no credit agreement in place. though we did sign a contract for storing embryos, because you have to as part of ivf. the first period was free.

These ‘free trial, you become obligated if you fail to cancel’ things are bad enough when they are for telly or food delivery services. It’s pretty despicable and immoral that that model is insisted upon for NHS treatment. I’d be very surprised if it was enforceable. I’d firmly tell them that you cancelled, stick it. Would be hard to obtain a judgment against you without a credit agreement I think. (Though INAL, obvz).

That may be true, still feels a bit rubbish as a regular subscriber. Feels like we are being taken for chumps.

Reverse the polarity of the motor. Brushless; swap any two of the three wires around. Brushed; just swap the wires around. Bob’s you mother’s brother.

<this may not be good advice> For what it’s worth, my couple of hundred quid invoice for various issues at the end of my last lease got lost, only just found it and realised that they didn’t bother chasing me for it. Makes me wonder if it’s one of those ‘chancing their arm’ type charges that they’ve no hope of actually enforcing. Fair wear and tear is rather subjective after all <this may not be good advice>

Regards this couples ‘reasonable expectation of privacy’ I suspect that the police’s decision at the time to not reveal their identity (the statement was careful just to say that ‘a 47-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman from Crawley had been arrested in relation to the incident’) will have a bearing on whether the press have overstepped the mark. Some papers are at pains to point out that they did not name them, and excuses and justifications are being bandied about by those that did; the Sun editor tried to suggest that it was only through their reporting that the couples alibis were revealed, lol. This all strikes me that the papers that revealed identities are aware that they overstepped the mark and are likely liable.

I have an 8 year old, he hasnt ever asked for a phone.

Same here. I’m gobsmacked that this is even a thing, at 8. I thought that this would be a secondary school age issue. My family and I must lead a sheltered life. Blimey.

Best advice I can give as a bloke in a similar situation but a bit further down the road, is flex with it. What we do is alternating Christmases, and on the years that you don’t have the pleasure of the day itself, just have xmas no.2, or Winter solstice, or happy new year celebrations. The 25th is just an arbitrary date, after all. As for the day itself, be busy. You’re a GP I think? Then work a locum with the OOH provider. Mega bucks! I work the Christmases that I don’t have my boys, and I am happy to do so, because it allows parents who have their kids to have the day off (And it pays well unless I’m already rostered to work😎).

We are all (I’m talking specifically ambo but not excluding other jobs, it’s just what I know) damaged by our job, Drac, and in ways we, let alone others don’t fully understand or realise I think. Recently (and I’m sure you’ll relate) I’ve come to realise just how differently we react to stuff compared to folk in ‘normal’ jobs. Sometimes it feels like I can’t feel emotions like other people any more; sort of cold and dead inside, other times I feel almost normal. It **** you up, our job. If you ever need to talk to someone who’s a stranger but will understand, inbox me bud.

So seemingly worth a punt.

To make pecuniary gain from illegal and immoral endeavour? Yeah, that’s just what I expect of my government.
There’s a good chance that if you walk out of Tesco without paying for a couple of bottles of scotch you’ll get away with it; worth a punt too?

You can’t retire people at 55 on a decent pension when life expectancy is 80 odd years. It’s just not affordable. Something has to give.

Ridiculous statement. This was the remuneration package agreed by both parties at the outset. Erroding the value of the package is simply a deferred paycut, cynically calculated to receive less resistance than an immediate pay cut. This has worked with the NHS, sadly, due to weak unions and a disunited workforce. Bravo to the FBU for having the courage and staying power to stand up for its members rights, and bravo to the FBU members for not falling for the anti union rhetoric that is so prevalent in workplaces these days. Well done.

If you disagree, say so. If you want to start calling names at least do it with conviction, you coward.

I disagree; see above. I also think you are portraying yourself as a nasty, jealous, angry and small minded person, which I don’t think you always do. So that’s a shame.

Still open to jamming unless they are using an inertial navigation system, which correct me if I’m wrong – is relatively rare outside of the military or industrial spec drones.

I don’t think it’s particularly difficult to program in waypoints in a circuit in any reasonably fancy drone. They effectively fly autonomously anyway, the ‘pilot’ is actually only telling the flight computer what he’s like the drone to do, and the computer does all the actual piloting. If signal is lost they almost all ‘return to home’; it would be simple to change that to ‘if signal lost; circuit around waypoints’. What’s disappointing/impressive is that with the fairly limited battery life, the authorities haven’t managed to find a base of operation yet; this strikes me as organised and nefarious, rather than a dickhead ‘hobbyist’ (although actually that’s unfair to hobbyists, who are usually a fairly responsible bunch).

I’m not entirely convinced by the simple (simplistic?) calories in/calories out equation. The body excretes excess vitamins and nutrients, it feels like an oversimplification to suggest that it could not do the same with energy, to a certain extent. We have all known scrawny people who put away tones of shit food, and we’ve probably all experienced middle age spread where it becomes increasingly hard work to keep the waistline under control despite increased activity and greater awareness of of dietary do’s and don’ts. I’m not trying to find excuses for McDonald’s mainlining land whales, but I think there definitely IS a genetic element to who stores excess calories, as well as where they store them.

