The wealth of the baby boomers was a one-off. Most people in human history are just looking to survive and we’ve gone back to that – don’t compare your situation with the baby boomers, it will only depress you:-

You’re not wrong. That generation had stable jobs and excellent pensions, free education, free healthcare, low taxes, low property prices, cheap energy, cheap fuel for their cheap cars – and what did they do? Scorched the Earth and then systematically dismantled the institutions that served them so well and removed the advantages they themselves enjoyed, all in the name of greed. For the first time in hundreds of years we in the First World have taken a step backwards.

My generation (born in the late 1970s) only took a reasonably small hit but I genuinely pity kids hitting their late 20s these days. They should be really ****ing angry.

Logically, a letter notifying you of a win is highly unlikely to shout about the fact it is from NL, is it?

Edit: you’ve always been my favourite poster on this forum OP

Yeah, that’s awesome. How to pull it off though…?

Pink lacoste polo shirt, dark blue jeans and white loafers with no socks.

Come now you can’t tell me this isn’t the height of taste and sophistication. I give you……..the Gaytona.

(Actually this might go all the way around the terrible dial and actually be awesome)

You could always light your Cuban cigars with £50 notes

Apparently it’s against Wetherspoons’ code of conduct 🙁

I like this idea… was there a ceremony of confirmation and did you get an official document from an accedited gaylord body?

Yes there was a confirmation ceremony into the gaying community but instead of some biscuits and a sip of wine I ended up with a face like a plasterer’s radio.

Seriously impressive dismissal of a proven 2,000-year-old religion right there. Militant atheism condensed into two words. Neat.

Dude in addition to a sky wizard there’s a baddy who lives under the ground too!

I don’t think they’re a waste of money necessarily – I’ve never lost significant money when selling old watches. In fact in some cases have made a few quid. But would agree they’re not much more than (well engineered) man-jewellery and no different to women wearing expensive jewels or those ridiculous handbags that cost the GDP of a small country – if it wasn’t for my stupid expensive watch how would the fit young men I’m trying to pick up in the bar know that I was loaded? 😉

I don’t understand the hysterics over expensive watches. A five grand watch might seem ludicrous to some people but’s it’s hardly the definition of opulent consumption. If you drink 5 pints of lager every Saturday night you spend about 5 grand over 5 years.

In a similar vein a nissan micra is probably a more reliable and useful car than a fancy penis extension, but I know what I’d rather drive 🙂

Don’t believe everything you read

As a confirmed gaylord I refuse to take the opinions an old guy who wears a dress and believes in a sky wizard seriously.

Well it depends on your point of view. For those of us with the luxury of choice and abundance, eating burgers is probably frowned upon when there are healthier alternatives.

If you only have a dollar or two a day to spend on food, and even this isn’t consistent, cheeseburgers are pretty much perfect – full of energy and the major food groups 🙂

Brownside

@OP If you’re talking about the OBD cloned key issue where the the thieves take advantage of the alarm blackspot and use a key cloner to hack the OBD, that’s been fixed for at least two years on cars coming out of the factory so you must be really unlucky, do you know the build date of your car?

Anyway the fix is a free one, just call your BMW dealer and ask for the latest CAS security update, they will book it in.

Anyway be thankful the crims took the car the way they did – I once was mugged for my M5 keys, it wasn’t much fun.

OP couple of things stand out as a bit odd in this configuration – how come your router is on .254? Do you manually set the range of allowable addresses to sit in the 192.168.100 range? Not that this is wrong per se, but on a home network I’d usually expect the router to sit on .1

I’d look at possible address conflicts if you’ve set any manual IPs too, or possibly locked an IP against the wrong MAC address with address reservation. Remove any manually set IPs from the router config and the clients, see if they work over DHCP, then set manuals up again if you need them?

PS you haven’t added anything new to the network recently have you like a repeater? If so check that it’s not trying to act as a DHCP server.

I don’t think anyone has ever actually saved much money by switching, ever.

He is a name, not a login ID. He is a free man.

