Or pay me to do the intercept on your behalf!

Stop her and tell her there are over 180 useless entries by 100 different people on this forum, on how you might get to introduce yourself to her.

Give her a bit of paper with the link, ask her to read it, sleep on it and then advise you what to do about this seemingly insurmountable problem.

Either she'll see the funny side, or you won't see her again.

Any VW, Seat, Skoda or Audi with the VAG 1.9TDI.

I've had a 110hp and a 130hp and covered about 160,000 miles.

They do not break down!

The power of the 130 is impressive, even in a big car. The 110 was in a Passat and this was pretty good, but nowhere near as good as the 130.

Fuel economy way over 65mpg when driven very carefully.

Beware of mileage and cambelt intervals as the cambelt service is a biggie. Factored into a long ownership, it's irrelavant however.

The magic engine!

Fabulous! When you get the contract, why not get a bottle of bubbly to celebrate.

If you want to know, ask them!

A Passat will easily tow that.

I love caravans, so convenient, flexible and cheap.

Only issue is storage. You need it on your property to get the most out of it.

I'd have one if I had room on my property, especially for £1500!

I'm currently considering the floating variety which cost a minimum of ten times what you are considering spending. The cost of ownership is considerable too, but you do get to get away from it all, literally.

Sailed to Oostend in a mate's boat last weekend. Cost us £20 in fuel as we couldn't sail the whole way, and mooring was 20 Euros. Not bad charges for overnight accomodation for three blokes and 180 miles getting there and back! BTW, Oostend is a very lively town by night with dozens of packed bars. Lots of tall slim women too. 😈

Take the job!!!!

They may give you a rise, promote you, you may make contacts that will get you a better job etc etc. You will get none of that sitting at home!

If they don't improve your package, at least you are gaining experience and are not floundering. Be mindful that in the long term, experience you gain now in a lesser role can be worth a lot more than the remuneration.

Recruiters and employers will take you much more seriously if you have a job, than if you don't.

Believe me, a few months can easily turn into a year (or more) and over time, you will loose your get up and go, you confidence etc. The recruiters will destroy your soul with their false hope spam, their useless comprehension of your skills and how to match them with the jobs they seek to make a commission on. They will aslo block your applications from highly suitable roles out of sheer ignorance, despite you making your best endeavours to get your message through their thick skulls! Sure, they aren't all useless, but they are not interested in you. YOu are a commodity and will treat you as such.

The internet is awash with CV's and getting yours noticed is a pretty mamouth task. Many applicants are already employed and continue to speculate, so you have many challenges.

The job market is therefore extremely tough, we are in a recession like no other in modern times, so i recommend you bite their arm off!

Finding another job while you are working is tough as job hunting is often a full time exercise. You also need time off for interviews and sneaking off to take phonecalls during the day can be very awkward. That said, you are still better off getting paid something rather than nothing.

Good luck!

1) Discard useless seal.
2) Clean surface of bath and tiles until squeaky clean (use a window scraper, CIf and a Brillo pad if required).
3) Mask off bath and wall (about 4-5mm gap).
4) Run bead of sanitary silicone (Dow Corning 785 – the best!).
5) Remove tape immediately after application of silicone.
6) Very carefully smooth down with a wet finger where neccessary.
7) Wait 24hrs before introducing any water to the new seal.

Have plenty of paper towel to hand to wipe off stray silicone and put the used tape straight into a plastic bag to keep things clean.

This will last for years and years provided you bath is anchored down and screwed to the wall.

I do when i'm at sea on a sailing yacht. So much easier and far more hygenic.

When you shipped these items, you will have had the option of insuring them. If you made adequate provison, you can claim for you losses.

The buyer's complaint may well be genuine, but why not ask him to back it up with photos?

For sure, Paypal are useless at looking after the interests of sellers. For this reason, I do not accept Paypal payment when selling any high value items on eBay.

I'm sorry, you must be feeling pretty fed up with your prefdicament, but this Paypal and eBay exist to make a fat profit and has become adept at swerving any liability, lumping this entirely on the seller. Bang out of order IMHO, given their excessive fees!!!

