It will always be trouble with kids having a sense of entitlement, it’s also a natural part of growing up and pushing boundaries. They are still getting used to not being the centre of the universe, which since they were born are used to people that will sacrifice their own time and possessions in priority to a child, so they naturally have an imbalanced view of the world.

We have this debate with ours all the time, thankfully it’s not about them breaking stuff. Thankfully after a selfish period where they just couldn’t understand they can’t have everything they wanted (be it the food they want, time on computers, the computers themeselves etc) they now seem to understand that for everything they have, we worked for it.

They both got iPad mini’s for Christmas when they were 10. They both live on them playing Minecraft, CBBC app and using iMessages alot. Both of them were given cases for them which must be on at all time, and both agreed that if they are lost or broken, they pay us back for them and they can fund the next one. So if they break them, they will be an iPad down and a few hundred quid down.

Time on them is limited too, and although they will always kick off when not allowed and tell us how unfair life is, they will respect it and not use them. All electronics and screens are banned before 9 am, and after 8PM. On weekends they have 2.5 hours each to use on the devices, and it can’t take priority over family stuff. Outside of that they manage their time, but still they choose to ask when to use it.

Thankfully as we are completely open with them they know how much effort goes into to getting them this stuff, and the life they lead. And they do aside from the usual pre teens strops seem to get it. It does mean we’ve sat explaining to 10 year olds how mortgages work, how tax gets paid, why we pay tax so they can get things – and it does seem to work. They now know that we work hard for all of us, and how much they have, so no longer think if I buy something they should be entitled to something.

Pocket money is all done on rewards (tidy room, feed the cat, makes us cups of tea, do housework, get good grades etc) and will loose money for bad behavior – some weeks they end up owing us money if they have been bad. It sounds unfair but they contributed to how it would work. Once they have this money they can do whatever they want with it (assuming its age appropriate etc), as they earned it. I might claim they are wasting money, but its theirs.

We have got to the point that if we are spending money, 9 times out of 10 they want to spend it on time with us. A day out, or swimming, or bike ride with a lunch out is something they get excited about and that’s the biggest thing they want, rather than gadgets. It’s been a battle though.

We’ve taken the view that children are selfish by their very nature, they are born with an army of slaves who do all they can to keep them alive and happy – and it’s our job to try to teach them to appreciate what they have, be less selfish or at the very least to be able to pretend that they are not selfish. If they are selfish, and grow up with a sense of entitlement and not understand you get out what you put in, then that’s our fault too.

Ford Focus

It just works really well, na faffing about and have plenty of range – for the riding I do, multiple front rings seem an unnecessary complexity. I was getting annoyed with the amount of duplicated ratios which always seemed mad.

Simplify and add lightness seems appropriate to bikes as well as cars to me.

Personally not had a problem, I run it in 150mm form, so 67 degree head angle. I find it absolutely fine and very stable, though if you are used to a really slack angle it may seem a bit steep. Going downhill it’s great and really attacks corners well, I prefer it being a bit more alive personally but it’s always going to be a balance getting the head angle right if you are not always going downhill.

My riding is always going to be a mix, so outright downhill performance is not something that a worry about too much, but if I was doing more downhill I could set the fork to 160 and throw in an angleset. Either way it handles all downhill thrown at it really well.

Yes I know I need to decide on spacers and cut the steerer more

Yes I do, had one for a couple of months, it’s brilliant.

Helped as I built it up exactly as I wanted, but it really is the best bike I have ever had. Climbs well, descends well. I may have just hit a sweet spot in setup, but I just forget about it when I am riding, it just does what I ask of it.

It’s playful but really easy to ride at the same time. It’s my perfect bike at the moment, don’t regret it at all and tried many other bikes trying to pick.

As long as you have the correct spaces, no issue

As others said, drill, plug and screw into the block behind – plenty of long plugs for this. Done it for some time. Spread the load as much as possible as always, but if you have a decent length plug it’s easy.

Would go for a long plug that bridges, as you may snap the plasterboard as it gets pulled towards the wall by the force of screwing the cab on

Yes, it’s where all the eating places are. See here

http://motorwayservicesonline.co.uk/Knutsford

And I’m sure I drive under eat each day, hope I’d notice it’s gone!

Run Ubuntu on VMWare Fusion and it works great.

I would avoid a thinkpad personally. I have a Mac and have done for years with no issues, my work machines have been thinkpads and keyboards and screens keep requiring fixing – quite frustrating, but could be a bad patch we have

Silent Night I have had the non turn ones and they kept collapsing, and neither of us are porkers. Customer care was terrible too and ended up being thrown away.

SealyI have had for about 15 years, and is still going strong, but it became a spare room bed a while ago. Bit firm but comfy.

