well worth the money.

[Lisa]

That's a really good deal Sarah. I think every local council should offer things like that.

[Cherie]

Way to go with your cycling lesson, Sarah!

[Cherie]

Cherie wrote: "Way to go with your cycling lesson, Sarah!" There are bycycle round-ups for the kids here, but no serious group that give lessons, that I know of.

I am always amazed to see moms and dads riding their toddlers around on their bikes. The toddlers always have helmets and safety vests, but the parents seem not to realize that they should be wearing helmets and safety vests too.

[Sandra, Moderator]

We are having a severe t-storm here in central PA. It seems to be moving away now, but at some point the sky looked like Rusalka's badge for last month challenge. The alert is still on for half an hour more, though. And we always had a tornado alert until 10 pm, but at that point I would say is safe to think the worst passed.

[Sandra, Moderator]

How are things going in your area, Tasha?

[Stephanie]

Same here, Sandra. We are having a tornado watch till 10pm in Virginia:( we had a little downpour that lasted about 5 minutes but that's about it :) phew :) hope ya'll stay safe and the weather passes with zero damage :)

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Cherie wrote: "Cherie wrote: "Way to go with your cycling lesson, Sarah!" There are bycycle round-ups for the kids here, but no serious group that give lessons, that I know of.

I am always amazed to see moms..."

Helmets are required by law here. You'll get a ticket/fine if you ride a bike without one.

[Peggy]

Nobody ever wears a helmet around here, except racers or mountainbikers, and sometimes children. Dutch people also cycle while making phonecalls (which I think should be forbidden), with umbrellas when it rains, or with a week worth of groceries stowed away everywhere on their bike.

But we live in a very cycling-friendly country, with nearly everywhere designated areas for cyclists, often separated from the road (especially busy roads). All drivers are very aware of cyclists always, you just know that whenever you take a turn, are at a roundabout or traffic light or crossing, you have to double-check for cyclists.

I found this movie that shows cycling in Amsterdam :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99XDL...

[Stephanie]

Helmets aren't required here in Virginia as well :( they should be.

[Stephanie]

Good morning! Hope everyone survived the rough weather yesterday that had it :)

[Rusalka, Moderator]

I do have to spend a lot of time explaining helmets to visiting Europeans. The cops will pull you over, and you will have a fine against your name, and it will be over $100.

Our drivers aren't very friendly towards cyclists, but you need a helmet even if you are on bike or footpaths. The wildlife isn't very friendly either, nor are the paths (we have heaps and heaps of them, but sometimes roots come through them). Gov just worked out that the amount of money spent on head injuries off bikes wasn't worth it, and the medical professionals said that if people wore helmets, they would decrease dramatically. They have.

[Lisa]

Our drivers are not particularly friendly to cyclists either yet there is currently no law that says cyclists have to wear a helmet. Some do of course but the vast majority that I have seen don't. I think it should be made compulsory, our roads are so busy now particularly in the towns and cities and you do often wonder how on earth some drivers managed to pass their driving tests! Having said that, some cyclists don't exactly ride well either. My dad saw one nearly get hit at a t-junction controlled by traffic lights the other day. The cyclist apparently decided he wasn't going to stop at the red lights and just continued straight on and very nearly got hit by a van coming out of the road that had just been let through by the lights.

[Rusalka, Moderator]

I've been in the same position as the van, nearly through the intersection and then a cyclist zoomed out in front of me against a red light. Just decided that even though he was on the road, lights didn't apply to him. Very scary.

[Sandra, Moderator]

A friend of my husband who is a bike rider used to say that the whole point of riding a bike is that you don't have to stop at the red light... VERY scary.

Here helmets are compulsory up to 13 years old. Most of the adults use helmets anyway. I think that it's a matter of getting used during childhood. I think it should be compulsory for everybody, though. Like the seat belt in cars.
This town is pretty friendly for bikers, but it's a small town, so no surprise there. In general is a good place to drive. People is respectful enough.

[Peggy]

Cyclists should pay much more attention to traffic and rules. Not stopping at a red light, cycling with headphones on and not being able to hear cars coming, cycling at night with none of your lights working is all so dangerous. Especially teenagers often seem to think none of the rules apply to them, particularly when they are in large groups.

[Sarah]

I think helmets should be compulsory too. I wear one when I go on the road but not if I'm only going to be on the towpath.

