I loves it I do………

My mate and his wife inherited a house from the wife's uncle. They had a fair bit of debt between them, so they sold their old house, remortgaged the new one for about ten grand, paid off all their debt and went on holiday.

Brilliant!

Can I have another one? Had coffee with Alan Spence (author) in Edinburgh. He was teaching a creative writing course which my wife had attended at uni…..

Regularly chatted to the Wildcat Theatre Company cast (City Lights? Willie Melvin?) when my dad worked in the Beeb at Glasgow.

Finally, danced with Angela Rippon (newsreader) at a folk festival.

I fell 120 feet out of the largest conifer in the Forest of Skene (Aberdeenshire) in front of 100 or so horrified, tripping people, got up and walked away.

For years afterwards people would stop me in the street and say, "You're the Iron Man that fell out of the tree and survived!".

Also, used to jam with Sebastian Rocheford of Polar Bear / Acoustic Ladyland fame and the drummer from The Bay City Rollers (not at the same time!).

What manor of people go for a bothy weekend with a winebox and sushi?!

:-)

Looks like a lotta fun – do you take bivvy bags and sleeping bags, or just the latter?

I'm probably not far from you (New Herrington, near Houghton) and there's loads of riding to be had right from the doorstep. OK none of it is epic, but plenty of fun.

I moved to Sunderland about eight year ago and just spent whole days on the bike getting to know the lay of the land. No maps, no clue, frequent benightings, but what a great way to get to know a new area.

There's some good singletrack just following the river out of Durham, towards Shincliffe Hall (I think!). All the woods round there are full of little used paths and tracks. One of my favourites starts at Sunderland Bridge (nowhere near Sunderland!) just outside Durham.

Did the garden route on our honeymoon last October – amazing place. We flew into Capetown, hired a car and spent a couple of weeks driving East, ending up in Addo Elephant Park.

Car hire's good and cheap – means you can tailor make your trip – we spent a good few days in the wine producing regions. Beautiful scenery and great wines!

The Garden Route is a good choice – it's all pretty safe. Some of the towns en route are a bit touristy, but nothing too tacky. Hermanus is well worth a visit – we actually got quite blase about all the whales!!

Yup – riding and toking went hand in hand back then for our merry bunch of addicts.

You are quite right – Bennachie it is. There used to be a sunken stream where the stone steps are now. It had a number of hidden underwater potholes which made for hilarious over-the-bars moments.

As you reached the base of the hill, there was a massive felled tree, just before the wooded section which was bunny-hoppable (just) even on a Muddy Fox Courier, or later, a fully rigid Lavadome. Is it still there?

Aaah! The nostalgia! (stuck in Sunderland now :-( )

Done that run a few times (15 years ago, before the slabs went in!) but I always thought that hill was called Clach-na-Ben?! We called it Tit Hill, cos it looks like a tit.

Pretty sure there was a Killer Loop in MBUK or somesuch which took it in along with a few other summits. We tried it and got lost, but in our defence, we were stoned witless..

Nice pics by the way!

I'm crapping mesel looking at some of those drops – they must be petrified (or they should be).

I think they're useless. Less dating, more riding. God knows they need the practice.

Oh just get on and race…. Too much filler!!

Yep – a camera club might be grateful for it. I still print in my home darkroom but have given up home developing my films – he house is just too dusty and now I take it all to a local lab.

If it's a Leitz Focomat V35 enlarger, I'll bite yer hand off!!

egf – I'm sure you do a grand job, and do understand that you're not there to be, "tucking them up in bed every night, pandering to their every whim". In fact, as far as I'm concerned, you and the rest of the prison staff are there to make life as unpleasant as possible for the scrotes who end up in prison, and to stop them getting out and coming round and robbing me.

It's just that in your position (as an ossifer), I'm not sure that shouting about bringing back hanging is appropriate. If you really feel that bitter about it, perhaps you should look for another job?

Currently trying to persuade Mrs Removed to move to Skye (Portree?!). Usually, we only see it in the Winter, at Christmas, when there's a near permanent gale force wind blowing, complete with horizontal rain.

