"Its Xmas all the way for me, take the religious claptrappery out of it. "

See above. I think your'll find its very hard to remove all religious connotations out of most european/world festivals as they are so deeply ingrained as most people have been somewhat religious since civilization started.

X-Mas is chistian. The X was originally a chi-ro.

From wikipedia

This X and P arose as the uppercase forms of the Greek letters ? and ? used in ancient abbreviations for ??????? (Greek for "Christ"), and are still widely seen in many Eastern Orthodox icons depicting Jesus Christ. The labarum, an amalgamation of the two Greek letters rendered as ?, is a symbol often used to represent Christ in Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Christian Churches.

"Christ" was often written as "XP" or "Xt"; there are references in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as far back as AD 1021.

Seems pretty traditional to me. Again as others say Christmas is a mix of many european festivals + traditions. So its not the end of the world.

I also find I start imagining things if I go night riding on my own and I get a very strange feeling as I enter the woods and darkness encloses me.

However thats why I like it ! Bit like combining the best bits of going to a scary movie + riding !

The only advice I can give you is go to a man made forest like Swinley. Theres something about the regularity of the trees and the straight lines of the fireroads that means I dont feel scared there.

Its only in really natural spooky forests I get the feeling also maybe do a few night rides in the summer at some point. Again if its very hot you tend to feel more brave.

Dont really see what the problem is, surely it would be worse if they suddenly put loads of work on your plate just to make sure they got every last penny out of.

You cant really expect them to pay you to sit at home/go biking.

Yeah but Hoy beat Hamilton cos he's massive and Hamilton is tiny. It probably subconsciously changed peoples opinions.

"Should i refuse, apologetically and go for a ride. "

surely you wont have a bike as you will have sold it and given the money to a homeless person.

Also I cant really see the moral problem with spending money on food I mean money is just work ie your friends work.

What would be more of a moral issue is if the restaurant was wasting large amounts of usable food, which all our supermarkets do. If you really believed this

"wasting that amount of money on a meal when there are people sleeping on the street,and going hungry),and dont want them to pay for me,so i have said i have other plans."

you would nt be able to live in our western society as it, or pretty much any society ever.

There a theory I heard that one of the reasons mammoths + other large animals became extinct was because stone age man was too lazy to preserve the meat.

Ie once people had successfully learned how to hunt these large creatures it was easier to go out and kill a new one and leave the old one rotting than it was preserve the old meat even though they might only eat half of it.

I dont think OP means sack I think he means not taken on.

To be honest it sounds as if the manager of this place is trying to get work done for free by taking on job seekers free for a week. Then suggesting some impossible arrangement ie long hours + massive commute.

On the other hand if the people do pass the test, he'll either have broken their spirit or they had no spirit to begin with and he can just get them to work even harder and walk all over them.

For what reason ? Suggesting you were going to lose money ?

How come you worked a week for free ? Are you on benefits ?

although personally I've realised the answer with most new technologies is to wait till everyone is doing it. Then the devices are generally cheaper and more stable.

plug your laptop in ?

Looks like this is what you want

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/113954

or this

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/175291

could put media on a SD card ? or flash drive ?

"and too late to wake my 11 year old daughter and get her to fix the wretched thing. Pah."

???????

What ?

are you really that useless ?

well done but that still doesnt mean that windows doesnt have the widest range of easily available software and of course the file formats that supported.

What exactly is it that is better about the mac you that you use ?

I like linux (mac OS is a Unix based operating system) and it would be a complete nightmare trying to work on a windows based PC. But for home use I cant really see what the problem is with windows ?

As for windows being less stable personally I think thats more to do with the hardware. Obviously does nt skimp on the hardware and you can tell cos it pricey.

"PCs are better because most people have PCs"

This is completely true. I use Linux at work and it obviously it is a superior operating system if you need to be able to actually need to be able to write scripts and integrate either the OS tools or your programed tools with file system.

But if you just need to point and click most of the GUI's are pretty much all the same now linux(gnome,kde), mac or windows.

Hence for the average joe windows is better because more people use it. Same goes for alot of computing software ie office, facebook, ebay, driving on the left.

If you need to communicate with people which is generally what most work on computers is ultimately for then compatibility is most important.

Sounds totally made up to me.

Heres some pics from Imperial

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=2218975650

Like Iain its a pretty small club, but what do you expect Imperials in the middle of London. On the plus side Im pretty sure its the only London Uni with a cycle club (which is mainly MTBing).

