Tak SwedishMatt (begrudgingly from a Finn :-))

CFH, pleased to pass the test!

IT HAS TO BE TOASTED BOTH SIDES!

There, thats out.

Mushrooms are also good under the cheese.

Cheers for the advice, much along my own thoughts…

I should go with Cheekyboys advice but their head office is to far away….

I’ll email them hencforth!

I’ll bite: last car has no driver to showcase future technologies. Might make driver’s cars a thing of the past….. er in the future…

+1 for peanut butter….

The British government would be sued.

Doesn’t the honestjohn website run a real world fuel economy assessment? You could try there.

How do you know the seats of ebay haven’t been in a crash already and compromised their integrity?

Though I’ve not been I’ve been highly recommended Le Touquet which is not far from Calais. Could be worth a shout.

Perhaps consider chelmsford. It shall soon be going more oop market as John Lewis and Waitrose are setting up base there. There are some 30 minute trains to London. Possibly a bit less expensive than Billericay.

Another option is Shenfield though that ups the price quite a bit but you get a 23 minute commute to london for that. Some people go crazy over an extra 7 mnutes in bed!

Richpenny – your dad’s not one of the Basildon Malt Whisky society members is he? I work with one so am kept abreast of the developments.

Shame is, if you want to go down the route of buying a cask I don’t think you can anymore at Bruichladdich as they have been bought out and no longer offer this. And don’t forget the rather stonking tax bill at the end when it comes to bottling! Some new distillery that needs capital might be worth a look…

The second shame is I’m not really a whisky man so after hearing about the whisky and my bosses annual pilgramage for sampling I might be dissapointed when I ever get to try it!

I also might add, I didn’t get onto a graduate training scheme but I wish I had. Although I’m at Ford now I desperately wanted to get onto theirs but the year I applied the cancelled the scheme. That would have offered rotations in different areas so giving you a better chance of finding one you like. So if you can complete a scheme like Ian did whilst getting a couple of years under your belt should make you more attractive to the recruiters when you get back from abroad!

I think you may struggle a bit Duane.

You could go down the contracting route but the ones looking for fresh graduates are limited. A lot of contracting roles usually look for experience.

Companies taking on in this depressed environment are looking to get the right people in – inivesting time training someone for 8 months for them to bugger of is an expense most can do without.

Maybe get a couple of years under your belt then go travelling and see what you come back to?

Established Middle Class

Don’t know how, must be the contacts!

I bloody thought that looked like Chelmsford or at least Essex! Looks like its near me. How many of us STWs are in Chelmsford?

We think the Fairtrade ones from Co-op are nice; if I remember right there are nice malbec, carmenere and cab sav.

For white and Rose Chatuea Bauduc. You have to order that by the case direct but really nice stuff from Bordeaux! There red is also good but out of stock.

Si

My old man is full of laughs.

When we were a lot younger he convinced my older brother that his name was Sidney Mincin (real name Steve) and following on from that several years later that my name was Sidney Sideboard (Simon in real life). This was purely for my dads own amusement. Comes in handy when trying to think of a forum name………

M&S peppa pig veggie sweets. They also do colin the caterpillar as well.

Sid

Check the co-op out. They seemed to offer the best a couple of years ago when we bought (much better than the broker could find) and the rate was even better when we remortgaged. Also consider opening a bank account with them – better offers for customers like no fee etc.

Si

How do you make your living? Safety engineer contracting at an automotive OEM

Are you happy doing it? Not really

Would you considering a change of career? Yes, though like others don’t know what I would really like to do instead. Something that gets me outdoors (Site Engineer/Project Manager Wind Turbines?) or out of the office (Pilot?) occasionally crosses my mind. I guess I’m at the stage where if I make another move then I want it to be the right one but also still need to provide for my family.

Does it pay enough for you to mtb comfortably? My needs aren’t great at the moment so yes.

Noooo! I couldn’t resist and I will never get back these last 20 seconds.

Depends on how much has already been taken off already.

I took approx that amount off a door, perhaps more like 1.5 inch so maybe a tad more than you. It exposed a set of three dowels top and bottom on each edge. In fact the off-cuts showed that we only just exposed the dowels as the drilled hole for them was only just exposed. The door is hung and not open very often so you don’t see the dowels. No apparent loss of strength. This door was a 1930’s 1 over three type door. Don’t know if the same applies to more modern doors.

