“It seems like there should be more to that story than there is ?”

Not really.  There was a miscarriage of justice insomuchas the guy had been locked up for 22 years which is a lot more than usual for a crime of passion.  My dad worked for the BBC as a radio studio manager making programmes for ethnic minorities and this case caught his attention, so he “sponsored” the guy after campaigning for his release.

“Prisoner Tony” was a bit of a weird character – he’d gone in as a very young man and came out as an adult with an 18 year old man’s expectations and experience (of “normal” life).  He was scary and vulnerable in equal measures.

Scouts again…  I shared a lift every other week with the son of the guy who chopped up his opera singing wife in Mallorca and stuffed her limbs into bins.  The dad was a proper odd-ball.  He let his 10 year old son bring the massive Volvo out of the garage, down the lane, up two main roads and park it out front.  He also told us amusing stories of torturing his classmates when he was a boy.

I see he’s out after serving four years…  http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12124591.Scottish_wife_murderer_free_after_four_years_in_Spanish_jail/

My dad petitioned the government to allow the release of a Chinese murderer who then spent his time hanging around the house.  Strung up his girlfriend with a piano wire.  He enjoyed making jokes about the whole thing without ever admitting his guilt.

Decent pocket knife should arrive Monday after the house movers nicked my last one.

Was looking forward to the circus with our five year old tonight and it was ace (Moscow State Circus).

Death.

Ephotozine still run loads of challenges – there’s a Weekly B&W Challenge running right now and doubtless several others.  Used to join in the fun until about a decade ago when I started charging for my work and ruined my hobby :-)

think I’d go potty if kids were kicking balls against the side of my house day in day out

Course you would. <em class=”bbcode-em”>Anyone would*.

*maybe not deaf persons

Nah.  Deaf folk could *feel* the vibrations and watch their nik-naks dance around on the shelves :-(  Whatever else I may feel about this kid, I have to concede he can kick a football like a donkey.

Cant help but feel this is similar thought process to someone who doesn’t like mountain bikes on a bridleway

Which is why I came on here seeking opinions!  I don’t want one dickhead kid to spoil it for all the others so almost all of those suggestions are out.

The mosquito thing sounds like a winner but it’d be a shame if all the other kids stopped playing there too.  No chance of a group complaint as it’s our wall and fence taking the beating – doesn’t bother anyone else.  I have no qualms about facing up to his dad but really, it’s an unwinnable war once you go down that route.  Even if the parents do have a word with the boy (unlikely), kids are inventive and I suspect I’d end up with dog poo on the door handles, eggs all over the car etc…

Blessed silence this morning – perhaps the tiger trap with sharpened wooden spikes has worked?

And if you read what I said, you’ll see I can’t do anything on the other side of the fence.  My wee lad plays on the green too – there’s a massive trampoline and all the neighbourhood kids have a great time running around shrieking – brilliant!  They’re safe in a slightly enclosed space.  On hot days, I get our huge paddling pool out and all the kids spend the day in and around it.  Don’t mind the noise at all.

What is annoying is the constant thump of ball on wall and gradual destruction of the fence.  What is dangerous is the constant threat of the football landing in out faces / dinner / baby robin’s nest.

Your situation, hobo, sounds completely different to ours.

Bought our house specifically due to the large green nearby.  My boy played footy there for about 5yrs.

Somehow, your own kid’s noise is never as annoying as other people’s….  It isn’t just the annoyance, it’s also the genuine damage being caused to the fence / gate and the very real fear that every time we have a drink, dinner or bbq outside, a ball will fly over and smash the crap out of everything or send burning coals all over me, the wife and the five year old.

Can’t do anything on the other side of the fence as it’s council owned.  Cheers for the ideas and the memories.  I couldn’t kick a ball in a straight line (still can’t) but me and a bunch of mates used to fire airguns off people’s windows for yucks so I suppose I should just suck up the current torture…

Yeah, kids can be dicks – I was one too.  I reckon anti-climb paint all over the wall / fence is the only way forward but my wife isn’t keen…

As above TJ, started off trying to be nice – kicking the ball around a bit with him and trying to chat.  When that failed, I explained why it could be dangerous to boot the ball over the fence when we’re in the garden and asked him to just kick it off the wall.  Sadly, he then made it his life’s work to try and dislodge the bricks from our wall as well as still knocking 7 shades of shit out of our fence.

