I love it.

Better than Location, Location, Location.

At least these people tend to have interesting ideas, rather that than…

"Jasper and Hermione have £950,000 for a weekend bolthole in the Cotwolds, but with Jasper insisting on a subterranean garage for his classic car collection and Hermione demanding a double range cooker to keep her persian cat warm they may prove hard to please"

GrahamS – Member
What boots/bindings are folk in at the mo?

32 Lashed boots and Burton Cartel bindings.

My friend does it the other way round and wears MTB specific body armour from 661 for snowboarding. Much cheaper than Dainese or RED.

That said, I wouldn't trade my Dainese spine guard for anything, money well spent.

Like, WTF?

She was our Queen of Tarts.

Got some Alpine Stars socks the other month as a freebie, lovely padded ones.

Which parts do you disagree with?

Fantastic!

Labour's choices:

Milliband brothers: Utter policy wonk geeks and charisma vacuums. Inextricably linked to Blair – Unelectable.
Ed Balls: One of the most hated New Labour bigwigs. Closely linked to Brown – Unelectable.
Diane Abbott: Nauseating windbag, uber-hypocrite and borderline racist – Unelectable.
Andy Burnham: Gobby, chip on both shoulders Scouse gobshite and working class as lifestyle statement in spite of the fact that he's a well paid Oxbridge educated politician. All the drawbacks of Cherie Blair then, but at least she's actually had a real job. That tit has just bounced from political advisor post to public sector non-job. Football Taskforce, anyone? – Laughably Unelectable.

simonfbarnes – Member

The options are 20mm pancake or 14-45mm

might you want to zoom

Point taken.

Zoom function trumps portability.

I had a sister, Elizabeth who died when I was two years old. She only lived for a few months.

I couldn't remember anything about her, I was too young.

My mum didn't tell me about it until I was 18 or so. I think she was always worried that my brother (5 years my junior) would be upset if he thought he was a 'replacement'.

She still gets very upset about it occasionally, 28 years on.

Right, I think I've settled on a Lumix GF1, but which lens to get?

The options are 20mm pancake or 14-45mm.

swavis – Member
Not me, I bought a lovely Lib Tech TRS early this year but with a baby also due in November I'll be sticking with it at the local hills of Cairngorm and Glenshee this season. Although I wouldn't want to change it anyway, it's ace!!

What do you make of Magnetraction then? Has the TRS got as much 'pop' as the reviews make out?

Anyone played No Fear Downhill Mountain Biking?
I'm not aware of any other MTB games, you'd have thought there's be a few more of them given the popularity of various BMX titles over the past decade.

It seems to be a PS3 exclusive:
http://tinyurl.com/2dgsbtb

or the place over by Birmingham?

Tamworth, Staffs.

The original.

Munqe-chick – Member
Thought of Banff but (1) can't face the long trips to the various slopes, 40 odd minutes between them (2) need somewhere cheaper we have 2 big holidays this year. Snowboarding in COlorado for 10 days (Winter Park) awesome place, then we went back to Colorado MTBing for 2 weeks in the summer!! I'll look at Meribel and never been to Austria. As long as there aren't any drag lifts!!!

I've done two seasons in Banff.

Norquay is the local hill, it's got some amazing steeps, but is only really any use for a half day/after work session for locals really. That said, it's great for beginners, they have a decent park and they also have floodlit slopes off the Cascade life once each week.

Sunshine Village is only 30 mins by bus, Lake Louise is more like 45 mins.
I've never got the objection to that really, especially from Brits who often seem happy to embark on a 5 hour round trip to go to Xscape or similar ice boxes in the UK. There are a lot of buses so you can get a full day in, relax on the ride back, possibly spot some interesting wildlife beside the Trans-Canada Highway and laugh as you pass the sign for Lake Minnewanka! :p

Generally, I've always thought that Austria is better for the pretty Alpine village experience and France has the edge in terms of apres ski. Obviously, there are pretty French resorts and some gopping Austrian ones too. Austria is better value though and you can't beat the food.

