Comes with free “air” 😆

Anyone want to buy a conservatory? Needs reglazing. 😆

Or perhaps i should just give the whole thing a few coats of satinwood inside and out. 😆

I’m dreaming of a nice solid extension with a nice big flat panel TV installed in it. 😀 Dream on 😕

French car seats feel very comfy when you first sit on them. I had two peugeot 405’s (second one was foisted on me). Both resulted in me having a bad back.

Any job that an employer deems appropriate to the skills an individual has to offer.

This could open up a whole new market for them – free labour!

All they would need to do is lay off a couple of full time staff and they’ll up their margins!

You know, even a voluntary scheme would be good from the point of view of boulstering a CV. When a prospective employer asks “what have you been doing for the last couple of months,” it’d be a lot better to be able to say “well, I took part in a voluntary employment plan to put something back into the community” rather than “mostly I sat at home eating my own bodyweight in Wotsits and masturbating furiously.”

Actually, if the person at interview is looking to continue their career where they left off, compulsorily sweeping streets, cutting grass and painting wouldn’t make the slightest bit of difference to the prospective employer! It’s unlikely the person would be at any interview however, because they would have been too busy doing their compulsory “menial” community work to search for jobs!

Employers may think detrimentally about people who have done forced labour even, but if a voluntary scheme was introduced where the volunteer could have a say in when he/she was going to work, this would allow them to remain focused on their most important issue – getting a tangible paid job. It would also indicate their willingness to give their time for no financial return. I’ve done some volunteering and it’s rewarding, but it doesn’t pay the bills, or give you a sense that you are getting anywhere. If you get a utility bill and phone them up and tell them you can’t pay because you have been volunteering, they aren’t going to get all magnanmous with you, the baliffs will still be banging on your door a couple of weeks later!

A couple have stated that there is a two choice situation going on here: claimants working for their benefits, or sitting at home doing nothing.

I haven’t at any stage advocated unemployed people sitting on their backsides and getting benefits! I suggested that a proper co-ordinated approach to helping these people would be much much more productive than getting them to do “menial” tasks.

I think this is discrimination against the unemployed, as if they are all stupid, lazy etc. The truth is that there are unemployed people with great potential and talent. It’s largely not their fault that their repeated attempts to find work are being ignored. We are in a deep recession after all! The government should be taking more responsibility for this and mot making the unemployed seem like they are the cause of the problem!

Catford?? 😯

Where I live, there is a lot of unemployment, yet loads of jobs. Thing is, many ‘locals’ won’t get the jobs, because the local employers tend to favour people from ‘nicer’ areas, or places like Canada, France, Germany, the USA, etc. If the employers were forced to have to employ the bulk of there workforce from the area they are based in, and provide training, then this situation wouldn’t be nearly as bad. But local education has been slashed over the last decade, leaving very little in the way of adult training and education. Leading to a poorly skilled and undereducated population who are then forced to have to pay massive premiums for accommodation and watch ‘outsiders’ waltz past flaunting their wealth. Wonderful.

Britain needs to start **** investing in it’s own people again. Look at getting people skilled, educated and trained so that they can empower themselves instead of relying on state intervention.

Sounds like an admission that Labour were doing nothing for British citizens in respect of education or employment!

I fon’t agree though, education to the point of higher education has improved, it’s the disconnect between higher education establishments and business that’s a problem. Actually, I blame business because they are too mean to develop staff and give staff high value skills. They fear the recipient of such training will leave for better pay elsewhere, rather than see thay are adding value to their team and paying them for the extra profit they will bring, but that’s another thread.

In a world increasingly orientated towards contracting and temporary work, training and other responsibilities get shifted from employer to employee. No wonder we are falling behind in the UK.

Actually, having worked in an area in London just like this, I discovered there were very may people from other countries like South Africa, New Zealand, Aus etc. So it’s not just people in the locality who are disadvantaged. I cannot believe those aliens were all better than any British person, the argument business always makes to justify hiring them. I think the people who get hired, just happen to be in the network, in the loop and companies take the path of least resistance. I’ve witnessed the New Zealander/ Auz rite of passage for 25 years – work in London for a couple of years to afford exploring Europe. I’d have no problem with this if every British applicant capable of doing these jobs had got a look in!

