Our boxer has had a few ops in her time so far, releiving a trapped nerve in her spine, removing growh on her gums, eye surgery, and a knee rebuild.

All in all its cost about £10k, and cost us about £3.5k in premiums over 10 years.

I dont regret paying for insurance at all.

However….. I do think vets are try and fleece you for as much money as they can. Our dog takes a small Anti-inflammatory tablet everyday. The local vet charges £1 per tablet, on the web you can get them 75% less per tablet. Also they tend to prescribe drugs that the nice drug rep sells them ie bloody expensive, when you can get a generic drug which is just as good.

“the NHS exists for the benefit of doctors, not patients. “

Oh really? My wife on a ‘normal’ week will work between 50 & 80 hours, probably double what you moaning lot do, and pro rata she probably earns less than you. She has to pay for her own training which costs £1000’s of pounds a year. She has had to apply for a job for next year, but doesnt even know what it will be, and when she is interviewed she will have to accept the job within 48hrs and we could have to move from one end of the country to the other in a matter of weeks, and then to top it all, very few of her patients ever bother to say thank you for making them feel better, or saving their life!

I do know that Sheffield currently has plenty of vacancies for NHS patients….. admitedly they are in some not so nice areas!

“This week I have been overtaken by an articulated lorry on a road that was white with snow.”

How covered with snow? You see lots of people who see the slightest bit of snow and slow to a crawl.

I bet some lorry driver is on a lorry driver forum asking the same question, why do some car drivers drive so slow that you need to overtake them.

Also the most numpty thing I saw in Sheffield was people driving too slow up a hill, so eventually they lost momentum and could get no further causing huge que’s behind.

IMO if you dont feel confident with the fact that you car will slide on snow, then just dont bother drivng on it!

If you watch the news, then no, its a dangerous world out there !!

Brake the thumb and say if they try doing it again you will do the same thing!

That tell the little sh!t

IMO its very much linked to diet and stress. FOr a few years I was very skint, and stressed because I didnt have much cash. I constantly got colds, and was guranteed to get one if anyone had the slightest snuffel in the office.

Now though I can afford to eat better, and I’m not stressed, and not surprisingly, I never now get colds.

Occasionaly if I’m training harder, or feel a bit under the weather I’ll take zinc & sellenium tablets. Apparantley its given to cancer patients who’s immune systems are shot.

My wife has the rab bodywarmer and its much much better cut, finished, materials than the cheap crappy (but just as expensive NF)

Jesus the snow has affected me making any sense!

On the way to work this morning I passed a nice big empty car park, I was very very tempted, but unfortunately there is a short steep downhill in to it, so I would have got in but not back out.

Still had plenty of fun on the roads in Sheffield this morning (that were empty) both with Direction Stability Control on. Odly that had the car crabbing down the road and, but with it off I could do a steady ‘powerslide’ down the road in a straight line.

On the odd corner I did have the occasional nearly fun opposite lock :-)

How sensitive the ABS system is varies completely from car type to car type.

I used to have a Ford Focus and the ABS was way too sensitive and there was no way you could left foot brake because the bloody ABS would kick in.

My current MX5 has ABS but in normal driving conditions it barley ever kicks in, but this morning it kicked in just as easily as any other car would because there is so little grip on snow.

It was also interesting trying out the DSC system this morning. Even that couldnt cope at times and was locking fron wheels to keep the car going in a straight line. How with it off it was much more fun :-)

If you READ the manual of your car it does say ABS makes the car take longer to stop on snow. IMO to have scared yourself that much, and that you couldnt stop in time you were going way too quick for the conditions!

Its trying to show a good thing IMO, just how fantastic mountains are, but I do think it doesnt always get it across very well.

It was funny watching Graham ski down the slope after rope work bit. The snow boarder guy just blasted down, but Graham was strugling. Strangely off piste he’s not that good as his technique is all power and brute force without much finesse. On piste though that brute force makes him bloody difficult to keep up with!

Wells theres knack all at the minute, maybe 1″ tops!

All roads are driveable as theres such little snow. Its amazing how many people havent turned in to work yet though!

The snow in Sheffield is quite grippy and had no problem getting a steepish lane and down another this am.

All the main roads are clear!

Theres a good 1″ now in Sheffield. So much for getting a reasonable amount !

:-(

Just read the article…

“Relaxing in his chalet yesterday Mr Pell, an experienced snowboarder, admitted he was still shaken up by what happened.”

Erm no he wasn’t an experienced snowboarder, if he was he wouldn’t have ended up falling down a cliff!

I guess he has watched one too many off piste vids and thinks its just a case of finding an empty slope and skiing down. When the videos are made they spend ages finding the slope, checking the route and checking the snow pack first.

Oh and wearing a helmet would have made **** all difference! If he has started boucing off the cliff he would have died. He was just lucky that there was lots of snow at the bottom, and lucky that he didnt suffocate in the snow.

I’ve reaced competitively from about the age of 10 to 25, and skied off piste extensively for about 15 years. Not once have I seen or heard of an accident where a helmet would make a difference, although I do know of one accident where the skier died directly because they were wearing a full face helmet.

In my opinion its more about if you ski/board within your ability. I think people who wear helmets and other protective equipment suddenly beleive they turn in to some kind of skiing/boarding god. 99% of them are intermediate/low advanced boarder/skiers. A helemt boosts their ego becuase it makes them look more professional and ‘rad’ like the pro’s, they then stupidly beleive that wearing a helmet means they can push themselves beyond their ability, and thats ok.

You can see it in lift ques. The helemt clad people swagger along thinking they look cool, and theyre the dogs. You even get looks off them thinking ahh I’m better than you, I wear a helmet so I’m more cool, and obviously my skills are better than yours.

These are exactly the type of people who have accidents and, hence I avoid them like the plague on or off piste.

“a static ad would get my attention just as much.”

I hope I don’t get banished for this one but…. I use the flashy ness as a mental add blocker. ie if its flashing or moving it aint worth looking at!

Have to agree though I would use this website on my PDA…. apart from all the extra crap you have to download….

No you dont.

The first time a coil went the garage recommended doing both at once as it would unbalance the car.

2nd car it happened to I just changed one, and you really couldn’t notice a difference! If you have a highley tuned sports car I can imagine you would tell…..

Having said that most garages (main dealers) charge nearly as much for 1 as they do 2.

I went for an interview at Little Chef’s financial HO in Sheffield a few months back.

The company was in absolute finacial direstraits then, but they said they had some thing happening that was going to transform the company….but they couldnt say what which was currently being trialed.

I’m glad I didnt accept the job the CE acts like a real kn@b.

In my experience the point scoring thing is just used to try and calm the staff, and make it sound fair.

They will know exactly who they want to get rid of, having been involved in the redundancy process as an accountant you get asked to cost redundancies, and project forecast etc, and I’ve never yet been asked to do one on a basis of it could be him/her. Redundancy tends to be calculated very precisely.

All cars are bike friendly, I’ve had very small 2 seaters to Mondeo estates and they were all just as friendly to bikes.

“Take both wheels off and have had two bikes in comfortably with the seats folded.”

So that makes it absolutely no different to a standard Focus then, in fact I can get one of my bikes in a standard Focus with the rear wheel still on.

A normal Focus will be cheaper, and more economical and carry exactly the same number of bikes, you just wont be paying for a higher roof line on a car.