Current Mattress is a JL, Pocket Ortho 1400. It’s coming up to 3 years old, and no wear, great and comfy, no rolling into each other. Still looks and feels brand new. Best bed I’ve ever slept in.

If bought on their account it remains theirs, they just leave the family. It’s all separate accounts that are linked, and can detach any time. Approval of purchases are useful as said, and that’s the main reason we have it.

Most annoying is even if you have cards attached to each adult account, unless there is gift card balance, the leader of the family’s card is always used.

So even though my other half has her car attached for purchases and always has done, now my card gets used. Not a big problem but confused the hell out of us at first. More of a problem if you regularly buy content, which we don’t.

Other than that it’s good and also sharing apps is good. So one kid gets minecraft, you can all share it which helps save them cost but also lets them fight as one bought it with their money and the other gets it free but thats life so they have to learn to take it in turns I guess

Anodised for me, sent you a mail. Let me know if you still can and I’ll bob the money accross

Email sent

No he doesn’t, I rejected a number of offers after Decree Absolute before agreeing a sale.

That was my point, it could not be done in spite of him. He has to agree to the sale unless there is a court order in place. In your case you had to agree to the sale before it could proceed, so he will too

He has to agree to the offer, unless the settlement states he signs it across in advance – which as he’s still in, that sounds unlikely.

Amazed at the how many men seem to think they can bluff it out even after a divorce has gone through

If it’s the only bathroom in a family house it needs it. As someone else says it points to it being small if nothing else, and ends up looking like an ensuite.

It’s just something thats expected, even if it’s not used much. Kids like baths as already said, especially when young. But the most common use for baths in our house is hair washing/conditioning/whatever other potions you need if you have long hair, as it’s easier to lean over a bath than poke your head in a shower, or dunk your head in a sync. Not something I would have ever thought of, but there we go.

Be prepared to enter the 7th circle of hell trying to remove the halfords stickers

Hairdryer them, couple of minutes on each one and they peel off easily

Home insurance I would say.

For NHBC, it really is only major building issues or violations of building control etc. Could be wrong, but it’s not a substitute for home insurance that would cover leaks etc

After 8 years and a leak appears I think it would be classed as wear and tear rather than shoddy building.

Pretty hard to say how much it would cost without seeing the issue or house structure

You probably moved, lost it or got it reissued at some point, and the 18 months was the balance of the original 10 years since photo submission

Can be done with transmac and a couple of other tools

Create Mavericks 10.9.2 USB Boot and Installer With Windows 8 (No Mac)

What do you mean by consultancy? I might be sounding like I’m being awkward, but its a word applied by people with no idea what it means these days. It’s become like engineer in its devalued sense.

9 times out of 10 it means contractor who worked in the business. Look at the number of “IT Consultants” that do support only, it can be a generic term and with foolish buyers a complete waste of time for the buying company, hence the bad rep.

Will you be doing advisory generally or staff augmentation? Strategy, procedural, governance etc. Many options out there so find out what they mean.

Be very careful if they are trying to sell smart man consultancy without a clear repeatable methodology or transparent sales process, otherwise it’s looking at you being a team of contractors, which is fine as long as you know that’s what you’re signing up for

Just because he mentioned day rate doesn’t mean you are not salaried, it may just be the client side day rate…

Does it have to be lightning, does your Mac have Mini Display or DVI ports, those adapters are £25 and are what I use on my Mac Mini to drive the TV as the screen. One word is that Midi Display to HDMI doesn’t carry sound so perhaps you are best just paying the £40.

If it’s lightning, it’s an IOS device not OSX, so your kind of stuck with either apple or apple certified.

Thunderbolt is a different matter

Me and the mrs went on holiday to Egypt end of last year. In a supermarket we saw loads of Cadburys chocolate bars, all in english and costing about £0.30 a bar. Big bars of fruit and nut for £0.50.

We got a couple of bars and had a bit each, it tasted funny so we checked the date thinking it would be 20 years old. All well in date but then we spotted the Kraft sign. Tried the other bar and then binned them both. Tasted like old chocolate that had turned white.

Think they may regret the use of Kraft when sales are hit.

It’s more because the recipe of chocolate has to be different depending on the temp of the country it’s intended to be sold in. Chocolate is generally designed to melt at body temperature, but in hotter climates they have to adjust the recipe to prevent constant melting.

As diary milk uses lots of vegetable fat, and then hides that taste with milk solids rather than using cocoa butter in the first place, the the chocolate ratio drops in further making it taste even worse than in the UK, but it does stay a bit more solid.

I suspect what you were eating was not actually made in a cadburys factory, but was a US import to Egypt, which is made under licence in a Hershey factory so is also adjusted to the US market tastes as well.

It’s so when you pick it up and move it the drawers won’t fall open as you waddle along, as most don’t use the lock and wouldn’t for moving it round the workshop.

