High house prices are fundamentally a supply side problem in the UK.

With over a million properties sitting long term empty, I would say that high house prices are more a symptom of the easy credit we’ve had in this country over the last 15 years. Interest only mortgages, BTL, self certification, added a huge amount of fuel to this fire, pushing up prices beyond the reach of most. Ultra low interest rates, foreign investors and the BTL brigade are now the only thing keeping the current bubble afloat, but I suspect it will probably pop in spectacular fashion before long – to the great benefit to most of the rest of us in the process.

but at least my tenant and her kids are out of an abusive relationship and have a warm secure roof over their heads for Christmas … bah humbug!

For which you are so honorably charging her (or the rest of us through the benefits system), a nice tidy packet for the privilege of paying off your mortgage.

Do please explain why in the same small but popular Highland town with good employment and new jobs opening up this year, there are 1,2 and 3 bed houses and flats on the market, unsold for upto a year, despite costing 70-130k?

Could it be that they’re overpriced? Could it be that all those currently renting in that area simply can’t afford the deposit due to the sky high rents they’re having to pay? Could it be that the lending market is currently unfairly skewed in favour of the BTL brigade?

If we increase housing stocks and/or tax(or otherwise penalize) buy to let, investors will have to invest in more risky things like business – so stimulating economic growth??

Exactly – the UK is never going to prosper as a nation if a huge proportion of our GDP is geared solely towards the buying/selling and rental/letting of houses from each other, whilst diverting much needed investment and funds away from businesses that actually export stuff.

I’d love to know how me renting out a house to someone who wants to live in it, bearing in mind no one is twisting their arm, makes me ‘scum’. If people think that they must have led very sheltered lives

Because the likelyhood is you’re trying to make a fast buck out of someone who doesn’t have the financial means to buy the same said house themselves – primarily because BTL investors have helped to drive up the price of that same said house in the first place, and also because the level of rents charged these days means that it’s almost impossible for someone who’s renting to save enough for a deposit. BTL’ers have specifically hoovered up a huge percentage of smaller starter homes or flats, the very same homes that would give a young family a perfect start in life.

And I’m not talking from a biased point of view – I’m not a renter, I own my own house, but just the one house, the one I need to live in. Guess that’s considered old fashioned now?

matt_outandabout – Member

wonder how many of the “youth” would still be living with parents if it wasnt for the BTL land lord…..

My two tenants would still be living at home – my place is a cheap first step out of home, without needing a deposit and when you are a low earner, in first job, without history to get a mortgage.

Haha, like you’re doing them a service? If landlords hadn’t hoovered up all the cheap first time buyer properties, massively inflating property prices perhaps young people might actually have a chance of buying their own home at a reasonable price. Just a thought ;)

You can’t blame the landlord for wanting to maximise their rental return. Ask yourself what you’d do in their position? If £850 is your maximum then maybe just emphasise to the landlord what a good tenant you’d be, that you could move in immediately, perhaps consider signing up for a 12month lease and leave the ball in their court to get in touch. If they realise in a couple of weeks time (and they might if what you say about the number of flats to rent is high) that this will be the best offer they’ll get then they will be back to you. Equally if there’s as many flats you say there is why not just go and rent one of the others? Or if this is the best you’ve seen, for the sake of £50 a month just offer the £900 and be done with it. Life’s too short.

It is calories in versus calories out.

Nope its not, it’s all about eating well.

Cut down drastically on the beer, bread, biscuits, cakes, pasta, sugar, fruit etc and eat a diet where you get your carbs from vegetables (e.g. sweet potatoes), oats, rice etc and that’s half the battle. Eat some healthy snacks mid morning and mid afternoon between your main meals and eat a lot of protein as part of your diet to ensure its fat not muscle mass you’re loosing.

You wont have to worry about fat, calorie counting etc and you won’t have to worry about feeling hungry either. You won’t even think it’s a diet – trust me it works!

