The house we’ve just bought has all sorts of interesting bodges.

The entire chimney breast wall in the living room was clad in brick effect hardboard panelling. There was a cabinet in one of the alcoves with a 2 gang socket next to it, that two was wired into another two gang with a plug and wire behind the unit which in turn was fixed to a bit of skirting board which wasn’t attached to anything.

There’s other sockets dotted around the house where the cables have been chased into the wall (just) then had polyfilla thrown over it and it’s lumper than a lumpy thing.

The there’s the damp (on all but 3 walls), which is a result of a combination of blocked airbricks, knackered gutters, a downside that empties onto the floor and render that goes all the way to ground level.

Me and mrsmatt were in a posh Italian restaurant last year. Leather faced chairs. There was us two and a group of 4 girls on another table. I casually yet subtly moved my weight onto one cheek to try and sly a silent one out but it ended up being the frequency and volume of a foghorn. The leather seat didn’t help.

Oddly only one of the 4 girls heard it and she started giggling uncontrollably much to bemusement of her 3 friends.

Swelper – Member
He’s from Blunderland. Bless him

I just live here. Thankfully I’m not actually a Mackem.

Ooooh, Redcar, classy. I could get her a parmo.

I knew this was a bad idea

Revolution Triad – rebadged Merida frame apparently, utter poo

456summerseason as well, started at 100mm, then 140mm, then 160mm and it never felt right with any length fork, replaced with a Chromag Stylus which is much the same geometry wise but so much better.

Also had one ride on an borrowed mmmbop, hated it a lot, worst ride on any bike ever.

You’d need something that pivots around the BB so there wouldn’t be any chain stretch.

Anyway, n+1.

If you don’t want buy new get yourself to a local NCT nearly new sale (http://www.nct.org.uk/branches/events/nearly-new-sales). We did the usual new parent thing and went to mothercare and spent £550 on a Quinny Buzz and Maxicosi car seat. We then saw the Quinny in one of these sales about 3 months after minimatt arrived for £80.

They are also very good for cheap clothing as well, not that it matters for the first few months as you’ll get given a LOT of outfits.

If all else fails I may have the shift windows off mine with screws that you can have for postage.

Worked okay for me the other day when I ordered a doodah

Have a mooch round classifieds on here and on Pinkbike and see if there’s a frame that catches your eye tha you can build up with all the best bits from your Genesis, something like a Giant Trance frame maybe. Then you don’t spend £2k on a mail order bike you might not get on with.

Lad I work with just got married and got a LOT of cash and hardly any presents. I think most people who will be attending your wedding will know you well enough to figure out that you’re a big boy and will already have a toaster/set of pans/disgusting silver plate picture frame.

That were reet good that. Steve Smith’s run was brilliant.

Park Tool tyre boot or Zefal equivalent? Chap I know has done exactly this and it’s worked fine for him for the last 2 years.

Sounds like the exact same problems I’m having with my 17 month old child. Probably have different solutions though.

I’ve lived near Sunderland / Durham for the past eight years, and no, it’s not a Southern thing

Near me then <waves>. Definitely not a southern thing, I’ve only commuted a few times recently but stopped when on one commute home I nearly got knocked off three times. Twice on roundabouts when cars just pulled out and once at a junction, guy pulled out and I hauled on the brakes and stopped about 6″ away from the side of his car. Cue window down and SMIDSY.

Unfortunately for me where I work and live I have to take main roads as there isn’t really a back roads/off-road way but even then the quieter roads I find to be worse as there’s generally less room for people to try and squeeze past and worse visibility at junctions.

ahhhh, rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle

Tat is rubbish. I could still bang one out thinking about Big Helen who I knew when I was 16 and that was 20 years ago!

Big as in tall or round or did she just have an excellent pair of personalities?

Luckily in my job I get to let tradesmen down all the time. So the next time your plumber/heating engineer rings and says the parts aren’t in you can blame me for all of it.

Just flogged a 360 and PS2 on fleabay, hadn’t touched them since minimatt appeared last year.

I do miss arsing around on Forza though.

:lol:

Genesis CdF?

@mcmoonter I just went for what I know. I haven’t looked at new stuff in a while so it’s all a bit hazy. I’ll let other more informed/up to date people help you out.

Clicky

That’s the new equivalent of what I got about 6 years ago, it was a 450D back then. You’ll find that it’s like bikes, everyone will recommend what they have, some like Canon, some like Nikon etc.

edit: should add, go to amazon and buy DSLR’s for dummies, goes a long way to explaining what all the buttons do.

You could buy a half decent DSLR for about £500 or you if thats a bit steep there’s some good point and shoot things out there.

If it’s for print I’d go for a DSLR as they have bigger sensors which is like having more pixels on your tellybox.

Is there a non zanussi branded alternative?

I wonder how much special brew he’ll get with that €36

Anything by Iain (M) Banks.

I’m currently reading Wiggo’s autobiography which is pretty good so far (only about 40 pages in)

Avensis was last serviced about a year ago. It’s never done particularly well on fuel even when new, it had some engine problems after 2 years which necessitated an engineer rebuild but that made no difference. Even driving like an 80 year old makes no difference. It’s the 180bhp one and I’ve looked about the Interweb and most people seem to get the same.

I shall think on as the voices of reason have spoken and what they say makes sense.

Why have a car that does 40mpg on a long run when I can have one that does 50mpg and gets round town at 40?

RS – I showed a picture of a Doblo, she wasn’t impressed

craigxxl – I’d prefer a diesel for the economy on longer runs. New commute is going to involve longer distances on faster roads which is where petrol would lose out.

ska-49 – my brother has Touran which I’d somehow forgotten about, I’ll go and ask him all sorts of inane questions about it now.

Hadn’t even looked at Mondeo’s to be fair. Possibly because I was thinking smaller but then main aim is to save money on fuel costs.

get yourself on ebay and get her a Nokia 6310. Battery lasts about a week and a 5 year old could get it to work.

BMW i3 is about £5k less. You’ll have to wait a few months though.

Or get a Vauxhall Ampera which would enable you to go much further than to the shops and back without having to take a 4-gang extension lead.

Well that’s my £30 of vouchers the other half got me for my birthday not getting spent for a while. Takes bloody ages to find anything on there, and I can’t look at work due to IE7 same as others.

Hardhurst Farm just outside Hope is good. £5 per person per night. Hot showers, bogs, a cafe, and a pub within crawling distance. Hope is about a 15min walk away.

I’ve re-read pretty much every book I have, mainly because I’m too lazy to go buy more.

Ones that I have re-read most would either be 1984, LOTR, or possibly some Iain Banks. I think I’ve read The Bridge once a year for the past six years.

I see what you mean. Like building a bike from bits is always more than an off the peg.

To Gumtree I go.

I managed to build one up from stuff I had lying around for about £100. Luckily I had the big bits like wheels and frame already to hand. Try the local secondhand shops near you or see if the LBS has anything they’ve taken as trade-in.

My gran had two cousins in Germany. We went to see them once (about 20 years ago) and for some reason we were shown where they were going to be buried. The headstone already had their names on it :?