Quarks

Daughter #2 much taken with the idea of quarks. She's made her own set of quarks which she carries around everywhere.

(There are two up quarks, because you need two ups and a down to make a proton.)

She asked me, "what is the smallest thing?" A quark was the smallest thing I knew. So then we looked up quarks on Wikipedia. Neither of us really understood the theory, but she liked the whimsical names. Anthropomorphism ensued.

Scenes from the Commute

This is pretty much in the middle of Stockport.

Look out, carters!

This way to Elidor.

Tiviot Dale station was up there somewhere.

Where are we going to keep the tuba? We will keep it in our tuba nook.

A Rat has Many Hobbies

Dinosaur

Went into bike shop to ask for 8-speed triple crankset. Hipster shop assistants looking at me like I'm some kind of dinosaur. Maybe I am.

What this means is that the gears on my bike have gone out of fashion. So rather than replacing the one thing which has worn out, I have to upgrade pretty much every component on the bike, which will cost hundreds of pounds. Or just buy a new one, which I'm sure is what they want.

I'm talking about the industry in general here, rather than one shop in particular. I've been searching online and the components I'm looking for no longer seem to be in stock anywhere.

8-speed triple cranksets were pretty standard not so long ago, but new bikes all seem to be 9×3, 10×2 or even 11×2. Sheldon Brown says (from beyond the grave) that 9 speed triple will work with an 8 speed chain; but eventually I'll grit my teeth and upgrade.

Ironic plot twist: I finally managed to buy the exact part I was looking for (8 speed triple crankset, 28-38-48) from the website of the very shop I was in at the weekend.