That’s the only possible reason I can see. I’m going to rip the mech out as it’s annoying me

Yep it’s a con, and I won’t go into the rights a wrongs. But when I have added a car, assuming the porsche is not a daily driver, move that to a specialist insurer who will mirror your regular no claims (many due if its not a DD and has limited mileage), then move the seat to the regular policy.

Will cost the admin fee for change and new policy. You will then have two policies with normal cars, and a specialist policy all building up no claims – the latter will often allow add ons like track day cover etc.

Have a look on some forums for recommended insurers.

DA 1200ES if it must be a silver Sony, reasonable and second hand?

Do you know what codecs you need on the sound, or if you need 3D processing etc?

Do you need ARC for the TV? or will you be running sound optical or using a STB?

Synology NAS here. Currently an 1813+ as the main device, but as long as it’s DSM they are all the same.

I have all the shares setup as AFP and SMB shares, I don’t use NFS – just prefer SMB as it works cross platform, although these days I don’t think it makes a bit of difference. AFP I avoid as it was too buggy, and again struggled across platforms.

For mapping of drives, OSX always used to struggle to auto map like windows so you had to mount each time. I wrote scripts for each of the fileshares, each time the mac boots it finds the drives (one Media, one Software, one Backups).

For my Air I don’t keep much on it, but backup important files. iTunes accesses all media from the NAS, and Plex library from the NAS. I use Rsync to backup each time I start up on the local network for all regular documents. It replicates all that is on my Air to a NAS replica.

I follow the same principle for other machines, the Pro has more backed up but it’s just a backup. The Mini is a media machine and is used for BluRay rips, each night it looks for new rips that have appeared, copies to the NAS and deletes of the machine.

The NAS is the main hub, and operates as file shares for all media and files that can be shared, this means I can get to all software and media, with all music appearing to the amps in each room, all TV’s run plex so can stream movies and TV from a single source. Far simpler.

For any files (music, docs, whatever) that you want to replicate a copy to the Mac, just mount the drive and use Rsync. If you don’t like the rsync interface, then search for a tool called BackupList+, it’s an automator for Rsync it works really well.

Once you have everything setup you can add Time Machine to the NAS as it’s useful backup, or if all is synced to the NAS Time Backup is useful for a time machine like backup so you can prevent numpty file deletes. Obviously this is space dependant so bit the bullet and chuck a couple of high capacity drives in there.

How are you combining the RF2 feed and the standard free view feed? Are you using a powered mixer, if you are using a passive splitter/mixer then you will have an imbalance and the signal will be attenuated

Pretty much any crimping tool you want, I have this one in my tool box that I’ve used for years:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Klein-KLE1006-Crimping-Insulated-Terminals/dp/B00776SJJO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414515895&sr=8-1&keywords=Klein+Tools+1006

But also have this one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Draper-35574-Ratchet-Action-Terminal-Crimping/dp/B0001K9TGA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1414515993&sr=8-2&keywords=crimping

The draper one does the job, but I prefer the ratchet less one and it’s easier if you are crimping on to short tails that are already in place (like cars etc)

My daughter lost hers, but denied it. It was something she really wanted for her last birthday, but she looses everything. Insisted she wouldn’t, but then after a few months of course we stopped seeing it.

Luckily it was found at Tescos, and our number was found on it. I travel a bit for work, so we started taking pictures of it against famous landmarks from around the world, printing the pictures and sending them to her.

She received postcards from her ipod from Paris, Bangalore, Sydney, New York, KL etc. We started giving it to people we work with to take pictures from any famous landmarks. This went on for about 5 months, her receiving letters from her iPod, she kept hiding the letters as she didn’t know what was going on and couldn’t tell us as of course the iPod wasn’t lost.

Eventually we sent her a ransom note, sending the broken cover in the envelope as a kind of proof of life. Eventually she came to me and asked to borrow the money to pay the ransom as she was worried her iPod would be harmed by the kidnappers.

Once she had admitted to it I told her I was going to the police to get it back. I went away for a week for work, but told her I was on a rescue mission.

She got her iPod back and was very sorry, it never leaves her room. She’s still not sure what happened. She’s 9 BTW, no signs of PTSD so they’re tough little buggers. Worth it just to prove that maybe one day she might just be wrong, which hadn’t entered her head before

No, say they are available on request

Is the original question why do the insurance company consider themselves liable when the police are not pressing charges?

Plenty of accidents have have liable parties without their being criminal proceedings?

It sounds like it was the other guys fault, however due to the weather, time of day etc it could have been something like hitting a patch of water or something.So the police either believe he did not act in a way that justifies prosecution, or there would be no case strong enough to take to court.

