Da Mario’s is a great wee Italian, about 5 mins walk away

Cheers OP, I got a bargain, sorry to hear you missed out yourself :(

There used to be a really popular 7 rugby tournament in St Andrews,

There still is.

nothing to do with the thread, but the knowledge that this is still going fills me with cheer :) Is it still sponsored by Ma Bells?

Do you have a link please?

Seems like a good thread to add our new arrival on as well

Meet Tallie our Cockapoo – 8 weeks old in this pic, now nearly 10 weeks and growing amazingly fast :)

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Tallie -day 1[/url] by Chris_Read_3[/url], on Flickr

Nevis Cycles – Fort William

Great service from friendly, knowledgeable people. I felt very welcome from the first time I walked in.

I’d highly recommend it :)

My Mother in Law had this happen over the summer, misdiagnosed initially (seems to be a bit of a theme here) and then rushed in & operated on to find the cause, massive scar as they kept cutting further and further to find the cause. A second op followed as they had to tidy up the rush job that was done sewing her back up again. She’s still not back up to full strength now (6 months on) but is getting there. She now has no tummy button as that got contained within the sewing up.

At uni we had

Irish Dave ( was actually Irish )
Comedy Dave ( was quite entertaining )
Dave the Rave ( did like a party )
Camp David ( a ferociously camp Dave from Edinburgh, I know its not technically a Dave but the idea of George W Bush spending a weekend in Camp David was entertaining to our peurile little minds :) )

if by a new family you mean v young kids I would argue this is a good time to move.

there is rarely a better time to build new relationships in a new area then when able to bond with other parents at playgroups, school gates, play dates etc.

having moved several times before and after kids arrived we definitely found a it easier to meet new people when there were kids in tow. they’re a great icebreaker.

no useful advice on the job front though :(

Crosshouse Hospital sinks are happy sinks

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Happy sink (PixUp)[/url] by Chris_Read_3[/url], on Flickr

_tom_ what is that? Looks amazing!

Loving the English bikes

Just to provide an update on this thread, the iPad mini was very well received,

The lack of retina screen is not noticeable to our eyes.

It is MUCH lighter than a fully size iPad and seems to be a perfect compromise between screen size and use ability.

Thanks to All for recommendations and advice

Thanks all for the additional replies to the thread

As above I went for the 64Gb Mini geoffj linked to. the small size seems great for my wife, it will fit better in hand and also in bags etc. Certainly i’ve always been surprised at the weight of a full size ipad, we’ll see if the lack of retina screen is an issue or not, I don’t think she’ll be too bothered, at least I hope not.

she’s maxed out her 16gb iphone with pictures, apps etc as the kids also use it so having a lot of space will be a good thing. She’s not especially techy so she’s better off without needing external storage.

Its been a tough year for us, we’ve both been through the wringer a bit, she has been awesome throughout it all so its nice to be able to surprise her with something she’s wanted for a long time :)

Thanks for that geoffj £20 cheaper than I’d seen and twice the capacity. Ordered :)

mainly used for reading documents, internet browsing and watching tv, currently she’s doing a lot of this on her phone so any increase in screen size will be a benefit

She’s had use of an ipad occasionally but neither of us have used a mini to be able to compare.

does the smaller screen size make a difference or is the more compact size a good thing?

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DSC02145[/url] by Chris_Read_3[/url], on Flickr

snowy wiltshire, 2009

we’ve got twinwall coming straight out the back of ours, through the wall into the garage where it then goes straight up through the roof. We accepted that we would lose a bit of heat with this set up but were happy with the compromise as it allows the stove to sit nicely within the room without the flue drawing attention to it.

Chesney Milan 4 if you’re interested

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Stove install[/url] by Chris_Read_3[/url], on Flickr

i need to get a pic of it with all the furniture back in place

Reading the Mcmoonter ‘whitey’ thread daily, will put me off eating sufficiently i would think

Man this was the wrong thread to read whilst eating breakfast :(

Green Wing

Properly good

i’ve got a massive smile on my face now :)

things my dad made:

me, the man I am today
me proud
the best grandpa ever

miss you dad :(

Damn – good skills!

You’re obviously local, drop me an email if you fancy meeting up for a ride

thegreatape – thats a bit spooky! how do you know where I am?

I think up here in the west highlands we’ve missed out on exposure to the pj’s ugg boot look and are still stuck in the original perception of Hunters as being high end wellies.

I may raise that with her prior to buying just in case it changes her mind, thank also for the review bluebird – useful info

The most middle/upper class question ever asked here?

I do wonder if she has fallen in with the wrong crowd lately

I’m only considering this as they are currently on sale on “that” website, no matter how much I might explain that there are better brands available I feel I will be talking to a brick wall on this one.

Thanks for the tip BikeBouy, they’ll be used for walking and general rainy day excursions, but nothing untoward

the too good to be true nature of the SSX2 seems to be coming out but even with an upgraded set of batteries it seems to still be a good unit.

Would anyone disagree with that?

Take your nervousness as a positive thing. its making you prepare as well as you possibly can to ensure that you do the best job you can.

The fact you have always had positive reviews proves this.

If you were too relaxed you’d try and wing it and end up not doing as good a job.

Think about all the sportspeople who get so nervous before their event they throw up – its the same for you – it doesn’t stop them performing well at the highest level.

Your nervousness should give you confidence that you are ultimately as well prepared as possible.

interesting stuff – looking at these as apossible replacement for my magic shine when it goes pop

There seems to be something odd going on with the saddle angle vs bar height in that picture.

Not sure what, maybe it’s that once the forks are sagged the saddle will be pointing down slightly? Or that the bars seem to be quite high?

Nit picking I know, on what is a lovely looking bike

Pleased to see that Dialled got added to the list, as they make up 2/3rds of my collection.

Can you add Haro to the list?

Always fancied one of these

Used them as my LBS until I moved 4 yrs ago – great bunch off guys, Mark especially is a super, enthusiastic guy :)

tom13 – another one on the scrounge for a Rock Shox rebound adjuster, if you still have a spare can you send me one? Happy to pay postage etc.

email in profile

Cheers

the recurring wheel, that should work well

create new trails and be the first to ride them :)

(Then hide the new trails so no one else can find them)

Thanks everyone for the further comments :)

I’ve booked a demo of the Crossrip so I’ll see how it goes, my LBS are happy to order in other bikes if needs be.

thanks very much everyone – from the sounds of things no one has really ridden one, I’ll give it a try and try some of the others recommended as well

Cheers

Thanks Teaboy – what do you mean by not well set up for offroad?

Thanks Timbur – I’ll have a look.

The Crossrip has the benefit of being in my LBS so the easiest to get hold of, anyone with any direct experience?