+1 for just getting in and getting your possesions (nine tenths of the law and all that). Not internet hardman talk, just common sense – perhaps even explain to the neighbours what’s going on so they don’t call the police? And yes, having a locksmith do it would be worth the cash so the place is left secure.

Off to KL for a couple of weeks to visit my sis very soon, followed by a long weekend in Singapore, so I’ll let you know when I get back 🙂

Can’t wait!

Home network is surely the way forwards? No cloud security issues and more importantly where photos are concerned, no strange compression issues – my understanding is that cloud software compresses and degrades files.

Work from home and no matter how badly my day is going, at 2pm I strap on my headphones, fire up an interesting audiobook and take the dog for an hour long walk (at least – if it’s a nice day and the book is pleasing to my ears, the walk might extend to three or more hours).

Never fails to sort out all my woes – come home revitalised and ready to get back to work.

I bought a guitar to punish my mum. But that was before I’d heard the song. So it doesn’t count. Sorry.

He quoted Bullheart’s earlier post – guessing a few days in the cooler?

EDIT; or not 🙂

Honestly, I’ve been using 7dayshop’s own brand ones for years (AAs and AAAs) and they really, genuinely are every bit as good as Enloops. Some of the AAs must be six or seven years old now, get charged once or twice a month and used in my camera’s flashguns – they’ll still last half a day at a dark wedding.

It lasted a second or two – I’m also guessing mod action – off to check inbox…

EDIT – Wait! It’s back! WTF OMG.

If I get banned for posting your image I’ll be well annoyed 🙁

MF – delete the ‘s’ at the end of http.

Just for you Phil (with apologies to Mrs Toast)…

Never claimed on my insurance, 37 years old, own a 2.5L Volvo.

My running costs are beyond funny. Getting on for interesting, in a conspiracy theory kind of a way. At least once a week, something else goes wrong with the bleeding thing. Today’s delightful little issue has been the ‘leccy window buttons reversing (polarity). The driver’s window button now controls the passenger window and vice-versa.

And the worst of it is, that if you don’t keep on top of all the little issues, you’re suddenly running around in a banger, no matter how sound the engine is. Off to buy an ’01 Micra 🙁

My wife has mangled two rear mechs / hangers (one was an old-skool attached to the frame job) / sets of spokes by setting off in a massive gear and mashing the cranks with her whole weight on each pedal in turn.

The last one was particularly annoying as she did it miles from the nearest town on a tour of Southern Ireland, in the pissing rain. She got a Polish tourist bus 22 miles back to the nearest civilisation, during which time she got hammered on strange Polish spirits whilst I cycled back the way I’d just come.

I then had to sit on the pavement outside the blacksmiths, in a puddle, trying to hammer the whole mess back into shape.

cheers_drive – Member
Does a rear brake light really annoy the person behind? doesn’t bother me.

Yes, it really does annoy me, depending on how bright the brake lights are. Also, it seems to be much worse if you’re on a bike. It’s up there with badly set up dazzling headlights in terms of annoyance. Grrr.

If you get stuck, shout up and I’ll run it through my Sandisk software – best I’ve tried.

Oh go on then. Here’s Kasper.

Not entirely comfortable with providing a link in a thread about spammers given the strange ways of Google, but do feel free to search for Emerson Photography – 10% disco for cyclists, free coverage if you can persuade the other half to have a cycling-themed wedding 🙂

Others might see that there as top class spam right there! But that’s relevant to me. Top job (accidental or not!).

Website in profile 😀

Top end wedding photography in the North East? Stop me and buy one.

As is my wife – email in profile…

I actually bought the domain name rad2thepowerofsick on the back of THAT BMX ad. It’s just lapsed if anyone wants it?

Quite fancied sick2thepowerofrad, but it didn’t have the same ring, and also nearly has the word ‘fraud’ at the end – not good for business…

The Weardale Way, from Sunderland Bridge just outside Durham, all the way out to Rookhope as an out and back ( or take the C2C back in again) is a good off road run. Nothing very challenging but nice scenery!

In mastiles’ example of ‘after school hours’ police speed checks, part of me agrees, but a larger part of me thinks it’s a good idea.

If that road becomes known in the collective local drivers’ consciousness as somewhere where there are always cameras, they’ll always drive down it at the correct speed, regardless of the time of day.

There are a few roads I know of – big, wide roads with excellent visibility – and everyone crawls along at 25 as it’s known to be a speed trap site.

Excellent trolling work, but some valid points raised 🙂

Oh designers, I feel your pain. “How can you possibly justify charging that much for one day’s work?!” (I’m a wedding photographer).

I trained mine to walk to heel and then just carried that over onto the bike – he got the idea within a few minutes and runs a foot or so off the back wheel.

He’s only a smallish lurcher cross though, so no good for distance at speed. Should have bought a collie 🙁 Still love ‘im though 🙂

In Photoshop, you can use ‘paths’ to make your selections – it’s time consuming but extremely accurate – you can seperate out individual hairs if you really want to…

Ski yoghuts though – they were carefully monitered by my Mum. Empty tin cans filled with water were fair game, but God forbid we should waste food 😯

Not sure I’m adding anything useful to this discussion other than entertaining higthepig and possibly formulating ideas for a novel along the lines of Black Swan Green, so off to bed now.

