+ another 1 for mushrooms.

but for me, hazelnuts. especially when the buggers are hidden in a nice tasty bit of chocolate, especially the purple-wrapped chocolates with caramel.

Did you know they have to wrap the hazelnut in the caramel, otherwise the chocolate's immune system would reject it?

Otley has no direct rail service to Leeds; the nearest station is at Menston, not actually that far from the Brotherton brothers mentioned above, but about 3 miles from the town centre. The main road to Leeds is ok in rush hour until you get to Weetwood/Headingley, unless there's an accident. or a bit of snow.

There's loads of ace riding. Chevin cycles are good, as are JD's in nearby Ilkley. There's a new bike shop opening soon in Adel. There's a river. There's a big folk music scene. Mr Chippendale the cabinet maker came from Otley.

If I didn't live in Baildon (5 miles away) I'd consider living in Otley. No real places to avoid as far as I know.

I like it.

that's tonight from 7pm and again tomorrow, same time

before the break up of Yugoslavia, Dubrovnik & Split were both pretty popular, if off the beaten track, alternatives to Greece, IIRC.

my balkan geography isn't that hot but I think both may now be in Croatia

I have a pair of Rayban precription specs that i got from Vision Express (I think) – cost about £150 all in about 1 or 2 years ago

http://Www.amazingradio.com

if you like Editors then, although I don't wish to blow my own trumpet, or indeed even bang my own drums, I will anyway:

http://www.amazingtunes.com/users/thewickeffect – check out "Energy (acoustic version)" – it's a nice mellow number. just piano, voice & acoustic guitar

he's got a bit of cabbage in his teeth too

but Gadaffi's a good guy now, isn't he?

anyway for £1.2m I'd play at his party

well I have O levels and A levels and I did go to University, but I got too involved in the music scene to concentrate on my studies (BSc Physical Electronics FWIW), of which I got bored, so I dropped out after 2 years

I spent 2 weeks in Canada last summer:
5 nights in Canmore
2 nights in Calgary (sister's wedding)
1 night Kamloops en route to…
3 nights Vancouver, then
1 night Lake Louise village
on the way back to the airport at Calgary. If I'd planned the trip better the return flight would've been from Vancouver, but when I booked the flights all I knew was I had to be in Calgary on the 1st of August.

I'd go back tomorrow if I could.

pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnhooper_drum/sets/72157621868287748/

we went through Kamloops last summer en route from Calgary to Vancouver.

2nd August, 7pm, 39degC. It's not that far from Kelowna, on a Canadian scale

have a listen to The Sisters Of Mercy's version, it'll be on YouTube somewhere. You'll either love it or hate it – probably the latter

there are a couple of nob plates round here too

BMW 850 with the plate M1ERS belonging to somebody called Miers or Myers – local jeweller
Another BMW – L5 UTD – Leeds United fan – LS is the postal code for Leeds
various cars reg S1NLY or variations on a theme – not the safest or sanest driver I've ever seen

but the nobbiest plates have to belong to Wendy fans – S10WLS and so on

I have a Fitness First weekend pass at £20 a month. I can go from 1630 Friday to close of business Sunday. Can't get there in the week so a weekend only pass suits me

me.

last time I rode in snow/ice one of my mates ended up spending Xmas in hospital with a compound fracture of his left tib & fib, so I've been avoiding it.

and one of our ride nights clashes with my band practice sessions

big black b*stard spider from hell. it'll eat your children/pets/bikes* next

* delete as applicable

you linking to it

actually Yahoo! linked to it, I just read it* & copied the link

* i don't normally read these things but I thought it was desperate enough to be worth looking at

no

FWIW, it's your *county* council that are responsible for road maintenance, not your local council.

no county council in either West Yorkshire or South Yorkshire. Maggie done away wi' em in t'80s

our singer once snogged the singer from Lush. I think he's quite proud of it ;-)

You know the statement of only having 8 days storage was probably correct

yes, but only a problem if all of our external suppliers decide to turn off the taps

Calling the precious material in AVATAR 'unobtainium' is pretty terrible

and it's not even original. They used it in "The Core" too. and that was pants as well.

