at last! better pics pls, and more musings – was following with interest – front too high with 160 or ok?

ironically, wikipedia attributes ‘strong and stable’ to cameron in his resignation speech

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_and_stable

for a party that is abjectly not strong and stable by any measure, if they had any integrity whatsoever and genuinely put the country first they would call a GE.

They won’t of course, and cameron will help prolong the agony (getting what they can in the meantime), which says all you need to know.

It’s an absolute farce. The guy that called the referendum on a badly calculated gamble around renegotiating eu rules, who failed to make any decent case about staying (arrogantly assuming we’d stay but at least he could say he tried his best), who flounced when it went the way of the liars …and he’s back as the elder statesman when the party is on its knees and is foreign secretary. It really is beyond parody and I am disgusted by the state of our politics.

The last thing I want in pmqs is humour, we need this total shower out so we can get to the serious business of sorting this country out.

and fwiw neil is a small business owner of a bike related business – so his insights have been very interesting to me at least, like a view from an insider – I for one welcome his posts

superstar customer service have been spot on for me too – also I thought they were ditching the wheels but sticking with the rest of the bike related business

btw I don’t blame you at all for your reaction – having two blokes turn up at your door is threatening and it is 100% understandable that you felt the need to defend your family and reacted angrily – it is classic fight or flight under threatening conditions and you chose to fight – good on you.

if you have a screenshot that clearly confirms a fourth bed, and then a photo of the sofa (ideally with a pillow and duvet on it as the ‘solution’) then I’d be tempted to ‘in parallel with’ the airbnb complaints process go direct to the press – they love this stuff – ie go nuclear from the off….(not quite as nuclear as drac’s suggestion)

edit: and also make clear you got turfed out in the middle of the night by two surly blokes for having the temerity to complain, and that airbnb backed them not you

easy version is as close to zero carbs for evening meal as poss, and any carbs anyway switch to wholemeal if poss (pasta, rice, noodles etc)

panasonic combi here and regularly use the combi function – it’s brill – stick the microwave part on ‘warm’ (ie its lowest setting) and convection on 170 and take 30% ish off the cooking time of frozen stuff like nuggets, fish fingers, oven chips etc

edit: I use the ceramic tray on the high wire rack and anything higher than 170 burns I’ve found

No, it has not. He’s just been included in the ring of gossip.

It’s become his ‘business’ because act either way – ie gently step in or turn a blind eye is ‘doing something’ – especially with respect to emma – the key person in the conundrum. The ‘gossip’ is forcing him to take sides as Kramer says.

Your side is clear Nick, mine differs, you’re not going to change the internet I’m afraid.

I think it does indeed depend on how close you are to them.

To me the key question for the OP is whether he thinks ‘Emma’ would expect the OP to have her back – because literally (and I mean literally!), people are talking about her (and rob) behind her/their back, and the OP has been forced to become aware of it  – quote from the op – “Recently everyone has been asking me: ” – it has been made his business.

Personally I would expect and want good friends to lean in a bit (and we’ve suggested he have a gentle word with Rob). If my ‘good friends’ turned a blind eye, even though it was all over the place of work I’d drop them. But that’s just my view.

That said I wouldn’t expect or want ‘nosey’ people who I don’t know very well to step in (“stay out of my business etc”).

So that’s the moral dilemma for the OP to decide, as he asked.

the retailer hasn’t formally refused it yet, they’ve only said they will, you need to formally return it and they can then formally reject it – get their reasoning in writing, then small claims based on CRA (depending on retailer they might then seek mediation).

for me, because the whispers have landed at your door (‘everyone at work asking me about rob’), and assuming you do care about them still, I don’t think it can be ignored any longer and I’d have a non-confrontational word with him –  ‘mate, what’s all these rumours about?’ – give him a chance to wake up and sort it out.

