I went to my local Post Office this week to send a small parcel (about shoe box size, worth about £130). They quoted £22 RMSD. I laughed, and sent it from work via DHL for £7. I’ll give them ten years at most. Hopeless.

It’s easy to miss the point with Neil Young. He’s not the best singer and there are many better guitarists. Some of his albums are “difficult” and he’s upset a lot of people along the way. With him it’s all about the music he feel he has to make at any given time. Those who have an interest would do well to read “Shakey” by Jimmy McDonough (be warned, it’s not a quick read) or watch the excellent BBC documentary ”Don’t be Denied”[/url] next time it’s broadcast, or the shorter interview with Mark Kermode here.

I’ll have you all listening to Tom Waits next :-)

Manchester Apollo three or four years ago – row two, centre stage. Epic.

Oh, After The Goldrush by the way.

renaultsports are built in a different factory (ex alpine in dieppe) to the cooking versions and the quality/reliability does seem to be better.

Agreed

See cliosport.net for 172 / 182 info and ads. I’ve had two 182’s and loved them both. It’s like driving a Jack Russell.

My wife asked for a recurve bow for her 40th. Obviously that’s not for everyone.

That second picture is ok, but I can’t see the rider’s number ?

Keep hold of your wallet / bags / camera etc. In fact don’t carry your wallet, just enough cash in a secure pocket. You will be targeted by incredibly good pickpockets if you have any of these things with you, especially round Las Ramblas and the Metro.

Food’s great though, we love Barcelona.

My firm encourages us to apologise when things go wrong, to take ‘ownership’ of the issue. It doesn’t matter that its the machine or someone in a call centre 3000 miles away that is at fault. The customer just wants to hear someone say sorry. (OK, normally they want compensation, a good rant and to jab a finger at someone, but sorry still doesn’t hurt )

Exactly.

Mot until the end of next month ? It could be fine, I wouldn’t say it was silly cheap for a 12 year old fairly undesirable car – bear in mind it’ll cost you £125 for six months tax in a few weeks and £48 for an MOT. If it was me, I’d agree a price based on it passing an MOT (maybe the seller would split the cost with you if it failed ?). If they won’t let you MOT it walk away.

Nothing to do with minimum wage, more to do with poor training I think.

I thought the 250 GTO was Nick Mason’s ?

It wasn’t a write off, it was an engine and running gear testbed. I don’t remember there being two of them, but they were built by a different department to the one I worked in, so it’s possible there were.

FWIW I owned and ran a B&B in Betws-y-Coed for three years, if you want to chat about the area email me with your phone number and I’ll give you a call tomorrow.

If you get there early there’s an outdoor carpark right next door, but you can’t get in after about 6:30 (not sure of the exact time). There’s no problem getting out though.

Sorry Zappa, but you’re wrong on this one. If you’d offered the asking price, or the seller had accepted your offer and then sold to a higher bidder you’d have a valid reason to moan. You didn’t, he didn’t, you lost the deal.

Amazon

Can’t recommend a cottage, but I’d suggest somewhere near Llanberis / Beddgelert area – near to Snowdon and the main attractions, easy access to Anglesey (fabulous beaches). Betws-y-Coed is lovely but may be a bit much to ask two kids to walk round there as it’s in a valley and the only way is up.

This is why you should always carry zip ties a tazer.

Please also note that many UK sites will not allow Hobby sized vans, and you can’t legally tow them with most cars due to their size.

We’ve got a 2002 Elddis Odyssey 534, quite a big van with a fixed double bed, which makes life much easier if one person wants an early night and one wants to stay up a bit longer. Although it tows very well (Nissan X-Trail Di) I find it pretty stressful dragging it around country lanes, so after a year of touring we got a seasonal pitch near Criccieth (roughly £1100 a year including winter storage, which is very cheap for the area). We got loads of use out of it last year, but we will probably sell it sometime over the summer as we fancy doing something different, and if you add up the costs of the pitch, insurance, servicing and repairs and then some depreciation it comes to a tidy sum – we reckon about £1800 – £2000 a year. We think this sort of money will pay for quite a few nights in B&B’s / holiday cottages outside of the peak season. If you have children and a seasonal pitch a caravan can represent excellent value for money, but if there are only two of you, or you want to tour and stay on “posh” sites it’s an expensive way to holiday. I’m not trying to put you off, just giving you another viewpoint. PS if you fancy a good van on a lovely site in Wales drop me an email :-)

