when the next one kicked off, which only did because the victors of the first one decided to keep Grrmany on it’s knees afterwards

Possibly not an accurate precis of the causes of WW2

However, today is not the day to argue about it

This however is a great book on the causes of WW1

but in his current form he’s enabled one of the best photos ever

getting muddier on the NWD side of the Thames.

And it’s supposed to be a bit damp tonight, so will only get worse.

However, mrs petec went out yesterday from streatley to aldworth. Delightful apparently. Clothes and bike a bit muddy though

if I cycle to work, the route i take is about 42km, and 700m of climb, so not too dissimilar

It’s hard. Takes about 90 minutes; coupled with showers etc, it’s a big chunk out of your day.

But in the summer it’s lovely; [mostly] quiet roads, and a good way to relax. But i do it – at max – twice a week if it’s nice. Anymore i think would be too much, and I wouldn’t enjoy it.

There are benefits of going to an indy, but then there are benefits of going in house

Sent my dunhill in a couple of years ago to be told the o-ring seal under the crown was no longer made. Sorry. Can’t do anything guv. Etc

Complained about a diver’s watch being kinda worthless if not waterproof, and mentioned Patek’s ‘passing on to the next generation’ tag line

They gave me a NOS innards, and put it back in the existing case. Said (in writing) if it leaked in the next couple of years (unfortunately just up), they’d give me a complete new watch

Did they need to cut taxes in this band in 2019 to stop people leaving?

there’s probably an element of bribing people to take their minds off the FUBAR of brexit.

Honey, you’re only middle class if you’re a life member

and claiming tax relief on a life time membership is surprisingly difficult. Can only do it if it’s a family account if memory serves.

Edit to say – it looks like a joint account is okay as well

• Please note that we cannot reclaim tax on individual life membership, individual senior life membership or gift membership subscriptions

Double the average UK salary.

I’m not denying that.

I’m only commenting on the fact that Labour wouldn’t reverse the increase, or even bring in a lower limit (a la Ecosse)

Extra £500 is £100 VAT when spent (on full VATable items), more money to the business they’ve spent it on, more money for investment or maybe salaries, more tax from income, more money spent by employees and VAT on their spending, etc.

Effectively it may make little or no difference to the tax man. Less take in one area may be more take in another.

This

The interesting thing to me is that Labour have said they wouldn’t reverse it, but would introduce another rate at 80k . Do they recognize that 50k isn’t necessarily ‘rich’ anymore?

Just got one of these https://www.dell.com/en-uk/work/shop/laptops/latitude-7390-2-in-1/spd/latitude-13-7390-2-in-1-laptop/n019l7390132n1emea with the i7-8650, 16GB, and 256GB SSD, for slightly less than half price from the Dell Outlet

It’s in perfect condition from what I can tell. Lovely little thing

I’ve done Vancouver to Quebec City on the other side of the border. Albeit split by stops in Banff/Winnipeg/Toronto/Montreal etc

I think the longest journey was Winnipeg to Toronto. That was two days (with one stop in the middle of nowhere). Two days of nothing but lakes and trees. Although we did see one (1) moose.

We had a seat each; it was hard. Take a book. Having said that, it’s an experience and I’m glad we did it.

My parents have just done Adelaide to Perth in a lovely cabin, waiter service and all (the gilded generation…). It’s apparently a lot easier.

These from Cambridge are excellent. Proper stereo, not too big, last for ages, sound superb.

Not the best name though https://www.cambridgeaudio.com/gbr/en/products/yoyo/yoyo-m

i’ve got an elemnt, and i’ve never kept the app open and screen on to receive notifications

that’s been with android 6.0, android 8.0 and iOS 12.

it is the lowering of resistance due to the body concentrating blood on the core.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3LJG8Syt2V79D8cjZrPpL5l/can-you-catch-a-cold-from-getting-cold

Still doesn’t mean you’ll catch one if you’re cold, but if may increase the chance. How many eskimoes (inuit?) do you see with colds? Or Geordie girls on a Friday night down the Bigg Market?

didn’t do any oil on mine. Cleaned, dried on a kitchen roll, mixed with salt/pimenton/chilli flakes. Slow cold roast for 20 minutes.

Outstanding. Incredibly more-ish

i have a finisterre one, in bright yellow https://finisterre.com/products/fisherman-beanie-gorse?variant=12141731905610 . Doesn’t fulfil your no turn up bit, but recommend what you have and all that

bit of a trendy label, but i get an itchy head with a normal wool one,and this I can wear for hours. And – in my defence – i got it at half price, so it wasn’t too bad.

Colour takes a bit of getting used to though. At least the family can spot me a mile off now.

there was something about any non Apple replacements causing issues after some upgrades…

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/apr/10/iphone-8-ios-113-breaks-smartphones-third-party-repaired-screens-apple

no idea if it’s still occurring

Anyone else going to Twickenham on Saturday?

Have you seen there’s a train strike?

How are you getting there – and if driving – where are you parking?

i got ours (it is ours! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise :-) ) from here https://davidashton.co.uk/

Lovely shop, lovely people. The bi-coloured are lovely, but will do whatever you want, and you can pop in whenever you want to get your ring polished (so to speak)

Also popped back later to get a couple of little diamonds (to represent the kids) put in the shoulders a few years later.

