You don’t have to take the Nationwide insurance.

I bet an annual policy that is tailored to your needs, bought on the open market, will be cheaper and less complicated than what your are considering.

If the other insurer discovers that there are two policies in force, they may start offloading their responsibilities. Could be a complete nightmare, don’t do it!

Creationism, religion – pure makebelieve!

Focus on proving/disproving stuff. Accept nothing until it is proven, but by all means theorise, because that is the first step in discovery.

Blind faith in concepts is ridiculous because you never even bother to search for answers: This is lazy, but also convenient if the imagined concept meets your end.

Yes, agreed, large public events rub out coverage and places like Canary Wharf are pretty bad.

And people like Bill Gates are only adding to the problem. He believes he is doing his bit for humanity with his Malaria eradication programme.

The culture in the third world is t have as many children as possible, because people know many will be lost through starvation, illness, accident etc. In the third world, they think this: children=security in old age. So the more offspring you have, the better protected you will be.

You have to change attitudes and educate people to have one child. Fat chance in places like Africa. The Chinese seem to have managed though.

Even here, it is generally those who can least afford children, who have too many. The rest of society picks up the tab, like this is all ok.

In the end, you have to worry about what you can change, so this matter is for world governments to sort out. If they don’t, Attenborough’s prediction will be borne out.

“Epic” when used in the context of a bike ride lasting more than a few hours.

MBR seem to spend a lot of time ‘schralping’ but I don’t have a clue what it is…

Is it that thing that dogs do on the grass when they have itchy bottoms?

Hahahah …

Specialized uber lightweight full suspension carbon 29er thingy

You’d need your head seeing to paying this much for a bicycle! And thought £5300 was ridiculous.

I find her self-deprecating style rather predictable and dull. Her chirpy, but bolshie irony about how men might find a woman who is ugly and grossly over weight unappealing has a rather limited shelf life.

Some of her one liners are funny, but there’s a little too much humility for my liking.

Thank you Jo, your attitude makes airing narrow-minded misogynistic opinion seem quite acceptable! 😉

Some comedians really do get stuck with their act though. Take Lenny Henry, his is about as crass and unfunny as it gets!

They mostly use their emotional brain and not their rational brain. That’s why they appear stupid, but women have much more highly developed verbal skills, so they usually take us men down in an argument. The secret is to stay calm and rational. You will have the upper hand nearly every time, but then they will go off the scale with rage she they lose. Nope, you can’t win!

Most popular program’s on TV on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day.

Really?? People will obviously watch whatever rubbish is on.

How depressing!

To illuminate Squarepants?

Apart from if the controller fails, or there’s a power surge…

No data loss will occur with either of these events.

PS spent over two decades making my living dealing with large scale computer hardware problems.

I never understood why so many people sell/store their hifi once kids are on the scene either. Just teach them what they can and can’t touch

Ask the mother! This is beginning of their long process of emasculating their partners.

Once you give them a baby, you fall to the bottom of the pecking order and then it’s game over.

From there on in, they will have it all their own way, in the interests if the child of course!

I bet women ranting about the opposite sex spend a great deal of their time comparing how effectively their husbands/partners manage the dishwasher. This is their single most important issue in life, really it is!

What annoys me about the bike industry is the daft pricing.

I recently started looking around at bikes after a few years break and was rather shocked at the marked increase in prices. Silly increases!

I dropped into a new shop fairly near me recently. The first bike I looked at was £5300 – a carbon full suspension MTB.

The cheapest bike was still stupidly expensive. I thought, maybe I’m out of touch, but believed £1500 was a lot for a bike and that one should get something pretty damned respectable for this money.

At the bike show last weekend, I looked at a lot of bike porn, but essentially, there has been very little innovation in several years. The products seem to be more refined and pretty, but otherwise about the same.

High prices put non-enthusiasts off before they even get started! Can’t be good for business! Better jack the prices by yet another 10%!

I have a ReadyNas Duo wired to my router. Fantastic bit of kit!

Dual mirrored drives mitigate your risk of data lose due to HD failure and it’s idiot proof.

There are many other benefits to this system. Netgear is a significant brand.

Aim to have a wired network if you intend to stream decent resolution video.

The OP clearly thinks that Roman Catholicism is relevant to this thread in some way. Sorry, but I’m lost on that inference!

However, well done to him for making such a valiant effort to get to work. I hope all teachers take a leaf out of his book and that the principle grants some recognition in front of the rest of the school, for the example of commitment he has made.

Good work!

