I have plenty of hats, because I am a dapper gent.

I also quite like wearing ties, although regretfully I’m not old enough to carry off a cravat.

Everywhere I go people stop and stare in awe…

I always find it quite interesting that, until the point you were actually asked to get out of your trench and walk slowly towards the enemy, the British army was supposed to be quite a healthy place to be.

3 square meals a day
proper (and free) medical care
And for the 3 days out of 5 you weren’t in the trenches the work was easier and less dangerous than the work you would have been used to on your farm, mine or factory.

The army kept statistics on the weight and general health of recruits entering the army and leaving it. PROVIDED you could avoid death, mutilation or horrible injury your were likely to leavre the army in better physical shape tan when you joined.

Of course the mental side was another matter. Apparently the psychiactric wards in the 60s were full of old soldiers who just couldn’t cope any more.

You would normally have some sort of contact with HMRC before it goes to a debt collection agency.

Not much use with a letter, but this is their advice if someone turns up on your doorstep:

However, when faced with an unknown caller on the doorstep, our customers may still be concerned. To provide a safeguard against bogus callers in these situations, HMRC has introduced a new Field Force Verification Helpline, so that a customer can easily check whether or not a caller on their doorstep claiming to be from HMRC is, in fact, genuine.

To access the helpline, customers should follow these simple steps:
• Ask to see the Collector’s photo ID
• Make a note of the ID number on the photo ID
• call 0300 200 3862
• Provide HMRC with the ID number you’ve noted

Our operators will then be able to confirm to you whether or not your caller is genuinely an HMRC Collector.

Unless reform enables higher quality teachers to be emlyed its all pissing in

Simple solution –

Pay teachers more to ensure you attract higher quality candidates.

Apparently it works well with MPs and company directors.

Give it 20 years and the whole process will be mechanised. Get your hand-wringing in while you can

Its proably cheaper to pay disposable staff the minimum wage than invest in the automation. But then thes staff aren’t really human are they? just economic units in a process. And when they break there are plenty of cheap replacements.

I wouldn’t like to work at a place where the company places more value in the hand held scanner than the person holding it.

The bits of interviews I’ve heard seem to be along the line of “I knew that it happened”.

Has anyone put his hand up and said “I deliberately shot an unarmed civilian”?

I’ve never travelled anywhere first class. Feeling out of my depth on this forum of big hitters.

Humbrol model paints

The type of telescope you want may depend on the type of viewing you wish to do.

e.g.

Dobsonians give you a lot of mirror for you money but are better suited for deep sky objects (starts and galaxies)

For planets refractors are supposed to be the better option, but are much more expensive.

Best to read up on the relative merits of different types on a good astronomy website.

Humans enjoy:

a. sex
b. killing animals
c. killing humans from other tribes

its all evolutionary, isn’t it?

I’ve seen a few cyclists wearing these recently. Would they annoy you as well?

but most artists really struggled until the basic rules of perspective were unraveled and the study of anatomy became commonplace.

But wasn’t a lot of the new perspective art of the Renaissance done with the aid of camera obscuras? So its sort of like painting or drawing over a modern photograph.

I’ve always thought of Mud Xs as a sort of all round winter tyre i.e. adequately grippy when every thing is soaking wet.

I didn’t think they made ’em narrow enought to be true mud tyres.

I wish I could find a tyre that would grip on wet chalk though :-(

Hunting for pleasure is a not a biological imperative.

Considering that we, as a species, have spent by far the longest portion of our time on this planet as hunter gatherers, there might be a case for arguing that our need to hunt is as much a biological imperative as our need to procreate.

(Not saying that either is “right”, mind)

A lot of cyclist round my way have these hugely bright, badly adjusted front lights. At the same time, a lot of them seem to rely on one fairly inadequate rear flasher. Usually a tiny light source attached to the seat post where it is easly obscured. Factor in the modern lack of rear and pedal reflectors and some of them become hard to spot from behind.

Seems a bit arse about face to me.

I suppose we’ll need a new one anyway (minus the blue bit) when our friends NoB decide to go their own way.

There’s no VAT on Jaffa Cakes. And they ARE a luxury*

*for a given definition of luxury

Ooohh . . . TA chainrings!

Off for a cold shower.

I quite like the Christmas Eve/Christmas Day/Boxing day bit. I try to ignore the huge build up in the shops.

