“i remember helping my parents check under there cars in the 90s”

My first service married quarter came with a little torch with a mirror on the end in the downstairs cupboard for checking under the car for bombs. Never worked out how I’d get my car into the cupboard though….

Keep ’em scared, keep ’em controlled.

So uneducated poeple in Africa are able to make informed choices are they? Righto! Like I said nieve and simplistic.

They may not but there are plenty of aid agencies/charities tripping over themselves to get out there and help the poor dears and those who run the countries have a degree of education, no matter what you may think of their personal opinions.

Nieve and simplistic? A realist perhaps who has actually been to some of these ‘developing countries’ rather than occasionally spot them on the news and think “oh my gosh” before swiftly moving on to consider which trail centre they’re gonna ride this weekend.

If you don’t like opinions that may be a little more brutal and honest than the rose-tinted and extremely simplistic ones you’re spewing forth where the bloke making the fags is the Devil and the poor chaps in developing countries is purely his bitch then perhaps the internet isn’t for you.

No they are not knowing killing people, people choose to do that everytime the idiots put a cigarette in their mouth. Do kitchen knife producers get this much grief over knife crime? Thanks for belittling my ‘life experiences’ as symplistic and nieve btw. When you’ve done a bit more with your sad little life than sit in a cubicle and post tin foil hat waffle on a mountain bike forum I might, possibly, consider any tripe to pour from your keyboard worth heeding. Change your view point, why would I want to? Nuts like you are far too entertaining. No offence like.

No they are not. People who work for cigarette companies (are you including everyone btw, even the bloke who cleans the factory toilet or just the evil management?) produce a product that is legal in every country on Earth. It is the stupidity of the individual that decides whether or not they decide to smoke them and the governments of countries have it well within their power to educate or just plain ban if they wished to but choose not to as idiots still have the power to vote.

To off-set as charitable contributions don’t they have to be made to registered charities, otherwise what is to stop everyone ‘donating’ anything above their tax threshold to spouse or other family member to look after?

Damn , Godwins already. It was going so well too.

I’m not sure how cigarettes work but does smoking one indicate to some paid hit man of BAT that they can pick you off from a distance with a sniper rifle? “Murdering people” would otherwise seem a poor choice of words for what is basically illness brought about on people who through their own idiocy decide to ingest harmful (but legal) chemicals of their own free will, though pay somone for the privilage.

There was a map produced a while back which took in the opinions of where people thought they were (south/north) and put it onto a map based of the majority of opinion in each specific town. It was purely north/south though took in all parts of the country, including Wales (majority identified closer with the north) and the Midlands (Nottingham, Birmingham and Derby identified more with north, Leicester with south). I’ll have a dig around to see if I can find it.

TJ – You’re right, there were little or no fundamental Islamic groups in Iraq before the invasion, mainly due to the slighty brutal regime that existed in those days. Its amazing what gassing people and random executions will do. We Brits should know of course as we wrote the book on it.

Why does the badge of England (and Scotland) football teams have a lion on them? Its hardly a creature thats common in the UK. Once again, felt the need to comment on a thread about a sport you could easily see and have admitted you have no interest in. Interesting…..

Perhaps Pakistan needs a military junta to keep the spread of extremist Islam in check. Wonder why they haven’t tried that?

Don’t like the sport yet felt the need to comment, how very STW. Nottingham Panthers have been so named since the 40’s btw, only a few years after the NHL came into being. Incidently the sport of ice hockey was in no small part pushed into being as a competive sport by, shock horror, a British person (who the Stanley Cup is named after). Service can now resume on this mountain bike (a sport largely created, devoloped and run as an industry from the continent of North America) forum. How do you spell ‘ironic’ btw?

Pah, not really a fan of ‘grid iron’ to be honest.

CD cleaning fluid (if you don’t need too much) or if you want a fairly cheap alternative just use cheap (Lidl) Vodka. If you want proper IPA though you’ll need a chemical supplier, although sometimes places such as Maplins sell.

There is quite a wait for new Fat Alberts at the moment, the production is in high demand. Give Lockheed a call though.

Not a Land Rover Defender. (Santana)

Also not a Land Rover Defender. (Morattab)

Nor this one. (Otokar)

Ice Road Truckers.

Strangely addictive.

A Kangaroo, next to the A3 near Guildford! I phoned the RSPCA to let them know and they said it wasn’t anything to worry about, aparently there is an ‘exotic meat’ farm near Guildford and the occassional escapee related roadkill is not unknown.

