As I pointed out, on that basis you would have to ban all pejorative words

I’ve addressed this at some length.

There’s no point in having a debate with someone who won’t come out of their bunker.

As I say, write what you like, but be aware that others do form a judgement of you based on the words you choose.

I think the biggest issue with spending that much on a watch, is not necessarily the cost of the watch itself, but the cost of all the other things in your life.

Yep – the opportunity cost. But you could apply the same logic to any discretionary purchases. Is a £5k bike really that much better than a £2k bike unless you’re a pro? Do you really need a Range Rover for the school run? Graphite golf clubs? Bespoke suits? Designer handbags? Etc etc.

You’re gonna look a bit of a tit with a £3.5k watch if you live in one of those generic Barratt Homes style housing developments on the edge of town and drive anything less than a BMW/Merc/Audi etc.

Well, I live in an “average” new-build and drive a Dacia 😀 but I have a Swiss watch. It wasn’t £3.5k but it was certainly in the “expensive” ballpark. It was a 40th birthday present from my family, who clubbed together to get it for me. It will outlast any car, expensive German marque or not. It will probably outlast my house. It gives me more pleasure than a BMW, although I can’t put my finger on why. Probably because it is the only really, really nice thing I own.

When I fall off my perch, my eldest son will inherit it. And hopefully, his son after him. It’s an heirloom in the making.

Man uses pejorative language to dismiss the importance of retaining pejorative language shocker

OK I’ll try again, because the devil is in the detail.

Your misconception is that all pejorative words are equal, and anyone who objects to the pejorative “retard” must also object to all pejoratives. This is a logical fallacy.

There are words in our language that most people don’t use in public discourse. Not because there is some PC “list” of proscribed words dictated to us from on high, but because of a loose consensus that they are offensive. Usually, these words are considered offensive because they perpetuate a power imbalance; ie, they are words used by the (relatively) powerful about the (relatively) powerless. Racial and gender insults are examples.

People who defend their right to use such words publicly usually do so because, consciously or not, they wish to deny the power imbalances which gave rise to such words in the first place.

In my view, “retard” is a cheap insult which shows contempt for people with learning difficulties. I work with many people with learning difficulties and would choose their company any day of the week over someone who dismisses them as “retards”.

So use the word if you like. There’s no law against it, nor do I think there should be. But if you do, you should be aware that it signals to others something about your levels of compassion and empathy for others less fortunate. And sometimes, people will call you out on it.

Right. That’s my best shot at explaining, calmly and patiently, the issue. Carry on.

but on that basis you would have to ban all pejorative words, for fear that they offended someone.

The standard bigot’s getout clause. And a (wilful) misunderstanding of how language works.

Ah, so you don’t really believe in people not being hounded for saying innocuous things then?

Oh stop playing the victim. Using the term “retard” as an insult isn’t innocuous – it’s offensive. If you don’t see this then you are a very coarse individual.

No doubt you’ll frame our objections to your language as “eeeh, it’s PC Gone Mad” or something, but that would say far more about you than us.

I’ve got a Casio analogue I replace it every month for six quid when I smash it in work … 3 grand on a watch but Beans on toast for tea !

It’s an interesting point. I’ll give it some thought 😀

Good article in the Guardian about why the Swiss watch industry is bigger than ever even though you can get a more accurate timepiece for a fiver:

Also, I work with disabled children who have to deal every day with arseholes like you calling them retards. If you like, you can come and meet them and explain why you think your use of that word makes you so cool.

Oh very, very **** well said.

Flip the scenario, retard

You sound nice

‘There are none so blind as those who will not see. The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know’

Mate you’re scaring me now

If you plaster all the walls I really will have to come down and shoot you….

I’ll hold your jacket.

OP seeing as you’ve gone to the trouble of getting the plaster off, would you consider leaving some brick exposed?

I’ve got a Rado, excellent watch and pretty much bombproof. Don’t really wear it any more so if someone wants to make a sensible offer for it they can have it. It’s this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rado-Sintra-Chronometer-R13663162-Ceramic/dp/B001II27WC

Argh my eyes!

😀

Bit concerned about the perceived inaccuracy of automatics

No it’s true. Automatics are not (and cannot be) as accurate as good quartz watches, or internet-connected devices.

If you want to know that every time you check the time, it is accurate to within a second, just use your phone, or get a smart watch.