Making progress – 4kg in January! That’ll do every month til the wedding, hopefully I can keep up the good work. I have this annoying habit of when I reach a new low I think of having a reward for good behaviour! Need to cut that out…

Also, for the chap that created the really good excel chart for tracking the weight of this group, I think the BMI calc is out. The column header Current BMI uses the MAX function in the formula which would give your BMI at your heaviest. Would it be better to either use MIN or a function that gave BMI based on your most recent weigh in case you’ve put on weight? Just a thought. Excellent otherwise….

Sid

This is a favourite of mine, Dave White. Really wanted to buy a limited edition print but couldn’t at the time.

110.0 Kg, down 2.4 since I started sometime after new years!

I’m in!

180cm
111.1kg today though started weighing myself last week and was 112.4
long term goal 82.5 kg.
20 week goal 95kg for my wedding

A branch of The Gym opened up where I live in Chelmsford £10.99/month bargaintastic! I’m using an app on WP8 called “Zombies, Run!” to get me on the cross trainer more often.

When the weather gets better it’ll be out on the bike more often using Sports Tracker.

Hot honey and lemon.

I think it’s a secret family ritual passed down uncle to nephew/niece. Just think you’ll have a lifetimes supply when your time comes to continue the tradition…

I know epping is miles away but the brief was 1 hour. As long as he’s not cycling there then it’s doable in a car! :lol:

Epping forest or Danbury could be options. With the amount of rain we’ve had Epping will be quite boggy. Danbury is pretty mountainous for Essex. Some short runs with bombholes or a few cross country loops though nothing is marked.

qwerty, I’d imagine a few pints should achieve that

@righog henceforth this age shall be known as brickshithouse epoch

dvdfab and handbrake. you might only need handbrake. I use dvdfab to do the ripping first.

Studied and worked there for best part of 7 years. Lots of naysayers but everyone who visited me at uni had an awesome time, including one mate who came for a weekend and ended up staying a fortnight!

If you like your films I can highly recommend FACT, well I could 6 years ago, hope its still good. Awesome cinema doing a mix of arty and blockbuster. Two large screens and a smaller screen, all of which you could take your booze to from the bar. And it had reclining seats.

Wish I was there!

yeah, from woody2000!

+1 Wors!

Think I have shared this before but both involve drink and ladies.

I was introduced to and started talking with a girl that had her tongue pierced (circa 2001). Noticing the lisp
Me: when did you get your tongue pierced?
Her: About a year ago…
Me: You wanna get your effing money back if you’re still speaking like that!
Her: This is how I normally speak.
Me:…..

It wasn’t all bad. She started seeing my housemate and left him to became a lesbian.

Being introduced to another lady in a noisy nightclub and being totally lashed (circa 1999):
Me: Whats your name?
Erm: Em
Me: Erm? Thats a stupid name for a girl. Who on earth would name their daughter Erm?
Erm: No, it’s Em, short for Emma…
Me: well what didn’t you say…

I had to leave the club shortly afterwards. Cheap booze had caught up with me!

Bent Udder, sure you don’t mean 800?

mickyfinn, are you sure about the camera? I think it’s awful compared to the N8 it replaced. Granted that was 12MP but most of my shots are really dark and the flash is useless. Having said that I still rate the phone highly!

OP – someone on the classifieds had some 800 sim free for sale in the awesome cyan for £150.

After looking round we eventually got our sofas from John Lewis. They were 450 and 499 so I think one of their cheapest ranges but they feel very well built. This was after owning some sofas from Homebase for less than a year that felt very cheap. The joke is they would have cost far more than the John Lewis ones had we paid full price. To be honest, even at 40% I felt pissed of with the homebase sofas! We got what we paid for!

I reckon you could do it for 30-35K.

Obviously a lot depends on the finish you go for and the amount you can do yourself. I did up a house in Liverpool with a mate. We got the professionals in for windows, plumbing, plastering and damp proofing. My sparky mate wired the house with me and fitted the Ikea kitchen (beware with them, no space behind units for pipework!).We grafted on clearance, decorating, tiling, woodworking etc. It still seemed to go on for ever!

Good advice from Bigphil to rewire and get the messy stuff done first, then bathroom, kitchen and clean room to live in.