When people start communicating on web forums in binary and hexadecimal, it's time for them to book an appointment with a shrink!

Chamonix? Biking, Kayaking, white water rafting, rock climbing, paragliding. Would that do you?

Despite out lovely warm summer, global temperatures are falling and we are forecast a very long period of cooler temperatures (years)AccuWeather

Great! Can't wait for the ski season!

£89 for a vis-a-vis tent with sleeping bags, airbeds etc? It has to be the cheapest stuff going. Might be ok for the odd weekend, but longterm, forget it.

This looks a bit better £99 Vis-a-Vis 4 man tent from Halfords

To be honest, i'd look at Vango, Coleman or Outwell brands. Go Outdoors show a lot of tents, but they aren't the cheapest. Millets aren't bad and Cotswold Outdoors have good online pages.

You need a tent exhibition really. Why not see if there is one local to you.

I don't think i'd buy anything other than a 2 man festival tent from Halfords.

Cheap starter kits are rubbish and the cybals are shocking. If you want a decent sounding kit, go secondhand.

If you want to remain sane and avoid an ASBO, spend out on a Roland/Yamaha electronic kit. Again, the cheap ones aren't great. Go for one that has mesh heads and cymbals that have a degree of resemblance to the real thing. You need to go to a decent drum shop to understand this better, but then look online for a used one.

The other plus of an electronic kit is they don't take up so much room.

If your router is like most ADSL Modem/WiFi routers, there will be a built in 4 port Ethernet hub.

If yours is like this, i'd add a CAT5 extension and put a cheap WiFi router on the other end.

I have seen the Belkin wireless extender mentioned here and it is completely wireless. You can buy them from eBuyer for under £30.

Belkin say the unit is setup in minutes by placing the unit close to the desired master unit and then pressing a "clone" button. I am sceptical about the simplicity of this.

You could take a punt on one of these and if it doesn't work as described, add a point to point CAT5 connection.

You can buy an RJ45 plug crimping tool and a handful of RJ45 plugs for under a tenner (they sell them as a blister pack). Measure how much cable you'll need and get the length you require on eBay.

I'm currently putting CAT5e infrastructure in my house. A bit of searching online has enabled me to get everything i need for not a lot of money. Going forward, as more and more Ethernet enabled domestic electronics comes online, i will be able to quickly and simply hook it all together on a network(s).

Nice tan!

I guess the hype around the announcement is becuause they still have a big stock of the iPhone 3 to get rid of. So people will still pay top money for the obsolete kit, while Apple sort out the iPhone 4.

Definitely do your homework before your visit if you are intending to spend significant money!

Don't forget, if it's your first visit, you have to buy a £4 annual discount card to qualify for the advertised prices.

I like looking around their stores to see the huge range of products. Unlike Decathlon, they stock well known brands from the the cheapest to some of the most expensive.

I've noticed this season, that there have been pretty steep price increases in some of the expensive items I have been considering, but a lot of the budget products have remained about the same.

What i don't like is the continual short promotions which frequenly fall on dates when I can't get there and the fluid pricing makes it difficult to track what is going on with prices.

Definitely do your homework before your visit if you are intending to spend significant money!

Oh I knew this would descend into petty bickering about individual's political presuasions! How predictable STW is!

So let's do nothing and watch more people get abused, murdered etc.

BTW. I don't read the Daily Mail. It's a comic, no better than the Socialist Worker, the Daily Mirror, the Sun, or the Guardian! Newspapers like this are full of twaddle in the main.

I'm sure they could have handled the siege so the guy didn't shoot himself

Go on then, explain away…..

I heard the guy was surrounded by a bunch of armed police who were shouting at him. As I have said, I think he got his just deserts, but what if the police hadn't shouted? What if they backed off and quietly ring-fenced the scene and left one man to do all the talking in a calm environment? It may have taken another day or two to bring the situation to a less depressing conclusion (the man was a father remember). I feel sorry for the child, but Moat asked for it, big time! I guess that makes me critical aof the police. I didn't intend this, it was just a thought, but i'm sure this guy would have only gone on to cause more trouble down the line. It was a pressure situation and hindsight is always a wonderful thing!

