^^^
A bit like a golf buggy with an iPad 😀

3-5 days will be enough to see everything. For about £50 you can catch a flight from Changi to much more interesting places in Asia.

@tuboflard I reckon you will have to wait for autonomous vehicles that can take themselves off to be charged up overnight somewhere local and then come back fully charged in the morning.

We go to Storyhouse Cinema in the middle of Chester which means we can also get a decent bite to eat in the city centre restaurants before or after the film. It only has 94 seats but super modern.

If you are over the lifetime allowance why are you still in high risk investments such as equities?

My advice would be to chuck some in a SIPP, especially if you are a 40% tax payer. The 40% tax break will probably go soon so make the most of it.

As an example, if you want to boost your pension pot by £10k put £8k in a SIPP and the government will throw in another £2k. At the end of the tax year if you are a 40% tax payer you claim back £2k so it’s only cost you £6k to boost your pot by £10k.

You don’t come across Certina very often in the UK, closest I’ve seen is the watch shop in Dublin airport. They have a very eclectic range compared to most watchmakers, some of which are truly hideous but others are really rather nice. Take a look at the listings on chrono24 to see what I mean. Link

2020 ballot already open linky

As mentioned already are you more I interested in computing than medicine / healthcare?

If the former and with your stats/R training that gets you on the track to becoming a Data Scientist outside of medicine, but I’m sure there are also DS roles in that field. Big bucks if that’s interesting to you but it also means you will probably end up in a large corp.

Vegan Porkless pies and scotch eggz.

I fell off Wednesday night at Llandegla and ended up going to the minor injuries unit at Northwich yesterday. I was seen within 15 minutes and an x-ray showed a fractured metacarpal on my ring finger. Mightily impressed with the treatment I got which was essentially a remote diagnosis by the doctor at Crewe resulting in my ring finger being taped to my pinky and being fitted for a glove to keep the hand stable and I was on my way within an hour. For small injuries like this its covered by the Virtual Fracture Clinic where everything is handled remotely and they will be calling me up on Monday to check all is OK.

I was on a long drive today and listening to the cricket which was great. After the cricket finished 5LiveSX switched over to commentary from France and having never before listened to cycling commentary on the radio I can confirm that it is without doubt the worst sport for radio coverage.

On the other hand I find the daily BeSpoke podcasts really rather good.

Don’t forget the USB ports so users can put in a stick and steal the confidential data ;-)

So your company thinks their in house security is better than AWS? Time to review that thinking.

Funnily enough I noticed a stack of these at the entrance to Morrisons this lunchtime. £175 but no idea what they are like.

Can’t you get it done on the NHS?

I’ve had both eyes done over the past 3 years and considered multi-focal lenses but the consultant told me they were jack of all trades but master of none so I just went for a standard lense.

Luckily I had private health cover so had the first done at the Manchester Eye Hospital and the second at Optegra Didsbury and can recommend either.

I’d give the beetroot burgers from Aldi a swerve. I had some last night and they were grim.

Anybody tried these?

When you see the traits of a sociopath he ticks quite a few boxes:

Glibness and Superficial Charm

Manipulative and Conning
They never recognize the rights of others and see their self-serving behaviors as permissible. They appear to be charming, yet are covertly hostile and domineering, seeing their victim as merely an instrument to be used. They may dominate and humiliate their victims.

Grandiose Sense of Self
Feels entitled to certain things as “their right.”

Pathological Lying
Has no problem lying coolly and easily and it is almost impossible for them to be truthful on a consistent basis. Can create, and get caught up in, a complex belief about their own powers and abilities. Extremely convincing and even able to pass lie detector tests.

Lack of Remorse, Shame or Guilt
A deep seated rage, which is split off and repressed, is at their core. Does not see others around them as people, but only as targets and opportunities. Instead of friends, they have victims and accomplices who end up as victims. The end always justifies the means and they let nothing stand in their way.

Shallow Emotions
When they show what seems to be warmth, joy, love and compassion it is more feigned than experienced and serves an ulterior motive. Outraged by insignificant matters, yet remaining unmoved and cold by what would upset a normal person. Since they are not genuine, neither are their promises.

Incapacity for Love

Need for Stimulation
Living on the edge. Verbal outbursts and physical punishments are normal. Promiscuity and gambling are common.

Callousness/Lack of Empathy
Unable to empathize with the pain of their victims, having only contempt for others’ feelings of distress and readily taking advantage of them.

Poor Behavioral Controls/Impulsive Nature
Rage and abuse, alternating with small expressions of love and approval produce an addictive cycle for abuser and abused, as well as creating hopelessness in the victim. Believe they are all-powerful, all-knowing, entitled to every wish, no sense of personal boundaries, no concern for their impact on others.