If there is an afterlife, one that we can still exist as individuals in, it will go on for ever won’t it? So its either sitting on a cloud playing a harp, chatting to your Dad, going on the ultimate MTB ride or just contemplating the ineffableness of everything . . . for ever.

I imagine that could get quite boring, especially after the first 10,000 years. Unless you could watch events unfold I the “real” world. It would be the ultimate reality TV show. You could sit there tutting and saying “it wasn’t like that in my day”.

But then after a trillion years the universe wold come to an end and it would be back to boring again.

I love all the lazy old “My kids learn more by two weeks in Tuscany than they will by two weeks in school” excuses.

To proove this you would need demonstrate what level they were at before the holiday, what the holiday was designed to achieve, how its learning activities fitted in with the national curriculum and what level they were at when they returned home. That’s what teachers have to do every term. If not, Mr Gove won’t pay them.

Also, why could they only have learned this by going on a holiday in term time? Are holidays outside term time somehow inferior in general educational experience?

But people are right – there is no reason for one long summer holiday, and I think a lot of teachers would be happier with more, shorter terms.

Well I read all the comments (sad, i know) BEFORE I watched the offending video.

I agree completely with the comments about the over-sexualization of society and the objectification of women. BUT, if I hadn’t been told what to look for, I wouldn’t really have noticed the young lady’s cleavage at all. I was more interested in the trails she was riding and a bit annoyed because she kept locking up her rear wheel.

When I realised the film makers and their intended audience (presuably males) appear to be getting their rocks off over a bit of 18th century style cleavage I found it rather depressing. Its a bit like 12 year old boys sniggering over the word “period”.

Spa cycles still do a good selection of square taper bottom brackets and chaninsets.

Best bottom bracket I ever owned was a Royce Titanium.

I see they still make them, and with crank arms to match. Bit pricey though!

http://www.royceuk.co.uk/Royce-Uk.html

TA chainrings are pretty good, and a bit cheaper than Middleburn.

I like McDonalds.

They’re only places that don’t look at you strange when you ask for “a medium white coffee”.

And their burgers taste nicer than those ones you get in Weatherspoons with a pint for a fiver.

just installed it without any problems.

Don’t notice much difference apart from a little more customization. Still the same non-intuitive interface and the same crappy half written “apps”.

whether my perception of Australia as a more ‘favoured’ English-speaking country than Canada is correct

I reckon its a climate thing. Australia is PERCIEVED to be warm and sunny and full of easy going blokes, whereas Canda is cold and full of French.

YES! Let’s get more youngsters cycling on the roads instead of driving! That will reduce fatalities for sure!

Well in the long run it probably would.

Purely subjective like, but looking SWSD junior’s circle of school friends, ALL of those who passed their test on or near their 17th birthday had significant accidents not long after. These ranged from the amusing – knocking over parents front wall three times, to the not amusing – several months in intensive care.

It certainly put junior off learning to drive untill she was in her 20s.

Last one I tried, I quartered it and casserled it in red wine. Trouble was, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was eating a cat.

First thought was farming.

Second thought was storytelling – ie the ability to think about things that are not literally true, may not happen and may have never happend. Though this may be more biological accident than an achievement.

I’m surprised that alcohol doesn’t have a dehydrating effect though.

Well we all used to drink “small beer” as it was safer than the water, but thats alcohol in low concentration. It would be interesting to repeat the beer drinking experiement he mentions with, say, half a bottle of Scotch.

Interesting article. However it made me laugh when the author (quite rightly) criticizes marketing dressed up as scientific research but then goes on to mention

the television series I’ve been making

OK, why “fanjo”?

For some reason it conjours up images of Geroge Fornby singing “when I’m cleaning windows”

Why would I want to spend money and join a charity that does nothing for mountain bikers?

Google fail here – but weren’t the CTC instrumental in getting the rigth to cycle on bridleways into the legislation back in the 1960s?

Edit – it was the Countryside Act 1968

Been a CTC member for 25 years. Mainly the same reasons as portlyone.

Its not very expensive.

Singletrackworld parents obviously aren’t the sort who complian when games lessons are held on the school field and little Johnny’s new trainers get muddy.

Or take a hotel a couple of miles from the outward bound centre in case Tarquin gets homesick :-(

Ten days is far from a huge proportion of the school year

It is if its in the run up to SATS week (apparently)

Thanks Nobby, Every day a learning day and all that (even when you are not in school)

It’s not about truancy, just absence

Doesn’t “unathorised absence” = truancy? Or is there a different definition for truancy?