Did minene tonight, new rigid fork on the singlespeed*. 32mm plastic piping and a mallet worked a treat.

*(I seem to have become niche all of a sudden)

Waterproof-ish

Means it’s got a seal around the battery compartment and well fitting rubber plugs for just about everything else. Might not survive an hour on a 30° synthetics cycle but it’s resisted a couple of dunkings in the bath, one in a cup of tea and one or two hours in a sodden rucksack.

Motorola Defy. Waterproof-ish and I haven’t managed to wreck mine yet, despite 6 months of biking, kayaking, running and general oitdoors abuse.

Both Marsport and Berkshire Canoes in Reading might be worth a look, if they’re not too far out of your way. Marsport have a good pedigree in racing boats and have always been great when I’ve spoken to them.

Where are you based, for a start?

St Pauli’s dead handy for the Fishmarkt, as thepublican says a cracking spot on a Sunday morning.
Anywhere down the Reeperbahn will be a good giggle, pretty much. Down Grosse Freiheit is where the Beatles started their fame, and there’s a few good bars there as well as the Betty Ford Clinic (also a bar, humourously). The Pulverfass (Powderkeg) is also good for a laugh, transvestite cabaret bar.
Herbertstrasse is the equivalent of the Oude Zijds in Amsterdam, good spot for a bit of window shopping, so to speak…

HTH!

Everything was baked rock solid this weekend (just got back from Catton after Thunder Run). Some bits with new surfacing down, but couldn’t tell you how much of that is SITS course and how much was for TR24

Not going to blue flame could also be a pressure issue rather than fuel. Check the seals maybe?

Might be the jet on it. IIRC, my whisperlite came with a second jet for burning heavier fuels (paraffin, diesel etc) that you had to switch over. Worth a quick check, at least

Oh, and add CunninLynguists to that list as well, especially “Will Rap For Food”

Del tha Funky Homosapien is always worth a listen. Deltron 3030 is a cracker, most of the Heiroglyphics stuff is great, and everyone’ll go “ooh, it’s that bloke from Gorillaz!”

Going a wee bit old-skool/different, try Everlast, Michael Franti/Spearhead, Urban Species, Dust Junkys…

In that sense, molgrips, I don’t need much help lighting stuff. But I reckon the landlord might not want me to burn the place down when I’ve only been in a fortnight ;)

Cheers for the suggestions. Like I said, changing the switches isn’t really an option ay the moment, but I’ll have a word with the LL about it. The previous tenants seem to have just accepted the £150-a-month ‘leccy bill, rather than try and work it out and reduce it. First port of call is LED replacements for the NINE 50w bulbs in the kitchen…

Not sure changing the switches is an option, unfortunately, since it ain’t my house, strictly. And yeah, I’d found the prices. Youch…

Makes sense. Cheers brassneck

Can someone translate “done a Beltran” for me?!

TV’s getting back to it. Rock on, Tommy!

I’d actually say *best* way in this case, as I’m a big music/song lyrics geek, but an old girlfriend simply sent me the lyrics to Ani di Franco’s “Used to You” (look it up) with a note saying “This is how I feel. Goodbye”

Worst was just being lied to – “It’s not you, we’ve just grown apart, you’ve got things to do that don’t involve me etc etc” when actually she’d got it together with a guy from her uni halls a couple of weeks before and didn’t want to tell me. Things were a damn sight easier when she just told me the truth.

That was part of the reason I went for it. A lot of the shooting I do is adventure sports stuff, where I need to be carrying my camera kit and enough warm/waterproof/spare kit for the day, plus (sometimes) stuff like climbing harness/helmet etc. the CP has enough space for that. It’s a big bag, for sure, but I picked it up, brand new and bagged, for £80-ish on FleaBay

I have the LowePro CompuPrimus and love it. Space for body, 3-4 lenses plus bits, compartment for personal gear (normally houses spare clothes and waterproofs), rear-loading so you don’t get straps covered in mud when ratching for gear, AW cover and it’s own cracking little laptop case. Brilliant for shipping all the kit plus the mandatory “change of clothes for when your hold luggage gets left at Heathrow”. Including shoes.

