I expect this will be top of my to do list when I go back to work after Easter

Naim CDI is a classic. In good condition it will sell easily and for a good price

Ok, but not quite sure why they replaced it with a programme about a family with 19 kids FFS

I have done what earl b says in the past, essentially structure your own PCP around an unsecured loan e.g 5 year loan, to keep the repayments down, but think in terms of only having the loan for 3 years, and then start the cycle again.

Mine told the correct time for 6 months of the year, a complete PITA otherwise. I prefer watches where you don’t need a manual to figure out how to change time and date.

I really quite liked it, but the PITA factor won out in the end and now it sits unused in a draw.

For a rugged cycling friendly watch I have a Luminox.

I gave up about 12 years ago, it just happened without me really noticing. It agreed with me less each year so by choice I did not drink on week nights and wanting to cycle at the weekends then most weekend were also off limits. Before I knew it the best part of a year had passed by.

The main benefit for me was sleep and feeling more alive in the mornings. Now even a one small low strength beer will give me a hangover.

With the benefit of hindsight I wish I had given up 20 years earlier.

Just had a bathroom refit including knocking two rooms into one. Total cost just short of £7k, the plumber refused to take any payment before the work was completed. At the end he just asked me to settle his account for the tiles, make payment to the tiler and finally pay him, his own share.

150mg is not a particularly high dose and at that dose there is not much tweaking of the N. I came off Venlafaxine 10 years ago over about 6 weeks with no withdrawl symptoms whatsoever, it was really easy, yet it has a very bad reputation in this regard. You could be lucky or unlucky everyone is different. Speak to your doc about sensibly tapering off it.

I now take Lamotrigine used as a mood stabiliser come anti-depressant and with it no side effects it really has turned my life around, BUT is an absolute bugger for me to come off even by reducing the dose by just 1/6 every 6 weeks. I decided it was simply not worth it, it works, so why change just for the sake of being anle to say I am drug free.

I had a 2006 A3 sportback 2.0 TFSI Quattro from new for 8 years. No problems whatsoever, new battery after five years and that was it bar tyres every 20k. Average about 26mpg and I had a reasonably heavy foot.

I am confused. Why not just cancel it and ask the airline for the tax refund, or just no show all together? What is your motivation in these actions?

Other than my two sisters who live up north and have barely travelled more than 20 miles from where they were born everyone else is in. But as Convert points out above my friends and work colleagues are also all degree educated, left of centre professional types so not very representative of the population as a whole.

The Up! Is a fantastic little car, perhaps not great if you are doing 15k+ a year but up to 10k it would fit the bill.

I would have hoped you at least need to pay yourself the minimum wage? Or, can you get away with saying you only work part time?

Love spirals downwards – Flux
Baxter – Baxter
Lamb – their first one, was it also called Lamb

I can ask across our company’s customer analytics team. It is huge and grows month on month, surely by statistical chance one of them must be an avid MTBer.

Does your mortgage, if you have one, have an overpayment reserve and draw down facility? I have decided to go down that route for the next year or two rather than putting more money into cash ISAs paying SFA.

I recently took out a cheap contract on a 5S, mainly because I wanted an iOS phone again after using Windows for a year or so. Seems well made, but perhaps not as robust as my older iPhone 4S which is still going strong. Battery life is poor compared with the 4S, and I am an extremely light user.

The biggest problem for me is after a couple of years with larger phones I keep misplacing it in the house, which is really starting to piss me off, but that it hardly the phones fault.

I am always amazed at the number of very high end road bikes, say 8k that are left unlocked around he cafes at Hampton court whilst the guys sit inside having a coffee.

I use a cheap abus cable lock, my thinking is less about it being nicked but more about it being insured if it is nicked. Thankfully I have never had to put it to the test.

I am also thinking about some Hope Tech XCs on my superfly. Where did you find the weight of the Mustang TLRs, I will be interested to see how much weight I can save?

Sonicare user here. I went mid range, although at the time all Sonicare ones were expensive. The first one only lasted perhaps 3-4 years, but the second one has been going strong for perhaps close to a decade.

Never tried Braun, they weren’t really going strong when I took the plunge. It was either Sonicare or cheap battery ones, which are very much best avoided.

Unreasonable probably not, is it ill judged then possibily. It never unreasonable to ask the question, as long as you are prepared for people to answer honestly and to disagree with you. Personally I would not have problem with it, but for others it could be very disruptive to family life. The risk I see in such situations is that such people end up being subconsciously and unfairly discriminated against in future for not attending such types of events.

I really enjoyed it. I loved the Bridge and Spiral but struggled with Trapped. Quite light perhaps compared with the Bridge, but it will be interesting to see how the characters develop in later episodes. A very easy couple of hours viewing. Thumbs up from me.

I put it around my neck after brushing my teeth in the morning, odd little habits but this is the order of the day.

I then need to have it electronically read at 3 different security checkpoints to make it as far as the company’s underground car park, and then present it once more and enter my security code to actually make it into the building. It must of course be displayed at all times in the office.

At the end of the I need to present it once more to leave for the day.