This thread sums up why I would never buy a carbon frame – they just never looked strong enough to me.

Carbon is a high tech. product at the leading edge of engineering development. It is appropriate for those with sponsorship for competitive riding, where value and durability are not really a concern.

IMHO, having a carbon frame for recreational use is not justified, completely OTT and attracts people who just enjoy showing off.

Can’t understand how builders and local planners thought, or still think it is acceptable to have attached dwellings. Causes so much grief.

The problem with the UK is that there are vast numbers of really rather ugly and impractical dwellings, jammed into very limited space.

It’s ridiculous that they are so expensive too.

DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER A QASHQAI!

Rattly unreliable, poor quality product, repeated warranty claims and exorbitant servicing/repair costs.

At the first service, they charged my then wife £330 for just an oil change and lube!?

We are on our third set of rear shocks under warranty and these have also started to fail, along with the front ones now.

The shocks are made in Turkey, the engine is French (they tend to produce overcomplicated and unreliable engineering).

Constant, but intermittent engine management alarms and engine loses power. This once happened suddenly on the motorway – nearly caused an accident. Not even the main agent can work out what is wrong. They have quoted £1500 to fix this!?

Many niggles: exterior door handles stick open so the doors won’t close as you get in, inner door handle snapped off – made of chromed plastic!? Squeaky seats, windows completely misting up with condensation in winter and won’t clear.

The owners forum had to remove the multiple and repeated complaints. From reading this, we discovered that our problems were commonplace.

Worst of the twenty or so cars I have owned!

It’s a “scrapper”, total rubbish and Nissan UK weren’t interested!

Rubbish product, rubbish service, rubbish attitude from UK distributor!

DO NOT BUY ONE!

I suppose back in my school days, only a few had cars and most pupils lived close enough to walk to school, as did most of the teachers. The school bus did the rest and the roads were pretty clear. The lower number of drivers that were there were used to driving in snow and weren’t needlessly panicked by the hyped up media and “good advice” that authorities now give out (understandable if you are delivering emergency services and don’t fancy the thought of being inundated with incidents, as is the case with congested roads full of drivers inexperienced in driving in snow).

When you think about it, cheap cars and cheap transport has allowed these bad habits to form, where people waste time and fuel getting about. Life was inevitably much simpler and straightforward back then. So being richer does not mean a better quality of life (I learned this clocking up starship mileages in a company car – purgatory in a luxury vehicle).

My ex is a head teacher and shuts her school frequently. She doesn’t know how to drive in snow and is incapable of rationally judging risk. Like the rest of her public sector chums, risk aversion is a preoccupation, finances are off the radar! They all feel as if the world will sue the socks of them if anything goes wrong and they may be deemed to be responsible. Their logic is loopy eg person climbs on school roof and falls through polycarbonate sky light, lands of furniture below. School thinks they are culpable, so don’t place furniture below skylight!? My reckoning is that person trespassing is entirely responsible, period!

When i asked he about reflecting on previous cases over the past 25 years, she could not recall one single case where she or any of her head teacher colleagues in other schools were faced with a claim!.

Teachers are brainwashed by county council’s perceived risks and eventually, they too become institutionalised. This is the public sector culture of today and they are clueless about the real aggravation they cause when closing up and having a nice day off!

The entire lot of them have no concern about money as they will receive their annual budgets and salaries regardless of whether they are open for business, or remain closed.

The solution is simple; divide the budget by the number of days the school’s doors are open each year and subtract the sum for each day every time the school is closed. They can then insure for the risk of when it clearly isn’t possible to open. Parents then won’t have their own jobs and businesses put at risk by having to regularly take time out to look after their children! The schools will only close in dire emergencies and the taxes we pay will deliver the services we righly deserve.

Job done! 😀

I’m about to become a non-resident partner too. No income right now, so she won’t get anything until I find work. I’m wondering how I will afford to live myself, let alone support her. She is completely spendthrift and is always running up debt, despite a salary more than twice the national average. Until the day she buys me out, she has only had food, clothes and fuel to pay out for, so,she has a monumental shock coming her way!

If the CSA become involved, my understanding is that they will assess you and determine how much you pay. Broadly speaking, it’s 15% for one child, 20% for two, 25% for three. If you have regular custody and or certain particular circumstances, there will be adjustments. This will be collected until the children leave full time secondary education.