Badger

This is Badger; half collie, half lurcher (with the lurcher being a greyhound/bull mastif/terrier mix we think). He’s only 11 months old so has a bit of growing up to do, but he’s shaping up to be an awesome hound. Such a docile, affectionate, fun loving, slightly bonkers chap, and clever with it. Really enjoying his company ☺️☺️☺️😂

I agree with almost everything said by the ‘don’t sweat it, it’s all harmless’ brigade posting on this thread; by and large, despite Christmas and to a lesser extent Easter being massive in this country, as an adult it only affects you at all if you let it. HOWEVER. As a young child growing up in this country it is almost impossible to avoid ‘living a religious life’. My son goes to a non religious local school and last week he went to church and had to sing and pray, and today I’ve watching him singing “something something Jesus something” (or something. Now he doesn’t mind, I don’t make any deal at all about it, and I encourage him to make his own mind up about that stuff. It is a little annoying that I’m having to put the ‘or maybe’ argument to him though; surely our children should be being educated not (albeit gently) indoctrinated in this day and age?

It saddens me a little that it’s become so ‘uncool’ to personalise your car in any way other than mega money factory options. People even sneer at non standard alloys these days, they used to be all the rage. It feels like when it comes to cars, it’s all about how much money you’ve spent on it, not how much imagination or personality you’ve put into it. It’s all conform conform conform these days.

I feel I’m pretty relaxed about the whole Christianity thing too, in a live and let live kind of way. Most Christian shenanigans in the UK are no more than pale echoes down the ages of a former seriously religious era. We are a religious country in the same way as we have a monarchy; we are fond of the cute traditions but don’t let it get in the way of cold blooded hard nosed financially motivated decision making.

I’d love to say it worked but it didn’t.
He grabbed a hold of the front of my shirt and pushed me up against the wall.

Ooh, foreplay? Sounds like your luck was changing 😂

Damnit! 41secs too slow!

Actually, when you read the article, it’s a non story. ‘A decision is due’… ‘could be prosecuted’… well, dur; whenever a member of public (even if they are a suspect) is injured significantly during an interaction with police I would certainly hope that there would be an investigation, with a possible outcome being that some one ‘could be prosecuted’ IF they have overstepped the mark. There’s absolutely no indication that that is the case here though.

The boy, who was not wearing a helmet, was admitted to hospital with serious head injuries but later discharged.

So not that serious then, eh? <Teej mode> Thank god he wasn’t wearing a helmet… <\Teej mode>

If you phrase the question slightly differently

By differently, you mean using inflammatory language, supposition and fibs? Yes, I would imagine that an answer to that question would be different.

The only problem I have with armed bobbies on foot is that they are them not in response cars and become less responsive as a result. Armed response is a very finite resource and making a percentage of it less able to respond seems a bit daft to me.

Although I appreciate that the Met has a LOT more armed officers than most.

Cheers folks got it screwed together yesterday. Here’s hoping for a good recovery.

Thats great news; I’d be surprised if you regret it. Out of curiosity; did you meet much resistance to your preferred treatment? Or was yours sufficiently mashed that they came to the same conclusion?

Push hard for surgery. I did, and got my way. Much better outcomes if you research it, (better recovery, less/no need for physio, less chance of a ‘malunion’ better pain control) but the NHS is very risk averse and would rather you lived with permanent reduced ability than risk the (small but real) chance of death under GA. It feels like they basically take the view that it’s less financially risky for them to intervene as little as possible. And I’m aN NHS employee and general fanboi for the most part.

Strikes me that it’s reasonable and proportionate force utilised to stop and detain potentially violent, and certainly dangerous individuals, plain and simple. There are much bigger issues regarding our broken society, but the Met aren’t charged with fixing that. They have been told to address this new crime pattern, and they seem to have acted decisively, yet reasonably. Chapeau, TBH. Hope the first Bobby to unintentionally cause a KSI as a result of their strategy gets supported.

There should be little place for this sort of heavy handed policing in a modern, enlightened society. Whilst I can’t help but enjoy a load of behoodied scumbags getting their just desserts on the bonnet of a police car, I also can’t help but think that these tactics are going to further alienate certain segments of society and deepen the already massive divisions between the haves and the have nots. It’s hard to imagine anyone having sympathy for the scooter crooks, but the first one to end up in a wheelchair, or even get killed will probably end up as a local martyr. The ‘he was a loveable rogue, led astray, loved his kids/mum etc stories will be all over SoMe, and resentment of police will skyrocket, with the associated violence targeting police officers, and the vicious circle will accelerate. We should be working on unifying and bettering U.K. society, but it’s too difficult, so let’s endorse smashing up wronguns with police cars. It’s not hard to see what’s wrong with this tactic, even if it is initially gratifying to watch.

