And no doubt there are some occasions where it is safe for cyclists to run a red light.

The problem is with that quote is it’s your (humble) opinion on what is/isn’t safe. My opinion might be completely different. Waynes opinion on his Raleigh Arena may be all red lights are safe as I am a god-like cyclist and have magical powers.

I think the moral is request 2nd class recorded delivery minimum next time.

You can request away as much as you want but it may fall on some deaf eBay sellers ears. RD could still take 14 days, doesn’t give you any more protection, it’s actually a senders benefit.

Put yourself in the sellers shoes – he’s sent goods, then refunds you, then they magically turn up courtesy of Royal Mail. He’s then relying on your good will to pay up again. I personally (no offence in this case) wouldn’t take the risk.

My cousin swapped to a meter as she was living alone and thought it’d be cheaper. First bill was mahooosive, as there had been an underground leak between the meter and her place.

Whilst you might have a grace period of a year I’d imagine you’ll still probably liable for any leakage for those 12 months – might be worth checking the smallprint.

Hydraulic rim brakes equals fancy time trial frames and hidden often tight cable runs that are perfect for an oil filled hose rather than a brake cable.

Ever seen old repeats of Top Gear and Fifth Gear? TG stays relatively ‘fresh’, 5th Gear dates terribly whilst testing the ‘latest’ 2002 Fiat Punto.

I suspect that’ll be why TG never goes back – endless replays in other paying countries that don’t even get the bog standard cars.

Running over 200mph on the Nardo bowl and those lap times at Imola take some skill & bravery, there is more to them than is let on.

You’d like to think over the years they’ve been taught fairly well by whoever the Stig was at the time. Imagine having your own test track, an ex-F1 or F2 driver and a very fast car you can thrash and hand back to Ferrari/Porsche/BMW in bits afterwards.

Bet there’s not many Veryon owners who have had their car flat out like James May has.

Just make sure there is some way (like recorded delivery) you can check if they’ve returned. Wouldn’t be the first eBay item that was returned to the seller but mysteriously never made it back and thus refund wasn’t given…

Nah, just run what you want – though obviously if running 9 speed rear mech/shifters you’ll need a 9-speed cassette/chain (but you knew that didn’t you). No different in pitches etc. as long as it’s the matching 9/10 speed. You can even match SRAM and Shimano if you want.

What wheels you got? If it’s a Hope setup then they haver an alloy freehub so I’d recommend XT cassettes.

And after trying SRAM and KMC chains I’ve gone back to good ‘ol Shimano XT ones with a powerlink fitting.

Not sure you’re the right person to be making this point.

+1

IIRC press shift key when opening up iTunes – think it asks you if you want to set up another library – just set one up for you and your missus. Synch problems won’t be an issue then.

Or just synch on playlists.

In a nutshell.

a) wait a day or two more, drop them a message/invoice politely checking if there’s a problem

b) end of the week, put in a non-payment claim – it’ll take 2 weeks while eBay wait in case the buyer does cough up then it’ll refund your fees. If the buyer does click on the button to admit non-payment then it’ll be quicker – rarely happens

c) Put buyer on your blacklist of people you won’t sell to

d) relist

e) Sigh and huff a bit.

Not much else you can do. ‘Technically’ I’m sure someone will probably come along say you can take them to small claims court for non-payment blah blah blah.

Also what’s the difference between Mastercard and American Express and is one better than the other?

Mastercard is accepted pretty much everywhere, but Amex is surprisingly hard to use around town and online.

Amex seem to have sussed this and you can now get a lot of offers like MBNA or Lloyds that do a dual card thing – bascially a Amex and Mastercard linked to the same account. We use the Amex where we can to get Airmiles as it gives a better rate, but when it gets refused the Mastercard gets whipped out. Pain to carry both around though if you’re shopping ‘lite’.

What deal are you thinking of? Obviously no point in getting John Lewis points if you never shop there.

I was considering Sonos, but I doubt I can store pics and movies etc on there can I, and I imagine a NAS server will be a quarter of the cost?