In America, employers have to demonstrate that no American citizen is available to fill a position before an alien. Britain should do the same! That isn’t racist because British people comprise of many people of different ethnic origins. It’s about the ingress of aliens who take away opportunity for people who are British citizens.

This proposal shifts the focus away from government as an earlier poster suggested. No mainstream political party has the balls to tackle the problem of working class and not so working class people having their job security undermined by a large influx of aliens, (be them legitimate workers or not). I think the EU should give us a grant for taking so many!

The failed units are mostly in a conservatory. I have 11 failed units out of a total of 29 in there and one unit elsewhere in the house. I expect more will fail in the conservatory as it’s now 13 years old. These all failed, I guess, due to the excessive temparatures the room reaches during the summer.

Some did fail while the structure was still in warranty, but the firm that fitted were no more by then (in title at least), so i had no redress. It’s looked a mess for a few years now, but the whole thing only cost £7k new, so i didn’t do too badly.

I am considering the possibility of a five wall polycarbonate roof and replacing the verticals, or scrapping the whole thing and building myself a nice solid extension. Option B is more attractive as the room would then become useful all year round.

I think the conservatory was a bad idea, but they have their place – like on the coast where cold winds often spoil a sunny day.

Given that it’s the great unwashed that’s defacing the place to start with, how is covering up their own mess not a good idea? Grass cutting, litter picking, tidying up the community, this is bad?

It is bad! It places benefit claimants in the same category as criminals who are serving community service orders. That’s what’s fundamentally wrong with the idea! It’s in effect a punishment intended to show everyone who’s boss, to make working people feel better about the high taxes they have to pay to support these people who are an unecessary burden on society. An uncomfortable humiliation for benefit claimants – a stick!

The government aren’t giving benefit claimants genuine support to find a job and this is what i object to. This is what is wrong with Jobcentre Plus. They have thousands of jobs on their books, but are not a recruitment service!? Er, WHY NOT?? Why do they even exist???? If one of the numbskulls responsible for the nation’s Jobcentres had thought about it, he/she would have seen an opportunity to earn a commission for each person who is placed in one of these jobs! But hey, that would be far too commercial wouldn’t it? Far too right wing! They wouldn’t want to mitigate their cost to the public purse now would they, or perhaps making money goes against their political ideals!?

What is needed is a tangible solution to end benefit culture. Spending money on doing this would be far better than this wasteful stunt.

And no Elfinsafety, your perception that I have defected is wrong. I am merely pointing out that i have the capacity to see the bigger picture and that i don’t blindly follow political ideals to the detriment of common sense, fair play and the greater good of our country. I am big enough to admit nobody is perfect and sometimes i’m wrong. Maybe you should try the same sometime!

I do agree that those who simply refuse to do anything to help themselves need a rocket up their backsides, but only after they have been given a fighting chance!

oh, and also, it’s funny how the rich need carrots to get them to work, while the poor need sticks…

And the rich also get carrots not to work i.e. extended garden leave and huge bonuses when they leave a large corporation in a worse state than before they arrived!

If you are bottom of the pile and do a bad job, you are out the door straight away and without a penny.

Conversely, if you are top of the pile you will be rewarded with millions of pounds in severance and be allowed to go and wreek havoc at huge expense to another business. And so the cycle of expensive damage perpetuates.

I’m sure you will find an honest double glazing salesman to advise you eventually.

BTW, how long is it until the end of time? 😈

The range of opinion within a political party goes from moderate to fanatical and there is always internal disagreement and division. These people can’t help themselves because they are “all ego”!

Every party has it’s embarrassments, but then democracy is all about free speech isn’t it? A political party is a continually evolving creature.

I therefore think that aligning one’s self with a political party and it’s ideals is possibly the most stupid thing one can do!

Life is a learning curve!

Bloody hell; you feeling ok, Spongebob??

Perfectly thanks Elfinsafety! You are perhaps now beginning to see i’m not the narrow minded **** you often think and suggest I am.

Every situation has two sides!

It amazes me how many people can seemingly afford lots of rubbish fireworks at home when there are community firework shows costing a couple of quid to go to.

