smarmy bikers? are you sure?

because for those of you who are working parents, that's an extra 2 weeks childcare to sort out, unless you're planning on starting autumn term 2 weeks earlier as well.

Can't see that going down too well, going back to school for a week and then a bank holiday monday to deal with ;-)

Jazz driver = old man
Audi driver = the new BMW driver
Skoda driver = inverse snobbery

and you say the Fiesta's too small.

ill-deserving overpaid pedantic rsoles for whom affording a decent family holiday is not a problem anyway.

not me. Ill-deserving – of what? Overpaid – nope, I get what the market will pay. pedantic – sometimes ;-)

affording a decent..holiday – well, ok last year was a bit special, 2 weeks in Canada, but it was for my sister's wedding. I won't be going anywhere this year, or next, nor the year after, most likely.

But I stand by what I said. If you choose to have children, you also choose not to be able to take holidays whenever you bloody well please

one of my molars was so heavily filled that eventually there wasn't much tooth left; eventually it broke off.
I ended up with a white gold crown. Can't remember how much though, although it was on the NHS

As a non-parent – so I clearly have no idea what I'm talking about – tough.

1) you know when school holidays are when you choose to have children
2) holidays are a luxury. If you can't afford them in school holidays, either (a) don't have kids (b) don't have holidays or (c) have the holidays in school holidays and go somewhere that you can afford.

actually…

book yourself in to Bradford on the 5th & come & see my band play at Zuu Bar ;-)

bugger I meant Etape. Cheers Ton

+1 for 123-reg.co.uk

there's a Holiday Inn Express just outside the city centre on Kirkstall Road (A65), and an IBIS on The Calls, just opposite the bus station. No idea what prices are like though

HTH

like Bontrager's Cheap/Strong/Light thing, most software comes with a "cheap/good – choose one" disclaimer

having said that, I use Magix Movie Edit Pro – I think it cost £50 but could've been less.
But having said that, when I bought my camcorder a few years back, it came with something in the box (which doesn't work with Vista, hence the above) – didn't you get anything in the box?

least the ex won't be nagging about "how much for a bike?" and "you're not keeping that in here"

depending on size, but a 4m x 3m conservatory should come in somewhere between £11k and £15k fully built, wired & project managed. If you want to do it as a kit, try Wickes, Focus, B&Q etc for the materials but you'll still need to factor in the labour and the groundwork

And don't forget the roof blinds, they are essential to keep the sun out in the height of summer (not as daft as it sounds, even in the UK), and they are not cheap. I forget how much ours were, but with something stupid like 50% discount they still came in at a grand or two for blinds covering all roof and vertical panels, including the doors.

pyracantha, berberis, mahonia, holly, hawthorn, gorse – all good spiky plants. check what your local farmers' fields use for hedges.

Yay! It's still there :-)

Tbh I couldn't be arsed looking but there you go

No, I missed that tour completely. I'd moved away & completely lost touch. But I can picture it now

not sure I could get to Leeds city centre by car in that time!

probably not, in rush hour ;-) It can take that long to get from Weetwood roundabout to Headingley War Memorial

there used to be a website dedicated to misheard lyrics. IIRC it was http://www.kissthisguy.com, but I doubt if it's still there

besides, Mrs Drummer works for HMRC ;-)

blue skies, dry & sunny in Leeds & Bradford area. I imagine the A65 will be a nice drive in this

assuming you're only going to "look at it" today rather than "buy" it today, If you like it, say you'll buy it but you want it taxed from Monday, and offer to pay the price of 6 months tax disc.

Is it a private seller or garage/dealer? If it's a dealer they can usually do the '7 day free insurance' thing & sort the tax out for you, then you go pick it up already taxed next Saturday. If it's private, well they'll still be insured on it in their own name, so not a problem
DON'T let them tax it today, you'll lose 1 month's RFL

"Your password has expired. Please contact online support"

"Because you did not activate your online password within 28 days we deleted your account"

"It will take 7 days to get a new account set up and password sent out to you"

"You will be charged a penalty of £100 for late submission of your tax return unless the tax you are due to pay is paid by the 31st of January"

I love HMRC.

not like they haven't been giving you plenty of notice.

Your born. You earn. You die. You pay taxes. Four inevitable (ok, three) facts of life.
You KNOW the tax year ends on the 5th April. You KNOW the tax return is due NO LATER than 31st January. Why leave it to the last minute and then panic because your login details don't work.
If you chose to file a paper return it would have been due a month ago.

