@PeteH we have those here. Girly won a set. Used them at least once, then decided that the black Ortleibs worked better. On which note, it is coming up to time to replace her Ortleibs as she has ground the bottoms out of them by carrying them everywhere. The other way I borrowed one (she normally only uses one... all 15kg of stuff on one side of the bike. Anyway) I could see a disturbing amount of daylight through the bottom

morning @Mσᶎ. Yes, the paiiners I got would only ever see use for a bit of shopping. I'm not sure I'd rely on them for a commute. Certainly when I was commuting, I'd attach a lifespan to a pannier - I'd never buy one thinking it would last forever.

@PeteH Definitely. Although I suspect much of the wear comes from her using it as a handbag, so she moves it around a lot off the bike. The tops are still fine, wheras on mine its the bits that flex when I fold the top down that go first. My panniers 90% of the time stay on the bike unless I'm at home or work, and they t6end to go off bike, into building, onto floor, stay there until I leave. Hers go everywhere she does all day.

ooops, time to go to bed, the cool change has come through. First really hot weekend this weekend, total fire bans came in with a vengance - 43°C in Sudney's west today.

just grey here! Later @Mσᶎ

@Rilakkuma hey buddy, yes I'm enjoying it here. It is almost like old times again, as I am here on my own. So just in terms of doing what I want, when I want....

Plus I've always enjoyed coming over to Europe. Way back in my single days I used to go over to Paris quite a lot.

I wouldn't go for the designer shops etc. these days but great just to go to these places and soak up the atmosphere. And Gent has lots of atmosphere, it is very vibrant here.

To see the cycling yesterday evening was also good. We simply don't have this in the UK. It was a long time to stand, and for someone less interested it would be a ;long time even to sit. I stayed almost 3 hours, and there was basically stuff going on all the time around me.

Same thing again today. It is the last session and is in the afternoon, not the evening. It is a 6-hour session, but there is no way I'll last that long. So I'm going to go for the last few hours

It is typical live sport, though. If you're there for the atmosphere, it is great. If you actually want to see the event, tv is better. Well, except this particular event isn't being televised. But, you know what I mean....

The wifi here is utterly rubbish, though. And this is a good hotel - I've been told that Cavendish is staying here, although I haven't seen him. He got a lot of cheers btw, there are a lot of Britishers over here.