It’s the wife that needs all the consideration, if the rumours are true then she needs to know asap given it’s all over your place of work, if it’s not true then someone (HR etc) needs to shut it all down, either way those two need to deal with it asap.

you could try this – worked for me – get citric acid crystals and dissolve a decent amount (third of a pack) in water in a cereal bowl. Put the mostly full bowl in the middle of bottom rack of the empty dishwasher (could leave your frosted glasses on the top shelf) and run it normally. Logic is as the water sprays down it makes the cereal bowl (acid water) overflow throughout the wash (as opposed to salt washing away immediately) and properly clears out the limescale. Took two goes for us – first round made a good difference and second made it run like new. Hope this helps

If you do strip down your OE wheels stick em on some scales for us!

in the same boat (happily) – have stripped the front, it’s 992g (rotor and rotor bolts removed, caps on)

Does anyone know if 20Five rims and Fillmore valves work well together?

yep work well for me

it is tempting to return it to grass but there’s already a lot of lawn and the FIL is after low to no maintenance.

We don’t have a helicopter unfortunately.

And WCA I checked with H&S and they said no I’m afraid.

@kormoran that is encouraging thanks – I do think I need a pro but if I can point them toward a refurb then we might have a plan.

Thanks all – all appreciated

@ctk that is in the zone – thanks muchly

the problem with jet washing is that the carpet seems to be sat on a bed of sand (on top of what I don’t know, no weeds come through tho) so when you jet wash it more sand comes out and makes the depressions even worse – it’s why the white lines stay higher/rounded – they are done in some 80’s vicious paint and no water got through to wash the sand away so they’re still at the original level of the tennis course – the rest of it has sunk

current carpet is beyond repair – tried everything – annoying as it just needs a surface but not worth £30k to do

and

had a caballero deck in my youth – broke my ankle on a rustic half-pipe in the woods in wales – there’s a theme with me and dangerous pursuits…

also I think the tiles (suggestion above) aren’t cheap and tend to look rubbish in 5+ years

thanks all – if I abandon the tennis court (or variant) plan then a big pond is a very good call

on the resurface option the link

https://amss.co.uk/tennis-court-resurfacing/

is good – I’d seen it before and was broadly where my £30k+ thinking came from – so looking for a cheaper option if there is one (second hand surface from above is worth a shot – as is asking around the family for tarmac contacts)

thanks again folks

You can get second hand tennis court surfacing. The fancy places will resurface long before the material is dead. My former club had the old surface from the national tennis centre (IIRC), was plenty good enough for us.

ah that’s an interesting approach – I like it – if underneath is ‘not too bad’ (with some added bodge) then a ‘nearly new’ (how I sell it to FIL) resurface could work a treat – thanks.

ok thanks folks but I should add – it’s that ‘80’s’ look of being in the middle of the surrounding garden (why there?!) so could do with looking quite nice – it already is the utility play space (football mainly) but just looks awful so if that’s the best plan then I’d need to resurface it somehow (even if it’s back to grass).

on the pump track idea I can’t remember if I posted on this but I thought lockdown would be a good time to learn pumps and jumps and came off on the third day and broke my arm (NHS loved me) so not going there again!

cheers though ade

in terms of cause my guess is you’ve always had an intolerance (not necessarily with alcohol, maybe grape must etc) – but that in your youth your body was better at coping with it and you’d built up some immunity (he says from experience) – in terms of cure – avoid, obvs :)

novel stealth ad – likes – ok where in WW? size/state? asking price?

could be an hdmi/hdcp handshake issue – when you introduce the splitter the source and destination get out of sync – when you set it back to the original setup turn on the screen (destination) before you turn on the pc (worth a shot)

good shout

Saturday – took 22 hours from joining back of queue on M20 to getting to france at 6am.

The first 14 hours were because of the queue barging bell-endery going on before you were inside the eurotunnel complex which meant that if you were queuing like a decent human you were in effect going backwards. Kent police needed to sort this – at times the entire M20 was blocked because of it. I (yes yes) stood in front of queue bargers so wife and kids could get through and got hit by a car for it (reported, obvs).

OP your back routes were the correct thing to do.

