I'd love to key a car but always worry about being caught, eg on camera. Meadowhall must be well covered with cctv surely? I'd happily vandalise every 4×4 in the country that didn't belong to a farmer or builder or similiar. Certainly every M5, Cayenne etc. Utterly indefensible to own such a environmental death wagon IME.

I agree with TJ and binners – combo of bitter and twisted back benchers and european issues (could the Tories be any more wrong on Europe?) will set them all off. That and the media picking holes and stirring it up. 6 months before they are on the back foot, 18 months before in real pooh and 3 years out on their ears. Shame really cos I voted Liberal this year and 2005 and predicted this coalition when noone expected it 18 months ago but the Tories just do not have the policies, the intellectual firepower or the heart for running a sinking a ship such as UK 2010 and the Liberals aren't big enough to stop it going wrong.

don't mistake youthful enthusiasm and curiosity for aggression. If they were really just heifers then they would never hurt an adult human. If you were mistaken and in fact they were young bullocks; i.e. beef cattle then they could get a bit frisky and over energetic but if you hold your ground and do nothing sudden you should be fine. Cows with young could get a bit funny as well but surely you would have described them diffferently? If cattle are really a threat to safety they shouldn't be in a field where there is a public path (I think this is the law but stand to be proved wrong…). Hope you closed the gate properly anyway!!

Done it 2x with BHF – worst thing was staying in Winchestter YH that is all wood and people going for slash all night and then some weirdos started getting up at about 4.40 so not much sleep. I stayed elsewhere the second time and left at 7 feeling much more relaxed.

I would learn where water taps are and only carry 1.5-2 litres of water to reduce weight. carry plenty of food and doses of energy powder though as hard to find supplies en route. You are looking at 9-12 hours of riding so you need ALOT of food.

An amazing thread – i ride from hackney to the west end every day and nearly every rider (and thats a lot of riders) undertakes all the time, hardly anyone ever hangs back rather than pushing to the front, and everyone generally uses every trick / tactic to get ahead at minimum effort. Most cyclists ride without shame or any regard to their own safety or offer any courtesy to drivers or even other riders. I don't object to this behaviour it just seems to be at odds to the somewhat sensible consensus set out in this thread.

Try google – most banks have decent services. Personally I use Charles Stanley but wouldn't recommend particularly – its execution only, does what it says on the tin, no more, no less.

sounds good on radio but just a bigotted old woman really. shouldn't be allowed to comment or vote on English only matters.

Cheers. I mentioned Lewes because that is where we are getting the train to for our start. (We are walking, sorry!)

Lib Dem for me. Voted an hour ago plus Green Hackney Mayor and councillors.

Labour 6
Conservative 2
Lib Dems 11
Green 0
UKIP 0
BNP 1
Respect 0
SNP 1

This is nothing to do with the thieving scum (sorry my autism ruining my chance of ever being diplomatic) in the City – they need lining up and shooting. I just think, to get back to the original question, that £38,000 is too much for a secretary / PA. In MK I would expect it to be about 26-30,000 assuming a 52 week year (I imagine there is still alot of organising to be done even during school holidays). Comparison with our secretaries and PAs here (central London – £28-32,000, moderately hard working); teachers themselves, police, military, clerical staff typically and so on suggests, to me at least, that £38K is more than needs to be offered even for an exceptional person. Its true I don't know the precise job spec but the clue is in the name – organising mainly, some typing. Not an easy job but not a £38k job.

The public sector needs to get real over the excess of pubic spending since 2002. Believe it or not I am a Guardian reading Liberal voter but the clear out is going to be big and its long overdue.

27. some questions somewhat unclear and I didn't disagree strongly with any of them. I don't like big parties but I don like meeting new people in smaller groups and so on. There is some Aspergers in my extended family though so not a real surprise I'm scoring quite highly.

of course its too much. The public sector is stuffed to the brim with people doing waste of space jobs and getting too much for doing it. E.G. the head of Suffolk County Council on £250,000. FFS!

Its not the teachers, road sweepers, librarians and so on, its the endless pet projects, overlapping duties, short hours and final salary pensions. I'd love to have a chance to clear them out. I'd make the Tories £6billion cuts look like chicken feed. The waste is immoral.