Quoting to dig down in a cellar and do a loft conversion takes longer than quoting to build a website I imagine,

Very very wrong, typically the proposal or pitch (quote) to a new client for a website can take anything from a day for a very simple site (couple of hours customer meeting, research plus a few hours to draft up proposal, budget with initial ideas), to up to a couple of weeks and multiple meetings if the website is a biggie. With a new client we may be competing against 3-10 other agencies at times, all putting in the same volume of work and all turning up for meetings on time ;)

Man flashes lights to encourage big hairy trucker to ‘batter him’ from the rear whilst filming the whole thing for later gratification. Trucker prefers to nudge his rear end against the man gently, so as not to spill his delicate load ;)

Plus he could have easily got out of the way of the lorry if he’d have so wanted, the truck didn’t swerve towards him at any great speed, more of a gradual thing, he had a full clear lane to the left and plenty of time to react – something tells me he wanted to induce a collision to prove his point (or gain publicity, compensation etc from this).

just because the car driver was being a dick doesn’t give the lorry driver the excuse to attack him.

What is unseen in the video is the actions of the driver which has clearly riled the lorry driver. Did he slam on the brakes previously in-front of the lorry, had he been deliberately winding the lorry driver up by holding him up on purpose? The guy appears to be a complete sanctimonious bell*nd of the highest order so I can’t blame the trucker for getting frustrated.

No the trucker shouldn’t have done what he did, but the guy in the car looks equally at fault from what I can see. Everyone has a point when they will ‘snap’ – deliberately winding up an angry trucker, at the end of the day what did this plonker expect? It’s like goading a brown bear with a pointy stick, can’t complain if you get bitten eh?

Serious question; why didn’t you just stop (or slow right down) and put distance between you and the lorry after the first time? Can’t imagine a circumstance where a lorry would get two chances to do that to me. But I appreciate that I wasn’t there, and I’m interested. It’s like this footage; how ON EARTH is it that the lorry overtakes the bloke TWICE? Unless he’s a) goading him in his own little ‘Mad Max/Duel’ type fantasy, or b) working with the bloke to get some totally ace dashcam footage to promote his company.

Even simpler, why didn’t the car driver just speed the **** up?

A slight increase in speed 57mph should have put him infront of the lorry (limited to 56mph) and out of harms way. Plus he wouldn’t be holding other traffic up in the process?

Absolutely no excuse why a modern car (classic campers, land rovers etc forgiven) should be getting overtaken by a truck on the motorway.

Footage shows Mr Stockdale stayed in the middle lane for some time, which motorists can be fined for, but he said he was about to move over when the lorry driver began to “intimidate” him.

Discuss…

An absolute pillock, driving at what looks around 50mph (trucks are normally limited to 56) and being overtaken by trucks. What an inappropriately low, inconsiderate and dangerous speed to be doing in that situation. Can’t condone the truck driver for what he did, but no wonder he was pissed off!

Having said that, the fact that the idiot on question owns a dashcam company, one might be a little dubious whether he put himself in that situation on purpose to create some publicity. Certainly seems to ham it up in the article – what an utter bellend!

Before anyone buys a shovel, even a metal one, have a read of this – the results are shocking 8O

Avalanche Shovel Test

Me any my mates use Voile, not only one of the lightest, but more importantly the only avalanche shovels that we might realistically stand a chance of digging someone out of avalanche debris. Avalanche debris is not like normal snow (the sort where you can build jumps with lesser shovels). Avalanche debris is so hard packed it’s often more like concrete! A lot of mountain guides use Voile – wonder why?

I wouldn’t get too comfortable slagging off Johnny Foreigner as it does make you look a touch racist (especially as you were only able to go on apperance)

Just saying what I’ve seen – please don’t shoot the messenger. If there’s a genuine specific problem there with foreigners not knowing how to drive in the UK (and I don’t know if there is – I can only go on my own limited observations) then it should perhaps be addressed no?

It’s no more racist than a campaign suggesting that people should give up deep fried mars bars because they are bad for your health – and for maximum effectiveness (and best use of resource) targeting that campaign towards Scotland only (where the majority of the said mars bars are eaten) rather than the whole of the UK. Would that make it racist in your eyes, or just common sense?

Well there’s a risk of igniting the touchpaper here but I’m going to say it anyway.

Drove roughly 50 miles of the M5 north of Bristol the other week and passed 12 cars (yes I counted them) who’d you’d clearly describe as ‘middle lane hoggers’. They were not moving over for anything, just sat there effectively turning the three lane M5 into a two lane road and seemingly unaware of the problems they were causing.