Swear to God though, the next time it nearly hits any of my wee family, the gloves are off – kind of want to sort it amicably before starting a 1000 year war with the neighbours.

Holy Moly!  Glad you were flying solo.  ‘Tis a fragile and fleeting thing, this life innit?!

kasper-hazlehead-snow-15 by Jamie Emerson[/url], on Flickr

Our hairy hound.  Used to come for a trot beside the bike but now he’s 12, he prefers frequent shorter walks.  Never met a sighthound I didn’t like :-)

As jimdubleyou says, thread was deleted after it was pointed out (by me) that she was committing a crime by using her phone behind the wheel.  She then backpedalled (pun intended) and claimed she wasn’t driving.  **** knows how that’s possible.  Scarily, some folk were agreeing with her.

This reminded me that Extreme Ironing is a thing…

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Our five year old is in primary one and gets one reading book and one lot of homework a week.  It quickly became clear that he was having problems with some of his letters – we were able to help him with that.  Just one small example of why it can be a useful thing.

Because I woke up at 4 a.m. on Wednesday morning with a terrible pain in one of my bollocks.  Checked the internet and gave it a couple of days but by Saturday, it was the size of an egg and the painkillers weren’t working.  Went off to see the G-Docs and got given some antibiotics which so far, have done nothing at all.  Trying to get an appt with my usual GP but they don’t make it easy :-(

Aged 14 on our first ever cycle tour in the lake district.  Bombing down a twisty road on a 10 speed Claude Butler which was far, far too big for me.  Couldn’t make the turn as a car and caravan came towards me in the middle of the narrow road.  Just closed my eyes and waited to die but somehow squeezed past – no idea how.

Was so delighted to be alive I hit the grass covered, low wall into the campsite at about 25 mph and launched my fully laden road bike into the air.  My mate did the same on his Raleigh Lizard and landed on some guy’s tent.  Yes, he was in the tent at the time :-)

Brilliant – thanks for the info.  I couldn’t wait to move home to Aberdeen after 16 years in Sunderland but the bike’s barely been out of the shed since the move…  Must remedy that very soon!  Only really done stuff from my door on the west of the city, and often, it’s me on the unicycle and my five year old on his Frog – we do about the same speed :-D

I was just looking at this the other day on Trailforks (I think) and mapping out a circular route – can you tell me where you started and finished?  It’s been on my hitlist since moving back up North in December last year!

“As right as you are, it’s almost irrelevant because so long as consistent drinking is present, you won’t get mental health services to touch him”

Not completely true.  Counselling is available for active addicts (of any sort) who show a willingness to engage in the service, which in turn, can be a gateway into psych services…

Tony Marin’s a hero.

Ridiculous nonsense.  Much like everyone else in the civilised world it’s obvious that, if you come into my house without an invitation and with nefarious purpose, your consequent injuries may cause death or severe discomfort.

“It seems to randomly select a time and set its hands to that”  Mine did that when I tried to reset it after a battery change.  I had to youtube a few tutorials about resetting the hands and eventually it worked again.

But yes, it’s a bit broken as it’s no longer properly waterproof and steams up inside sometimes – tried shifting the O-ring about a few times but no joy.

This is insane.  The law covers “…inciting racial hatred” not “…daft wee fannies training their GF’s dogs to react to offensive commands to comic effect”.

“Potentially imprisoning this man for a joke, is a joke. It sets a very dangerous precedent.”

Very much this.

I had to explain to my five year old why my rims don’t have “tartan in the holes”  :-D

Just returned after a long absence – where’s the “Start New Topic” button gone?

