I’ve never accepted ‘official’ versions of anything even when you look at historical stuff now, it’s different from what was touted at the time.

I’ve had my doubts about the Diana thing ever since being told it was going to happen three weeks prior by a pal who was working in the personal protection business at the time, he then denied he ever said it even though he claimed she was pregnant, was threatening conversion to the Muslim faith and likely it would be a car accident.

The other theory I’ve always believed is the death of JFK at the hands of the ‘Industrial Military Combine’ via the CIA, rather than Lee Harvey Oswald and the Cuban interests..

If you ever visit Cuba, pay a visit to their museum of the revolution, it’s a total eye opener if you happened to live through that period as I did as a youth.

‘Nothing is as it seems’ I think sums up life very well that and ‘don’t believe everything your read in the papers, except the Daily Mail of course 😉

Rio – Member
The simple solution would be to divert the container trucks onto the rail system
Would indeed be simple, if the rail system in the SE wasn’t full to capacity. And given the scale of the NIMBY objections to HS2 I can’t see that changing in the near future.

The rail system is only full to capacity during commuter periods, freight can travel at any time, day or night, it would not only be less dangerous to motorists, there would be health benefits from less diesel emissions, more work at local hubs for short trips by UK drivers rather than tired Continentals and our world would seem at least temporarily a less crowded place, trucks take up a lot of room and folk tend to give them a wide berth.

The M25 is a nightmare, particularly that strip, if you want to go anywhere for a meeting or flight, you need to be on the M25 by 5.30, 6 am at the latest.

It is the main route for all continental inbound traffic from the Tunnel and Channel Ports North, so the problems are mainly created by Trucks, everyone in our town knows somebody that has been killed by a truck, usually continental and usually due to a sideswipe or just plain being run right over by a trucker watching a dvd or dozing. Without wanting to sound to xenophobic the East Europeans are often the worse.

The simple solution would be to divert the container trucks onto the rail system and disperse by local hubs.

Take the trucks out of the equation and more motorists would use the inside and middle lanes and there would be less accidents, it very seldom car on car, it’s more usually truck on car and they take longer to clear up.

edit + Agree with Dartford Tolls, they did say once it was paid for they would be dropped – ha as if.

The Blackwall Tunnel is equally chocker in the morning, but one solution oft forgotten about if you’re headed North over the Thames, say visiting the London Bike Boat show, try the Woolwich ferry, it’s a free service which is quite amazing in this day and age.

People do live there, but there is a two tier property market, expensive for off islanders, ok for locals which can only be sold to folk born there, at least that used to be the drill, being a tax haven you used to need a mil at least to move in and that was back in the eighties, more likely ten mil by now.

It’s a very different place to Jersey, a lot rockier coast against Jerseys sandy beaches, fierce rivalry between the two islands in sporting events, Guernsey folk are normally referred to as donkeys I can’t remember why but they call Jersey folk ‘crapauds’ something to do with frogs.

Nice island if you have money, great seafood, excellent water sports, er bit limited riding and the locals are Ok once you get to know them..

……..but then I need to grow up too

Well, if we’re really going to get into stuff we don’t necessarily really feel that guilty about, (other than being in the presence of Audi driving art house single speed pseuds), then 2nd best film ever amen..

For lots of reasons.. Arnie rode a Harley (I had one at the time), the birth of serious computer graphics, and the ingenious T-1000, everything changed after that.

camo16 – Member
Nothing guilty about this – its a bona fide classic!

Point Break if there is any guilt it’s not watching it with total joy (although there are a few cringe moments round bonfires and at parties) ‘Cut my first tube’ is the classic delivery at exactly the right moment in all cinema history. Required viewing in GRF Towers, all must stay silent.. Classic movie, so classic it’s now our address here… That and also what it is..

In no particular order, I love them all, the Mrs thinks I should be more grown up.

