piemonster beat me to it! Take a road bike and stay anywhere on the Lleyn. That pub is nice, but only serves food at lunch… Or Porthmadog is a nice enough, quiet town with Portmeirion and Black Rock Sands nearby. Visited the Lleyn quite often as kids, from Abersoch to Criccieth, was always friendly!

Getting there will be the biggest issue. Coming from the south, according to the traffic websites, you should be ok. From the east, the A5 and A525 are closed due to snow (it stuck overnight in the Llangollen / Llandegla area) and the A55 is “treacherous” apparently! And its going to continue snowing in the north until tomorrow morning.

The script is Indo-Aryan; Sanskrit or Hindi or something similar. Try looking on Omniglot for the language.

I know they don’t apply to Scotland but the Building Regs for E&W (Fig 17) suggest minimums of either 1m above the roof if the top of the pipe is >2.3m horizontally from the rest of the roof, or else above the ridge line. If your roof is quite steep, make sure it extends above the ridge line to be sure of a good draft (although I appreciate there is a trade-off with losing flue heat with the length of the external pipe).

maxtorque, it’s for the grouse shooting. They burn off strips of heather / bog to give the grouse new, young shoots while offering cover from predators in the nearby established stuff. Supposed to increase numbers.

If you are thinking of buying OS or other UK maps, Dash4it has 30% off RRP and an additional 10% off with code DASH13, and their delivery (free) usually arrives within 2-3 days.

I’m surprised that certification from BC would cost as much as a registered company to install, but I guess it varies by Council region. East Cambs is £100+VAT for a single notifiable works (we notified multiple jobs at the same time to max £150+VAT), the officer came out twice, once when the old fireplace had been knocked out and constructional hearth exposed, then again once installed to check draw, ventilation, CO alarm etc. I read the Regs to the letter, such as the sizing of the hearth, but could have got away with a larger stove. Lining the chimney meant the BC officer was satisfied the draw would be appropriate for the stove.

We did ask a neighbour to get the liner down the chimney for us as we didn’t fancy going on the roof! But other than that, it’s not a difficult job and we fould BC helpful.

We have slate as a decorative hearth over the constructional – it raises the level of the hearth to meet Regs and will look better once we’ve laid a new flooring. We just got outdoors slate paving slabs and grouted between them. They’ve been fine. A single slab shaped for the recess could have cost £300, we paid about £40!

It very much depends what kind of work you are looking for and how much you really know about where you want to go, or if you just want a change. Although the grass isn’t always greener a change can be a good thing in life, every so often.

I would add, start investigating where the sorts of jobs you can do are located. You say you want somewhere with good riding and surfing, but will those places also offer you employment opportunities and will the way of working in that industry in that country suit the lifestyle outside of work that you desire?

Or, are you willing to take an unskilled, low paid job in order to live in a location that offers the lifestyle you want and are you willing to take the risk you may struggle to get back into the better paid, more professional work you do now/have done?

Like mogrim said, work is where you will spend most of your time.

I know a number of colleagues (mostly environmental consultants) who have emigrated permanently (or at least got residency). Two anecdotal stories. One collegue moved to Seattle for a more outdoorsy life. Loves the city and the area but still has to travel away from home for long periods (site work in oil and gas industry) and now only gets 10 days a year ‘vacation’. Another colleague decided she wanted a more outdoorsy life, so took a position with a wind farm developer in Scotland. She works hard, long hours through the week so she can spend most weekends having fun in the Highlands.

OP, we informed TV licensing through their website of our intention not to watch TV and get a refund. The forms are pretty self-explanatory. We didn’t have to provide any “proof”, and we haven’t had any correspondence since (about 6 months so far). So, like slowoldgit, we have not had any problems.

Sufferer rather than doc, so can’t really comment on the speed of diagnosis, but I guess it depends very much on your age, symptoms and how long you’ve had those symptoms. Do you get the symptoms described here, have you had a few episodes like this and have you been under stress lately (which can exacerbate the condition)? If so, it’s probably a safe first guess, as IBS is relatively common.

Did your GP also tell you to cut out caffiene, alcohol and try and reduce your stress or anxiety levels as well as taking the mebeverine until it settles? I found after doing this, I could stop taking mebeverine and then re-introduce alot of the triggers (alcohol etc.) in moderation or as long as I take the tablets as well. But everyone’s symptoms will be different. Obviously, if you find after 2-3 weeks of taking the tablets 3 times a day that things haven’t settled, go back and ask for a second opinion.