I am not advocating a disciplinarian society! I do however think we should instill some traditional values, like; hard work, thrift, personal responsibility, courtesy, friendliness, goodwill to our neighbours and generally a little bit of respect for all. I mean everyone, even the "look at me" types who flaunt their material possessions which they have bought on credit. Who have no regard to what effect this has on others. Or perhaps they are typical competitve passive aggressive types who like rubbing people's noses in it "look at me, aren't I better than you".

Or is that too right wing for you?

Capitalism has it's issues, just like socialism does. Shame we can't work out an alternative without being politically polarised!

Swift Shelter 3m x 3m Gazebo with sides!

Should be able to get one for about £250 and these are commercial quality so will go on and on (unlike the £50 rubbish you get in DIY stores – won't keep the weather off, won't cope with high winds, won't last).

Had mine 7 years now, used it in three locations last weekend alone. Had no problems with it whatsoever since i bought it, everyone who sees it wants one!

Used it camping many times and my one is fully waterproof.

Make sure you get a steel frame as the ally one's are prone to breaking. Get a £20 fold flat trolley if you need to carry it any distance as they are heavy.

Remember, you get what you pay for!

Waterproof concrete faced externally with some form of tanking membrane.

Think ££££'s

The biggest change in my listening enjoyment after the actual music itself is the recording. I've got some CDs that are blatantly crap, and some that are excellent.

You must have a decent hifi. 😆

Billions of CD's still available…

at the moment!

CD sales have plummetted in recent years.

BTW. I am a hifi enthusiast! I bought a CD player, 2 Amplifiers, rack, interconnects and speakers totalling close to £4k some sixteen years ago. It's still awesome and I know I couldn't improve on it much.

When I bought the kit, the difference in the price of Japanese and British Hifi was not that marked. Since then, Japanese technology sales have burgeoned. Prices have dropped and the products have evolved almost beyond recognition. Conversely, British hifi has remaines pretty much the same, but has become more expensive, whilst the quality of budget equipment has been reduced.

When I went into Sevenoaks hifi recently, I saw a light sprinkling of cheap looking, but epxensive hifi, but the shop was predominantly full of ridiculously overpriced A/V kit. For example: an HTPC priced at £7200. What utter bullshit!! British hifi is dead! Nobody talks about it, nobody buys it. It's become an extremely niche product that offers poor value. I'm very disappointed, but if the market wants £200 compact systems, that is what it will get.

Yes I know, people have no idea what they are missing, but the British Hifi industry has frightened them off with stupid prices!

Seems like Moat had some tough life experiences, but when you are so damaged and end up endangering others like this, the outcome was the right one. I don't think someone like this can be rehabilitated and why waste money on trials and a lifetime of imprisonment? 😈

After shooting a policeman, we know the force will pull out all the stops to make an exmaple of him (which of course they did). I think this is right seeing as they constantly have to deal with extremely violent people and when they are mostly unarmed. The offenders get away with it all too often and this gives a green light to them and other would be offenders to just cause further trouble.

I'm sure they could have handled the siege so the guy didn't shoot himself, but i spoke to a retired officer a few weeks ago. His attiude about tackling violent people was that, as he got older, he learned not to be the one who came away injured. Actually, he is really decent bloke who is not arrogant, or one to throw his weight around. The police acted to protect themselves and the public. They had been given the run around for several days with the world's media breathing down their necks, the pressure on them to prevent further injury to the public must have been immense.

I am well aware that some coppers are bad news, but i think in the main, they are decent people trying to do a difficult job.

Our society is now ridden with a considerable underclass of uneducated angry thugs, who's parents are/were useless. This is costing Britain a fortune.

In my view, all of this came about because of the progressive thinkers of the 60's laying way to a permissive society. The net result is that we now have generations of people who simply shouldn't have the freedoms they enjoy and who are lost. They have no self-confidence and poor social skills and are being sheltered from the harsh realities of life by a benefit system that gives them just enough to survive. They are scared to get a job because they may loose their social security, but can exist without having to get up and do a day's work.

