When Harriet Harman talked about a ginger rodent, I thought she was going to name Nicola Sturgeon!

Aside from this, Harman showed her true lefty colours – nasty!

Ah, the last bastion of acceptable discrimination.

What about Essex girls? 😆

What, like being a thieving gypsy bastard?

Now that sort of comment will get you banned! I made reference to violent lawless gangs who are of no fixed address and got banned! The misguided STW mods mistook this for racism and when logging into STW got the message “You are banned for 48 hours you nasty **** racist”. It’s a shame that people don’t understand that discrimination can be wholly different from racism.

As for this woman. I’d suggest she stopped bleating, lay off the pies and when slim enough, go back and have her NHS funded scan!

The trouble with a “do gooder” society is that there is no differentiation between those who are behaving acceptably and those who couldn’t care less about anyone but themselves!

The result is frustration caused by the blatent injustice felt by those who do toe the line! In the end, bad leadership has terrible consequences for everyone.

The wife actually got 4 tickets yesterday. I’m expected to attend, but might suggest she invites a friend who is a Take That fan.

If I do go, I shall be taking a sick bag for when Williams does the obligatory wounded swan routine (to make all the girls feel sorry for him). So contrived!

It must be tough being married to a very attractive model, having millions and toughing it out living an “A” lister’s lifesytle in Beverly Hills!

Either he needs to stop bullshxtting his fans, or if he really is such a whimp, he needs to MTFU!!

If you are walking in and not flying to Lukla, you will aclimatise to the altitiude and so this shouldn’t be an issue.

I would avoid flying into Lukla as it’s the most dangerous airstrip in the world. The landing strip runs up the side of the mountain, is short and there is no leeway for overunning when landing (there’s a cliff at the end). The weather there is very unpredictable and fog can roll in in minutes, making it impossible to judge the start of the strip. Winds are unpredictable too and all these things combined make for very very dangerous landings indeed! Crashes are not infrequent.

My father-in-law did the walk in trek when he was 60. It took three weeks and they climbed an average of 4500ft a day.

He said they got into camp each evening just before nightfall (set up by the sherpas). They’d all eat and then go to bed as there wasn’t much else to do and due to the desire to get warm in their sleeping bags.

Quite a few of the party found themselves awake at 3am and couldn’t get back to sleep as they’d had already had a good kip by then. So take some reading material and a headtorch which has a low setting.

He told me that the only time he had real difficulty sleeping was at base camp, where he woke up short of breath due to the altidue. He was then a very fit man.

Footwear: I would opt for a comfortable lightweight ankle boot. Keen make some uber comfortable outdoor footwear with tough toecaps. You’d only have to try them on to know what i’m talking about, but whatever boots you buy, make sure they are well worn in on the UK hills beforehand. Good socks and support insoles can make all the difference to comfort/blister prevention too.

Clothing: I’d go for as many thin layers as possible so you can regulate your clothing/temperature/comfort more easily.

I’d take a powerful sunscreen and use some decent glasses at that altitude.

I’d use a rucksack with an air mesh back, a proper down sleeping bag and a full size the NeoAir sleeping matt – Field and Trek have these on sale right now.

I’m sure there are lots of little tricks you could pick up on from those who have actually been there. I seem to recall from my father in law that local people there are very poor and were very pleased to receive small gifts such as biro’s. Little things like this made people happy and for the sake of a few quid…..

Enjoy! (wish I was going there too)

Try a very light fill over the rough patch with some polyfiller using platerer’s trowel. When dry very lightly and carefully sand (or even a carefully wipe with a damp cloth). Recoat but use a 4″ roller and only gently go over once as you risk the dried paint sticking to the roller and coming away from the wall. Wait until properly dry (24hrs+). Repeat the filling process if it’s still uneven. When dry, re-paint. Wait a couple of hours and then apply a final coat over the whole of the affected wall, but still use light pressure and a 4″ roller on the affected area. That should sort it.

I blame the lawyers fair and square for the litigious society they have created in the US!

If they weren’t trying to cash in on the sitution, they would tell their client to get real and go away!

Someone is looking for a meal ticket off the child’s parents!

It’s shocking that people try to profit in this way from the accidental death of a loved one.

A child of four cannot be in any way held responsible for what happened!

Sick lawyers!

If you need to carry a laptop/tablet/netbook to and from work or whatever, then you need an appropriate bag, but carrying a bag of any kind each and every time you go out is totally gay!

It would appear that the problem is only another limitation of the iPhone!

House no 2 looks good, but mid terrace presents access issues to the garden.

Property 3 looks horrible!

