Some of you lot sound like those grimacing morons you see all the time trying to conserve fuel by driving on the motorway in the inside lane at 55mph, getting overtaken by the trucks and generally impeding the flow of traffic and royally pi**ing of those of us who actually need to get somewhere in the process.

I’m perfectly content in the knowledge that my twin turbo V6 is doing a maximum of 25mpg, but more usually with a healthy prod of the loud pedal somewhere around 19mpg. Still, you can’t put a price on happiness as they say 😉

Would some of that fine not be admin fees?

Most judges would laugh their tits off at any company trying to charge an incurred admin fee of £100 – £150 to collect actual losses at the parking meter of £1. Admin charges do have to be reasonable and proportional.

Does being skilled at Kitesurfing give you an advantage when learning to Paraglide then?

Hopefully this guy had managed to stay injury free – awesome skills 🙂

I’m with Hora here, good looking women in the bar are the first thing you notice. Even having an other half, nothing wrong with having a good gawp, or even a quick chat and flirt with an attractive lady.

Totally different from already being married yet still trying to slyly slip one inside her sweaty sausage pocket!

teamhurtmore – Member

binners – Member
Repeat after me:

An increase in house prices is not economic growth

No but an increase in the wealth effect is a well known and obvious way of stimulating consumption

We don’t need consumption, we need production. Production for export just like the German economy. Otherwise the UK (with it’s blinkered obsession with house prices and personal debt) will continue to decline, each and every year whilst we continue to consume and import more than we export.

Couldn’t you just have gone half way house and left after splashing your magma around the twin peaks?

The landowner has put a locked gate across and a sign requesting that you call at the farm and they will open it for you.

Any one up for a night ride – perhaps around 2am. Knock, knock, knock!

You can buy 360 for £12 off Amazon

Which ones would you recommend/worked for you?

As tragic as the loss of life of any child is due to disease, malnutrition etc (whether western or 3rd world), we must balance this with the fact that the global population growth seems to be fast getting out of control.

70 years ago the global population was around 2 billion, today it’s around 7 billion, in another 20 years it’s predicted to be somewhere between 9-10 billion. Yet already there are plenty of people on the planet who are going very, very hungry, and increasing environmental destruction and exploitation of our rainforests, oceans and atmosphere.

And in the midst of this most people seem to be more preoccupied about updating their Facebook status on their brand new smartphone or watching re-runs of X Factor on TV.

Yes I (and my child) are part of the population problem too and somehow I get the feeling that this will not all end well . . . .

Unfortunately this isn’t what the OP wants to hear

which might also explain why we’ve not heard from him in a while 😉

can’t you post their websites?

errrrrr . . . NO!

Must admit I don’t know of many good creative photographers that will work for £300 a day

We use 2 on a regular basis, and another who’s slightly more. We’re aware of people who charge more but to be honest their work wasn’t any better. Best keep our contacts to ourselves then 😀

So what you really meant was not ‘where do I advertise’ but ‘where can I advertise for free to find a gullible senior level designer who’s into biking but will work for peanuts and take on board all of the risks associated with a startup company’? Singletrack?

At your level of salary you’ll get an average artworker at best. Any good designer worth their salt or looking to advance their careers would be looking to work at a big agency, working with international brands and blue chip clients. As a new agency, working in not the most glamourous or creative of industries (carpet) you’re probably going to have to pay far more than the going rate to attract the right candidate.

Yet you seem defensive and reluctant to listen to the good advise given on here! What does that say about you as a potential manager?

I’ve seen time and time again people who’ve set up agencies but skimp on salaries. You pay peanuts, the saying goes . . The fact that they have not employed good people from day one is still negatively impacting their business today as these ‘average’ designers are now senior designers within the company, yet still need micro management and basic creative direction from the founders on a daily basis.

If I were you I would listen to the ‘FREE’ advise on here and be grateful for it – it’s worth it’s weight in gold. If you can’t afford to pay more then I would either:

– Take on a part time senior (maybe someone with kids who needs shorter hours).

– Employ a graduate – but the guidance they will need will impact a lot on your time and there will be lots of trial and error along the way. As a new business founder could your time be better spent?

– Recruit for senior freelancers to work when required on a daily rate.

– Split out the photography and employ a good freelancer when required. We know several excellent photographers for around £300 per day.

