Thanks all for the advice. I guess my idea with having a chunk of cash to wave around a bit is that it might demonstrate an absolute commitment to buy as a hefty deposit (possibly two thirds of the asking price of the house). We are also aiming to buy something really off the beaten path that we probably wrongly thought would be harder to sell. Inconvenience in terms of where we live is not something we are worried about.

We are terrified at the prospect of such a big move from the east midlands to Scotland, particularly with a very shy 8 year old who has poor self confidence and the prospect of moving him to a very different primary school. But it’s come out of a result of adoring Scotland and never wanting to leave when we go there every year, a better quality of life for all of us and losing both of my parents at a relatively young age (67) within just 12 months of one another last year and them never really getting chance to do what they wanted to do before they died which in their case was a desire to move to Wales.

No doubt everyone has differing experiences but for me it took two attempts to come of my escitilopram (Same as Citilopram but apparently have a greater impact on anxiety). The first attempt was a disaster. I tapered too quickly and had the typical brain zaps and dizzy spells which was unpleasant but it was the seemingly endless crying over the most innocuous things that was the most upsetting for my family and I. I was constantly breaking down. Bizarrely I hadn’t initially linked the stopping of my tablets and the waves of uncontrollable emotion together but essentially taking the pills for nearly 7 years had dulled my emotional responses to things and when I stopped taking them I just had no means to cope with the sudden onset of emotion. I hadn’t given myself enough time to adjust.

second time around I went much more slowly. Had half a tablet every day for 6 weeks. Half a tablet every other day for 6 weeks. Half a tablet every two days for 4 weeks and so on until I could just stop without anything noticing. It’s worked. No side effects as such but I am more irritable and prone to getting upset more easily but that’s just part of my depression/anxiety in general without medication.

tapering as slowly as you can is key and understanding the adjustments as you go, and if you can get some help along the way from a loved one then all the better.

Thank you all. I can always rely on the minds of STW to help. Just saying/writing it makes a difference. It lifts the burden a little that it’s out there, in as eloquent a way as I can manage anyway. Reading someone else’s response to it helps more than you can imagine.

Thank you.

Thanks all for the thoughts and wise words. Plenty in there that I/we haven’t considered.

From a purely emotional standpoint the problem I have right now is I am in a very short-term frame of mind (life is short and all that) and looking beyond just the next couple of years is something I am emotionally struggling with. I think I could quite easily spend the next two years on family holidays, biking trips and more toys for the lad then he’d know what to do with. I certainly wouldn’t do that but I think given that’s where I am mentally it’s probably better to put the money to one side for a while and spend some time figuring it out properly.

A financial advisor is a good shout as it’s a world I know nothing about and could easily make the wrong decisions.

Thanks all for the feedback.I’ll take a look at the Decathlon kayaks. I’d not given them much thought as wrongly made the assumption they wouldn’t be all that much good.

They are only going to be used for pootling along rivers and canals with family so sounds like the Decathlon ones will be more than adequate.

Yes, made worse by being unable to see him in hospital or do much to help my mum as we don’t live close, trying to keep a business going, look after/school a 5 year old at home. It’s definitely taken its toll, but then I am far from being alone in this sort of situation.

Both my parents have it. My mum is now thankfully over the worst but has been very very unwell for 2 weeks. My dad, who is still in hospital is not expected to recover. He has parkinsons and has been in hospital for 16 days. He has stopped eating and drinking and now is unable to communicate. Yesterday we were contacted about the issue of resuscitation and that they didn’t believe it would be a worthwhile undertaking essentially. He is slowly shutting down.

We are all heartbroken, despite his parkinsons he was generally well and at 69 years old he had some good quality life ahead of him. The virus just hit him incredibly hard and he’s been unable to recover.

It’s been a pretty devastating virus within our family.

Yes, it is repayable out of future Universal Credit payments or future earnings when you start earning again. But I didn’t realise that this was part of the official help for the self employed – small interest free cash advances as part of the universal credit advance system.

