Hi,
I don't live in Düsseldorf, and I've only been there once, but I've been living in Köln for five months, and it's an ace city. When I was in Düss for a job interview (which I didn't get) the guy interviewing me said that he and a lot of his colleagues lived in Köln and commuted. It's 20 odd mins on the train. What I do know about Düsseldorf is that it's supposed to be the most expensive place in Germany to live (followed closely by Köln), it's a prettier town than here (because it has more pre-war architecture) and it has a lot of culture, art, fashion etc.

It depends where you live at the moment, I moved from Manchester and as far as city-living goes it's so much more exciting over here, but if you've been living in London then it will probably just seem smaller.

That looks ace. Did you get it all from the classifieds? How much?

While I don't think you necessarily have to start on a hardtail to have fun, or gain skills, you will certainly get a better bike for the kind of money you're talking about spending. If you buy a used full suspension bike you might soon have to service the shock, which might cost £100, or replace bearings, bushings, pivots, all of which costs money and time off your bike. With a hardtail not only are you avoiding this, but you're also spending your money on fewer components, so you'll probably get a better fork, brakes etc.

Even his trainers are shady

Our beloved hound died in March. Her demise between Sept/March was the only time she incurred any significant vets' bills, all told, probably no more expensive than insurance would have been. Some breeds have inherent health problems, mongrels tend not to. We normally fed her dry food and offal from the butchers, which was probably about 5 quid a week. We never kennelled her, used to leave her with family when we were away.

They don't cost a lot compared to what they give you back.

On a side note, I recently met a couple who work for the Dogs' Trust (formerly canine defence league) and they recommended feeding dogs raw chicken wings, as raw meat is better for them to digest apparently.

My gf bought me an introductory lesson for my birthday a couple of years ago (presumably she hadn't seen the price of the kit) which was the first day of a basic "club pilot" course or something like that. I personally didn't find it at all easy to get the hang of, which frustrated me as normally I pick things up pretty quickly, and I effectively spent a day unravelling a big ball of tangled string.

You need to give it a lot of time, effort and money before you can just go out flying.

BTW if you're near the peaks/central England, have a look at http://www.d-f-c.co.uk

It's a fairly low clock speed for a modern laptop. I bought a cheapo dell laptop 3 years ago and that had a 1.7GHz processor in (not dual core though). Windows 7 is supposed to be better (comparively I guess) on resources than previous versions but I installed it on a desktop with a 2GHz Athlon (again, not dual core) and 2GB RAM and it was pretty terrible.

I know it's 27, but sub to singletrack? The gift that keeps on giving.

Yet another dick Professor? Have you never heard of A.C. Grayling?

[edit]

sorry, I'm not sure what your title refers to. Happy about Denham's faith groups plan or happy about Grayling's response to it?

I got a Nalgene bladder in a Dakine pack that I bought. It has a "clever" quick release coupling on the hose which, because of the design, is always put under stress when sliding the full bladder into the bag. Consequently it is forever pissing water down the small of my back, resulting in me finishing many a ride wet and thirsty. Avoid.

All my nephews went to Scarcroft school in York. As primary schools go, that is something to behold. Don't know whether it's been refurbished…

My primary school in Ripon was redeveloped a couple of years ago into houses. Frankly though the buildings weren't suitable to be a school in this day and age, and nostalgia for the architecture isn't much help to the people who have to learn/work there.

On the other hand it didn't make very good houses.

Which company is it, or at least, is it a big company? For a small company it could be very costly to recruit the wrong person, then again you'd be more likely to be interviewed by a senior decision-maker to begin with. I'm guessing since they have a HR dept and so many people interviewing you they're a big company.

I don't think they are trying to steal your ideas – considering how much time they must have put into organising this, it would doubtless be cheaper for them to get their staff to do it.

My LBS was very good, and on most of the big stuff I bought (never bikes, but decent spec forks, brakes, wheels) they gave me a very good price. It compared well to what I would have paid at CRC for exactly the same thing (model/year). When I bought some Boxxers they chucked in a brake mount, little things like that add up too. And they would do spannering stuff that I couldn't manage (BBs stuck in frames etc) for a packet of biscuits, which was very helpful.