Oh it was. One bluetit slowly succumbed and swung from a branch, upside down. I kid you not. Another unpleasant memory was a seagull shot with a GAT (crap air pistol that could be bought by 10 year olds for £14.99, which was three kids combined pocket money). It took darts and the seagull was its first unfortunate victim.

But the bastard wouldn’t die. We had to chase it round my mate’s garden as it squawked its last pathetic cries (presumably to its lifelong partner) before standing on it. The noise attracted my pal’s mother who stood horrified as we beat the poor thing to death with our feet. At that point, the only idea was that the stricken bird should be put out of its misery as quickly as possible. With our feet.

These days, believe it or not, I subscribe monthly to PETA and the RSPCA.

No more historical novels for you. Seems you’ve read enough. Try something fun which retains depth; The Ginger Man by JP Donleavy would be an excellent start – there by the grace of God go I, and all that…

If you really feel the need to read an improving historical novel though, perhaps around the time of the Brontes, but without the patina of wealth, try; A Scots Quair by Grassic Gibbon. There’s little in the way of romance, fun or anything approaching a connection to modern life, but you’ll come away from it with a satisfied glow.

Och. For what it’s worth, I’ve read pretty much the whole thread in between actually doing some work.

My brother in law’s family are a bit posh and have a shooting estate in the borders. They only provide pheasants and they are free range (pheasants, not BIL’s family) – my understanding is that this is the norm in areas where there is room for them to roam. Yes, they hang about near the hoppers so are easy enough to find, but they are pretty swift once airborne.

At this stage in the game, I don’t doubt that anyone will give a tinker’s toss for a new post, but I won’t let that stop me.

My stepdad, who lives on Skye has a few shotguns – he uses them to kill rabbits and then he and my mother eat them. They don’t make clothes out of the skins, or string their banjos with their tendons, but they do manage a pretty good stew.

On the whole, I agree with the sentiment that less guns in society means less holes in humans. Bogger the stats and the sources. It’s just common sense. The second you give householders leave to defend themselves with guns, everyone will have one. And that is the beginning of the end.

All that said, I do like a bit of post-apocalyptic literature, and the guys who survive always have guns. So perhaps those who have disparaged gun ownership might like to review their position when the GM zombies / cannabilistic soldiers / triffids come calling?

Now I think about it, yes. This one. This one about the first ever ST mag

But only because I dismally failed to express what I meant in the OP and drank solidly throughout the remaining fallout.

EDIT: Actually, just re-read it, and it’s all quite uplifting – must just have been the state of me noggin at the time 🙂

Stupid headset question?

Thanks – will have a look.

Yes, but I’m sure I remember a few STWers talking about buying big sheets of the stuff and doing a few different pairs of shoes – could be mistaken though!

Google isn’t helping so far…

Daughter 17?! Damn, you’ve been busy. Can’t she stick in a days’ holiday? When employers (bars/supermarkets) used to take the p1ss when I was that age, I just left and got another job. Might be harder these days I suppose…

some folks very vindictively and maliciously posted images and videos of dogs, in the full knowledge that TJ is afraid of them.

The internets would be a much easier place to be if people actually said what they meant. I try to do so but suspect others may not. Not once has TJ said he’s afraid of dogs, only that he doesn’t very much like them: fair enough.

And I did post a cruel image, which I will gladly remove if asked to. In the meantime, here it is again.

And if you absolutely can’t get out of it, wear a hoodie and they won’t let you in. Actually, just stick some spacers under your roofbox; “Oh, I’m sorry darling, but I can’t get into the car park. Drat!”.

“whit ye gonnae dae abit it?” is pretty aggressive and you don’t need to be psychic to figure what comes next.

“F’kken Moooooan ‘en” IME.

And yes, you’re quite right, he definitely did say that (not the 2nd bit).

Trek road bike wouldn’t shift correctly on front – when i lookd at it found the mech was way off parallel to chain rings, annoyed because Evans (and Trek) make much of their must collect made up and properly checked bike

I’m not a fan of knocking businesses online, but am going to do it anyway 😀 My mum asked me to buy my stepdad a cheap mtb for his early morning peregrinations – he likes to get up at 6 a.m. and cycle a few miles. His ancient Saracen was falling apart and they live on the Isle of Skye so relied on me to choose a bike, buy it and drive up with it.

So off I went to Evans at Team Valley (near Newcastle). The sales assistant was utterly disinterested when I outlined my requirements and pointed me at a full suss Kona – six times the budget I’d just explained and totally unsuitable for an old man winching along dirt tracks.

Eventually, found the perfect bike by myself – a cheapy £300 Trek and paid cash. Got told to go away and come back in half an hour as they had to complete a safety check – I’d noticed the mechanical Tektro disk brakes were loose and the lever pulled all the way back to the bars causing the whole caliper to shift around on its mount.

Fair enough – went and wandered around the local Staples for 30 mins, went back and a very irritable assistant brusquely informed me that I’ve have to wait another hour.

To cut a (very) long story short, I waited nearly two hours and when they finally deigned to part with the cheap piece of shit, the calipers were still hanging off their mounts, the gears were so badly indexed that the chain fell off both ends of the cassette and it was clear that they hadn’t actually laid a finger on the bike, let alone a spanner. I was polite and patient throughout, I like to think I’m good with folk generally and this was a Tuesday afternoon – the shop had perhaps a dozen browsers during the whole fiasco.

Summary? Won’t be returning 🙁