Saying it’s easier to find a job when you’re in a job might be true, but if it’s a completely unrelated, poor-quality job it can reflect badly on you to some employers. In my industry who or what companies you’ve got on your CV is pretty important to a lot of the decent employers – there’s a degree of snobbishness involved which I hate but unfortunately it’s how it is.

I still think he’d be better off doing some work experience or temping in a few different businesses to work out where his interest lies, then really targeting that sector.

What does he actually want to do? Presumably he didn’t undertake a politics degree with the ambition of becoming a car hire manager…does he want to get into logistics/HR/sales/marketing/something else? If he’s still living at home and both of you can tolerate it for a little bit longer this could be a good opportunity for him to do some unpaid work experience to try and work out what he enjoys and what he wants to do longer term. The experience could also land him a job in a preferred field.
If he moves away, gets a shitty job he doesn’t enjoy and is financially ‘stuck’ somewhere it’ll be a lot harder for him to work out his next step. He’s got a decent degree from a decent uni – £17.5k for stupid hours and what sounds like a crap employer is not a good step. Unless you’re about to kick him out he should try not to panic and keep looking/do the unpaid option.

Whatever looks interesting and is on offer. Unfortunately at the moment I’m stuck with a bottle of Gordons but the last one was Brecon Gin from the Penderyn distillery – that was good. I’ve found Fever Tree tonic makes a much nicer drink than Schweppes.

Camelbak Mule? It’s not women-specific but it’s narrow, and big enough to fit in a jacket/other layers.

Good read, thanks. Did you climb up the hill out of Sidmouth to the Observatory? (I can’t zoom in on the Strava map for some reason.)

A party every 5-6 weeks doesn’t really sound that excessive, especially if it’s on a weekend (assuming you don’t work shifts etc).

Maybe they don’t realise how easily the sound travels through your party wall – invite them in to listen next time it happens. And as above, ask them to let you know in advance so you can plan around it.

…if you can’t afford to keep a lady

This is ridiculous. As others have said – run away. It’s not some expensive horse you’re taking on here, it’s meant to be a relationship!

SketchUp is limited in functionality and sophistication but useful for quick modelling / massing exercises.

It depends what your apprentices are going to be doing longer term, but I can’t see the point in training them to use any modelling software that isn’t BIM if they’re going to be doing the architectural/building modelling. Look at Revit or Aecosim.

You people going down to less gears, all this 1×10 business…what do you do when you get to a really steep hill to climb or a really smooth flat bit where you want to go fast? Is it just a case of being super-fit and using hard gears everywhere?
I’m still running 3×10 and while I don’t use granny cog too often, on occasion I’d have to get off and push if it wasn’t available.

Just ordered some of the TK Maxx Teva Links. 🙂

Could you look at moving to a different practice/company where you’d be working on a different type/scale of project, using different software etc? In my experience the two ends of architecture are like different industries (comparing small rural practice to multinational commercial sector). Maybe there’s potential to change jobs for the better without doing something completely different, at least to try it out for a bit. I wouldn’t write off the IT manager skills either – even without a formal qualification that’s something a lot of smaller/medium size practices need help with.

If they’ve got permission you’re too late. Unless there was some anomaly and the school wasn’t consulted – as a direct neighbour I would expect them to have received a letter – in which case you could attempt to complain.

Check the conditions attached to the planning permission – it’s likely the applicant will have to provide a travel plan specifying vehicle movements during and after construction, including banksmen and timing of deliveries etc as considered appropriate by highways/planners. Highways will have considered the proximity of the development entrance to the school’s entrance and it must have been acceptable in terms of visibility and anticipated vehicle movements. In addition, there are probably restrictions to the overlooking of the school playground/classroom windows (e.g. the houses probably won’t have ‘habitable’ rooms overlooking).

The first step (after a thorough read of the decision notice and conditions) would be to contact the case officer and have a friendly chat – there’s probably nothing they can do at this stage but if there is they will appreciate a constructive approach. The case officer name will be on the decision notice – download it and all the drawings from the local authority’s website.

Contactless doesn’t have to be Mastercard, it’s any card with the contactless symbol.

