That corner should be good fun in a rwd car in the snow.

Another one – there’s a Wildheart’s album that has a ridiculously long final track, but it’s one of those 3 min songs with 20mins of silence & then a recording of a load of laughing & talking at the end.
Several times I have been distracted when the album has ‘finished’ only to jump out of my skin 20 mins later when a load of talking & laughing starts up…..

Yes! Learnt never to fall asleep to that album pretty quickly. Terrifying.

We miss ours – 54 plate cooper S. Ditched the run-flats for a set of toyo proxes, it was hilarious. Supercharger noise, nice feel to the gear change, the pops on overrun and lift-off oversteer being particular memories…. great little car. No problems other than consumables and a tiny little oil leak which was easily fixed. BMW customer service was faultless (it was nearly new when we got it). Ended up selling when we went down to one car… which was a freelander. OOPS. Still, that’s 2 of the hairdresser cars done.

600 mile round trip*, to buy a skoda unseen**

* Car was close to inlaws so could coincide with a visit
** Nearly new car, from a dealer who promised to refund deposit if it wasn’t what we hoped for. And it was the only s/h one in the country that was even close to the spec that we were after, with a 4 month wait for new ones.

ETA – I think what I’m saying is that is down to context/circumstance: some people go to Italy to order a Ferrari.

Its a lot of cash but its not poor value.

Would love to do something like that but time & money is not on my side

+1

I get the bikepacking argument, but I don’t think the experience would be quite the same.

Is the charging point on the phone free of fluff/lint/general pocket detritus?

ETA – SORRY. Re read your post. Keep going. Nothing useful from me here.

We had this problem where we used to live when the road layout was changed. Local residents acted very promptly (as a group): We contacted the council (Leeds), who supported our strategic placing of rocks, their only stipulation was that the rocks were painted white, and that the paint was renewed when needed. Once a year we all went out and painted a rock. Quite fun really. We also turned over and reseeded the bad bits, and chucked some wildflower seed in. It helped that the project was owned/driven by a residents’ association. Verges still look lovely, and the work fostered some community spirit. Anyone for a hug?

that’s a brilliant picture! Had to do quite a bit of reading into this one easter… this page and a set of scales proved to be particularly useful in determining whether we needed to make a trip to the vet:

http://www.petmd.com/dog/chocolate-toxicity

+1 for Seaview. I think it’s where the IoW’s only Ferrari resides.

My ten pence… Bembridge is great for beaches (lots of choice, quiet, but not a town packed with action), main seaside towns are a short hop away, starting with the fab beach/cliff/fossils at Yaverland and then along the coast. Make sure to pop down to Steephill cove on a sunny afternoon. If you’ve got older kids, then Cowes is good (avoid the big sailing events to keep costs down), but less choice for beaches, none of which are sandy. I’ve not heard great things about Freshwater. You can reach most of the Island pretty easily from anywhere, and there’s a real mix of cheesy seaside stuff, and just about anything else you’d want (posh cream tea at priory bay and a plod along their private beach is nice). Avoid Besitval and IoW Festival weekends because the Island is gridlocked from Newport to the East.

It’s at its best on the kind of flatish undulating twisty singletrack you’d expect at an XC race, I rode mine all over north Yorkshire and blasted round trail centers too, but it reqires a degree of skill rather than relying on the bike.

+1

Gratuitous pic, on North York Moors having just blasted round a trail centre:

I’d love to pick up some tan wall ardent, but not been able to find any, anywhere.

You’re right. Not wrong. Not fussy. Stick to your guns.

These guys have always been nice to us: Argon promotions[/url]

Used to buy pictures for books for a few different publishers. It could get complicated – i.e. how many countries, what print run, how many future editions, what size, will there be online versions etc… or it could be very simple – ‘£100 up to half page, £250 full page, use it as much as you want, and send me a couple of copies’. Or thereabouts. You may be able to log onto a stock library and get an idea of what the going rate is… Any picture researcher/editor should be able to have an honest discussion with you about this, they will have a budget, possibly per page if they are working to templates. Well done!

And even more blatant… I have some steel pace 29er forks, that I could be persuaded to part with for £40 plus postage? They’re in the shed at the mo, but here they are as were on the bike:

Long steerer, good condition but not perfect. Email in profile.

Found a pertinent quote in the Sunday Times this morning…

No man has a right to be respected for any other possessions, but those of virtue and talents.
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/business/Finance/article1617629.ece

Get you and your flash Sunday Times subscription, parking it round here for us all to see…

Had something well fast and well loud and well low over Leeds heading that way on er… Thurs pm last week. No idea what it was, but I filled my pants and hid under a bush. Good luck.

Are you sure it’s not foxes?

You can from Leeds (fly from Manchester). I nearly did, but couldn’t justify the cost.

Partly tongue in cheek but something that’s stuck with me… “if you don’t want to buy a house buy a survey”.