If you want a piece of timeless craftsmanship and engineering on your arm that makes you feel like you’re Chuck Yeager or James Bond, then get an automatic Swiss watch, and spend a few seconds every morning synchronising it with the pips on Radio 4 8)

The EU is broken, irretrievably so.

Could you not try to deal in facts and analysis, rather than vague, emotive Daily Express headlines like this?

Furthermore, could you try not to cherrypick fragments of stories that seem to fit your agenda whilst ignoring, y’know, “reality”?

And the reality is that the EU is not “broken”, whatever that pub-bore expression actually means.

Furthermore, the objective facts are 1. that the UK economy has been, and will continue to be, hurt by the mere prospect of Brexit. 2. That there has been a sharp uptick in hate crimes since the referendum, as every racist and **** feels empowered to ‘ave a go at foreigners in the street. 3. That public discourse, particularly around immigration, has coarsened since the referendum, to the point where we’re actually having a national debate about whether to check the teeth of refugee children, lest (shock, horror) a handful of 19 or 20 year olds should make it over to the White Cliffs of Dover from the insanitary shithole in which they’ve been living. I expect you’re in favour of the Toothchecker General, though, aren’t you?

Car insurance = five minutes on that Meerkat site once a year. No-one actually has to get angry about it.

A tendency that mistrusts intellect out of jealousy and nothing else.

The stupid are not jealous of the clever. They resent them. The stupid resent those who challenge, with evidence and fact, their simple “feelings” about how they think the world works.

The stupid haven’t “had enough of experts” when those experts have built them smartphones, 50 inch HD televisions and nuclear weapons to defend their precious borders. But suggest to them that their simplistic nationalism is childish and irrational, and that being in the EU is a good idea for many reasons, or that being compassionate to refugees will impose a tiny cost to the country compared to wealthy tax-dodgers, ropey PFI contracts, useless vanity infrastructure projects, corrupt and inefficient defence contracts, or shoring up the losses of reckless private companies, and suddenly they’ve “had enough” of you.

You can follow the concrete water gully from Warley Moor reservoir over the moor, round the top of Luddenden Dean, and down into Hebden Bridge via Nutclough Woods.

<armchair sports scientist>

A four-minute mile is an aerobic effort. VO2 max would be the limiting factor.

As I understand it, VO2 max is genetically set. It can be increased with training, but only up to a point.

Even with hard training, most people would not acquire the VO2 max required to run a four-minute mile.

</armchair sports scientist>

To wander off-topic a little bit, but is anyone concerned about the way politics seems to be going at the moment? Brexit, racist/sexist nutter possibly becoming US president etc. At least the people of the 1930s had the excuse that they hadn’t seen it all happen before. The way our generation is heading we really will be the most globally stupid of all.

The generation of the 30s had “seen it all happen before” too, in colonial Africa and in numerous other examples of crass cruelty and stupidity that have always been a feature of human society.

A large minority of people are really, really stupid. They lack compassion, they are frightened of change, and of difference, and are suspicious of anyone who is less stupid than them.

They reject evidence, and nuanced argument, in favour of broad, simple ideas like “Nashnulty” and “Sovvrunty”, although they’ve never really given any thought to what those things really mean. Because they don’t want to. Because that’s complicated. And these people don’t do “complicated”.

In times of war, having a bunch of cruel, stupid, easy-manipulated people is very useful. They’ll fight our enemies, really, really hard, spurred on by simple ideas like “Oi lav mah caaantry.”

But in times of peace, these people are just blockers. Blockers to progress and compassion and to creating more civilised societies.

Very Personal View alert:

I think TAG are too common and “obvious” as a status symbol, owned by the same company who own Louis Vuitton and Moet & Chandon, worn by sales reps, propping up the bar at the golf club, saying things like “Yah. BMW M5. Cracking bit of kit.”

Breitling. Great watches with great heritage, worn by combat pilots and NASA astronauts. Personally put off by the trashy marketing. John Travolta? Really? Having said that, if I were a pilot, I’d probably get one. But I’m not, so I won’t.

Personally I wear a Raymond Weil Freelancer. RW are one of the few Swiss watchmakers left who haven’t been gobbled up by huge conglomerates, they’re a little less obvious as a brand, and I liked the design, and could afford it.

And seeing how everyone else is posting pictures of their Swiss watches:

It amazes me that people who’ve never given a second thought to the BBC’s guidelines on conflicts of interest suddenly become bar-stool experts when someone tweets something nice about refugees.

