Hi guys

Thank you all for your kind advice. The wisdom, experience and thoughtfulness of the STW massive has shown through in the good counsel. In the best STW tradition, I'm going to ignore it and plough on regardless!

Well, for the moment anyway. The priority right now is to get something – anything – up there within the next few days. I just don't have the time (let alone the skills) to learn CSS and my experience hackifying a blog template didn't go well. I am sure others could make it look great. Like wwaswas said, it's something like a garden centre – people are not expecting flashy or pretty, just basic information.

The competition's websites are just as awful. That, together with my now firm understanding of the limitations of frames, means that I'll be seriously encouraging the owner to spend some good money on a good website ASAP!

Thanks again for your help – it really did help clarify the problem even if it looks like I'm being bullheaded (I am the type that uses gaffa tape to fix most things).

PS if he doesn't like it, we (everyone) should leave off, otherwise it's narsty.

hora reminds me a lot of someone that's a really good friend of mine who speaks complete offensive rubbish sometimes but is a really good, well-meaning person despite that.

rickmeister – nice kitch!

how about the ice skating guy at the winter olympics just now? his opponent had slid out or disappeared or something so all he had to do was cruise to the finish line, and as he skated and waved to the crowd, he skated over the line between the lanes and was disqualified.

or something.

Yeah that was the mad chinese woman who was on Dragon's Den.
http://www.lingscars.com/feature/truck.php

Jesus f'ing Christ! That website was like going back in time to 1998!

I'm forking out for private insurance just like in the States, thank you very much. And with a smile on my face.

Except this is the misleading thing about "Death Panels" (as NICE has been referred to by various hyperbolics): insurance companies in the US will also cut off funding for certain drugs and treatments when there's no point any more, just like NICE will recommend to trusts.

What I don't get is why a locking blade is considered any more 'weapony' than a non locking blade.

I am not an expert/historian, but I believe the original legislative intent was to criminalise switchblades that spring open rather than, say, Opinels. Or am I talking nonsense? Wait – are those "gravity blades" or something?

Nokia with the free guided Ovi Maps?

we laugh at obirobkeno's story, but there are numerous posters on here whose impressions and understanding of US healthcare system(s) are just as lacking in detail.

theotherjonv – je-sus christ. my sympathies!

My road's a case in point. It's not wide enough for two cars if you park properly in the road. Hence there is a convention in the road that we all park on one side, half kerbed

Sounds like the road should be:

a) made one-way only
b) have actual parking spaces painted on the kerb, if there is in fact space
c) have parking banned on one or both directions

or some combination of the above. If it's not possible to use it effectively in the legal manner, then something's wrong. You can't rely on everyone "knowing the rules" psychically.

have you tried calling around to get other quotes for your new address? old insurance cos get lazy and charge more because they don't expect you to bother changing company.

whoosh!

If its a biblical thing then I imagine it was a lucky escape, the stuff about no bacon and pork is in the bible too so the breakfast would have been rubbish.

True, but at least you would have got pure cotton sheets – no mixing of fibres, you see…

I have no problem with fines and parking fines etc. But **** me, 100 quid is a lot of money. it's far above the amount which would be necessary to operate as a deterrant.

a Catholic Prime Minister is considered to be 'constitutionally awkward' since that office is involved in appointing senior members of the Church of England."

Still, I didn't even know it was 'constitutionally awkward', so you live and learn.

Well, yeah – this is why Tony Blair's conversion to Catholicism immediately after leaving Number 10 was so outrageous. For someone that banged on so much about his faith and values while in office, he certainly didn't mention that he wasn't a Prod any more … because, perhaps, he realised that would out him in the weird position of being a Catholic who could appoint Prod officeholders in the established Church, and he wanted to hang onto the power.

Of course, to most people, the right way to resolve the absurdity would be make sure that the people responsible for choosing church officeholders should be members and officers of that church, and not Prime Ministers (of any stripe). Prime Ministers should keep their focus on legitimate government issues, which doesn't include appointing the representatives on earth of God, Jesus or the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

This is not directly relevant to your question but: you can get a big 22" BenQ monitor (to make home working much more pleasant) and a 1TB external HD (to help avoid total photo loss disaster) for a bit more than $330 from MSY. I would spend money there rather than buying the latest superduper high speed chip bc you're not that intensive a user (neither am I, I have more or less the same usage as you) and most new laptops can handle it easy.

Also, have you had a look at the whirlpool.net.au forums and seen what their advice is?

Also, don't forget to think about reclaiming GST if you're going on holiday any time soon.

forge197: get a load of those fog lamps!
<rubs thighs like Vic Reeves>

jedi – 60 quid? bargin!

phwoar, look at that twin door action! :D

How much did the decal/signwriting/whatever the right word is cost you? Can you wash it just like normal without fear of it peeling off?

Not selling outside the UK is a bit harsh. Would at least sell to Europe/ Canada/ NZ/ Aus/ Singapore etc where the postal system is good and it's not cowboy territory. But if you do do that, make sure postage is agreed in advance and that you obtain "certificate of postage" (or whatever it's called – when you get a slip from the post office to prove you actually posted it.

