I did and wore it all the time. Until a couple of years ago when it fell off into a skip (didn’t notice it had gone until later on). Haven’t got around to replacing it yet. Mrs BC remembers every now and then a suggest we replace it. I agree – but not got around to it yet. Definitely not a jewellery type although I did get used to wearing it.

As for

Those that don’t wear one: how do you fight the women off?

Not a problem I have to face on a regular basis. Well, on any basis tbf!

A funny noise and steam were the giveaway signs. Fortunately we spotted quickly enough and were handy enough to our local garage to take it in for a look. Agreed, it could have been a lot more concerning if we hadn’t spotted it or it had happened while we were thrashing along the motorway! :-)

Not that anyone will care, but I also drive a Mighty Vectra. Estate. Diesel. Owned from new (2008). Not necessarily the most involving or exciting car to drive but it has been pretty reliable, pretty comfortable and pretty easy to own. One issue with a seized water pump at around 80,000 miles. Currently has 108,000 miles. Aside from the water pump (and cam belt done at the same time) all it has had are the regular services (every 20,000 miles) and tyres. This is the 3rd Vectra I have owned and the story has been the same with all of them. Father in law has a Touran and it has been the most unreliable heap of junk he has had in all his motoring years (and he has quite a collection of highly “unfashionable” cars in his time).

Personally I quite like the Vectra as a car. And the Astra. I also like the Fords although, for me, the Fords tend to have softer, more squidgy seating compared to the Vauxhalls. Anyway, try one. You never know, you might just find that in your own opinion it’s not that bad. :-)

No idea at all really. I expect the Germans to be strong (sweeping generalisation based on past performances) although the defeat last week may well have surprised them a bit. Spain no doubt will also be strong. France have had very indifferent tournments recently so not sure they will do partiularly well, but should escape the group. The Dutch, on paper, should have done very well in the past few tournaments but have somehow managed to implode and under achieve. I expect that there will also be a surrise package in the tournament who will surprise everyone and do really well. Unfortunately I do not expect that surprise package to be England. Like others have commented I feel rather pessimistic about England. Probably because we seem to have a rather strange collection of individuals and the last two performances while being wins were very frustrating to watch. Hope we escape the group but wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t. And I do hope that somehow Roy manages to start fashioning a good England side. He has done very well with a number of clubs he has been at although seemed to come unstuck a little at Liverpool. Who knows what really went on there but it did come across as a bit of an aberration. Maybe he only really works well with less stellar squads – in which case, his England career may not go very well.

My son has the Ltd Race and loves it. Very nice ride and he’s more than happy with the geometry. He is just about 6′ and has the 20″ frame and based on that I would say that will be the frame size that will suit you better.

Well, if we want to mine the depths of C&W there is always this nugget of intellectual and philosophical reflection…

Going back to the OP – I can’t really see a big issue with the lyrics to that song. It is very much a tongue in cheek song and the lyrics reflect that. A number of his songs have gently amusing lyrics along with the videos. Odd song to pick up on as there are are worse song lyrics than that IMHO. Agadoo?? Brown girl in the ring?? Lucy in the sky with diamonds? Half (most?) of Pink Floyds early lyrics?

28 for the first and 30 for the second. I’m now 47 and although they arrived a little earlier than I would have originally liked I feel they happened at pretty much the perfect time. Wouldn’t change it at all. Would shudder at the thought of having to plunge back into the whole baby thing now.

Nice thing about having had the kids while I was still relatively young I am still (ahem) youthful and active enough to do fun and exciting things with them and for all of us to appreiate it.

Tenby itself can be a bit of hole. Go a bit further West in Pembrokeshire (as mentioned above in the St Davids / Whitesands response) and you get fabulous beaches (Freshwater, Whitesands, Newgale, Barafundel (spelling??), Druidstone etc) which also tend to be very quiet. Pembroke Castle is good fun to visit as is the Bishop’s Palace in St Davids. Lovely Italian ice creams in St Davids too!

Great walking to be had in the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains. Good walking or riding to be had at Nant-Yr-Aran (near Aberystwyth). Good riding at Afan. Swansea as a city is a bit of a dump but the developments at SA1 are smart and the Mumbles is well worth a visit.

Overall Wales has a terrific amount going for it. Love it.

If you have a big enough flash drive you could always experiment by booting from VHD. Not the sexiest option but it would alow you to keep your Win 7 install as is while trying out Win 8.