I think we need some maths something like

Interest Rating = Total Time of Event *
(/Total Time of Event/Time spent actually playing)
/ Average Percentage of Participants involved at a single moment

with lower numbers being more interesting

So Cricket Test Match
= 120 hours * ( 120/50 hours) / 2plyer/22players %
= 120 * 2.4 / 0.909 = 316.831

100m Sprint

=0.0025 hours * ( 0.0025/0.0025 hours) / 100%
=0.0025 hours * 1 / 1 = 0.0025

With all sports falling somewhere between these ranges. Possibly with gold topping cricket.

indeed. But one is the most boring.

american football ?

But it does nt make any sense.

Its like your picking out football for some reason.

I mean you could say you find playing all ball games in general boring.
ie football, rugby, aussie rules, gaelic, basket ball, netball, hurling, la crosse.

I mean the basic concepts are all the same move the ball away from your net and put in the oppositions net you will try to stop you.

Hence if one is boring all the others boring. Which basically rules out probably the most played class of sporting game in the world.

(I know some smart ass is going to come on say cricket/baseball/rounders are similar sport and probably due to the size of india are the most played sporting game in the world and I said cricket is dull Im a hyprocrite. Well thats probably right but my reasoning is that often your not playing them your standing watching some one else play which is boring. When I'm actually batting/bowling I enjoy cricket but its such a small percentage of the time.)

I'd understand if you said playing football can be very frustrating.

Often your make a great run and some ego who thinks he's better than you wont pass the ball.

Another time your'll run take the defender away from them and they wont even notice.

Then you'll have the ball and they'll expect you to pass it straight to their feet with out trying to creat some space.

It is a frustrating game because your reling on other people. However when you do some thing good as team I find it possible more rewarding than doing something good on your own.

I mean you could say that about any sport.

MTB – Well cycle, cycle some more stop.

Tennis hit a ball run hit a ball stop.

Climbing – Climb up, rest, climb down, stop.

I mean how is football more boring than another sport ?

Possibly I could see argument for golf + cricket there are large periods of time when your not doing anything just walking from one area to another and not involved in the game.

In football you should always be involved or trying to be involved.

Cant see how football can be boring to play just cant see how. Can some one explain ?

I wasnt very good as a kid but wouldnt ever say it was boring.

Any sport can be boring to watch if you not into it though.

You still havent said why you cant use the train ?

To be honest I'd be more inclined to look guildford as your on the train line to cobham.
Also if you dont have a car theres more to do in guildford.

Guildford is also on the north downs theres plenty of riding there, you can also riding along the north downs to the riding near dorking or get the train to dorking if you need to.

Plus the trains into london are 35 mins as opposed to 60 mins.

obviously the trains are pretty busy round london but train + bike may be possible

"They are also wanting 1st year to count towards their degree classification too. "

I used to go to Uni in Reading and know work at Imperial. Imperial does this and I think its a great idea.

Doesnt have to be much just 5% maybe less it just keeps people on there toes and means that they **** about and fall behind and then continue their bad habits into 2nd year.

Speed sensitive power rather than a switch.

Faster you are going the brighter the lights.

So for uphills they are low and when your stopped to talk to your mates you dont blind them.

"Also quickly flashing (or strobing) lights can sometimes have a kinda strange effect on me and make me feel a bit out of sorts.

Maybe you shouldn't be driving a car if you've got some sort of epileptic tendency…"

I didnt say I was epileptic and how are you meant to know these affects. How often do you let your eyes adjust to the dark them let someone suddenly start flashing very bright lights in your eyes ? Not very often ?

A lot of confident drivers make the mistake of assuming that most drivers are vaguely as competent as themselves, where as this is unlikely to be the case.

I reckon most drivers will suffer from some health issue /problem that may affect their driving in someway they just wont admit it because they dont want to lose the privilege of driving.

Ie weak heart, fading vision, fading hearing, diabetic, poor spacial awareness, old age, etc etc

"All this 'blinding poor old car drivers' is a myth only spouted by bike riders for some reason. When I'm driving I occassionally see riders on the road with 'very bright lights', I haven't been blinded yet. "

I dont think the OP was trying to suggest the drivers were literally blinded.

But it does make seeing past the lights very difficult and judging where the approaching object is.

If the lights are flashing this is even worse as your eyes cant get use to it.

Also obviously peoples eyes are going to be different just because your arent affected doesnt mean other peoples arent.

Also quickly flashing (or strobing) lights can sometimes have a kinda strange effect on me and make me feel a bit out of sorts.

I see what your saying but like you originally said its kinda to be expected.

I know its annoying but the item got there presumably in good condition.

