I had an extension near me done by an old boy and his mates, it took ages and they would only work on holidays, weekends, ie when they werent at their normal jobs, which made it hard to relax at home.
I find it anti-social and told them they should just get a professional builder to do it, which they had to do in the end to correct all their bodge jobs.
I think it is out of order to make lots of noise over the xmas period in general.

Also think of your neighbours if you arent detached. Wood flooring can be very anti social. Carpets are better for kids.

Compare a top end mtbike from 1995 to 2005, that’s when the innovation was happening.
The last ten years have seen relatively minor changes/innovation so there hasnt been such a pressing need to update your bike unless you are riding races or mtb obsessed.

I’ve made the mistake of trying to drink a can of Red Stripe when I’m not already drunk.
(And of posting to the wrong thread).

Just bumping this thread as it’s my favourite thing to read at xmas.

I’m with Coops on this one, this is the time of the Prince of Peace after all.
I only came back on this forum to listen to the MIL horror stories for a laugh.
Have a good xmas all.

Manufacturing order books are at a 30 year high. All because of the fall in sterling. The challenge now is to develop an industrial strategy to take advantage of this momentum and obviously establish the right trade agreements post-Brexit.
Demand for British products from non EU countries now exceeds that of the EU (long term trend) so despite all the talk of rebalancing the UK economy by politicians over the last 20 years, it is Brexit which is ultimately stimulating that rebalancing – and also deflating housing, which is over-priced by at least a third in London and the South-East.

Europe’s economy is growing because the ECB has unleashed monumental amounts of QE. It is no more real than the UK’s economic growth for the last five years, which has also been based on QE and yet more housing debt.
People in the UK are starting to hold back on big ticket purchases, as housing is slowing and interest rates are going up. At the same time, the renters may actually start saving more as they think they could have a realistic chance to get on the housing ladder in the next five years, whether that be through a Corbyn government or an elongated house price crash.
The UK’s economy is way over-reliant on domestic consumption powered by house price bubbles, and the fall in sterling is helping manufacturing, so overall the UK is on the right path, but it will be a rocky one, especially for people who don’t blink an eye when paying £5k for a new bike as housing is only ever going to go up, innit.

None here. I have a niece and nephew to sit at my bedside when the bell tolls.
The fertility crisis is very real, I have a number of friends who are trying to have kids in their late 30s/early 40s and getting nowhere.
To the OP, what’s it like raising kids in Croatia? Is it a more family oriented country than the UK?

As above, avoid the company of vexatious people, if possible.
Aside from one negative friend, who I felt I had to see for a few hours out of duty, I’ve kept my xmas diary to a minimum this year.
You think, maybe this year they will act differently, but they never do.
There are givers and takers in this world.

If it weren’t for the combined efforts of Cougar, Woppit and Dawkins (CWD), we would be slaughtering each others’ children over the correct way to worship a non-existent flying spaghetti monster.
And for all the haters, I’m sure CWD would rather be spending time elsewhere, rather than engaging in non-stop public service on internet forums, shining the light of enlightenment rationality into the darkness of barbarian superstition.
Or maybe not.

I will rouse myself from my week long slumber to undertake my annual 5 minute raid on Boots’ 3-for-2 deals to satisfy the minimal christmas present requirements.
And then I will return to my slumber.

Sort knee out through physio, start riding the bike again, relax more and worry less.

Social anxiety can be linked to IQ especially verbal intelligence. The perfectionist tendancy can make it worse. Sounds like she is living in a fearful state and catastrophising.

If the cbt route is helping them i would pursue that and take up the offer of a child psychologist with cbt expertise. She may well grow out of it but always useful to have cbt skills for later life anyhow.

Still waiting for arm wrestling with Chas n Dave tbh.

Good start to my day reading that.
Well done for standing up for your family over work.

Im not joining your baptist church lyn, you always get people when theyre down.

Just had a look at their website. Seems fairly standard us influenced evangelical movement material, smartly branded.