Not this year I got a super duper new snowboard last year from Mr MC, not sure WHERE or when we are going in 2011. Suggestions for intermediate (happily do reds) and advanced boarders (boarding for 10 plus years).

Austria: Saalbach-Hinterglemm (££)
France: Meribel (£££)
Canada: Banff (Sunshine Village/Lake Louise) (££££)

That said, you used to be able to do a week or two in Canada for the same price as France, that was prior to Sterling going into freefall though.

CaptainFlashheart – Member
Nah, but probably getting some new skis and boots!
(Gay on a tray….! )

Pricks with sticks!

It's alright, I ski too. I've got some K2 Public Enemy which I'll be taking along.

You can add Vibram stick-on grip, but many people are reluctant to 'mod' expensive leather soled shoes.

Have your batman walk five paces ahead of you spreading rock salt in your path.

Interesting advice so far.

I'm just checking out the GF1.

Hadn't realised how much smaller it was, it looks just right.

Surf-Mat – Member
Woolacombe, a prime surf spot… hmmm…

I live 300 metres from Boscombe Pier…EVERYWHERE is a prime surf spot compared to here! :P

Nothing wrong with National Trust stickers in the back of your car!

I'm 30 and have been a member since I was 22, the main reason being that they have some excellent free parking in a variety of prime surf spots, Woolacombe being one example.

I think I got £50 per month whilst I was at sixth form college (Sept 1996 – June 1998) which seemed reasonable.

My parents paid for the bus to and from college too and I had a job at a pub some evenings and the local garden centre every weekend which brought in several hundred per month too.

It used to do me fine between school holidays when I'd work all the hours I could manage at Argos. It kept me in skateboard decks, Etnies, snakebite and black and mailorder punk albums anyway.

I feel sorry for kids now, those sort of casual jobs a re a lot harder to come by.

'Estate' is key.

Working class types live on them, the upper class own them and the middle class drive them.

Or something.

My butler is typing this on my behalf.

grum – Member

I'm sure I read somewhere that more people died in a single US bombing raid in Afghanistan than died on 9/11 in America. Which one gets tributes and days of mourning?

You read about a single US bombing mission in Afghanistan, during which almost 3,000 were killed and a further 6,000 injured?

Well, I'd love to read about that, could you provide a link please?

Urusei Yatsura.

In Amsterdam with my then girlfriend.

The girl behind the counter in Global Chillage told us about it, but we were pretty far gone and didn't really take it in. I think she thought we were Americans because my girlfriend was wearing an LA Lakers tee shirt.

Watched the footage on Sky News at the hotel, then went and watched an American comedy troupe. Discussed the events with a nice Irish couple who were sat beside us.

I don't get it either.

Then again, I don't get Everybody Loves Raymond or King of Queens.
Well, I do. In the former, our protagonist goes out of his way to avoid his awful mother and in the latter we're supposed to marvel at just how that fat, lazy, philistine managed to get such a hot wife.

However, those are literally the only jokes. Utter one trick ponies and yet those series have gone on for years.

Even at the more intelligent end of the spectrum, I do not understand the acclaim that was heaped upon Arrested Development and 30 Rock.

I enjoy Seinfeld, Frasier, Curb Your Enthusiam etc, but some aspects of American comedy continue to confound me.

I have no doubt that Americans would say the same about My Family or Two Pints of Lager and I'd have to agree with them.

Judging by the interior decor your dog has also mastered time travel and has taken you through a vortex, back to some time in the mid 70's!

H) Ludicrously expensive imported ultra-niche skinny jeans made from Japanese denim and rolled up to just above my ankles, loafers, Anthrax tee shirt (but worn ironically, Ironic Maiden yeah?) and a garish two-tone American Apparel cardigan that's at least one size too small

You have to admire Dyson's marketing.