If you are already having child maintenance payments collected through the CSA and you lose your job, or your salary changes, I believe you have to get a hearing with them to get reassessed, to get the monthly figure adjusted. They can check up in your earnings from your P60, so will take back payments so everything is corrected. Don’t think there is anyway you can avoid paying (and why would you – this is about your kids, not your vile ex-wife).

If the CSA aren’t involved, you might consider withholding payment until you become reemployed, but this might prompt her to contact the CSA. I would far rather not have them involved and to try and maintain some sort of dialogue with your ex. (Tough as that may be)

I’m not sure how the CSA regard redundancy payments. They may regard this as income. I would check out their website.

If you think there is a reasonable chance you will find another job, the noble and easier thing might be to continue paying. If you are still looking after three months and then stop paying, it will appear like you have been far more reasonable and considerate towards your children, than if you cut payments now.

It’s a situation only you can gauge because we don’t know what her circumstances are. If she has a new partner and/or a well paid job, it may be deemed reasonable that your immediate needs are somewhat greater. Conversely, she may not have any income, in which case cessation of your support will cause considerable hardship. It’s a position only you can judge!

One thing is for sure is that a lot of divorced mothers use their entitlement whether they need it or not, probably out of spite for their ex, or because they can’t be bothered to intervene. Non-residents’ needs appear to be completely overlooked by the CSA.

Personally, I think support should be finite, based on realistic needs of the children, not a percentage of what a non-resident earns. The non-resident parent has needs too and if this system was just, there would be much greater balance. Paying out excessive amounts of child support is tantamount to spousal maintenance. That’s not reasonable, nor fair, but this is the law as it stands.

The law always sides with the resident parent and in the overwhelming majority of cases, this is the mother, regardless of her behaviour, or whether she actually needs your support.

Good luck, but always think about the money you pay as going directly towards helping the children, not for the selfish cow to maintain her loopy financially unsustainable lifestyle.

Sorry, since the advent of the MTB, why do roadies still ride cross bikes off road?

No, but Hope have a road bike that uses SRAM cable shifters, which connect up to a twin master cylinder unit which fits just below the stem. The rest of the system is standard Hope kit.

I saw this at the London Bike show at Excel yesterday. It was sheer bike porn!

V-Twin master cylinder

i bought a road bike ten years ago, rebuilt it about 4 years ago. Hardly ride on road now because of the dangerous, but increasing minority of bike hating car drivers.

Now gone back to off road, which is the superior form of unpowered two wheel recreation (IMHO).

I think that we should now discuss the merits of beards, pipes and slippers!

I have to admit to a nasty habit of recycling bike parts into cobbled together rebuilt bikes, then keeping them. I’m up to four so far and it’s only going to get worse.

True HiFi porn!

Rogers JR149’s were lovely speakers, especially when partnered with the matching coffee table style Rogers active subwoofer.

congratulations are in order Spongebob
I might also be going down this route – although amicably at the moment…

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I can’t let this be…

Amicable is a strange word, used repeatedly by her nasty little hypocrite divorce lawyer – man, was that woman SO ugly. A real man hating dyke no doubt!

Top tip: avoid engaging a lawyer until you have worked out the bones of a deal. (To my utter dismay and totally beyond my control, this was where my wife started off, thus causing maximum expense and acrimony).

Better still, seek professional help from the likes of organisations like Relate to reconcile your differences. (My wife refused, saying she didn’t need any counselling because her life was perfect, except for me – nutter!)

Damn, HiFi…….

Emping is Indonesian chips, a bite-size snack kripik cracker made of melinjo or belinjo (gnetum gnemon) nut. The emping crackers have a slightly bitter taste.[1] The emping snack available in the market can tasted plain (original), salty or sweet depends on the addition of salt or caramelized sugar.

😕 Eh?

Thank you Yunki. I was trying very hard not to sound misogynistic. Must confirm that my feelings are purely about my ex-wife, not women in general (especially the slim ones with long legs, big tits and who don’t hate men) 😆

Even a modest HiFi has become a bit of a rarity these days. Far far better than the current offerings one finds in electrical sheds. The rise of Japanese £99-£200 discrete satellite surround sound systems, or one box mobile phone docks seem to have almost obliterated real HiFi. They sound better than the total rubbish that preceded them, but they are relatively still rather poor/mediocre at best.

I was once an avid HiFi enthusiast, but the incessant interruptions from my wife put pay to my listening pleasure. Her musical taste extends to: Pet Shop Boys, Robbie Williams and Take That – moron!