It's not entirely their fault – unchecked immigration has seriously affected their chances to get a job and to lead a peaceful rewarding life. The media are always bashing UK workers for their attitude etc. Some of this is justified and if you consider how poorly paid some jobs are, you can see how a working family can struggle to keep a roof over their heads and bring up a family. If the main breadwinner could go off to another country in Europe and earn five times what they make at home, they would. I'm sure they would then have a different attitude!

I think one solution going forward is for schools to try to intervene when they see the signs of abuse. To correct any anti-social behaviour patterns setting in, to stop these children progressing to becoming yet another statistic. My wife is a teacher and has dealt with a lot of cases, but gets very frustrated because she finds the other agencies don't communicate very well. She has been involved in a project to bring these together, but sadly, the school is often left to try and sort things out.

It takes a whole community to sort out these issues as well as social workers, police, doctors, so teachers alone can't be held responsible. Why should these public sector people have to be dealing with issues which are really the responsibilies of the parents? The situation is bonkers and hugely expensive!

Basically, the country needs a cultural a reset.

I have no idea what the solution is!

Have you?

Last time I posted anything about nipples (the one's attached to a person), I got banned! 😈

I see that this time, bike related content is creeping into the off topic forum. tsk tsk.

If you are going to start a thread about nipples, make sure it's about the soft squidgy ones. 😛

<so disappointed>

Wimmin eh! tsk tsk. 😆

Stick to mountain biking.

They look great, but expensive.

I recently took a punt on a similar sized inflatable from Go Outdoors.

Cost me a tenner.

I've been suffering from saddle soreness. It feels like the hairs on my arse are getting pulled when i've been riding for a while, so i shaved the contact areas to see if it helps (seriously 😆 )

I'll report back on how it was after my ride later today.

Waderider – Member

I'm not a student of history. Facts matter, not opinions. All you'll get here are opinions. Possibly ill educated opinions derived from zero direct experience or knowledge. Or even worse, opinions derived solely from the media.

Over and out.

That was a non-answer!

I suppose you are off marching now. 😆

Waderider – Member

As a Northern Irish person I look forward to the insight and wisdom that only Singletrack forum users can shine on this subject.

Enlighten us then! Wasn't that what i asked for at the off?

Any 1400 spin speed Bosch. Very quiet, very quick and not expensive.

We can thank cheap convenience foods supplied by the supermarkets for the increasing morbid obesity epidemic.

There are a lot of active people who think they can eat this sort of rubbish in the belief they are going to burn off the calories, but they are wrong.

Those who indulge themselves with too much of this can expect an early grave.

Just looking for a cheapish weekend away, idealy girlfriend wants a hairdrier!! bar and swimming pool…

i would like to have a fire or bbq and a beech near by and a pub within walking distance…

Ullwell Cottage Campsite near Swanage/Studland[/url]

Hairdryers, check
Bar, check
Swimming pool, check,
Pub within walking distance, hmmm. Not too close, but possible on foot (Corfe Castle).

Barbeque area on beach at Studland/Shell Bay.

Another beach is nearer – less than a mile. Google Ballard Down.

Site has a decent shop too.

Yea. I used to work in avionics and you do get a lot of wires!

I wonder when they will be able to deploy fibre optics to get rid off a lot of the copper.

MY WORD!!! MMMMM BISTO….

I wonder if Chris Tarrant ever….

+1 Molgrips. For me, the Archers invokes an instant channel switch. The plays can sometimes be good however, but can be hard work getting into. Trouble with R4 plays is that the performers can so often be nauseatingly clichéd middle class. I just wish the beeb would create something a bit more real.

"The community is pulling together" or any other reference about a bunch of people in the event of some disaster, who barely know each other (if at all), but suddenly become referred to as a cohesive group .

Ti29er – Member

No one has mentioned:
MTFU & WTF.
Not words, but they great, m8.

They "grate", or are great?