– Offer the new employee equity in the agency for the risk they’d be taking (real equity, not share options). But this is risky for you too.

Don’t promise an increase in salary when the agency gets bigger – most people have heard these sort of promises and hot air before and are generally very skeptical about this sort of promise (unless you write the guaranteed increases into their employment contract, with dates and amounts agreed from day one).

Design Week would be a good way to advertise – but you need to bear in mind that it’s ‘GOOD’ and as a result its not ‘FREE’. Good luck.

Personally I’d prefer a well kitted out T5 or some sort of motor home but £500, that’s a bargain! Can’t go wrong with that. Just make sure you pull over every now and again to let the frustrated traffic behind past 😉

I’ve got the 3.0 TDi S-Line Quattro

I’m dead jealous, I think the A5 is one of few current cars that are beautiful, and I bet it’s lovely with the V6. Always wanted to drive a V6 diesel.

Err have you ever driven one though? Looks nice sure but but it’s expensive, heavy, lacks steering feel and it pretty dull to drive. Still, with the V6 at least you’d not have any more problems loosing your place in the overtaking queue 😉

Not sure mine would fit in that!

Sanctions wouldn’t really affect the poor, the foreign aid would still get through. Sanctions on the rich and people with power are whats needed as these are the people who make the decisions.

Afraid I have to disagree with you here, it’s only physical aid that makes any difference (i.e. volunteers building wells, schools, education, etc). Any monetary aid, and a lot of the food aid is quickly siphoned off to benefit those in power or their corrupt associates. Almost none reaches those who needed it most.

Saw a very good documentary on this a while back and it was shocking. Sanctions would only hurt those who are already starving. Lets just say that the rich elite in these countries have often obtained their wealth in ways which are ‘less legitimate’ than the international trade which would be subject to any sanctions agreement.

I’m astounded that some people on this thread seem to think its absolutely fine for a state to kill somebody because of that individual’s religious belief.

Errrrr except no ones actually said that though have they? Your argument might hold water if you get your basic facts right. I was aware it was UKIP you said and not the BNP but I changed to the BNP in jest (since they’re even more right wing and racist than UKIP), and that’s what you seemed to be generally implying.

There are plenty of barbaric and terrible things happening in this world at the moment, many much more unjust than even this case and on a much larger scale – yet this particular case, hyped by the media, seems to be the ‘fashionable’ one for the ‘latte drinking’ classes to be outraged about at the moment.

If you opened your eyes you would see that there are many problems in the world that are much more serious, but often the only way to resolve these problems is to let them resolve naturally and properly. Quick fixes applied by the West have a proven history of just making things worse, much, much worse.

Loving all the apologists for Sudanese Sharia law.

A brown person is going to be murdered in a poor land far away but thats OK because we’re rich and white and shouldn’t judge them by our standards.

That’s hand wringing liberal relativism disappearing up its own fundament.

Its enough to make me want to vote UKIP

Okay so what do you propose we should do about the situation since I’ve got no idea?

Sanctions – great idea for a country where half the population are already starving!

Military action – fantastic idea, loads more bloodshed, because it’s always worked so well in this region before hasn’t it?

Political, media & Western public condemnation – wow, do you really think they will listen?

Try to turn them all to Christian faith and values – wonderful, they’ll love that and it would make us look as bad as they are.

So come on then – what’s your great idea or does the extent of your protest end with tapping words of disgust on your keyboard and voting for the BNP?

Are you saying that they are of equal significance? Their misguided insensitivity to alcohol use in the west against the medieval torture and murder of an innocent woman?

In our eyes no, in their eyes probably yes – this is a 3rd world Muslim country we’re dealing with. They don’t watch Countryfile at the weekend or debate the benefits of 650B over a pint or two. They are totally different people to us with totally different beliefs and values. You need to understand how their society works before you pass judgement. I don’t understand fully the Sudanese culture so I’d rather not get involved.

But everyone else should just shrug and say “Whatever”?

Well what do you propose we do about it? Perhaps scorn them in an outraged fashion from behind your laptop? Perhaps spit your latte at the screen in protest? Do you think they would listen if our Government interfered – or actually has our Governments interference in Muslim affairs in the past ever ended in anything positive in this region?

