+ 1 for the Landmark Trust as per voodoo-rich’s suggestion, they have some wonderful properties available or why not book up an entire small hotel/B&B?

I’ve stayed at the Ardvasar Hotel a few times, it’s quite nice and handy for the ferry.

Check your household insurance, always a good idea to phone and speak to your insurer, as insurers can/will change the T & C’s. I done this last year and I was fully covered whilst on holiday.

Wow – top quality thread!! Has made me chuckle.

I’m still waiting for my tax rebate from before Xmas, I’m gonna tell HMRC I don’t want it cos it’s late – that’ll learn em!!!!

Whilst camping at 4200mtrs in the Himalayas we woke up to find a set of Snow Leopard tracks through our camp, so a thumbs up from me. :D

I really would like to see Zane take over. I quite like Moyles’ style but he is too old for Radio 1 (has been there too long as well) and is being tipped to go back to Capital Radio once Capital goes nationwide. I think Annie Mac would be great as well but if either Annie or Zane got the job I guess they would have to tow the R1 playlist line. I would like to see R1 be brave and allow someone like Annie/Zane do their own thing musically (to a degree) and move away from the celeb obsessed R1 style they have at the moment. BTW I’m really too old to be listening to R1.

I went to Cordwallis VW at Heathrow for my van and they were very competitive. I was pleasantly surprised by the discounts they agreed to.

Forget that crazy Soviet engineering and take a look at the crazy Soviet music. 8O

Truly sad news there Kevonakona, chin up fella.

Here’s one to sing along to, from Eddie Khil…it’s a cracker!!!

I’ve just got back from riding the North Downs around Guildford, rode from my front door as the roads aren’t too clever round here. The trails had plenty of snow on them and haven’t had too much traffic which made them pretty good for riding. It was hard work in the snow but worthwhile. A few mtb tyre tracks out there as well so I wasn’t the only one.

Hey CG – loving the bike, nice to see it getting out. :D

The ruling allowing him to stay in the UK was reached within UK/English law, as pointed out by Berm Bandit. The law (as used in this case) is an ass and why this loophole hasn’t been closed before now is very disappointing. Ibrahim came to the UK in 2001 and since then has had a string of convictions and yet our justice system has allowed him to stay here since then, again the law is an ass.

Snowing well in Guildford for the last hour, starting to settle a bit now. Snow ride coming up tomorrow if it keeps going.

I have just checked on my 4000 mile old non DSG 140ps T5.1 and I have an average of 38.9 mpg. That is mostly a mix of M25/London driving. Very pleased with it I am too.

That’ll be my Mojo from the Swinley ride and it’s a SL too. Go for it cos you know you need a Mojo in your life!!!!

Great post Roper, I always enjoy these threads but a 20 cm spider, not round here thanks. :lol:

Trailertrash

Have you ever cared about anything in your life enough to get of your a*se and demonstrate? Have you got the b**lls to face up to a riot policeman in full brutality-inflicting kit? Helmet, shield, big stick, 6′ high horse. Because, let me tell you, it’s terrifying. Get upset about something that matters to you or your kids, go and do it, protest publicly, just once, facing up to the riot cops, then come back and get involved in a debate on protest and policing. Until then you are not qualified to comment.

And what about the police facing a barrage of bricks, concrete, bottles and the odd fire extinguisher, do you think some of those coppers found that quite terrifying? Or should we just say that until you have faced a riot you’re not qualified to comment either? Just a thought.

Guinness by Diageo for me :D

Hey DezB, those photo’s are ace! The photo Timothius highlights is a cracker.

Somebody on here must have a S2000.

I owned one a few years ago and when the snow and ice come, the S2000 stayed in the garage. Pretty much uncontrollable in the snow and ice, twas bad enough in the cold and wet.

Great to see everyone today and a really good turnout considering the recent weather, the trails were in pretty good condition

Thanks to those that bought along sweets and the home-made biscuits were lush (raisins included).

Plenty of snow in Guildford and still snowing at the moment, we’re not too far from Swinley either. I will be out on the bike shortly, woo hoo!

Question for the OP – who will pick up all the fag butts that have been chucked out of car windows? :roll:

I’ve only just noticed this thread but if there is gonna be bad behaviour, swearing, farting and drinking amongst other things then I’m up for a STW Swinley ride!! I will try to ride to Swinley from Guildford if anyone fancies hooking up – wanders off to find OS map….

I would love to see a Hoopoe, they are meant to visit Britain but I’ve never seen one.

I’ve had some KCNC jockey wheels on my bike for a while now and they seem pretty good, work well enough and last longer than my previous Shimano ones.

Is there any benefit in having a strong currency at the moment?

Mmmm, not sure that Kombi’s are classed as cars, willing to be proved wrong on that though. Mine is a T30 (1 tonne + payload, important for VAT) so pretty sure that it is a van. Insurance is higher than a car but shop around. Mine has the new VW engine (meets Euro v emissions) in it so tax is low and as I stated above fuel economy is good. Compared with a mates standard transporter the standard Kombi interior is quite nice, although I have the upgraded interior which is even nicer.

Colwyn, not sure what year you are looking at but the only Kombi VW are offering at the moment is a “factory original”.

I got a new VW T30 Transporter 130 Kombi about 4 weeks ago and I have to agree with nwilko that they are a bit pricey but I am very impressed with it so far. I had quite a few extras on mine and that bumps the price up a bit but worth it IMO.

Performs very well so far for both work and play. Had 3 bikes in the back without too much hassle (had to take a front wheel off 2 bikes but with a bit of thought could have arranged things much better) with associated kit. A lot easier to live with than I thought it would be as it is my only vehicle at the moment and rather civilised to drive, with good fuel economy. I’ve had nearly 700 miles out of a tank of diesel. Seems to have enough power to deal with what I need it to do. I have had vans before and the VW is much better than anything else I had.

She is quite a hairy lady!

Have a look on Mounain Trax web site, Whyte Ti frame available for a good price. I had a look at it yesterday and was very impressed (or should that read – tempted).

You should really have a look at Panerai watches. They are a bit different to the Rolex, Omega and IWC crowd and IMO very nice too. You don’t see many about and can be quite hard to get hold of so as a really special gift a Panerai would be perfect.

Quite a difficult question to answer but I would go and fight if the country was faced with an foreign aggressor, as in WW2.
I would not go and fight in WW1, the way the soldiers were treated was absolutely shocking (I would like to see the then establishment investigated for the way they treated our troops in WW1) but as others have said did the average man know what he was heading into?
With the way information is available today I believe it would be much easier for average man to make an assessment of the foreign threat the country faced and base their decision on that information and not what the government was telling them. Hopefully future governments will find it impossible to carry out wars like Iraq and Afghanistan due to the availability of information.

IMO

Thanks for all the replies.

I went for a TomTom GoLive 1005 with European mapping. Not sure how the traffic management works yet but I will try to give an update next week.Just off out to see how it performs.

I have a similar problem with my Virgin media hub. Spoke to Virgin (who were quite helpful), changed the settings as advised but didn’t really sort the problem out. Virgin then reckoned I might have to get a new hub but as you say it seems a common problem so I will wait and see if the new hub is any good.

Lamb/vegetable/chicken samosas, if they are freshly cooked all the better but microwaved will do. Great with a flavoursome ale.

Terrible news, my thoughts go out to his family and friends.