IME, albeit limited, they can only tell you what you already know.

I'm afraid that is true.

Find something you want to do and then find a job doing it.

Easier said than done. I've not managed it yet.

A lot of private ones are Snake Oil Salesman who'll attempt to fleece you out of cash for future, possible consultancy/support.

A man's refuge is sacrasanct.

I find that having locks on the door keeps mine that way, as she who must be obeyed struggles to open them even with the keys.

I empathise with you all though.

My View:

Tidy = knowing where things are, even if they happen to be on a table-top or shelf

Her view:

Tidy = Nothing on any table top or shelf, everything must be stuffed into a cupboard or the bin.

The upshot of this being me wandering about the house looking for my things, hoping that they haven't been thrown away or hidden forever.

As a rule, men and women have different ideas about how to live.

Pointing-out that they married a heterosexual, real man rather than Gok Wan should resolve any dis-agreements 😉

Very attractive, but very un-hinged.

Yes, The Street was very good. For some reason I remembered it as being on Channel 4 though!

bloomin heck its nearby, I'd forgotten how close Liverpool was to North Wales!

Liverpool is the capital of North Wales.

The Wirral isn't a mountain biking mecca, but as noted, it's got a lot quite nearby.

I like Wallander, but agree that BBC 'drama' isn't always that great.

It often just looks/sounds like 'BBC drama', if that make sense -Like an adults' version of 80s Grange Hill.

As above, BBC Radio is good. Some of R2, a lot of R4 and much of 6Music is great.

Anybody that's ever seen US tv [or most other countries for that matter] on a day to day basis soon realises how good our TV is

Whilst it is true that the typical American doesn't watch and then sit in the works canteen discussing the finer points of HBO's latest high-quality production, the quality of British TV is no longer that great and there is a lot of filler.

I can only assume that when there were only 4 channels the cash available/channel must have been higher.

Although I don't watch much TV, I do have the basic cable TV package and whenever I occasionally flick through the entire available (~80?)channels it is rare that there is more than one thing that I'd consider watching. I use the TV-on-demand to watch the 3-4 non-news programmes/week that I can be bothered to, when it is convenient.

To me, Soap Operas (especially that misery-fest, Eastenders. Coronation St just seems very corny) and talent shows are awful, but a lot of people watch them -for some reason.

ITV1/2….. etc. rarely get a look in our house, not for snobbish reasons, but because the things we do begin to watch on it always seem very amateurish and designed to appeal to Sun readers, which I imagine that they are.

Get the one that fits you. Otherwise, the chances are that it won't get ridden very often….

Clean throughly with brake cleaner and a soft toothbrush. Work the piston in/out a few times. It should be fine. Rubber grease might help, but make sure all residues are removed to prevent dirt sticking to it.

Surely the main problem is the 40 hours at work every week?

Theo d lite, that's great.

Don't forget that 6Music is good overall though.

It fills the gap between the middle-aged cr*p that is daytime R2 and the teenage dross that is R1.

it only ever bothered me when I was on the road for work,

Same here.

now I have a Saturday lay-in and want to listen to A&J but instead have to listen to an hour of that c0ck

I assume that they had to fit him somewhere for the duration of his contract, although 3am on a Sunday morning would have suited more people.

Ross could stay on the radio and on Film, but the TV chat show is rubbish and has been for some time now. I suspect that he is also struggling to get decent guests (who are often only interested in plugging books/films), in part due to his 'reputation'.

Andrew collings is filling in until nemone comes back from having her baby. I prefer him to nemone personally.

I thought nemone (not great) had a baby, Cerys (whom I like) stepped in, Nemone left permanently, Cerys had a baby, and Andrew Collins is standing in.

I know the STW were generally aglow with delight when George Lamb was punted onto weekend breakfast.

Hallelujah! ..until I made the mistake of putting the radio on on a Saturday morning…

Keaveney is fine for the job. He plays good music, but his chat is nothing to write home about.

Andrew Collins is slightly dull, but into music, and talks a lot about Northampton. I may be talking out of turn, having not been there, but I've always imagined it to be fairly dull place typical of the E Mids. And beofre anyone is offended, My great-great-great-grandad came from there so that's ok 😉

I give you the Ultimate Driving Machine:

Capable in all conditions and plenty of boot space.

