If the bag is of a reasonable, practical size then it's probably acceptable. A bag that is small and looks 'nice' is just not right.

As a man, I use a fairly tough, Large, North Face messenger bag to carry laptop, Ebay purchases, files and the odd tool.
Incidentally, there are a number of unused bottles of aftershave in my house.

On a personal level, although there's nothing necessarily wrong with it, I find it difficult to empathise with males who actually care about soft furnishings, hair & beauty, fashion or (un)reality TV.

I'm not sure what a REAL MAN is, but the misogynistic, abusive, violent, unhealthy & obese lifestyle of the blokes who frequent my local pub is probably not something to aspire to.

I was once chased by a large pack of angry wolves on a foggy night ride. I was doing about 300rpm on my singlespeed to get away.

-When I came to a dead-end and was forced to turn around I discovered that they were actually 3 Jack Russells.

Am I the only person still using a CRT TV?

Some people are frightened of the dark and others aren't.

Joebones, if your standards are that low then you could be in luck in the rougher parts of any town in the UK.

I found the same thing at our house.

I went around the perimeter of the loft and tucked the ends of the insulation under itself to allow an air gap between the roof and the joists.

When done, with the light off, I could see daylight around the 3 exposed sides of the loft. There's no longer a problem with condensation.

Choosing to finally reveal his (not at all shocking) true intentions (y'know) to that Pit Bull of BBC current affairs, Fern Britten, was presumably a way to 'leak' his strategy to avoid having to defend the indefensible when he got to the enquiry.

I hope he's bricking it and that he gets a really good going over when he does eventually face the enquiry. Afterwards there will hopefully be a nice, secure taxi waiting outside to take him to The Hague where he can have a room next to the recently invisible George Bush.

Peace Envoy, my F**king *rse.

Only on Freak Zone, which I don't like

(and you can't listen to it in your car)

Pure Highway

Exactly. People are the worst offenders. Let's ban those too.

Nikwax Aqueous (rather than the solid stuff) is sold as for use on Gore-Tex lined leather.

Apparently the Aqueous Nikwax attaches to the fibres and prevents water seeping between them rather than forming a wax barrier.

Who knows if that's true?

i'm not 13 years old, so i don't care about the music on Radio1, i'm not 3000 years old, so i don't care about the music on Radio2.

i'm at a difficult age, where's my radio station?

6Music[/url]

-although do avoid George Lamb's sub-Moyles show. Now thankfully relegated toSaturday mornings, although I did have the misfortune of hearing it this morning before I switched quickly to R4.

really enjoyed myself but if I go again I'd rather have a blast in the single seaters, they looked like a lot more fun

I did a Formula Ford day at 3 Sisters (presumably where Samuri went) about 15 years ago -It was great and the twisty track was ideal.

I agree that a racing car or a Caterham/Lotus 7 Replica rather than a flash road car is the way to go.

anokdale – Member

"Like church bells", Like to see you start ring Church Bells in Triploi where i am

but, where would you rather be a citizen (subject?) of? Libya or The UK?

The 02' onwards Toyota Corolla's are a bloody excellent car.
Brilliant build quality, handling/ride etc.

Well-built maybe, but the ones I've driven really don't handle as well as a Focus (that may or may not be important). Not sure how cheap they are either.

Octavia, Focus or Astra as you can buy parts from any parts store for pennies.

Why knock the chap? Before he won at the Olympics, track cycling was almost unknown to the man in the street.

He was very good at what he did. It puzzles me how armchair TdF champions can accuse him of not being tough.

The north-west news with Gordon Burns just isn't the same as it was in the 80s:

Get a Czech car, you can't go wrong

Octavia

Are you just looking to be über-niche?

There is a reason why not many big singles are produced 🙄

The CB500, ER5, GS500, Bandit 600 etc. etc. etc. all fit the bill, but don't have the (arbitrary) engine configuration that you demand.

It sounds as if virtually any non-'sports' motorbike would do you.

I'd look at the TDM850
(simple and with carbs. The 900 is too complex).
They do everything fairly well. The handling is on the soft side as standard, but can be fettled.
-They're vastly under-rated.

ps. If you want an enduro bike then a 250/350 is what you want, not a 650.

Average annual rainfall in Stirling and Manchester is the same at 75-100 cm per year.

Annual rainfall doesn't tell the whole story.

It seems more 'dreek' in Stirling (and the Highlands).

It's such a shame that the weather is SO BAD though. On a 10 day camping trip to The Highlands and Skye in August, it rained every single day.

A relative of mine lives in Stirling and the weather seems a lot worse (wetter and greyer) than it does in Manchester.

I have had some fantastic days climbing the rock and the ice, but the weather does seem to be generally terrible for human outdoor enjoyment.

never seen anyone who wasn't white and non-disabled working there.

<gasps>
Prejudice!

I suggest that the chief executive has everybody sent on an "inclusivity and diversity" (refresher) course.

Something must be done, or discussed at length.

Counselling for all is the least they could do.

The opportunity to work short hours at a non-job with many meetings, attendance at a lot of 'personal development' courses and little accountability. Generous, compulsory sick leave entitlement. Having the opportunity to file official grievances against management at the drop of a hat that will allow me to be sent home on full pay during the investigation.

