I only ever went to clubs about once a month even when I was at uni, because:

A) I thought clubs were generally fairly boring (but then again I think football is even more boring, so I realise I am atypical).

B) I didn’t have loads of money (we were always skint at Uni – don’t know where students get all this money for binge drinking).

C) My idea of having “a life” was feeling good enough to do lots of sport most of the time.

Personally I like the invention of “no TV”, which is the absence of television. Supersedes Sky + etc and is similar in operation to a time machine in that it actually gives you hours of free time in which to do useful things like contributing to STW.

And clearly “it never did you any harm” :D

The best way to stop a small child from bunging play dough into your sockets is to block them off.

Funny, My kids played with playdough a lot, but we never got it in any electrical sockets.

I wonder if it was because they played with it at the table?

Maybe that was why it never got on the carpet, in the curtains, in the CD player, or in/on any of the other things around the house that didn’t have special covers either?

There were a few incidents of crayon on the walls though.

Perhaps I should have bought wall covers?

Yes it’s really likely that a small child will remove a socket blocker, have the strength and dexterity to break it, then reinsert only the longest pin to uncover the other two, then stick something in there Oh STW, never change.

Yes, I’ve always found STW a good place for advice to stop people wasting their money on pointless consumer crap too.

You’re missing the point Jeremy. Probably no child is going to do as you suggest, but neither are they going to manage to electrocute themselves in an uncovered socket either, because the holes are blocked from the inside. Go on, try it.

Now, inline switches to bedside lamps – that’s different – when my boy was 3 he managed to pull the flex out of the switch and touch his sister with the live ends.

We put a child gate at the bottom of the stairs and that was it. I think there is a serious point to be made about not getting sucked into all the anxious parent nonsense that there is about these days, because:

A) It won’t work. If they are the sort of kid that has accidents, then they will find something to injure themselves with.

B) You may end up worrying about increasingly trivial “threats” in an eventually counterproductive fashion. It is part of the development process for kids to hurt themselves (a bit) and work out that it is their own stupid fault, not the fault of an adult for failing to protect them.

So could we have the actual answer please?

It’s not sufficient to tell us it was about house names and colours, what were they?

OTOH the IOW is really nice. You’ll find that any bridleway, BOAT or RUPP on the map will be rideable. Buy yourself an OS map and work out a route that takes in the big ridge across the middle.

It’s not hugely interesting. Good for trailquests and the like because it’s big and covered in tracks, but it’s not very exciting.

You might see some ponies.

Just sorting pics now, but they won’t be available until Wednesday as it takes time to sort/adjust/upload/tag. The watersplash was a bit random due to scudding clouds, bright sunshine and the vigour of the splashing and different lines that people took. But if you’re lucky I might have caught you doing something like this:

What do you think the mistake is?

i think most people who judge , saying you shouldn’t go during school term , are those that have the choice to go during the more expensive times of school holidays.

Alas no. My wife is a teacher, so we just don’t do expensive overseas hols. Mind you, we have lots of fun cycle touring, camping etc.

your job is to educate them not impose some sort of middle claaa morality on them.

Of course it does help teachers to educate them if they are actually there!

Hoist by your own petard.

I think there is a lot of putting the cart before the horse going on here.

Maybe the complaints should be addressed at the holiday companies / airlines rather than at the schools?

Although it would also make life a bit easier for everyone if maybe schools could phase their holidays a bit more in different areas.

Does anybody seriously believe that missing one or two weeks of school each year is really going to have a noticeable impact?

And what impact do you think it would have on the class as a whole if each child was away for 1 or 2 random weeks?

How do you think the teacher would keep track of who had covered what? How would the teacher cope with trying to bring thirty kids up to speed with the different bits they had missed out on?

What do you think the aggregate level of extra disruption in the class would be from all the kids asking extra questions and needing extra help because of bits they had missed out on?

I don’t think anyone is really going to take action to stop a child occasionally being out of school, but taking your kid out isn’t without consequences, for them or for the class as a whole.

They’re my kids and I’ll decide what’s best for them.

Is that what you would say to the hospital if they inconveniently decided one of your kids should be there because of illness?

Schools don’t just come up with this stuff to inconvenience you you know? It may well be that you have every intention of making sure your kids get the education they need, but unfortunately lots of parents apparently don’t give a toss, which is why it is a good thing for schools to forcefully remind people that taking their kids out of school is not something that should be done lightly.

This girl could be great – the best thing since sliced bread, and the OP will never find out unless he goes for it? Why is she still single? Strange way to judge someone? Weren’t we all single at some point?

I don’t know anyone who has just walked into a perfect relationship, where everything has been fantastic all of the time with no compromise and no arguments. Anyone who thinks that it is just a question of finding the right girl is (IMHO) a bit naive.

If the OP has invested 10 years in his relationship, then it would be foolish to throw it aside without due consideration.

OTOH, if he feels that trust can never be restored, then better to face the facts and make the break.