Building No1 hasn’t sold because most people want a single family dwelling. This property is too big and has been carved up into bedsits. The cost of turning it into a family home is prohibitive and especially considering the volume of windows. It would be a bugger to heat too.

If this can be turned into three self contained flats, i reckon it would be a winner, but for this you would need planning consent and a pretty significant budget. I’ve no idea what small flats sell for in that area, to know if this would be economic.

If it’s near a hospital or university, it could yield a reasonable rental income in it’s current configuration with a bit of freshening up, especially in view of the low asking price (can’t even get a tiny bedsit for that money in my area).

Do the degree and then get a job.

Get the girl to move near you, or, as you will be meeting lots of nice women at university, let it fizzle out.

We need to synchronise with Europe! This isn’t about changing the clocks by 1 hour in the winter, but summer too.

The benefits would be most noticeable in the spring and autumn when it would be lighter into the evenings. We’d all be more active and less depressed. The roads would be a lot safer too.

There are compelling studies suggesting the economy would be very much better off too.

If Scotland doesn’t like it, Scotland can have it’s own time zone. Seeing as they have special tax priviliges which we all have to pay for, I don’t see how they can moan. The issue is only felt in the far north of that country, where the population is negligible, so for the sake of the 65 million others in the country, they should find a way round the issue.

I hope they catch these chavs and give them a beating, but that’ll never happen.

Fireworks shouln’t be banned!

There need to be tougher controls as to who can sell them.

Perhaps even prison sentences for those who allow fireworks into the hands of minors (including those who have bought them legitimately).

It’s distressing to hear about the out of control ferrel kids who roam the streets terrorizing others, so seriously, a good beating is what they need. This is the only thing which will make them think twice.

They keep pumping money into this thing, but every plane has to be grounded eventually, regardless of how sentimental people get about it.

1st three rules of house buying

1 Location
2 Location
3 Location

If you are wanting to get a rung or two up the ladder and have the skills and the drive, buy the cheapest most run down house in a road.

If it’s ragged, make sure this is reflected in the price plus a margin for your inconvenience – you are the one taking the risk, so don’t reward vendors who think they can get as much as the best house on the street, less the cost of materials and a bit of labour. They need to be realistic!

Don’t just guess the cost of refurbishment and be realistic about budget. Work always takes longer than you think and make sure you include everything in your estimates right down to landscaping.

Lastly, ignore estate agent pressure and bullshit. Their valuations are often wildly out of kilter too.

It’s a buyer’s market and property prices are falling. I expect them to keep on falling because lending rules now exclude the 100% mortgage chancers who helped fuel house price inflation. You now need a significant deposit and people can’t easily magic up a big pile of money, which is good news for savers who have been careful and who have planned ahead.

Average incomes fall well below what is required to buy property these days and until the market re-adjusts, too many will be excluded. In light of this, the only way the market can go is down (unless we see a return to reckless bank lending again. Don’t hold you breath, the regulations make it harder for them to do this and no bank will be taking risks for a very long time. I’m sure there are still some surprizes to come in respect of bank solvency.

Buy at a very keen price or walk away!

The misses wants tickets too. Been trying for a while now. Found one lot if jokers that are charging £200 for a face value standing ticket of £55! Cheeky feckers! All other sites are in meltdown.

I guess i’ll be spending all day trying. I wouldn’t mind if they were a decent band!

Took her to see Robbie Williams at Knebworth a few years ago. Got fleeced £150 and he was mediocre. Orson and Basement Jaxx performed that day and they were both fantastic.

RW and Take That – very overated, but then womwn always do choose pop bands based on their looks rather than their musical ability.

The trick in this situation is to document business mileage and claim tax relief at 40% on 40p per mile (do less than 10k miles). This tends to pay for the tax on the fuel card, so free personal mileage.

I really doubt this. Can you show your figures?

When i last looked at the tax on a fuel card (10 years ago when fuel was 78p/l). I calculated that i would need to do IRO 14000 private miles to break even with my 50-65mpg 1.9l diesel. The fuel card was a big chunk of the tax and definitely a deal breaker if imposed alongside a car allowance.

The best scenario is for employers to pay the maximun mileage allowance (40p and 25p), offset by a reduced monthly allowance to mitigate your tax liability. This would be cheaper for them and you, assuming you don’t then go and notch up extra business miles purely for the sake of the extra money.

That’s a good allowance iain1775. What list value of car do you run?

I’ve estimated you get about £7.5k in your pocket, which should cover full running costs of a half decent car.

How are you down £1k/year? 25p covers my fuel and even the loan payments for me.

I bet the mileage is high in this case.