Soops, I’m interested you say flue pipes get hotter than 250 deg, our stove pipe thermometer suggests the “best operating range” is 125 to 250 deg, and that 300 is “too hot”. Do you mean flues can get a lot hotter than that, rather than regularly burn hotter than 250?

OP, we used fire cement, which is prone to cracking as its hard to get the cure right (it wants to dry slowly with heat over a few hours) but had ours signed off today. Assuming it is the compound that is smelling, why not leave it as is, perhaps slowing the burn down, and get yourself some smoke pellets? Then before you next light a fire, you can use the smoke pellets to check the compound has sealed, and if not, you know you’ll have to re-do it with fire cement.

And as has been said, get a CO alarm, just incase.

If you’ve had both switches on constantly, do you not hear the immersion cycling (i.e. hear the kettling beanieripper described)? It’ll be constantly heating the tank, whereas for our household of 2 adults, we put ours on for maybe 1 hour in the morning and it’s hot. As well as checking your circuits, sounds like you could at least turn the switches off manually and try just heating the water for 1-2 hours a day and see if that makes a difference to your usage, then go from there.

Note that if the supplier is providing a feed to two meters, then what happens in your house (i.e. up to the consumer units and onwards) is your problem. If your not sure what your doing / looking at, then obviously get an electrician in.

As has been said, you should have two feeds into the house – two meters (‘low’/night and ‘normal’/day) that go into two consumer units. The ‘low’ circuit is switched by your supplier. We noted that ours doesn’t always come on for a consistent 7-8 hours, and sometimes doesn’t come on overnight, comes on in the day instead etc. In our setup, the storage heaters are only on the E7 circuit and therefore only come on when the cheap rate tariff is active. Our immersion has two switches, as Smudger says, with the cheap rate immersion at the base and a ‘boost’ switch (available during the day but it obviously costs more) heating an element at the top of the tank. Do you have two consumer units?

sharkattach
don’t be fooled into thinking you’re saving the environment by having a DPF as all the crap they accumulate is simply blown out all in one go during an ‘italian tune up’

and

the DPF has been forced onto car manufacturers by environmental legislation …

Usual overuse of the word ‘environmental’ to cover anything vaguely atmospheric! But that point aside, the purpose of the DPF is to capture diesel particulate emissions and particularly sulphates and soot (or black carbon) which have such small size they affect human lungs – the legislation comes under the banner of air quality but the beneficiary is the general population through improved health (asthma, cancer etc.).

And most DPF systems are designed with a “filter regeneration” cycle where the soot and particulate build up is removed by ‘safer’ means, for example by combusting the carbobn or from a burst of NOx through the DPF at an optimum temp and pressure to oxidise the carbon and hence, what comes out of the exhaust is chemically NOT the same and certainly nowhere near as detrimental to human health.

Edited typos! and for clarity

stumpy01,

The contract is with T-Mobile so I can port my number using a PAC as per usual. I pay £21pm by direct debit to T-Mobile and claim about £50 cashback every 3-6 months from mobiles.co.uk. So if mobiles.co.uk / Carphone Warehouse were to go bust, I wouldn’t get the redemption, but otherwise it’s the same as any pay monthly contact.

Elshamino, comparison.

I’ve just got a One V using a cashback redemption scheme – I’m new to these smart phones so the basic version is fine for me. If you are organised enough to send off the paper bill every 3-6 months for the cashback, I can highly recommend e2save.co.uk or mobiles.co.uk (both Carphone Warehouse) as reputable cashback companies. My One V is costing £8.75 equivalent per month (24m) for unlimited texts, 100 minutes call time and 750MB data. The One X in white with 300 mins calls and 750MB is £17.88 equivalent (its the £26pm package with a bit of cashback). Both on T-mobile. Here.

You could also try Mersey Metals[/url].

You won’t need anti-malarials for the Western Cape and I think its probably only Hep A for the jabs, though you should check with your GP if you haven’t had any innoculations/boosters in a while, you may already be covered. Have fun, its a beautiful part of the world…

+1 – fit for travel used by my GP and the Liverpool Tropical School for Medicine as an up-to-date resource.

The jabs and anti-malarial you may or may not need will depend on where you are travelling to (which region) and if you are going via anywhere else.

As has been said driving in the US is very easy once you get used to the signage. People don’t really speed, ever (or at least IME).

Re sat nav, if you would use a sat nav in the UK going to a new city, then its a good idea. Have you looked at how easy it would be to buy one in Las Vegas when you arrive, i.e. found a website for a store that will be open when you are there? A map would be fine driving between Vegas and the San Fran area but for the cities, I can imagine a sat nav is useful.

