Getting them to make/prepare meals with you is a very good idea.

+1!

They love it… A recent example of this. I was shopping with MasterG in the local supermarket; oggling the fish counter (or the girl behind it, I can’t quite remember :oops: ), he asked what ‘those black things’ were? ‘Mussels!’, ‘oh, can you eat them?’, ‘yup, they’re lovely – we can get some if you like, but I’ll need some help….’. Cue this:

He spent over an hour (he wouldn’t let me help him – cool!) scrubbing and pulling the beards from them all. He watched me cook them and promptly scoffed the majority of them too.

We also make pizzas on Saturdays for tea. I make the bases, the bairns then put on whatever toppings I put out for them (peppers, salami, olives, ham, ‘shrooms etc. etc) – as much or as little as they want. The kitchen looks like a disaster area afterwards but it is great fun 8)

We’ve always tried to make the evening meal a family affair and we’ve always only ever cooked one meal – time is precious and we’d rather spend it with the kids than slaving over the stove.

The result is that our two (aged 4.5 and 6) eat really rather well. MasterG will eat anything you put in front of him and loves to taste stuff he hasn’t tried / seen before. MissG is not as good, but not bad at all. We’re very lucky.

We’ve never forced the bairns to eat anything they don’t want – we encourage them to try and, if they do and still don’t like it, then fine. Not a problem. However, they do realise that if they don’t eat their dinner, there is nothing else.

<Bump>
<hijack>

I’ve just had an eye examination this weekend and found my prescription has changed (not surprised really, it’s been 6 years since my last one :oops: ).

Consequently, I need to get some new contact lenses – I need some Toric jobbies. My question is this: How exact does the contact lens / prescription match need to be?

I’ve had a look at a few on-line retailers of disposable Torics and none give an exact match.

Ta.

</hijack>

If they are only able to supply the model with a single drive, what more can they do other than offer a full refund – what do you want them to do?

Sorry Zulu I sounded a bit curt. Am currently on the bog sporting a pretty good hangover. 8)

Silly person. The baby is male.

Punch her in the face.

….. and Bruce Forsyth. Don’t get me started. For some reason, he is revered on the telly by his peers. I just don’t get it; its cringe-inducing.

Saturday evening telly was ruined when they stopped broadcasting The Muppet Show.

Charliemungus it appears your wish has been granted.

I haven’t used my PC for gaming for years, fatherhood did for that – well gone are the days when I would spend £250 on a graphics card and £90 on a mouse (remember the Razor Boomslang??)

hmmmmmmm, fragtastic :D

(I’m assuming you’ve shown it can be done Drac – I can’t get to youtube at work)

My (PC) gaming stopped a few years ago at Unreal Tournament and Quake 3. I used to organise LAN parties (think geeks with PCs, pizza & beer) which were a bit of a laugh; until a few of the lads bought xbox’s and raved on and on about them. I bought one too and tried to get into Halo / Halo2 but just didn’t like the hand held thingy – I really missed the keyboard/mouse.

Since then, the vbox has sat in a box by the telly, untouched for 5+ years.

I saw the ad for this (and the other dragony one) the other day and must admit to being very tempted so splurge on another console….. if only they could be used with a mouse/keyboard.

When I was a kid in the 70’s, my Mum used to force feed us Malt and Cod Liver Oil. I do not believe there is a more vile substance know to man or beast.

*sticking biros laterally through them*

Tea / keyboard coming together – followed by ‘Ewwwwwwww’

1) How did it feel? How did you cope? What happened to the bike?

Scary – no manual was supplied. Not too badly – just listen to your Mrs, she knows her body and she knows when she needs your help. Listen to her first. Bike went on the garage wall and stayed there for 4 years.

2) Did the NCT classes help?

A bit – however, we’ve made some great friends we’re still in touch with 6 years on.

3) Are there any forums I could join that would help prepare me for the inevitable life-explosion about to happen?

You’re already here 8) In fact, this place was the first I came to when MrsG went into labour.

<gratuitous photo of my kids> *proud dad*

</gratuitous photo of my kids>

If you need the four-gang extension cable for your other kit, do it the other way round. Get a passthrough socket and plug the 4gang into that?

Heading North up the M6 after work, on my motorbike.

Just after the M55 turning, good weather and good visibility. I’m in the right hand lane, car in front pulls in to let me past. I nail the throttle and accelerate hard. On the opposite carriage way, a black car with two passengers (driver female, passenger male – completely irrelevant but a detail that stuck) the front right tyre looked like it exploded and the whole front right of the car appeared to tip forward and dig into the carriage way. This had the effect of lifting the rear of the car up and spinning it 270 deg so the rear end landed on the armco. I was probably at 85mph+ at this point. I instinctively ducked and went under it.

Arrived home some 40 minutes later a shaking wreck. Don’t remember the rest of the journey.

Supermarket trollies *tick*
Finger pulling trouser tomfoolery (4 year old daugter is now also an expert practitioner) *tick*
Marks on the car windscreen as gun-sights *tick*
Cardboard tube light-sabers/digeridoos *tick*
Matching nerf guns for self, son (aged 5) and daughter (aged 4) *tick*

Have also taught the kids to differentiate between and loudly announce the presence of dog-eggs* and dog-toffee** while out and about – MrsG does not approve.

*well formed and intact
**squidgy or ‘stood-in’

Aged fourty three and three quaters

Gaggia Classic

Edit: The change will get you most of the way to an Iberital MC2 grinder too

Are you sure that’s not your shoes M_F? :lol:

PP – no point posting now, I think Flow’s gone to school :D

The Classic is available here for £175.

Edit: It’s refurbished.

