I went out with a girl who would ask a series of questions like this :

Have you been to X before?
What did you think?
Who did you go with?
Why do you alway bring up your ex?

As Cougar says, if you’ve just shared a large chunk of your life with someone, it’s likely that they would come up in a conversation like the above.

The conversation above girlfriend didn’t last long. Chip on her shoulder about any other women in the world ever!

No, the knock off Chinese frames don’t have the melted thing going on and so look better and are far cheaper.

I’d love to know the maths that went into that big ring.

joemarshall: That’s a classic STW “Nice try, but here’s a product that I own that’s better” post.

It does look better, I also own bike that isn’t worth Fort Knox money, but would be very annoying if stolen. Great shout, cheers for the recommendation.

loddrik: I’ve got friends who took jobs in Liverpool after they graduated and 2 of them moved to other parts of the country with crime, in particular theft, being one of the main reasons.

If one is starting to thin, and on balance you’d prefer it didn’t, then minoxidil is well worth using.

Worked wonders for me. Put my date with the clippers off by 10 years I reckon.

Have considered a “Danger High Voltage” sticker for the shed as it looks like a electrical distribution box.

That might just encourage metal thieves after cabling! Thinking about it, they probably don’t go looking in back gardens….

My question is around shed alarms. You can get the PIR ones with remote control keb fobs for less than a fiver on Ebay.. Are they any good, eg loud enough? I’m also assuming that you would have to tuck them away in the shed to avoid a swift swing of a crowbar taking it out.

Cheap ones do go soft very quickly and there is definitely an upper limit on technology in a foam roller.

As suggested above, one of the Fit 66 ones from ebay/amazon are a good compromise.

Or if you’re feeling evil a Rumble Roller

More likely to be a recovery/virus/over training/volume issue than a sudden reduction in aerobic capacity.

The ability to recover goes down far more quickly with age (tell me about it) than overall potential fitness.

Train with this in mind. Maybe drop a longer steady state training session for some intervals, etc.

Request gas and get knocked out if it’s too much torment.

Kids and wife don’t eat into your disposable income, they eat into your actual income.

All the above things are great suggestions, but….

Service, service, service. This is what keeps people coming back. Start conversations, say what you’re doing, get to know people, hold events, do group rides, etc, etc. This is the free part that makes you the money.

Sell, sell, sell! Go directly to your market. Flyer the paid for carpark, speak to walkers, speak to cyclists. Again do it personally rather than putting any adverts out and it will be cheap and effective. If you’re not annoying the competition then you’re not doing enough!

Good luck!

I never end up with charred on the outside/raw inside food.

perfect. Wasn’t crisp at all.

We eat our steaks very differently!

molgrips you are 100% correct.

Those chimney lighter things are brilliant. As you say, no chemicals and even better is that you can just light it and leave it. 20 mins later you’re ready to go – no faffing or fanning or constantly rearranging a pyramid of crumbling charcoal. Makes it as simple as a gas BBQ with the advantages of a charcoal one.

As to the OP…. Ok, I’ll bite.

I guess it depends how you view food and cooking.

On the cooking side. I see it as a social activity to be shared with friends, have people involved, bring their own food, chopping salad, getting on the grill themselves. Actually having people engage with the cooking of food and see that as part of the joy of it all, rather than seeing it as a chore and hidden away. In the summer it’s warm outside, that’s where the people are going to be, and so that’s where the cooking happens.

On the food side. A steak tastes better done on a charcoal grill than the one on a cooker. That’s it.

Best place to live and place where people most want to live are very different.

If I were to live abroad it would be in Australia or USA.

The reason it wouldn’t be Norway (number 1 best place) is because I don’t speak the language and so my employment prospects would be worse.

Also Ireland coming in at 7 makes a mockery of that list anyway! No weather, no economy, no chance.

I always had it in my head (yes I had thought about it) that it was so annoying kids couldn’t press it and get the immediate kick of stopping the traffic straight away. The delay would stop them doing it.

This all may be in my head but the instant stop ones tend to be in less child dense areas than the delayed ones.

Steel is real

Didn’t take long. Boring chat.

Aldi factor 30. Cheap, effective, smells good, reapply if necessary and still way cheaper than p20.

Carbon repairs nicely. No need for a new frame.

Must have been a hell of a clunk.

probably fine for the non smart applications

Compared to a standard Nokia with a bazillion hours of talk/standby time it was both useless as a smart and non smart phone.

May have been Ok without all the bloatware, but by the time the consumer got it it did nothing both ways. Utterly useless phone!

Looks like I may have a strong stomach.

