Don't know why he was so shaken by an £80 bottle of wine. Probably best he didn't join us in Beaune. He would have hated certain Orange County restaurants, $1000 bottles for the table being not uncommon...

He was a decent lad, good of heart, but didn't/couldn't get with ball bustin' humour or have his preconceptions challenged. But they are a generation younger than most of us, another two generations and you have Trigger Warnings.

He and his wife reconciled and were living a happy "good life", had the toys, which is all one can ask for. It's not how long you live, but how you live.

Jogging and half marathons on a well dodgy ticker may however be considered "unwise"

Ben Blaney wrote:

> On Apr 14, 2024 at 2:34:55 AM EDT, "Boots"
> <news@millhouse-communications.co.uk> wrote:

>> On 13/04/2024 00:11 wessie penned these words:
>>> The Doctor (Anne Murray) has passed on a message the Steve Hamer has died.
>>
>> Saddened to learn that.
>>
> I don't know if I was ever facebook friends with him, but if I was he probably
> binned me about that time. He'd said something here on ukrm about lockdowns
> being bad - and it was clear to me that his position was entirely selfish -
> concerned with his own job and bonus...and I called him out on it.

Lockdown policies? (1) Well, now you can cut him some slack, in memoriam.

(1) Possibly the best domestic biking biking times ever, for some of us (2)

(2) had to take your own thermos and picnic (3)

(3) which carried over as something of a habit

york996@gmail.com (Hog) wrote in
news:65010d691b1432bc5dc2e4e3af146e60@www.novabbs.com:

> Don't know why he was so shaken by an £80 bottle of wine. Probably
> best he didn't join us in Beaune. He would have hated certain Orange
> County restaurants, $1000 bottles for the table being not uncommon...
>

it was 2001 as it was my first overseas trip on the R1150GS and I think at
the time he was in Iceland selling bottles of Echo Falls at 3 for a fiver.

> He was a decent lad, good of heart, but didn't/couldn't get with ball
> bustin' humour or have his preconceptions challenged. But they are a
> generation younger than most of us, another two generations and you
> have Trigger Warnings.
>
> He and his wife reconciled and were living a happy "good life", had
> the toys, which is all one can ask for. It's not how long you live,
> but how you live.

Did he actually ride that Benelli much? I sat on it and it was quite tall
for me with 32" inside leg. He never accepted an invite to join Johan and
me in Mid Wales before the covid meltdown. I think he only rode it locally
on weekends when K was working, if at all.

>
> Jogging and half marathons on a well dodgy ticker may however be
> considered "unwise"
>

I tried to disabuse him of the silly notion but he was adamant he was doing
it.

In article <XnsB1545B500A1ABwtymmmsas@135.181.20.170>, wessie says...
>
> petrolcan <petrolcan@gmail.com> wrote in
> news:MPG.4085145a340430479897a6@news.eternal-september.org:
>
> > In article <uvedcv$33m5n$1@dont-email.me>, Ben Blaney says...
> >>
> >> On Apr 12, 2024 at 12:11:42 PM EDT, "wessie" <willnotwork@tesco.net>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >> > The Doctor (Anne Murray) has passed on a message the Steve Hamer
> >> > has died.
> >>
> >> It's sad. Like many of us, he had the ability to be a bit of a tit on
> >> the internet. But I really liked him irl. I saw him on a number of
> >> France Trips, including the infamous decimal place wine trip.
> >>
> >> Where is the customary queue to comfort the widow?
> >
> > Pretty sure there was a divorce in there somewhere
> >
>
> I know they split up for about 6 months a decade ago but reconciled as I
> was doing pro bono social work. They were still a couple when he flounced
> in 2020. Were there later developments?

Potentially not. I think I last spoke with him in about 2017

wessie wrote:

> york996@gmail.com (Hog) wrote in
> news:65010d691b1432bc5dc2e4e3af146e60@www.novabbs.com:
> Did he actually ride that Benelli much? I sat on it and it was quite tall
> for me with 32" inside leg. He never accepted an invite to join Johan and
> me in Mid Wales before the covid meltdown. I think he only rode it locally
> on weekends when K was working, if at all.

