Preserving tips for the uninitiated:

If your missus is making marmalade and runs out of jars, when you are microwaving some extras to sterilise them don't let the jars touch, 'cause you'll get red hot glass and the jars will adhere to each other.

And just as I was posting that pic, the jar with the melted spot shattered completely :eek:

it's not a good idea to put anything in the microwave without water. Microwave oven only work because they are tuned to vibrate water molecules. The vibration creates the heat. If there isn't an abundance of water then just about anything can happen.

You would be better off sterilising the jars with them 3/4 full of water. It'll get superheated in the microwave, so no germs will survive. And your best pink oven mits to remove em.

Preserving tip for the uninitiated #2 - The oven works much better for sterilising jars, as long as you can keep the temp at arount 110-120C, leave 'em in for 30mins or so (making sure they aren't touching), turn off oven, allow jars to cool INSIDE oven before removing and filling. Oh yes, and it helps if the jars are inverted while being sterilised.

What sort of marmalade BTW? We do a very nice cumquat marmalade, but unfortunately our trees have decided to stop producing for some reason. :(

On the subject of things shattering ...... has anyone ever had an ignition coil explode? :eek:

Normally we use the oven, but didn't do enough and needed more in a hurry. We put the jars in the nuke machine wet from the sink, but part filled would have been better. I think the moisture trapped in the gap between the jars was what did the damage.

BTW, it's lime maralade. We have lime tree that is ejecting about 5 limes a day at the moment. Not the little green jobs, these look like smallish lemons, but with green flesh. Also on the home-preserve plan at the moment is lime curd plus lots of Thai curries and salads.

We have about 6 citrus trees and do some grapefruit marmalade each year but give that away as I can't eat grapefruit - it counteracts the cholesterol medication I am on.

Yep, I've seen some older ones do that.

This was a brand new Bosch GT40 ......BUT.....it was in an 80 year old car.:)

Nope, never a new one, although, I've only ever seen/heard of Bosch ones doing it... something about the compound they use fer cooling and 40,000+ volts. There might've been an internal leak or something.

Did the EVCC crits at Casey yesterday. First time on the new bike, and also first real ride fer three weeks cos of the flu... they let me race D grade as long as I pulled out before the final sprint. I'm glad I didn't race C cos it was hard enough in D.
How long does it take to get yer fitness back? There were no real attacks or anything, I just struggled.

The saddle on the Trek's the most painful thing I've sat on in a long time. It's fine fer half an hour, then it starts to bite... couldn't even sit on the bloody thing today.
Damn, I didn't want to have to start pissing about with saddles. :(

shouldn't take long for your fitness to get back - coupla weeks, I reckon.

Re: the saddle - how was the saddle on your old bike? If it was really comfortable, you should have swapped the two and kept the old one. Too late now I guess since you've sold the bike. One of the current editions of the local cycling mags (might have been Bicycling Australia, but I really can't recall) has a review on a seriously anatomical Italian saddle that looks quite interesting.

I use a Selle Italia Lady Gel Flow but that's completely irrelevant for you - unless you have a really big bottom. :p :D

Guess you're going to have to get on the saddle selecting treadmill again. So to start you off ... Hubby uses a Specialised Milano which he is happy with - no pain, no numbness.

yeah, I agree. Usually a couple of weeks -- provided you train, of course :) -- but maybe 3 if it was a really bad flu. I think my worst was nearly 4 weeks before I got back to 'normal', but that was a one-off, touch wood.



don't get me started! I've only got 2 that I like, so I have to swap them around my 4 bikes! :( They're old Vetta Turbo Gels, if anyone's got one for me. I've tried at least 10 of the modern saddles, and I don't like any of them.

Thanks guys, a couple of weeks I can handle. :)
The thing that came with the 5200 has about ½" of padding that seems to compress itself into yer nether regions and just chafes you raw. The thickness of the padding makes the saddle height a bit of a guess too, I set it the same as my other one but ended up sitting too low.
I tracked down the saddle that was on the OCR... someone in the states is selling 'em on eBay (pity they have Giant OCR written over them)
That saddle was good fer 2 hours.
I'll talk to the lbs where I bought the bike... see if they have anything I can try fer a few days... also trying to borrow a mates Fizik Arione during the week.

I did read that saddle review matagi, very different looking piece of kit.

The saddle i had on my OCR was great. From the first ride i never had any discomfort, during longer rides i never had an issue either. Well, nothing more than the usual discomfort from a long ride. I was thinking i should try and find that OCR saddle again soon for when i get that new bike.

Selle Italia SLR saddles for me, minimal padding, flat, plain looking.

+1
Couldn't ride 60k's on a padded seat. Solved my problems when I fitted an (antique!!) Italia Muundialita. Can ride all day on this.

Had a laugh riding half distance with B Grade on Saturday. All the old timers were checking out the old concor saddle that I'd put on. Comfy those.

crikey. Stuey O'Grady got hisself third in the Dauphine prologue! Don't recall him showing all that well in time trials before. So is he gonna go for the overall? He's not likely to stay in touch on the Ventoux, or the alps surely? Interesting to see how he's developing. CSC should be good for him I'd reckon.

Yes....

A suspiciously fast return to top form after a ruined spring. CSC work their "magic" again.....

Yup, good showing from Stu. He did semi-OK in a prologue last year on a fixie (about 14th from memory)! Doubt whether he'd even think about the GC, but i wonder if CSC have fixed up his tendency to want to win stages by breaking away for 200km :D

Stu will be as good for CSC as CSC is good for him. He had a pretty good run with Cofi

Hang on Ed, it was only the prologue! Surely 5km ain't that big a deal.

My cynical streak showing again.....we'll wait and see.

I love the guy, it's CSC I have questions about.

You wouldn't think Stu was close enough to retirement to consider risking it all tho.

But then again, there is the golden rule (them who have the gold make the rules) I guess.. As in "you'll put that in right now or else your out of a job"

half distance? that's only 25, did you ride up there?

He seemed a little too 'contented' at Cofidis. I'd reckon he needs some real results about now to keep his price up. Hard to know how Riis wants to use him. Is he gonna be a workhorse for Basso at Le Tour?