In the French Alps, lots of people have these:

In Switzerland, lots have these Subaru Justys (look like a Swift):

For ultimate snow use and classic cool, then a 2CV Sahara is ideal:

It sounds quite good to me.

Great place.

ps. Many of the 'stormtroopers' on huge bikes aren't actually good riders and don't have their suspension set up properly to make best use of it.

Fair do's.

So allowing for the inevitable exaggeration it sounds as if there has been a dusting 'down south', if not in that London.

over a foot since 17.45h last night

A measured 30cm or

"about this much >……………………………< ?"

I had it earlier this year @32.

I felt shivery, woozy and then broke out in spots.

The itching was bad, but I managed to resist scratching completely. Just block it out!

-I did accidentally knock off one scab when taking my T-shirt off which produced a scar -The rest of the spots disappeared.

I felt bad for a few days and was off work for 10 days, over May Bank holiday.

Follow-up:

I returned again to the hospital today and saw the Consultant this time. He apologized for not having been there on the previous visit, although not for the vague notes left for others. He spent a good while explaining everything, which was good.

I had no grafting, just removal of some 'impingement lesions' and re-attachment/tightening of the ligaments.

There is apparently no consensus on post-op recovery. Some surgeons require NWB for 3 months and some only a few weeks.

He had a look at my ankle and said that,
"in your case, putting weight on the ankle, if you're careful, shouldn't cause any problems."

Hmmm. So, just what I suspected then…. Not a full 3 months non-weight bearing.

From 6 weeks I shall be visiting the physio to be shown exercises to move my foot up and down, avoiding lateral movement (I shall ask the physio about gentle cycling)

The air-cast will be required until mid-February.

All-in-all, not as bad as it could have been.

Having been plagued with ankle problems since falling about 2 metres onto my inverted left foot from a climbing wall <wince> in 1997, I have recently been under the knife and am now enduring a (potentially long-term) recovery period.

Do be seen by a physio (privately, if necessary) and try to sort out your balance, otherwise you'll end up with frequent recurrences (and a career as a tight-rope walker will be in jeopardy). I ended up detaching the ligaments at some point and they've now been re-attached.

Ankle Surgery Thread

There is either some fundamental difference between the treatment that "Dr_UpGrade" and "ss" received or some surgeons are much more conservative in their views on recovery.

It's interesting that "Dr_UpGrade" had treatment a few years ago and "ss" had treatment this year. Maybe weight bearing sooner is being tried by some surgeons?

I've phoned every dept. of the hospital and everyone I know in the medical world. As I said,
"it sounds like a long time, but it could be" seems to be the view from people not directly involved and,
"3/12 is what it says on the notes" from the people who are involved.

Nobody will stick their neck out to comment on a consultant's notes.

I've not been given a physio or any sort of timetable for recovery other than 3 months non-weight-bearing from the surgeon's hand-written notes (not from the surgeon himself).

I'm off to the GP later and want to be armed with as much info as possible.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the op done a few years back when I had BUPA.

I can understand an Achilles Tendon injury taking a long time to recover as it can be under a lot of tension from the calf muscle.

With the foot held very securely in an air-cast, the ankle ligaments (basically elastic bands to aid joint stability) are under little or no tension. so after say 3-4 weeks surely there's no reason not to put the foot down gently a bit to aid motion and exercise the leg slighty?

Your recovery sounds encouraging, although I was hoping for a lot less than 3 months hopping on crutches. I could cope vastly better with some partial weight bearing and, with a baby on the way, this is possibly the worst timing for such incapacity.

The doctor I have spoken to was suitably vague about what exactly had been done to the ankle, but there was some ligament repair done. There was no mention of tendons or harvesting of tissue from elsewhere.

Having had doubt put in my mind, I had a look on www (what else can I do whilst cooped-up?) and found numerous accounts of much shorter timetables for recovery.

An air cast is actually a pain as it is very large and cumbersome. It's also designed for walking on, which also confused me. Why fit a walking cast at 3 weeks if I can't put my foot down for another 10 weeks?