I always have X5 drivers down as the biggest c**ts on earth followed by Cayennes, RR Sports and then all other large, bull bar adorned 4x4s in order that reduces with size. I do dislike generalisations (generally) but 4×4 drivers do live up to their poor reputation for driving IME.

and rhubarb.

Take advice is my advice. Citizens Advice, the debt advisory line already mentioed and if a business is involved get an Insolvency Practitioner involved asap. Begbies are v good but poss too big for your case. Smaller firms / partnerships will tend to be cheaper and probably good enough for what may be a simple case. Like so many things it is a sector with huge amounts of specialist rules, laws, clever tricks etc etc so the chances are you just cannot do as good a job yourself. Insolvency is far less frowned upon than in last recession so take pro advice – you could save a lot and these guys work for you even if its for the benefit of creditors.

Tom Wolfe +1

Flashman +1

Peter Hopkirk – the Great Game;

William Boyd, esp Ordinary Thunderstorms;

John le Carre – esp Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – an all time great book but anything of his really.

Can't comment on DT rinms aspect but i had RR s on Olympic rms last summer and worked fine with yellow rim tape and lots of JRA wheel milk. The video on the Stans website is very useful – wish I'd seen it earlier in my tubeless life.

Obviously non UST RRs are v thin but as you say, in the south it should be Ok if you avoid flints (so thats the whole of the south downs!). I ran mine at trans wales, chedder, D2D etc with no punctures.

Try this – loads of decent pubs around Smithfield / Farringdon and somewhere will be open. Smiths and St John are the best but not cheapest.

http://www.fancyapint.com/pubs/pub44.php

er…. no. But good vid!

I liked the guys leaping across between buildings – almost looked spontaneous, pissed students after a few beers.

Does she want kids (ever)? If so I'm not interested. Sorry.

its quite nice to see politicians talking without interupting each other. Does look rather stale so far though.

obviously you need to take into account arrangement fees, length of fix, early redemption penalties, extended redemption penalties and so on. Most people don't expect inflation to pick up any time soon due to the massive shrinkage in the economy over last 2 years but mortgage rates tend to rise in advance of BoE base rates increasing as markets tend to fret about inflation. Think about a collar / cap deal or just a good old fashioned discount that you can probably renew when it expires.

Cameron may be rish and have several generations of wealth behind him but surely he is no aristo? Where is the country house and 5,000 acres? I have lifted the following from virginmedia.com……

Their politics may be vastly different but Gordon Brown and David Cameron may have more in common than they would like to think as both are descended from farmers who appear in the mid-Victorian Scottish censuses living just 150 miles apart.
The two leaders' direct ancestors are among the 24 million names contained in the seven historical Scotland Censuses, from 1841 to 1901, which are now complete and fully indexed online for the first time on Ancestry.co.uk. Both Brown and Cameron's paternal great grandfathers are listed in the 1841 Scotland Census working the land in Fife and Invernesshire respectively. The Cameron family went on to enjoy much greater success than the Browns in the 19th Century. David is the great-great grandson of Sir Ewen Cameron, former Chairman of HSBC and one of Scotland's most successful financiers. He can also claim a direct blood relation to William IV through his father's maternal grandmother. Gordon, on the other hand, comes from a long line of agricultural labourers and stonemasons in Fife and is the first person in his family to achieve political success.

With about 15 in our office our kitchen is pretty messy by 11AM but that is proabaly because people leave it for the cleaner who attends nightly. A cleaning rota for four teams sounds unenforceable so i would close the kitchen, maybe for a month and then give it another go. Use CCTV perhaps but probably not worth it. If people are too idle to clean up their own mess then they really can't expect a kitchen.

BTW, are the cleaning materials provided and kept in stock?

Enjoy your R 'n' R, I'm sure you must deserve it.

I would say eating less is easiest way to lose weight as alot of people (not very relevant here maybe) start eating more than can be justified by the (often small) amount of new exercise they are doing. "I've just walked the dog for 30 mins so I'll have a pie" false logic.

If exercise is sufficient to burn a decent amount of calories then that must be best solution because as well as losing weight you will probably look better, feel better and probably be healthier than if you were just slim but not very fit.

i wore a 150 icebreaker to France last July and it was fine. Its all a bit cliched to say so but it didn't feel hot and sweaty even though it was high 20s and in the car etc. A cotton t shirt would have needed changing after 4-6 hours but because merino doesn't smell you don't start to worry half way through a day of overt sweating. They don't seem to get sodden like cotton can in extreme heat. I just wish I could wear Merino to work.

