NHS deal then (for discount); refurb (could pick up a older (not that old) model for maybe 10% less; or as above John Lewis for the 3 year warranty..

The John Lewis one is two years on all electricals; Apple’s is one year at retail, three years through education sales (only available to students and lecturers).

John Lewis offer longer warranty than Apple do themselves.

True, though if you do manage to get a student deal, they come with a three year warranty from Apple according to *cough* a lecturer I know.

I once sketched out and budgeted a (pretty swish) four container, two bedroom house at about £40K for containers, delivery and materials, but with the price of land there’s not really a saving.

^ many people who start doodling shipping container houses want to cantilever them like this, but they’re not really designed for it without reinforcement. On the corners you can stack them nine high (like this), but I’ve seen photos of improperly stacked ones starting to fold up under the weight of the ones above. Though, they somehow managed a fantastic 60/40 cantilever for this temporary puma store.

Worth asking your accountant. Mine does my payroll. Granted, it’s only for me, but it’s a fraction that price and I bet it wouldn’t climb much with employees.

Some friends were housesitting for relatives in a rich area of Nottingham; the kind of neighbourhood where the back gardens are a fraction the size of the front ones. Of course, they threw a party, and Ken Clarke phoned the landline after a couple of hours, asking us to turn the music down.

Don’t really like him, but fair play for phoning direct instead of getting the police round.

(Edit) Bonus story from B3ta: A reader once bumped into Bill Oddie, and suggested that he marry Noddy Holder, in which case they could take the names Noddy Oddie and Willy Holder. Apparently he wasn’t best pleased.

Thanks!

It’s quite reassuring that people who posted on this thread have problems with the same types of drivers as me – notably Addison Lee minicabs and 4×4 drivers – removing the feeling that I was beginning to imagine things.

If I’m in London, I like that Addison Lee cars at least have massive signs on them. Audi drivers don’t seem so bad in Nottingham, but BMWs always seem to be the ones doing punishment passes. I do wonder how many of these stereotypes are cemented by confirmation bias though.

You’re probably right, but it can be taken as an indication of intent. Also, our hands are full of delicate little bones…

Elbows and knees: Probably doesn’t stand in your favour later if you’re seen using them. What does and doesn’t look aggressive to bystanders counts for a lot, so it pays to stay calm whatever actions you take.

A guy I trained with was attacked by someone with a knife. After disarming him and knocking him out, he did something the police b*llocked him for later, but it was effective: He talked to all of the witnesses saying “Did you see that? He tried to stab me. That guy just tried to kill me can you believe it?” etc.

I think the best way to deal with all of these hypothetical scenarios, and especially any fear of them, is to train in some kind of self defence. Preferably something street based rather than a sport with loads of rules and mats. I was scared it would bring out or feed my aggressive side, but it actually cooled me down and brought it more under control. I’ve never, ever come close to having to use it, but the confidence and calmness that came from it really help in dealing with bad or aggressive drivers. De-escalation is almost always best, and training for worse things can help you achieve that more assertively.

Definitely the RAM. The CPU upgrades are really incremental improvements, and you probably wouldn’t notice the difference unless you were exporting video or something. Which an Air is, eh, suboptimal for :)

One of these electric TNT box trucks:

Saw one as a ped, only heard it by the wind noise it made. ****ing terrifying.

Get off the bike is very good advice, very little scope for movement or staying upright if you’re still on it.

Also, regardless of self defence*:
Balled fist: GBH
Open hand: ABH

*disclaimer: not a lawyer, etc.

I think getting in a fight indicates enormously bad luck or colossally bad judgement, but in any case, unless they’re trying to kill you it’s generally best to err toward the less aggressive.

guy threatened to follow me and find out where i lived.

i pointed out that wouldnt be difficult as we were outside my house, invited him to come round and sort it out anytime he wanted.

Fantastic :)

A guy once crawled alongside me and ended a foaming torrent of abuse with “I’ll knock your ****ing head off”, but sped off when I grinned at him and responded “Alright, pull over and let’s give that a go”. The passenger he was shouting across looked like she was going to die of shame.

I’m lucky that work means I almost never have to travel in rush hour, but getting evening trains from London Bridge last year, I’ve never seen so many visibly unhappy people packed into such a small space. London’s a totally different city and much more enjoyable when you’re on a bike.

From the little I know about this, yes. There are bit coin exchanges on the web where you can buy a bit coin using normal money.

Getting your money back out can be difficult though. A lot of exchanges are relatively cash poor, so when people who are rich in Bitcoins try to cash out, it doesn’t really work.

Mining is becoming less worthwhile now the difficulty is increasing, though people have been working against that by specifying optimised hardware (the plastic crate is a nice touch neilsonwheels :)), and/or joining mining pools, which kind of work like lottery syndicates. If it stays as volatile as it’s been over the summer, you’d probably have a better chance by speculating rather than mining.