Be seeing you…

In death, a member of project mayhem has a name. His name is TandemJeremy. His name is TandemJeremy. His name is TandemJeremy.

Thanks all – the current deal is with the same lender and there is no arrangement fee. She has checked and can overpay up to 10% per year of the total balance. Doesn’t seem like a bad deal really.

Thanks again STW!

There’s no steroids being used. It was the bizarre stuff they were on about using before a workout. I did ask them why they used it and they got very precious about it, saying they needed it?? Ah well, each to their own and that. I am still none the wiser as to why the hell you would take something that gives you heart palpataions, sweats, etc.

Yes I can’t quite understand the need for any of that, a bowl of oats and a handful of raisins 45 minutes before working out would be just as beneficial. But then I don’t understand why people drink “Energy” drinks either.

Look I’m usually a terrible snob but there’s not much better than 5 double cheeseburgers at 2am after a night on the cider 🙂 Oh and tidy away after yourselves you animals!

I don’t know which supplements those guys you mention are taking but I drink one or two milkshakes a day which have whey protein, oats, dextrose and creatine in them. They taste good and fill me up. As to whether they “work” or not I’m not sure, I work out 4 or 5 times a week and certainly feel that I can recover quicker when drinking the milkshakes. Could be a placebo, but it doesn’t matter.

On a side note it’s really easy to identify the roiders at the gym. They always look a bit off, as if their skin is overly stretched. Not to mention the testicular atrophy obvious in the shower room 🙂

Champagne is OK but sometimes it tastes a little like puke. I wonder how many people unknowingly mispronounce “Moët”?

Sintered pads can be a bit of a pain – what I have found works is to drag them for a while and get plenty of heat in them. Try riding a few hundred yards while holding the brakes on, that should sort it.

I use the Cyclone mix from myprotein, it has oats, carbs, protein and creatine and other good stuff in it, mixed with milk. Not sure if it makes a difference or whether it’s a placebo, but it certainly curbs my appetite and I feel like I recover faster after a gym session when I drink it. Also tastes just like a mcdonald’s vanilla milkshake.

Off to Chamonix and Les Arcs this year. An “AM” type bike is pretty much perfect – tubeless is fine, I run hans dampf super gravities with a bit of latex and they seem fine.

I think a lot of people stay in the middle lane as the slow lane is full of lorries and more often than not the road surface in that lane is potholed, scarred and deformed. Also when the weather is bad there seems to be less chance of aquaplaning in the middle lane. Perhaps if “they” fixed the roads people would be more inclined to use proper lane discipline?

(Not me though I smash it down the fast lane in my German penis extension, get out of my way ye plebs!)

I know quite a few people who work within an easy cycle, yet insist on driving there, and also pay for an expensive gym membership. Madness!

Maybe they don’t like turning up for work sweaty when it’s hot, freezing when it’s cold, and soaking when it’s raining? 🙂

Very difficult “in this economic climate” – traditional lenders will want significant surety, and would likely require a large input from yourself. Have you thought about crowdfunding?

@randomjerry, enjoy the car. However I do feel complelled to mention a Porsche Boxter S or Caymen S is close to £10k cheaper than the Beamer. If you went for the ” standard” non-S models they are a smidge over £40k in a reasonable spec, so £20k less than the Beamer

Aye but I don’t want a coxster or a gayman; I’ve had Porsches in the past, overrated IMO 🙂

You are either a middle-aged woman or a drug dealer.

Middle aged fabulously queer bloke, close 😉

Where you gonna put the bikes?

I’ll keep the knackered old Vectra for that!

Aye cheers 🙂 A present to myself for getting through a mental breakdown in one piece, and out the other side!

You could get something a lot fancier than an X Trail for that kind of money, take a look at contracthireandleasing.com – some great Mercedes deals at the moment. I just ordered a new BMW M3 cabriolet , it’s going to cost me £13k over 2 years. I would lose that the moment I drove out of the dealership if I paid cash (£63k list price).