I've worn one for at 4-5 weeks of commuting (30 mins each way), with proper 4-6 hour weekend rides in between. A 2 wk skiing hol, incl both 9 hour flights was probably most intensive sweat fest ever imposed on mine though.

Bought small bits and pieces such as tyes, wheel milk and valves and more recently some rims and they have always turned up within 2-3 days. Faultless IME.

bearded clam
cheeseboy
gimp
plonker
plus many of those above.

How did this ever get to court?

A bruised leg?

The main witness / victim doesn't even turn up on the day.

Were they trying to set precedent or make case law etc? Did PPS bring this or was it private. The police need sorting out IMO but this looks like a pretty poor case to me.

Pensions are hard to resist because of the tax back part and if the employer is contributing it is silly to miss out on free money. That said commissions are normally 2-3% IME (initial plus annual management), and those fund managers don't half cock it up sometimes. Personally I think getting on the housing ladder and paying off a slug of the consequent mortgage is better. ISAs are not to be ignored either as they are tax free as they grow and when cashed in and you don't lose the lot if you die before retirement.

Bristol has good access to Ashton Gate that is pretty good for a post work thrash. In pure road terms inner London must be best – sheer numbers of riders at all times of day and night, on all roads make it so IMO. Lots of advanced stop lines, bus lanes, permeability, and I can't stress it enough, critical mass of riders that is where real security comes from.

Edinburgh and Sheffield score well I gather but some big towns / cities have very poor cycling participation.

Yes but always nice 'n' light. Gatwick mainly. No issues, I like EJ.

surely not? I find the cleats catch rather than slip. Only time i was ever caught out without any alternative footwear I drove barefoot as a safer option.

Taxing wide cars is a good one – I thought it was only me that had a grudge against wide cars.

tax fat, car fuel, utilities (with social tariffs so the tax rates are progressive), flights, children, second homes and SUVs. Alot.

well i've just paid £595 for some new F120RLCs so I would ahve given £300 no worries but a month late. Seems a fair discount to me.

The Jamaica article was quite long but fully relevant IMO – just cos its about poor kids on decades old shopping bikes the point is they're all loving it, everyone turns up, cycling is still cycling and is nearly always a good thing.

Ferentinos article was excellent but they normally are once you get past the intro rigmarole his writing style involves.

Worst bit was the bike tests and handle bar tests. I thought I could read any bike test but that stuff and bars are the least exciting part of any bike i reckon. Even stems are more interesting. Just!

The Minx interview could have had a bit more friday afternoon content I thought.

Overall, alright really. I've got every edition back to 5 and no way has the quality fallen. IMO.

Great thread, hard to add to.

As well as the London Underground and subterranean mainline services, London is home to another set of train tunnels which run 70 feet under the streets of central London between Whitechapel and Paddington. The entire tunnel network is 23 miles long1, was used up until May 2003, and was built for one purpose: to deliver the post.

And not many people know that! But you casn't see them so far as I know and I can't find any pics.

Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer.

I had the key hole operation on my right shoulder on Dec 18th last year, 6 wks in a sling, started commuting by bike this tuesday. Just finishing physio.

I first hurt it (crashing, out stretched arm, wrenching tearing feeling, hurt alot, managed to ride then drive home but stiff for a few days) in 2004 and various offs (some of ewhich were really minor) repeated the process on 4-5 occasions until this summer I had my first sublux that hurt exquisitely but doing chicken impressions got it to slide back in quite easily at which point the pain melted away and I finished the race in question. Happened again at D2D and saw GP a few weeks later having done some research amongst friends.

Consultant examined himself, x rayed then MRI scan all of which showed some but not massive damage. He said if I wasn't going to ride again then leave it but if i insisted on mountain biking then I ought to have the op. Excercises were never mentioned as a solution – he said cartilage etc doesn't mend itself (I may be mis quoting but that was the gist), I did worry he was incentivised to recommend (his) op but the op worked for a mate a few years ago so I chose to do it at start of winter. HONC will be my first proper event (not that its a race!!)

6 weeks in a sling is tedious esp if you need to drive. I missed riding in the snow!