Having a company car/car allowance in many cases is overwhelmingly for the benefit of the employer, not the driver. Many left company car schemes about 9 years ago when tax on them became too punitive. I was one of these people, sick of paying through the nose for a vehicle i didn’t want and being forced to notch up miles that were for my employer’s interests, not mine. My view was that; life behind the wheel of a grubby run of the mill saloon, in the conjected south east of England, was not something I should have to pay for!!!

The cost per mile is much higher for drivers who do low mileages. Those who do high mileages wear their cars out, spend more on wear and tear items and take an extra hit on extra depreciation.

Getting the balance just right is tricky and owning a car places all the risk on the employee, so these are grounds for a proper car allowance.

I used to get £450 a month plus 8p a mile. This worked well for me because I was able to cut my mileage to less than 10k when switching from a company car. Prior to this, I was doing extra mileage to get to 18k, after which the taxable benefit for the car was halved.

Even with an allowance, I was still able to claim relief on the difference between 8p/mile and 40p/mile for the first 10k miles and on the 25p thereafter. I can’t remember the exact detail now, but it was definitely worth claiming.

I couldn’t believe how, after many years of paying company car tax, that the HMRC were having to pay me. How stupid was that change in the method of taxing company cars? The government must have lost a fortune in tax receipts! I think they killed a golden goose there, but then Labour are all about punitive taxes and the politics of envy. They must have misguidedly thought we were all enjoying our crappy company cars and the disadvantages they brought! Commercial numbnuts those lefties eh!!

These figures of 40p and 25p are what you can claim before any tax is due and have been in effect for at least 10 years. It’s high time they were reviewed as cars, fuel, RFL have all gone up markedly in 10 years!

If you get paid a set monthly car allowance, this is treated as income and is taxed at whatever your rate of pay is. If this additional income will take you into the higher earnings bracket, you are a bit stuffed if you have savings and other benefits in kind.

If it is possible to easily/quickly get to your place of work on foot, by bus, bicycle or train, suggest to your employer that they provide a pool car for you to use, entirley at their expense! They need the car, not you, so get them to pay! Why should you have the hassle and responsibility of owning a car, just for their benefit?

It’s easier said than done, but sometimes you are better off changing jobs.

Good luck!

The oceans hold many incredible creatures. Relatively affordable technology capable of reaching remote areas has only become available in recent years, so we are on a voyage of discovery. We can look forward to many more HD resolution treats on our flat panel TV’s in years to come. 😆

I personally thought the creature being able to morph itself into a clump of seaweed (in shape as well as colour) was pretty breathtaking.

I found the anatomy/vivisection of the giant squid fascinating too.

It’s feasible that there are some enormous creatures living deep in our oceans, as well as some interisting little ones.

Without science and the human desire to learn about our world, our lives would be much more dull. Good job we don’t all reject science like many of these religious nut jobs do!

I had kinda figured this out for myself, but wanted to learn of others’ experiences.

Directly approching companies is a better strategy than these virtually pointless online job boards, but you still need to reach the decision maker.

I think success in finding a good job is 90% luck. Perhaps more.

NOT hardware! Unless you want little more than minimum wage and are prepared to drop your private life (and sleep) for the company’s benefit!

I still class Morgan as the most smugly punchable tosser on TV,

+1

He’s so up himself that twunt!

As you are out there for the season, do both! You’ll need some instruction at the off foe either of these.

Get on a board and get riding. You will have completely mastered it in a couple weeks, but you will be doing well enough after just a few days to hit a variety of terrain.

On skis, expect it to take much longer to master. It depends on you, the quality of instruction and frequency of practice. You will be doing the basics on blues and some reds after a week and after three or four, you will be at an early intermediate level covering all terrain. It can take a very long time to break through to the advanced level, perhaps even years if you don’t have a decent instructor.

Whichever you take up, you will love it, especially after the first few weeks of falling over and aching muscles.

Find people to ski with who have some patience and will help you find your feet a little.

Full time job in the Alps – Bastard! 👿 😆

It’s worth pointing out that lead acid batteries also loose charge quickly in cold weather. This is when spent batteries are most likely to flake on you.

If you keep a batery at full charge, it will last a great deal longer than on which isn’t cared for so well.

Leaving a lead acid battery discharged will ruin it very rapidly.

As cheap solution, you can get little solar chargers which plug in to your cigarette lighter socket. These won’t charge a flat battery, but will keep a charged battery topped up. They are good for recharging slightly discharged batteries too – light duties.

For proper dual battery charging, if you have a leisure battery (i.e. High amp hours with a low rated SAE), you’ll need a split charging system.

Using a leisure battery as a starter battery will kill it as they aren’t engineered to withstand sudden high current demand.