Forgetting my pass for work is a real PITA. Although then actually getting in the office is easier than getting out!

I tend to leave it on all the time from morning until I get home. No big deal

Two bank loans, a new car on PCP for 4 years, 3 mortgages, and nice watch on 4 years 0% finance. I think that is it, but when totalled up not huge amounts, 60/40 secured vs unsecured. A lot of folk will have bigger prime mortgages.

I have a reasonable job, and whilst not that secure at the moment, I am relatively expensive to be shot of, 6 months notice plus redundancy. It is not my debt that keeps me awake at night. The business is unlikely to simply fold, famous last words.

I have probably always had debt in one shape or form for the last 25 years and having never been “stung” by it and with interest rates so low it doesn’t bother me too much.

In recent years I think I have very much changed my thinking and behaviours to one where I don’t like spending my own capital so I borrow other people’s, who themselves have borrowed it from someone else, hence the watch, and my last few cars have all been on PCP deals.

I would never have bought something like a watch on credit a few years ago.

The other thing to remember is to take the blue one a fair amount of time before you ride. None of this puff and go. Ventolin takes an hour before it reaches it maximum effect. In reality this is impractical, but I would have thought most of us suffers could look to take it 20 mins before we start a ride?

PS I do not practice what I preach and the first 20 or so mins of a winter ride can be tough for me.

My story is pretty much the same as Jamj1974. Complete breakdown in 2005 aged 41 followed by another in 2009, due to I suspect work stress, but there had been milder episodes going back to my late teens, and mid to late 20’s.

I probably lost 6 years of my life to depression and anxiety.

I have been good for the last 5 years or so, but I still worry more than most people. Oddly I have been under considerably more stress at work for the last 3 years, than ever in my life, but I seem to be coping well enough.

All that said the GP suggested last week I needed some time out, her view was my recurrent viruses and general physical unwellness is down to chronic stress, I haven’t heeded her advice and now have another damn virus.

Either way stress screws you up one way or another.

I just traded in my 2 year golf and refuse to look at the dealers website to see how much they are looking to sell it on for, but I expect a 1.5 to 2k increase on my trade in value, so I would expect a lot more than 2%.

That said I secured £7.5k off the new Golf, so I paid about £5k less for a higher spec car than I did when I bought new 2 years ago. VW must be struggling!

I would be pretty miffed if I could not secure £500 off an £18k car.

Dealer finance on second hand cars is normally pretty expensive, but there is nothing to stop you paying it off in a months time. Dealer will probably not be happy.

I once agreed to a 6 months gentlemans agreement with the dealer, I assume so the finance co did not claw back their commission. This still meant a further net saving of about £700 against the original finance discount of £1000.

What size? There is method in my madness!

I noticed the LBS had 20% off servicing so gave them a call and all booked in for tomorrow, for a strip down. Spent the remainder of the afternoon watching Emilia Fox in an old season of silent witness. fettling you say …

Sugar craving and weight gain, about 3 stone that I have never truly lost. Reduced orgasmic threshold and intense orgasms! I guess there has to be a plus side to getting fat.

I found the benefits wore off after a few months, poop out, and also their sedating effects.

It was only after having stopped taking them that I realised how tired they made me feel. But they saved my life when things were really bad.

3 in the last 5 months, and being an asthmatic it has been no fun at all. Three rounds of steroids and four rounds of antibiotics. 20 days off sick. Every week I feel I am catching some other virus. The Bridge and Homeland back to back for two weeks just about kept me sane.

Middle Management FTSE 100, company doing very well with record profits. Pay rises are pretty much non existent, they really are so low I would rather they didn’t bother.

I never expect to see a material change, no matter how well I perform. Promotions no longer exist, your current role just get bigger by whatever dimensions are relevant, scope, reports, budget etc. It is now all about a bonus culture, nothing is consolidated and nothing becomes pensionable.

Overall in good year I do OK by most people’s standards and should not complain when you look at how hard those in the public sector are being hit.

But I am 100% certain that the only way to see a change in my base salary is to leave. The last 10 years has seen a complete paradigm shift, the company will never go back and I don’t foresee an economic landscape emerging that would demand a change.

I did a full restore and that made a huge difference. Still running OS 7 and still running 6 on my mini v1.

Good for you. Stick it to them I say!

PhD Management Sciences 1991.

Asked to go in between Xmas and New Year to do a Customer Data Cyber Security Audit. I am well chuffed.

I am the same height as you and have both a 26 and 27.5 scale both in medium. A small would be way too small for me. I have short legs and long arms.

TACX ones here for both road and MTB. Never broken one. I notice the pedros are sold in pairs and the TACX in threes. Depending on the tyre I sometimes need to use all three to free the bead, although I would not say changing tyres and tubes is my strongest point.

It has screwed me up for the last 3 or more weeks. As an asthmatic I am now one round of oral steroids and two rounds of different antibiotics to the better. I am still not feeling great, no cycling now for a month. Perhaps next weekend.

I have a complement of the feedback ones in the garage. They do the job for me, no issues with stability or odd drop out brake arrangements.