Either that or some of the above is a wee bit over the top.

Cool it quickly after cooking, 5 days in the fridge, no problem.

I have risotto reheated for lunch most days. I microwave but of course not an option for you.

Enough moisture to stop it sticking and you’ll be fine!

A friend of mine is a police officer.

He goes by the reaction of an individual when he stops them “for a chat”. Defensive, aggressive and suspicious gets further attention.

The police need to be able to use their initiative and instincts. This needs to be done within a framework that creates fairness, but suspicious activity needs attention. Polite and unobstrusive to begin and go from there based on what you see and here.

She could root it, but being the sort of person who didn’t know what she was buying, she really isn’t going to do the farting about to root it.

I was shocked at how rubbish it was out of the box. In her words, she’ll never buy an HTC again. Shame as the latest HTCs are pretty awesome. Very poor that they let somethign like this go to market – it just kills the brand.

Continually slag-off the poor and vunerable and nothing happens. Make a mistake about one of the powerful and look what happens…

Anything specific you want to get off your chest, or just a generalisation?

Thats fairly out of date really, nothing has not really worked in the last couple of years

Oh I don’t know. One of my work colleagues was flogged a cheapo HTC by a high street shop that has enough internal memory for well, errr, nothing. Can’t install any real apps, struggles with email, etc.

I like HTCs, I ownded the very good Desire HD, and think they are underated. Wouldn’t touch one of their cheapo ones though – it just doesn’t work!

Sorry, I didn’t reply to this which is very rude.

Not adverse to sales is a good start. It’s hard to know until you’ve done it.

If you:

Enjoy speaking to people, especially new people and it comes naturally
Can handle rejection
Strong work ethic
Are persuasive, either by facts/personality or preferably both.
Like to win

then it points towards having sales ability. That list is by no means exclusive but is relevant to recruitment.

Go on a few recruiters websites, (Maybe Michael Page, Hays, Robert Walters, etc) and have a look at their work for us pages and see what you think.

Agreed DezB.

If something looks out of place then it’s worth a quick check.

Although it does remind me of a time when I was running across Manchester city centre because I was late for uni:

Police officer: Stop there, why are you running
Me: None of your business.
Police officer: You’re going to have to tell me why you’re running.
Me: No. Unless you’ve got any questions I’m going now.
Police officer: Not unless you tell me why you’re running.
Me: Arrest me. Bye.

In hindsight I should have just said I was running late for uni. But he was a bit rude and full of himself and I was 19 and so also a bit rude and full of myself.

I really don’t see how her tweet was libel.

She was essentially saying the Lord Mcalpine was a paedophile. It was phrased in a sarcastic and offhand way, but the message was clear.

Zopiclone is amazingly effective. Also addictive and a slippery slope…

Loads of stuff you can do before going down that route:

– Try avoiding bright lights + screens for 2 hours before bed. Looking at a smart phone or tv in bed is lethal.
– Blackout blinds are great. Sleeping in absolute darkness is loads better. Check out ebay for cheap and effective options.
– In fact go a stage further. Banish any light from the bedroom, LED clock displays, standby leds, plug socket LEDs, etc.
– Go to bed earlier. Read, have fun, talk about rubbish. Give sleep a run up.
– Caffeine has a really long half life. Try and avoid from the afternoon on. Booze is great self medication initially but gives poor sleep and you pay for it later.
– Before taking prescription med’s, why don’t you try something like ZMA. Gives you funky dreams but helps my sleep cycles.
– I also prefer to have some kind of sound in the room otherwise my over active mind will fill the silence with random thoughts from the day and I can’t switch off. Random podcasts like Gardeners Question Time do the trick nicely! Pleasent to listen to but I have no real interest. It’s like listening to the sea go in and out, in and out, in andzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Did I mention: Darkness, darkness, darkness.

Good luck. Lack of sleep has major health implications. It should be taken as seriously as something like stopping smoking in my humble opinion.

I got one a few months ago and love it.

I didn’t want to wait for the S4 or pay the premium price of an early adopter. Got mine as free phone + 27 per month for 24 months. Cash back on quidco as well.

I couldn’t see myself with a screen below 5″ now. I also wouldn’t want a screen bigger than the 5.5″ inch of the Note 2 meaning I’ve found my sweet spot. The two considerations on size are getting your fingers across the screen and getting it in your pocket, especially when sitting down. I’m quite tall so the above are ok for me but I could see how it could be more of an issue for others.

I’ve got an Iphone 4s for work and it looks pathetic in all ways compared to the Note 2! Pixel density difference or not – size and vibrancy wins.