Agreed.

Fireworks are like Christmas lights outside houses – the money spend on them is inversely proportional to household income

How snobish!

No. 57 (no repeat guarantee)

I’ve no idea about the OP’s motives, but people who buy dogs for status are weak minded fools. Shouldn’t be trusted with the responsibility of looking after an animal.

You need a big house, big garden and a big bank balance for one of them.

you need mircofilters on all of the extensions

+1

Get a boat and go to sea! The numpty effect is least prevalent there.

Hazard perception is a nightmare for a good experienced driver to pass as they spot the hazards before the marking window opens.

Maybe the people who set the test misguidedly think learners have slower reactions than eanyone else.

The OP must be trolling!

Get a practice DVD.

The hazard perception exercise is a bit of a hit and miss affair. I know a Police trained riders who have failed this. It’s because they click on emerging hazards too soon.

Is brokeback mountain on now

Does that sort of thing float your boat?

The real issue is we have too many people in the world and the rate of increase is frightening. One day there will be insufficient land to grow food for everyone. I can’t imagine what that will be like.

Regarding finite resources; if only people would modify their behaviour to slash their consumption, but this is the last thing on most people’s minds. Self-gratification is what makes people tick, not the future of the human race.

Governments like the tax revenue, so only pay lip service to a reduction in consumption. Of course they love to invent new green taxes, but from where I stand nothing they are doing actually reduces the waste.

At a micro level, I just returned a hire car today – a 2L Diesel automatic which struggled to do 40mpg. I am so pleased to get my 1.9L diesel car back which can easily do 65mpg. I was talking to my neighbour about the useless MPG of this newer car and he laughed because he owns two cars with large engines. If he gets 24mpg he counts himself lucky. Why buy such wasteful vehicles? Ego? Self-gratification? Insecurity? Why do governments allow these gas guzzlers to be produced?

I hate driving and do negligible miles now, but i’m sure my carbon footprint is huge compared to someone living in the third world. We really shouldn’t have personal transport, but once an infrastructure is implemented, economies become dependant on them and it’s nigh on impossible to reverse the process.

It’s a worry all this consumption, but updating to green technology costs a lot of money and most of what we can do here in out little corner of the planet is really going to make little difference to the big picture.

Things are really messed up and I can’t see how we are going to fix what is a global issue.

My bet is no adequate action will occur to combat this matter until it’s too late.

I’m feelin the love Junkyard! 😆

“Bodger ernie!”

Too expensive and quirky for me.

Try a Honda Jazz 1.4.

Great little tardis of a car!

6/8 pints on both nights, would be described as binge drinking.

Nein!

Are people really thinking that the lifestyle she is famous for might have contributed to the miscarriage?

You tell me!

How about Katie Price’s stupid selfish behaviour during her first pregnancy and the resulting outcome?

About 10 years ago, my neighbour smoked during pregnancy, despite everyone telling her not to. The baby developed a brain tumour a few months after she was born!

After several operations and huge stress for the family, a year later the baby died. IT WAS HORRIBLE!

Now experts tell us that smoking is harmful and that you ingest a cocktail of around 1000 highly toxic substances when you puff on a cigarette.

Are you going to tell me that smoking didn’t cause the tumour in the growing foetus?

There is no proof, but the balance of probability in these cases should be a lesson, but then people always think they know better.

Did Lilly Allen live an alcohol free, smoke free lifestyle, getting good sleep and rest and nutrition during her pregnancies? Who knows!

I’m seeing someone at the weekend who works in developmental neuroscience. Please supply up to date snippets and little nuggets of current research type wisdom to enhance her perception of my breadth of knowledge etc

You not heard of Google?

I wouldn’t pretend to know anything about this subject if I were you.

Talking “shop” is very dull.

Ask her about her family, her interests and whether she’ll want to s…. no forget that. 😆

And this is her second miscarriage.

Either she is still living too hard, or is just damned unlucky.

I’m not a fan of her’s, but it must be very difficult for her right now.

I wish her better luck next time (if there’s a next time).

I’m interested to see a bit of a breakdown of figures and labour timings for that Blazin.