I *think* they took it on hols with a trailer behind the day van.
I didn't hear from him for a long time either, until he heard my ticker was heading west, IIRC

I had just been providing hints on the fitting of wider bars to the K1100RS. As per the early R-RS, makes otherwise good handling bikes feel slow to steer.

>> Jogging and half marathons on a well dodgy ticker may however be
>> considered "unwise"
>>

> I tried to disabuse him of the silly notion but he was adamant he was doing
> it.

Perhaps the fear of gaining more weight took precedence.
When he came to meet us in a cafe, 25th March, he was looking well, had a chirpy conversation with A about running an EV (early adopter) and was buoyant about an opportunity to work with some new EV charging entrant.

He did well to succeed and prosper in an organisation like Shell. I doubt many of us could (...we wouldn't want to do so)

On Apr 14, 2024 at 9:33:48 AM EDT, "Hog" <Hog> wrote:

> Ben Blaney wrote:
>>>
>> I don't know if I was ever facebook friends with him, but if I was he probably
>> binned me about that time. He'd said something here on ukrm about lockdowns
>> being bad - and it was clear to me that his position was entirely selfish -
>> concerned with his own job and bonus...and I called him out on it.
>
> Lockdown policies? (1) Well, now you can cut him some slack, in memoriam.

Well, I don't know about that; I haven't seem compelling evidence that it
wasn't the right thing to do, to maximize the people kept alive.

Excess deaths certainly spiked after "eat out to help out". Who'd have thunk
it?

On Apr 14, 2024 at 9:08:13 AM EDT, "Hog" <Hog> wrote:

> Don't know why he was so shaken by an £80 bottle of wine.

I think it was more than that. I remember it being 150ukp - 10x what he
thought...and no-one should expect to be paying 8ukp for a bottle of wine in a
restaurant. A search of TOG's posts at the time should confirm. That's 23
years ago now, and with the value of money doubling every seven years, that's
like a 600 quid bottle now. And if you're a first-line manager in a shop,
that's probably a significant "ouch". I don't judge him for that.

york996@gmail.com (Hog) wrote in
news:714bc1c9dc871716485d23ebf0f49188@www.novabbs.com:

> He did well to succeed and prosper in an organisation like Shell. I
> doubt many of us could (...we wouldn't want to do so)
>

the stress was immense but the perks were attractive to him - hanging about
the pits at Silverstone, trip to Japan GP etc.

his patch of forecourts in his first job with Shell included Cheltenham. He
stayed in a hotel near GCHQ a few times a month and we met in the National
Hunt pub. He never liked my drunken rants about Shell's colonial
shenanigans in W.Africa. Not sure 6 pints of Timothy Taylor Landlord on a
school night was good for his heart either, whether he spent an hour in the
hotel pool & gym or not!

On 12/04/2024 17:11, wessie wrote:
> The Doctor (Anne Murray) has passed on a message the Steve Hamer has died.
>
> He survived a massive heart attack in his mid 30s. I visited him in
> hospital but cannot remember the date, 15-20 years ago. I am guesing he was
> in his early to mid 50s now.
>
> We had become good friends as he had a job that brought him to Cheltenham a
> couple of times a month. I enjoyed drinking beer on his expenses in the
> National Hunt pub in Benhall. He changed jobs and I did not see so much of
> him.
>
> I last saw him in 2019 when he bought a Benelli TRK502 from my local dealer
> in Cheltenham (was Skellerns Yamaha).
>
> Not long after that, during the Covid lockdowns he had a big flounce and
> left UKRM here and blocked people on Fb. He had gone down several
> conspiracy rabbit holes and I never heard from him after.
>
> RIP Steve.

Another UKRMer I never met - and now won't.
Another name I remember from the distant past.
I suppose its not too surprising when this group has been going over 20
years now (I think my first posting, that I can find, was 2001?).
Nevertheless, it's sad and commiserations/condolences to all those affected.

