This might sound daft, but get on to Twitter or Facebook and make a complaint directly to the manufacturer. It’s still under warranty, so you’re obviously not getting good dealership service. Dealerships sit up and listen if they get a call from the manufacturer about a complaint made directly to them.

This is a copy of the requirements that were issued at Tender Stage:
Scottish Enterprise is seeking to appoint a supplier to test demand for, review and refine the business case for the creation of an innovation and business hub to maximise the opportunity for the South of Scotland to grasp economic growth opportunities and community benefits connected to Mountain Biking. This should be a new and innovative approach to delivering innovation centre services under a sustainable model which has strong and inclusive community and local business linkages and builds on the success of the current mountain bike innovation project hosted by Edinburgh Napier University.
Borderlands partners have been reviewing and scoping out an Outline Business Case that seeks to invest 25million GBP (public and private) in Mountain Biking over a 10-year period into the Tweed Valley. If successfully implemented this could create a world-class destination for research and development, innovation, tourism and an attractive place to invest. The objective of this commission is to test demand for, review and refine the business case for an innovation hub for Mountain Biking.
A final report from the successful consultant should present back to the steering group their assessment of four related tasks:
A – Demand and Usage
B – Location Options
C – Governance and Ownership
D – Financial Modelling

£2.5M will be enough to pay for the Infrastructure feasibility study. It’ll cost 10x that to get suitable roads and comms installed in an area of the country that has limited existing infrastructure. Anyone know why it has to be located so remotely? Prestwick Airport was once recommended due to its ease of access and fog-free runway, so don’t know why this isn’t being pursued as a viable option.

Put the cat in a box, drive to Stranraer. Leave the box in Stranraer. Drive home.

No more cat problem.

You’re not too old to get on an apprenticeship programme.

My seven year old Worcester-Bosch oil combi boiler has just been scrapped and a new Rhino boiler installed. The plumber tried to repair it before telling me “it’s F***ed and seven years is about as long as a Worcester Bosch combi will last”. He went on to tell me several tales of how bad W-B boilers are, so I’d advise against one.

It’s a thin surface course that is used for road surfacing nowadays. It’s quiet to begin with until the bitumen coating wears off due to traffic and then the noise increases slightly. It’s quiet and therefore popular with motorists and nearby residents, but until the coating wears off, it has a fairly poor skid resistance.

Train to Dunbarton. Loads of walks and trails around the hills north of town.

Taste receptors differ throughout your life – salty, sweet, bitter and sour. At a young age the sweet receptor is strongest which is why most kids have a sweet tooth and don’t like vegetables. But they grow out of this usually.
My oldest is okay at mealtimes, the youngest is a nightmare. They have their favourite meals (sausages, lasagne anything with baked beans), but we don’t give them those too often and try and vary their meals.
The best way i know of to get my kids to eat is send them to a gran. They’ll always clean their plates if a gran has cooked it, even if it is the same as something I make them that they turn their noses up at.
My sister took her youngest to a nutritionist due to her very bad eating habits. According to the expert – everyone eats the same meal at the same time and nothing else if offered if she doesn’t eat it. Don’t make a fuss if she doesn’t touch it and give her a set time limit to eat it (half an hour I think it was)

I agree with the OP.
OK, we had unusually great weather for a BH, but normally it’s rubbish, main roads for getting to / from the trails are packed and takes twice as long to go anywhere and with my luck, something always breaks. And being a BH, everywhere is closed and I can’t get spares / replacements. The missus had stuff planned with the kids, so I went to work. No phones ringing, no emails distracting me and actually managed to clear half my To-Do list. Not supposed to be riding my bike anyway, so it wasn’t a lost day on the trails.

Pinched nerve in my hamstring, so physio has told me to avoid strenuous exercise in the meantime. That’s been close to six months now and thinking of just going out anyway and suffering for it afterwards.

What Mr Man are you?
Mr Man interview

Why not take your mountain bike?
It’s more suitable for the roads around the southern half anyway, or you might decide to enjoy the off-road trails instead.

I have something similar to this parrot
Use it mostly for listening to music either Bluetooth from my phone or pre-loaded on a Sd card.

Got a 59 plate model. Gets 50mpg absolute min, good performance, but brakes are sluggish and a bit soft on corners.
Very comfortable, decent leg room in the back and reasonable boot space. Back seats fold down completely flat, so handy for chucking a bike or two in (front wheel needs to come off though), Honda reliability and full sized spare wheel.

Aah, do I miss lambing. Almost as much as I miss no central heating, the outside loo, no hot water cause the stove had gone out, constantly smelling of wet wool and shite.
People who only lived or worked on a farm for short periods of their life look back on it through rose tinted specs and with a romantic charm like they were in Darling Buds of May.

Your Cv needs to sell your abilities and what you bring to an employer. Not just a summary of things you have done in your career.

2nd is always cheaper and as said b4, you know what you’re doing this time.
As the old saying goes – you never get two the same. My own experience, wife had PND which was difficult, but baby was great. 2nd time, wife was great but two years on we still don’t get a full night sleep. And I was in my 40’s when no.2 came around. It’s a bugger on the knees playing with small kids at my age, but hope you find a way to cope with all the pressure. It will eventually pass.

A lot of strong opinions on petrol and diesels depending on personal experience. But regarding the OP and the commuting distance, a diesel will just be getting up to operating temp when she gets to work. So economy won’t be as high as manufacturer stats, esp if town or city driving. If all open country roads or motorway then the diesel may be a practical option.

Asbestos in schools
Get one of these

There’s asbestos in most school buildings older than 25yrs and the local authorities are too skint / don’t give a damn to do anything about it.
Most of it is relatively safe, it’s only when it disturbed and there are fibres floating about that it’s dangerous.