BBC Sports presenter getting involved in politics.

This doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a bit of half-remembered, half-invented pub-bore “wisdom” that has passed into the minds of simpletons as if it’s an actual thing.

You could try reading the BBC’s guidelines on conflicts of interest and make a judgement for yourself. I just have done, so I’ll save you the trouble and assure you that Gary Lineker has not breached any BBC guidelines. Not even close.

I have Rapha Brevet and Café du Cyclist winter jerseys, both merino, and I wear them with a gilet/jacket when wet.

Both £40ish in the classifieds and on eBay, respectively.

So have been in touch with Step change (debt charity)and they are completely sorting me out with a Debt management plan and contacting all the creditors and distributing what I have available to offer them after my essential costs are covered on my budget.
In short it means that my outgoings on debts have gone from £800 to £200 and month. Feel so much better about this as it means my debts aren’t secured and I will have to get serious about budgeting and living within my means.
It will screw my Credit rating completely but its not in good shape at the moment anyway.

Well done that man!

will I get frustrated?

Yes.

You’ll get frustrated that you could have retired a year earlier had you not spent the money on a conventional and predictable crutch for your self-esteem 😆

Ouch.

By securing unsecured debts against your home, you are transferring the default risk from your credit card companies to yourself and whoever else lives in your house.

If you’re struggling to meet minimum payments, you can enter into an “arrangement to pay” with your creditors in which they stop interest (yes, stop, as in 0%) and accept lower payments until the balances are paid, or your income increases.

Yes, your credit file will be screwed for six years (the length of time any defaults will show on your credit file), and no, that does not matter half as much as people think it does. You will learn to live a lifestyle without using credit. So you won’t need it.

National Debtline and Stepchange are two charities that can make this arrangement to pay with your creditors. They’ll administer it for you, and it’s free. Don’t go with a fee-charging company.

Please, please don’t turn unsecured borrowing into a debt secured against your home. Please.

It’s fashionable to say that people are “on the spectrum”. You should be sceptical about your counsellor’s unofficial and unqualified diagnosis.

Lots of people have some behavioural traits that are typical of autistic people, but that’s a correlation, not a causation.

The other thing is, autistic people are individuals (I’m a teacher so I’ve known several over the years) just as much as you or I. Some are introverted, some are extroverted. Some are mean, some are kind. Some are obsessed with computers or tractors or Father Ted (yes, really), some have no obsessions. Some have several close friends, some don’t appear to want or need friends. Some are bright and successful students, some struggle with school full stop.

As I say, be sceptical until you have a formal diagnosis.

And good luck, by the way, with your journey of self-discovery! Hope you’re making progress towards getting well and feeling better.

Transactional analysis: You initiated a conversation as a parent to a child (“Oi!”). And he responded as a child to a parent (“It wasn’t me so **** off”). You can break the cycle by communicating as an adult; you are more likely to receive an adult response in turn.

If I’d accidentally hit a neighbour’s car and they came out shouting “oi”, I wouldn’t stand there having a conversation with them. I’d apologise and say I’d be happy to speak to them when they’re calm.

It sounds as though you’re dealing with someone who’s emotionally a child. You got his back up with your aggressive tone. This has allowed him to have a grudge against you whilst taking no responsibility for his own part in the dispute. However hard it is, stay mature and polite.

So what did you do when this guy damaged your car then swore at you in the street? Because that’s a police matter. I’ve known people to be arrested for criminal damage because they bumped their neighbour’s bumper when parking.

If you don’t intend to do anything about him damaging your car and then swearing at you in front of the whole street, then I don’t see why you’d want to do something about him coming out of his house and looking at you.

My (honest and well-meant) advice would be to greet him politely every time you see him. “Morning!” and otherwise try to ignore him. Football chants? That’s not worth your effort to respond to, surely.

He wants to get to you so you need to show him that he hasn’t.

A long time ago:

Came home very late and very drunk. Took off trousers and fell straight into bed.

Woke up in the early hours: “Oh my God I need a s**t right now”. Stumble to bedroom door. Fall over. Get up. Open bedroom door. Flatmate standing there in the hallway with friends*

*I honestly, honestly don’t know to this day whether I hallucinated that bit

I was naked from the waist down. I may have had an erection. I couldn’t run from the landing to the bog, naked from the waist down, possibly with an erection, past my flatmate and his friends (who may or may not have been real) just to have a s**t.