Chris

--
The Deuchars BBB#40 COFF#14
Yamaha XV750SE & Suzuki GS550T
https://www.Deuchars.org.uk

Ben Blaney <benblaney@gmail.invalid> wrote in
news:uvgtip$3n4t6$1@dont-email.me:

> On Apr 14, 2024 at 9:08:13 AM EDT, "Hog" <Hog> wrote:
>
>> Don't know why he was so shaken by an £80 bottle of wine.
>
> I think it was more than that. I remember it being 150ukp - 10x what
> he thought...and no-one should expect to be paying 8ukp for a bottle
> of wine in a restaurant. A search of TOG's posts at the time should
> confirm. That's 23 years ago now, and with the value of money
> doubling every seven years, that's like a 600 quid bottle now. And if
> you're a first-line manager in a shop, that's probably a significant
> "ouch". I don't judge him for that.
>

it was 800,00F on the menu with 10F to the UKP. He miscalculated it as 8
quid not 80 quid, perhaps confused by the comma instead of decimal point.

IIRC it was a bottle of Nuits St George

On 14/04/2024 17:40, Ben Blaney wrote:
>On Apr 14, 2024 at 9:33:48 AM EDT, "Hog" <Hog> wrote:
>
>> Ben Blaney wrote:
>>>>
>>> I don't know if I was ever facebook friends with him, but if I was he probably
>>> binned me about that time. He'd said something here on ukrm about lockdowns
>>> being bad - and it was clear to me that his position was entirely selfish -
>>> concerned with his own job and bonus...and I called him out on it.
>>
>> Lockdown policies? (1) Well, now you can cut him some slack, in memoriam.
>
>Well, I don't know about that; I haven't seem compelling evidence that it
>wasn't the right thing to do, to maximize the people kept alive.

There is a technical name for a situation where you take measures to prevent
something bad, they work and nothing bad happens at which point the
opponents pipe up "see, nothing to worry about, nothing happened, measures
were unnecessary"
This was just such a situation
>

--
Geoff
NTV 650

On Apr 14, 2024 at 12:00:29 PM EDT, "wessie" <willnotwork@tesco.net> wrote:

> it was 800,00F on the menu with 10F to the UKP. He miscalculated it as 8
> quid not 80 quid, perhaps confused by the comma instead of decimal point.
>
> IIRC it was a bottle of Nuits St George

He really thought he was getting a bottle of wine in a restaurant for eight
quid? What a fucking idiot.

El Sun, 14 Apr 2024 16:56:15 +0100, chrisnd @ukrm escribió:

> I suppose its not too surprising when this group has been going over 20
> years now (I think my first posting, that I can find, was 2001?).

Around 1997, I think.

--
Paul.

https://paulc.es

Ben Blaney <benblaney@gmail.invalid> wrote in
news:uvh4oh$3ols1$1@dont-email.me:

> On Apr 14, 2024 at 12:00:29 PM EDT, "wessie" <willnotwork@tesco.net>
> wrote:
>
>> it was 800,00F on the menu with 10F to the UKP. He miscalculated it
>> as 8 quid not 80 quid, perhaps confused by the comma instead of
>> decimal point.
>>
>> IIRC it was a bottle of Nuits St George
>
> He really thought he was getting a bottle of wine in a restaurant for
> eight quid? What a fucking idiot.
>

there were wines for not a lot more than 8 quid, bearing in mind this was
France in 2001 when the exchange rate was very much in our favour. Even
now, you can get a bottle of house red for 15 euros (under 13 quid) in a
Logis hotel like that one in Caudebec.

On 13/04/2024 17:54, Ben Blaney wrote:
> On Apr 12, 2024 at 12:11:42 PM EDT, "wessie" <willnotwork@tesco.net> wrote:
>
>> The Doctor (Anne Murray) has passed on a message the Steve Hamer has died.
>
> It's sad. Like many of us, he had the ability to be a bit of a tit on the
Nah, no one does that.