Either get a batten/stud behind where you need to fix through to and Gripfill/Nonails it to the back of the board etc, but the easiest option is spring toggles.

Rawlplugs, nonails etc won’t hold on soft board material and so you’ll be hanging your shower screen on just the tiles. If the plugs don’t crack the tiles, expect the screen to come off the wall with a few tiles attached sometime down the line.

At one end of the scale is a council highways planner introducing expensive, uneccessary, congestion creating, stress inducing “improvements” to our road system at an icredible rate.

At the other is Mrs Cock in her cockmobile who thinks she is always in the right, who’ll bully her way through because she knows her vehicle is the biggest.

It’s a lost cause!

Go offroad.

Car jack + wheel dollies. Then wedge it somewhere (between a lamp post and a wall, for example)

Or let it roll away. 😈

Great project! Great house!

My dream is to do what you have done/are doing there. If only I had room for a bike shed!

My day comprised of buying 12Sqm of cheap laminate flooring and laying it in my tired old conservatory. Project total £52!

Please make sure we get more pics and a running commentary.

I’m aware of the rules regarding obstructed driveways, but considering how mindlessly selfish it is to park like this, I can’t understand why the authorities don’t make it an instant penalty ticket and even points on the offender’s licence.

There are plenty of traffic attendants eager to write issue tickets for less grave “offences”, so why not give them an opportunity to be useful for a change?

Nice pics! Lulworth Cove, Corfe Castle from Brenscombe Hill and is that a view of Poole harbour somewhere near Arne?

I’ve done the isle of Purbeck loop a few times – hilly, especially the climb up to Kingston! 😉

I’m envious, but mmb, you are a good soul to offer people a bit of a break!

Elfinsafety

Banter is one thing; abuse is wrong.

– pot, kettle!!

What a trajic waste of a life! 🙁

There is a deep rooted social stigma around those who suffer deep emotional problems, like they have lost their minds or something, but this is so far from the truth! If only people would wake up a realise there is nothing to be afraid of and start supporting each other more. The stigma is so strong that the sufferer often keeps tight lipped, suffering in silence and in isolation (even with people around them). Unfortunately the pressure builds and then the worst can and does happen, possibly in the case of poor Jahwomble. It just makes me very sad! Poor guy! 🙁 I would have chatted with him to try and help him through these troubles if i’d only known. If you are feeling really anxious, don’t bottle it!

I suppose the lesson here is that we all need to extend a little more sensitivity and compassion to each other, even to those we don’t think need any. This makes me want to be a better person and to be more concious of my shortcomings – very humbling!

The relatives and close friends will feel the pain of this avoidable, but huge loss, long after we have forgotten about it. It is a particularly cruel and callous scenario for them – further affirmation for me that any all seeing all knowing god does not exist. Well a compassionate god, if he/she did exist, would never allow this sort of injustice, right?

I hope for the family that the intense pain felt in these early days abates as soon as possible and that they will eventually come to enjoy true happiness again, sometime in the not too distant future. I also hope that some positives come out of this tragedy.

RIP Jahwomble – one of the good guys!

Go for BlackBerry, be a leader not a follower.

??? be a leader??? Blackberry? Nearly every school kid in the country has a damned Blackberry! If you want to realise the true benefit of a Blackberry (push email that works), your going to pay another £5/ month on your contract. Blackberry web browsing is pretty clunky and awkward, also, most handsets are only 2g. You need a touch screen, so your only choice would be a Blackberry Torch. “Follower” is the word that springs to mind when the name Blackberry pops up!

I use a Nokia 5800 3.5g which does the job and suits a more techy person, but i would not recommend them now. I concede that Nokia are loosing the battle of the smart phone.

I’d look at handsets running with the Android platform.

Apple products are seductive with a brilliant UI now, but they cost a fortune, you will have restricted access to content and will be forced to use iTunes. Then there are niggles like you can’t upgrade the memory, or switch the battery if you are out and about when your battery is depleted (and iPhones aren’t renowned for long intervals between charges).

The Nokia N8 is just out and whilst this looks like a decent bit of kit, i’m still not convinced that Nokia have ironed out all the kinks from the early versions of the S60V5 OS yet. Nokia seriously need to pull their socks up and sharpish!