I once sold a very rare Leica (black paint M4) on ebay – at one point there were almost 500 watchers 8O

Unfortunately, I didn’t see much of the proceeds as they were split between my late grandad’s siblings….

Well, in my previous life as a van driver, I got it horribly wrong. Always had a good book for downtime, occasionally bought a broadsheet but hid it in the van for fear of ridicule, listened to Radio 4 exclusively, eat wholemeal sandwiches brought from home and generally drove the same way as I cycle (defensively).

No wonder I left…….

Sorry for the delay in responding – cheers to all for very helpful advice / links. I’ve forwarded all this to my mum. I reckon it’ll have to be Li-on option due to weight.

Cheers again to all!!

THIS guy does – pics in article by yours truly 8)

Nikon 17-55mm, f2.8 – hardly ever leaves the D300, whilst the Sigma 20-40mm, f2.8 is the weapon of choice for all my film cameras….

Failing that, and if I had to choose a prime, it’d be the 35mm, f2, bought for visual / environmental impact assessment duties (closest angle of view to the human eye on a crop camera). Or maybe the 24mm prime. Damn – there’s no one lens really, is there?

Ziggy, is you black?

OMG – don’t try chopping it out yourself – tendon damage, severe bleeding and other likely results come to mind….

I had a bad crash about 12 years back and landed heavily on my right elbow. Ever since, I had a little chip of bone which I could displace and move around under my skin, much to the disgust of any onlookers. It was occasionally painful and if I leant on my elbow in the ‘wrong’ way, I’d get a massive jolt of pain.

Last new years’ day, I fell over on concrete in a drunken stupor :oops: and woke up the next day to find a small hole in my elbow. To my chagrin and delight all at once, the little piece of bone had been pushed through my skin and had disappeared.

So in summary, get pissed as a little newt, fall onto affected body part and live joyfully ever after.

I’ve got a gold Hope seatclamp of that size – brand new, but a little scratched – email me if you’d like it.

Hmmmm – dogs….. Perhaps a husky team and a wheeled sled is the answer. Much cheaper and probably road legal too!

Thanks for those links – I was thinking of getting a few of the family together and buying her one for her birthday, but damn, these things are expensive!

You’d think there would be government grants available for being environmentally friendly….

Those Heinzmann retrofit kits look good – my stepdad’s a retired engineer and would love the challenge, but the price is prohibitive – more than a complete bike from Powabyke!!

AAh, the brutal honesty and nonsense of interweb forums / fora….

I was five when my folks divorced – my dad was carrying on big time. My sister was two years older than me. First up; don’t listen to anything you read here, or anywhere else online, unless you’re paying for the advice.

Secondly; pay for some advice, from a trained professional. Thricely; (did you notice me making an ill-timed grammatical joke whilst your world falls apart around your ears?) I’m 35 and my folks’ divorce didn’t hit me too hard – I’ve had some problems but nothing time didn’t solve, so look to yersel’ first.

EDIT: kids are made of stern stuff and will recover from pretty much any much mental trauma – as has been said several times now – help yourself first, and the littl’uns after (just like you were in a plane crash!).

Kodak HIE Infra-red film. *sobs and runs off to bed*

OMG – just checked out that Lidl link and my local store is going to be stocking unicycles for £35….. Used to have one years back – bought from a Scottish clown called Haggis.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Removed is sat right next to me saying, ‘NO!’.

Pics here[/url].

I have an ’08 Boardman Pro (MB) and am absolutely delighted with it. Sadly, I was a bit worried about being sneered at for having a ‘Halfords bike’, but folk are generally quite interested and just want to have a look.

The weight and spec swung it for me – sub 25 lb out of the box (weighs a bit more now that I’ve fettled with it…).

Used to get in fights regularly as a teen / 20 something in Aberdeen. The Aberdeen soccer casuals didn’t usually give you a choice…..

Haven’t hit anyone for at least six years now – truly hope I’ll never have to again.

Well, I’ve got a couple of airguns (just under the legal limit) but they live in a locked cabinet for just the reason above ^^^ I happen to know that the leg of the chair at the end of the bed comes off in two shakes of a lamb’s tail though….

Thanks all for the helpful posts – and yes, OK, it was the dog that chased the thieves really.

Those anti-poaching cartridges look good, as does the siren, but a touch on the pricey side. As for moving to a ‘safe area’, IME they tend to get targetted far more than the ‘dodgy areas’.

The dog is absolutely the best security measure going even though he looks like this .

As an aside

– Hairychested – Member

bataone – Member

Our garage got done over earlier in the year. THe motorbike chain & anchor stopped them getting any bikes – a great purchase!yes
new york asian escort

WTF?

That’s a bit worrying as my Kaspersky keeps wanting to update every few hours and it keeps telling me its ‘databases are corrupt’ – anyone else suffering?

Garage already as secure as it can be without rebuilding – it’s a cheapy, prefab, panel built affair. When the bikes went last time (see here), I mmediately went out and bought a motorbike chain lock for the floor anchor.

Unfortunately, opening the garage door isn’t hard work – in fact, I could probably prise it open with one of the fore-mentioned bic pens. I reckon the only way of securing it is to attatch a chain to the door, and then to another floor anchor….

Bic pens were the nearest damage-inflicting weapons to hand – wouldn’t want to bend a set of Bombers.