And we've been using it on here to describe ridiculously expensive strong and light bicycle components for years…

anyway, back on topic: "oh great, the blood sucking Brady Bunch" – The Lost Boys. Also from the same film, "death by stereo"

IE is a dog with two gammy legs.

I use Safari, way quicker.

I'm sure there are other, and possibly quicker/better/safer browsers out there, but Safari works for me

if you live in Bradford district it's pretty hard to get takeaway with meat in it that isn't halal. Unless you go to McTastefree or a well known purveyor of fried chicken. Tastes the same.

anyway, back on to pizzas. There's a pizza takeaway in the centre of Shipley that makes a very tasty Meat Feast 14in deep pan pizza for £9. Why would I get a 12in Margherita from Dominos that costs more? And I haven't been into a Pizza Hut for about 25 years

OP said the car in front of him went into it.

so how many days ago was that claim made exactly?

I bet it was the express scaremongering again.

Still I suppose it gives them something to talk about other than "Britain faces Arctic Blast" or "Britain faces monster hurricanes" or "Britain faces monster drought/flood/plague of locusts" for a change

my daily journey is about 30 miles each way; part motorway, part through Bradford or Leeds. I live close to the northwest corner of West Yorkshire, in Bradford council area but only a couple of miles from Leeds council area. It's a bit hilly round here. Not up to Peaks/Lakes/Dales or Highlands standards but it certainly isn't flat

Monday this week I set off, got through Shipley to the border with Leeds council area, couldn't get any further, so I came back home & took it as a day's holiday. Tuesday I went through Bradford, got to work in a little longer than the usual time. Wednesday I tried to go through Leeds; got about 3 miles, had to turn back. Thursday & today I went through Bradford – no problem. Is this a pattern?

Both times when I had to turn back, it wasn't because the roads were impassable, it was the queues as far as the eye could see that weren't moving just due to volume of traffic.

Anyway, I'm an IT bod with a company laptop and broadband at home. I work from home when I can't get in – it's much better use of the company's money (i.e my salary) than sitting in traffic when I should be in the office.

when we had our conservatory built a few years back, we got the builders to build a tunnel into the wall, rather than trying to fit a catflap to double glazed full height glass doors.

There's a model of catflap from Staywell for which you can get extension pieces for the tunnel.

half of flap fastens to outside wall, glue extension pieces together to make the tunnel the correct length, then fit the other half to the inside wall. Sorted.

Or buy a litter tray & keep the cat indoors. Won't get run over anyway

What about swimming pools? You can't really ban it there, can you?

Daft idea

I shall give Vimeo a try, cheers folks.

while you're here, have a listen: http://www.amazingtunes.com/users/thewickeffect

Coral were good for us on the back of the house a few years later too; like DaveyBoyWonder they occasionally ring us as a follow up, but again they're very nice about it.

they did the windows at the front of our house when we moved in in 1998. Still fine.

Workmen were excellent (although one of them was a ManU fan); when they took out the old bay window, bits of plaster came down, together with a few dozen dead wasps. When they'd finished putting the new stuff in, they replastered it as good as new.

as far as the product & the installation team goes, I would recommend them.

Just don't go near their finance deals

yeah, they're getting there. need some serious padding under the kick pad though, unless you live in a detached house and the rest of the family can tolerate the thump thump thump coming through the floor

Can't really add to that. Mine has two toms on a stand as well as the two on the bass drum, but I also have a lot of cymbals. Mine takes up about 8'x6'

Toasty warm in this weather when they do work though :-)

I take it you're not an opthalmological doctor?

we went to the Algarve – but Lagos rather than the usual Albufeira or Portimao. Really nice. Lagos is a proper working town (with medieval walls in places) rather than a 'resort'. More restaurants than we had mealtimes to use them all, a few bars but no mad all night discos as far as we could tell. There was a pretty good Indian Restaurant up near the fire station too, but that was 1999 so it might not be there any more.

Took some trips out of town as well – Silves up in the hills, Cape St Vincent (the end of the world as far as Europe is concerned), Sagres, and a 'jeep safari' into the Monchique hills. I dare say you could probably do that on an MTB too

ah but how do you know where the greens are under all that snow?

(yes, I know the flags tend to give it away a bit, but they could be removed…)

check out http://www.bikemagic.com, look in the Rides forum for North Leeds.

it's a regular-ish route in the winter