I wanted to jump in on this. First a bit of background – I’m a medical writer and one of the areas I cover is oncology, including renal cell carcinoma. I’m not going to offer comment on the effectiveness of sorafenib as I haven’t seen much detailed data on it (only in the context of it vs my clients agent’s data).

What I recently picked up was interesting – I was covering a meeting where a quite well known (in these circles) speaker was giving a keynote lecture on maximising outcomes in treatment of mRCC through good management.

One of her take home messages was that some of the side effects can be effectively managed by prophylaxis and proper care, and doing so can extend the time and dose of treatment, thus possibly improving outcome. So for sorafenib, things like diarrhea can be managed (she recommended either loperamide and or 2 grated apples (she has found the pectin helps bind it all together); similarly hand foot syndrome (which is a skin reaction) can be managed by a pedicure before treatment and then use of creams and soft insoles. She should maybe discuss things like this with the clinicians running the trial as it might increase chances of remaining on the trial for longer if she does go ahead. Good luck to her!

hasbean doesnt I believe, heres why:
http://faq.hasbean.co.uk/questions/13/Fair+Trade+for+who%3F+A+counter+view+to+the+Fair+Trade+Debate+

interesting as a flip side of the fairtrade coin which made me think about fairtrade a sa whole

hasbean… on about my 4th sub now… good mix and great for trying stuff. like their espresso blends too.

also quite like waitrose’s expresso beans for generall run of the mill stuff…

silvia.. you wont regret the extra spend. hasbean are about the most reliable supplier in the UK

get a decent hand grinder – they do one for about 35 quid that will grind finely enough for espresso

hora – the cubika (fisrt machine, bought on ebay) was replaced with a saeco via venizzia – they were like chalk and cheese and I was pretty happy for 18 months with the saeco (once I’d doctored the portafilter to remove the pressurisation on it) – you could pull a decent shot of coffee through it. 9 months of hard use whilst I was off work saw it die a noble death.

the rancillio – well thats a whole different league in comparisson (but should be at about £200 more) – very very pleased with it. it has been pretty easy to pull satisfactory shots thorough it so far, even usung non descript espresso beans from waitrose. I’m going to order something from hasbean or borrow some from the deli down the road who roasts his own to see what it is like with other beans. Main issues were getting the grind right from my isomac and havent had much success with creating microfoam yet (but I tend to drink black anyway so not too bothered)…. build is solid, buttons have a great clunk to them that I like.

if you were to buy…I’d recommend the guys at hasbean…ordered and was dispatched within the hour, with me 9am next day… have heard bad things about places like coffeeitalia etc (but never used them myself)

Mix of calvin klien, boden and viyella, oh and a bhs special in there (which is probably my favourite) – all bought in tk maxx or local dept store sale. tried a hammett one and it must have been made for a really skinny bloke with a thick neck

I was looking recently and saw refurbed classic for £175 – google refurbished gaggia classic (think it was whoever ‘deals’/services gaggia in the uk now) – didnt look further as went for a rancillio in the end (I loathed my cubika that I had for my 1st machine and I was too afraid that I’d also hate the classic to shell out for it when I know I really wanted the silvia)

my 3.5 yr old has the vtech – pap as a camera, but suitable for a kid of that age – drop proof, waterproof and jumping on proof. images are passable and its great fun to sit and load them up onto the tv and view them – so dont discount it if they are about the same age. i took him to meet a group of wedding photogrpahers i know and network with and he took it along and they loved it – if it suits him and he gets fun out of it and doesnt break it in 5 minutes it is 50 quid well spent imho – when he grows out of it and is a bit older he can have something more grown up (I suspect he’ll be getting the d70 slr I’ve got gathering dust in the cupboard – he’s already got an interest in my work dslr)

there used to be a place in Owermoigne – guy called Jimmy used to run it, attached to his nursery – no idea if its still open (or if he is still alive/running it) (nowt else there – no shop or pub – petrol station sells food i seem to remember). otherwise stuff out Crossways way

all the above pretty good…
museum in Dorchester used to be pretty good (good roman stuff I remember as a kid) – also trek up to maiden castle – bleak and windy, but let the kids run round pretending to be romans/celts/whatever….

trip up to Yeovilton Air Museum was always good….

Weymouth beach – great for kids, but crowded. Try Ringstead bay (pebble, not sand).