This does not mean that the other party is liable for the damage, and it’s this claim the other party ins company are trying to minimise. It’s fairly standard now to try to cap payments and by going direct they can get your mum to sign this limitation. Going through your insurance company will mean the bills will keep rising, which is correct when the injuries from a big crash are unknown at this time. But it does put a stop on the folk who are not injured but will accept £500 as they just want a payout, which is not the case here

I’m using Devolo 1200+ series, I have four of them around the house and am really impressed.

My previous house was Cat6 wired throughout so got used to that, since moving in July I’ve been struggling with some out TP Link ones which weren’t the best. Upgraded last week to the 1200+ mb/s and getting a good transfer rate throughout, enough to stream mkv’s rips of bluerays to each TV from my NAS, along with audio throughout and the house is now saturated with WiFi that actually works rather than extending Wifi over the air.

I am seeing 400mb/s pass through on the links which is enough, although houses with older wiring would be slower obviously.

Depends how much you want to spend, but if you are doing high bandwidth about the house, get as good as possible and forget about them as they’ll just work.

Still have stupidly slow BB thanks to BT refusing to ugrade my cap to infinity, but thats another story.

You should be able to set time shift on audio in the TV, but that depends what TV you have

Are you sure?

A few years ago I was “shunted from behind”. Completely the other drivers fault. It never effected my insurance at all.

It won’t effect your no claims that is true. It will however be reported as an accident. You are required to report any incident whether you are claiming or not to your insurer – this then tags you as having an accident and your premiums will rise.

You could always not tell them and carry on, but each time you take out insurance you will be asked “have you been in an accident fault or not within X years”. For X years you have to say yes, and again you get tagged as having an accident.

You could always not tell the ins company, and never mention it with on renewal and new policies – but this is getting harder with the ins companies sharing info.

Having been in an accident (which you have been) you are statistically more likely to make a claim again, its just the stats.

I had this when I was hit twice in car parks within 2 months, both times I was just parked there and idiot drivers reversed into me – but I got hit with a significant increase in premiums for the next few years. You could see the cost by taking out the accident (claim free accident) on the quote, cost was always loaded.

It’s completely unfair, but legally the only alternative is to lie to the ins co’s

Yep, I had two, but I was breaking a chain and completed on first house at least a month before completing on the new house so less of an issue in instantly transferring money.

But no reason why you can’t do this, it will cost more probably. And it could be a pro or con – the con being another bunch of idiots to deal with, the pro being they are both being paid to act in your interests so if one starts stalling you instruct the other guys to start kicking them.

If you switch to a single one, they you are likely to pay out any costs they have on your behalf, but they can also pass any searches to the new solicitors.

You can have as many solicitors representing you as you like

You pay them to check the forms, make sure they are filled in correctly pay indemnity insurance for any mistakes they make etc.

You also pay a large amount for them to sit around, avoid your calls, ignore your emails, drink tea and right at the last minute rescue the sale by doing something they were paid to do 2 months earlier but failed to as they were focusing on the items earlier in the list.

Searches are not compulsory, but it depends on how much risk you want to take, it’s worth checking is there a charge against the house, who really owns it etc etc, to stop it being taken away. If it’s on dodgy ground etc. But you can order the searches yourself, I’ve not known a solicitor to actually do them, it’s all outsourced.

Anyone can do conveyancing, only licensed practitioners can charge for it. The Law society does say this, but they wrap it up in weasel words to make it seem that you need a licence to do conveyancing on their website.

Sound like you could do all this through online conveyancing providing the deeds etc are 100% not contested and no other financial interests are on the property

Just out of interest, when you see it at 150000 OIEO would that lead you to think I am after 155k or above??

I wanted to market at 154500 and would more than ikely accept 152k for it.

I would think that if you are after an offer in excess so 150k, so would start at £150,000.01 unless I was in a bidding war and desperate for the house. Not taking the mick, but OIEO really annoy many buyers, scare first time buyers and tell the market the vendor is not up for a deal when every buyer is up for a deal.

Putting a house up at £154500 I would want if for at least below £150k, if you want £150k for it, I would put it up at £160k. If you would only accept 152k, then it may be tricky as you’re already told the market you’ll take £150k with your previous price, so you’re rising your price despite no interest.

As others have said though my comments are all worthless, as the EA should be worrying about this and it should be largely irrelevant as you are paying for his client books not advert, and with no offers it sounds like his books are empty or full of the wrong buyers. Hassle him to get viewings, open house whatever, it’s on his interest to sell. If he has no buyers, bin him and get out of it. Presume the contract with the EA is short term, in which case if they can’t find the buyer before the contract is up, he’s had his chance find someone else who can prove they have buyers lined up, or at least viewers.

Oh and PPTP is about as secure as asking a stranger to break into your house and give you a call after reading all your docs after he’s read them. So don’t think using pptp will add anything to security, more the opposite so avoid unless really needed