Personally I don’t think buying a car outright makes financial sense unless you are looking at a really cheap and cheerful motor (my current Vauxhall cost me £800, and it won’t die) – but if you’re looking at spending tens of thousands of pounds I would keep most of the money in the bank and budget a monthly spend. Certainly if you are going to borrow the money to buy the car, do you really want to be paying a couple of hundred pounds a month in 7 years time for a car that will likely be worth peanuts?

Cars are not assets in the traditional sense – take advantage of cheap finance deals and run a new car 🙂

Edwin or Hiut. The latter are made in Wales which is nice if you like that sort of thing.

I wouldn’t worry about it, but you can be unlucky. I once handed back a contract hire car and thought I would save a bit of money by running a 5 year-old car for a bit. Over 18 months it dumped its transmission, clutch, catalytic converter, some electrical gremlins, and suffered two cracked alloys. On the other hand I’ve run bangers that just won’t die, currently a 2004 vauxhall with moon mileage which refuses to break!

Option 1 every time. Your current place might not be perfect but living debt free feels good. Your kids won’t have lifelong memories of what their garden was like but will definitely have happy memories if you’re free to spend time with them and are unstressed over a mortgage.

Option 3 is madness IMO. Beware the advice of financial advisers, solicitors and mortgage providers; their ultimate goal is to make money from you, not do what’s best for you 🙂

I think the answer depends on whether you are Business Core or not.

I used to have a Hyper 7 but managed to break something every time I used it, usually at great expense. R/C is one hobby that makes mountain biking look like good value for money!

@OP I too used to be in the highest tax bracket and it made me sick to realize just how much I was paying in to the system, to support those who couldn’t be bothered to work, etc.

But then I had a revelation and decided that if my biggest worry was what color my next mercedes was going to be; then life had dealt me a pretty good hand and I should be grateful for that.

I don’t earn anywhere near what I used to now and am no longer in the top bracket. I still think that bracket is punitive but adjusting my perspective made me a lot happier 🙂

@hughjayteens I just picked up a 130i LE for a song, it’s fantastic. Can’t wait to get shot of the RFTs though. Looking at the tire sizes there doesn’t seem to be much out there in the way of replacements ( rear 225/40W18 and front 205/45W18) – do most owners choose slightly different tires?

Seconding Moneypenny, worth every penny

I’ve come across numerous situations like this among friends, OP I feel very sorry for you and hope you can find a way to work things out.

Not to generalize too much, but from what I have observed, the relationship initially seems fine; children come along and boom a couple of years down the line it’s in tatters. The overwhelmingly common factor in these situations seems to be that the female partner decides to bail and the male partner is left asking questions.

A good friend of mine is going through something very similar; I hope by sharing his story I can at least offer some form of support and to reassure you that this isn’t uncommon, and it isn’t all your fault.

He’s a good provider, an excellent father and a supportive and attentive husband. She has now told him that she “misses the spark” they used to have and now “wants space” to “find herself again”, which has culminated in her moving out; they are currently trying to work out a shared custody plan of their three year-old. He is shattered. Never saw it coming. Was doing his very best to provide for his family and this has knocked him for six. She accuses him of being “too serious” (he is a serious person, is successful by dint of hard work and taking things seriously, and uses this success to provide for his family) and that he’s “boring and predictable” (maybe, but do you really want to be married to someone who is unreliable?)

I don’t know why, but maybe she has an unrealistic view of what life is like after children come along. Life isn’t champagne and chocolates every day; it isn’t like it is in trashy chick lit and certainly isn’t anything like the innumerable romcoms that poison the screens.

In the initial throws of a relationship there is of course a spark, things are always fun and the other person can do no wrong – however a few years down the line when you are familiar with each other and the bins need to go out, the dog needs walking, the bills need paying, the dishes need doing and the life insurance policy needs to be sorted out – general mundane everyday things that life throws in your way – the spark can turn into something else. Sadly I think too many people can’t handle this and choose to throw away their relationship rather than work at it 🙁