Skagen do some nice watches.

I've got one of these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Skagen-596XLTXM-Titanium-Multifunction-Bracelet/dp/B000IZC8FC

Got mine in Macy's in Boston for £100 or so though 😀

+2 for Pete Blands

There's Paragon on Broadway:

http://www.paragonsports.com/

Can't remember if I went in whilst in NYC though.

We did go in Tents & Trails:

http://www.tenttrails.com/

Small place but crammed with stock. Leatherman tools worked out crazy cheap but it was two $ to the £ back then.

Another vote for Smartwool kit being ace, especially when it's half price via Cotswolds Outdoor.

Worth every penny just for the lack-of-niffyness factor.

El Reg says he's been nicked…

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/22/dowsing_rod_bomb_detector_bust/

I made £100 out of Barclays after seeing an offer on MSE. That's worth 10 minutes or so of my time in my book.

Found TopCashBack.co.uk on his site earlier this month and that save me another £60 on my car insurance.

I've been doing the Questars (5 or 6 hour) races for a few years now.

They are well organised events, with a very good atmosphere and camaraderie between competitors. MTBing sections aren't always that technical – I reckon a CX bike would be perfect for the New Forest round but some ace riding during the Brecon Beacon round.

I do the races with a mate and we get our asses kicked by the racing snakes who are putting in 900+ points a race but it's always pleasing to set a new PB points-wise. We won our class last year which is a damn good feeling.

When it ships, Office 2010 Starter will be cut-down Word & Excel with some adverts down one side (for the full version of Office). That will be free, but I don't know if it will be available for download or just come with new PCs.

Outside punt…

Three of us hired this place at the end of the summer season '08:

http://www.barrelliski.co.uk/summerchalets/rockymountain/

As it was the last week of the season we got it for something silly like £100 per person (or maybe less). We agreeded to clean it once before we left. I had the open fire going each night and the hot tub on the back deck was ace. Could walk down the hill into Les Houches for beers / grub.

Worth an e-mail…

They've had a pretty large digger clearing the car park:

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They opened the shop/cafe on the 10th, then had even more snow…

FirstSave are covered by the UK FSCS scheme, so up to £50k is safe

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/safe-savings#foreign

Both our combi and my Mum's combi had this problem Thursday / Friday.

Our plumber had over 40 calls from people with the same problem on Friday. He said the manufacturer testing only goes down to -10. A kettle full of hot water sorted it for us.

Mum's plumber cut the drain pipe just below the boiler so it drains into a bucket and they are coming back once the weather improves.

Our combi boiler was making a right racket this morning with warning lights and buttons flashes away nicely. Looks like the condenser output thingy-ma-jig has frozen. I think my Mum's combi has the same problem as well.

C&F Webcam: http://www.maccinfo.com/cat/

The pub has a Twitter feed for road updates : http://twitter.com/Cat_and_fiddle

-11 on the Cheshire / Staffordshire border this morning.

Can you hang fire for a week or two?

Intel launch their next range of CPUs in Vegas tomorrow (IIRC), so there will be a whole raft of new laptop models coming out on the back of that. Laptop CPUs have been codenamed Arrandale.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/185857/intels_2010_arrandale_laptop_cpus_core_i5540m_impressions.html

Performance increases might not be staggering but if you're not in a hurry, I'd wait a bit to buy the latest & greatest (before it's superceeded in a 6 to 12 months).

I used my pair of Autosocks in the Peaks before Christmas. Big thumbs up from me too.

My misses's sister has just been on the phone raving about how the good pair she's bought are. They got her home tonight in Sheffield and normally the fudging big hill she lives on is dire with snow.

I've just got another SmartWool N2S Zip top from Cotswold – £25. Ace bits of kit.

Uplink – who had the glass of malt though? Great pic.

Some of TG has been genius IMO. Granted, I probably have a schoolboy sense of humuor, but bits like the camper van / bus races they did were fantastic.

I've got U-Turn Maxle Rev's on my 05 Trance but I've only ridden it once so can't say too much about it yet.

Yup, I fitted the Autosocks on my own. Park up – fit over top of tyre and pull down as far as they go. Drive forward a metre or so and pull over the tyre a bit more.

I stopped after climbing the hill I mentioned and the socks were securely fitted to both front wheels. On my tyres, the inner edge of the sock goes over the main tread of the tyre and onto the inside of the wheel. When I stopped in a pub car park to remove then, they hadn't moved at all. Taking off is even easier than putting them on.

The socks seen on the road might not have been fitted properly or people have gone over the recommend speeds.

You can't really not recommend something you have no experience of, can you?

I did 5 or 10 miles with the Autosocks on yesterday and had a quick look at them when I hung them in the garage to dry.