I think the beta and the release candidate versions will be valid until January. If I were you I would hold off for a few days and go for the release candidate which is supposed to be out by the end of next week and will be a lot more stable and sprightly.

While not necessarily as “fun” to drive as others mentioned above I would look for a Mondeo or Vectra hatch. Diesels are pretty economical, there are loads of them, generally cheap as chips to maintain (Vectras are on 20,000 mile service intervals) and very spacious. Both are pretty reasonable to insure as well. Had a Passat estate before (2001-2004) which was very nice and huge. Newer models however seem to have lost some of that spark and reliability. Also pretty expensive for what they are. If you go a bit smaller the Focus or Astra will give you good reliability, economy and there are some fun option amongst them. Skoda Octavia a good sound car that will be cheap and reliable but (aside from the VRS) couldn’t really be described as fun to drive either. Avensis – a truly horrific car to drive. Had a hire one for a couple of weeks a few years ago and it was, without question, THE worst car I have ever driven. Well, apart from an American car – but that’s to be expected.

there’s one chap who works at the gym who sometimes puts one of the tvs onto a teleshopping channel that shows a bra advert on repeat, that keeps me distracted whilst stretching

I didn’t think they encouraged that sort of stretching in the gym.. :D

If the current employer is Big Blue then the general noise around is that you had better take the VR now as in a year or two you won’t even get that as you are shovelled out the door. Admittedly things could change but the writing on the wall (under the curent senior management “team”) is that this is the direction they are going in unless you are directly in sales or middle management.

Plus what makkag said.

Don’t love them or hate them. To my personal tastes they are not especially attractive looking bikes and appear overpriced compared to much of the competition. May well try one when changing my bike next time but not optimistic that the ride will compensate for the negative aspects. But who knows – I may be surprised and impressed.

Admirably underlined by posting in the wrong forum too. Well done sir. :D

On the plus side though – all those iDiet related threads you have missed…..

Oh, and while the past month really doesn’t sound like it has been much fun you may well be more surprised about what it has taught you about yourself and what you may need to be aware of for the future.

Hope things continue to come back together for you though.

And for some different balance – Vectra Estate here. 4 years old and coming up for 104,000 miles. Apart from a seized water pump last summer it has been faultless. Mind you, if we hadn’t caught it quickly it could have turned into a bit of an expensive issue. Huge boot. Reasonably economical and comfortable on long drives. Sure, it’s not the most agile or dynamic drive to be had but it doesn’t deserve the rather harsh rap it gets from all and sundry. Looking for a smaller car for Mrs Catastrophe and considering the Focus as she prefers a smaller car.

Have had a couple of Passats in the past as company cars and thought they were ok. Liked them. Not sure I would buy one myself these days as I think they are a bit overpriced for what they are.

Team player eh TJ. Nice attitude. Either that or you really do work with a bunch of hideous work colleagues. :-)

Not really a surprise that this has come out or indeed that the press are making hay with it. I suspect that the truth is somewhat less salacious and that what was going on was someone trying to big up what you get for a “sizable” donation. Listening to the clip it is both hlarious and utterly cringeworthy at the same time. Sounds like a wide boy salesman trying to tie up a sale and promising whatever comes into his head that makes it sound like a good deal you are getting. Embarrassing for all involved? Too right. Indicative of widespread and damaging corruption? No, I don’t think so.

Applied for quite a few events but only got the hockey. To be honest I was quite relieved as if we had got all the events it would have cost a fair bit and we probably wouldn’t have had a brilliant view of the action. However we do at least have one day where we can visit the park and soak up the atmosphere and then get back home to watch all the action from the comfort of lounge along with all the close-ups an attendant commentary.

Thanks again guys for the thoughts. Still don’t really understand the appeal of Orange – certainly don’t look good value for money at all. However, will still check one out to see. We have been out and about checking a few bikes. Seen the usual suspects including Spesh (not very impressed); Trek (even less impressed), Whyte (809 – really liked), Giant (XTC – liked), Canondale (JNR thought it looked hideous and also not keen on the head shock malarky). Yet to try Cube (does look very nice), Scott (probably won’t like) and yes Orange for completeness. So far the Whyte is probably the front runner.

JNR is currently 15 but will be 16 soon. Knocking at the door of 6′ and eating me out of house and home! Loves cycling and we have done a fair bit together over the years.

Hope to try a few more bikes over the weekend.

What I’m peeved about is last time I went to Boots and offer was buy one frame, get one free. However the final bill seemed expensive and, no, I didn’t go for designer frames.