However, this is Tory UK, that ship sailed a long time ago. So as you were, let’s watch some more scumbags getting taken down for our enjoyment on youtube. It’s all a bit too ‘running man’ for me; posting the videos for entertainment feels like a line has been crossed.

Great example of a risk assessment done right. Well done Met, more power to your elbow.

How about paying a decent wage to young people so they don’t go out robbing?

Agreed, but it’s not an either/or situation. These individuals have crossed a rather thick line and are no longer worthy of assistance by society, having decided to viciously prey upon innocent people whilst (attempting to) cynically exploit our society’s decent, liberal human rights record.

Are the Met recruiting currently?  I’m very tempted

MX5 water pump is driven by the same aux belt as the alternator, I think.

head gasket failures often, but by no means always, occur after an engine has been ‘boiled’.

I’d tow the car on a bar; less skill needed by the towed driver and (you could argue) that the towed driver’s license applies to the towed vehicle, so towing weight license restrictions don’t apply. (I doubt this is true, but I’d certainly argue it! Reckon it’s a very grey area) Anyway, rowing on a bar is simple and relatively stress free, compared to a rope. And a LOT cheaper than a trailer.

Trying to use stuff I’ve already got Coug, but that’s not a bad option.

Those wifi mesh thingies look ideal but 100 plus quid, ouch.

That video looks like exactly what I ant to do. I’ll have a go tomorrow. Worst case is a back to square one situation. Fingers crossed, will report back tomorrow. Thanks for the ideas and links, all.

Unless you have LAN & wireless networking knowledge I would recommend staying clear of using a secondary router.

I haven’t, but I quite enjoy learning. Was hoping for a nudge in the right direction, which I’ve received, thanks!

Is it a ‘proper’ router or a hub that also connects to the web as well as acting as a router?

Lol, I have no idea! It’s a Dlink 3680 if that’s any use?

If it was me, I would keep the SSID as separate on the two routers, that way you can easily tell which one you connected to. Channels should also be separate.

i can see how that would be good, but I’m trying to set up an echo dot in the kids room and apparently separate SSIDs will cause an issue. Otherwise yeah, job done.

I suppose it makes it easier to privatise Fire and Police like they’ve done to Ambo.

Eh? When did ambos get privatised?

The law is clear in regard to emergency service drivers, but as always, individual cases are nuanced.  An emergency driver is able to utilise certain exemptions, and must also be aware that they are very much not exempt from laws such as careless and dangerous driving. We do not know enough about this case, and it could well be that this was a reckless and aggressive driver blatantly taking advantage of his position of responsibility for personal thrills, or it could equally be an excellent, calm, experienced driver who was caught out by conditions that he could not have reasonably been expected to anticipate. As the court heard all of the evidence, maybe they were convinced that it was more likely the latter. Very sad incident.

Blocked numbers can leave messages? That’s a bit of a tech fail, no? Weird

Don’t want to involve solicitors at all, just want us both to be sensible and look out for each other..

From experience, this is possible, though very hard, and takes maturity on both sides. I’d recommend meditation as a way of moving forward and getting areas of agreement ‘signed off’ by both of you. In my circumstances, I think it helped that we were both in very similar places financially, similar wages, hours, pensions etc. I’d imagine it gets messy when there are big differences.

All the best mate. Shitty thing to go through but it’ll get easier

Lass at work started getting a load of movement alerts on her phone yesterday; looked at the footage and it was her camera in someone else’s kitchen. Apparently it had been pinched off her wall, fenced at the corner shop and bought by the chap that works at the chippy. Police didn’t find thi our and retrieve the camera, Facebook did. 🤣

BBC news are hinting that the 48 letters are on the desk. This is going to get messy(er) if so.

I’ve got concrete. I’d recommend painting it. Other than that, I’m oot. What’s a sprung floor and why do you need one in a garage?

Yes I’m going to vote for Labour. Because I’d rather that we had a party that is ideologically decent but may turn out to be a little ineffective than a party that is proven to be ideologically evil and ALSO ineffective. Plus I enjoy how scared the ‘establishment’ seems to be of him.

Just finished the last episode of the latest series of better call Saul; it’s been a great series but would be good just to leave it right there. Jimmy has become Saul, drifted apart from Kim, Mike has proven his worth to Fring and Fring has created his empire, demonstrating his cold calculating style. I suppose the show still has to explain the fates of Kim and Nacho Varga, but I’m not sure there’s much left to tell for a whole series, even in the show’s wonderful, glacial story progression style.

I’ll most likely be proved wrong though, and be glad of it.

Film will surely be new protagonists with glimpses of our loved characters as supposed above; I’m sure it’ll be great but I wonder how the writing style will translate into the ‘squeeze it into two hours’ medium of filum.

Dunno when they’ll be out next but the big aldi tool chests are cracking good quality for the price 👍🏼