Re the carjackings, unless you are going into Los Angeles and get lost, crime really isn’t that bad, just follow the same common sense you would going into any city anywhere in the world.

stevie750, it is still an offence to leave bare wires, even if its a repossession. There should be a ceiling rose / pendant that the new owner can put a bulb into at every light fitting. Similarly there should be at least one working toilet & sink for sanitary reasons. The only exceptions I know of are if the property/land is bought in a derelict condition with full knowledge of it being uninhabitable prior to purchase.

OP, as has been said, get a spark to sort it and get your solicitor to invoice the seller (including his own fee).

In England and Wales, the work now comes under Part J of the Building Regs which gives you an idea of spacings etc.

Generally stove manufacturers recommend lining the chimney (generally a 6″ liner) to ensure a good, but not too enthusiastic, draw. If your chimney cross-sectional area is too large, the flue fumes may stall in the chimney and you won’t get a good flow of air (bad for combustion and risk of flue gases getting into your living space).

In addition to the hearth, consider the stove size in relation to the recess opening. We had a very small open fire (about 10″ x 8″) which opened to an original chimney recess of only 24″ x 16″. Not many stoves fit in that size gap with sufficient surrounding space for ventilation and without coming too far forwards to fit the stove pipe to the flue liner vertically.

If you simply want to place a stove in front of the existing fireplace and put the flue (stove pipe) up the chimney, blocked off by a register plate, I would suggest getting a HETAS engineer to calculate the draw (whether or not you need a flue liner) and advise on the hearth you would need.

I’ve only slept-walked 3 times and of those, I was only having a ‘bad’ dream once when I woke up. I couldn’t remember the dream itself, but I would realise that I was somewhere I shouldn’t be (outside, having a shower, etc. rather than being in bed!) Each time for me has been associated with heavy drinking. Has anything changed recently in your diet or stress in your life? Drinking caffienated or alcoholic drinks before bed when you never used to?

Sleep walking or talking is pretty common so no need to worry about it. The fact that you’ve experienced probably the same (recurring) dream for a few nights isn’t something to worry about either, but it does suggest that there might be something on your mind that your brain is trying to work through. And your wife shouldn’t be afraid or panic. If she hears you moving / talking try and get her to reassure you that she is there, everything is ok and to go back to sleep. She might not need to wake you up.

As has been said, ‘environmental consultant’ is quite broad and it really depends what skilsl and experience you have as to what you can realistically apply for. Aim high and apply to everything, but don’t be too upset if you don’t get responses!

I left an environmental consultancy a few years ago to do a PhD and I get the impression it is hard to get work at the moment with consultancies as they are in a bit of a slump… But jobs do exist, you just need to really put the effort into each and every one.

1) Be specific about your skills and experience. Don’t go over the top but emphasise experience with particular software/packages, modelling software, GIS, databases, technical skills.

2) Write a specific covering letter for each application / speculative approach to a company. Indicate you know what they do/their place in the market and why you want to join them specifically, as well as a paragraph on why they should chose you over all the other applicants.

With regard to potential employers, the landscape stuff sounds more aligned with large environmental or engineering consultancies, I’m sure you find a list of these online for that area. But be aware they might pigeon-hole your work somewhat so be clear on what you would like to do, work-wise (i.e. in my experience the landscaping and planning guys were in a separate team from the drainage modellers, the latter were mathematicians / engineers, the former were generally architects or geographers with a planning background). As has been said, there are a lot of opportunities related to the oil and gas industry in Aberdeen including surveying and hydraulic modelling (Fugro, Arcadis, the usual engineering consultancies), but there are also public bodies such as Marine Scotland Science, SEPA and the University of Aberdeen, and the utilities sector (Scottish Water, Centrica). http://www.earthworks-jobs.com/ isn’t updated very often but gives you an idea of which companies work where. Also http://www.jobs.ac.uk is good for academic and public sector opportunities.

And good luck!

The park and ride on the website says it’s a 50 minute drive and 20 minute walk away

I thought the Park and Ride is at Barleylands? If so, under normal traffic its only about 20 mins away. If they’re stating 50 mins, that suggests they’re expecting Basildon/A127/South Benfleet to be grid locked. So driving won’t be much better!

The 20 minute walk is probably similar to the queue a friend of ours experienced for the rowing at Eton Dorney. They had put on transport from train stations and then dropped everyone off at the start of a 1km, 10m wide path where they were essentially queueing to go through the security. But it was moving, so a much nicer atmosphere than say, an airport. I guess it took 20 mins to get into the barriered part of the venue.