I've been going in there for 4 years. I think if you develop a relationship with a shop they are more likely to do you favours.

If you google Reddish Vale mtb you might be able to find something. I've never been there but I used to know a guy who went on about it all the time, and at one point was trying to get it turned into a bike park!

Many/most TVs can't display as high a resolution as a typical laptop. It sounds like your laptop has reset its resolution to match the TV. Turning it on and off, or switching the display using function+F8 (or whatever) won't make any difference, you'll need to change the res (right-click on desktop and choose options/display settings depending on your OS) and set the screen resolution to the maximum.

recumbent

If it's Vista (which it sounds like) open control panel, type UAC into the search field. It should come up with something that says "turn user account control off".

Decent chair, desk the correct height, elevate the screen so she's looking straight at it, and use a (normal) keyboard and mouse positioned so her wrists are straight. All commonsense things that I ignored for years, to my own cost (bad back after years of all day laptop use on sofa/kitchen table).

So if I go up to someone and snap their bracelet, it means I have to have sex with them (depending on colour). It sounds a lot easier that when I was a kid. No acting aloof /playing guitar/cider.

You've got me bang to rights there. I used to cycle in when I worked in town long term, took 35 mins in, far, far better than driving or train. For the past few years I've worked mainly from home, though, and tried whenever I could to get the train rather than driving for meetings etc, but it was just such a pain, For a 1 hour meeting it could take 4 hours+. It was my girlfriend who suffered really though, she was writing up her PhD last year and would phone me at least once a week virtually in tears, having finished work at 7 and knowing when she got home she'd have to spend all night writing, to tell me the train was cancelled and she'd have to wait in Victoria for an hour. I could drive to pick her up but that would take almost as long, and by the time the train's due from Vic, you've missed the Picc-Stalybridge one.

I saw greenfield station revamp, and stalybridge which now sports a huge glass and sandstone prosthetic ticket office! The station is still the same though. What's the point? It really makes my blood boil.

I live in Cologne, Germany now though. The trains/trams are excellent. I haven't been mountain biking in 4 months though 🙁

I want to walk into the train station and get on a train within a few minutes. I don't give a sh*t if the roof leaks. It's perverse that people even think about spending money on stations when the train service (remember, that's the reason why we have stations) is so abominable. Yes, it would definitely be preferable to while away the hour+ between cancelled Northern Rail services to Huddersfield in a less horrible environment, but that's not really the point.

I used to get questionnaired occasionally, while waiting at Man Victoria, as to how much extra I would pay on my ticket for x station improvement – "nice shops", "more seating". NOTHING! FFS it wouldn't matter what the f*****g station looked like if the f*****g trains were on time. How much extra would I be prepared to pay for a service that approached competent? How much extra, cheeky b*stards.

Course you can get a transporter….

http://www.brick-yard.co.uk/forum/tristar-syncro-rhd-for-sale-again_topic46095.html

http://www.brick-yard.co.uk/forum/j-plate-t4-25i-petrol-velle-for-sale_topic45926.html

http://www.brick-yard.co.uk/forum/t3-camper-16td_topic45777.html

http://www.brick-yard.co.uk/forum/t3-camper-16td_topic45777.html

http://www.volkszone.com/VZi/showthread.php?t=597112

My favourite descent was the track from Slatepit moor between Swineshaws res and Mossley. Sorry, it's cheeky. I used to ride it every day and I knew it so well I could bomb down ot full throttle, my arms were shaking when I got to the bottom. The last time I got to ride it before I moved to Germany this year, I got stopped by a farmer and bollocked. It really felt like the end of an era.

I've lived in Huddersfield, in Mount (inside the M62 from Outlane), Crossland Moor and Moldgreen. I also looked at buying a house in Linthwaite, Slaithwaite or Marsden (but ended up buying on other side of hills). I haven't lived in Hudds for 10 years, though I visit fairly often, so the following may be a bit out of date.