Get the Emirates cable car! You can pay using Oyster/contactless and it’s awesome. We went at dusk this last weekend as the nearly-in-laws were visiting and were very pleasantly surprised.

A modular sedum roof might be an option if you need to keep the weight down (loads of companies out there so I won’t post a link).

An architect could do it (and it doesn’t sound too small a job) but if you’re making structural changes you’re going to also need an engineer at some point to provide calcs for building regs. You may also need planning permission depending on the extent of the work/your location etc.

Overshoes? I’ve got my street cred to consider, Jamie. 8)

Not sure I would trust that shoe dryer not to incinerate my shoes (and the rest of the house) while I sleep.

2011 Core 50, fairly sure it’s tapered.
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/genesis/core-50-2011-mountain-bike-ec024743#features

Shame that Latitude frame has a straight headtube or I’d have had it to swap it for my Core frame…would have to get new forks though as the Core is tapered. :/

Normally avoid Evans too but had the reverse experience in Plymouth a few weeks ago. Went into the large independent in the city centre, urgently needing a few bits. They didn’t have them and basically said, with a slight attitude, that they were focusing on the online operation now so didn’t worry about keeping stuff in stock in the shop. So we went down to the new-ish Evans and found a remarkably helpful friendly chap (saw him marshalling the charity ride the next day) and were able to get all the stuff required.

We got a ‘smart’ tv and typically watch something off iplayer or 4od than use the virgin media box, so I’d say yes. Will probably get rid of the tv part of the deal next time it needs renewing.

I’m 5’7 (with longish legs, rather than a longish back) and ride a 17.5″ hardtail, but I suppose this bike has completely different geometry as a sit-up shopper type, so essentially I’ve no idea. You’re welcome.

If you can make it a bit further on the Sunday, then camping on the edge of the moor around South Brent would probably be nicer than Cann Woods (didn’t recognise the name but it’s where I was talking about riding from up to Clearbrook and so on).

Hydrocortisone cream if antihistamine cream doesn’t work fast enough.

Assuming you’re cycling…
You could head up to Dartmoor – cycle through the city to Plymbridge Woods then head up to Clearbrook, then vaguely in the direction of Burrator reservoir – you should be able to find some quiet sheltered spots around there.
Or, if you fancy some sea air, you might be able to camp on the beach near-ish Wembury (to the west of the main beach) or Mothecombe, but you will have to be a bit a smart with timing to avoid people (especially at Mothecombe, where there is an old chap who sometimes patrols the beach – technically a private beach with public access a few days a week, but there’s a public road down to it and the coast path runs past). Both beaches have a bit of sand even at high tide, unlike if you head over the Torpoint ferry and go around Rame Head / Whitsand Bay. The A379 into the South Hams is a nasty busy road though, so watch out if you do go that way. You could try and camp along the coast path in either direction but you might struggle to find anywhere secluded and sheltered enough.

You could also get the Cremyll foot ferry from Royal William Yard to Mount Edgcumbe (65p extra for a bike!) and try and find a spot in the country park – it’s lovely but I doubt they look fondly on campers so you’d need to be extra sneaky.

Erm, not sure how long ago you’re talking about but for a good few years graduation has been held on the Hoe…it’s probably one of the best graduation locations in the country!

That said, the chairs are a bit over the top. The university is just pissing money away at the moment, what with all the mysterious troubles at the top.

SDG Allure here (Why do women’s saddles have to have such stupid girly names?) It definitely helps with the soft bits but does give me sore sitbones after a long ride, but I suppose that just shows the weight is in the right place.
I didn’t get on with Specialized BG ones at all; sold the one I had after just two rides.

She needs to try a few out really but it’s nigh-on impossible to find a bike shop with a good enough variety of women’s saddles, in my experience. It can get into an expensive trial and error system.

Also, padded shorts are a must. Evans have got some good end-of-sale discounts on at the moment, including on Pearl Izumi and Castelli.

Something by Dervla Murphy?

Seconding Robert MacFarlane, probably Mountains of the Mind.
This might be a bit short for a hospital stay, but I recently really enjoyed ‘Nightwalk’ by Chris Yates.

