I’m on a CC Kitsuma Air which is very plush, but then I was coming from an old Fox RP2 via a RS Monarch. Took a while for me to figure out the dials but glad I spent the effort. Would happily have another one.

It’s incredible isn’t it? They’re all just so low rent. Bargain basement corruption

I think the thing to keep an eye on is not how much they’ll sell their reputation for, but where they end up after the election defeat. I’m thinking £500 was intended to fly below the radar, the real bung was a lucrative seat on someone’s board of directors.

I don’t think it’s quite so common these days with modern boilers but do you maybe have a single radiator upstairs that is plumbed separately from the normal CH loop? Used to be the case that there was a “special” radiator used to cool down the boiler after the demand for heating stopped – for a few minutes the boiler pump would continue to circulate round that single radiator to cool off the fluid in the boiler heating loop.

I make a really strong birria sauce from ancho and guajillo chillies, onion, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, grilled bell peppers, spice mix (usually cinnamon, cloves and coriander), cider vinegar, honey and the water I rehydrated the chillies in, then add it to a standard beef chilli to taste. The birria lasts a week or so in the fridge and it’s also good underneath the cheese bit of cheese on toast.

Personally know two people (workmates) who went to Turkey for teeth and one (my mum) who went for a hip replacement. All three can’t speak highly enough of the way they were treated and how happy they are with the end result.

If I was in need of something like that I wouldn’t have any qualms about going Turkish.

Strimming the long grass around the apple tree and finding out it’s where the neighborhood cat has been pooping…

I ride similar places to you OP and the Banshee Prime is a great shout. I had 2nd hand one for a couple of years and it was fantastic, but a suspected crack meant I swapped for a different frame – let me suggest a leftfield choice: Canfield Tilt – 138mm rear and supposedly 130-150mm up front.

I used the Banshee bits to build it up but wanted a bit more and swapped the 140mm Yari for 130-160mm dual position Lyrik. This slackened off the head angle just enough and now it’s perfect. Frame looks heavy on paper but it honestly rides like a bike 2kg lighter. Took a bit of faff to get the CCDB set up but once I had it sorted that CBF suspension is so smoooooooth…

You’re looking at ~£2000 for frame and shock delivered, including duty & VAT.

It seems PTFE on threads is a Controversial Topic

PTFE tape on a compression joint would get you fired where I work. It’s for tapered thread only.

As others have said – remove all tape off the fitting, boss green, job done.

I wouldn’t worry about the game boost. The generic overclocking feature on a motherboard that can take any number of different spec CPUs is unlikely to be optimised for any single one of those CPUs. Do you really even notice any tangible improvement when gaming anyway?

Just have to shop around unfortunately. I had a good couple of years with A Plan at around £3/400 but in Jan this year their renewal was a good £1000 increase. Did the comparison to-and-fro and now with Adrian Flux for the slightly more acceptable sum of ~£750, although that’s after some beefy modifications so I don’t feel too hard done by.

Van insurance was tasty too – £800 for a 15yo T5 – but it’s new to us so not got anything to compare with

The hall would make a tremendous conversion, loads of space inside, huge cellar and a nice little garden/orchard round the back, believe me I’ve considered it. But it’s in a very poor state of repair, would probably need a good £150-200k spending on it + initial purchase price. Even if I had the money there’s no way I could persuade MrsFlyingOx to get another project on the go.

Unfortunately the property isn’t showing on the Registers website. I think we’ll try knocking on the door of the neighbour to see if we can have a look at their deeds. Thanks for the suggestions.

@sas78 – it is/was Tayport Instrumental in NE Fife. Too many bands north of the bridge to attract any players from Dundee area, and the rest of Fife has Buckhaven, Dysart, Tullis Russell, Kingdom, Dunfermline, etc. so nobody’s making the journey up here. Lack of players seems to correlate directly with the introduction of peripatetic tuition fees in schools. Prior to that we had a full band and were competing regularly, even had a couple of trips to the nationals for our section.

Critics describe MEMRI as a strongly pro-Israel advocacy group

It’s not an opinion piece, they’re commenting on an Al Jazeera/Mayadeen TV news report. It could be reported in the Daily Star but the facts remain regardless of however much you might not want to hear it: Palestinians were celebrating the October 7th attack, which is a massive weight of evidence in favour of your earlier post.

Really? What I see is people defending the Israelis slaughtering children.

Please link to a single instance where this has occurred

Do you not condemn atrocities committed by the Nazis 80 years ago because the allies also committed atrocities?

There it is again: “just asking questions”. Or maybe a simple Straw Man: non sequitur into a question about my personal opinion, but pose the question so the implication is that I hold an unforgivable viewpoint despite me never once even hinting that might be the case.

