Surprised at the hate for the film on here. I really enjoyed it, even the last 7/8ths. Yes it has it’s faults, but it keeps good pace all the way through. Family thought it was good too. Makes note to watch Leon and Nikita again though!!

Junkyard has it 100% correct.

Two kids. Was 25 when first was born and we were the first amongst our friends to have kids. Now they are in their teens I could not imagine being without them, and they are of an age where we can go out without them as a couple once more (though mainly we still eat out as a family). Kids do cost money, but it’s money I am (normally) happy to spend.

Barcelona is further than I would drive in a day.
Did Cognac to Leeds last year in one go and that was as far as I would ever drive without an overnight stay. My approach is to not to rush, going there I did the tolls and drove as fast as limits allowed.
Coming back I used the non-toll roads and drove through some really pretty villages and stopped somewhere fab for lunch. The return leg to Calais took an hour longer than using the motorway, but was a much nicer drive than staring at motorway for hours.

A quick shufty shows that some of them have network security camera features too….nifty!
The DS215j with either WD RED or WD Green 3TB HDD looks like a good bet so far. The RED are NAS rated, but the Green are energy efficient, cost less and as the use will not be crazy intensive surely they will be ok?

School teachers put a ridiculous amount of consideration into social groupings. They get it right way more than they get it wrong.
If any of my kids were upset by this type of situation then I would have asked them to KTFU, but then they are fairly resilient.

Hora. If I do it myself then I pay £27 for decent VW507 longlife oil (Catrol or Mobil or similar) plus I don’t have the teenage Kwikfit numpty cross threading stuff and leavin my undertray attached by a hand full of cable ties and with 3 bolts missing.
Not really a question of tightness, just wanting it done right.

trailrat, I agree. My old V40 was easy to change the oil on as you could reach the sump plug by reaching under the car. Most cars now seem to have an undertray though.
I assume suburbanreuben is overpaying for his filters, or has something better than Mahle or Bosch?

Also I am clearly not the Pitstop god that Trail Rat is. A career changing tyres for McLaren awaits.
My 45 mins includes 20 mins of looking for the filter I bought at Xmas and decanting oil from the pela into old oil containters so I can take it to the recycling place.

The only advantage is time and convenience. No need for jack/ramps, no need to remove engine undertray. This means it takes less than half the time. Thats enough of an advantage for me.
I don’t buy into the view that it’s a “bodge” or “half assed” oil change as it gets out every bit as much as a drain does and if you have actual sediment in your sump then you have bigger problems than your realise! Frequent convenient oil changes are better than getting an extra 10ml from the sump once a year.

Just seen comments on filter positioning. The filter is right at the top of the engine (same as on my D5 XC90), so no need to remove the under tray to access. My Audi A2 is also accessible from above.
I wish I had access to ramps, but sadly its a jack and crawling round on the floor for me.
Always change the filter at the same time. A filter is £5. Why would I want to push £35 of 5w30 fully synthetic oil through a dirty filter ;-)

Having done two cars this evening with the Pela in 45 minutes I am convinced of the benefits of this method. The pump pulled out as much as a drain would do. If you think sumps these days are full of sludge and crap then you are either leaving your oil change intervals 2 years too long so the oil is polymerising and turning to tar OR you have not seen what comes out of a sump on a well maintained car after 12 months driving. I guess no-one on here has a 2008 3 litre BMW then? :-)

I have a Garmin with lifetime maps, traffic and full EU mapping. Cost £99 in a flash amazon sale at Xmas. I prefer to use it for navigating to my iPhone. The digital traffic and lifetime maps are worth paying for in my view. The EU mapping means I can use in on EU business trips without using expensive roaming on the phone.

A rare example here of STW not delivering a sensible answer in amongst the expected and welcome micky taking.
My mate bought the Pela pump on my advice as I said I was planning on buying one anyway to do my volvo and audi (both of which have dipsticks). I offered to change the oil on his 2008 3.0litre BMW for him as a favour as his oil was WAY overdue for changing. Neither of us knew his car didn’t have a dipstick.
Happy to use the sump plug if needed, but having used the Pela pump on my own cars, I have to say it is MUCH easier. The main time taken with using sump plug route is the fact that on most cars you need to remove the plastic engine tray which takes 10 mins to take off and 10 mins to refit.

Teachers only remember two types of pupil. The really good ones and the really bad ones. (think he was the latter, but then he was at a strict convent school in the 50’s).

Their Parmesan and cold meats are fantastic quality. Right up there with Ocado/Waitrose. I have yet to have a bad bottle of wine from them. Their steak is the best I know of from any source (even my local premium butcher can only match it).I have been a huge fan of Aldi quality and value for more than a decade.