Durdle Door, Lulworth Cove are must do’s

whip over to Beaminster to the wild garlic, Dorchester also has a Michelin Starred restaurant (never been); Fox at Ansty is a great pub as is Saxon Arms out on the Yeovil Rd…food good and kid friendly.

wood green = certain death…. personally I wouldnt do it – used to cycle through there a couple of times a week as well as go to cinema there as I lived in Palmers green. not a comfortable place after dark tbh, but not as bad as some.

enfield – much better, – I have to say that, as I live there. stay west of the a10, ideally close to enfield chase stn/ the ridgeway rather than down near enfield town (its the nicer bit). message me if oyu want some detailed area advice on what a particular road is like. Pubs are a bit pants – the stag is ok, wheatsheaf used to be a good old man pub but has gone downhill. its got to be good, its now got 2 waitroses in 5 mins walk of each other – new one is 70 steps from my front door which is great! riding is as other say not scintillating but you are out in the green in about 10 minutes. epping ok. go further out for round st albans way, some ok bridleways linked up by roads nr radlett/london colney/hatfield.

i think coincidence too. have used with ours with no problems like this – sounds like teething/colic/age (you can buy some little sachets of powder – Aston and Parsons from memory for teething – works a treat) – might be excessively acidic saliva getting onto the skin causing the eczema if she is teething?

Out of interest, what soap are you using to bathe – we ahve found oursons skin flares up if we sue baby soap, especially the boots own baby wash – he is much better on the sanex shower creme we use or oilatum. worth considering the likely cause of the rash, as treating it with steroids will only abate the symptoms, but not treat the cause (also might see a lessening of efficacy over prolonged treatment time due to receptor desenitization)

shooting a wedding there next month, and this just confimrs that I am very much looking forward to it

it also confirms, I need to pull my finger out and sort some accommodation. Any recommendations for cheapish and nice b&b?

a female friend from Uni used to sell ‘dirty’ undies and do chat lines…which was quite bizarre as she had a first and was doing a PhD – she’s now a very successful academic in her field.

did a photoshoot last year with a certain young lady who was on a BBC3 prog recently, who to quote their website ‘relies on cash gifts from men to keep her lavish lifestyle’…

joist, screw in, bobs your uncle
I wish you better luck than when we hung our fitting – weighs 25kg and took 3 people to hang it – 2 to hold and one to screw in….not a particularly fun ten minutes

cheers folks – a good mixture of opinions and food for thought. At the end of the day, I agree that doing the interview for experience is a good thing, however this could backfire in terms of it being quite apparent I am not interested in the job (think trainspotting, only slightly more responsible!) The job at the end of the day isn’t what I want to do,its a stopgap to earn money which combined with the commuting would seriously impinge on what I want – would be left with no time to develop my photog business further – it also doesn’t take me any closer to what I would like to be doing if I was using my job experience/PHD etc – I would be better spending the 1/2 day that the interview would take applying for thr 5 other posts that I have found that fill my belly with fire.

just bought the other half a san fransisco from orange – rooted it and installed a new os so it got rid of ll the orange guff – love it – going to switch away from my ifruit asap to an android and this model despuite being basic is seriously tempting- not only is it smooth and quick, its a nicer os to use and i like the form factor alot (small, slim etc)

pretty much as above (I just took redundancy as my fixed term funding had run out, and although another research position was offered, I had had enough after 7 years) – you essentially become permanent after a fixed amount of time, however, they tend to view you as tenured. Best advice is speak to your union rep – it will likely be UCU and they have a handbook guide, explaining everything. FWI worth redundancy worked out about 3 weeks pay for every year I was there.

long slender legs — equivalent to walking round on your fingers ==> it is i thnk to do with nature of the break and the economies of it – a race horse, whilst a valuable asset isnt likely to race again, so less liklely to get fixed up (unless it is a valuable stud animal). I have seen plenty of animals in casts but only for minor breaks – and operating on a horse soon mounts up in terms of fees – its really easy to run up 4-5k bills without even getting anywhere.

seen plenty of horses euthanized – depends where, usually a bolt but have seen a rifle used – one thing is for sure they dont half kick!!
(I’ve run anatomy classes for vet students as well as been to abbatoirs to collect clinical material for vetinary research – thankfully dont do that anymore – redundancy and an allergy to the old nags!)

paper round
greengrocers – started a typical saturday unloading 3 tons of potatoes and 2 tonnes of assorted fruit and veg from the lorry. all for a princely £1.20 an hour (this was about 1990) plus a fish and chip lunch and all the fruit you could eat whilst at work. the saturday girl I worked with was also quite, shall we say, dirty and used to have some fun with her in the store room – great times!

petrol station – dull, but used to skim off the fuel vouchers and ordered loads of stuff from the bp catalogue of the day. occasionally got to drive the odd nice audi/vw for the car dealers next door.

