My dad did his own kitchen, entirely from scratch – including the worktops, which he made of out glass and concrete. It’s still going strong after ten years.

Considering your training in design, I can’t image you’ll have any trouble.

Not that my word counts for much, but I think you should go for it. Just get an electrician and a gas person in to do the bits that need regulating, and it’ll be fine.

Why is it that we target vehicles before the complete lack of interest the Westminster government shows in public transport?

Someone above suggested that London’s public transport was at least adequate. Ha! It’s expensive as hell and it sucks! I have two sons in London and getting there by train from Cardiff is ridiculously cost prohibitive, while getting between them once there is nigh near impossible – as well as expensive. Compare that to Germany’s inexpensive and nice trains, or Luxembourg’s entirely free public transport.

Montreal is a city of four million people, and for a single, low payment per month, you can get absolutely anywhere in the city and beyond using the metro, the train, and/or the bus. And last time was there, I walked along René Levesque during morning rush, and hardly had look both ways before crossing the street because it was so quiet. There were hardly any cars at all.

So… reduce big cars and big car numbers by all means, but give the people a serious, affordable alternative, and they’ll reduce themselves.

In the meantime, I’ll feel that I’ve got no alternative but to fill up the road with my car.

My image of Huel:

Whoever formalised the spelling of Mhairi decided that a V was useless in that language despite there seemingly being a need for it.

Except that when the Latin alphabet was introduced in these islands, ‘v’ was pronounced as ‘w’.

I think that the Geneva Convention forbids priests from taking up arms, so that would be my excuse. But I would encourage my children to become conscientious objectors, so no… no conscription here, thanks.

Definitely still sitting when wiping

Says ‘reeksy’

I always wonder if the UK couldn’t do with a ‘Drivers’ Education’ system like the one we had where I grew up (Manitoba).

Here, my kids got ‘driving lessons’, whereas I had to take ‘Drivers’ Ed’, which included learning about the car, watching endless, terrifying videos of fatal car crashes, doing homework on the rules of the road, studying car control, and having a lot of hours behind the wheel with a professional instructor.

It was holistic, and really impressed on me that driving is a ‘whole life’ thing, as opposed to being just something you do by getting behind a wheel and propelling a lump of metal forward.

On top of that, I had an uncle who took us out to a frozen lake and taught us car control on ice. Of course that last bit wouldn’t be possible here, but a more thorough driving education wouldn’t go amiss.

Not really all that funny, but I thought it was at the time…

After my bike accident in 2018, I had to go for some follow-up x-rays at the hospital in Cardiff. Some years earlier, I had had my left clavicle plated, but this time, they were looking at the cage they put on one of my neck vertebrae.

In any case, the radiographer takes the picture and calls out from behind the booth, ‘Hey, you have a plate on your clavicle too! Cool! You look bionic!”

Later, when I saw the image, you could see the plate and screws of my clavicle and they appeared to join up to the titanium in my neck. Essentially, my upper body looked on the x-ray as if I was constructed from metal and screws.

That ‘comedy’ sketch posted by redmex may be the worst I have ever seen.

I came on here to add a comment about keeping on keeping on, but the comments on here are already so good, I really don’t have anything more to add.

One day, two years ago, I was walking my two youngest to primary school, when my second-youngest made us stop dead on the pavement. ‘Smell the air,’ he said. ‘I love that smell.’ Turns out, the grass in the local park had just been mown. In that moment , thelittle guy reminded me of all the beautiful little things there are to stay alive for – not least the joy of watching him and his brothers grow up while appreciating the smell of freshly cut grass, how cool snow leopards are, and the fern he maintains in our back garden.

Best wishes, @RustySpanner!

Wasabi Peas for me.

This is the most middle class thread I’ve ever seen on STW

Wasabi peas aren’t a ‘decadent snack’; they’re crack cocaine!

Rice cake smothered in hummous, with sliced tomato on top.

(I’ve got to have gluten-free, so don’t have much choice.)

Ditto what @molgrips said. I live in central Cardiff now, but used to live in Llanishen (North Cardiff), and it would take me fifteen minutes of leisurely warm-up riding to get into the hills and woods. I know there are other places in the UK that can boast similar, but I suspect Cardiff is hard to beat for the combination of cost-of-living, good city with good cultural outlets, and superb riding from the doorstep all rolled into one.

Nobody has commented on the mental health benefits of nicotine.

My insurmountable addiction was food. It had been for as long as I can remember, and even after therapy it was something I struggled with. I deliberately went in search of something with which I could replace it, and nicotine helped immensely. As in 14 kilos weight loss in five month effective. Additionally, my concentration has improved radically, and I am far more engaged with what’s going on around me than I have ever been.

Vaping has proven an immense benefit, and I sympathise entirely with smokers who have used it to give up.

Bilhorod (sp?)

The Russian alphabet has the consonant ‘г’ which is pronounced ‘g’ as in ‘good’. Ukrainian has two related consonants, ‘Г’ which is pronounced ‘h’, and ‘Ґ’ which is pronounced the same as the Russian ‘г’. Ukrainian hardly ever uses ‘Ґ’, so your spelling will be the way it is spelt when transliterating Ukrainian. ‘Bilgorod’ will be the transliteration of the Russian version.

That was thoroughly enjoyable, and I loved the finalists! Well done all!