Yes eurotunnel was overwhelmed once inside but it was moving – passport control was fine – it was just sheer numbers from my view and between eurotunnel and the highways they should’ve had a plan. Eurotunnels provides the service so I ultimately blame them.

agree with poly and in a similar vein – it looks to me like have different views on the payment situation and the ‘arguing’ from each saice isn’t going to get anywhere.

I would look to keep it simple and set (reset?) the expectations – and then stick to the line and let her know along the lines of

Principle 1 – The £400/month is £400 above what a standard 50/50 settlement would get and is made in good faith to help (not cover) costs for every day and one off expenses.

Principle 2 – If there is a significant additional expense for then we can consider extra contributions but
a) we must agree the commitment to pay in advance
b) we agree what the terms of my extra pay is
i.e. what poly says

Principle 3 – It is agreed and understood that we are both doing what we can to support the kids. We should leave the kids entirely out of the ‘who pays what’ discussion – this is matter is entirely for the parents and should be kept that way.

I learnt from the locals that you do penmachno in your waterproof footwear come rain or shine

do the Test Course endurance race with the Pikes Peak Suzuki Escudo and just tape the X button down then go make a cuppa/spliff.

omg you’re me and I claim my (your) five pounds

edit: it’s and not or

#TOTW

looks like no winners of the highly coveted hand clap emoji this time but there’s always tomorrow – I’m getting in early and hoping djokovic gets booted out of oz with the headline ‘Novax gets served’ (mirror)

stayed at this cottage 3 times and loved it – beautiful mwnt beach 5 mins drive away and a further 10+ sandy beaches within 20/30 mins drive – lovely cottage and big garden – ticks all boxes I reckon

https://www.cottage-holiday-wales.co.uk/lleine-price-cardigan-mwnt-beach

thanks OP took a punt for the lad (ok me)

Spend New year’s in the Netherlands, it’s like a warzone

celebrated millenium new year in amsterdam – am still traumatised

reduced cholesterol from 7 to 4.5, reduced blood pressure from high to normal – am very happy to (statistically) live an extra few years for that

The one obvious benefit is getting to bore the tits off everyone you meet with tales of your awesomeness.

isn’t the definition of a bore something like someone who posts on a thread they have no interest in to say how boring the thread is?

I bought a ring doorbell, before they were bought by amazon, so that when I was out I could tell the hermes guy to put the parcel not in the bin but behind the bin, and also so that I didn’t have to answer when the chancer calls who wants to sell me a new roof when he can see from the road that a tile has slipped.

Anyway, I notice now when I log in to the ring app it boldly states that their mission is to “reduce crime in neighbourhoods”.

I hate to get all godwin’s law (although of course its inevitable, dems the rules) and stasi-ish but amazon/ring are openly saying ‘our mission is to build a video surveillance network so that we can help catch crims’ – as in they’re our new under-police force who can work out the crims from the not crims, and share all the data and video they have if they need to because a crim is dangerous and no one wants dangerous crims about. So in effect I’m watching you – crim. And don’t worry if you’re not a crim because amazon can tell if you buy stuff from them and you will be ok.

My view is that is creepy in every sense of the word. You – outside my front door, can unplug your tv from the internet and not speak to alexa as much as you like, but we’re watching you walk past and you can’t stop us watching you.

So I’m with team paranoia – things are not going in the right direction if we don’t do something – human nature is to push boundaries, and the boundaries on sharing data already seem to be strained – if not already broken. It’s a cliche but we are in danger of sleep-walking into something our children are going to have a really hard time undoing.

Still, it’s convenient that I don’t have my hermes parcels taken away by the bin men once a week – so I’m thinking a reasonable compromise is to cancel prime and disconnect my tv from the internet, for a month.

it’s synology drive server you’re after (and the client for whatever you’re using) – it replaced cloud station and works well

she may well be guilty but that photo does not prove that she crossed the line when the light was red, only that – as has been said – the light was red when she was 20 ish yards beyond the line.

Personally I’d challenge it. That said, lane discipline doesn’t look great so perhaps £100 is fair overall ;)