Whatever it is it’s occurred on numerous occasions on this thread in response to people posting an opinion that doesn’t fall in lockstep with your own. Despite how you might protest otherwise it’s a painfully transparent attempt to frame people you disagree with in a particular, negative, light. In this case a suggestion that I’m somehow ok with the Nazis.

I’m not even sure what point you’re trying and failing to make. I’ve never once claimed agreement with the IDF’s actions in Gaza – quite the opposite, although I haven’t jumped on the forum virtue signalling frenzy – but because I supported the truth of DrJ’s post with reports of ordinary Palestinian men, women and children partying in the streets over the October 7th attack somehow I’m… I don’t know… something to do with WW2 whataboutery? A closet Nazi sympathiser?

If I had thinner skin I’d probably be offended at the Nazi insinuation, but as it is I’m more concerned that the thought processes you must be dealing with to come up with this nonsense don’t really paint a great picture of your current mental state. I clearly wind you up so I guess the least I can do for you is to disengage from your posts in the hope you find some grounding.

How dare hamas not hold the hostages in a compound away from everyone else, there’s loads of room in Gaza and I hear there are more tunnels than the London Underground underneath Gaza. God bless the IDF, the most moral army in the world, or so I’m told every time one of their gobshite apologists appear on the screen.

So commit horrendous violence against civilians, kidnap some and take them back home, then go and hide behind the women and kids in school, university and hospital buildings whilst directing your ongoing indiscriminate attacks from those locations – glossing over the fact that both of these are war crimes themselves, for the exact reason we’re seeing – and you should expect to be free from retribution as if you’re playing tig at school and you’re in “the den”?

As the UNRWA guy said, atrocities have been normalised now.

Indeed. It’s gone so far that certain communities actively and publicly celebrate them.

https://www.memri.org/tv/palestinians-gaza-west-bank-celebrate-october-seven-massacre-hand-out-sweets-fire-guns

Where exactly were Israel located in Gaza before October 7th 2023? My understanding is that they completely withdrew in 2005. And if they’re weren’t in Gaza, how were they illegally occupying it?

Maybe your turn for reading comprehension fail? The article you linked doesn’t mention Gaza once, instead talking about Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

I do not live in Israel, although up until October last year I was helping keep the lights on in Gaza.

I made no suggestion. It was a very clear question.

“I’m just asking questions” – a tactic/phrase beloved of right-wing US talk show hosts.

There is no point pretending that everyone is opposed to what Netanyahu and his government is doing in Gaza. It simply isn’t true.

And nor is there any point pretending the average Palestinian doesn’t agree with the attacks on October 7th

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/poll-shows-palestinians-back-oct-7-attack-israel-support-hamas-rises-2023-12-14/

And if you agree with terrorist acts, what are you?

I’m not trying to play it down at all.

Firstly, I pointed out my amusement at the leaping on UN Watch’s “agenda” because of its links to Israel, specifically calling out the use of “Watch” in its name, and then unironically posting an article sourced from a Palestinian-run agency with “Monitor” in its name as if the same standards shouldn’t apply.

Secondly, I had a massive reading comprehension fail to which I hold up my hands.

Thirdly, this is a delicate point that I am no doubt making in an extremely clumsy manner. The article wants to draw comparison with WW2 so if the Allies killed ~25000 over the 3 nights bombing of Dresden, then after 10 months of bombing an area with almost 10x the population density and with almost 20x the amount of (apparently higher yield) bombs, surely if the intent was eradication of Gazan Palestinians then we’d be talking about at least an order of magnitude more deaths than have been reported.

At no point within this post am I stating agreement with what’s happening in Gaza, nor am I numb to the plight of the civilians under attack and forced to flee. I’m saying that with the huge technological and firepower advantage the IDF has, by the measures used in the WW2 comparison article, then either they’re pretty shit at the whole extermination thing or maybe it is actually about destroying Hamas after all – not that I think they ever could truly end Hamas or that this is the way they should be going about it.

Or are you suggesting that dropping 70 thousands of tons of bombs on civilians in 2023-24 is okay?

You are making some WILD leaps of logic if you think I am suggesting such a thing.

I think it is safe to say that any campaigning organisation which has the word “Watch” in its name has its own agenda.

But the word “Monitor” is A-OK.

And Ossify has a point – “Israel dropped as many bombs in 10 months as the Allies did in 3 nights” is a bit of a daft comparison, and under scrutiny probably doesn’t get across the point the author was aiming for.

Get one he can build himself – https://shop.diywatch.club/collections/watchmakingkit/products/40mm-vintage-skeleton-dive-watch-kit-seiko-nh72-with-tools-and-video-instructions

Tried and tested workhorse Seiko movement, skeleton dial, dresses up nicely with a different strap which you could get with the change from your £300 no problem.

