If it had just been her, rotating slowly on a pedestal looking good, I would not be confused and complaining. It was bl00dy awful.

I recently fitted one of those quill stem convertors to my old Kona – got sick of feeling stretched out on the bike and wanted a little pop-up type stem. Works just fine.

Hmm. If the head is uncooperative, perhaps a move to another school is the best bet, depending on whether the bullying is a long term issue or not. That is, the bullies may either grow out of it or move on to another victim.

I was (physically) bullied for a couple of terms at secondary school so took up karate, hit one of them hard and they just started picking on someone else (though it never really stopped altogether).

Oh, and the karate didn’t actually make me any harder, but the word got round, and martial arts classes work wonders for the confidence – maybe suggest it to your friend? Even if it’s mental bullying rather than physical, this approach may still be helpful.

"Act like a chicken" – more a demand than a question I suppose. And in the same interview, "Tell me a joke".

Got the job, lasted a month.

I bought a 'Bathing Ape, special edition' one off ebay a year or so ago – about £30 and came with loads of documentation, which all looked pretty good.

Wore it in the shower and it filled up with water 😳

CHB – agree but it's not infallible – if it's night-time or strong sunshine the CLS is unreliable. Fortunately you can buy cheapy radio triggers on ebay for £20 or less.

I reckon there is a wee bit of 'skill' involved when it comes to falling off. When I took up snowboarding, I found that the falls were pretty unpredictable – you catch an edge (dry slope) and you're on your @rse before you know what's happening.

When you start losing it on a bike you tend to have an idea of which direction you're going to fall, and how it's going to happen. Often, you can fall in such a way as to mitigate the damage – whether it's a conscious thought process or not is debatable….

molgrips – Member
Show me some of your low-light pics then?

OK! Agree that modern sensors make good quality low light shooting so much more achievable.

Haven't read the whole thread, but it certainly worked for me (as a cure, not an ongoing treatment).

Just make sure you go to someone who actually knows what they're doing – my Dad's ex practises in Edinburgh, has spent years of her life learning her craft both here and overseas. She really does get results.

I see so many little shopfronts advertising cures from everything from eczema to cancer – I'd guess most of them are chancing their arms a bit (a lot).

And yes, six sessions sounds like a minimum to me.

Crumbs – that vid is a little bit lot stalker-tastic. But I did enjoy it 😀

Hmm. I've taken to wearing a jumper in the evenings and for dog walking if it's nippy but like mastiles, the heating won't be going on for a month or so yet.

Blame my upbringing – all us kids had a huge selection of horrible, wooly jumpers and the constant refrain was, "If you're cold, put another jumper on". It works too!

My elbows always seemed to be taking the impact when falling, so I invested in a pair of cheapy MX elbow and forearm guards – they do shift around a bit but have paid for themselves on at least four occasions that I can think of.

You just lie there waiting for the pain to start, and it doesn't! Great feeling that!

Up and over garage door bolted to the floor with huge expanding bolts in the concrete floor – u-shaped links let me unscrew the bolts if necessary.

Small garage door has a not-so-great Yale lock but beefed up with a deadbolt and Abus padlock.

Bikes all locked to each other then locked to a floor anchor. The 'good' bike has its own separate Abus chain and padlock.

The unicycle is unlocked bait 🙂

Garage made of cardboard though – had two bikes pinched not that long ago – if they want 'em they'll get 'em. Dog probably deters a few – the postie calls him the white wolf!

The only way a swan could break your arm is if someone used one of those 'recycle your can' squashers and turned it into a brick, then put your arm between two benches and hit you hard with the swan brick.

That would break your arm. Swans are soft as a baby's first sh1te.

Just posted this on another site (ephotozine, where there is a four page thread on this subject).

A friend told me he'd seen the trailer for the wedding episode today. I've got a horrible feeling it'll encourage dozens of would-be uncle bobs* to think that it's now definitely OK to turn up at their niece's wedding with two D3s and top end lenses and spend eight hours shooting through the gap between my arm and my torso, because the lady on the telly told them to shoot at f2.8 to separate the subject from the background, and by extension, they are now experienced wedding photographers.