Waynes World
Waynes World 2
Blues Brothers
Dude Where’s My Car
Drop Dead Gorgeous
American Pie
Hangover
Old School
Zoolander
Anchorman

Guilty pleasure, will watch them again and again and…

Junkyard – Member
I was “translating” what someone else had said that someone else could not understand on this thread – it is obvious from your quote this is what I have done rather than give a personal view. Clearly you dont read very well, struggle to comprehend and jump to erroneous conclusion and use the royal “we” when you give your own view.
Just like you though i dont mean it personally you are just a victim of your conditioning.

Well just the same, perhaps in future when answering posts of mine, please take a little trouble and correct your spelling, punctuation and first person capitalisation, then maybe I’ll mentally give you credit for not being wrongly placed in charge of our nation’s education, or, don’t bother and ignore me in future, that way ‘we’ all end up happy. 😉

Junkyard – Member
The conclusion was it a nice to have but not a big deal anymore . . .
Is that making any sense to anyone else?

What is hard about that?
It matters less now than it used to[ no big deal anymore], however, it is still a useful skill to have an it would be useful [ nice] to have it

Patently that is where you are wrong, it does matter to a certain sector of society, who, very often are in positions to determine the future of our youth. The arrogance of those in the education sector, thinking like you, doesn’t serve either cause well.

I don’t mean to cast blame here, you have in turn been a victim of your own training/guidance and for that, other than you choosing to improve for the sake of those you teach, there’s nothing much anyone can do, suffice to say, being wrong and continuing to argue the point just increases the view that we have of the misguided arrogance prevalent in your profession.

Take it or leave it, no skin off my nose and believe it or not, nothing contained herein is intended to upset you personally, as I said, you are in turn the victim of your own conditioning.

‘Can’t get used to losing you’ was always a favourite of mine and somehow apt for the circumstance, very melancholic. RIP indeed.

It’ll all be fine once we live under sharia law…

You shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the teaching profession never mind fifteen year old girls, if you can’t spell, read or write to the capability of an educated Victorian ten year old, which puts a lot of them out of work.

cheekyboy – Member
How bizarre that on a ‘cyclists’ forum a fellow cyclist is berated for confronting some jobsworth copper too bone idle to do his job properly.
Slag him off for being a tory by all means but not for doing what many of us would commend if it was anyone else.

+1.
If he’d been ‘two jags’ sweeping in or out (not sure which way he was headed, if it was out then Plod is bang out of order anyway and deserved to be called on it, either way it was only because he was on a bike, so why is everyone taking the idle coppers side?

I’d have the bastards job.

Junkyard – Member

Please tell me you are not one of those responsible for tutoring our young..

there is only one conclusion that can be reached to that question

try‘ there is only one conclusion that can be drawn from that question’ sounds much better

Junkyard – Member
I either am or I am not

sorry too ambiguous
HTH it didn’t, 3/10 try harder…

There their they’re, prick a bit did it? I do hope it’s bicycle mechanics or woodwork you teach.. :wink

Oh and don’t think it hasn’t escaped our attention out here in the private sector where a days work prevented posting on internet forums, the number of posts that must have emanated from the staff room over a cuppa.. tough life.

Junkyard – Member
I can only draw one conclusion from that, and that is either the teacher isn’t aware of the ‘they’re their and there’ difference of use and meaning or simply can’t be asked,
unless i am very much mistaken that is two reasons and you dont know which is true…do you know what conclusion means?

Er that is the conclusion, the two alternatives from an either or scenario.. Please tell me you are not one of those responsible for tutoring our young.. 😕

Peyote – Member
Ha ha, that made me laugh! You sound like my Mum berating me for not knowing the capital cities of all the worlds countries “despite doing Geography at A-level”*!

I’m mid 30’s too!

* She’ll never understand truncated valleys or plate tectonic theory though…

Which does beg the question though does it not – the lack of knowledge of which item degrades you most?