Quite often the frames are the cheap bit. Its the exta fancy stuff you get on the lenses that starts to genberate the big price tags. For instance, if you are a bit like a mole in bright sunlight normal lenses will be like bottle bottoms and is not a sexy look. So you go for thinner lenses. And depending how thin determines how much you pay for them. That sort of thing adds up very quickly!

Most amusing thread – apologies to the OP if that’s not quite cricket. Although for a thread of this type the OPs handle is enough for the fnar fnar brigade to break out in a fit of tittering.

What is so wrong with having any sort of relationship with someone at work? Who knows what it will turn out like. The worst case, as has been mentioned above, is that work becomes a bit of grim place for a few days and your colleagues may rip you for quite some time when they find out. :-)

If you haven’t been before it can be a bit of a minefield. Have tried a few opticians over the years. Most important part, for me, is the eye test. Tried another local optician a couple of years ago and wasn’t that impressed with the findings at the end of it. Apparently my eyesight had improved slightly. It didn’t feel that way and I wasn’t convinced that the prescription I got was totally accurate for my eyes. Went back to Specsavers for my next test and surprise surprise my eyes were a little worse. New prescription that suited me much better. Like most chain stores a lot depends on the local personnel. Our local Specsavers are pretty efficient and polite and the testing seems pretty accurate. I would agree they are not necessarily the cheapest for frames and lenses but they are by no means the most expensive either. Having gone to monthly contacts the prices are not too bad – certainly waaaaay better than dailies. The other advantage of a local optician is it is very easy to pop in if there is a problem with the glasses etc. The one thing that does wind me up a bit though is where I have found cheaper supplies of contacts online they still have to have proof from the optician that tested you of your prescription. The optician I tried before Specsavers was spectacularly bad at that bit. Their after sales service was also pretty shoddy so all round it was a bit of a rubbish experience and one that will prevent me from ever going back to them.

What a strange word homophobia is. I suspect that the majority of people who are accused of being homophobic are not in any way at all afraid of homosexuals but rather have a personal view that it is not something they agree with. For whatever reason. That does not make them homophobic it just means they have a different view.

I would also suspect that the reason behind civil ceremonies banning religious content is because they are intended to provide a marriage service without the religious bits because people find that offensive. Quite possibly the driving forces behind the civil ceremonies being introduced were strongly anti-religious and therefore wante to create an opportunity for people to have the ceremony wthout the “hypocrisy” of a religious service just so that they could get married.

I don’t really understand why people who are so strongly anti-religious even consider wanting to get married in a church either. Why do that?

Have a Merlin Malt 4 coming up for sale soon. It’s a couple of years old but has not seen a massive amount of use. Actually a cracking bike – just too small for Junior now. Should be perfect size for your mate. Probably no more than £200. Light and fast.

I am surprised they are asking for a boarding pass as in most instances I would expect the expenses to need to be a receipt that shows VAT info. Certainly at our place we need to provide a receipt, not particularly as proof for work that we have incurred the expense but more for HMRC. And a whole expense claim should not be rejected just because one part of it is in breach / doubt.

Humax. Great bit of kit and not that expensive.

[Edit] They also do an HD one now which is a bit more pricey. No experience of that one though. Saw the 3view jobbie about 18 months ago when it was brand new to the market and was quite impressed with it. Don’t think they are all that much either and you get HD recordings as well.

Depends if you really want surround sound or just a lot more depth to the sound than the tinny effect you get natively from the TV. If you have a reasonable hi-fi in the same room the cheapest option is to take it all through the hi-fi. Works as an acceptable compromise especially if the OH has a big problem with lots of speakers and cables and stuff. It does not fully match what you can get with a proper AV receiver but in general my experience is that you do need to spend a fair bit to get a properly decent cinema sound in the home. The one box solutions are not always as good as the reviews may lead you to believe although, to be fair, a number of them are still likely to be better than the sound you are getting at the moment. :-)

How about doing one of the two Questars Q2 events? Outdoors, mix of disciplines (trail running, mtb and kayaking), really well run and great fun. There’s one in April and one in October. They also do one day events through the year. Not very expensive either. Did the October one last year and not only was the weather stonkingly awesome (yes, it was THAT weekend) it was superb fun.

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The October one

If you wanted to spend a whole lot more money and do a lot more training then you could also try the Intelligent Sport UK Challenge. Note that this is a lot more money! Having said that it is still a pretty unique event and great fun. On their good years there is a huge sense of achievement when you finish.

