http://www.thebigdomain.com/large-houses/high-rylands

We loved this place, just north of Malham.
No idea about current prices, and I reckon that asking for just 2 nights over New Year is a bit cheeky. You’re guaranteeing them no business just before or afterwards.

It depends where you are.
Manchester is notorious for leaky basements, caused by the long-term rise in the water table following the closue of many factories’ private boreholes.
Are you in a similar area?

Wind.
And two butter-dishes in the space of a weekend.

My EBB is fubarred, too.

The question about ticks reminded me:
Many years ago, in the wettish season in Nepal, in the rhodedendron forests. The damp ground was swarming with smallish leeches, which were attracted by the early wafts of gas as I (or we) dropped our trousers and prepared to poo. You could see the little buggers looping towards our backsides as we dumped: the leaf-litter looked alive. We had to squat, drop a little, shuffle a couple of feet away to avoid the leeches, & repeat. If we’d dropped our cheeks too close to the ground, one of the blighters would have crawled up. It has been known…
😯

Brother in law has a couple on the farm. One is filled with empty 50-year old wooden beer crates. The huts are basic, just sheds on wheels, only just light enough to be moved to the lambing fields. A new build would make more sense.

It’s a real pleasure. I’m sure that the deep release you get while pooing in the squat position is better for you than being perched on a pedestal. It certainly seems to clear me out better than being at home.
I bury mine, or at least scrape leaves over it.

My most memorable was an evening sunset dump on a beach in New Caledonia. Yes, I buried it deep, but not so deep as to stop a squad of land-crabs from excavating a burrow & eating the stuff 10 minutes later.
Lucky them!

Listen to a French internet radio station when you can. I like Beur FM, but that’s Arab French so prob not what you want.

Also, find a French lady to sleep with who can teach you the language.

I went walking there with Mrs m on Saturday: the Q’s seemed empty. There were few riders,fewer walkers and hardly anyone parking next to us in Bitch’s Ditch. It was a lovely day out.

Have a look at your local gumtree & get something ready converted. I reckon that VWs are overpriced and only hold their sales value because of the money you need to spend to keep them going. Work out what you need & why.
Our first van didn’t have opening side doors, & that was something we really missed. Get a van without a bulkhead so you don’t have to get out to enter the body. We also like having a high roof, so we can stand upright, but it’s horses for courses. Look at lots before you buy, even if they’s out of your price range, cos you’ll see what you like & don’t like.

Fusion isn’t the only nuclear option; there’s also the Thorium cycle. It was not developed in the 50’s & 60’s because it didn’t have bomb-making materiel as a by-product.
Nuclear engineering is probably a good thing to get into – the current crop of engineers are beginning to retire, & there is still a need for decommissioning as well as anything else. Learn an Asian language too, as a subsidiary subject. You’ll do well.

Planed 2×2 should be fine for a child’s bed. Get some bracing in at low level, too.

It’s probably worth it for the long term, as it gets you closer to HoD, if that’s what you want. So it may not pay more now, but will ensure you do better in the long term.

DP = Dear partner, when the couple are living in sin.

Mumsnet is wonderful. There’s a great mixture of sensible advice & comedy, plus some very serious stuff on the Relationships area which makes me realise how lucky I’ve been (And how lucky Mrs M is!)

Plumber, Stuart Cleave of Cleave plumbing, very good bloke.
Cleave Plumbing <cleaveplumbing@gmail.com>;

Chill out, chaps.
They’re no worse than many synthetic cycling tops I’ve seen.

Did I miss the invitation to “Spaced-out Sunday”?
I hope the comedown’s not too tough.

Yes, although I ask Mrs M to check it over & buzz the fluffy bits that I miss. It’s easy & quick & remarkably cheap.

Check out http://www.vttour.fr/sentiers/

I know there are some good trails aroumd Sospel, just N of Menton & there’s a train service there from Nice.

So many bikes in bits it’s hard to work out which is the main ride.
At a guess:
For the woods and fun, the 2nd hand Haro Mary, £275. I loves her for a cheap ride.

On the road, a Kona Major One, downgraded drive train, around £500.
Around town, a GT Karakorum bought new & discounted in 1997 (I think) for £600, then with some parts changed & fat road tyres.
Then there’s the Niota, which I can’t get on with , and the Club Tour, ditto. I dread to think what they cost.