Also you dont mention the start price if it was a 99p start the seller was just covering himself.

If I going to go to the effort of listing something on ebay I want to make sure I actually make some money.

If I was only make like 50p I'd have rather just put the item on Freecycle and get someone to come round and pick it up.

Personally I think this is fine unless its excessive and I dont think £5 is too bad.

With all the ebay/paypal fees, people put the postage to make it worthwhile.

You did nt say how much the stem cost ? I mean if you only paid like £2.50 for then without this fee then it might have been easier for the seller just to chuck it in the bin.

The thing is the higher your start price the more the listing fee and the higher your final price the larger the final fee. You can get round this by charging more postage.

Another thing to consider is the overall internal migration in the country.

Do more people move north or south to work ?

I would guess a lot more people are brought up in the north/midlands move to the south east to earn a bit of money then move back again later.

I'd guess these people wouldnt mind if some (most) of their tax money was spent in their home areas.

I'm from the Midland originally and work in London, I guess on my earning is counted on being in London. However I live in Reading and would rather my income tax was spent on either the Midlands or the Reading area as I spend as little time as possible in London.

Works for me maybe your computer hates you ?

I've lived in the midlands(kid), reading(uni), london(work) and now back in reading.

Didnt really like London at all, ended up living in a rubbish flat in battersea was cheap though.

Found londom hmm limiting always felt I was having to live around it rather than just doing what I wanted when I wanted.

However as others have pointed out cobham although inside the m25 is nt going to be like living in central london. My wife comes from the ashtead which is near by.

In fact living in one of the towns near by will be much like working/living in any other british town/small city rather than like living in the big smoke.

As mentioned if there one area in london you want to live in London for MTBing its the north downs.

Personally I'd suggest moving to guildford its a great little town.

There was on particular course were there was a flag in the middle. I ran out to get in which I did then I hid in this like big tube waiting for back up.

No one followed me at all. The opposition just peppered the tbe tube until they hit me.

Does everyone actually enjoy paint ball.

I've been a fewtimes and the only time I've enjoyed it is when I've had a practice session. If I remember right there was me and about 4 good mates against 5 of them.

With these sorts of numbers it was good fun and we actually managed some decent team work.

Last time I went I went with a group of students from Imperial College who were all a bunch of pussies. We got destroyed everytime. Also there were too many people, I cant remember how many definitely over 25 a side. Probably alot more.

Personally I'd limit the sides to about 10 a side unless the pitch is massive.

agreed with the death defying monkey

Juicy 3 are quite different from the Juicy 5/7/Carbon/Ultimate, which are all reasonably similar.

I've got some on my wife's bike, there reasonable powerful but much heavier and not as easy to set up as the other avid hydralics.

I'd be tempted to say the BB7 out of them 2 or save up for some Juicy 5/7's

The only real problem with the BB7's is they are not as easy to modulate.

Esp on the rear wheel if your light and use thin tyres (like my wife).

I had them on my bike for a long time and did nt really have a problem unless it was very dusty.

Some TV now have Freesat built in

like this

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Panasonic-Freesat-Full-HD-1080-TX32LZD81-LCD-TV_W0QQitemZ330333455623QQcmdZViewItem?rvr_id=&rvr_id=&cguid=5a5e1e6a1220a0aad454a204ff3fa515

dont know if your buying a TV but this might be the way to go.

"I must be getting old but I'm becoming a bit pissed off with the rudeness of people. Everyday I travel into London and a pregnant lady gets on my train. I have yet to see anyone offer her a seat, I am guilty of making the request loudly until someone feels enough shame to move. It's amazing how engrossed in metro people can find themselves when a pregnant lady is about."

Quite often people have deliberately got to the train early and sat there waiting so they can get a seat.

Often people have paid several grand for a season ticket and feel like they entitled to a seat.

Often people want to read and are already sat down.

I agree this are all selfish answers, but if people are having to stand everyday. Really the train company needs to add more carriages.

I must admit I was on the train back out of london the other day. I had got there 10-15 minutes early to get a seat(and partly to leave work early).

I always read on the train and was reading and just as the train was about to leave a pregnant woman came and stood nearish me.

I was thinking I should get up and offer her a seat, but Id got there so early to make sure I had a seat to read in. I didnt really want to and felt like it would be more fair if someelse who'd got there later should offer her a seat.

Luckily for me someone else stood up and offered her a seat. I think I probably would have stood up and offered her my seat if anyone had nt but I did nt need to make the choice in the end. There you go thats reason why people dont get up sometimes.

Im a bad person everybody hate me .