A military junta is the only sensible alternative. I’ve already called the post of Lord High Executioner.

Do you get a shonky old Marin full-sus and a beard as well?

Joe – Your comments on LE could equally apply to most of the areas nearer Derby that Swadley has recommended! Personally I wouldn’t live in LE, but considering the criteria ‘fontmoss’ has laiddown (easy access to both Nottingham and Derby being the main ones) its a far better choice than some of the options. Oh and this oft repeated “riding on the doorstep is crap could also be applied to many of the areas closer to Derby, including West Hallam, unless you like draggy tyre rides on flat trails and tarmac then Belper is the only one reasonably close to proper hills, although even these aren’t that great. I was closer to better hills when I lived in Surrey! Its the East Midlands, Derby isn’t Buxton and most of the really local for either Nottingham or Derby is pretty bland.

Joe – Just Your comments on LE could equally apply to most of the areas nearer Derby that Swadley has recommended! Personally I wouldn’t live in LE, but considering the criteria ‘fontmoss’ has laiddown (easy access to both Nottingham and Derby being the main ones) its a far better choice than some if the options. Oh and this oft repeated “riding on the doorstep is crap could also be applied to many of the areas closer to Derby, including West Hallam, unless you like draggy tyre rides on flat trails and tarmac then Belper is the only one reasonably close to proper hills, although even these aren’t that great. I was closer to better hills when I lived in Surrey!

Breaston! Come on, admit you were wrong and Long Eaton isn’t such a bad idea. 😉

Something like that I guess. When I lived down that way I used to be quite self-rightious about the Swinley, buying ine every year and sneering at those who didn’t but then I started to question why I bothered. Walkers never had permits nor (I believe) did horse riders, yet both of these groups needed to be covered under some sort of public liability insurance, apparently what the lion’s share of the cycling permit was for. Also with so few actually bothering to permits and a very slim chance if ever being caught without one (in 6 years of riding there I only saw one person ever checking permits) it seemed even more pointless getting one. Of course it begs thebquestion as to what a ‘baliff’ would be able to do were they to see a group of riders without permits?

So what happens when the smaller teams start struggling to compete due to the rising costs of just leaving the teams to whack on what they want? NOS and big turbos, whilst relatively cheap, will only get you so far. After this those with the deep pockets will pull away due to being able to afford the seriously cutting edge technology. The regulations are as much about preserving a variety of teams as it is about making the racing closer. People complain that F1 is boring now but it would be even worse with only 3 or so teams able to afford to compete, hence my mention of WRC.

wee-al – Thats worked really well for WRC hasn’t it? How many teams are racing this year.

Lincolnshire.

Hmmm, you are a North Downs/Surrey Hills regular aren’t you ‘Count’ and don’t you live in Surrey too? There aren’t that many Specialized dealers in Surrey, off the top of my head I can name at least four if you include Evans.

Can’t be any worse than the utter bilge that is the ‘RnB’ version of ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ though.

Almost as bad as idiots who straight line trails are those who, heaven forbid they get their mtb dirty, ride around puddles as if they were buried land mines.

Aye Manon was a fairly handy GT, its the shame Tampa Bay used her purely as a publicity stunt. She lives in Michigan now, not too far from Hockey Town.

voiplondon – My daughter (6yo) is starting to take a really unhealthy interest in hockey (she can skate a bit) but disturbingly she wants to play GT! We’re thinking of signung her up for a summer camp the Panthers are running to see how she likes it.

When you say anywhere within reason could that include up and down the M1 corridor? If so then thats another tick in the box for Long Eaton, being as its right next to a junction.

I heard a certain MP is a fan of the ‘An@l Black Hammer’ series of films, with ‘An@l Black Hammer 5’ being her favourite. It must be true as Big John down The Winchester told me.

“Oldtime hockey coach?”

Cool. Do you get to practice with the Flames?

An ever-so-slight bias, hardly recognised it. 😉

As if you need to Google it Andy. 😉

Wouldn’t an email to STW Towers be the correct procedure rather than bleating on the forum? As they say, their toy box, their rules.

fontmoss – Are you going to be at Derby for all of your course or just the first year? I know some med courses involve working out of QMC and whilst being ‘the right side of Derby’ might be good if you are staying at Derby Hospital the prospect of relying on the Red Arrow bus or the purple raunbow bus (Rainbow 7?) to get to the QMC wouldn’t appeal too much to me, especially not after a late shift.