Intelligent 4 stage chargers will prolong the battery life considerably, but aren’t cheap. The batteries need to be of the same type of cell for these charges too.

My advice is to consult a qualified auto electrician.

If I was a highly qualified medical doctor, I’d feel pretty lucky I could get paid hansomely by the state.

GP’s have it much easier since Labour gave them a massive pay rise and relieved them of the obligation to open all hours.

Any one who goes into medicine in the UK knows they will be highly likely to work stupid hours – people don’t just get sick during the normal working week!

Of course, if you feel that you are being unfairly over taxed in your role as well paid doctor, there’s always the option to take your expertise and go and work elsewhere in the world.

As for the extreme left wingers on here – don’t waste your breath on them as they have no idea what is fair, or what is really going on.

tails – Member

The thing which I find most worrying/funny about this is the guy has £130m and he offered a grand, now I’m sure a grand goes a long way in Pakistan but a grand **** off.

I can picture the negotiatiations with his brother. It would start with him rubbing his chin and saying; “Now let me tell you where I am…”

I’m sure he’d mark the baby up by at least 1000 percent!

Maybe, in this era of austerity into which we are entering, Channel 4 should start a new series called “Petite Designs”. A show about the intelligent design of compact dwellings, that are affordable and yet still full of exciting ideas and packed with gadgets.

PS – I didn’t see the ears.

A classic example of caving in to bullies……..

project – Member

Sounds like waterloo road BBC1 wednesday night.

Dont kids fight anymore, involving the police will give the other kid a potentialy criminal record, and your son may well be bulied more.

Definitely involve the police! The school will be willing you to do that and the other “kid” isn’t a kid! A 15 year old is on the cusp of being old enough to father a child, use a motor vehicle etc. He’s pretty much an adult and so deserves a criminal record if he’s assaulted a 13 year old for no reasone other to provide his mates with some video entertainment!! If further bullying occurs, then take the school to task.

These situations are never easy, but making a stand is appropriate. Limp dick responses from people like project is just what the bullies rely on.

Stand firm!

Just poured about eight gallons of milk behind the screen of my Macbook

Eight gallons? Behind the screen?

Macbook user! 😆

iPhones – tell a Luddite about ’em.

They are for people just like you!

(assuming you have lots of money, or no clue how to manage money)

These tests may give some indication of strengths and weaknesses, but I would say they are as useful as a chocolate fireguard for properly judging a person’s character and in a work place context! They should be used in private by individuals, who want to learn a little bit more about themselves, almost as light entertainment.

The results can be rather ambiguous, open to erroneous interpretation and overall are really rather crude. I can’t believe companies take them seriously!

Each scenario and how you respond to it in real life would vary, depending on a raft of variables, including how the said individual was feeling at the time.

The real danger is that some daft HR person/manager might take it too seriously and prejudice the future of the person who has taken the test.

One test I did described how people have “a mask”. I.e. to what degree are they are allegedly putting on an act. Well, tell me how anyone can prove either way if someone is a political play actor? It’s nonsense! What a test like this does do is destroy trust. Stupid, given that the test is crude and unsafe!

One poster on here likened these to horoscopes. Whilst not quite so crass, I don’t think they are a great deal different.

Don’t fancy having a pair of handlebars slaminto my chest!

The title of this thread is quite nasty.

EXACTLY!

Seems like graciousness and dignity eludes these socialists!

Wishing someone dead is pure miserable nasty hatred. Shame on the OP and it’s supporters! (the description “it” is befitting of such low life).

This is a classic case of people showing their true colours!

This attitude is totally contradictory to the values of socialism and is indicative of the control freak tendencies of your typical lefty!

I wouldn’t wish death on my worst enemy, let alone a politician.

Sad feckers!

I have had people in the past tell me I should be a black man because of my taste in music. Stupid racist feckers!

I just like good music and I don’t care about the ethnicity from which it originates.

I think the rich diversity of influences is fascinating and we’d be musically impoverished without it.

It’s one of these issues that is impossible to actually prove, but it really doesn’t matter.

Why does a 15 year old music award ceremony have to be so crass about skin colour? That is all!

cinnamon_girl – Member

Just wondering who remembers the strikes, 3 day week, rubbish collections building up etc etc.

Yeah cinnamony, they are either too young, or too wrapped up in their socialist ideology!

Billy Ocean – A legend!

ha! she hads bigger balls than you lot of nancies, thats for sure!

+1

Socialism = a truly chronic British disease!

Lefties = miserable, self serving, shortsighted, financially irresonsible niaive fools!

“Thatch” is a legend!

Greatest PM of our generation, by a country mile!

She’s a smart cookie!