Apologies for the hijack…

I’m tempted with one of these kits for my Blackbird. Do they fit to the existing switchgear?

I’m currently riding with Philips Xtreme bulbs – and they were a revelation when fitted. I’m assuming the HIDs will be better still?

its not real life!

8O Nooooooooo……!!!!!

Weeksy, Flow. Do you have any idea how rediculous you are both making yourselves look? :|

Actually, you are both SurfMat and I claim my £5.

chakaping – Member
Anyone else think a lot of motorbikers seem a bit up themselves?

Anyone else think a lot of “people generally” seem a bit up themselves? FFS. :roll:

because I know they accelerate faster and brake far less effectively

Wrong. They can brake far more effectively.

As for the trackday comments – you’re bang on. If you want to pretend to be a racer go and do one. They’re pretty cheap and great fun; I was at Oulton Park at the weekend and 7x 20 minute sessions with instructors thrown in (if you want them) was £115.

I too am a motobikerist. I ride a pushbike and also drive a <gasp!> BMW 320D. Most of my miles are done on the motorbike (around 20k a year). I am also an IAM qualified Advanced Motorcyclist.

There are numbers of cyclists, motorcyclists and car drivers that completely disregard / are ignorant of the highway code. You can’t restrict poor road behaviour to one particular group.

On the other hand, the vast majority of roadusers are, in my experience, polite and couteous – however, this doesn’t make for good internets.

I’ve found that if people behave like a dick, they will be treated like one.

Filtering is fine, positively encouraged, if completed safely and with consideration to other road users. Horn blaring and full beam will upset people if used consistendly. A quick pip/flash should be used to alert other road users of your presence, not order them out of your way. If the gap is too small to squeeze through, wait until the traffic moves.

You have my sympathy.

I had a similar experience in summer last year. I walked away from a safe (as they can be) job in a multi-national corporation to take a senior position in a small, independant, local firm that was rapidly expanding. I was employed as the IT manager and really wanted to make a difference.

One of my first tasks was to examine the companies infrastructure and evaluate the performance of the staff (I was told that this was with a view to getting rid of 2 of them). The report was completed and submitted – the directors did not like the findings. I told them their infrastructure was seriously out-dated and needed investment (the previous manager had to resort to e-bay to buy 2nd hand parts) and the two members of staff they wanted to get rid off should be retained and coached (they were good lads on just over minimum wage – just a bit young and misguided)

I was sacked after 6 weeks – “It isn’t working”.

B*stards.

What is your budget?

I’m surprised that no one has mentioned these yet. Excellent value for money.

I missed this one too – Hello Big Thunder.

One thing to do – search out the picolax thread.

Oh, and I’ve got this aeroplane and a conveyor-belt….

cruzheckler – Member
all the shaving **** to the forum please

<waves>

Merkur Progress and feathers for me at home. Gillette Tech and Gillette 7 o’clocks when travelling. A selection of soaps and creams depending upon how decadent I’m feeling. :-)

<late to party>

I’d have enjoyed a meet up on my Blackbird, but I’m doing a trackday at Oulton Park on the Saturday. Have fun folks 8)

</late to party>

Syringes +a lot! I once bit my doctor. I had warned him that I was terrified and he implied that I should MTFU. I explained that I was serious and there was a high probability of me passing out. By the time he came at me with his poisoned nail, I had wrapped my feet around the legs of the chair and was holding on to the sides – knuckles white. He stabbed me with it and I keeled over – face planted on his office floor. He put me in the recovery position and as he stuck his fingers in my gob to retrieve my tongue, I started to come around; sensing a foreign object in my mouth, I bit down really quite hard. I had another jab to follow this and the same thing happenned again, this time he didn’t bother fishing my tongue out.

The other thing is high bridges. I didn’t realise this until about three years ago when I drove MrsG and the BabyGs over the Humber Bridge. I properly freaked out.

no problems with 3G <-> wireless here. HTC Desire + 2.2 on Vodafone.

Where were you Stumpy? A large or small resort?

Desire user here.

Photo editing and sharing is very simple. Can upload to flickr, facebook, email in two / three steps.

I’ve not tried editing video.

A mate of mine has the wildfire, same goes for him too. Very simple.

EDIT: Just found an app called ‘vidtrim’. According to the blurb you can:

“Edit your videos on the go with VidTrim. VidTrim lets you trim videos easily. VidTrim is a video editor and organizer for Android.

This is the free ad supported version of VidTrim Pro. The following features are supported by both free and paid versions:

– Trim video clips right on your device
– Trim original clip (overwrite)
– Save as a new clip
– Play video clips
– Share video clips (Send e-mail, upload to YouTube etc.)
– Rename video clips
– Delete video clips”

Thanks for all the info folks, much appreciated.

I don’t know how good they are in terms of exchange rate, but I think the Thomas Cook one can be sorted out in store if you take ID with you.

Thanks for the tip.

Get a halifax clarity card. No fees on using it abroad and excellent exchange rate

Do you know how quickly I could get one? According to moneysaving…. they’re the one to have at the mo.

Yup – we fly out next thursday morning.

I’ll apply for the CaxtonFX card anyway – if it arrives in time, then good. If not, then I’ll use the debit card as previously.

The problem is that (according to moneysavingexpert) Lloyds charge a fortune – a percentage of the total, plus a fixed fee – per transaction.

I’m not a skin-flint, but I don’t want to give the banks any more than I already do.

Brush and either Palmolive stick / Arko when travelling.

Brush and Arko stick / Bluebeard cream / Taylors Lime cream / Geo. Trumpers Sandalwood at home.

They’re all nice and they all work well.

As I use a DE razor (Gilette tech & Merkur jobbie) I haven’t built up the courage to try oils with them.