Couple of minor scuffs on the fabric but otherwise in good condition. You aren't meant to go above 30mph with them on and in theory you should take them once back on clear tarmac.

Q3: What sort of conditions can I use them in?
A3: They'll improve traction on any snow or ice – even in soft, deep snow, or in wet snow. It's recommended that you take them off when you get back to tarmac, although the reality is that they probably will be driven on tarmac during those intermittent tarmac / snow / tarmac / snow conditions experienced before leaving the snow for good. (The TÜV test included 50 kilometres at 50 kph on dry tarmac. AutoSock passed this "Misuse test", but of course tarmac driving is not recommended as it increases fabric wear very considerably.)

Some Autosocks – http://www.autosock.co.uk/ – might be worth looking at.

I used mine for the first time in the Peak District yesterday. Came to a snow covered hill on the A515 (between Buxton & Ashbourne) that 2 HGVs and numerous cars couldn't get up.

Took five minutes to fit them (not bad in the snow/dark and trying it for the first time) and then easily sailed up the hill, even stopping & re-starting to avoid a Golf being pushed.

Big thumbs up for them. My Saab has 224/45/17 tyres and whilst I'd done reasonably well in the snow on them, I'd had a couple of hairy moments. The Autosocks made a huge difference in traction and control.

I've broke my femur in a car crash. Couldn't tell you how much it hurt at the time though – I don't remember a thing until I woke up the next day on a pre-theatre ward in hospital.

Not all is lost for Saab yet:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8423880.stm

I've got a 56 plate 150bhp 1.9TiD 9-3 with almost 70k on the clock. I've had two problems:

The alternator died and got replaced under warranty around 55k. At 62k the water pump died (so the cam-belt got changed as well). I was out of warranty on mileage but Saab UK paid 50% of the bill without me even asking.

Great mile-muncher and very comfy. Mine is a Vector Sport, so toys like the heated front seats make it lovely in the winter. Motoring press might not rate the handling up with a BM but I can punt mine down a B road at 60(ish) and enjoy the drive.

My local dealer has been fantastic, though now I'm out of warranty I'll be shopping around for work in the future.

Yup, so annoying when XXXXXXXXS has 95% off but anything approaching a normal size or fitment has only 5% off.

Does anyone make an A5 mapboard?

I do the Questars races with a mate – he's got a mapboard for the, erm, map but I'm after an A5 one for the CP list.

I know it's not the right area but if you fancied making a weekend of it, then I can recommend these places in Staveley (Lake District)

Cooking : Lucy Cooks – http://www.lucycooks.co.uk/
Bed / Food / Drink – Eagle & Child Inn : http://www.eaglechildinn.co.uk/

Lucy Cooks is in the same yard as Wheelbase, both walking distance from the Eagle & Child (always been excellent for me).

My girlfriend has been to Lucy Cooks twice now (with her Mum + Sister) and had two excellent days.

Interesting article in The Times this morning.

A study of strikes in the 1980s by economists from the London School of Economics found that the average increase in annual pay produced by strikes was only 0.3 per cent, while the average strike lasted 11 days. Each strike day, of course, costs the worker a day’s wages. The study concluded that the wage gain would have to be retained by individual employees for 30 years simply for them to break even. Not working, in other words, doesn’t work.

One Clywds and one Peaks ride.

http://www.lucyart.co.uk/ have done us proud a few times now if you want an alternative.

That's because the blurb is a copy & paste from Magura.com

http://www.magura.com/en/products/suspension-forks-2010/prod/thor-4.html

Quality 8)

My parents owned a 1.5 'Sud when I was a kid – even my Mum thought it was a great car. Shame the chassis rotted and it went to the scrapper.

Well, VAT should go up by at least 2.5% in January so there's that to factor in.

The best deals in the sale might mean having to sleep outside PC World / Dixons / Comet / etc to get one of the limited stock offers.

I had a WAG54G once and it went in the bin – terrible heap of junk.

IME…

Billion are almost as bad Linksys
Speedtouch aren't the most advanced feature wise but pretty reliable
Draytek Vigors are more expensive but should be good (eg the 2710n)
My folks have a Netgear DGN2000 which seems good though they've said they sometimes can't connect on the Wifi (which I've not looked at yet)

Major it's a combined MTB / underwater bog snorkelling outing?

Great for no-frills basics like base layers, socks and stuff. Apart from my fave' Smartwool merino top, almost all of my running gear is Decathlon (or Aldi!).

Voted best product by readers of magazine X.

Then in really small print it says it was the preferred choice of 62% of a survey of 87 readers

Have a look for a case designed for a compact camera.

I've got Hama cases from my local Asda for £3ish each that go nicely under the stem with a couple of Velcro strips/ties.