Too worried to go to bed……..

Nick – of course we’re obsessed by death – it’s one of the only certainties in life (to trot out an old cliche). It’s the one thing we all have in common.

To an extent, I agree with you – we face the news of others’ deaths constantly. If you watched Screenwash tonight, you’ll have heard an excellent portrayal of the way a lot of sensible folk felt about the death of Jane Goodie: slightly confused but mostly indifferent – it just washes over you doesn’t it?

It only hits home when it’s someone you know, or have a huge respect for. The preoccupation with the deaths of strangers (even including the Darwin Awards!!) is a natural part of being human.

Very sad – one of the dead is my little brother’s childhood friend. I met him by chance in Under the Hammer in Aberdeen a few days before my wedding last year. He still seemed like a kid to me (indeed he was still a young lad). Just wonder how it would feel to think of your son’s body floating about in the North Sea somewhere.

aracer – I always buy goretex trainers for summer walking / camping. They keep the moisture out until you get into really boggy stuff (I also get 50% discount off Salamon gear through my P/T job, so that’s also a deciding factor).

If you’re size 9 I may be interested in your Salamon trainers – info(at)emersonphotography if you want shot of them…

Rusty Spanner – where did you find those kicks for £40? Cheapest I’ve seen the 305PKs is about £65….

+1 on the mount pic if at all possible please?!

Kirkhill Forest may be your best bet. Haven’t been there for almost a decade but it was good back then for a few hours riding and probably still is.

EDIT; Just had a quick google map sesh and it looks like folk are still riding there – A96 out of the city through Bucksburn.

I still use blogspot – I have no knowledge of html, so I do occasionally find it’s a pain but the template works well for me and is customisable to a decent extent.

It often takes a bit of shuffling and rejigging to get the spacing right – pictures mysteriously move around when I go to publish my latest entry…

Anyhoo, here it is[/url] if you fancy a gander (wedding and landscape photography content).

There’s been talk of an amnesty for long term illegal immigrants hasn’t there?

They were both staring at the Google car’s unwieldy apparatus and crashed into each other. Bet it’s caused a few car crashes too…

What on earth were you looking for when you found that?

photium[/url] do a nice template site for a little over the odds, but the owner, Will, is an immensely helpful guy. I’ve asked him daft questions at 11 o’ clock on a Saturday night and had a response within 20 mins.

Extremely user friendly and perfect for showcasing photos.

shto? ya nye znaiyoo (no cyrillic keyboard anymore).

The RBofS wanted £20 odd per statement when I wanted to claim back my charges. I assume this is to deter people from doing just this.

Sack that – I just delved into the big drawer of statements and painstakingly sorted them into order – a few missing but got there in the end.

[rant mode ]And yes, HSBC are easily, by a country mile the worst bank to deal with – anything vaguely important or problematic can’t be dealt with ‘in branch’ and has to be done over the phone, with someone in Bhatapara, whose grasp of English leaves much to be desired and who doesn’t give a tinker’s toss anyway. Not that there’s anyone left ‘in branch’ to speak to anyway – one teller and five machines usually.[/andbreathe ].

Yup – everything that Philby said (and here I am, checking out STW in the early hours!). If you set aside a room in your house to work from, then yes, you can claim back a proportion of all your household bills – if you have five rooms, you can offset one fifth of household running costs. Bathrooms / kitchens don’t count.

I still work a couple of short shifts at a dry ski slope – it was my student job and I kept it on as it gives me a bit of time away from the business, and I treat it as a social activity. Sitting at home all day with just the dog for company can get lonesome…

The desktop upstairs in the office rarely gets to see the internet – it’s a lean, mean image processing machine – I don’t want it contaminated or slowed down by unnecessary progs and apps.

The laptop lives downstairs and gets abused horribly – loads of daft software installed.

Guido’s tip about switching off is a good one – but not one that I can afford to follow. Clients often contact me (phone, email) ‘after hours’ and an instant response almost always makes the difference between getting the work or going without my new shiny bits.

Avoid daytime telly like the plague.

the big rooty corner before the log pile in Magic Mushroom

Funnily enough, my mate fell off just before that section when I was last there. He was fine but a bit shakey, so we stopped there for a sandwich. We must have watched a couple of dozen folk negotiate those roots and at least half of them came off – some of them badly.

Here’s my ’93 (?!) Hahanna. Currently after a set of non-rusty seven speed hoops if you want to sell me some? Ad in classifieds….

Just fitted those IRC Notos – everyone seems to hate them but I’m getting on with them quite well, so far.

Thirty five year old late developer. Finally happy :-)

They should all be knighted.

Driving invention – please feel free to nick this idea and good luck with the H&S nazis.

A dash mounted button which ‘unlocks’ or disengages the seatbelt ratchet. You know when you get to a T junction at the bottom of a steep hill, and you need to lean forward to see what’s coming – but you can’t, because the bl00dy seatbelt locks up?

I would say steering wheel mounted, but you might accidentally press it during a crash….

Driving invention 2.

No more airbags. Instead, if you crash, a foot long metal spike shoots out of the steering column. Everyone drives slowly, accidents a thing of the past. Genius.

Cheers chaps – usually I’m a wedding photographer. Nice to use all the shiny kit for something fun.

seat post clamp