MTFU.

BTW I just did mine, it took all of 10 minutes. It's called "being prepared"

if I go there again I won't be coming back ;-)

sounds ok like that

I wouldn't try doing Niagara/Toronto and Vancouver on the same trip.

But Vancouver & the Rockies yes, or Toronto & Niagara, yes.

If you do the Rockies, Canmore is about 1 hour drive west of Calgary and a good base for doing the mountains. Visit Banff while you're there, but stay in Canmore, it's cheaper; drive up the Icefield Parkway towards Jasper too. Lake Louise is very pretty, but nearby Moraine Lake is supposedly more picturesque. The Athabasca glacier is quite impressive too. If you want to park up while in the National Parks you'll need a Park Permit, which can be quite expensive.

In Vancouver itself, Stanley Park is nice; Chinatown is worth a look and the shopping in downtown is quite impressive.
En route between Canmore & Vancouver is Kamloops, it can get quite warm there in the summer (39decC in August while we were there), quite popular with the 'freeride' crowd. Okanaga valley is Canada's vineyard. The high route from Kamloops to Vancouver can be almost desert-like scrub in places, more like you'd imagine Nevada/California to be…

And don't be disappointed if you don't see too much wildlife. We saw 1 elk, umpteen magpies, squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks etc, half a dozen eagles, but not a single moose, bear, wolf, coyote, cougar or anything else remotely dangerous in 2 weeks. Oh, and some semi-tame raccoons in Stanley Park

Lake Louise is about an hour further from Canmore; Vancouver is 9 hours the 'quick' way or 11 hours if you take the high route

some photos[/url]

And don't discount the danger of the flat cap slipping down over your eyes obscuring the road from your sight.

Or threads from your driving gloves getting tangled in the steering wheel.

All very real dangers when you're the owner of an estate car.

not forgetting the 7 piece drum kit, huge bag of cymbal stands and other heavy bag of very solid metal frisbees cymbals. Or the guitar amps, guitars etc.

Or the mountain bikes

Where?

None here (Barnsley)

I must be a retarded self-publicist. It's one of my own band's tracks

great news, thanks for posting. Keep on keeping on, eh?

all music is cool to somebody. To be without it, no matter how bland or painful it sounds to others, would be unbearable for me.

I'd rather be without my bike than without music*.

* there is one exception: ABBA

if anyone likes Editors, Interpol & the like, may I be so rude as to recommend this

we'd very much appreciate it if you were to have a listen :-)

BTW the records listed at the bottom, Stars In Your Eyes and Quit, are nothing to do with this particular band called The Wick Effect

'Today Is A Good Day' – New Model Army. Which reminds me, I need to get tickets sorted to see them live in March

and again tonight from 7pm

I fully understand the concept of sport and how 5 day cricket match can end in a draw. I just don't find it interesting to watch

Meanwhile, I love watching football, especially when my favourite third division team comes up against the overpaid primadonnas of the Premier League and matches, or better still, beats them!

MOT!

Ahh but if you use the A19 you rejoin the A1 south of dishforth, so those roadworks aren't an issue

Ilkley is also a traffic jam waiting to happen.

and the locals are very NIMBY-ish about riding on Ilkley Moor.

But it does have a "Betty's".

And it's in Bradford district so council tax is (like for like with Leeds) cheaper. And there's a direct railway link to both Leeds and Bradford (for what it's worth)

I was going to say don't go down as far as the A64, turn off at Wetherby & follow the A58. Less busy. But then I noticed 'Elvington' – which is just off the A64. Oh well

Newcastle/North Tyneside to Leeds is about 2 hours. Edinburgh to Newcastle I haven't a clue. But as mentioned above, when you get to about Morpeth, start following the A19 instead of the A1

Ice Skating.
Ballroom Dancing.
X-Factor.

big brother
the restaurant
the apprentice

not sport though

the middle of Canada gets cold. my sister lives there, they had -46.5C at Edmonton airport just before christmas. a typical warm winter day of -7C feels like shorts & t-shirts weather.

I have no data on the NE (Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia).

West coast climate is pretty similar to the British Isles climate from what I read, for pretty much the same reasons. But if you do want snow, it's not that far away.

1) anything with wheels
2) anything involving hitting balls with sticks
3) anything that takes 4-5 days to produce 'a draw'