On the other hand, if I take off my grumpy old man's hat, it might be a great opportunity for a working pro to encourage uncle bob to respect the vicar's wishes that flash should not be used throughout the ceremony at a bazillion lumen, every four seconds. I truly hope that whoever the chosen expert is, that they will provide a little insight into the dos and don'ts of shooting a wedding.

Grump, grump. And I missed the prog.

* EDIT: an uncle bob is a well intentioned but clueless wedding guest who follows the hired pro around at a wedding and considers himself at least the equal, if not far better than the hired pro. He is quite often the victim of constant rebuttals from the happy couple, upon offers of his services as a photographer at their wedding.

Like toys19 I spent my youth working like a dog – no pocket money so I had two paper rounds and if I wanted to save up holiday money my mum would give me a list of jobs (much like Mrs Tricky's kid on page one).

These jobs were usually pretty awful; valetting the cars, degreasing the oven, cleaning the inside of all the windows in our many-windowed house, etc… And mum was brutal in her judgement of my work – nothing but perfection would suffice.

When I went to uni, there was no financial help at all, despite the fact that my folks were reasonably well off – my sister got the same 'stand on your own two feet' treatment, which made me feel a little better!

The result of all this value-instilling torture is that I'm not great with money – I spend it as I get it as though there might never be any more money in the world.

So if I ever get round to having kids, I'm going to be fair with them and give them a decent amount of spending power.

When my wee brother was at the toddling about stage, he pulled a cup of scalding hot coffee off the sofa arm onto himself. He was quite badly burned and obviously distressed but my mum's reaction was totally unexpected; a very strong woman, she just went completely to pieces.

She was completely hysterical and it was left to me (11 at the time) to get a packet of frozen peas onto the injury and go to a neighbour's house to organise a lift to the hospital.

My dad (divorced years ago) told me years later that when my mum was about ten, she watched her little brother pull a pan of boiling water off the cooker onto his head, which killed him – thus the reaction to the coffee cup incident. She has never said anything about her missing sibling to me, my sister or wee brother.

Count the number of windows on the outside of the house, then see if they tally up with the number of windows inside. If they don't match, there may be a secret, walled up room in the house.

Papal visit?! Those swines emptied my account after an ebay sale went bad.

You can't. Just plaster your pics with a semi-opaque watermark. I only get shirty if I see my pics being used comercially.

Nup. If the above situation is recounted truthfully, they deserve it from both barrels. I can see why elfin has recanted his previous statement, but given the earlier response, credibility is lost.

Large Iranian in a Vogue runs you off the road, you say; "What you gonna do, bomb me?"

If the line is in your head, you'll say it.

No written contract, just a verbal agreement.

This doesn't have to be a stumbling block but is certainly a p1ss poor start.

Sounds to me like you're pretty much managing the place. Also sounds like you've made up your mind to leave. Before you do, and if you like the job (if not the hours) why not ask him if he's willing to pay you to manage the place – keep it positive and upbeat as others have said – keep it non-confrontational. Take along a list of ideas (and recent sales figures) and point out the areas where your personal approach to doing business has worked.

Take the pressure off him – suggest hiring a new mechanic so you're free to implement the new ideas as a manager.

Working in a factory is sh1te. Any factory. Sell yourself and your expertise, your sales skills and your mechanical know-how. Make him see that you are an integral and necessary part of his business, then ask for what you are worth. It's not unfair or unreasonable. Just don't do it with a chip on yer shoulder 😉

EDIT: no matter how rich he is, he'll have no problem with any kind of a plan to make him richer – he just needs convincing that it will.

Mark Datz = don simon 💡

carriegold – Member
I'm guessing this one's NOT edible

If it's a Fly Agaric, then it is edible, but you'll have to leech out the toxins for a good few months by soaking it in milk (changing the milk every day), then drying the slices thoroughly. Or by getting a reindeer to eat it, then drink its p1ss (or is that one an urban / rural myth?!).

Had some many years ago – not sure if it did much or not as we had already consumed a fair bit of other stuff….

You're welcome 🙂

Bad times 🙁

My week's been frantically busy with weddings, print orders and photoshoots, but mostly positive.