I was interviewing for apprentices last week. Our HR dept has a standard list of interview questions and as I was going over list, I had to admit I would hate to go for a job interview nowadays. Companies are looking for a very high standard of applicants and even if you have the qualifications, personal qualities are what makes an applicant stand out.

The company I’m with are on Twitter, Farcebook, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube and for internal comms, use Skype and last year introduced Yammer.
All of these are perfect if you don’t have any client deadlines or actual fee earning work.

That is a pricey up-front fee. I visited the family financial advisor last year after an unexpected inheritance. He charged me £1500 and takes an annual %age of the investment. So if I make money, so does he. That way, he’s got more incentive to manage the investments more carefully.

Failed my 1st driving test for this very reason. Was indicating to turn right into a side road, got a gap in traffic started to turn and a ped stepped out in front of me.

Anywhere there is a dropped kerb (usually with tactile paving) without any signals is an uncontrolled crossing and are provided at most junctions. To install a Zebra crossing at every junction would cost a fortune, as they need the yellow globes to be included for it to be a formal Zebra crossing.

I fully sympathise, having two kids under 5 and work / commute same amount of hours. During the lighter evenings I’ll get out on my road bike for a quick blast, but mtb time is now limited to a planned trip or the rare days when the missus has plans that includes both kids.
Can’t have your cake and eat it afterall.

Staycation – Americans go on vacation, I go on holiday. If I chose to holiday in the UK, then I’m still on holiday.

Cairngorms during Easter Holidays will be mobbed, suggest Glenshee if snow hasn’t gone as it covers a huge area and most people stick to the main valley.

I use ave a metal pizza tray, but I have started baking the base separately for about 5 mins, then adding the toppings.
Never managed to do the throwing thing though.

New law about to be brought in that will require all children to sit in a rear-facing child seat until the age of four. As expected, rear facing seats that fit a four year old are few and far between and cost a fortune.

[the Leave argument is that our trade and business will be improved as we’ll be able to better align with growing global markets like Asia as opposed to stagnating / about to explode Economies]

Business trading will improve and costs will come down because the Tories will abandon of all the EU employment laws – Working time directive (OK we have an opt out clause anyway), maternity / paternity leave & pay, statutory annual leave entitlement, are just a few that will probably go. H&S will stay, as even the Tories don’t like people dying at work, manufacturing standards will remain as we have British Standards before EU intergration. And they will probably ignore EU envronment legislation as well. This is how we will become more competitive in the global economy.

Not an architect – a civil engineer and under similar pressures as you (although I do get holidays now and again).
I would hate to put you off something you obviously feel passionate about and I commend you for it. My wife has been teaching for 20 years and although she still loves teaching, like all jobs, there is all the other pi$h that goes with it.
Maybe a change of employer, rather than career would be short-term option. However, I think everyone here will remember the teachers who inspired them, so don’t let a cynic like me put doubts in your mind.

I don’t get it. You’re an architect and you want to pack it in to become a teacher?
My wife is a Primary School teacher. I suggest to stay in your current job, wait for a couple of years and see the change your wife will go from being full of enthusiasm to being over-worked, stressed and disillusioned. The grass is not always greener on the other side.

Precast concrete panels. Make it any size you want, they come with different finishes, it’s secure and there are several companies over the UK that provide & erect them.

Why bother changing your whole career? I also have a HNC in civil engineering and was a CAD monkey. I slowly got enough experience to get Incorporated and am now a team leader with further promotion possibilities. If you have enough determination to improve your lot in life, why reinvent the wheel? Up date your CV and try a change of employer, the market is booming at the moment. Or have a moan at your manager at not getting enough experience or opportunities. Speak to your local ICE membership officer about training objectives and ask what else you need to get a professional qualification.
Having said that, if you have a target of £40k, then you won’t get it in the civil engineering industry unless you’re chartered and become a senior / principl engineer.

I think most people feel under represented, whether you’re inner city, country, islands etc. Is an iS going to improve the situation or will communities feel deserted by the government and ideology that they were promised?

I’m not seriously suggesting that we would return to claymores and battlefields. At the moment we feel we’re ignored by parliament as we’re far removed from Westminster. Is the sentiment going to continue in iS? Can a Scottish Parliament address the concerns of everyone – of course not. We then find ourselves infighting and blaming each other on who wanted / didn’t want independence.

One issue with iS giving us all a voice, is that everyone will expect to be heard. There is no way a Scottish Government can meet the needs of the disparate population, so maybe it’s just as well we currently get ignored by Westminster. When we did have independence, the Highlands hated the Lowlanders and didn’t like being run by Edinburgh. The west coast hated the east coast and didn’t like being run by Edinburgh and the Borders hated being stuck in no-mans-land and switched allegiance as it suited them. Can’t see why this would change with a modern iS.

Scotland doesn’t like being ruled by Westminster, North England doesn’t like being ruled by Westminster, Wales & NI don’t like being ruled by Westminster (I’ve even met people in Southampton who don’t like being ruled by Westminster). The answer then isn’t so much iScotland, but independent London and leave the rest of us to run our own affairs as regionally best fits our needs. No HS2, no Trident, no London Airports or Boris Island to subsidise.

[So where are the policies from the other parties which show us what direction iS will take in the future, which solve all the problems of the SNP policies]

In 2016, iScotland would go to the polls to vote for a government where three of the main parties don’t currently want the job. This being Scotland, we will end up with a Labour government before long, and Labour will do what they have done every time in UK government since WWII – massive spending spree, F*** it all up and put the country into massive debt.

Of course we need to join the EU after independence. How else is the social benefits bill going to get paid once the oil (and tax revenue) runs out?