--
Bruce Porter
"The internet is a huge and diverse community but mainly friendly"
http://ytc1.blogspot.co.uk/
There *is* an alternative! http://www.openoffice.org/

On 14/04/2024 17:10, geoffC wrote:
> On 14/04/2024 17:40, Ben Blaney wrote:
>> On Apr 14, 2024 at 9:33:48 AM EDT, "Hog" <Hog> wrote:
>>
>>> Ben Blaney wrote:
>>>>>
>>>> I don't know if I was ever facebook friends with him, but if I was
>>>> he probably
>>>> binned me about that time. He'd said something here on ukrm about
>>>> lockdowns
>>>> being bad - and it was clear to me that his position was entirely
>>>> selfish -
>>>> concerned with his own job and bonus...and I called him out on it.
>>>
>>> Lockdown policies? (1)  Well, now you can cut him some slack, in
>>> memoriam.
>>
>> Well, I don't know about that; I haven't seem compelling evidence that it
>> wasn't the right thing to do, to maximize the people kept alive.
>
> There is a technical name for a situation where you take measures to
> prevent
> something bad, they work and nothing bad happens at which point the
> opponents pipe up "see, nothing to worry about, nothing happened, measures
> were unnecessary"

Yeah, see Y2K.

--
Bruce Porter
"The internet is a huge and diverse community but mainly friendly"
http://ytc1.blogspot.co.uk/
There *is* an alternative! http://www.openoffice.org/

YTC#1 wrote:

> On 14/04/2024 17:10, geoffC wrote:
> > On 14/04/2024 17:40, Ben Blaney wrote:
> >>On Apr 14, 2024 at 9:33:48 AM EDT, "Hog" <Hog> wrote:
> > >
> > > > Ben Blaney wrote:
> > > > > >
> > > > > I don't know if I was ever facebook friends with him, but if
> > > > > I was he probably binned me about that time. He'd said
> > > > > something here on ukrm about lockdowns being bad - and it
> > > > > was clear to me that his position was entirely selfish -
> > > > > concerned with his own job and bonus...and I called him out
> > > > > on it.
> > > >
> > > > Lockdown policies? (1)  Well, now you can cut him some slack,
> > > > in memoriam.
> > >
> > > Well, I don't know about that; I haven't seem compelling evidence
> > > that it wasn't the right thing to do, to maximize the people kept
> > > alive.
> >
> > There is a technical name for a situation where you take measures
> > to prevent something bad, they work and nothing bad happens at
> > which point the opponents pipe up "see, nothing to worry about,
> > nothing happened, measures were unnecessary"
>
> Yeah, see Y2K.

So what is the technical name for such a situation?

--

Geoff
NTV650

CT wrote:

> Alan Lee wrote:
>
> > On 13/04/2024 10:04, YTC#1 wrote:
> > > > > Was it worth the £80 though?
> > > >
> > > > Dunno!
> > >
> > > TOG bought a glass off him and reckoned so.
> >
> > I like a nice whisky. Typically £5- £8 a shot for run of the mill
> > malts. I did try one that was £20 a shot, cant even remember its
> > name. Was it worth £20, no way. It's quite common to see bottles
> > selling for £6k. To notice any difference to an £80 bottle, your
> > taste buds must be in perfect condition, as I cant see how anyone
> > can firstly justify paying so much, and how they can tell there is
> > that much difference between the two.
>
> With whisky, the price - once you get over a certain amount, anyway -
> isn't to do with quality but rarity.
>
> A few years ago, I bought a Caol Ila 18yo for about £80. A couple of
> years later I baulked at spending £125 for another. Now, if you can
> find a bottle, it will be £several-hundreds.

But if you never drink it, is it worth it?
If a tree falls but nobody hears it....etc

--

Geoff
NTV650

GeoffC wrote:

[whisky]

> But if you never drink it, is it worth it?
> If a tree falls but nobody hears it....etc

I can't afford to buy whisky that I'll never drink. I'd probably
stretch to £150 for a bottle of something I really wanted but most of
my whisky is around the £60-80 mark.