It’s a little Toyota MR2 an 06 plate with very low mileage – under 50k. Looks great, drives great etc.

The 5 owners thing itself doesn’t bother me just the discrepency where it says it’s actually had only 2 registered keepers but then states that keeper number 5 regsitered it in 2014. The only other thing I could think of is that it was owned by a husband and wife and they swapped ownership? Or owned by a business?

other than that all the other info on the check is fine. MOT history, mileage history etc all fine. I was just perplexed rather than concerned.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. While the dog idea is nice we already have one and one is definitely enough!

The camping idea is great. I definitely think that my grandad would have wanted us to have some adventure as that is exactly the sort of personality he had. The only down side for me, less so for my lad, is i just don’t like campsite camping. Much prefer the idea of doing it properly but not sure how viable that really is.

Yeah, a boat is appealing. We have quite a large reservoir near by that do sailing training so plenty of people with advice locally too. It certainly would offer adventure for all of us.

Camping’s a good one, likewise some sort of boating could be nice.

We’re all biked up as much as I could quite happily find room for another…

Nothing. It will be in front of an existing fence line within our land. It wil have nothing to retain on any side.

Thanks everyone for the wise words. I guess it’s hard when you are bombarded with advice on the things you should be doing with your children. You constantly get the impression that if you aren’t doing XYZ you are failing, i do my level best to avoid parenting advice books, websites, social media etc but it still creeps in.

no doubt that feeling is the same for all parents but as has been said previously I find it very hard to pretend to be something i’m not for the sake of my son. And forcing myself into overtly social situations won’t do me any good and i guess in turn,  do my son any good.

Like so many say; parenting really is the toughest thing you can do.

.

Each and every epidode is wondefully unique. To be able to write in such a variety of styles and play with so many genres so brilliantly is pretty astounding.

And as if that wasn’t enough, to then pull off such brilliant performances…. Reece Shearsmith’s recent performance in ‘Bernie Clifton’s dressing room’ episode was so perfectly observed I had to watch it 3 times. Wonderful stuff.

Just about finished an old Enfield Bullet. It was a basket case when I bought it. It’s an almost complete cafe racer now. Very heavily modified – Lowered/extended and unfortunately due to occasional budget constraints a few Indian made Enfield parts on there. I’ll change them eventually.

Next i’d like to build a flat tracker. Not decided on what source bike to use yet though…

If you’ve read his email beyond “I bought this way a few bikes” and you’re still thinking “hmm, sounds plausible” then you deserve to have your bike stolen

And yet here I am with (real) cash in the bank and a happy buyer.

You live and learn, you live and learn.

Even if it’s legit, which it blatantly isn’t,

It was

you’re demonstrably dealing with a stone bonker.

I wasn’t

So, to update everyone in case anyone is interested in how this all panned out…

Couriers arrived in a van, two Polish chaps. Handed me the cash, a full printed reciept to confirm i had recieved the payment and that they had recieved the bike. They wrapped up the bike as they said they would in bubble wrap and packing card and off they went to deliver to the buyer in Poland. Buyer received the bike today, all happy, job done.

What happened is exactly as the buyer said would happen – he transferred the payment to them, they brought the cash and handed it over to me. The courier company just deliver large items (bikes, motorbikes, car parts) around europe mainly to and from the UK and Poland.

The easiest sale I’ve ever had.

So, to add further, a friend of mine sold a bike in a similar fashion. A polish chap living in Poland bought the bike and used the same method. He used this company to collect and pay for the bike – http://lublin-transport.pl

They arrived on the arranged collection date, handed over the cash and took the bike. My friend didn’t even have to box up the bike, the courier wrapped up the bike himself and took it away.

Maybe it was legit after all?

So what is the scam? I’ve opted out but i’m still confused about what the ‘well known scam’ actually is.