So I looked over at each and every driver as I passed to assess who the culprits were. One was an elderly man, one a young girl and the rest were all persons whom from their appearance suggested that they (or their family in the past) were of foreign origin. I’ve also experienced this on other occasions.

So before anyone pulls the PC or Racism card, I’m merely stating what I’ve observed on that journey and several others, that’s all – please don’t draw any other assumptions from this because the likelyhood is you’d be very wrong.

It might be that more attention and resourse is given to educating/training not just UK drivers in general but also people from abroad, who are either driving on a foreign licence (passed their test abroad), or who are learning to drive from a UK family that has a recent history from a country where the rules of the road are completely different to our own (or non existent). Makes sense surely?

At the same time though I think motorway training should be given to everyone, and can’t understand why there’s no compulsory motorway training required once someone has passed their test? Seems to work in Germany where lane discipline is pretty good.

On the subject of illusions I have a friend who for a few years was a pro skier for Rossignol. He showed me a article that had him “partying” in a bar in Switzerland.

So there are some that seem to constantly be on the move, constantly positive, constantly traveling, constantly (seemingly with enough money) able to sustain that lifestyle. Couple of examples here:

http://www.jennyjonessnowboarder.com/blog/

Home

Exceptional talents there for sure, but I wonder how much of the ‘ideal lifestyle thing’ is due to a particularly groomed social media profile as above? I wonder how much is written by an agent? I wonder if they ever have a particularly shi**y day spent indoors infront of a laptop dreaming of other things? Surely they can’t always be so damn positive all the time eh?

I’d not ever want to trade places with him tbh!Mainly because he is short and irritating.

Haha – Ben Proffitt?

So guessing however good your ‘adventures’ ‘art’ ‘music’ etc actually are then I’m guessing you’re never going to make a living from them unless you happen to be a marketable person in the eyes of the media?

This is all interesting stuff. I’m self employed, successful, earn a very comfortable income, have a lot of flexibility in when I work and don’t work, travel etc but by attending these talks, films, reading blogs etc about what others were doing I somehow felt that something is missing. Hence the desire to perhaps seek out a different path.

Saw Sean Conwy in Kendal and he comes across as an inspirational guy, thought, yes I’d like some of that please but now reading some of this, now seems like he could be the ultimate manipulator of image and social media whore? Wonder what a slot on Russel Brand etc would actually pay? Not enough to live on surely?

At least one of the names mentioned above is, I’m sure, married to an accountant, so has a decent reliable primary family income.

Quickly start googling accountant speed dating nights near me . . .

Also here, linked from the Tom Allen blog: Reality doesn’t sell[/url]

Great article Trail Rat, that puts things in perspective for sure.

So looks like sponsorship is the key – i.e. I guess if you’re getting sent off round the world on some crazy adventure by your sponsor then they’ll pay your tickets, food etc. Which if you’re away all the time then you shouldn’t need much else? That and being a shameless self promotionalist?

Interesting stuff, Nick your dad’s book looks good, might give that a go.

The ones I’ve known work like dogs and earn enough to survive but not a huge amount. Motivational and promotional speaking seem to pay OK, rep work for brands pays and is fairly steady work, doing “celebrity” appearances at training days and corporate events pays, modelling for advertising pays, books and films can pay. It seems like bloody hard work compared to just having a job though.

But the point being is that they’re always busy but doing fun stuff like climbing, traveling etc? Sounds like hard work but also pretty varied and a good laugh?

So it’s not just me then that find this sort of black friday bull*hit abhorrent? Greed and consumerism at it’s absolute worst.

Feel so sorry for people wrapped up in this sort of thing, just like I feel sorry for the muppets queued outside our local branch of Next at 3am come Boxing Day morning rather than spending Boxing Day with their families or out in the great outdoors. Or even worse – shopping online Xmas Day – yes sales start Xmas day now 8O

Thing about black friday is (having worked in retail), the majority of stuff on offer is either A – old soon to be outdated stock, B – cheaper, downspeced versions of look alike products made by the manufacturers specifically for these sales, or C – just sh*t that no one would buy at full price anyway. Sure there’s the odd headline bargain to lure people in but by enlarge if you shop smart the rest of the year then you can probably often match black friday prices anyway, and you’re buying what you actually want/need rather than whats on offer just because it looks cheap.

Black friday, bu**er off back to the States!