Had similar with a motorcyclist overtaking me whilst turning right into my drive, police came down in my favour in their report, which influenced the outcome with the insurers (motorcyclist 100% at fault).

Have we talked about the cost of indemnity yet? 😈

I was quoted £45/sqm for resin bonded onto existing printed concrete driveway plus any groundworks up here in Leeds (that’s for a decent job – apparently there are some corners that people can cut on the prep side to bring cost down, but this impacts on longevity). I thought this was reasonable, but not being the most spatially aware, we were caught out by the size of our drive, so didn’t proceed.

This is a really interesting discussion – thanks all.

Toothless, tainted professional bodies who don’t fairly represent or support the fragmented profession, and the bashing by the media will mean that the government can do whatever it likes to doctors. It all looks a bit ‘every man for himself’ across the board at the moment. Was humbled when talking to a surgeon recently, “to slow the devaluing of our profession all we can do is to continue to do the best job we possibly can and prove our worth”. Sadly I think he’ll need Murdoch and his mates onside too. I am not a doc, but wife and many friends are.

It’s amazing, our life is like a Thomson holiday advert crossed with a country living article. Our sun kissed tousled haired cherubs play quietly together on our immaculate lawn. Occasionally they break off to stretch and kiss one of us gently on the nose. The house, if anything has got tidier, and I’m struggling to spend the spare cash fast enough.

+1

Drac, we should talk.

I design biscuits Mon-Fri, but fancy something a bit more outdoors and away from the desk. Main hobby is Dolphin training, may try and make this my main job, but there’s so much competition.

Ours (2010 2.0 TDI though) was a very good car, and I’d imagine the cost saving for the 1.6 would be worth it. The 2.0 was never exciting so not sure why we went for the bigger engine. Ultimately, when faced with a £3k repair bill (known fault with AC compressor, and a very rapid culmination of wear and tear stuff), we decided to trade it in at a garage very far away for something more exciting. I’ll also hasten to add it saved my 7 month pregnant wife’s life in a nasty accident.

ETA: Electric handbrake was great, and never had any problems. Taxi drivers round here reckoned they only broke if you pulled away too quickly (not giving it chance to release fully).

This one was fun last week. . First half of Dalby then fish and chips on the beach in Robin Hoods Bay, then back.

My Swift, just before putting me in a swamp, and tearing my legs off on Weds. It’s a love/hate thing.

“No baby under my care ever died from having one feed of microwaved breast milk. Although it may grow up liking Country music” hahaha

Congratulations! Some things I’ve picked up. Don’t get into point scoring ‘but you did/but I did’ territory. The world changes overnight for both of you (as a couple and as individuals). The first 10 weeks are fine. It gets hard after that. Keep riding your bike. Do things together. Cafes are the new pub. She may not want to do things without the baby. But she may feel pressured into thinking she should. She may be putting herself under a lot of pressure. There is no right/wrong way. It’s easy to overthink things. You may not be able to ‘fix’ some problems, but you can be there to facilitate and support. None of this is supposed to be advice, just lessons I’m learning as we go along (3yo and 20mo), we’re still finding our feet.

7000 miles all over the UK in mk 3 petrol VRS estate so far and it’s been very very good as a family car. Of course it’s nowhere near a supercar, but personally I wouldn’t want any more performance in an estate car on UK roads – cost of a mistake at the limits is too high. Or maybe my brain’s not quick enough. Bigger brakes, adaptive lights and DSG have all been highlights (and I wanted a manual). Ride I would describe as firm. Any comparative statements are drawn from ownership of a range of cars that include Mini Cooper S, Freelander, Passat and a couple of old fashioned Golf GTIs. VRS is favourite so far (but also most expensive). Biggest surprise has been massive reduction in insurance premium (over the outgoing 2.0 diesel passat)

Just for reference: http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/cockapoos-good-breeders-in-scotlandnorth-of-england

aaah remember one summer when just being in the right place at the right time had me do the last race in a spring series in the solent which led to a trip to the south of france for some metre boat stuff, back to Brittany for a nationals (still no idea why it was in France), then Cowes, then straight onto a boat for the Fastnet. Think it was 2001 and the Jubilee regatta was in there as well. Oh to be a student again… I think I had to buy a ticket to Nice and a few beers and that was it. Trying to do some sums on ownership at the moment so I can give others this sort of opportunity, but it’s not looking likely for a while 🙁

Thank you so much everyone – I am learning a lot here.

That sounds brilliant, thanks for sharing. Inspiring diversity and exciting plans 🙂

No longer in the game but used to shoot a bit and buy a lot for a major publisher and also an ad agency or two. I was going to say £800, but don’t forget to button down the licensing. So basically an endorsement of wot Mr Smith said. The problem is we are in a world where everyone is a ‘professional photographer’ and it’s down to those that really are professionals and good at it to put the brakes on the race to the bottom.