I scared myself recently when I filled in one of those calorie / alcohol unit calculators in on the BBC website, after what I’d regarded as a pleasurable, but fairly moderate late afternoon & evening session – I certainly didn’t have a think head in the morning. Turns out I’d consumed roughly 18 units of alcohol and 1200 calories. Now I’ve known for a while that I should be drinking less, as I’m overweight, but this was a bit of a shock. The strange thing with me is that if I have a cup of tea when I get in from work, I can happily ignore alcohol. I’m going down the no drinking on a school night, more exercise, and moderate weekends route myself as I think I have a habit rather than a problem.

Best of luck to you.

Booked 7 days off for 17 days away within five minutes of the wedding being announced on the BBC :-)

Top tip – it gets very warm in there, don’t overdress.

I’d suggest posting on talkphotography and asking for help there.

Yes, unless somebody grabs it the cashpoint takes it back. They add it all up, and it pays for the bank’s Christmas party*.

* this bit might not be true

As others have said there’s a Spar and a Co-Op in Coedpoeth, but there’s a Sainsburys just off the A483 at Wrexham (it’s the next turning off after the A494 for Llandegla if you’re heading north).

I bought a genuine copy (in an Italian box, if I remember correctly) for about £20 on Ebay. The disc is in English though, so no problems installing.

I’m enjoying it. He gives the people he talks to enough space to show themselves as they are.

Nissan Qashqai or Toyota Rav-4 ?

No. X-Trail, but not the DCi unless you get a good warranty.

We went with Shoestring and toured the island – very good. I would caution against this approach though if you expect decent hotels and food, as Cuba basically has bugger all in the way of consumer stuff. You can, of course, take the option of going to one of the all inclusive resorts and this is all fine and dandy, but you should try to spend a day or two in Havana as it’s an amazing place, (particularly Old Havana). In summary – if you want to travel round and have an “experience” do something like we did, if you want a Caribbean beach holiday there are probably better options.

We want to go back.

I’ve got one with the Amazon case – not the one with the light, as I don’t need it. I’ve had no problems so far, but I can’t see the elasticated strap lasting for ever.

If you live near me I can probably help (and why does nobody fill in their profile info ?). Feel free to email me.

I got very upset in the petrol station earlier. I don’t know why, I just started filling up.

I second Foals “Total Life Forever”, but I’ll be listening to some of the other options mentioned in this thread to see if they compare :-)

Kindle is cheap enough that it doesn’t matter if it’s obsolete in a few years, if you waited for the final version of any technological item you’d wait forever. If he’s a reader, he’ll love a Kindle. I do.

Shotguns need to be kept securely as well. The Police are unlikely to issue anyone with a shotgun certificate (different to a firearms license) unless they have a securely fitted, BS approved cabinet which can not be seen by casual callers. The Police will come round when you apply for a SGC and try and pull the cabinet off the wall, too. The main difference is that a Shotgun Certificate allows you to buy and keep as many shotguns as you want, without having to re-apply for every new one you buy, although they must all be recorded on your certificate and you have to white to the police when you sell one to tell them where it has gone. You can also keep up to about 10,000 cartridges at home. Firearms (anything that takes a bullet) have to be applied for individually, and you have to prove you have the proper place to use them – you can’t just buy a sniper rifle because you fancy one. You will also be limited to a maximum number of rounds which have to be stored in a separate locked cabinet to your rifles.

To cut a long story short if the Police decide you are not a fit and proper person (for instance, if you get nicked for drinking and driving) they can take away your guns and revoke your license to keep them.

PIAA make the best bulbs, but they are a bit pricey. here I sold loads when I worked at Tweeks and not one person ever had a bad word to say about them.

Looked up one of mine from 25 years ago on Facebook and she’s now married to someone that looks just like me. Bit weird, really, and it makes me think I may have hurt her much more than I realised at the time.

There are so many bargains out there – I bought a bottle of Jura Superstition today for about £21 from Asda, and a bottle of Talisker for about the same from Tesco last week. I’m stocking up you see…