Actually, this reminds me of a (true) dog-related story. Whilst walking Kasper the lurcher over the fields, I saw a dog in the distance tearing after something. It managed almost a whole field before giving up and returning to its owner. At this point, a nearby dalmation took over and chased the still invisible would-be prey round a field twice, before coming to within 50 yards of Kasper and I.

At this point I could see the object of interest was a large hare. Kasper saw it and took over where the dalmation left off, so really, that (crap but true story is quite like this thread, if you substitute the hare for TJ). The hare was unharmed by the way.

As an aside, can anyone tell me the phrase used to describe a hare crouched down hiding in grass? It’s got a rather lovely name, but can’t remember it. TIA.

Even by STW standards, this is quite bad.*
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*(understatement).

Fascinating. It’s like watching the slowest, most boring car crash in the world.

RealMan, I’m not about to get into the rights and wrongs of it (again) but have you actually seen the video? That kid had ample opportunity to explain himself, but was nothing but obstructive, rude and mouthy.

Yup. Without getting all dailymailranty about it, there really is a serious lack of civic responsibility in the UK, and this is perhaps not the best result. As I mentioned in the other thread, my Ozzie mate is constantly amazed at what people will put up with here (phones blaring music on public transport, everyone just sitting and ignoring bad behaviour). She always says something, and the scrotes are usually so surprised at being confronted that they comply.

There was a fascinating prog on Radio 4 last year about this very subject – it really is a British phenomenon.

Tiger’s dog defeats internet arguers in video shocker.

TJ yesterday 🙂

Sorry to hear that happened. Sadly, if the footage is rubbish, there’s no way to enhance it. Increasing overall contrast may help define number plates but that’s as good as it gets really.

TJ – your opinions usually err towards mine on many issues, but your stance on this subject is clearly ludicrous. Dogs walk about. They may pass you on the path. They may have a quick sniff as they pass you.

What’s the frigging problem?

[/quote]ditch_jockey – Member
Great minds think alike!

Indeed they do!

Really very glad to know the vodka thing is true – my lol now feels all warm inside 🙂

When I first started at weatherseal windows and doors, dirty tricksters and scam artists (they can’t touch me now, I’m INVINCIBLE)[/url] at the tender age of 22, the big joke was to pick the nastiest, sweariest, cold-called victim of the night and tell the team leader they had a shoe-in if they called back. “Oh yes Sir, you can have free winows and doors and kitchens and allsorts if we can use photos of your home in our brochure”.

Sadly, it backfired on me as I was made a team leader within a week and could no longer trust my minions.

Balls. You just can’t beat the old bucket of water over the door trick. Works a treat, automatically picks a random victim and has anonymity written all over it. Wasn’t me.

Loving the passed on vodka story even more than the rabbit hutch – urban legend or truth?

Just bought my first dslr camera which is a canon 600D with the EF-S 18-55 mm IS II Lens, should arrive Thursday bought from pixmania.

Get ready for a disappointing Xmas 🙁

Seems they rank right up there with CRC for shit customer service and especially claiming to hold stock which is actually not in stock.

Don’t mean to piss on yer chips, but as soon as I saw the sentence quoted above, my heart sank on your behalf – I’ve read an awful lot of bad things about Pixmania. If you’re one of the lucky majority, you’ll be fine but the unlucky few suffer badly.

Now I’ve spread my doom and gloom, if when it does eventually arrive, enjoy it. The single biggest improvement you’ll make to your photos is not to buy a fast lens, a motorgrip or a tripod (all helpful though). A flash and a remote flash trigger and a light stand/Gorilla-pod will lift your images from the everyday to the extraordinary.

Yo! Yes I agree to a point. Dogs are unpredictable and may bite or even rip and tear. A child off the leash may give a mild smack.

My dog will not savage anything over the size of a rabbit, so he’s allowed off the lead in public places. Please do not walk your hamster on the links. He will kill it.

Do the same regulations apply to Grizzly Bears whilst shredding the trails in Canada? Who even owns the bears?!!! What if you cycle through a fox poo in Trinity (Edinburgh)?

Finally, SFB was able to quit this forum. I’m guessing he was advised to do so by a professional. Joking apart, it might not be a bad idea. I’ve considered going cold-turkey myself.

Labradors make perfect guide dogs for blind and partially sighted folks; can anyone imagine how difficult their lives would be without their canine companions, or seeing-eye dogs?

Dog gets fed and sleeps in a warm place, owner doesn’t walk under a truck: perfick.

My partially sighted Inverness mate was given a seeing-eye dog. It was a death-trap. Stopped to eat chips off the ground, wanted to talk to every single passerby, wandered out into the middle of the road to sniff at pigeons and God forbid he should take it to the pub – spent all night licking up spilt beer to the point where it couldn’t sniff let alone see…

But that dog was the exception to the rule. Retired shortly thereafter.