G-H have some very decent flooring in at £35/m2 at the moment, some solid, some engineered. Down from about £50/m2

Try Gardiner Haskins in central Bristol
Darcy will fit it for you!

My earlier comment was curmudgeonly.
I did really enjoy the show. There were several bike that I lusted after, & the attention to detail is wonderful.
Have a look at the Loop Wheels stand – that’s really fascinating. They’re suspension wheels, using carbon springs instead of spokes. Very neat! Only 20″ for the moment, but I’d love to try them
STW ought to do an article on them.

Lots & lots of bike porn, mostly road stuff & London urban designs, but worth it for me. But that’s 15 mins on the bike. I wouldn’t come from Yorkshire!

Not many people in the US or UK mourned the sad death of Osama Bin Laden, either. He was also a leaer of stature.

As above, check the transponder programming cost.
The place up the road cut me a van key for £12, the next stage would have been another £50. (I only needed entry to the van for the 3rd spare)

COntact Iwona at http://www.iwobar.net
There are examples of her work on the website.

The sums say it’ll be about 6% harder if you drop a tooth. It’ll only cost you one cog to try.

I use an old rug liberated from a skip. It looks crap, but I don’t look at it. It does match the carpet underneath, apart from the white paint splodges.
🙂

Change your QR first?
I’ve nver had this problem with SS; is your chain tug aligned properly?

As above, the term is context sensitive, it may be heard as racist to Septics, but isn’t here.

But to pick an argument:

If you can’t recognize the difference between a Chinese person and a Thai you’ve got something seriously wrong with your brains facial recognition circuits

that’s absolute tosh. A northern Thai from Chiang Rai will be much closer physically to a Chinese from Yunnan (say), than the Yunnanese from someone from Beijing. Have a look at the map. China is the size of old W Europe, with all the internal diversity that involves. Oriental covers it fine.

Happy Birthday Matt!

When you can get your Senior railcard & use it!

Wench, yes.
A farmer friend of my sister-in-law took on a Dutch chap to look after their children, being broad-minded & all that.
The au pair returned to the Netherlands after a short time, taking the farmer’s wife with him.
🙂

I suggest an East European au-pair. They often speak good English, and are prepared to work.

One thing, though: Au pair means “as an equal”. They are there as family, not as servants. You ask them to do stuff, not tell them. And they need decent time off.

Whose ? His ?

With the right backing tracks, that could be a club classic

Thatcher did however introduce “incentives” for the financial sector in London. These should not be confused with “subsidies”, which were withdrawn from the undeserving provinces.
The more I remember, the angrier I get.

She didn’t do much about retaining Hong Kong, did she?
Perhaps the Americans told her not to fuss too much about giving that territory away.

Her method of dealing with the unions, like that of dealing with the Argentines, was pure confrontation. Negotiation would have benefitted everyone.

In both cases, her reputation increased, and everyone else lost.
As above, where are our steelworks and Brit Leyland now? Argentina still wants the Falklands and half of the North is still suffering. Her policies of selling off assets means that buying a home in the south is almost impossible for those on lower incomes, so private landlords are doing well.
Her policies are poisoning society thirty years later

Hey Tucker:

Concorde
The Falklands
Taming of the US and the subsequent fall of Communism
Returning British rail to it’s prewar privatised state.

Concorde, given the goahead by a technologically interested labout government,
The Falklands: invaded because Thatcher cut the support for the territories, giving Argentina the idea that we didn’t care. She screwed up, the forces dug her out.
She turned us into a US poodle. I remain convinced that agreements she signed to get help for the Falklands have resulted in the UK’s support for invading Iraq & ;Ghan.
As for her role in privatisation: we haven’t benefitted at all.

She hastened the UK’s decline by favouring the city over industry. She destroyed communities and sold off North Sea oil to pay for them.
Thatcher marked a turning point in the welfare of the ordinary working people – her destructive methods continue.
The bitch is dead.

I’d be more worried that he owned up & was crying about it. It seems to me that he’s got an overdelveloped sense of shame already – are you Catholic? Perhaps you need to be a little more open in talking / displaying bodily functions.

If you’re constantly checking in him (see the post 2 above), then you may be too controlling. Do you let him play out of doors much?

I’d tell him that there’s nothing wrong about being interested in women, but it’s best to wait until he’s older, then quietly put the controls on the computer.