Mate feel for you I really do, ex long term GF of mine fell for another bloke on holiday – it hadn’t been going well between us, she hadn’t been making much effort, but I wasn’t expecting that! Pretty sh*tty 6 months ensued with us (well mostly me) trying to patch things up, failing and then moving apart. At times I was distraught but don’t forget it will get better, takes a while though and there will be many ups and downs along the way.

Chin up dude, it will be hard, it may not feel like it right now but you’re better off without her. Think of it as a challenge, a challenge to get over her and become a better person. Might be easier for you, as well (harsh as it seems) to temporarily cut contact with her kids also.

I’m now happier than I’ve ever been and look back and laugh about that time in my life. My ex is not with that other bloke now, it was only ever a fling but strangely when she’d seen I’d got on with my life, that I was going on dates with other girls and had put it behind me she contacted me and wanted me back. I did pop round and ‘lend her a sausage’, purely for old time’s sake you understand, but declined anything further going forward.

What you could try are the following:

Get properly fitted for a new pair of boots – my hire boots used to absolutely kill my feet until I bought a nice pair of Salomons, then problem gone. Perhaps move onto a slightly stiffer, firmer more aggressive boot that supports your ankle properly, rather then a park orientated boot which will be more flexible but offer much less support.

Try going to Ellis Brighams, for £15 they used to have a ‘Stancefinder’ device that measured everything and finds your most natural angle, and stance width. Guess what for me it was full duck +15/-15. Contrary with what BlueHelmet (or what ever his injury was called) said, the new stance really helped me progress my riding and comfort on the board and duck stance enables you to ride switch much easier.

Try a pair of bindings where both straps balance each other out to relieve pressure points. K2’s AUTO system was genius for this, both straps are linked and tensioned via a cable and the same ratchet and provides a great combination of comfort and control. Although I’m not a fan myself, Flow and K2 Cinch step in bindings are super comfortable and might help relieve your problems. Try turning your highbacks independently of the footbeds to face parallel to the edge of the board (not perpendicular to the footbeds), this is how they should be set up anyway. Regarding the highback angle, try the middle setting and that should be good for starters.

If you’re mostly piste riding and trying to keep up with your mates, consider a stiffer more aggressive board that carves and holds an edge in hard pack with ease. A soft park board will be a lot harder on you in this situation as you’ll need to work it so much more and it will tend to wash out on icy pistes, harder turns meaning you’ll be using more energy to make it stick.

Do specific strengthening for calves and ankles – speak to a good sports physio, (or podiatrist) they will have a proper look at you and tell you if you’ve a problem or not, and recommend some strengthening excersizes that will help. A proper sports massage on lower legs and feet might help too a few days before your trip, to help clear any residual muscle stress.

Get some more lessons with a snowboard coach – this will improve your riding whatever standard you’re at. a Despite riding for 15 years we did a backcountry day with off piste guide (who also rides the freeride world tour) and the amount we learnt during those 8 hours was phenomenal. Funnily enough he rode duck stance too ;)

Personally I’d be looking at a 5-7 year old 5 series which if you go for a larger petrol engined variant will have already depreciated like an elephant in freefall so will be fantastic value for money. Sounds like you don’t do that many miles so fuel economy should’nt be that much of an issue.

Either that or the 2.0T engine in the perevious generation A4 is an absolute peach, roughly 200bhp can easily and cheaply be chipped to around 250bhp no problems. Make sure you do the quattro though as in FWD it’s a little wayward.

Subaru Legacy 4×4 in some format, or Octavia VRS are also a good choices.

Other thing to consider would be a V6 Alfa 159 – again large petrol engined variants will have depreciated massively already so great value and a bit different. Look gorgeous too :)

Never understood the ‘old car must be trouble and expensive so best get a new one’ thing.

I’ve always run older cars (5-15) years old if you choose well and get them regularly serviced then they are very reliable. Sure an older car will need a little more TLC each time it goes into the garage but I’ve yet to call the AA out yet in nearly 20 years of motoring.

Just plain weird how people get scared by service bill of a few hundred pounds when something needs doing on an older car, so try use this as justification to waste £1,000’s in depreciation and interest payments on a brand new car. Or they say, ‘yes but the newer model does 8mpg better than my older car so it’s cheaper to run’ but they probably drive less than 10,000 miles a year yet then use this as justification to waste the same £1,000’s. Oh and VW just proved us wrong on this one anyway.