Lifer – that sounds like my octavia – I am going to give that a go and see if it improves things

we had a good experience – made some good friends, and our kids are good friends too. Some good advice – far better than the local hospital classes we attended (which were full of teenage mums and chavvy couples). We did the 2 day course, rather than the strung out over a number of weeks, which softened the blow time wise. Oh (and aimed at the comment above about breastfeeding nazi’s) – wasn’t pushed at all (in fact I seem to remember the woman said she wasn’t allowed to push either) – encouraged to do what was right for us, which is a total contrast to the NHS and community midwife who tried to shackle my SO with guilt when our son wouldn’t take to the bitty and started to loose weight -no help or advice from them – not that we needed it as we had already worked out he needed supplementing – just narrow minded comments about the ‘benefits’ of breast milk and how we were wrong to be using powdered milk – lets just say she soon felt the benefit of my sharp tongue and medical knowledge.

I owuld say to the OP, go for it – your SO will get a good support network for mat leave, there will be the odd bit of dad bonding (although out of all the dads I only still speak to one) and you will get some good advice.

1tb wd drives about £45 in PC wold

I have just picked up an icy box e-SATA case (about £25) and a 2TB samsung drive (these I like) for £77 – much better than USB2, but obviously need eSATA connector installed on machine – they were from Amazon btw

cant wait…

highlight of my christmas was watching this with my 2 year old and him saying ‘bloody hell, that horse is galloping fast…’

0/10 for swearing, but 10/10 for good contextual use of swear words… so proud!

she’ll be fine. you’ll feel guilty for a while (I still do, especially when my nearly 3 year old comes home and says ‘daddy, I had a lovely day, but I missed you!’)

10 months is a good age as it is about the time that separation anxiety develops – we found it really helped with our boy (sent at 8 months) – had no such issues compared to folk we know.

also, I see it as the start of ‘informal’ education – socialization with other kids, learning through play etc etc – our boy has thrived at his nursery (but I do think we have been lucky with the nursery). On the other hand a friend who’s boy was born at the same time as mine (literally in the next room in the hospital) has had reall problems with rubbish nannies and getting him to settle in nursery now he is older….

my son has a particularily nasty norovirus at the moment, but managed to bake some gingerbread men this afternoon in between puking and t’other. I dont really fancy eating them, but would happily send a few up for her to eat as a special treat!

I have the joy of a MIL and a step MIL – ones posh (MIL) and pretty ok, but the other is a chav and gets right on my bazoomas – rest of the family think shes funny and cant understand why I despise her so much…

Personally, I would get rid, asap for yours and the Missus sake and sanity

ooooooooooooooooooooooo – I was big on that when I was younger – had completely forgotten about it though

the yonugo flashes are pretty ok for the money (canon flash clone, without alo of the fancy electronics).
otherwise something like a vivtar 285HV – with older flashes, watch youre trigger voltages.

I owuld suggest a cheap set of triggers – the cactus ones are ok, or the rf602s are good too. a read of the strobist lighting 101 too to get some basics.

recommend cotswold photo on ebay – Trevor is a top bloke and really helpful

+1 Hasbean – particularily enjoying their Kicker espresso- some wicked citrus flavours in their and it keeps making me go wow after every cup – supposed to be a difficult one to get right, but I’m definately no expert and I seem to have hit it well.

If your not keen on espresso per se, learn to froth some milk for a flat white, or just make an americano using your espresso shots.

aged 4 I decided I was going to help my old man wash his hillman imp (its was the 70’s ok) – my choice of cloth, a piece of sandpaper he had left lying around… scratches over most ofone side of the car and bare metal on part of the door before I got found out…

I think a telling off, but no serious punishment – 2 is almost too young (unless pretty mature for their age) – mine is only just learnign what consequences are, and 4 is also pushing it. There’ll be plenty of time for really bollocking them later on when they are older!

i was given a gift of the 3 month sub from them back in June – bag a week, inc shipping for £55. Excellent coffee – great variety of types included from their run of the mill stuff (about £4 a bag) up to 2 or 3 bags of the £6-7 quid more exotic varietals. Imho excellent value for money – especially as I am now only coming to the end of the last bag, despite it being a 12 week sub – I struggled to keep up with drinking a bag a week over the summer…

Liked it so much that I have asked for another sub for Xmas (oh and ordered 4 at random to keep me going until then). Recommend it.