-I know that not all councils are like that 😉

just noticed that you don't want a BMW….

We stayed at Big Sands, nr Gairloch in the 'summer'. It's a fantastic area.

it struck me that 'home-made' does not count if you get posh professionals to come round and make all your stuff.

There's always one.

It's not an instructional video, it's about watching a pleasant, mumsy lady in her nice, posh house having 'traditional' Victorian Xmas kitsch made for her and feeling all warm and middle-England before going to Liberty Wilko to buy the decorations and the local farmers' market Tesco to buy the turkey.

I think it probably works.

Should have been called "Kirsty's & her Middle Class Friends Luvvy-Duvvy Xmas".

Nothing really wrong with that, and probably what most STW readers would like…

Infinitely preferable to a "Kirsty & her rough, scally mates have a fight at Xmas".

I saw some of it last night. She appeared to be trying to be a bit Nigella Lawson, without the winking and pouting.

She seems like quite a nice lass, to be honest.

Having worked with foreigners of all descriptions, I've found that the Danes are possibly the most similar to Brits (-in a good way), more-so than the Dutch.

The Danish chaps I worked with commented (and were impressed ;)) that Irish and British ladies were much more well-endowed than Danish ones, albeit as a side-effect of their general extra mass…

They also noticed that going out to the pub with mates and getting really p*ssed was more common for 30-something blokes in the UK than in Denmark, although they would have a few jars.

Incidentally, they did complain about taxes and pointed out that their mates who were self-employed tradesmen managed to pay much less in taxes. A bit like the Uk, but with even greater tax 'efficiencies' to be had.

the sure start system

Yes, it is good and has been appreciated, mostly by the respectable people with some spare cash that would bring up their children properly anyway.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's great, but not quite up there with Sept-11-2001 and the aftermath as the event/zeitgeist of the decade.

If your child slipped and fell badly, say broke their spine, becoming a permanent wheelchair user or PVS under your care, you would be saying "MTFU"?

People fall over. You can't (and shouldn't) always blame somebody else.

The original poster is presumably a mountain biker, but they are trying to claim money from somebody as slipping over may now stop them from riding their bike on rough trails…

George Dubya Bush here too

Jade Goody -the name and all its tragic association stands for vacuous 'celebrity', so there is some justification.

Bush was fairly vacuous too, come to think of it. He's completely disappeared from the world stage, which is a good thing, but also says a lot.

It is an enormous burden -and when the BBC Royal correspondents become all deferential I am forced to switch my radio over to Key103, it's that bad.

To think that some people even believe that the continuing existence of royalty is important!

Norton is diabolical.

The best tune-up for any 'infected' PC is to remove it, and it might take a while….

Me

-and I'm not particularly a fan of Madonna either.

She's obviously Madonna

…but will we remember her songs in 25 years time? -or even 5 years time?

Nothing – Take some personal responsibility

Alternatively, let's smooth over all mountain trails.

Heaven forbid that you might injure yourself.

I can't recall any of the folks pictured above ever claiming to be better than you or I…..

So, why is it that we fund them exactly?

Harry safety was not the reason he came home it was for his mates safety, if Harry had stayed it would have put his mates at greater risk…
-and if we'd abolished the monarchy years ago he could have joined the army quietly and gone to fight as he wished to.

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-And what does that mean exactly?

A mythical, omnipotent creator should 'save' Elizabeth Windsor, rather than anybody else?

I've nothing against the royal family as people, but I am not in favour of their un-elected, privileged position.

Monarchy is linked with 'Divine Intervention' (so instantly loses a fair degree of credibility) or, going further back, the gang who had the biggest weapons at some point.

Monarchy is based on the assumption that the monarch and 'the royals' are superior to us. The system is a little flawed in the sense that the current queen is only on the throne because her uncle married a divorced woman and her dad then inherited the job. God moves in mysterious ways.

are any of these folks superior to you or I?

It must be great to be able to play around at various 'jobs' at the expense of the taxpayer.
Why can't I do that?

Young Henry/Harry wanted to fight in Afghanistan and wasn't allowed to when word got out. There should be no difference between him and other soldier.

What entitles them to large sums of YOUR tax money?

Maybe there should be an opt-out on our tax returns?

Dissolve the constitutional monarchy and stop the state funding of the royal family, they have no place in society that even attempts any pretence of equal opportunity.

BigEaredBiker – Member
The heat of the fires probably had little to do with office paper and more to do with burning jet fuel!

I was referring to the World Trade Centre 7 building that wasn't hit by an airliner…..

I didn't say that it was 'the government wot done it' and it would have taken a very effective bunch of civil servants to do so.

An airliner full of fuel hitting a tower is very significant and could cause a lot of damage. A fire in a building is somewhat less out-of-the-ordinary.

Granted,a fire on multiple floors is probably unusual, but it is still intriguing/of concern that a series of fires (fuelled by office paper?) could bring down such an enormous building.

Maybe such buildings didn't have enough of a safety factor built into them? Surprising and intriguing, but that doesn't automatically mean that it was done by world-ruling lizards.