I'm currently enjoying a rather nice 13 year-old Speyside which cost
just under £70

--
Chris

El Sun, 14 Apr 2024 18:14:44 +0000, wessie escribió:

> Ben Blaney <benblaney@gmail.invalid> wrote in
> news:uvh4oh$3ols1$1@dont-email.me:
>
>> On Apr 14, 2024 at 12:00:29 PM EDT, "wessie" <willnotwork@tesco.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> it was 800,00F on the menu with 10F to the UKP. He miscalculated it as
>>> 8 quid not 80 quid, perhaps confused by the comma instead of decimal
>>> point.
>>>
>>> IIRC it was a bottle of Nuits St George
>>
>> He really thought he was getting a bottle of wine in a restaurant for
>> eight quid? What a fucking idiot.
>>
>>
> there were wines for not a lot more than 8 quid, bearing in mind this
> was France in 2001 when the exchange rate was very much in our favour.
> Even now, you can get a bottle of house red for 15 euros (under 13 quid)
> in a Logis hotel like that one in Caudebec.

Here in Spain a bottle of wine that costs 3€ in the supermarket isn't
going to cost you more than 10/15 in a restaurant. And it's usually much
nicer than that overrated/overpriced french crap.

--
Paul.

https://paulc.es

Paul Carmichael <wibbleypants@gmail.com> wrote in news:pan$8805$c09dcbfb
$1d4f0653$4d582822@gmail.com:

> El Sun, 14 Apr 2024 18:14:44 +0000, wessie escribió:
>
>> Ben Blaney <benblaney@gmail.invalid> wrote in
>> news:uvh4oh$3ols1$1@dont-email.me:
>>
>>> On Apr 14, 2024 at 12:00:29 PM EDT, "wessie" <willnotwork@tesco.net>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> it was 800,00F on the menu with 10F to the UKP. He miscalculated it
as
>>>> 8 quid not 80 quid, perhaps confused by the comma instead of
decimal
>>>> point.
>>>>
>>>> IIRC it was a bottle of Nuits St George
>>>
>>> He really thought he was getting a bottle of wine in a restaurant
for
>>> eight quid? What a fucking idiot.
>>>
>>>
>> there were wines for not a lot more than 8 quid, bearing in mind this
>> was France in 2001 when the exchange rate was very much in our
favour.
>> Even now, you can get a bottle of house red for 15 euros (under 13
quid)
>> in a Logis hotel like that one in Caudebec.
>
> Here in Spain a bottle of wine that costs 3€ in the supermarket
isn't
> going to cost you more than 10/15 in a restaurant. And it's usually
much
> nicer than that overrated/overpriced french crap.
>

I do like Spanish restaurant prices. I have had very good 3 course meals
including a bottle of wine for 18 euros on recent trips.

Even in a posh Parador, a bottle of local wine can be had for under 20
euros. They do push the price up to French levels for those who want to
buy Rioja in the Province of �vila. I really enjoy sampling wine from
wine regions we do not see in the UK.

I don't agree that French wine is crap. They make some of my favourite
wines. All wine is over-priced in the UK, with Spanish wine having one
of the biggest mark-ups compared to prices at point of origin. In the
UK, wine from Portugal can offer the best bang for buck. Lovely
Alvarinhos from the north and great reds from the Douro, made from the
excess grapes not going into port production due to reduced demand.

On 14/04/2024 21:20, GeoffC wrote:
> YTC#1 wrote:
>
>> On 14/04/2024 17:10, geoffC wrote:
>>> On 14/04/2024 17:40, Ben Blaney wrote:
>>>> On Apr 14, 2024 at 9:33:48 AM EDT, "Hog" <Hog> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Ben Blaney wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> I don't know if I was ever facebook friends with him, but if
>>>>>> I was he probably binned me about that time. He'd said
>>>>>> something here on ukrm about lockdowns being bad - and it
>>>>>> was clear to me that his position was entirely selfish -
>>>>>> concerned with his own job and bonus...and I called him out
>>>>>> on it.
>>>>>
>>>>> Lockdown policies? (1)  Well, now you can cut him some slack,
>>>>> in memoriam.
>>>>
>>>> Well, I don't know about that; I haven't seem compelling evidence
>>>> that it wasn't the right thing to do, to maximize the people kept
>>>> alive.
>>>
>>> There is a technical name for a situation where you take measures
>>> to prevent something bad, they work and nothing bad happens at
>>> which point the opponents pipe up "see, nothing to worry about,
>>> nothing happened, measures were unnecessary"
>>
>> Yeah, see Y2K.
>
> So what is the technical name for such a situation?
>
>