Time was, teaching was a respectable profession, you would ask a teacher or a magistrate to sign your passport photograph, they like the Police, were held with some respect within the community, now without going into the why’s and wherefores of post modern political Britain, that sadly is no longer the case, because of the general drop off in standards, so when you find yourself having to correct mistakes of those paid to do a task, quite naturally that respect erodes. In my case I’ve witnessed four above average intelligent girls pass through private school, it would take a book rather than a forum post to detail all the anecdotal horrors of modern education even in private schools, but suffice to say the number of teachers that these days are worth their pay is a lot less than it was a while back imv.

As to that latest piece of work, it was a history project about the role of Women in Elizabethan England, we even had a family debate as to how it compared with Women in certain Muslim countries today as an ironical aside, but, it was as with most projects a googled wikifest enhanced only by the fact No4 daughter had created an artificial tea stain induced parchment effect. Probably this that drew the excellent marking, but nonetheless the written content was lacking as indicated and not marked as such, so I can only draw one conclusion from that, and that is either the teacher isn’t aware of the ‘they’re their and there’ difference of use and meaning or simply can’t be asked, either way not a shining example for pupil or parent and certainly not the profession. If it were an isolated incident then it could be forgiven and forgotten, but it aint, at work I’m on the receiving end of CV’s that you would think might be sub edited correctly, I’ve had University Educated types who don’t know the meaning of some day to day phrases, words and their meanings, my eldest daughters having passed through University didn’t even know who Admiral Nelson was and what he did.

All the Fundamentals are forgotten, human ability to communicate by reading and writing is paramount in any job as to a certain extent is elementary maths, the three rrr’s the newspapers all crack on about, which it is the duty of all teaching folk to impart to the young, all the young not just a few and they aint doing it, it’s as simple as that.

Sorry about the rant, I tried to stay away, but seriously teachers – no it’s not the hours, or the money, sadly it’s more likely second or third generation result of bad teachers before them, they probably don’t actually know any different and lots just don’t leave the system, out of school through college then become teacher and perpetuate the dross. Not everyone, but too many for comfort.

On a more humorous note anyone seen the Bad Teacher movie starring Cameron Diaz? Hilarious, don’t you just love that woman?

Teachers…

Amazing how many post on this forum at all times of day..

My 15 going on 16 yr old recently showed me a piece she’d had marked excellent, They’re, there & their were all spelt ‘there’..

Say no more really, they just don’t make em like they used to imho and as to working hard I wish it were mandatory that they had worked in a proper job in the private sector first, then maybe they’d realise how life aint as bad being a teacher as it might seem to them currently.

Not paid much attention to all this, but how do Boy Scouts get on with sheath knives these days then and according to that, the boat knife I carry has a locking blade, so clearly I break the law daily..

When did all this legislation happen?

So basically to prevent us taking a knife to a gunfight then?

Hah! I get this all the time, it’s just plain boredom anxiety complex, I’ve dealt with it in several ways..

Drink too much and pass out.

Drink too much throw up on myself (he’s getting on a bit bless him)

Done the pyjama thing as well.

Got an early flight going away on business you’ll have to excuse me, please don’t make too much noise…

Go into the kitchen and set something on fire, let it burn a bit scream and shout then put it out…

Call the police to complain about the noise..

Get some kids to come round and chuck rocks at the window then disappear off to the pub chasing them..

There must be lots of other ways.. use your imagination, it can be part of the fun of the evening, working ways to get shot of them..

Made this a year or so back.

It was supposed to be a speed board for windsurfing based on the logic of floating water skis powered by a rig – it didn’t work.

Then I tried all over again (what was that about the definition of insanity) this time larger scale as a sailing dinghy only I got someone else to build it for me so technically it was a design concept.

Which also didn’t work, well it worked, but not like it was supposed to and it damn near gave me a hernia every time I tried to lift it.

I should also point out, not being the discriminatory sort I have not denied the North a fair share of my pee..

There are several reservoirs up there that I have spread the joy and relief of a warm leg over the years..