[Berit☀️✨]

California have helmet laws, and it was really a pain in the booty trying to get my kids to put a helmet on when they were little :-) on the other hand I just recently saw a cyclist on the freeway, and we have a ton of traffic around here, I thought that was a bit crazy!! They did have helmets on :-)

[Travis]

My father in law always wore a helmet. Had a truck pass him one morning. Both traveling same direction so truck pulled out to go around him and hit him in back of heaf with side mirror. Destroyed bike, helmet, almost killed him. Slight brain damage and long recovery. Was able to go back to work after a couple years but still hasn't been able to on his new bike. Whether physical or mental I'm not sure probably both.

[Sandra, Moderator]

Oh, that's bad, Travis. I'm sure a helmet alone is not enough against a truck, but in many cases helps.

[Lisa]

Rusalka wrote: "I've been in the same position as the van, nearly through the intersection and then a cyclist zoomed out in front of me against a red light. Just decided that even though he was on the road, lights..."

I can imagine how scary that was Rusalka! What's annoying is that motorists are nearly always blamed for accidents involving cyclists yet some cyclists are clearly to blame due to riding recklessly and not following the rules of the road.

[Peggy]

Here drivers are not necessarily guilty when an accident with a cyclist happens, but they are always liable, except in very rare circumstances.

[Stephanie]

Moving day is here :-) Yay! We have until the 1st to have all of our stuff out of the old place. I'm happy and thankful that we have some overlap :-)

Happy Earth Day and happy Administrative Professionals Day for the U.S.

I'm curious, do other countries celebrate these days as well? To be honest, I wasn't a very good student when I was in school, had a hard time concentrating on my teachers because I got bored listening to them very easily ;-)

[Sarah]

Great news Stephanie. it's always good when there's an overlap. it takes the edge off the stress. hope everything goes well.

Not celebrated as such here in UK although I did know it was earth day today (only as it was mentioned in an article I read earlier today about the meteor shower we're supposed to be able to see tonight.

[Berit☀️✨]

Just a little tidbit of information the guy who founded Earth Day, killed his wife. Perhaps he should've had as much compassion for humans as he did for the earth.

[Sandra, Moderator]

Oh my, Berit! Who was him?

Back in Uruguay when I was at school I remember we celebrate Earth Day on June 5th, but I can's say why, or if it was a national date or something wider.

[Stephanie]

Sarah wrote: "Great news Stephanie. it's always good when there's an overlap. it takes the edge off the stress. hope everything goes well.

Not celebrated as such here in UK although I did know it was earth da..."

Thanks, Sarah :) it turned a little rainy and pretty windy so I am calling it a day. Hubby and I are going over later to do the move in inspection sheet :)

Oh my gosh, Berit! That is crazy!

[Lisa]

Sarah wrote: "Great news Stephanie. it's always good when there's an overlap. it takes the edge off the stress. hope everything goes well.

Not celebrated as such here in UK although I did know it was earth da..."

Sadly I don't think we will be seeing any meteor shower in my part of the UK tonight. It was nice and sunny earlier but now it's turned really cloudy :(

[Janice, Moderator]

I doubt we'll be seeing a meteor shower here either. It's overcast and trying very hard to rain.

[KimeyDiann]

I actually did know that today was Administrative Professionals Day, but only because our corporate office takes all of the women in the local divisions of our company to the country club for lunch on this day each year. They still call it Secretary's Day Lunch though... which has never made a bit of sense to me because I don't think anyone in our company is classified as a secretary.

I cheated a little bit on my diet at the lunch today though. I had chocolate cake.... and it was SO WORTH IT! LOL.

[Stephanie]

Lucky!! Mmmmmmm...chocolate cake....

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Good luck Stephanie!

We sometimes talk about Earth Day over here but it kinda got a bit over shadowed this year by cyclonic winds and rain hitting Sydney and Newcastle and flooding and destroying a lot of things, places, beaches, property and people.

We've had pretty huge winds and a bit of rain down here, but nothing like up north. Very worrying. They aren't supposed to come down that low...

[Anne (Booklady)]

Berit wrote: "Just a little tidbit of information the guy who founded Earth Day, killed his wife. Perhaps he should've had as much compassion for humans as he did for the earth."


OMG, Berit! That's awful.

[Anne (Booklady)]

Good luck Stephanie. Hope your move is smoother than mine was...

[Janice, Moderator]

KimeyDiann wrote: "I actually did know that today was Administrative Professionals Day, but only because our corporate office takes all of the women in the local divisions of our company to the country club for lunch..."