Having had a friend go through this (ex-wife runs off with kids after a lengthy legal battle ruled she was unfit), I know how skewed the legal system is against the man in family court cases. There is something big here that is not in the public domain.

Under 2 it’s free flights….take them EVERYWHERE!!!!
We took our lad to cyprus for winter sun when he was a toddler. It’s a very child friendly place.
We have always believed in taking our kids with us to places, travel, restaurants etc. Only downside is that I now have two teenagers who appreciate good food and are happy to travel to any continent that their parents visit.

FAT(ish) …TICK
RIDE MORE IN SUMMER… TICK.

It’s all bikes and all good. Love to see anyone out on a bike at any time in our country.

I have done brakes on many cars, many times. If you know what you are doing then it’s one of the easiest ways to save on garage fees. 7mm allen key for VW is needed, I also have a laser branded caliper wind back tool. My philosophy is simple…if the tool costs no more than asking a garage to do it then I will usually do it myself knowing that next time I will make a big saving. Consequently I have lots of tools for brakes and removing clips from VW cars!

So are you on call tomorrow if your ingenious programming fails beta testing. Personally I don’t doubt your awsummness but just speaking from experience. :-)

which site is that then? Do Daily Mail sell VIRB? :-)

Just selling my daughters Halfords bike on Ebay (24″ Carerra Luna). I think this forum is representative of mountain bikers and enthusiastic cycling generalists. It is not representative of the average person in the UK who buys a bike.

I would use superglue, but would hesitate to reccommend it to others, just because its hard to be sure over the internet!

Save up and get a Panasonic. Worth the extra £50 or so.

I should be on amlodipine, but took myself off due to side effects. Trying to exercise a bit more and manage stress better.

Hey Ton,you are more than welcome to borrow my Garmin 800 for nowt for your trip. Software is free, but with the unit plugged in via USB you will have access to the full 1:50000 GB mapping so you can plan road by road and then upload to the unit.

Public or private sector?

And Higgins is now 18 months old and still growing:

I remember the day it went from cheap fun to serious money for me. No, not the day I bought my first Marin Palisades with luminous yellow forks for £350, that was an affordable day.
The day it went from cheap to “serious money” was two months later. My friend had his Ridgeback stolen and with the insurance money we went to Stif. This was in their old shop tucked round the back in Otley Road. Once DT had shown my mate the Orange Prestige with full XT and fat Alu forks, biking was never cheap for many years afterwards.

I have a pair of Ortlieb panniers. Really impressed with the quality. One of those products that once you buy them you understand why they are so popular.

Not Tesco, but I am happy to pay my admission fee to Costco annually. Normally it’s a quid per person to get into car boot sales near me.

Perfectly normal. Keeps the riff raff out.

Liking “The Game” on BBC at the moment. Not just the acting, but am shocked that I like 1960’s style.

Like my £30 AKG’s

Thought it might be these:

Russian Giants

I think Junkyard has a point on low pay. We should have a level of salary for the poorest paid that offers a fair living standard, and is affordable by the employer. I think the minimum wage in the UK is set too low, and should be higher (£8.50?).
Housing costs are also a problem and can only really be fixed by building more houses ASAP.
Employers can only succeed if they are profitable, so yes ensuring that they don’t pay “over market rates” for people is part and parcel of this. If society thinks the “market rates” are too low for the lowest paid then this has to be fixed by legislation as you need to change the rules for ALL employers to keep the playing field level.
Interestingly, China is no longer the “low cost” centre it once was, salaries and taxation are pushing work out to Vietnam and also causing (hurray!) work to be brought back to the UK as in some markets we can now compete.

The wages as a %age of GDP is a metric I am struggling to draw significance from.
I know from business that the fact is that to compete in the world that turnover per employee has to keep rising (this has always been the case since the industrial revolution). This means greater efficiency and more output per employee. It often also means more investment in CAPEX and sophisticated machinery. So linking my salary as a %age of output can give a misleading picture as advanced economies will naturally have more and more output per person, but this is not the same as profit.
Increased efficiency means goods are cheaper, so even if salaries are not increasing in line with GDP then your pound buys more stuff (last 7 years is a bad example of this due to commodity and energy price volatility, but we are generally more affluent than we were in the 70’s and 80’s).

Rudeboy,yes rich people get rich from the efforts of others. They should be (and I agree are not) taxed fairly on this as their success is on the back of the society they operate in. I guess what I don’t see is how this is bad? Provided people are not exploited and have free will on where to work then what is the workable alternative?

That nirvana of equality, solidarity and love is really doing well in Russia and North Korea.
On a more sensible level, with regulation capitalism is the least worst system. The Danes and many Nordic countries have it about right. If you grew up on some of the council estates I did as a kid then you would know that the real division is between the try’s and the try not’s. Some people just expect society to owe them a living and don’t appreciate the fact that THEY have a role to play in making society work.