All gone a wee bit pear-shaped tonight though – my house is full of tiny frogs who must have come in to shelter from the rain, and I've just drunk my contact lenses (stuck them in an 'empty' bottle of beer, forgot and poured the rest of the bottle into my glass. Remembered when I'd finished the glass off).

The dog is going mental at the frogs too…

Got back from college (very mature student), switched on the telly and gawped. Thought it was a film / end of the world / a dream…

Love the hat story loco 🙂

I was out riding the old railway track out of Aberdeen. It started properly lashing down – the drops were actually a bit painful 😯 Soaked through within literally seconds, I thought I might as well continue – couldn't get any wetter…

Got to the Maryculter bridge which had a good two inches of water flowing down it and started crossing. Suddenly, lightning hit the far end of the bridge and the whole surface of the road lit up as I was doing full tilt down the bank. The hair on my head stood up and I hollered like a loon – more with exhilaration than fear. Awesome!

Oh, and that fireworks tale above reminds me…. When we were a bit younger (11- 12ish?) one of our mates used to come back from summer hols in France each year with a huge sack of massive and utterly lethal French bangers.

We gleefully stuck them in the biggest piles of dogsh1t we could find before lighting them. We had a some serendipitous timing in catching passers-by – the sight of a grown up half-deaf and covered in sh1te was the funniest thing any of us had ever seen!! Damn I was a little b@stard 🙂

When we were about 15, an old geezer in the park took exception to us kicking a wee, floaty football around – the kind you buy on garage forecourts. There was plenty of space and the ball hadn't gone anywhere near him.

He strode over shouting and waving his arms about, picked up our ball and walked off with it. We had a spare and my mate Fred lined up the spare ball and booted it as hard as he could. The ball veered off course, bounce hard off a tree and smacked the guy hard enough that his hat and specs fell off and he dropped our ball, which we immediately reclaimed. We all fell about whilst the guy scraped around trying to find his specs!

SCOOOOO-OOOORE!!

Another Lavadome here, fully rigid. Actually started on a Muddy Fox Courier but the Lavadome was my first 'real' bike. Swapped it for a brand new Carrera of some sort – took me about two rides to regret it 🙁

So…. A few years back I started looking for another one and eventually found a Hahanna almost exactly similar on ebay. Snapped it up for £50-ish.

Off the drugs and making a fresh start at college!

Looks lovely – given me the wanderlust that has! Did a similar holiday about eight years back with Mrs Removed, but we cheated and took a car – did three or four long loops with driving in between.

I used to find on my longer solo trips that after a while it's actually easier to ride along fully laden – the load is somehow reassuring and I suppose the momentum is greater1

If you'd like a wee bit of slightly odd electronica, paying lipservice to hip-hop and radiohead's later offerings, you could do a lot worse than

Lamplighter

Creg – as a NE surfer, do you know Tony Pringle or Matt Donaldson?

Just been off looking at Audible (audiobook website) to try and find Birds Without Wings but they haven't got it. Might just have to buy the book 🙂

Why. All three books shaped me – I know there's been discussion on here before regarding the theory that books don't change you, they just fit into your life nicely at a particular moment in time, but I firmly believe that the books mentioned had a part in making me who I am, for better or for worse. That's why.

Perhaps Demian by Herman Hesse, but only by dint of my tender years at the time of reading and my malleable, callow character.

Failing that it would be Brendon Chase by BB, for roughly the same reasons.

Removing sentimentality from the equation, Graham Greene's A Burnt out Case led me to the rest of his writing and brought me as close to the brink as I ever want to be, so it must have been good.

Crumbs. Lost in a mostly happy miasma of hard drugs, being in bands, crap jobs, week long bike trips in the Cairngorms and the odd loose woman.

It got worse before it got much better! @ the OP – just go travel – I regret not doing more of it at an appropriate age.

Weirdly, just bought a case yesterday (I must be very susceptible to ads 🙁 ). I like it! It is pretty sweet but a slice of lemon (as recommended on the back of the bottle) does cut through it a bit.

Just for the record, I really, badly dislike Crabbies by itself.

IME don't bother trying to claim for anything unless you have at least one, totally rock solid witness. The driver will be all concern until he gets a bill…..