One of my clients is a florist. They got their stock in this morning and were sold out this afternoon, all because of Administrative Professionals Day.

[Lisa]

Happy St George's Day for England and anyone else who is celebrating.




On the downside, I have got to go for a blood test in a couple of hours. *shudder*

[Sarah]

St George's Day always makes me laugh here in England. I never know the date yet I know when St Patrick's Day is - I guess it's down to once being a student and any old excuse to get drunk. Never celebrated St George's Day exactly although as a Venture Scout then a Scout Leader, I used to attend the St George's Day parade and church service in Windsor.

Good luck with the blood test Lisa.

[Peggy]

Never heard of St. George's Day. I did know it was Earth Day yesterday, but mostly because I saw the Google doodle.

We have Administrative Professionals Day here too, although we call it 'secretary day', but it's not limited to secretaries specifically. My mom always gets flowers at work, and she has an administrative job but is not a secretary. It's every third Thursday in April (had to Google that, didn't know the specific date, also read that it is an American invention, came to the Netherlands in 1989, and is celebrated in several other European countries as well).

[Lisa]

Thanks Sarah.

We don't really do anything special to celebrate St George's Day either but that's mainly because there are hardly any events put on in my area anymore. There was an incident a couple of years ago where a local pub landlord put up some flags and banners in his pub to celebrate and the police were called and he was told that they were offensive to anyone who was not celebrating and to take them down or face arrest. He was also warned that if he ever put them up again (except for a big sporting event such as the World Cup) he would be arrested. I think more should be done to celebrate St George's Day in England as a lot of people don't even know the day exists. I always find it easy to remember the date because Shakespeare died on St George's Day. I think he was also born on St George's Day.

[Stephanie]

Good luck with the blood test, Lisa!!

[Travis]

Well I'm glad to know one country on earth doesn't get bogged down with every last politically correct thing on earth Peggy. It always was called Secretaries Day here until it wasn't cool to call anything what it has been named. Stewardess' became flight attendants. Etc. Etc. Not that any of it affects or bothers me as it really has no impact on my life. At least here I just think our government has more pressing issues to work on but making sure everything is spoken politically correct always takes center stage. I'm sure there are cases where changing a name or job title was necessary then they took it too far. Same as with my mother, she is on her 3rd or 4th job title yet she is working yhe same position as she ever has, but every couple years they like to rename the job title.

[Travis]

And we are back to snow and white ground again. Nothing major just some poor mans fertilizer

[Sandra, Moderator]

Good luck with your blood work, Lisa. I find very weird the episode with the flags and the pub... I thinks it's really an exaggeration the warning of facing arrest. I think things are going to far with this "it could offend someone" fever. It would be better if people start feeling offended because of more important things...

We are having flurries here too, Travis.

[Lisa]

Thanks everyone!

Unfortunately I didn't have the best experience. The phlebotomist was very rude to me initially when she first called me in. She asked me if I had my blood test form which the receptionist had told me she had already been given and was in her room. When I told her no, she said that I needed to get it from reception. I began to tell her that I had already asked at reception and had been told that she had it and she then said in a very loud (virtually shouting) and snappy voice, "how can I possibly have it?" She then went back into her room and low and behold, there it was! It was so embarrassing, the whole waiting room heard and was looking at me and I just didn't want to have my test done. I felt like bursting into tears to be honest as I was already nervous about having the test done as I really hate them. She did apologise once she realised her mistake but that is not is how you expect to be treated at a surgery. We put in a complaint at the practice and the manager is now looking into it. Apart from that, it went ok. Just got to wait for the results now.

[KimeyDiann]

I've never heard of St. George's Day. I'll have to google that one.

I agree with people going overboard with political correctness and being easily offended. It does seem to be ridiculously out of hand sometimes. I had a friend in highschool that worked part-time with a company that cleaned offices, his job title was "Sanitation Engineer" instead of something simple like Janitor.

@Lisa, that sounds like a horrid experience. Getting a needle stuck in your arm is bad enough, having it done by a grumpy person is even worse! I hope your test results are good!

[Berit☀️✨]

A long long time ago I was getting a DNC after I had miscarried, and the lady who was putting the needle and me for the Anastasia said "so you were going to have a baby?" Really?? I was really really upset about that. When they sent me the Survey on how their service was, I definitely commented on their spectacular bedside manner ;-)