So I'd forgotten how amazing it was until a Summer trip this year.

Edinburgh a close 2nd, preferably somewhere in Stockbridge (if only for the pubs).

Currently in an old pit village between Durham and Sunderland, so pretty much anywhere else would be an improvement…

After our third break in (over two garages) I can barely get into my garage myself, although as said above, if they want in, they'll get in….

Up and over door – two massive expanding bolts in the bottom corners with some chain links and some unscrewable links attatched to holes drilled in the lip of the door. If they try to force it open, they'll have to actually rip the sheet metal. There's also a shed alarm hidden in behind a flange on the door.

The garden-side door also has a shed alarm, a bolt through, padlocked affair (with rounded-end bolts) and a Yale lock.

The shed alarms I got free from my local nick – just walk in and ask, though some will charge you it won't be much.

I've also planted some wild thorn bushes down both sides of the garage to stop thieves gaining access to the garden.

Bikes are locked to two giant floor anchors (more huge expanding bolts) using big 5uck-off chains.

Not foolproof, but the white wolf lurcher bouncing up and down the garden tops all the rest off…

Help me! I've no idea what that bike's for, but my creddly card's burning a hole in my wallet…..

LBS…..

Dobbo – why does it say, "B@STARD" over the pic of your bike?

Oh Yeh! Bad, Nazi, Baby Jazz!

Right at the end, is that a little bike escalator next to the stairs?!

Not sure this would work here – can you imagine the outrage when the first scratches appear on a commuter's rigid, carbon forks? Even the 'rat-bikes' on here cost more than my car :D

I remember the first time I saw the advert with the backward forks. After pointing and laughing I said to the (totally indifferent) Mrs. Removed, "I guarantee you there's already a thread on STW about that.

Opened the laptop, and sure enough…….

Real name;

Not me!

Forum name;

How very dull…..

But Moz still got da dollaz

Sorry – bit lost now…. Where do drugs come into it?

Rope's cheap & can be used time & time again

just as the sunlight hits their face and the sense of freedom fills their body…….double tap to the back of the head

I'm a fekkin long way from being a BHL (bleeding heart liberal) but Jeez.

Surely one of the measures of our society's ability to behave in a civilised manner is to recognise the sanctity of life?

egf – I understand that you've got your nose to the rock face (to mix a few metaphors) but if I were in charge I'd sack you first thing.

I heard somewhere in the background noise of radio/telly/papers/internet that over half of the UK population want to bring back the death penalty. I say bring back Christianity, and I'm an agnostic….

I genuinely hate to say it…. But…… I've been following this thread and feel all [americanism] conflicted [/ americanism] about it.

My Dad is a serial offender in this way. He has a camper van, a beaten up old Iveco Daily van and a penchant for European / Eastern block 4X4 vehicles.

He parks them all over Edinburgh and often leaves them for months at a time – all taxed, insured and motted. He's been visited by the cops countless times to inform him of multiple complaints from neighbours, but they leave once they've been assured everythings legal and that the vehicles aren't abandoned – nothing they can do.

My Dad is a truly lovely bloke and helps out anyone who asks. He just can't see why people get annoyed by having a rusty hilk parked in their leafy suburban street. He laughs off the complaints saying things like, "Oh – they should be grateful – it's not every day you get to see an UMM (odd, massive Portuguese jeep thing)!"

The only way of getting him to shift a vehicle is to damage it. He fizzes and spits, takes it very personally and is genuinely hurt / bamboozled. Like I say, he just doesn't get it.

It really does pain me to say it, but if your camper van owner is the same as my Dad, it'll stay there until something bad happens to it. Then it'll be gone by the next day….

Third vote for Blurb – I've tried a good few, including Photobox, Albelli and Snapfish.

The Blurb one had the best print / bind quality and the free software isn't too memory hungry and is very user friendly / intuitive.

My folks moved to Skye a few years back. Great. Went and visited them a few times before the heart stopping moment – "What did you do with all the stuff in the attic of the old house?"