Sonos isn’t a NAS, it can read music files off one though.

So to probably answer your question – you need a NAS – QNAP or Synology possibly regardless and you can store whatever you like on it.

Then you also need a music server such as Sonos to play the tunes.

I am looking at it with very crude numbers but if we say buy and live there for 5 years it has to devalue by 5 years worth of rent to make it worth while not buying but renting? Or am I completely wrong with that?

Also subtract cost of solicitors to buy house, solicitors cost for selling house, estate agent fees, stamp duty (if applicable), mortgage arrangement fees, maintenance on house that would have been covered by landlord…

Which 4 x 4 would you recommend? It looked like the new Land Rover 4 x 4 (in white) was the one to be seen in, closely followed by the big Audi thing.

Nah, you’ve missed the point Funky. The Mondeo is perfectly fine, what you need to do is removed the drivers seat so you are in fact sitting so far down you have no chance of actually seeing over the steering wheel, and drive like you are completely out of control of your 2 tonne vehicle. Then stop right outside the school gates ,preferably on the double yellow lines (or bonus points for the zebra crossing…) so FuncyDunc junior doesn’t have to walk more than 3 yards to school.

I’ve just done the maths and my 40% taxable earnings+payrise won’t add up to the £1752.40 CB I will receive.
So, in order to be better off financially I’ll have to ask the boss to cut my salary and NOT give me a payrise.

Yes, for one year maybe, but next year when you get another payrise will you not be better off if it’s that close for you?

Had the same discussion with my missus, she’d be ‘worse off’ for a year, then better off for the rest of her working life…

TJ – how are you attaching the wiff waff balls?

The problem is that getting something ‘means tested’ or some tapering relief for CB means a whole raft of numpties in a building, an IT system delivered late for 5x the original proposed cost etc. etc. and probably will cost more to implement than the cost of just giving CB to everyone.

I’d miss the £81 a month, but I’d live. As long as it isn’t given to the local sink estate to enable Shazzer to have more children then I’d be happy.

I’ve got a pair of Jabra noise cancellers that I picked up for about £25 a while ago. They’re pretty good if you, maybe not the ultimate hifi experience (maybe the cable is going in the wrong direction….). AAA batteries etc.

Cheap enough to not worry about too much if I leave them on a plane.

Take up a lot of room, like all fancy headphones with their zip up box, cables etc., amzing how that eats into your hand luggage that a little pair of in-ear jobs wouldn’t.

Went on a flight to malta just before 911 and my friend had never been on a plane and was freaking, but after a trip to the cockpit to see the pilots and look out of the front he was fine…

Been lucky to fly in the jump seat many a time on flights due to work. It is a fantastic experience I wish I could recommend to anyone, either afraid of flying or not. Sadly never gonna happen these days after 9/11 etc.

it’s the return flights in January that dont seem to be showing up yet.

Ah, that’s whats falling foul of the 364 days rule…

Iranian nuclear scientist thinks about defecting to US. Killed by Iranian secret agents on route to airport…..

Depends on the airline, but it’s typically about 360 days in advance to avoid any confusion on what date you are booking, so you should be able to see prices now for December.

Where are you looking? The pukka airlines like BA etc. might be holding off giving their prices to the travel agent type websites, but I doubt it.

Might be worth checking out alternative airports in Oz – Sydney etc. as you might get better deals there, and then get internals to Melbourne.

Have you got a lump that pops out more when you cough – probably a hernia (speaking from experience).

It’s absolutely normal for planes to make strange noises / rattle / vibrate etc.

Yes, and the wings do flap around a lot. It’s by design. if it makes you feel any better if they were completely rigid they’d be ripped off. 😉

Might work. Would have to be a reasonable channel to compensate for any squishing in the ear.

For a couple of quid I suppose it’s worth a punt.

How would you keep the earplugs on the ‘phones? You’d rip them straight out immediately I’d say. And presumably need to cut a hole through them to allow the sound through which will almost certainly be closed up again when you push the plugs into your ears.