Hillsong has raised the game what with Beiber.

:wink:

The baptist strategy is to get to the kids first, knowing the parents follow. It happened to my local united reformed church, which lost many members to the baptists as the parents tend to go because the kids have made friends with the baptist kids and they do a lot of youth groups.
As above they are very clever / manipulative and heavily informed by what works in the usa.
Id be weary and chat to the school, otherwise you will be a baptist in 2 years time, mark these words

City in the desert. I don’t like cities and I don’t like deserts. Like Vegas it will run out of water and be swept up ozymandias like in the sands of time.

I binge drink on weak beer. I’m rarely sick and never out of it drunk. It’s mainly due to boredom and stress. But now it is making me fat.
I’m reverting more to non alcoholic beers which are increasingly good but expensive in pubs.
I wonder how my life would have been different if booze didn’t exist. Like many people I use it as I’m shy and it helps loosen me up. But I know I have to seriously cut down for my health.

There is a cultural acceptance of foul language at any level of football.
I watched my local non-league side the other day, sitting nearby were a group of fat middle aged geezers, f-ing and blindin like a bunch of sailors, whilst nearby a mother and her young son looked increasingly uncomfortable.
For young kids, rugby is superior in every way – classier people, the RFC actually invests money at the youth level, and as a parent you get to meet people you can have a proper conversation with.

It is great overall, I use it a lot, but it is a good idea to acquaint yourself fully with the Ts and Cs, especially around their Cancellation Policies.
Most owners are moving to moderate or strict policies; the flexible policy is the one which gives you as the client the most authority. For instance, what if one of your children falls ill before the holiday and you have to cancel your end.
For a longer break, I think it’s worth going with an owner who has lots of good reviews, and no or very few cancellations from their end.
But I think there is one important thing to bear in mind – there have been rumblings on Majorca about banning airbnb. Look what has happened to Uber in London, for instance. So you could book a great place for next summer and there remains a chance (very small) that airbnb won’t be operating there next summer.

so far weve had a photo of a road bike and of a bacon roll.

Double like

The real tragedy is that the only people who would survive an out all nuclear war are the politicians tucked up in their bunkers.
Them and Keith Richards.

Creativity and human ingenuity are non-finite resources. There is hope. But the changes will be on a big, structural level, I don’t think separating your rubbish into three different boxes does much in the grand scheme of things.

I think we’re unlikely to get them all.

Or any considering NK’s limited missile range.

Russia on the other hand could drop their new 100 megaton nuke on us and then it would be game over for old blighty.

The discoverer of the big bang theory, Father Lemaitre, initially referred to it as the “cosmic egg”. In terms of the above, Lemaitre considered the theory to be neutral in terms of proving the existence of God; but he liked to keep science and religion separate.

@km79, good point. Apparently the Dutch are some of the happiest people and it has a lot to do with part-time working, then finding meaning/happiness in your spare time doing things you enjoy.
IMO the future of work will be relatively well-paid, skilled jobs on a part-time basis, on top of your basic income/living wage.
Workaholics, on the other hand, may not know what to do with themselves.

I assume with your experience you are on good money in present job.
Why not go freelance/part-time, work three days a week, and spend the rest of your time on your bike in the woods, getting some qualifications over time, etc. Going part-time will also probably make you appreciate the work more.

I think it is often best to do the transition over time rather than make a big jump, esp without qualifications and given what @matt has outlined above.

TEF will have a major impact and arguably make Teaching-only staff (the very good ones) more valued that they’ve historically been.
At the same time, Higher Ed is due a contraction in student numbers, and it’s not a guaranteed long-term gig.
But there will be a lot of opportunities who connect academia with other fields, e.g. like business.
I think the pure research staff, who dislike teaching/aren’t any good at it, could be the ones in the more insecure position, as grant funding is contracting.

You could lend him the money through something like Funding Circle and get the legal protection through that.

Yeah, that’s it, run away ‘cos you know you’ve got no evidence. Typical.
Atheists, the playground is ours!
No theists allowed!