The timings will be conservative to try and encourage people to get there early, not to miss anything.

Even by public transport, I think the train station is 2 miles from the venue, so there is probably a similar bus journey and ‘walk’.

There was a post on here a while ago when the Department of Transport released the casualty and fatality data in GIS format to 2008. I can’t find the link that post went to, but it was a map showing every casualty and fatality from 1999 to 2008 on a map, with symbols and information on sex, mode of transport, etc. Like this but you didn’t have to click on every icon to see the details. I’m sure there will be updates including the 2011 data somewhere.

Its a very sad statistic and I really hope they do something proactive to tackle general poor driving towards cyclists rather than just reactively change the layout or speed limit of sections of road where incidents have already occured.

Right in the city centre there is only the Grosvenor with a pool. I doubt the Grosvenor (in the centre, not the Pulford one) is in your budget. Or a short walk into the city centre are the Crowne Plaza near the racecourse or the Mill Hotel & Spa on the canal. You might get the Crowne Plaza for around £150-175 whereas the Mill is probably better value for money if you book ahead. Both get very good reviews. Haven’t stayed at either, sorry!

I feel a bit like I’m in a goldfish bowl and i really don’t feel like speaking to anyone.

Don’t be too harsh on yourself. Remember you’ve probably just experienced the biggest upheaval and most emotional weekend of your life. Which also came as a bit of a shock. And withdrawing from alcohol (even if you aren’t displaying ‘physical’ symptoms) is likely to cause some anxiety and negativity in your thoughts.

Long-term of course you need to decide how you can deal with work pressures and the way in which you work.

But right now, today, give yourself an hour off. Can you set yourself a target? Work til 12:30, go for a lunch time ride, work a few good hours this afternoon on the proviso you reward yourself? Make sure you leave work on time and go shopping, make sure you go on that road ride, and if you find you are awake and thinking about your family, spend that time productively – plan what you are going to do with your girl and when, ideas for days out etc. And speak to people; friends or just rant on here. Don’t allow yourself to become withdrawn.

(And did I say, make sure you go on that road ride.)

Or there was a thread on here a few weeks ago looking at the Algarve. Not as ‘hot’ as the Med side but beautiful, plenty of small scale resorts, lovely beaches and some smaller towns with good seafood restuarants that might suit the whole family better.

For those of us with ‘normal’ (i.e. freeview) telly, programs are on BBC3 from 08:30 and then on BBC1 from 13:15 to 16:45 so I think they will cover the latter half of the race in full, or nearly in full. It should start at 10:00 on the Mall and finish around 15:40. So, you should be able to view it again on iPlayer once the programmes are over.

BWiggins – Member

– lol

As has been said, firstly, relax! It’s a holiday!

You haven’t alluded to budget but since you are looking to go in the peak period for most of the Med and booking last minute I’m assuming around £1000 for 1 weeks accommodation, 2 bed.

You have two choices:
1) as has been said, trust your wife to book somewhere. The longer you leave it, the more expensive and less choice you will have. And as has been said, its only a week. If it really is that bad in the hotel, hire a car, spend lots of time away from the hotel (find a beach or activities somewhere down or inland from the coast) and next time, try and arrange it further in advance!! No point in stressing about one week away.

Or 2) If you are really against the high-rise apartment type holiday, look at self-catering, either in a low-rise villa-style resort or in an independent villa. You need to put aside a day (i.e. today or tomorrow) to go through websites like Don Simon suggested, owners-direct, vrbo or holiday-rentals.co.uk. If you don’t have time – go with option 1!!

I would suggest North Majorca, Sardinia or Corsica, Croatia or Turkey (a low rise resort) for quiet but beachy holidays and I think Turkey will be the cheapest of these. Here?

No experience I am afraid, but we looked at the possibility of building from scratch a few years ago. We decided against it at the time but might consider it again in a few years (finances pending!).

I would say your decision really depends on your attitude to risk, especially if you are borrowing in order to build. What happens when you run out of money before the house is habitable? What if/when something unforeseen occurs/is uncovered and you need an extra 20% of your build fund? Contingencies used to be about 20% of the build, I think now a lot of people aim to make sure they can obtain up to 40% just incase. (Once you have built your dream house, most people don’t want to scrimp on the fittings, so end up with high-spec bathrooms, kitchens etc.)

At this stage, think about: are you going to project manage or pay your builder to, or get in someone else to? Stress vs. cash!