Dr doc_blues, Immunopharmacology…actually thinking about it is was Neuroimmunopharmacology but that sounds a bit gash tbh

user name is related to the ‘doctoroal’ and ‘postdoctoral’ blues you get when you have been in research too long…

@Big Dave – ‘Whay aren’t they busy studying? If they want a degree and good career options they won’t get there by causing criminal damage. Stupid feckers who obviously have too much time on their hands.’

Because its Wednesday afternoon, and there is a tradition at Universities to use this time for sports etc… so they are hardly skiving off and obviously baiting policemen and fat tories is this afternoon’s sport of choice.

at least one of those ‘bears’ is my brother and his big daddy bear – big hairy tummies and atticus baseball cap about 5 mins in (sad aren’t I!)

Is the FX66 the successor to the FX33?
not sure – it seems pretty good for what it is – no manual though or flash hot shoe which puts me off (got a G9 for a compact) – however, my gf did get hers in pink to make sure I dont nick it!

@big n daft – you have a fair point, however, I think you find that most photographers ‘price’ the job with the idea they will get to use images they own copyright for for promotional work (ie their portfolio). I know a few that have on the odd occasion been restricted on this have re-priced at a significantly higher rate due to the inability to show the work to potential future clients – remember its the images that will attract future clients through the door. How many of the graphic designy types on here use work they have done for clients in portfolios? A fair few I would guess (I may be wrong, and realise it would depend on contract).

Another way of looking at it sis this. I’m a photographer. I need a portfolio. So I hire a model or 2, stage a ‘wedding’ and stick that up on a website. You and your missus come along, like my ‘work’ (unknowing that I am being disingenuous with it and it was all staged) and book me for your big fairytale wedding. Things go tits up and I produce poor images because I cant cope with the pressure of a fast moving dynamic event (but can manage a slow moving photo shoot style setup). How would you feel? (I know how you would feel) So you could say that photographers having clients images in their portfolios and using them to promote themselves is a good thing – it gives you a feeling for their work etc etc.

Oh and there are plenty of ways to get model images for free – there is such a thing as TF (time for) – where you basically swap services to be able to use stuff for portfolio/promotion (non commercial) with models and MUAs

lumix fx66 – john lewis will price match and ‘tother half and her mother both bought them for about £149 because of this (cant remember who was selling them for that in the first place – but amazon have them on at £203 to £250 depending in colour. pretty good image quality and HD video I believe – and is tiny – good for snapping etc)

+1 for owning copyright, but I am guessing it comes down to his individual contract etc as to whether there is a model release etc in it.
For the stuff I shoot (weddings, families, kids) I generally specify that I wont use the images other than for promotional purposes ie for my website/portfolio – I always talk my clients through this and make sure they understand that and that I am not going to go sell the images to a stock company etc etc. I also ask them if they are comfortable with this and always give them the option to veto at that point and before I use images (say on my blog etc) – I dont have to, but I think its fair and courteous to do so. Clients like it – they have said so – in fact one client who wasn’t too keen on it was more than happy to allow me to use a picture of their newborn online for promo stuff – all because I took the time to explain it to him.

Model stuff – usually do it for TF (so promo/port only) or specify it might be used for stock etc (different contract).

If you have doubts, why not ask the photographer to put your mind at rest. Their response should either allay any fears (and show you how professional they are in terms of customer service) or put you off even more.

I used remember the milk for a while, which syncs in with google calender from my iphone and has a web based interface. It does cost £ – about £25 a year, but have found it invaluable…

however, my personal favourite is currently a moleskiene and physically writing out my to do list…just seems to work betrter for me than an electronic versions of doing things

Infacol or gripe water (which is less sugary). Indeed does sound like colic/wind. It’ll pass… mine ( 2yrs) sat on my knee this morning, told me he was going to ‘toot’ and let rip with the most disgusting stench before running off laughing