I think you have the wrong idea, I’m not condoning this, in fact I think it’s terrible. What I’m saying though is we have no right to tell the country of Sudan to stop this sort of thing, just as people in Sudan have no right to tell us to stop drinking alcohol, killing pigs for bacon or that all our women should wear the burkha – things which they no doubt consider equally abhorrent. Different country, different rules, doesn’t directly effect us, not our business to interfere.

Find it quite hypocritical that those on here jumping on the bandwagon to condemn unsavoury events in a 3rd world country, they know little about, are probably doing so from behind the screen of a new Mac laptop, in a nice air conditioned office with cafe latte in hand.

Found the boot panel & rear bumper caved in on my holiday rental once, quite a bit of damage, again no note left by the offender. Reversed the car up against the big hedge in the hire centre car park when it was returned. Guy went out to check the car, didn’t bother checking the back – came in saying ‘all fine’, signed the form, I walked away – nothing to pay, happy days. Not totally honest I know, but nor was the f***er who caused the damage and drove off.

This is purely despicable by our standards, however these people live by different values than we do, and I’m sure they would find many of our freedoms and ways of living equally as despicable. Agree with Binners 100% – this is none of our business, let them get on with it and hopefully they will eventually learn by their own mistakes. Please also don’t forget that the UK is hardly whiter than white – you only have to look at our history as head of the Empire to see that. We have no right to be policing or lecturing others.

Please be aware that Llandegla have recently banned anything other than a 32. There is an inspector at the start of the trail who will count – if it’s more or less then you’ll be sent back to your car and be forced to drink an overpriced coffee whilst your mates go and ride.

I’ve always bought 2nd hand cars from private sales, never a dealer. Never had any problems to date. By buying directly from the owner, you can not only assess the cars condition but also assess the owner, see how the owner has likely treated the car, and how knowlegable they are about the car. If the owner is a member of a forum or car club (eg MX5 forum) then even better.

2nd hand dealers warranties are often not worth the paper they are written on (there will be so many exclusions) and I’ve seen some right dogs at dealerships – tarted up, described as mint, and up for sale at top money – despite significant and costly underlying problems.

Don’t forget that 2nd hand car dealers are professionals at exaggerating and dealers normally secure their stock at auctions (usually trade ins), and people often trade in their second hand motor rather than risk selling it privately for slightly more money for very good reason, either because they know nothing about cars (not a good sign), or because it’s an imminent crock of s**t.

Also the line ‘one lady owner’ never fills me with much confidence. No offence but most ladies I know have never even opened the bonnet of their cars, let alone checked tyre pressures or engine oil levels. I’m sure there are plenty of exceptions to this of course, – just going from my own experience that’s all and probably applies to a lot of guys too.

Simple, become a teacher, 9 – 3:30. Or a close second, a public servant, 9 – 4:30 with a guaranteed pension. 🙂

Interest rates need to rise to try and put the brakes on this runaway bubble.

But that punishes everyone.

No it doesn’t, it punishes people who’ve stretched themselves too far and have been living the good life on other peoples money. It rewards the savers, and the people who have actually tried to do the right thing by putting something by for their future and retirement. It also makes investments in things other than bricks and mortar (e.g. businesses) far more likely.

what are all the renters going to do when the land lords cant afford the repayments due to interest rates going up and rents following ?

Hopefully buy the landlords ‘fire sale’ houses from them at a knock down rate – the same houses that many greedy BTL landlords prevented them from buying in the first place.

Renting is dead money

Depends how you look at it. For people intending to stay in one location for most of their lives then it makes complete sense to buy.

If you intend to move around to further your career, perhaps to travel and see the world and experience living in several different places then it makes perfect financial sense to rent whilst you’re younger, save and buy a property with a much bigger deposit when you’re ready to settle down (avoiding mortgage interest which is also dead money).

Long term though you’re not going to want to be renting, or paying a mortgage by the time you’re retired.

With the way house prices are going, and the increase of 30, 35, 40 year mortgages to enable people to afford property at it current prices, people buying houses at today’s prices may well up never paying them off. So all the pitfalls of renting (from the bank) but none of the benefits.

Points for Concern:

The media has many people convinced that their house is primarily an investment, and secondly a place to live.

Planning process is slow, antiquated and unfit for purpose – too much red tape, too many NIMBY’s objecting to new housing anywhere near them.

Not enough investment in social housing.

Renting viewed as dead money and a second class option because they is no long term protection for tenants.

No restrictions on the amounts people can borrow to secure a mortgage, or the percentage deposit they have to save.