And: research everything – realistic max and min costs for everything – e.g. connection to services costs a fee from the suppliers in addition to the groundworks and materials costs; what kind of foundations will you need (what geology, i.e. is it clay that needs deep piling or on bedrock? Is it on a slope that will require groundworks and shoring-up? Groundwater-levels and damp-proofing?); consider not only the cost of the house frame but does it include things like insulation (external and internal), also recently costs for first-fix have gone up with copper prices. Make a spreadsheet and work out whether or not it is actually affordable.

Sorry if that sounds negative, but good pre-planning reduces risk and avoids (some) nasty surprises, along with a good contingency fund!

I don’t know anything about mortgages I’m afraid; we were looking at purchasing a house to knock down and start again, but we would have been living in our home and remortgaged+cash that so the risk lay in our home, rather than in the build (which gives the banks a lot more security).

Let us know if you decide to proceed, as I would be very interested to know how it goes if you do!

I work from home a lot with frequent meetings in London and some in Leicestershire

In that case, I think the train from Ely to London is cheaper than from Stanford and runs until later. But as has been said, its easier to get to other parts of the country from Stanford as its on the A1 (i.e. I guess it would take ~1hr less to, say, the Peaks. Each way.)

My partner and I moved to a village outside of Ely recently. Its more a village with a couple of decent-sized supermarkets than a town really, but perfectly nice. Has a mix of people who obviously commute to the Cambridge area and more `local’ people, which is keeping the housing market reasonably bouyant (compared with where we moved from in the North West). We moved to a village to get a house with a garden and garage that we could afford, and compromised on the commute to work. Having lived in a city, we now have a resident hedgehog in the back garden and my partner has seen the local barn owl a few times on his commute, so we are enjoying the change. Obviously it depends what your priorities and aims for the move are!

Ely itself is pretty but quiet. We like the fact we can have a night out in Cambridge (nice restuarants, some good real ale pubs, plenty of arts and theatre) and get a taxi or train back (~£25 for a taxi) or if we’re feeling flush, have a day out in London and be able to get a late night train back (last one leaves London ~23:15).

I assume since you are looking between those two towns, you or your missus may be working in Peterborough. Between Ely and Peterborough, it gets flatter (if thats possible) with a lot of the lanes being dead-ends so its difficult to make a nice road riding loop, but there are plenty of quite lanes between fields to explore – just a bit exposed to the wind and not very ‘interesting’.

As said, if you want to be within an hours drive of north Norfolk and you want to MTB, you generally have to drive somewhere.

I’ld keep an eye on the weather. If you get the right swell, then yes Abersoch / Hell’s Mouth / Porth Ceiriad will be good for body boarding and it’s a nice enough village/town. But if this high pressure persists, kayaking around the north of the Lleyn Peninsular or Anglesey might be better bet? My colleague goes to Rhosneigr regularly with her sea-kayaks and loves it.

I don’t have any experience of the rail travel around Europe myself, but recently looked for travel within Poland. The best website for European rail travel is the German Bahn site: http://www.bahn.com. It should find all of the stations in mainland Europe and give you the timetable and connections (so you can see travel times etc). However, it will only give you prices for travel to and from Germany. The official site for train travel within Poland can be found at: PolRail. Travel on the regional trains, although slower, can be very cheap within Poland.

Buying tickets right before journeys would give me a lot more freedom, but I imagine prices will be way cheaper if I book asap?

For travel on the EuroCity or express trains, this is almost certainly true. If you book your travel now to and from Germany, the fares look like E35-50 (Prague or Krakow) whereas the standard fares look to be more like E100-130. Travel to Krakow looks like a killer, so perhaps a sleeper train would be the way to go.

As for things to see, many of the cities/regions you travel through to Krakow and Prague are beautiful in their own right. I have heard good things about Wroclaw; pretty centre but (slightly) less touristy than Krakow.

It was Grand Colombier. Stage 10, Voeckler won. Also used in the Criterium du Dauphine this year. The video from the helicopter is at about 1:06 – ITV4 highlights[/url].

I think it was the Col du Grand Columbier in the Jura mountains.

Sea in Croatia is cold though.

Really? July / August looks to be 25-26 deg C which is about the same as Sharm and Turkish coasts (at the moment). For its latitude the Adriatic and eastern Med are warm. Ok, its not as warm as going to the tropics, but its not ‘cold’.

EDIT: I didn’t mean that to come across accusatory! I’m interested because my partner gets cold easily and we fancy Croatia as a holiday destination. Would it be ok in a 3mm wetsuit, say?