I think in 5 years parents who give under 14s a smartphone will be looked at negatively

I’m thinking more about his social development and the fact that living in a rural community means his friends are spread out over a few villages and being able to contact each other over e.g. WhatsApp is probably better for him than being left out because we’re not letting him have a phone. We can control what apps he installs so there’s not going to be any Facebook/Tik Tok/Truth Social anywhere near him for a few years yet.

I do wonder if those articles/headteachers are looking for blanket bans because of the lowest common denominator parents who just let their kids do whatever they want from the point they can use a touchscreen.

Yeah we already use family link/family safety on his computer so he’s used to having a time limit on things. We have family Spotify too so that should be ok. Good shout on setting up his own Google account though.

No second hand phones available as we tend to keep them until they’re well and truly dead then trade in for a new phone.

UNRWA currently supplies most of the aid to Palestinians facing starvation and homelessness due to the terrorist actions of the IDF, so the determination to shut them down is understandable.

On the other hand UNRWA appears to also steal that aid so they can sell it – https://unwatch.org/the-case-against-unrwa/

Palestinians are getting shafted from every direction.

Yup. Got a set on my Tilt that have been on the go since around 2017 and I can’t fault them.

Ombudsman is the way to go, as bigyan says.

I had an insulting offer for a written off Lexus IS200 and a quick word with the ombudsman had a cheque for the amount I’d specified when taking out insurance posted the day after their decision. I think at this point of the year the insurance co. might have used up all their ‘free’ ombudsman referalls so it’ll cost them just to have the ombudsman involved.

I’ve got a 2008 KTM SM990 which is still going strong and looks great (and as far as I’m aware was previously owned by another STWer). I’ve done some multi-day touring trips and as long as you were to change the standard seat for the ergo-comfy one and stick some hand guards on it’s very good for long days on the bike. Range isn’t going to break any records – I stop around every 130 miles – so you get a rest from that anyway. Would definitely cope with light offroad with the correct tyres and an underbelly bashguard. Fairly easy to self-spanner, I think the biggest job is the valve clearance check every other service and EXPENSIVE if done at a main dealer. Only real maintenance I’ve needed was a new radiator after the original got perforated from something.

Depends where you live I guess. We were put in a beautiful holiday home just outside St Andrews, mainly because that seems to be the only kind of short term rental available round here.

If that’s what’s they’re saying now then expect it to be waaaaayyyyy higher by the time it’s done.

Small fry compared to yours but we had a slow leak on the bath waste that must have been at it for years until eventually it burst through the ceiling below. Claim adjuster initially said we just needed the ceiling redone and wanted to settle for about £800. We just said “ok send your guys in to fix it then”. 3 months later we were back in the house after they found pretty much all the joists on one side of the house were rotten and we had 3 rooms and the staircase completely gutted and redecorated. Think the final bill was around £28k.

So maybe better off with a 400-500W amp then?

Might just tell the kids to lump it in that case. It’ll rattle the windows out 😅

We recently stayed in a very nice cottage called The Old Dairy in the grounds of Ellingham Hall. Well located for visiting the usual places and whilst it’s a very small village the Packhorse Inn is a cracking pub.

Yeah it’s another 8 gauge wire, only about 12″ long and connected to one of the driver’s seat bolts. Amp is hidden under the driver’s seat.

Batteries not included…

You can get an Aston Vantage with 30k on the clock for £35k, Aston or Volvo shopping car, hard choice…

Not when you consider the ongoing costs. Clutch goes on your volvo and you might have to pick a cheaper holiday that year. Clutch goes on your Aston and you’ll be questioning whether or not you really need both kidneys.

Someone mentioned the new one but Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is, in my opinion, the finest action adventure movie ever made.

For pure entertainment value Starship Troopers takes some beating, and the first Transformers film has no right to be as good as it is.

We initally enquired in October, and they quoted £2715 all in, to include “any necessary radiator replacements” – that’s quoted, not estimated

That’s… eye-opening. I’ve been quoted £11-12k for supply and installation of a 3kW ASHP in a small new-build office, where I’ve already designed, installed, screeded and pressure-tested the UFH wet loop and have the manifold and controls all ready to go. And the company who quoted me called me up to chastise me for suggesting it should be less than half that price, given how much a heat pump costs wholesale.

Think I’ll be giving Octopus a call.

Dunno about the Mercs but I read the Transporter has a sensor that measures actual soot vs expected soot in the DPF, or something like that, and if the difference is too big it needs a forced regen at a VW garage. Think the regen needs 20 minutes sustained at 2000rpm+ for the VW. If you’ve somehow managed to not get a standard regen, either through stop/start city driving or not quite managing to hit the magic rpm for the magic number of minutes, then I guess you could have something similar to the VW error.

Does anyone have a reasonable explanation of how the October incursion by Hamas into Israel was executed with virtually no initial resistance?

Complacency/hubris played a large part but Oct 7th was also the morning after the last day of Sukkot, a week long religious observance/holiday. Most soldiers were at home with their families.