So apparently the bike is going to Germany. This is the message he just sent after I explained I was going to give it a miss –

I bought this way a few bikes. This is privat transportation company. I make them money transfer and the courier pay you cash on collection. This is the easiest methot to buy a bike from abroad. Courier will call you before and give you delivery note number. All you have to do is wrap a bike.

I got info that he can pick up the bike on Saturday. I can send you a car number and all needed details. Courier will call you before the collection.

There is no risk on your side becase you get the cash on hand. Also I am protected because courier will have all information about the bike and I know I get what I ordered.

Please let me know what is your decision because transportation company wants me to make the money transfer for this order.

Thats what I thought. He has a profile on PB that is a a few years old, has sold some items himself on PB in the past. He has activity on there. He did haggle a little on the price initially

It seems a lot of effort to go to to nick a bike.

I’m not sure if it’s an actual courier or not although he said he would need to organise it and would let me know the collection date.

They are public footpaths. Are you able to muster sympathy now?

The grain was just smouldering, couldn’t see any mini explosions as such. Unfortunately unlike most of the farmers here, he does seem a law unto himself and has little concern for anybody or anything but himself.

The biggest shame is that he treats the woodland by his field so poorly and has ruined the area for people who used to enjoy it.

I will do some research and find out where I should report him. I believe his farm comes under South Northants Council area so will find out.

The weeride looks excellent and as i’ve just realised typical rear mounted carriers won’t fit full sus or carbon the weeride is actually the only viable option as it should fit my old specialized camber.

Coupling that with a child’s nursery rhyme is the art of the advert.

What nursery rhyme?

and that “formula milk is just as good”
That’s nonsense and untrue. The bloke’s a fool.

Sort of a moot point in this discussion but actually it’s neither nonsense or untrue.

I enjoyed it but more for the fact it captures the essence of British skating – grey skies, drab colours and dirty concrete. Makes a change to the usual polished US vids.

OP any particular reason why you couldn’t let him pass?

Because he didn’t want to. He just had no comprehension that he was driving too close. Hence when we got to a set of traffic lights and asked if he could get any closer to my bumper he stated that he wasn’t close to my bumper.

When they do it to me, I simply want them away from me. I don’t want to do something that will potentially increase the risk of an accident further, the cargo is too precious for me to play games. So usually I will slow down to either just slow the speed of both of us down or to give them the opportunity to pass and piss off away from me.

As some have said, it’s the generally crap drivers who have no sense of the minucule amount of space they are giving themselves by just hugging your rear bumpre. They have no intention of passing nor are they driving aggressively they just actually think they are driving safely by being a few feet behind you at 50 or 60mph.

No, you weren’t being unreasonable. Passing slowly and widely is enough as far as i’m concerned, i’m not going to waste my time trying to circumnavigate the inner workings of horse psychology.

I only got something cheap. An Eastern Warlock with 21″ TT from CRC for 215 quid. Should have been 460.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/mobile/eastern-warlock-bmx-bike-2013/rp-prod84713

Yeah as above. Just delete the game, not the progress data and then reinstall it. It happens quite a bit unfortunately. Certainly happened to me a handful of times with GTA

What exactly is the moral difference between enjoying the killing and enjoying the product of the killing?

Are you for real?

You can’t see the difference? Is there really no nuance in this issue for you? It’s just black and white?

I’ve accidentally created a really great thread. Some amazing stuff in here, some amazing photos there Euro, keep em coming.

Binners – i’ll drop you a mail.

I’ve seen a few bits and pieces of your stuff on here Binners but I hadn’t realised you did it for a living.

Really like the Downhill print. Do you sell prints of these?

Thanks all. Some great stuff to get started with there. Fantastic stuff – nostalgia overload.

binners – any examples of some of you work – current or from ‘back in the day’?

Doesn’t sound all that impressive, given its price point.

http://www.wired.com/2015/07/new-gopro/

Prefer the look of the TomTom myself.

TomTom Bandit Action Camera – Review