Aye, but what have they ever done for us, eh? Eh?! Furkin weegies. (nae offence tae the many weegies on this fine forum bytheway, bigman, know?).

It’s less a reliance than a symbiosis. We may well have evolved, physically and mentally into our current forms due to our association with dogs. Less need to be club-wielding meat-heads, more time to plan for the future.

Sadly, the reverse didn’t work out so well for dogs – lots of pedigree breeds losing eyes due to flat faces, falling over at the age of eight due to atrophying hips or suffering from strange liver-destroying diseases.

I’m going to be very honest here – I typed a huge, long heartfelt post just seconds before buttercup’s last offering and feel it doesn’t deserve to languish at the bottom of page two. So here it is again. Mods, please feel free to prick my pompousness if you feel the need 🙂

“I’ve been very lucky with dog ownership. I am self employed. When we took on a six month old, nervous wreck of a lurcher from the Dogs’ Trust, I was able to sit up for the first fortnight dealing with his night terrors without fear of being late for work the next day. Lucky, I know.

I was able to clean up his double incontinence at 4a.m. and hose down his cage in the freezing night, before going back inside to wipe him down and resettle him.

His training sessions were frequent – two or three a day before walks for pleasure. This meant working until the early hours to keep my clients happy. I was able to look into various training methods and apply those which worked for the pair of us. Like I say, I’ve been lucky, and I daresay he has too.

He still isn’t perfect – he sometimes takes off after wildlife and ignores me – he’s a lurcher – that’s generations of training for you. Try calling a greyhound off a rabbit; good luck.

All that said, I now specialise in photographing other peoples’ dogs and and am constantly amazed by the total lack of training – most of my client’s dogs aren’t allowed of the leash (which is a right pain in the arse as it has to be photoshopped out) and very few will ‘Sit!’. Surely ‘Sit’ is the most basic of all commands?

Sorry for the long rambling post – all I wanted to say was that it’s really not that hard to invest some time training a dog – it can be done whilst watching the telly. I hope that when Kasper (the current dog) carks it, I’ll have learnt some valuable lessons on training the next one, if I can lift my weeping face from my pillow.”

I’ve been very lucky with dog ownership. I am self employed. When we took on a six month old, nervous wreck of a lurcher from the Dogs’ Trust, I was able to sit up for the first fortnight dealing with his night terrors without fear of being late for work the next day. Lucky, I know.

I was able to clean up his double incontinence at 4a.m. and hose down his cage in the freezing night, before going back inside to wipe him down and resettle him.

His training sessions were frequent – two or three a day before walks for pleasure. This meant working until the early hours to keep my clients happy. I was able to look into various training methods and apply those which worked for the pair of us. Like I say, I’ve been lucky, and I daresay he has too.

He still isn’t perfect – he sometimes takes off after wildlife and ignores me – he’s a lurcher – that’s generations of training for you. Try calling a greyhound off a rabbit; good luck.

All that said, I now specialise in photographing other peoples’ dogs and and am constantly amazed by the total lack of training – most of my client’s dogs aren’t allowed of the leash (which is a right pain in the arse as it has to be photoshopped out) and very few will ‘Sit!’. Surely ‘Sit’ is the most basic of all commands?

Sorry for the long rambling post – all I wanted to say was that it’s really not that hard to invest some time training a dog – it can be done whilst watching the telly. I hope that when Kasper (the current dog) carks it, I’ll have learnt some valuable lessons on training the next one, if I can lift my weeping face from my pillow 🙂

I have a few mates in the polis, and a few acquaintances who definitely aren’t mates. I’ve had some very unpleasant dealings with power-tripping, badge-covering meatheads in uniform, and some excellent experiences with helpful, knowledgable types too.

But my Dad got stopped in Edinburgh a few years ago with my six year old half sister in the back seat. The police who stopped him claimed that neither my Dad nor my sister were wearing their seatbelts. My Dad is completely anal about seatbelts and won’t turn the key until everyone is belted up. By that, I mean he is utterly obsessive about seatbelts – the car doesn’t move unless everyone in the car is clicked in.

He denied the claims and one of the cops started shouting and swearing explicitly (six year old still in the back of the car). Dad got a fine, wee sister learned some new words.

So as always, it simply comes down to the fact that there are nice folk and nasty folk in every walk of life. The nasty ones do tend to colour ones’ perception of any given profession, but that’s life baaaaby, that’s life 🙂

…but most importantly, psychologically the drivers won’t hate the cyclists as much because despite having to make essentially the same overtaking move had they been riding two abreast…

Exactly this. I wanted to say it on page one, but really didn’t want to get involved (dammit, too late!).