Many years later, the marriage slowly broke down and I’m just about to get my decree absolute, so a small detached bachelor pad will soon be sought. 😀

Any man who has been through a divorce will recall wincing at the pain and injustice of the whole process, but I am hugely excited at the cessation of the insufferable and largely pointless squawking from that nagging whining stress bag! Believe you me, I did my damnedest to try and understand what went on in that inscrutable tiny little brain of hers, but I failed spectacularly. After a mesmerising 25 year voyage of discovery, I still DO NOT have a bloody clue! Game now over – how magnificent.

That hideous undignified soul destroying cacophony will be soon replaced by relaxing mellifluous tones washing over me, delivered by my beloved real HiFi system!

The Spongebob bachelor pad will also include a robust bike shed to store “the collection” and all sorts of other delights will adorn my new home. No more shall frilly chintzy clutter and other functionless detritus, blight my life. 😀 😀 😀

Talk about over complicating things!!

The rider of the bike with the bigger wheel (assuming the same gearing) will have a lower mechanical advantage, so acceleration will be less for the same energy applied.

So you fit a rear cassette and/or crankset to mitigate this. I won’t do the maths!

I would think that an individual should opt for a size of bike that suits their anatomy and that wheel size should be part and parcel of this. So if you are a short arse, stick to small frames, small wheels. If you are long legged and rather tall, choose a large 29er frame with the bigger wheel sizing.. Simples!

He’s only doing it so he can continue to ride competitively, but actually, the sensationalist news is probably intended to raise public awareness about the inevitable biography he’ll be bringing out. Well he needs a boost in his retirement some how!

The man has no shame!!! A disgrace to cycling, bringing the sport into disrepute.

In a day or so when everyone has been and packed down a nice hard base for me.

We clearly need another major event, to give the news reporters something slightly more worthwhile to get stuck reporting on.

The non-news we receive these days shows journalists up to be rather condescending, suggesting how feeble minded and unintelligent we all are.

However, their inane questions and comments surrounding non-news subjects, that get such a disproportionate amount of airtime, gives us an insight about the substance of these people. I often bear this in mind on the now increasingly rare occasions when they are actually delivering hard news. I take everything that they say with great scepticism, especially the BBC with their ridiculous one sided leftwing bias!

I listen and read less and less news than I used to – its bad for your well being. CNN – constant negative news! Bad news sells and journalists keen to make a name for themselves with their sensationalist bullshit, distort and exaggerate with no bounds! Many of them are not fit to hold these positions of influence and should be held to account for the misery they inflict on us day after day.

Switch off and go ride your bike is my advice. Gets you fit, lifts your spirits and is a time to reflect, putting life into perspective. Now if only that snow would melt… 😀

I worked in a small business (12 emp) once where the boss said exactly that to us “if you don’t like it f^&k off”. Within 3 months he’d had 100% staff turnover and lost good people; even the clients were asking him what he’d done.

Clearly he’s a conceited bully, but he knew there was no shortage of canon fodder out there to fill the empty shoes. These people know they can act with impunity as they are unaccountable. The blame can easily be loaded onto a scapegoat so they inevitably breeze through life, convinced of their egotistical self-importance and arrogant self-denial.

IMHO, its best to work for yourself and be free of nasty office politics. At some stage in your working life, you will have that choice, so it will then become a decision based on how much you get paid to put up with the crxp versus the challenges of going it alone.

Build your dream before someone hires you to build there’s!

The brutal reality is that a business owner can do what the hell he/she wants.

He/she hired you to build their dream and because you aren’t doing that for yourself, you put yourself at their disposal and accepted their offer in the first place.

Why should they accommodate their staff? That would be like the tail wagging the dog, but all good managers consider the feelings of those who are assisting them in achieving their goals. Maybe your boss hates his job and the business and just can’t be bothered to consider anyone but himself. If he feels like that, the business will eventually fail.

Getting time off work in summer holidays is always difficult. I can remember the bad feeling that arose between me and a team leader. He had no kids and had been trying with his wife for years. He deliberately **** up my chances of a holiday and my wife said she would go with the kids without me. This started a rift with my wife, so the whole situation sucks.

If you want freedom to take time off, start your own business. Hopefully you will make enough money and have the flexibility you desire. From personal experience, I ca tell you that earning a crust whilst standing on your own two feet is very much harder than getting a pay cheque at the end of every month.

If you like the regular money that permanent employment brings, you should switch employers, but expect a different or similar flavour of shit from them too.

I wish you luck in whatever happens.

zippykona – Member
Eff that for a game of soldiers.

Eff what for a game of soldiers?