OK, I voted for you, but you’ve got some stiff competition there – good luck.

Lard

Not big and not clever, but it will make you feel a hell of a lot better.

Or not.

Surely that can only be determined with hindsight?

Unfortunately we can’t run the experiment twice. He might never know if he took the right decision. The tricky bit is coming to terms with not knowing. But whatever happens, IMHO, better to make a decision then stick to it (either way) than trying to play it two ways at the same time.

Trial separation = separation. Don’t waste time trying to dress it up and pretend it’s something else.

Like most men, he’ll look at other women and admire their form and then not give it another thought – its not like he’d ever cheat, because one, he knows the pain it causes and two, he’s just not that sort of person.

Since then he’s been chatting to her a bit via internet and seem to have lots to chat about (both he and she just have general chit chat nothing more). He feels like some sort of school kid with a crush and thinks about her a lot……..but even though he’s not mentioned these feelings to anyone, he feels VERY guilty about it.

The two bits in bold are not compatible.

“He” already is cheating.

“He” needs to decide whether “he” really does want to spend the rest of his life with his wife.

If “he” does then he’d better not “chat” with the hottie again.

If “he” doesn’t, then he’d better fess up to the wife, tell her it’s over and move on.

Those are the only two options that aren’t going to lead to lots of bitterness and wasted time all round.

It’s very small. There’s really only one place to eat and no tourst attractions. But if you plan a trip up the islands from there you will find a few more sites.

Personally, I’d go for Harris/Lewis which has some interesting archeological sites, proper hills and some nice beaches.

I hope so, except that it does rather invite people to remark (hilariously) “more like wrong place wrong time… fnaar, fnaar” when I cock things up.

At the meeting I went to, most of the people voting on a really important decision on a major city centre redevelopment clearly hadn’t even read the report on what they were supposed to be voting on.

That’s my experience too. In our case it was the planning board voting on a proposed windfarm that had huge local support. Even if they had read up on the paperwork, I’m afraid to say some of them were clearly too stupid to understand the points being raised in the meeting. It was embarrassing.

I don’t think that becoming a Parish councillor will help you get your speed bumps.

But why not give it a go anyway?

You may well find that you get in on the nod. It’s not always the cut and thrust world of political dynamite depicted in the Archers. My neighbour got co-opted when they couldn’t get anyone else to do it.

You’re not alone. I’ve been involved in several similar situations. Usually just verbal abuse, but once had someone leaning out and flicking drink out of a bottle at me.

And of course, zillions of instances of just plain thoughtlessness, including having a car pull out of at junction in front of us and force my 5 and 6 year olds off the road, whilst cycling to school! The parent concerned came up with the fantastic line/excuse “you were going very fast” His wife did have the good grace to apologise for him though, and I expect he got it in the ear later.

As you say, morons.

I expect the head is all for it? This will have nothing to do with the fact that their salary may well double.

Who is the sponsor going to be?

Just reading a great crime trilogy called Berlin Noir by Phillip Kerr – set just prior to WWII – a good way to gen up on the history without it being a chore.

Yes, just now.

Just to get all of this back in perspective, has anyone noticed the remarkable similarity between Michael Gove and Archie Andrews?

Andrews

Gove

I do think that the only good thing to come out of this round of voting is the SNP victory in Scotland, hopefully they will continue to push progressive policies up there and eventually people down here will cotton on that we don’t have to put up with the destructive knockabout of Labour/Tory/Labour/Tory…. etc. forever and do something about it.

Ho hum. Back to the real world of sanding floors.

I thought the nature of a coalition govt. was that a range of views get to be represented and that a rabidly ideological govt. can be tempered.

Does this need to be explained with biscuits?

It’s not a coalition of equal partners though is it?

An awful lot of people have already been taken out of the tax system by raising the tax threshold for basic income tax. By the end of the Parliament it will be a lot more as one of the concessions the Lib Dems won in the coalition agreement was to raise the basic income tax threshold to £10,000 by the end of the Parliament.

That wasn’t something the Tories would have done by themselves and it wouldn’t have happened under a minority Tory Govt.

Here’s what the New Statesman said about it.

Not sure if he is my favourite, but I like Robert Lenkiewicz

I’ll stick by my original suggestion that you questioned

But the quote from Andrew Adonis says “we had about three and a half hours (of talks)….we didn’t reach an advanced stage of negotiations.”

This was 4 days after the election.

You are being obdurate.

Here you go. Nice unbiased reporting form the FT.

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It’s all relative.

What did they say?

I expect they spent most of the time deciding whether to order in Bourbons or Jammy Dodgers.

OK – so you’re now saying they did indeed talk to them?

I didn’t say that they didn’t speak to them. What I was taking issue with was the idea that they spoke to both sides at some length

I don’t think they did.

I think they spoke to the Tories at some length

Then as a negotiating tactic quite late on went and spoke briefly to Labour, before coming back to the Tories.

I don’t think there was ever any serious negotiation with Labour.