Hah great minds, got the edit in first.. 😆

Always gives me a warm feeling, when I’m up that Lunnon sailing on their reservoirs peeing down the leg of my wetsuit.. 😆

binners – Member
It has a bearing. The point I am trying to make is that all money circulates.
I’ll repeat the earlier example: Phillip Green made £1.5 billion in profit. This was all generated in high street sales from British shops. He then funnels all this money through his wifes Monaco bank accounts so as not to pay any tax. And would you believe the Tories got this leech on board to advise on Tax policy?!!!! Like I said… you really couldn’t make it up!

So, anyway… This £1.5 billion has left the country to a super-yacht endowed, billionaires playground without contributing a penny in tax to the country where it was earned*

In what way is this money ‘circulating’?

* the word earned is used figuratively, obviously

Sorry, don’t mean to be picking on you, but Sunseeker make lots of those Yachts, right now they are the Southampton Boat show and the jobs building them are in the UK.. No idea if Richard Green bought one.

You can’t blame folk for not wanting to pay tax to these idiots who squander it, cheat on their expenses, fight wars for their own self aggrandisement and any number of other means of wasting it.

Well for what it’s worth in my career I’ve held both extreme views, from being a very left wing NUJ branch secretary in the Seventies where demarcation was the rule until now, where I actually voted bloody Tory in the last election such was my disgust at Blair and Brown squandering the opportunity they were given in the late 90’s, it is a sad fact they all want to appear to be City friendly and there’s nothing that corrupts a socialist more than a champagne lifestyle.

The problem we are actually faced with now is simply one of perception, we perceive they are all stupid and they probably are. Business folk like myself who need to employ more people, desperately as it happens, can’t because we have no faith in the future, nor do we want to invest by borrowing (not that we could as the Banks stand right now) or investing cash if we were lucky to have any left after five years of recession, again due to negative perception of a future market in the near term.

No-one is selling sun filled uplands as the future right now and seriously they need to so nobody does anything, we exist one day to the next and hope things will work themselves out, meanwhile the banks that yes, are the cause of the problem and are not swayed by Government other than negatively in the increasing demands placed upon their debt ratios and capitol requirements by the Basle agreements and other reports that the BOE are being advised by. Meanwhile business failures are running at the date of 10,000 plus a year I believe I read somewhere.

Concerning money leaving the country I was interested to hear about the Bristol Pound, anyone know anything more about it? They are or have created their own currency in Bristol with the view of keeping cash local, I shall go google it after I finish this, it sounds like an interesting and radical concept, which we so desperately need to all this, some sort of live wire group with a radical solution and a change from the same old same old left and right wing politics, neither are tolerant of the other and politics never ever helped any commercial situation and until commerce does pick up we are going to continue to be in the crap.

Edit: Here an interesting example to radically keep money local Bristol Pound

binners – Member
I have to say… I’m getting quite unnerved by all this agreeing with me. Just to check… this is the Singletrack Forum, isn’t it?

From a casual observance recently from what i can see anyone who might disagree or have right wing views is banned, or would be for uttering them, is that not the case?

As to the OP’s wife, she is spot on, nobody outside of politics has any faith whatsoever in either the Politicians, or any instrument of the State, like the Police, as to the NHS anyone with any sense at all avoids it like the plague and it doesn’t take much business acumen to realise borrowing huge sums of money to finance groups of individuals clustered around computers all day instead of doing what they should be, either in the Police Force or the NHS, is a busted flush. Don’t even get me started on financing wars on borrowed money, or a huge state benefit system, if I had my way, there would be nothing for anyone unless it was earned, I’d set up huge Energy Farms powered by people in Hamster wheels or exercise bikes connected to generators, even the disabled could take part and pay them for the energy they create… Everyone would contribute, they would all be fitter and certainly not fat (nobody came out of Belsen over weight), Bankers? Hang them all and start over.

Apologies for the Rant..