Bit less air in the tyres and a bit more standing up!

as hmanchester says they are a good way of making sure you get the required macronutrients, but they are no substitute for eating real food and certainly not essential.

Not really got what I was on about. Done right they can be a very good substitute for eating “real food” (or whatever that means) if you have time, cost, convenience, satiety factors to deal with.

The fact is that possibly supplements have a place if you are a professional athlete

Yes they do. I compete to a high level in sport but don’t get paid directly – does this mean that they don’t have a place in my diet? (They do).

Either way I’m not interested in an argument

It shows.

I’m finding it increasingly difficult to build and hold leg strength and my leg muscles are sore and tired for two days after every ride

I have a fairly low-protein diet and don’t eat very big meals

Here’s a problem. The two main factors in recovery are rest and nutrition. Small amounts of low protein food in combination with loads of exercise is probably going to cause recovery issues.

I’d agree with the oats bit totally.

If you’re on a budget and you want to up your calories then a shake of:

Oat powder
Whey Protein
Cocoa powder/milk shake powder
Full fat milk

Look on Bulkpowders or Myprotein for the bits and bobs. It’s drinkable and effective.

without deliberately eating additional protein?

How about accidently eating additional protein?

I’m pretty sure this is a ‘look at me I just worked out’ thing.

Possibly for some, but it’s also a convenient, cheap and quick way to consume high quality protein and carbs immediately after exercise. I find that the above sentiment comes from a chip on the shoulder of the observer.

Ment (sic) to add that no matter how many protein shakes you have a day, if its not along side large decent meals with good ingredients, a good workout plan and alot of rest, it will do sweet F A

Depends what’s in your “protein shakes”. Mine have bananas, cooked sweet potato, nut oils, berries, whey protein, spinach and other goodies in there. I think this would be a very good diet to grow muscle with but I also like to consume food that isn’t liquidised. Maximuscle premixed on the other hand wouln’t be that great.

Like all generalisations I would be extremely sceptical of this formula. If it arrives at the correct figure then that is purely by chance I would say.

This isn’t a generalisation, (bodyweight in kg x2 for g of protein) it is an estimate of the optimal amount to have based on previous experience of training by many people. Might be a bit higher, might be lower, 100s of factors are in play. Decent starting point though. See how it works and go from there.

“Protein shakes” get a bad rap. They are not all the same. Liquidising high quality and high protein foods for convenience, cost, ease and speed of disgestion is a great idea if you’re looking to consume more food than normal maintenance. Boshing back branded pre mixed powders than can be 40%+ sugars isn’t so great.

I found a guys wallet when walking my dogs. Bits of it scattered all over the place. I collected it all and rode round to his house later that day (drivers license had the address). He looked at me like I’d nicked it and almost point blank accused me of helping myself to the cash.

My house was burgled a couple of years ago and my wallet was one of the things to go. Cash and cards gone, but DL and other bits and pieces that would be hard to replace still there.

A teenage girl knocked on my door a couple of days later, look scared to death, and handed me my wallet. She’d found it thrown into her garden but was scared that I would have thought that she nicked it – but her conscience got the better of her and she brought it round.

Heart warming in a strange way in Manchester!

Yes, when you come to pay you can use whatever option you want.

Cheaper to use your balance rather than a card because you won’t be charged interest. Why not keep your “warchest” on your CC?

dazh, have you ever considered that the way you think you come across and the way that you actually do come across are not the same?

Recruitment companies look favourably on retail experience for new consultants. The plus points are work ethic and putting in the hours, customer focussed approach, used to working to targets, etc. Also your sector background would be very useful for a retail recruiter.

The question is, do you like sales?

it sounds very strange to me, and not something I’ve ever come across.

I guess I made it up then. Either that or as you’re not me, and you do have kids, it’s highly unlikely someone would tell you that you should have kids.

I think you confuse ‘preaching’ with just ‘talking’

Nope. Where talking ends and it becomes preaching isn’t a defined line and it will be different for different listeners. For gonefishin and myself it appears that you’ve crossed that line into preaching, especially the comment in question. You don’t think you have, which is fine, but might be useful to know how it comes across to others. Or it might not.

Saying how awesome it is – fine (in moderation).

Saying how awesome it is and you don’t know what you’re missing and you just don’t understand – patronising and irritating.

Nailed it.

I basically suggested that people shouldn’t pre-judge it based on pre-conceptions as they’re more than likely wrong. Is that preaching?

Preach: To advocate, especially to urge acceptance of or compliance with.

Yes, it’s preaching.