Go analogue whilst you make up your mind.  Truprint, Photobox, Snapfish etc frequently have intro offers for 500 6×4″ prints for absolute pennies (like, less than a fiver).  Means you actually get to look at the photos too, rather than just worry about backing them up :-)

+1 Back Country Navigator.  Think I paid about a tenner for the ‘pro’ version, perhaps six years ago and it’s immediately installed on every new phone.  Does route planning and all that gubbins but I tend to just use it as an offline / online map and GPS.

Just to go slightly OT for a second, my mum’s Siamese cat used to follow her on her daily walks round the local loch requiring her to pick it up and carry it home.  Eventually she bought a carrying harness thing which strapped the cat to her body.  We all laughed so hard, and so long, that she never used it.  Sorry mum.

I’ve never used a harness – I was lucky enough to have a few months at home with our rescue when we first got him at six months old, so was able to devote (many!) hours to training him.  I do appreciate this was a luxury which most folk don’t have.

The only slight concern I have is letting a dog run free with a harness – if needs be, our mutt can reverse out of his collar, say if he gets stuck on a branch or is led away by a ne’er-do-well.  He’s lost a few collars this way but I’d rather that than have him stuck somewhere.

Oh FFS.  Followed the idiot’s guide and still can’t quote…

If she’s anything at all like my MIL, then… <span style=”background-color: #eeeeee; color: #444444; font-size: 12px;”>Perfect excuse for a night ride in my book and you can always take the dog out for a (three day) walk sounds good.</span>

“…<span style=”background-color: #eeeeee; color: #444444; font-size: 12px;”>£200 worth of watch sailed into the crowd never to be seen again.”

I spent a happy morning “making space” in my filing cabinet.  Saw all my old watch boxes and thought, “No point in keeping all that crap”.  Into the bin they went and a few days later (after collection day) realised that my Tissot* had been snuggled up in its box.  I may have called myself a few names.

*Awaits flaming from watch snobs…  ;-)</span>

I love that I can see the full thread titles on mobile now – but also quite liked the guessing game before :-D

I parked my new (to me), ancient Granada Cosworth outside a Co-op, came out with my groceries, hopped back into the car and spent a fair while wondering why something looked a bit ‘off’. Then a very large, cross pizza delivery guy was hammering at the window wondering why I was in his car… In my defence, it was dark, the car was large and blue, just like mine, right down to the creaky leather seats.

tomhoward – Member
Friend is a professional photographer. You have probably seen a great many of their images in a great many cycling publications over the years…

Doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be any good at a wedding… My wedding photographer was full of the flu so pulled in an acquaintance to help out. Turned out to be the Scottish Wildlife Photographer of the year. Not one of his photos made it to the final cut…

EDITED to say – the photos were technically flawless but were utterly devoid of emotion or any story telling qualities

Oh God, that shot of the cake falling gives me the shudders. Did it a few years ago (working as the photographer) – the venue had done the usual thing of sticking the cake in a dingy corner next to a fire extinguisher and a neon EXIT sign. Got the best man to help me move it out onto the floor and the whole thing just collapsed.

Did the natural thing, which was obviously to try and catch it with my foot – didn’t end well but my shoes looked tasty.

Anyway, get a pro in to take all the stress away – there are so many photographers now that you’ll get a good one for around the 1K mark and a really good one for a wee bit more – the days of 2K average spend are over. Ask to see a full wedding (very boring but gives you a realistic idea of the way they work). If you’re not really a photo kind of a person, don’t bother.

Some cracking landscapes – I’d hang jad’s misty scene on the wall… Here’s yet another photo of someone else’s dog taken at Counteswells yesterday.

maisie-counteswells by Jamie Emerson[/url], on Flickr

Magnus Mill’s stuff is only funny if you’re living that life.

“Restraint of Beasts” is a very good read but by the time you’re playing darts in a Local pub it’s far too late.

+1 for S. Milligan but also, if he doesn’t mind mixing up a modicum of tragedy with slightly hysterical self recognition, without the buffer of cosy middle class cushioning, then “The ginger Man” by Donleavy.

He’ll either laugh uproariously or go into a terminal decline.