Lenovo, that was the name I was trying to remember i saw one at Eurobike, one of the Electra reps had one, it looked remarkably MBA-ish, tbh I was very disappointed with Mountain Lion and have had to use Windoze 7 is it the latest, so I can log onto the European outfits crap software that I work for and these days so much of the Mac stuff is portable, iTunes, iCloud I thought about giving it a whirl, at the end of the day Excel is Excel no matter what the platform.

Thanks for reminding me three hundred and fifty quid is a big saving from a grand or more which you need to spend to get any half decent storage, then all i need to do is keep this Macbook Pro 17 as a desk machine, maybe fit it with one of those flash drives and jobs a goodun..

molgrips – Member
Why a macbook air?

Plenty of other options if you want something small.

Er name one, that isn’t a netbook or pad pc thing..

Oh and I’ve used Macs since before it became a fanboy thing – graphic designer in another life – so I find them easier to deal with, but, they (Apple) are beginning to get above themselves so I don’t have the loyalty I once had and they are the computer of chav choice these days I notice…

Thanks for that chaps, always reliable this place, so it’s pretty much what I guessed it was, not actually as much use an an iPad with a keyboard which is pretty useless at anything other than showing pre defined spreadsheets. (Not saying it isn’t useful for loads of other stuff, my needs are spread sheets with often complicated formula which Mac Numbers wont even crunch.)

So it’s back to plan A and a bloody expensive macbook air, I’m just fed up with travelling with a full macbook pro, it weighs a ton after a while in the jolly old back pack of joy…

I bet the chrome book style of thing is eventually where we’ll all end up eventually, the sheer volume of cash that is being invested in server farms is off the scale but we need more reliable up and downlinks than we currently have particularly here in Kent, anyone tethered a 4G mobile device yet?

Concept 2 another vote for if you must, buy it off ebay, buy well and you get to sell it for more than you paid for it when you inevitably get fed up with the sheer mind numbing boredom and get back out pounding the pavements then doing chin ups on a tree branch in the garden, or buy one of those expanding tunturi bar things, put it in the door and split your whole house in half as your continued chin ups keep winding it up..

Bad news, the 1st bread knife wasn’t to happy, she left me shortly after that incident, moral of the tale, use someone elses house or a gym… Oh and er don’t shag her mate.. 😉

Old Army truism

Never trust an officer with a map.

Yep, ex Queen Scout moi, love maps and marine charts

I was hoping this returning was a positive outcome, am a bit perturbed reading it with a new Jack cross Doby pub on my lap not far from fields and a massive warren, hope you get her back, it is still warm and there are plenty of rabbits about, at least there are round here.

Come on, I know y’all love it really, I mean what could be more satisfying after the weekly Sunday pelleton bore staring into half a dozen sweaty Lycra clad butt cheeks pounding those SPD’s down country lanes than to relax in the idyll of former times when the lower orders knew their place. Even though they speak a bit more modern than you might expect.

Never heard of Dock Leaves?

Where there are nettles generally there are Dock Leaves, nothing like them for relieving the sting.

Wish they worked on wasps, I inadvertently lawn mowered over a wasp nest in my open toed sandals, the sting and irritation lasted a week.

If he could only cure alzheimers… 😉

I was up that Lunnon day before yesterday, went to Park Royal, then got taken to this bike shop I was visiting, then somehow wandering around looking for one of those Underground things to get back to sanity I blundered into that Regent Street and an Apple store, so given it was the glorious twelfth, thought I’d see if I could catch a glance..

Not a chance, the place was full of foreign students, every machine occupied in face time foreign gibberish with some similar twerp at the other end, and or gamers locked into some global apple gaming store contest, one wonders how Apple do manage to sell anything.

No sign of that iphone 5, anyway if you just edit your sign off you can save the cash thus..

Sent from my iphone 5

I’m gutted they didn’t sign Bradders..

Not least for binners promise of entertainment