UK challenge[/url]

These days, for many reasons, it is likely to be the Xbox with Kinect. The Wii was cute when it came out and the interaction with the console was quite unique and great fun. However, the Kinect really changes the landscape. The majority of people I know who bought the Wii have long since stopped using it as the novelty wore off. Those that have the PS3 or the Xbox are still going strong. Sony had a few issues last year with security on their network (compromised security, account details stolen sort of thing) and it is generally regarded as inferior to Xbox Live. These days I would say it isn’t worth buying a PS3 for the Blu Ray player as you can get better quality players as separate, dedicated units. With both the Xbox and the Ps3 there is no requirement to subscribe to the live service but it can certainly enhance the gaming experience. Expect new applications for the Kinect over the coming year and there are rumblings about the successor machines for both MS and Sony. However, I would expect that these are still a way off appearing.

Which, in summary, means it’s Xbox for the win. :-)

I don’t speak dutch, did they say it tastes a bit like chicken?

Would that make it iDiet compatible (provided the target is not lardy)?

Thanks for the thoughts and suggestions so far. Will look at the Orange although I still feel they are rather overpriced for what they are. I mean, Alivio front mech on a £1000 bike?

The riding is pretty much all cross country so probably don’t need anything burlier and junior hasn’t given any indication that he want to suddenly start shredding things up, sailing through the trees or doing 30ft drops. But then again, I’m only his dad, what would I know? :-)

Unfortunately the Boardman is out of the question as our scheme is not supported by Halfords.

Going through the same thing with youngest catastrophe. He is not academically enthusiastic and I can’t see 6th form being a happy route for him. However, he has no clue what he wants to do career / work wise. Having had a look into it there is also the option of BTech qualifications which, if you pick the right one and get Distinctions, are considered the equivalent of 3 A levels so that would leave the window open to Uni. He is curently considering either the sport one or the music one. Eldest catastrophe embarked on the A level route and providing she gets the required grades will be off to Uni in September.

I think there is a measure of truth in the statement that degrees “ain’t wot they used to be” simply because so many more students have been shoved onto the higher education conveyor belt. My working epxerience with a number of graduates is that there are still some very smart, very intelligent students coming through the system, but there are also a significant number who appear to be remain utterly clueless about life and indeed the subject they allegedly studied for 3 years.

Got a W520 (work one) at the moment. Screen goes back a lot further than one would naturally want it to (beyond 180 degrees). Not overly impressed with it though at the moment. My old Dell E6400 was much nicer and more reliable.

You probably need to visit the bar on the train, especially if it is crowded, and leave a silent one to mature. Crowded is good because the blame can easily be shifted away from you – provided you don’t start smiling or laughing as people choke around you.

There’s a cycle club ased in Abingdon that go out on a Tuesday night (only 7 miles from Oxford) and many rides head out to Boars Hill. It’s not quite the same as somewhere like Swinley but there are pleasent enough rides and once you have cycled up Boars Hill a couple of times in an evening you will be welcoming your post ride beverage. There’s nothing especially technical on the rides but they are good fun and they are usually pretty welcoming – especially Kevin. Check out Abingdon Freeweheeling or their facebook page. linky thing[/url]

Biking catastrophe – don’t forget the influence of the eurosceptics.

Sure TJ. That probably plays a part too. But it is not the only reason for his decision. And not even the biggest reason either.

And no, I disagre that all decisions he makes should be seen in the light of his “promises” to the eurosceptics. Please tell me you really don’t believe that?

As with most things though this is not a simple argument. To say that CMD is pandering to his city pals and that’s the only reason for the decision taken last night is surely political thinking of the primary school playground. Looking at the bigger picture I am fairly sure that the main thing he is probably standing against is to avoid us being leaned on to provide greater revenue to the EU to sort out the mess they are in. Germany are putting pressure on anyone who looks like they may have some money to avoid having to prop up the Eurozone by themselves. And CMD doesn’t want to do that. And why should we? We are already one of the biggest net contributors to the Eurozone. Why should we stump up more? Where would the money come from? Where would it be going and what guarantees would we have of it coming back? Do we want to have a voice and influence in Europe? Of course we do. Do we want it at the cost of losing control and sovereignty over how we deem it best to manage our own economy to a group of people who will be looking at those decisions on the basis of at is best for them and not what is best for us? No way. Difficult enough to trust our politicians to make the right decisions for this country by themselves without introducing a more remote and disinclined group of people. Why would we want to do that??