CE stands for Conformité Européenne and basically means your date and time doesn’t contain any chocking hazards, bendy cucumbers or consume more than 900 watts. BCE is probably something about Brexit and the measurement of time in pints. Maybe year zero should be 2016. But that ‘year’ is so far 7 years long and counting.

Honestly, I think this may be one of the funniest things I have ever read on the internet.

If you can do it in your jeans and you don’t sweat through exertion it’s no sport.

I agree with this. Succinctly put!

This thread is just sitting her unanswered, so I thought I’d give it a bump by saying that I have no idea as I haven’t ridden a mountain bike in years.

I’ve been thinking about this since the thread first started, and I finally came up with something.

In 1997, I had to do a course in Mexico City, when we spent time in the countryside with some farmers. The village were expecting us, and to celebrate, they pulled out all the stops and held a feast.

They dug a few holes and filled them with burning coals, then wrapped the meat (pork and chicken), put it in the ground, buried it, and let it cook all day while we played football with the local kids.

Later, the meat was dug up, and we ate it with rice, corn, and molé (a sauce of cocoa and chilli). I don’t think I have ever had a nicer experience of food – before or since.

I had eaten in Mexico a lot, as we had a place in the Rio Grande Valley, but the stuff I ate that day was unlike anything else.

Bumping this for the late night crowd.

@tjagain, two years ago my bloods showed that I had no vitamin D in my system. As in none. So they put me on a regime of 50k IU three times a week for six weeks, and told me to keep taking a daily supplement daily afterward.

The off-the-shelf chewables seem to max out at 25 mgs (I haven’t looked at how many IUs that is), but the dose is not high. Do you know if, like vitamin C, you can’t really OD on the stuff? In other words, could a person take two vitamins a day for a 50 mg dose? Or is this a question for a pharmacist?

Just in response to the drinking question: I have a drink from time to time, but I am definitely not a drinker.

You’re proposing to use the thing for exactly what it should be used for. Plus it sounds like it’ll be awesome. I’m in!

Just checked with an academic colleague who is senior to me in the field, and he didn’t recognise it either.

Weird.

I’ll keep looking.

Your question falls in my field of academic expertise, and I’ve never seen such a symbol in relation to Christianity before. I will make enquiries.

UPDATE: I received an email from them this afternoon telling me it would take an extra month for them to gather what I have requested. The organisation in question is required to keep meticulous records, and should have files on all its ’employees’, so locating things should not pose a problem for them. Also, in terms of the documents I am seeking, other than the names of those who wrote the documents and those to whom they may have been addressed, it is highly unlikely there will be anyone else mentioned, so GDPR should not be a major concern.

I have asked for all correspondence between me and them (whicheven direction the correspondence went); all correspondence that was specifically about me; all minutes and other documents that contain references to me, such as emails and notes.

So far, it seems they are complying. Other than asking me what I wanted it for, they only asked what the best medium was for sending it to me.

Thanks for that info, all.

One thing I’m wondering now is why an organisation would comply with a request at all, seeing as it’s such a PITA for them, yet there seems to be no real mechanism for enforcing compliance.

I mean, why doesn’t the organisation in this situation just ignore me completely? And what happens to non-public bodies when they do ignore requests?

I know my kids would tell me this is a ‘self-burn’, but finbar’s comment reminded me of this video:

A footnote: I just re-read my post immediately above, and can’t believe how bad it is!

This organisation keeps meticulous record, and will no exactly what I mean

Meant to say: This organisation keeps meticulous recordS, and will KnoW exactly what I mean.

Sorry. My standards have fallen. :(

I’m with thestabiliser, making mean comments while standing just behind him in case greggo can fight.

This organisation keeps meticulous record, and will no exactly what I mean – although I was crystal clear in my correspondence with them over what I required.

If it helps anyone comment, the parting between this organisation and me was unpleasant (to say the least), so I expect them to see my request as a hostile act. As for me, I don’t intend it that way; I just want to have a full picture of a process they have gone through in my regard.

Whoops. A Subject Access Request is what I meant. And I did so through the ICO’s website having read all the guidance, so I believe I did it correctly.

I used to smoke rollies as a personal indulgence (i.e. not regulalry), but switched to vaping when one of my kids started, and found the nicotine to be extremely helpful for my mental wellbeing.

@kramer, yes. I deliberately go to them, as they are an actual UK-based company that manufactures in Lancashire, as opposed to a dodgy importer of questionable substances.

@binners, I’m using the VLTZ re:fuel

Like @Binners, I’ve been going to Totally Wicked, but have been using their VLTZ re:fuel for months now, together with their liquids.

As long as I don’t neglect to keep the thank filled, the coil lasts for a long time, re-charging takes little time, and the battery lasts for a whole day. It also has a good draw and doesn’t leak.

Sorry, but I made that silly comment above in an attempt to be lighthearted. I have now looked up the company, and see that my assumptions were correct.

I honestly thought that Lyca Mobile was only used by drug dealers and people trying to avoid getting caught by Jack Ryan. I didn’t realise that they were a ‘regular’ mobile service company.

Love it, here.

8 kids – even the ones that live away – all crammed into the living room, and the mess of Christmas afternoon… as (I can’t remember who) said, ‘there is no mess more wonderful than that on the living room floor after Christmas morning’.

I’m happy to suspend my own general grumpiness, as there’s a magic to the period unlike any other time of the year.