That kind of thing, etc, will be coming up soon.

Why can’t you just simply say you don’t believe in God and don’t follow any religion, why use such emotive words and get so worked up?

The great thing about conflict is that it helps to take your mind off other things, like the end of summer/going back to work/existential boredom.

Religion threads on STW are the verbal equivalent of Saturday night punch ups.

My contribution is this – religion is supposed to be about god, but it always ends up being about money, which is the point Jesus made in the temple by throwing out the moneychangers – the event which ultimately got him crucified.

I read many books both by the New Atheists and their Theistic opponents in the late noughties. I then thought I’d check out some churches just to see what the people are like, i.e. are they mad/deluded as I didn’t really know any practicing religious believers.
I’ve attended Catholic churches, Anglican churches, Methodist churches, evangelical churches, and Quaker meeting houses since, some on a fairly regular basis. I tend to ask for a blessing rather than participate in the eucherist and if asked what I believe, say that I’m really not sure and just having a mooch around. (word of warning – it you try to do this, it is a good idea to say you are just visiting/in the area for a short while, as otherwise they will try to hook you in).
The only difference I’ve observed about the religious people I’ve met is that they are part of a community, which is quite weird considering most of us these days are not, as we live such atomised lives. And that changes how they behave to a large extent. Although I’ve met a few nutcases, the majority of the people are responsible, thinking people, with a tendency to introversion.
I’ve seen people who are great at cooperating, and then I’ve seen people who are busy-bodies and tend to make things unpleasant all round. People seem to alter their personalities/play up to certain roles, a bit like the Canterbury Tales.
I think a major reason why people don’t like organised religion is that they may prefer their own company, as participating in any kind of community requires sacrifices and many times, it isn’t worth the trouble. Undoubtedly a lot of people attended church out of a sense of duty as much as religious belief in the past.
I also learnt that vicars put in a lot of work and have to deal with some really upsetting things. My local vicar says the Lord’s Prayer for the local people six times a day, and sometimes I reflect on that and find it a source of comfort. He is very much against emotional manipulation and says a lot of the problems he sees with people are issues of guilt, shame and fear (whether religion is the source of those feelings, or whether they just exist, is something I will ask him the next time I see him).

On the way to get the train to work today, I passed a young mother and her little daughter, screaming her lungs out – she did not want to go to school and was suffering from separation anxiety.
It gets easier as you get older, but it’s never easy. I really felt for them both.

Have you been offered the job?
If it’s still application stage, I would apply for it and then see. Lots of competition for those jobs, even the poorly paid, contract ones, as there is a glut of PhDs and not enough lecturer jobs.
I know lots of academics. The uni sector is increasingly like the corporate sector, lots of targets, performance management, student reviews, etc. If you don’t mind that, and love the teaching/research, it can be a better life, especially if you are a high performer (although high performers could earn a lot more money in the corporate sector).
But there are signs HE is in bubble-territory, and the government is discussing reducing tuition fees, which will hit many universities who have over-expanded and over-loaded on debt in the last 8 years. Maybe do some research and see how much debt this particular university has taken on in terms of your long-term job prospects.

On a related note, has anyone had any interactions with members of the Plymouth Brethren? I saw the apologist John Lennox once, then read a few books by his mentor, David Gooding.
It took me a while to realise just how conservative they are. I’ve since learnt they are both members of the open brethren, but John Lennox keeps it very quiet and prefers to push his academic credentials.

The New Atheists assume Christians believe in a God of the gaps/placeholder to cover lack of current scientific knowledge. Hence the science vs faith dichotomy.
But Christians worship the creator and sustain-er of the universe, including the bits we already know about, like the law of gravity.

I’m a Christian. I go to church. It makes me happy. It works for me.
I have no interest whatsoever in trying to convince anyone else that it’s what they should do.
I don’t give a monkeys hump what anyone else chooses to believe. That’s their business.

To an extent, but Christianity is a proselytizing religion, I will make you fishers of men, etc