Bit of a thread hijack… but which is the strongest router people can recommend…

I did hear the Buffalo ones with the ‘rabbit ear’ type aerials were fairly strong, but sounds like you need a repeater – basically a plugin thing that sits at the range of the signal and boosts it up again.

Failing that consider the Homeplug stuff that feeds the signal through the mains. You can also get a Homepplug thingy that has a wireless aerial on, so basically get it to the far flung corners of your estate, then turn it back into wireless if you feel the need to.

Frames could always be made in USA, UK etc. whilst it was just a case of welding a couple of tubes together.

Now the trend is to carbon more any more is probably going to the Far East.

Will spare disk wheels work? Presumably they’re gonna have to be identical hubs to get spacing perfectly between the pads. At least with cantis I know swapping wheels with similar rims is no hassle.

The dress code “officer” was a woman who herself was wearing sandals…

Ah yes, our female boss sent round a missive saying all men should be wearing shirts and trousers in the office whilst she herself was wearing a denim skirt and t-shirt. Sigh. It didn’t take many seconds before the abuse started towards her…

And don’t forget the cost of uniforms, often available from one supplier at a fixed price, stresses those families who are already hard-pressed

Nah, uniform you wear every day at school. Much less than the multiple sets of the latest clothes you’d need.

Though I do agree using one supplier is a bit mean. We had purple jumpers at school sourced from one shop. Thankfully the new incoming head decided navy was okay instead and didn’t have to be from one maker which helped.

‘Tis funny, this type of ‘why suits’ thread comes up now and then, normally from someone who refuses to bend down to the sheeple when they go to their job interviews. Normally ends with “and I never got the job, can’t work out why….”

Can’t remember exactly but a bike box is well over the size that parcelforce will accept.

The van driver who delivers the bigger packets is great round ours. Due to the (cough, small number of – if the missus reads this) bike bits that get delivered to the house I know him fairly well. I was sitting in the doctors once when he delivered some stuff there. One minute later he popped back in with a parcel for me out of the van.

The normal postie has also flagged me down when I was riding the bike back home through the estate to give me a parcel as I was obviously out when he tried to deliver it.

Just playing devils advocate but maybe the guy didn’t get his forks?

Ball park figures are about £25k less interest and 5-6 years less term. so in real terms about £100k could be saved up in the term at the end of the new term until the old term would have finished. Does thats ound right? Interest rate is about 4%

Nope, not right.

You’ll have spent an extra , say, 20 years * 12 months * £300 overpayment = £72,000 to pay off the mortgage early. Subtract that £72k off your notional £100k savings to see how much you’d probably save (ie. basically the interest).

Also subtract the loss to your pension when you retire.

My insurance company had a discount for alarms but it required an alarm system that had an annual checkup/contract. Discount, ooh, £10, cost of yearly check £80. Bit of non-brainer especially since the insurance company required me to switch the alarm on overnight downstairs even if I was in the house (thus waking up family when I get up early for work switching it off).

Only experience of alarms going off is a tale my mate told me. Someone set off his alarm, police came round, nothing to see. Scrotes cam round 30 minutes later setting alarm off again but no-one batted an eyelid thinking it was still a false alarm as they cleared the place out.

Again just got a load of excuses!! does any one have his address? as my son might end up without his present for xmas as Paypal wont give me the money back in time to be able to get him one in time!!

Strange, if the seller disappears from eBay (i.e. suspended) then I thought Paypal pretty much accepted it was a scam and refunded.

Some earlier probably has the answer (though jokingly mentioned it about his jazz mag stash).

Basically when eBooks get to a point where people will share them and you can download them from dodgy download sites for nowt then they’ll take off.

I would bet my balls that a single Kindle would be more energy intensive than 20 books but you can read an almost unlimited number of books on a single Kindle.

Wouldn’t bet on it, it takes a lot to dig up lithium for the batteries that powers it (albeit for a long time).