Understand if people want a new car, but just say it “I want a new car”, don’t try to justify it on cost grounds because frankly, that’s insane!

Easy way round the parking charges is just to park in the hotel car park itself? Free last time I checked.

Simple, you do the bloke a favour by keeping quiet, he agrees to return that favour by buying you a shiny new bike. Everyone’s happy ;)

Sure no one likes cuts, much as like when we were kids being told we couldn’t go on holiday abroad this year because my folks were struggling to pay the mortgage. But can’t see what the alternative is? To keep borrowing to fund increasing public service, continue spending more than we earn and bankrupting the country – oh wait nearly been there.

Well the whingey nature of a lot of teachers fully exposed here. Maybe the vocal nature of this is why newbie teachers are so put off, and why good quality candidates are no longer attracted to the profession?

Luckily the 2 teachers I know seem fairy happy with their jobs and the holidays they get seem used to their full advantage so far as I can see. One (head of department for Geography) regularly posts photos of his many after school rides on Facebook long before I have left the office for the day.

Teachers are to be admired and sure, like most jobs these days, no doubt it’s also a pretty stressful job. Don’t forget though that pretty much all of my other friends in senior responsible private sector professions work longer hours than most of the teaching examples given on here so far, but without any of the job security or holiday entitlement.

So what are my 2 teaching friends doing right compared to those on here whinging? I don’t know but will certainly ask them next time I find the time to get out on one of their rides!

Who is this Jedi and how should we contact him?

I can see why you would not put salt in the water because of corrosion etc. but if it means that you can’t ride your normal board in a normal way its a bit of an home goal.

But it’s a different experience from sea surfing anyway?

Not a scientific calculation but they say the lagoon holds 33,000 m3 of water. Sea water contains 25kg of salt per m3, so they’d need 825 tonnes of the stuff to make the water like the sea. Say sea salt costs £60 per tonne (Google figure) that’s a whopping £50,000 each time the pool was salted, plus the transport to get it there, so add on another £20,000 for haulage.

How many times has the pool there be drained and refilled already? Roughly three by my count, so if they’d have used salt then that would have been £210,000 down the drain (or down the River Conwy to be more precise) already.

You would have thought they would add salt to the water as it wont evaporate so should be a one time deal and surely most of the lack of float problems are down to the fresh water. I guess maybe some of the equipment has been specified for fresh water only.

I would have thought that the salt would corrode through the sledge pulleys and cable mechanism in no time. Pretty pleasant to wipe out and not end up with a mouthful of salt water (for a change) too.

The problem is they rushed to open, the site looked and felt half finished come opening week. Waves were a bit more mushy than I was expecting, not really the glassy barrels promised and lots of surge and backwash after each wave passed – still fun though. Expensive wooden cabins looked plonked in rows onto a gravel car park, no landscaping, not attractive or welcoming. Cafe and restaurant were piss poor to be honest, food looked like a school canteen, even the coffee we had was weak and watery.

However, I think this place has so much potential, shutting isn’t good, but if it gives them the time they need to get things right (and if they have the foresight to take peoples feedback on board) then they should be on to a winner. To make money though then it’s not just about the surfing – I suspect they will need to attract a lot of non-surfers to use the cafe, play area, splash n slide etc. To do this they also need to get these things running properly too, plus create more of a vibe about the place, BBQ, outdoor bar and live band in the summer might help?

Had a quick demo on a Whyte T130 – very nice bike, worth considering.

various reasons which I wont go into now

oh I think we have the time. Come on its Friday, just get hob nobs and coffee

No believe me, you wouldn’t have the time ;) Basically she had lots good going for her, but also some issues/other commitments, which soon started affecting our relationship. I was best off out of there, I knew that, but when she’s turning heads left right and centre, and she’s so amazing between the sheets, then it’s often easier said than done. Like a drug, you know it’s no good for you long term, but the temporary highs make you stay in there, the key is realising this before it’s too late and being able to get out whilst the going is still good.

has it only won because it’s an amazing bike at that price point?

Yes.

I’m sure it’s a cracking bike though.

That’s what I wondered, equally though for a grand, it could be worth a punt surely even for the most brand obsessed among us? Even if it broke then that’s about the same price as a replacement set of forks for the Solo.