Condiments of the Seasoning to you all….

Christmas – i.e. the celebration of something to do with Christ – superseded the pagan festival so we can forget about the pagan roots.

I think the OP's point is that some people seem to want to tip-toe around the fact that we are celebrating a Christian event. I'm not religious but it's part of our culture I'm more than happy with – my favourite time of year for sure.

As for presents – well I think the point of getting old is when you genuinely enjoying giving more than receiving – probably to loved ones, esp kids.

Fairy tail of New York & Slade here too. Also Queen's Thanks God it's Christmas just because Freddie's great. There's another one I like that I can't get into my head at the moment….

…John Lennon!

So 'just riding along' then…?!

What sort of dealer big showroom or back street plot or?

So WTF would you like to put in your house instead of a tree?

Glad to see Cav lose out and hope he never wins it. He has the worst personality and attitude of any professional cyclist i've seen. Him winning it wouldnt do anything for the sport anyway. The guy is an arrogant tw*t!

Er – I think maybe you're a bit out of touch as most seem to think he's a fine chap these days….

I think Cav needs to win the Green Jersey before he deserves to get this award but not sure he will then as the public are generally ignorant of road racing.

shaving private ryan

you mean shaving ryan's privates…!?

I vote for Once Upon a Time in the West – a film that's not as well known as it should be IME.

Well I'm only interested in seeing bands in smallish venues – saw FnM and the Chilis at Unis.

AC/DC with Bon, Frank Zappa and MOI – ideally in the early 70s but I was a bit little then…oh and Beefheart of course.

my baby's not a pikey so we're not buying secondhand stuff

That made me laugh. IME, the more well off someone is the less they care about looking like a 'pikey' – maybe it's a self-confidence thing? Some of the wealthiest people I know have holes in their jumpers and scruffy cars/dogs/homes…maybe it's also an old money v new money thing?

HMV has smaller loss as competitors collapse:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8407378.stm

I'm told that there are more people alive today, than have ever died in the past.

Now you know not to believe all you're told right?

I'be not been to a dentist since I was 15 – 23 years ago…saved a fortune I think?!

These are the best ones I've found:

http://www.mouseprice.com
http://www.zoopla.co.uk

Loads of info on those including estimates of current value.

I used to get lodgers through Loot – it was like a box of chocolates.

The original start point on the otherside is no longer used but it still there – looks kinda sad….

IIRC ones for frames have a different thread than the ones for forks. I have a few so will look for you – is it M8 ones you want?

Well I think it's actually 20 people – Bush and Bliar have to be there.

Yeah but how much money would you have to have to think that it was a luxury worth paying for? Many of us could afford it but our lives would be impacted to a greater degree than is perhaps sensible.

gold prices will continue to rise….

It's a bubble – watch it burst but dunno when….

This is no laughing matter….

Shall I just get a Miele? Seems to be the answer to most white goods related problems….

Inside as in where you put the plates

Er, OK! How about looking at the electronic bits? Worth looking to see if anything's got damp?

Perilous indeed

Of course I wouldn't have given her the option if I was worried she'd go mad…indeed probably wouldn't have wanted to marry her.

Are some women worried what others will think if their stone is too small? There's a trade off between size and quality for most.

I went to Hatton Garden and told my wife to get what she wanted – a risky strategy that relied on her levels of acceptable guilt.

Other: 'How come you have such an expensive bike but don't race?'

Me: 'How come you have a Boxster but drive like a ****t?'

I like the fact that people do often show an interest in getting a bike from talking to me – must be the excitement in my eyes… – and sometimes they do get one; the trouble is those that think £100 is a lot for a bike but haven't revealed that when asking how much they should spend. So their eyes then glaze over and I switch to talking about looking for a bike with no suspension if they want to spend less. This happened with a chap who I later saw with a weighty full-suss budget special who asked me what I thought. Can't really say anything negative at that point so just say that it's probably OK for what he wants – he just uses it to ride a mile into town every now and then so it'll do the job but would like to ask why he thinks full suss is needed on tarmac….

Well the 'could buy a car for that' is a classic that I try not to get to by avoiding answering questions on costs.

When I came back from CyB with a bit of a scab on my knee, having had various injuries – 'Why do you keep falling off?' I was asked. Good point really….

I'd just put it in the best saving's account I can find:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest#instant

I moved in 2 1/2 years ago but only use it once a week.

So to look inside do I approach from underneath?

I missed it – started earlier than I expected; ridiculous!

My instructor used to asked me questions to ensure that I was paying attention to the traffic and using the mirrors – 'what colour car did we just pass?', 'how far behind is the car following us?' obviously without rechecking the mirrors.

As I got better he moved onto the ladies – 'What colour skirt was the girl we just passed wearing?', 'How old…?', 'Score out of 10?' Lessons were fun….

Used the Garmin on the way home today and it did well in telling me when the M25 was going to get bad and how long the badness would last – which was nice to know. Not explored the traffic function further but I believe it will show me how surrounding roads are doing though suspect only the main roads have useful traffic info.

Not used it on a route I don't know but the screen shows directions as clearly as I can imagine. It also tells me the speed limit for the road and beeps if I'm going faster than it. Gives warnings of speed cameras too.

This Garmin doesn't have lane guidance; has blue tooth for your phone though….

I like the idea of doing a lap of France one day.

I suppose they'll think someone will be desperate enough to take it in these troubled times, almost the 'Will work for food' thing.

Buy him some good bottled beers – I'd be most happy with that as rarely get anything I really want and don't want people wasting money on me.

It's funny because he's fat….

Struggling ain't fun if there's little chance of increase income sometime soon. Rent out a room? I stretched myself in my early years and had a lodger to help; worked out well for me but stopped when I got married.

I would refuse to go lest someone I know sees my at such an event.

Have a word.

I'd imagine from an evolutionary point of view it still wouldn't be a successful survival stategy…

Well indeed – seems it's hard to get away with; perhaps we mostly catch the bad people and kill them so as to remove them from the gene pool? There is a test to determine if someone is a psychopath; maybe we should pre-emptively strike and stop them reproducing?

Well I don't think that's entirely fair! I think it's more that they don't want to go on a baby killing rampage and think the reason they don't is because they no it's wrong and the reason they know it's wrong has something to do with God – if the only reason they don't kill babies is because they think God will be angry then that's a problem I'm sure!

What is more interesting is why we don't kill people if we think we might get away with it and there's a gain – empathy and guilt stop us; I could be rich if it wasn't for guilt! 😉

Well actually there's an interesting point here – sort of. When is a human life special? At conception? At birth? Ever? If only at birth then abortion at any time is maybe fine – indeed maybe even to kill babies as they won't know what's happened? Dawkins says that he's not worried about dying as he won't be here to notice but just wants to die in a painless way – well that's fine but would he agree to being instantly teminated at some future random time whilst he's still enjoying life?

We protect human life as we empathise – often protect animal life too. There are those that will take it without caring and the rest of us can't understand that – we may think they're 'not human'.