Normality

--
Bruce Porter
"The internet is a huge and diverse community but mainly friendly"
http://ytc1.blogspot.co.uk/
There *is* an alternative! http://www.openoffice.org/

On 14/04/2024 21:35, CT wrote:
> GeoffC wrote:
>
> [whisky]
>
>> But if you never drink it, is it worth it?
>> If a tree falls but nobody hears it....etc
>
> I can't afford to buy whisky that I'll never drink. I'd probably
> stretch to £150 for a bottle of something I really wanted but most of
> my whisky is around the £60-80 mark.
>
*ding*
> I'm currently enjoying a rather nice 13 year-old Speyside which cost
> just under £70

I have a fondess for Tomintoul 15
>

--
Bruce Porter
"The internet is a huge and diverse community but mainly friendly"
http://ytc1.blogspot.co.uk/
There *is* an alternative! http://www.openoffice.org/

On 13/04/2024 10:04, YTC#1 wrote:
> On 12/04/2024 19:41, Colin Irvine wrote:
>> On Fri, 12 Apr 2024 19:01:06 +0100, Alan Lee <alan@darkroom.plus.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> On 12/04/2024 18:02, Colin Irvine wrote:
>>>>> RIP Steve.
>>>> Some of you will recall the time in Caudebec when he ordered a bottle
>>>> of wine, getting the decimal place wrong in the price list (in francs)
>>>> - not £8 odd but £80 odd it was. Neil Murray and a few others bought
>>>> glasses of it off him to help alleviate the cost.
>>>
>>> Was it worth the £80 though?
>>
>> Dunno!
>
> TOG bought a glass off him and reckoned so.
>
It was, Anne and I bought one as well. It looked odd initially when the
head waiter and two assistants arrived with much pomp and posher wine
glasses.

On 15/04/2024 08:27, Paul Carmichael wrote:
> El Sun, 14 Apr 2024 18:14:44 +0000, wessie escribió:
>
>> Ben Blaney <benblaney@gmail.invalid> wrote in
>> news:uvh4oh$3ols1$1@dont-email.me:
>>
>>> On Apr 14, 2024 at 12:00:29 PM EDT, "wessie" <willnotwork@tesco.net>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> it was 800,00F on the menu with 10F to the UKP. He miscalculated it as
>>>> 8 quid not 80 quid, perhaps confused by the comma instead of decimal
>>>> point.
>>>>
>>>> IIRC it was a bottle of Nuits St George
>>>
>>> He really thought he was getting a bottle of wine in a restaurant for
>>> eight quid? What a fucking idiot.
>>>
>>>
>> there were wines for not a lot more than 8 quid, bearing in mind this
>> was France in 2001 when the exchange rate was very much in our favour.
>> Even now, you can get a bottle of house red for 15 euros (under 13 quid)
>> in a Logis hotel like that one in Caudebec.
>
> Here in Spain a bottle of wine that costs 3€ in the supermarket isn't
> going to cost you more than 10/15 in a restaurant. And it's usually much
> nicer than that overrated/overpriced french crap.
>
Anne and I were at a little family-run Logis de France where at dinner
we had the hotel's plonk-de-plonk red which was fantastic. We asked the
owner what it was and she just pointed to the adjacent field. Turns out
to be some premier cru and as the owner of the field gets so many litres
at an interesting price. Had I not been riding the next day I would have
made a night of it. Madam did say that if I had a suitable plastic
container she'd let me have some at 1 euro per litre. This was 1992 so
apply inflation to your maths.