And most importantly, I got it on sale or return….

i used to play rugby at county and divisional level in my teens. Started at 4, and lived it (six days a week when 16-17). Played at twickenham. Couple of colleagues played for the Lions, quite a few for various premiership squads

I refused to play at university, mostly due to the culture. Bearing in mind I’d been on many tours, with many “judge and juries” and been through many initiations, i found it a bit much.

Stayed out of it for over 20 years, but my son is now getting into it. Tours still go on, but it appears it’s more the parents (who now have to go on tour) rather than the actual players that partake in the drinking culture.

it is luck to a certain extent, but you can tell which ones are likely to be discounted

with TVs – a six month old model, or something that’s just about to be replaced

buy from John Lewis up to 30 days in advance

if they discount on black friday (and that depends on whether any of their competitors do as well of course), they’ll refund the difference.

So you get to take advantage of black friday without having to deal with *people*

Edited to say; sorry – 28 days https://www.johnlewis.com/customer-services/prices-and-payment/never-knowingly-undersold-claim

True, but would Philippa York have raced as Philippa rather than Robert Millar if the world had been like it is now?

I’ve got a friend with a Tesla. Lives near Reading, worked in Exeter. He reckons he can get one to the other and back on a single charge.

He is a bit of an evangelist for it, so whether there’s a certain element of BillyBS…and he has mentioned driving slowly helps

the bbc4 one is the same as the Netflix (actually PBS) one, but condensed.

Bright shining lie is a good book on the whole thing. Rubbish film though…

on the basis of recommending what you have…

These, from Cambridge

Proper stereo, battery (last at least 24 hours), quality sound (really excellent), and can go loud!

i have one of these from clas ohlson. Ridiculously bright in 12w mode, and lasts for hours with the 4Ah battery (which does cost a lot, but i use the battery in loads of tools)

Nice wide angel of the beam. Makes working easy

They also used to do one of these, which uses the same battery and is amazing as an actual torch. You might still be able to pick one up

i’ve had this problem; used my suunto one for a while but it’s not bluetooth.

but you can buy non wahoo straps

i went to elvedon a few years ago, in february.

As a result, when we do centre parcs, we now go to holland. Much nicer, half the price, more exciting trip over  etc

Desmond.

he doesn’t own any newspapers anymore; sold them in February this year to the owners of the Daily Mirror….

Solid latex from Dunlopillo

Bleeding marvellous. Cost a lot, but no springs. Love it – even now (as much as one can love a mattress)

far too many trees get cut down

but there is a difference between a crappy conifer and an oak. Or beech, or lime etc

Suunto have excellent GPS and stats (in my opinion), but the software is a little lacking as well. It can takes ages to sync to Movescount; doesn’t always, but often takes hours

I am waiting for Wahoo to bring out a watch; if that works (and syncs) as well as the bike computers, it’ll be excellent

one thing i did notice in the states now was the requirement to enter a zip code when buying fuel.

It’s the zip code related to your billing address, so 90210 doesn’t work. The way to get around it is to take the numbers from your postcode (in my case 8 and 9) and fill up the rest with zeros to five digits. So mine was 89000. This works. If you’re SW12 9LU, it’d be 12900. Etc

Course, you can just go in and ask them to release the pump, but we discovered a couple of sites in the more remote areas who didn’t understand that a) we were british and b) we didn’t have a zip code

um – I used mine in the US to pay for things (along with a Tandem credit card). It was also useful for just getting money out when we arrived (remember you can only get £200 a month or something)

You can transfer money onto it over there. And you have to have money on it before you can use it. It’s not a credit card. It’s like a prepaid card.

Also – remember to make it active before handing it over to the nice young waitress. Only when that’s worked should you make it inactive again…

my mum’s been severely coeliac all her life; back when people didn’t really know what it was; her first few years was basically eating bananas. She lead the society for a few years, and is still incredibly active in it.

Her mantra (with all things, and not just food!) “if in doubt, don’t“

check whether there’s a TPO on it.

If it’s in a conservation area (which you say not), there’s automatically a requirement to ask the council. If it’s not, there could be a separate one. Don’t ask the council – as it may alert them you want to do something. Our council has a GIS site that shows all TPOs etc.

in reality, if it’s a crappy conifer, there probably won’t be, and even if you ask the council they won’t care. But be 100% sure about the conservation zone

I’ve given up on the news.

Brexit is a car crash. Politics is all rubbish. The rest is just death and destruction, apart from of course 20 minutes of any news show concerning a person being questioned for a position in a supreme court of a country that isn’t even ours. Why do I care? It’s like the local news – 10 minutes on some family in Cyprus whose house has fallen down (tenuous local link – they lived here once)

I can see why the average youth has turned off; the average of viewers of the five main channels is

BBC1 61

BBC2 62

ITV 60

Channel 4 55

Channel 5 58

As mentioned above, people take an interest in death and destruction that doesn’t affect them.

I have an Asus C302ca

Lovely bit of kit; highly recommend it. Since getting it, the boy has started using it rather than his laptop for this homework. It’same just so much faster

i’ve just replaced my decathlon bionnassay softshell after about 7 (8?) years with one of these from sports pursuit

was tempted by the equivalent from decathlon, but thought the fjern one looked a bit better (£20 more of course)