"Oh we binned most of it and the rest went to the charity shop."

"Even the balalaikas?" (really….)

"Yup"

Didn't have the heart left in me to ask about my huge collection of Scalextrics track and cars, built up 2nd hand over the course of several happy years…. :cry:

I hear what you're saying csw, and having used all those formats, agree with what you say.

But…. If you use a 300mm lens on a 35mm camera (say) at 2.8, your DOF is pretty tiny. If you use a 20mm lens on the same camera, at the same apperture, your DOF is massive (comparitively).

So given that a crop sensor 'lengthens' the lens (i.e., your 300mm lens is now a 460mm lens, in essence*), I would expect a shallower DOF with a crop sensor. Does that make any sense? Perhaps the two factors cancel each other out?

Off to ephotozine to pick some geek-brains…

* I know this is a whole 'nother argument and that your lens ain't any longer, the image is just more cropped.

A full frame sensor means less DOF which is great for bike shots.

I also take photos for a living and usually do as you do, that is, I take a daft little Pentax Optio A30 out riding.

I'm struggling with the above quote a little – surely f1.8 on a full frame gives the same DOF as f1.8 on a crop sensor? If anything, the 1.6 crop (on my Nikons) would give shallower depth of field than a full frame sensor?

I'm sticking my neck out a bit here and am prepared to stand corrected….

EDIT: sorry – re advice, I'd second the reccomendation of the Canon G11 – THE best compact on the market – no shutter lag etc etc…

The email I got quite clearly mentioned the need to spend £79.99.

Really? I read mine through two or three times before posting here, just in case and I'm certain my email made no mention of it. Just went to check but unfortunately it came through as spam mail and I didn't move it to my inbox. Thus, it's deleted.

Perhaps I didn't 'click here to download the pictures' and the info was contained therein?

Go as transmogrification and you can spend the night turning beer into p1ss

:D

I'm thinking about it right now.

But I guess the idea behind the voucher is to make people spend more, above the money they have already saved into their NW accounts…

I'm certain that's exactly the idea…. I just don't like it very much…

And Foxy, I've been thinking this ever since I got seduced by the introductory offer. Even after you get your third of your purchase spend back, the wines are still fairly pricey. And the likes of Morrisons quite often have some really good wines at half price or less.

The upsides are; not having to wait for local supermarkets to discount nice wines, having wine delivered to your door, erm… that's about it, so far as I can see.

That was excellent. And I say that as one who has been in a similar state at least once….. *shudders*

Nowhere near as dramatic, but this from yesterday's thread about Chopwell Woods…..

On the first run down The Powerline, I hit the North Shore stuff (the highest lot in the 'black' section) a bit quickly. Didn't walk it first as it looked pretty straightforward. It's absolutely lethal in the wet – and no chickenwire!! Slid straight off the highest point, over the bars and landed square on my head. The bike then fell on me. Everything went a bit fuzzy for a moment but OK now bar a stiff, sore neck….

It was my only bad fall this year (so far). Doesn't sound like much, but I reckon if I was carrying a bit more weight, or had landed on rocks, it could have (should have?!) been serious.

Quite possibly up for something along those lines – sick of trail centres and need some excitement in my life (though not of the spooning / special cuddles type..).

Got the kit – might have gone mouldy through lack of use!

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You're quite right MLCs – get into a shop and pick up a few cameras – it's the only way. Most of the cameras recommended so far will give you everything you need, so it's just a case of finding out which system feels right to you.

Having said that, I'd highly recommend a 2nd hand Nikon D200 (or D300 if you can stretch to it). As sson as you move up and away from the 'prosumer' cameras, you get far better dust / waterproofing – I've used D200s / 300s in lashing rain and snow with no issues. You also get the benefit of Nikon's Creative Lighting System as mentioned above – wireless flash in short.

Buying into Canon or Nikon also gives you a massive choice of lenses, third party manufactured or otherwise, and a wealth of 2nd hand choices too.

Dave – were they in the tent whilst you stomped it?