This thread is useless without pics, from EVERYONE.

Kwik-Fit are complete and utter cowboys.

you might be surprised at their ability to rent it out this late in the day – lots of people don't even book stuff beforehand, they just drive around asking for spare rooms.

PM the guy that's doing the loft conversion!

why do the media think pleb sports like football are such a big deal then?

Big money and the rise of gossip mags, but also Nick Horby and the whole 1990s middle class new egalitarianism and football fans. Gore blimey me old mucker even Tony Blair grew up watching Bobby Robson play for Sheffield from the stands of Upton Park and win the Calcutta Cup…wait, that's not right…

soccer!

It must have been love
But it's over now

I imagine despite being very poor at the sport we do make a fair bit out of it from Wimbledon

Who's we? How do I get my paws on this money we made?

zing!!!

You can get old Xboxes for peanuts these days…hack 'em with XMBC. Maybe simon_g will give you his old one! ;)

I appointed a proxy who is a member of the political party of my choice – the one most likely to oust the incumbent.

So did I. Bastard Blairite spineless cow.

is failure to report an offence criminal ?

The accusation is that the priest persuaded/intimidated/whatever the right word is the victims not to report.

I thought Davenport's original post was only semi-comprehensible. He asks what the legal result of a conflict between state and church law in Ireland in the 1970s as if it were a hypothetical – shouldn't he know if he's been following the story?

OP: they might not have yanked it because it was defamatory. Maybe it was just annoying or tedious or unnecessarily flamey or maybe the mod hit the wrong button. I really don't think a lot of thought goes into it.

I've been looking into this for a similar type of business. If I understand it correctly (and welcome any correction by better informed people):

Public Liability Insurance: in the course of giving advice, your pen jumps out of your hand and stabs a passing brain surgeon in the hand. PLI covers you so that you're not left without a penny.

Professional Indemnity Insurance: in the course of giving advice, you make a recommendation to a client that only a complete idiot would make, and it ruins their personal life and their career as a surgeon. PII covers you so that you're not left without a penny.

For a counselling business, I would definitely go for both even if they're pretty expensive (as they were for me) – but I am the worrying type.

I can do the round trip to my parents house (380 ish miles) on a £40 tank of petrol. How is that not good value for money?

Depends on what your parents are like, doesn't it? ;)

Possibly simpler: If you have a computer with a webcam at home, just leave it on and signed into your Skype account #1, and have Skype set to "automatically accept incoming calls" from Skype account #2. Then open Skype account #2 from work and call every so often.

The Rolling Stones pre-dated the Bob Dylan track.

A rolling stone gathers no moss, surely?

The Levellers are good guys. Saw 2-3 gigs in a row on a tour (not as a fan) and all of the gigs were sold out and *everyone* in the crowd seemed to have a great time. They also provided the Urban75 guys with their first modem (back when modems cost a lot of money) and they did a lot of work with Schnews (www.schnews.org.uk).

Don't understand the negative comments about Stirling

I think it's just that the town and main street itself is a bit underwhelming. The rough parts of town got an especially bad rep after Big Mags and the paediatrician-lynching mobs a few years ago (http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/2460072/Big-Mags-Haney-is-released-on-licence-from-Cornton-Vale-prison.html ) .

Doune is very nice, but unless you have a car you can't get anywhere.

Oh, yes, absoutely – I am assuming that if the OP has a mobile job all over the place, s/he's got a car or van or something. Otherwise, it's got to be within five minutes of Stirling, Edinburgh and Glasgow's city centres.

I've rented out rooms for many years and seen too many men who thought they didn't have any problems with alcohol (3 pints a night, tops!) and then drove to work, 5 days a week.

I don't really see the point you're putting forward here. Can you elaborate/rephrase?

Contact Name: JOHN STEFANIDIS III
Contact E-mail: Ffbureau@washington.usa.com

John Stefanidis – FBI Special Agent AND interior designer. A talented guy indeed. http://www.johnstefanidis.com/

Normally, there's a lot to be said in the OP's position for the Edinburgh suburbs right on the Bypass e.g. Colinton because they have decent space, are a very fast bus ride to the centre of town for shopping/boozing/whatever, and are right on the Bypass for when you need to drive to whatever worksite you're going to.

But OP has said that he doesn't want to live in a city (even though Edinburgh isn't exactly Tokyo to start ;) ), so for the sake of convenience and low cost, I'd agree with the consensus and say a village/small town outside Stirling. Doune is supposed to be OK, too, isn't it?

I'd be hesitant to live towards Perth if only because everyone (e.g. on the speeding thread) says that the A7 is a nightmare, and if you're going to be going from Perth to anywhere south or in the central belt, you'll end up doing an hour on it every time.

Of course the really big question would be if there is any way the OP can get a better idea of how many sites s/he'll be working at and where the calls tend to centre on.