No real disincentive or prohibitive tax on second home ownership meaning that young people are being priced out of their own communities.

Out of touch politicians coming on telly to support hair brained scheme after hair brained scheme to prop up house prices (thinly veiled as a help to buy scheme for young families).

I could go on, but I’ve lost the will. It’s no wonder prices are going through the roof. Our national housing situation is dire!

. Yes, I can. You know full well you’re screwing over some young couple who’ve stretched to pay a price way more than you paid. That’s a conscious decision to enrich yourself at someone else’s expense

I agree 100% with you, I think its morally wrong, however were I in the same situation then I’d probably need all the money I could lay my hands on for my place to buy the next over inflated place further up the ladder.

The greed on show from sellers is astonishing.

100% agree, not right, but then when their agent is telling them they can sell for £££ then can you blame them?

How is this sustainable?

That’s what I was thinking 6-7 years ago, that’s what I still think, but somehow, despite the biggest recession in living memory, it would appear to be otherwise?

It’s the obsession with housing in the UK that gets me. Partly it’s the media to blame for this with endless trash TV convincing everyone they can make money through property.

Very strange considering we have in the UK some of the lowest quality, badly designed and old fashioned housing in Europe. Yet people in the UK seem to value tiny windows, fake wooden beams and chintzy period features over natural light, open plan living space and sustainability?

Beggars belief!

This whole thing smacks of ’Dead Cat Bounce’

Prices are not rising everywhere, only the affluent areas, and the huge price rises in London skew the national % statistics hugely.

Still there is a shortage of homes, easy (sub prime) lending is back in the form of the governments guarantee scheme and interest rates are still at a record all time low. The media are also jumping on the band wagon again to irresponsibly fuel the fire.

The real problem round our way is the lack of 2-3 bed family starter homes. Builders are either building flats – designed to be snapped up by BTL investers, or it’s 4 bedroom plus luxury homes with more bathrooms than bedrooms, for people with a lot of money (or the ability to borrow a lot of money). Nothing at all in the middle ground which kind of says something about how massively distorted the market is at the moment.

But oil in Scotland is a dying and shrinking resource? It’s like a divorcing couple arguing about who should keep the dog that’s already 12 years old? and anyway isn’t most of the oil extracted by UK based companies based in England rather than Scotland, so the UK will still retain a lot of oil revenue in any case. Plus Scotland will miss out on the benefits of all that English fracking that’s about to take place.

Last time I stood under a rocket engine I was left with an all over suntan, a slightly singed beard, and a mild ringing noise in the ears.

I’m not sure you appreciate quite how vast and empty the open sea is. Maybe if they had some idea where it went down and had narrowed the search, but they don’t.

True, however it’s likely that if this happened then the much floating debris that would result, would now, after a week, have dispersed far and wide – so it’s still strange that no one’s seen anything, especially considering how much publicity this has had, and considering how heavily fished most waters are now.

You also have to ask the question, why would the hijackers crash land at sea where no one would know? The polar opposite of almost all other hijackings where publicity or some other demands were sought/made.

You have to remember that if the plane carried on flying for several hours then a) the people flying it were fully competent and trained, b) the plane was fully working without mechanical problem and c) there’s no likely reason why it should have been crashed, either deliberately or as an accident.

Of course there’s a chance I’m totally wrong. It’s just my opinion from the evidence we seem to have.

Plenty of slack handed estimates on my part. But this isn’t an empty aircraft we’re talking about.

Obviously these things are all dependent on a number of factors but the following extract from the 777 testing programme shows that:

“A 777-200 at the Maximum Takeoff Weight of 288 tonnes (288,000 kg, or 545,000 lb) was accelerated to a V1 speed of 210 mph/183 Kt, at which point maximum brakes were applied. Despite using badly-worn brakes, the aircraft stopped in 4000 ft.”

4,000ft in new money is 1,212 metres. The maximum landing weight for the 777-200 is 213,000kg, a lot less than in the test above, and the test above was using wheel brakes only – not reverse thrust also.

MH370’s likely approach speed and landing weight would probably have been even less than the figures shown above.

Typical approach speed for the 777-200 is 160mph/139 Kt.

Empty weight of the 777-200 is around 138,000kg so say allowing for 6,000kg fuel remaining, 20,000kg of passengers and another 15,000kg cargo that would make 179,000kg (as a pure estimate of course).