It’s all about perception, i.e., the drivers’ perception of the cyclists. It’s probably much more hassle for a driver to overtake twice, but they (drivers) will be much more easier to share the road with if they perceive that the cyclists are “doing the right thing”, even if it is not the right thing.

Oh and a quick sneaky edit; if the two cyclists had been doing 18mph on road bikes and wearing ‘proper’ cycling gear, I doubt there would have been any bother.

I listen to a lot of audiobooks, so would echo CharlieMungus’ comment about ease of flipping back and forward where necessary to check facts. Much more hassle on an MP3 player.

That said, I read a lot of paperbacks and they’re invaluable on cycling tours. Read 20 pages, set up camp the next night and voila: 20 pages of instant kindling for your camp fire (plus weight loss). Grand.

Maybe they’re like crack for dogs.

Yep – Mrs Removed says I have turned the dog into an addict 😀 It’s the only time he’s really, very annoying. About half an hour after his food, he’ll come and sit in front of me, just staring. He then starts squeaking, very softly. Eventually, this gives way to demanding, sharp, high-pitched barks and I fetch his dentastick.

Perhaps it’s time for him to go cold turkey…

Depends which supermarket I end up in really. Our lurcher / terrier X gets half a tin of meat (Pedigree, Bakers, Winalot) with a large scoop of dried stuff (whatever’s half decent and on offer). He also gets a packet of liver or lungs each week, which is cut into strips, fried and doled out over three or four days.

Several biscuits on his walkies too, and a dentastick every night, which he still goes completely mental for 🙂

+1 for warfare. I know a few who can possibly help out, given the info here. If I can drag them away from witchofworldcraft or whatever’s currently draining their brains…

I currently use a 35mm f2 and a 50mm f1.4, but have had a 50mm 1.8 in the very recent past.

To be honest, if I want a walkabout lens, it’s always my 24mm. I like wide lenses!

The only assault up there is on the girl’s part. She goes for him, he tries to hold her at arm’s length, whilst telling her to sit down, and eventually, it looks to me like he pushes her down hard, onto a seat for his own protection. Bet that lass punches her weight.

And that’s before considering the verbal assault.

Moly, get stuffed you sarky twit.

Moly – there were plenty kids with D70s when I did my uni course – probably the equivalent of £850 these days. I was stuck with film!

molgrips – Member
In my experience of Wales (which is reasonably extensive, I live here) the most mountainous parts are not actually so good for trails because the terrain’s too difficult. A lot of Scotland must surely fall into that category? From looking at the maps the really remote rugged parts (which are quite a bit) seem to have very little in the way of trails or indeed anything at all apart from contour lines.

So long as you don’t mind riding landrover tracks, the Highland estate’s access roads are ideal for getting you up into the mountains proper. And there must be thousands of miles of such tracks – some are pretty much singletrack, some are well maintained and used daily by estate workers and gamekeepers.

The Isle of Skye is an example of what you’re talking about – not so much in the way of estates, or estate tracks, so a lot of the remote bits are no fun for riding (despite what the magazines say).

2nd hand would certainly get your nephew a lot more for his (mum’s) money. I’d recommend a used D200 if she can stretch to it. Not great in low light but perfect for a college course – built like the proverbial brick out-house.

A very quick look at the classifieds on my favourite photo forum shows THIS D200 with lenses for £850 ONO. The 18-70mm kit lens is probably the best kit lens ever made, and the 80-200 is fab too. With the SB-600 flashgun, the whole setup is pretty amazing value for money (not my advert btw!!).

OK, so it’s not entry level as such, but it’s a lot of kit for the cash…

Tosh. The right answer is most certainly portrayed in the video. Selfish wee bampot feels he is entitled to travel without paying, unlike the rest of the passengers, and then inconveniences everybody by not just coughing up or getting off. Shouts and swears (in front of ‘forementioned small kids) too. Go on yersel’ big man.

We have an Australian friend who comes and visits occasionally. She can’t believe the way yoofs behave on public transport, and she always says something, even if it’s just to ask them to turn the ‘music’ off on their phone. She can’t get her head round the way everyone else just sits and pretends it’s not happening.

Like x 100. 😀

Can’t help I’m afraid, but I made this for a client earlier this year using FotoFusion – but it’s not free… I could do it for you for a few beers if you like 🙂

jhw on the stairs at his work yesterday. Dude, you sound close to snapping. Go get a job as a postie.

I had to get rid of mine as Mrs Removed couldn’t stand the smell 🙁 I bought a wee tub of Barbour reproofing wax and as above ^^^ applied with a sponge once a year – makes all the difference. There’s plenty 2nd hand jackets on ebay – I got mine for about £40 in excellent nick.

Got a lurcher, but no landrover, sorry!

Och, I can’t talk – I shamelessly use this thread to promote my photo businesses 🙂

Fair dos. Why not start a blog and link to it?