Early Behavior Problems/Juvenile Delinquency
Usually has a history of behavioral and academic difficulties, yet “gets by” by conning others. Problems in making and keeping friends; aberrant behaviors such as cruelty to people or animals, stealing, etc.

Irresponsibility/Unreliability
Not concerned about wrecking others’ lives and dreams. Oblivious or indifferent to the devastation they cause. Does not accept blame themselves, but blames others, even for acts they obviously committed.

Promiscuous Sexual Behavior/Infidelity
Promiscuity, child sexual abuse, rape and sexual acting out of all sorts.

Lack of Realistic Life Plan/Parasitic Lifestyle
Tends to move around a lot or makes all encompassing promises for the future, poor work ethic but exploits others effectively.

Criminal or Entrepreneurial Versatility
Changes their image as needed to avoid prosecution. Changes life story readily.

The Siege of Jadotville – true story about a UN peacekeeping force made up of Irish Army soldiers sent to the Congo in 1961. Great war film.

^^^^^^that is not correct. As gonefishin already said, employers contributions count towards the maximum £40k a year pension contributions you can get tax relief on.

Tedious Drac, tedious.

One of the best threads on the forum for a good while. We’re leaning towards a van rather than a caravan and I get the issue of having to pack everything up. I’m wondering if a cheap urban ebike alongside the proper bikes is a part solution to that problem.

Local sheep farmer to me reckons that ravens and badgers take some of his lambs each year. Surprised at badgers but he swears they take the odd lamb.

High cloud but perfect biking weather bikebouy.

@bikebouy just passed through the Lake District on the train up to Edinburgh. Back to Chester tomorrow then down to London on Thursday. Over the weekend I decided to put in for a 4 day week later this year as I’ve got another 3 years before I hang up my boots.

I’m with joshvegas on this one, Teams and OneDrive work great. But one of the best free apps on my phone is Office Lens for capturing Whiteboard and flipchart drawings and sending them directly to Teams, although you can save to pdf or share to pretty much any other app.

I wonder how many animals died providing burgers and bacon rolls for the 150,000 who turned up over the 3 days. A lot more than died jumping over the fences.

Donated. Awful accident and as above it could happen to any of us.

I’ll probably get slaughtered for this but I really enjoyed The Foreigner. It’s a revenge movie between Jackie Chan and Gerry Adams (Pierce Brosnan) and if you can get the past the political mistakes it’s a good romp.

Any recommendations on where to watch the Scotland v Wales match near Piccadilly in Manchester?

You got a cracking deal on the Samsung tonyplym. In the end I’ve gone completely bananas and bought a Philips 40 inch curved 4k UHD monitor from amazon. I snagged it at £389 and now it’s gone up to £528 in just 2 days.

First impressions are errr it is massive.

TV is a good shout simon_g so I’ll try a 37 inch one we have that is due for a swap out.

We use Helle Hollis at Malaga and they are brilliant. They have a short shuttle bus journey to the office but they have an app where you can check where the bus is. We were hit with a £40 admin fee a few weeks after the hire for going into a pedestrian area in downtown Malaga which was the only way to get to our hotel. The traffic cops had contacted HH for our details hence the admin fee. However, when I contacted HH and explained the situation they cancelled the admin fee.

Going back to contracting will make you less attractive to a prospective employer if you want to go back permanent. They will wonder how long you will stick it before you run back to contracting

He makes a point about it balancing the watch better and I have to agree.

Re the tucked in NATO strap from a few pages back. I ordered one for the 007 and found this video which shows how to fit the strap using the normal method and also an alternative method that is a lot neater. I’ve tried both and the alternative looks better and is also more comfortable.

You can’t go wrong with these

I bought a pair last year and soon after bought another pair. I think they are discontinuing them so you may not get your size but at £22 it’s a no brainer.

Signed up for this and then went on holiday to Asia for 3 weeks so filled in the sheet and guessed at 2lb gain per week. Got on the scales today for the first official weigh in and I’m 3lb down since the first weigh in. Probably didn’t eat that much on holiday, fruit, yoghurt and an omlette for breakfast. Skipped lunch a few days and just had a banana nicked from the breakfast buffet. No snacks during the day and did plenty of walking, but had a few beers and a curry most nights.

“Spoiler malfunction, do not exceed 130kph” was the message I got yesterday on the M56 when it was -5C and the spoiler was frozen down. Surely the spoiler on a 3 series GT ia a toy and doesn’t serve any useful purpose?

Chapeau to you racers. I’m a fat old knacker who usually pushes out around 200W and can drag my sorry ass up Epic KOM to a rank of 180k out of 203k. Anyway, I’m getting realy sore hips so any advice for stretching, bike setup etc to try and ease it off?