And anyway, it was too late now. This s**t was coming. I wasn’t going to make it to La Guardia. I was going in the Hudson.

I closed my bedroom door again, took the lid off my wicker washing basket, and unloaded onto my dirty washing. Wiped my arse on an Issey Miyake T shirt (surprisingly effective), replaced the lid, fell on bed, went back to sleep.

I woke up the next morning, wondering why my room smelled bad, before tracing the smell back to the washing basket. Threw out Issey Miyake t-shirt. Threw everything else in the wash.

Me: “Did you have people over, late last night?”

Flatmate: “No, no-one. Why?”

Me: “Oh, nothing.”

You’re going to struggle with a cheap bridge camera for wildlife photography.

As a minimum, I’d say you’re going to need a TTL viewfinder. Electronic viewfinders on cheap cameras have latency which make it almost impossible to capture moving subjects. You’re also going to need the fastest lens you can afford, which will probably be a telephoto zoom with f5.6 at the long end.

I think your best bet for bird photography for £250 would be an SLR from eBay (Canon EOS 400D for £100ish) plus Sigma/Tamron 70-300mm f5.6 lens (£120ish). I think that’s the best you’ll get for your budget.

Ibrahim in Brighouse

Anybody know of anywhere in west yorks?

Go and see Ibrahim in Brighouse. He works on recommendations – and everybody recommends him. He’s being doing my tailoring for years now. Always a top service.

http://findit.halifaxcourier.co.uk/company/742364314750976

I looked into dog ownership a few years ago. Everything I read said “don’t get a dog if you’ll be leaving it on its own all day”.

I tried and tried to find something authoritative that would tell me it would be OK to get a dog then leave it on its own all day, but I failed. Because it’s not OK to get a dog, then leave it on its own all day.

The best of Dexy’s Midnight Runners. What can I say? It was Britannia Music Club and I had to buy something that month.

You’re all good. Your kid is too young to be/not be racist.

He’ll just have heard it in the playground and repeated it. I did it myself when I was a kid – used the “n” word because I’d heard someone else say it. My parents gave me the chat about tolerance and I didn’t do it again.

To answer your question, an observant Muslim would never knowingly eat a chocolate that had any alcohol at all in it.

Of course not all Muslims are strictly observant but, let’s just say, your sales of your boozy chocolates will be a bit slow in Bradford.

A strict Muslim friend of mine was once upset because she ate a mince pie not realising it had suet in it(containing non-halal meat product).

She went to see the mullah down at the Mosque. He said “happens all the time – don’t worry about it”.

That was my thought. He needs some sort of secure hard top for the LR as a minimum.

If the world wasn’t full of disgusting little scumbags, he wouldn’t have to. But unfortunately it is.

You have a really beautiful house.

Just saying.

Well, we’d just done the same trip without incident. We didn’t ride a-roads, ride two-abreast and pulled over when in the way. They took great pride in doing the exact opposite.

I guess plenty on here don’t realise what utter arseholes they are and assume it’s everyone else. It’s not. It’s you.

With attitudes like this, it’s no wonder we have a road culture that’s stuck in the dark ages.

And they’re in a Range Rover, you’re on a bike.

And there we have it again. Might is right.

Surely we can do better than this.

The problem on the roads is that NO-ONE thinks they are in the wrong. Ever.

On the roads it doesn’t seem to matter how catastrophically stupid their driving, what sort of daft manoeuvre they were pulling – it wasn’t their fault.

And because they feel it wasn’t their fault they get defensive and angry and the situation escalates from there. And they’re in a Range Rover, you’re on a bike. Being right versus being alive…

Are you serious?

If I hadn’t shouted, I would have been knocked off my bike into a busy road.

Never shout at a car. You instantly look in the wrong.

What?

Had a look through the Highway Code. Never saw that one.

The other week I had to shout at a woman in a Range Rover (parked half on the pavement, half on double yellows outside the Co-Op, natch) who was about to pull away into my path, without looking or indicating, and knock me off.

Pretty sure I wasn’t in the wrong.

If I’m riding along and holding up a queue of traffic that can’t get by me, then I’ll happily pull over into lay-by/field entrance etc and give them a chance to get past. As per the Highway Code.

If I’m riding along and holding up an entitled prick who thinks he has a right to get past me because he is in a car, the “courtesy switch” in my brain is unlikely to operate correctly.

This^^