He couldn’t win in that situation. She obviously didn’t feel comfortable and even if he had said it looked perfect, wouldn’t have believed him. She shouldn’t have asked. (But we all do masochistic stupid things sometimes, right?)

1200 riders, £200,000+ raised. Not bad. Really enjoyed the ride despite the cloud over Princetown and the headwind! The route was great apart from that climb up towards Nun’s Cross – almost everybody around me was pushing up that because with the number of people, the headwind and the loose rocks (essentially a stream bed) nobody could get enough momentum to get up it. I’ve kept the route map and think I’ll try it again soonish, although possibly start at Burrator reservoir so the last bit is a nice downhill to the car.

The nearest LBS to me only sells overpriced second-hand bikes and a few low spec components, so there’s no real attraction for me. But the other day I needed to use/borrow a really long spanner (did the pedals up too damn tight and couldn’t loosen them off again) so had to pop in – it’s literally 2min away. The chap was really helpful and did it for free when I was prepared to pay, so I bought the shittiest second hand plastic pedals he had for £5 (to put on an old crap bike I was selling). A fair deal? I actually felt a bit [irrationally] ripped off given the state of the pedals.

Similar issue here – 1 bed flat, 4 bikes. Luckily that is down from 7 when we first moved here. But it’s looking like growing by two road bikes at some point. At the moment they all live in the kitchen where the dining table would be if normal people lived here.

I got bitten by what I reckon was a yellow sac spider on the South Downs at the weekend. Felt a sting and looked down to see it on my wrist. The bite swelled up a bit like a nettle sting for a couple of hours. Little bastard.

Seconding the comments on Revit & BIM, at least in the architecture/engineering industry. Massive demand in London right now for Revit technicians, particularly on the big schemes e.g Crossrail. I think the going rate is about £45/hr.

New Balance do some nice skate-type shoes now.

I posted a similar thread a while ago – couldn’t find a pannier rack that was both suitable for discs and had a slim enough fixing point. So we ended up filing down an existing Topeak (it has massive square sections that provide the spacing around the disc) – had to take a chunk off the corner to get it to align with the frame fixing point, but it works well now.
instagram.com/p/sr1f5GEtX2/
instagram.com/p/sr1jaJktX5/

Have you considered aluclad windows? Timber on the inside, smart-looking PPC finish on the outside (and therefore great longevity, minimal maintenance). Velfac are normally pretty good on price, somewhere between timber and uPVC.

Just signed up for this, will be riding with 5 others. All on hardtails I think, should be ok. I’m not sure of the route but riding up some of the tracks on Dartmoor is a PITA with the loose rocks. Hopefully it’ll be dry!

Does anyone know what time we need to get to the start in order to collect t-shirts and chips etc? Is that the time given (8.30?) or should we get there even earlier?

Yeah I realised it came out before, hence why I’m assuming there was a thread on it back then (not that I can find it with the search tool).

Clearly it didn’t generate as much publicity for Red Bull as the Playboy one, or the others for that matter (Industrial Revolutions, Imaginate etc) – surprised I hadn’t heard of it before. Strange because it’s a really nice film.

Not particularly to keen to resurrect this thread, but I just found the Epecuen video!
http://epecuen.redbull.com/

Everything that the Playboy Mansion film isn’t, i.e. fascinating landscape, awesome stunts, beautiful cinematography. I can’t find a thread for it in the search but I’m sure it’s here somewhere.

And for anyone that’s interested in the history of the place, watch this: http://vimeo.com/88706281 – ‘Pablo’s Villa – the remaining resident, who is also the old bloke on a bike at the beginning of the Danny video.

Another vote for the rechargable Volt 300. Wiggle were doing a pack that included a spare battery and a charger for £63, looks like it’s temporarily out of stock though. The battery life is excellent and it’s very bright. Not so great for side visibility though, so I tend to use a smaller flashing one alongside it plus some spoke lights.

For rear, just got a replacement TL-LD610 for an older, previous model that had finally given up after many years of abuse. The only annoying thing is that they’ve changed the mount so it’s got one of those annoying ‘flex tight brackets’ with the sticky out bit, and it’s not really possible to get a really snug fit because of the lumpy bit which won’t sit against the curved seat post neatly.