They managed to fetishise that most mundane of household applicances, the vacuum cleaner and turn it into a must-have for those 'young contemporary urban executive' (Do any of these people actually exist? I mean, I'm sure there are a few of them kicking about in major cities, but I've seen hoardings with that sort of blurb on in Dorchester!) types that every new-build property in the country seems to be marketed at.

Last year's Pitch Pro was 30.3 lbs.

I imagine this year's will be much the same.

TandemJeremy – Member
Labour in the last government at least had a large majority of seats and did what was in the manifesto

How do you know? It seems highly unlikely that you've ever read it.

You can though, link here:
http://tinyurl.com/5jlku

Try and read Chapter 1 ('Economy') with a straight face!

The trouble is that a lot of Labour sorts seems to forget that the Liberal Democrats are actually a proper political party (no laughing at the back!).

They don't exist solely to provide some sort of auxiliary top-up vote for under performing Labour governments.

The fact that many tribalist Labour voters in Tory/Liberal Democrat marginals choose to cast their votes for the Liberal Democrat candidate, in order to keep the Tories out, is all well and good, but, they have to realise that they're still voting Liberal Democrat.

Not Real Labour, not Continuity Labour, not I Can't Believe It's Not Labour, but the Liberal Democrats.

So, as a real party in their own right is it really such a surprise that they should seek to enter government? If so, then what's the point in the party existing in the first instance?

It's also a stretch to assume that ALL Liberal Democrat voters (or even a significant majority of them) would rather support Labour than the Tories.
In constituencies like Mid-Dorset (still Liberal Democrat, but only just), Romsey and Winchester (both Tory gains) and many others throughout the South-East and South-West, there are voters who will switch between Tory and Liberal Democrat, but never never never (and I really do mean never) Labour.

grum – Member

bravo daily mailer

Nice display of yours. :wink:

1) Guardian readers sobbing into their gnocchi at pretentious North London dinner parties.

2) The government withdraw public sector job advertisements from the Guardian. The Guardian goes bankrupt. Subsequently, there is no longer such a thing as a Guardian reader.

3) Former Guardian readers still haven't woken up and smelt the (fair trade) coffee, pretentious North London dinner parties carry on regardless.

Crikey! Is there any point in having a North/South divide if we're not going to police it?

The time has come for us all to accept that The North is a failed state. Much like Somalia, but without the lovely sunshine.

The infinite monkey theorem would have us believe that a monkey hitting keys at random, on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time, will eventually write the complete works of William Shakespeare.

However, if you take that same monkey and let him vote Labour for an infinite amount of time, eventually he'll develop a chip on both shoulders. Unfortunately, he won't be able to read and write his own name, much less Shakespeare.

I was working for JPMorgan Chase Bank on behalf of the Trade Bank of Iraq.

Thoroughly bored with the whole thing I went off to Banff, Alberta for a season snowboarding at Sunshine Village/Lake Louise having done the same thing three years before.

When I returned to the UK I moved to Leeds for a while before returning to Bournemouth just after turning 27.

I used to love The Level.

Great skateboarding/BMX scene in Brighton, there always has been.

Shame that Jell-O skate shop shut down, I realise it still exists in the form of a boutique, but it's not the same.

Are the rumours that there's a full indoor skatepark set-up (as in the component parts in storage) in the basement of the the Argus building still doing the rounds?

I remember everyone talking about that 12 years ago, but never found out whether there was any truth behind it.

Ultimately, they're all just mobile gun platforms for urban drug wars.

With that in mind, why not get a Cadillac Escalade on 22 inch chrome rims.
Spinners optional, but encouraged.

Elfinsafety – Member
Gah Travel Fox etc? They were proper shit!

Nah, nothing like those whatsoever.

As described, the ones I was referring to were low cut rubber soled/suede uppered efforts with fat laces and a side flash. Directly comparable to Puma Suedes/States or Adidas Gazelles.

Can't find any pictures of them online.