Downsides: If you’re being dead strict, it’s millimetres over the carry-on luggage size limits. I’ve never had it questioned, though, and a friend who uses the same bag dodged it by saying “there’s x-hundred quids worth of camera kit in here. You think I’m puttng that in the hold?!”

30. Don’t always act it, though.

Looks like someone found a new use for a bucket mould.

For tube mounted, I’ve only used the cheap plastic-coated metal ones from Wilkos, so not much help, I’m afraid. There’s some nice (if you like polished metal) wheel holder ones out there, but I assume it’s a space constraint?

A vote for Ay-Up from here. Been running them for a couple of years and love them. Light, bright, and good value.

Wandering stars, for whom it is reserved
The blackness, the darkness, forever.

From this time, unchained.
We’re all looking at a different picture
Through this new frame of mine

Give me a reason…

Amy LaVere. Well worth a listen.

Contrafibularities

Low Sizergh Barn, just south of Kendal, does a good line in Cumbrian stuff, but it’s not cheap. Cumberland Sausage is definitely your best call, Woodall’s of Waberthwaite is generally considered to be the best. Sticky Toffee Pudding from Cartmel, Grasmere gingerbread, Herdwick mutton stew, all possibilities.

Oh, and Geoffj – fish and chips is actually Jewish in origin. Odd fact, but there you go…

Clicky

If anyone could post the picture up for all to see, i’d be grateful. Smegging phone browser…

I use the Mosa one from here – Tyre Inflators[/url]. Only used it a handful of times, but it's cheap, it works, and you can buy cartridges in bulk for not many pennies.

It's tricky, because the HTML handling on email clients is slightly different to web browsers.

I write the HTML emails for our company, and just write the code as most of the HTML email senders/systems won't cope with more than completely basic code (HTML 4.0, nothing more fancy than that), can't use background images, and some of them have a habit of 're-intepreting' your code…

You could use something like Dreamweaver or FrontPage, but frankly that would be OTT. Be as basic as you like with code, the easiest way to get a decent layout is to build it as a table, use a banner image in the top cell to set the max width (I tend to stick to a 650px width, to keep it scroll-free on things like Outlook) and just configure your layout from there. You'll know a shedload more about the design side than I do, so I'll stop there!!

Drop me an email if you want a couple of examples – in profile. Cheers!
Pyro

Paul McG – have you got rid of those horrible bloody tartan lycras you used to run in yet?…

Pyro

Sliced Cumberland sausage mixed with grainy mustard in pitta breads does the work for me.

Yep, haemorrhaging money just getting TO work with the fuel prices. Sold a load of stuff at a car boot sale just to sort myself out 'til the end of the month. Sod's sake….

Was at a car boot sale this morning not 2 miles from Leeds Bradford. The silence was almost deafening*. Was odd looking across at the airport and 10-12 planes sat going absolutely nowhere. Car park was full though, presumably with car belonging to folks who are stuck abroad, so I bet the airport parking companies are going to be raking it in hand-over-fist when that lot want to leave!

*Well, apart from the local chavs and scallies hassling for mobile phones or computer games…

Kippford or I seem to remember a spot at Beeswing. Lovely place, nice and handy for Dalbeattie and Mabie in particular.

Saw them at Solfest in Cumbria last year, they were definitely one of the highlights. Their version of The Model is **** awesome.

Yep, all of the above.
There's so many types of boats, and buying the wrong one (too edgy, lower weight limit, etc) will halt your progression completely.

(Been boating for 20yrs, and still screwing up…)

I've got a Pipedream 600 and I love it, great bag for autumn and winter bivvies. Have a Marmot Helium as well for summer stuff.

No such thing as a good german band

I quite like the Guano Apes.