Here is picture I took of my future niece on a horse.

Can I have £2000 now?

I mean £600 for a **** cake! That's eggs, flour, water, some currents and a bit of icing.

AND THAT'S THE ECONOMY OPTION!!

And MrsSP's mother can't have her precious daughter 'settling for the economy option' can she?

Yes. Six. Hundred. Pounds.

You wait until you see how much they charge you for cake!

Bakers that is, not photographers.Obviously.

I gave up trying to control the budget for my wedding ages ago. One more month of being the hapless victim to this extortion racket to go…..

So long as your happy to leave it up this is very good. Proper clamp and takes up less floor space. Nice and heavy, and much more stable than my previous Minoura workstand, which I ended up giving away to bomberman

I paid about £150.00 for mine but see it's gone up quite a bit since then, but I can't see me ever needing to buy another.

It's only about 10 mins if I go the direct route, between 2-3 miles. In the summer though I'll go home the long way and ride all the way around the island (Guernsey) which takes just over an hour – 22 miles

Never watched it, but do wonder about the overly righteous mind set of somebody who, when he see's a TV SHOW advertised as returning to TV, considers it his moral duty to log on to a MTB chat forum and then berate other users for watching it.

1. Mind your own **** business
2. Don't watch it (which you obviously do) if you don't like it(which you obviously do.)
3. Mind you own **** business and
4. Mind your own **** business

C0ck

Not long since I posted the same thing. See here As it says I went for Nikon d5000 in the end, ended up costing just over £400 with 18-55mm VR lens, and £50 cashback

Fallout 3 it is then.

Thanks everybody

OK Pay attention and listen carefully.

Any business loan assessment by a bank is built around the mnenomic CAMPARI.

Prepare a business plan, whilst bearing in mind that the bank will be assessing as follows.

Character – Does the bank know you. Do you have good credit history, track record etc.

Ability – What is your experience?. Have you run a business before? Demonstrate that you have researched the opportunity and keep it relevant. Do you understand all the risks. Premises, insurance etc Is any body else around to help you with the areas in which you are weak. E.g, Finance. Have you completed a SWOT analysis of the business? If not why not?

Margin – Not really one you can answer, but the bank will be looking to make a profit out of you. Expect to be paying an arrangement fee of around 2% and a margin over base of around 4-5%

Purpose – What is the loan for. If for acquisition, is the price right? How has it been arrived at. Peoples idea of the value of their business is usually way too high. How long a term are you looking to borrow and have you considered the working capital requirements of the business. Working capital being the amount of money you need for timing differences between receipts (sales) and payments (wages, insurance, loan repayments, stock etc)

Amount – How much are you borrowing and how much are you putting in. You need to put in some hurt money. The more the better.

Repayment – It's not only how profitable the business is, it's how quickly you collect the profits. CASH IS KING – most important rule of finance. Cash makes loan repayments not profits. Don't look like a dick and not include a cash flow forecast in your business plan. That means including your quarterly VAT returns, PAYE returns etc. See above re working capital.

Insurance – How will the bank get repaid if the business fails. We are in a recession and start up failure rate is high. The bank will want your personal guarantee and if your Dad's, supported, probably, with fixed legal charge or mortgage on one of the un-encumbered properties.

The above is not exhaustive but should get you thinking. You can PM me if you like.

I used to work for the Jeep importers CJUK, even there is was said that Jeep stood for Just Enough Essential Parts

I have a 2.8l Diesel. Build quality is poor compared to Japanese equivalents, paint is soft and it is easily the worst car I have ever driven.

But for some reason I love it and will keep until the wheels fall off.

It is truly ace.

Shame we've not seen any of the white stuff in Guernsey

Yeah well, I was 15 at the time and not allowed to use power tools. Had to wait for my Dad to come home

This took me a day to put together including getting the wood etc from B&Q and then left overnight for paint to dry. Has lasted me more than 25 years. Annual mileage is obviously quite low

The greatest sledge in the world. Ever.

Premium bonds

Moto-X is easily cooler.

Have you not read some of the posts on here? We're 99% geek

Just bought D5000 for my GF and seems to be excellent choice. Nikon are doing £50.00 cash back to 10th Jan

Its been a while but these used to be pretty good.

clay trails[/url]

Moonman – Been there fella.

This year we agreed to buy our own presents up to a budget and just chose each others 'surprises to open on Xmas day' Result, happiness all round and ace pressies!

Mind you, the family all arrive tomorrow and that's when the nonsense will start.

Then I'd pay for a STW meet in Moab.

Except Ton.

The last thing I want on a games console is a **** blue ray player.

Mrs SP – "I hope you're not planning on playing on the Playstation tonight. I've got us a nice film to watch"

If money was no object, I'd buy each and every one of you all, the bike of your dreams.

Well it is Christmas innit 😀

Nothing but praise for Oakley. Excellent customer service is the main reason I keep spending ludicrous amounts of money on their glasses

When I passed my driving test (22 years ago) my old man gave me his orange Lada Riva.

Thanks Dad. 🙄

Yes. Orange.

Always prefer to go solo. Nobody holding you up and no pressure to go faster, plus it adds to the adventure of the whole thing.

The same goes for sex 😆

A seal, walks into a club

I'm going to go with the Nikon D5000 – it seems to get very good reviews and I note that there an awful lot of books dedicated to this particular camera, (or is it the same book edited for all DSLR's)

Anyway, does anybody own/use this camera that can give me a good reason not to go for it?

And I dare say there is a connection with 'the green man' and worshipping trees.

What on earth has he got to do with it?

I never liked Scotch, as a youth, until I discovered single malts. A splash, just a splash mind, of water is all it needs.

Just treated myself to a bottle of 12 year old Balvennie for Xmas

Laservision anyone? – Invented by Philips it was like DVD except the disc was the size of a LP – (as in vinyl)

Lymeswold Cheese.

Which IIRC failed because demand was so high that quality became compromised and demand subsequently fell away.

Why are hybrid bikes a failure?

" What? All day? On a push bike?"

And

"Have you got some Kendal Mint Cake on you?"

I wear them on a serious day out, on road or MTB. MT500's, can't beat them

Many thanks David. Still trying to work out what it tho'

Who said that? Romero?

40 – Work for an investment bank, based in the Channel Islands

Oooh I want to join as well. Can somebody spare an invite?

silverpigeon69@gmail.com

IIRC this is how I got Gmail!

Moab and the Trans Rockies/Alps

I've just received feedback from an interview and was described as tough talking but honest.

I liked that

And its rock solid with a good clamp.

When you say workshop stand do you mean as in suitable to use in a proper bike workshop – a stand that bolts to the floor

Or a repair stand like this which I hear is very good.

I've got one of these which takes up less space and has a 'proper' clamp but drawback is that it does not fold up like the PCS9. Mine was only about £150 though, so guess the strong dollar has pushed the price up.