I haven't lived there but I reckon the nicest place to live is probably next to Greenhead park, lots of big old townhouses to choose from, park, town and railway station on the doorstep. The majority of Huddersfield's urban culture is ale-based. It does have an art gallery and theatre, but I don't know how long that would hold your brother's interest for. There is one Multiplex cinema near the football stadium, as far as I know. There is possibly more of a cultural scene (theatre, galleries etc) in Holmfirth or Hebden Bridge.

It's not comparable to Leeds or Manchester, where I've also lived for many years.

You are supposed to claim the import duty (that you have already paid) back from HMRC when you send the item back to it's point of origin, then pay it again on importing the new item. If it went back for a repair, then you don't have to pay.

I know the above from experience of sending a flooded camera/underwater housing back to a company in the states. I tried to protest at paying import duty again on the replacement item and was told it was too late.

I was there 10 years ago backpacking, and it was pretty wild-west but we didn’t have any real trouble. I think it’s a fair bit more dangerous now.

I would go if I was on my own, but I woulddn’t like to be responsible for taking a woman there. Is it actually Johannesburg? Where abouts?

My friend’s sister works there, and from what I hear they live in a compound. Which is fine for security, but then if you want to get out and see the place you have to step outside that security.

That’s how I feel, there are probably people with more recent experience who feel that it’s perfectly safe and that the danger is all media hype.

“Surely it’d be because more water = more venom production in the leaves”

Conversely since the sting is an acid, more water might mean more diluted and less potent acid. I’m not a plant scientist or anything.

My comment above is based on my experience, which is not the potency of the sting, but that I only get stung when it’s wet.

Another theory – maybe if your leg hair is wet and flat on your skin, the hair will offer less protection….

When it rains they bend over with the weight of the water, and the previously upright nettles that you just cycled past are now sticking out into the trail.

I would say you’d have to be pretty fit to enjoy riding something like an alpine 160 all day.

If I were you I’d get a decent cheapish hartail with a 130mm – 150mm fork, maybe with lockout. If you’re unfit it will be a lot more of a pleasure to challenge yourself on climbs, whereas with a big bouncer you’ll be sitting there slowly spinning.

roadcyclinguk.com

If you have a full sus frame with pivots anywhere near the BB then check with the manufacturers what they recommend, because some devices may not fit. Stinger should be OK, but anything with a boomerang might interfere with the pivot.

THat laptop mudpup has linked to looks handy. A 256MB dedicated graphics card at that price is great.

If you could live without an optical drive I’d go for one of the 12″ dell minis. Think you can get them with just Linux. You could get an external DVD drive but that would be a pain.

The problem with cheap laptops IME is that integrated graphics cards can hog system memory and make the machine underperform. My last cheap laptop was 350, and with 2GB ram and a 1.7 pentium was rubbish at playing back video, and even MP3s on local discs.

You don’t need a phone if you don’t want, you can just use the speakers and mic (if you have one) on your laptop. Otherwise get a webcam with a mic integrated, you can get them a couple of quid now from somewhere like maplin or micro direct.

To begin with you’ll either have to do PADI Open Water, BSAC Club Diver/Ocean Diver or the equivalent SSI/CMAS level.

The way it works with PADI is thus (I am not debating the merits of either system):

Open water diver, requires small amount of pool work, 5 confined water dives and 5 open water (I think) and some class work. Qualifies you to dive with another qualified diver to max 18M.

Advanced Open Water, requires 5 dives, qualifies you to dive to the max depth attained on the course, usually (and to a maximum of) 30M.

BSAC/CMAS etc are usually done on a club basis, you’ll have to attend regular pool sessions then open water sessions.

BSAC takes longer but may give you better skills. There’s certainly more of an emphasis on skills. PADI is much quicker and some say less thorough. Personally I think it depends on the diver, I’m a PADI diver but I’m very cautious and would never do anything stupid or beyond my capabilities.

It’s good fun, even in this country sometimes.

When you say “element”, do you mean the metal bit on the outside of the fridge?

Yep, other side from Shere Khan, between Shere Khan and the garage there are maybe 3 that I’ve been in where the food’s been very good. Not much help!! I’m sure Al Bilal was one of them.