Decided on a Focus becuase both the wife and I have driven one for an extended period of time as work hire cars. We both really like it. Plus our Civic is diesel. We don’t need a diesel any more as we’re only doing short trips. I’d rather not have to deal with short trip related diesel issues. Much prefer petrol

Time is an issue. I plan to hang on until April-ish and save a bit more. However, we cannot be without a car for anything more than a week. Otherwise my wife cannot get to work, kids to childminder etc.

I bike to work on my fixied gear every day. But that’s not the same as charging around the woods. I need to get up earlier at the weekend I think.

Thanks for the tips. I want to get rid of the Civic for several reasons. Overall its proved to be a bad buy. The wife also hates it – despite wanting no input into the car choice.

I’ve sold cars privately before but much older cars. This is 2010. Auto Trader suggests they are worth about £5-6K. I’m dubious about how easily it will be to sell this privately. We’ve only got onencar so if I sell this privately then I don’t have a car to go car shopping. Taxis and hire cars would soon wipe out the difference I suspect between PX and selling privately. Again though I’ve got little experience of this side of car buying.

Yonks ago Halfords’ own-brand kit closely resembled that made by a top name. It might be worth a close look still.

Halfords buy their own brand roofbars (and roof boxes) from Thule. The bike cariers are from Paddy Hopkirk. I’m on Thule carriers.

I recokon I fitted 1000 roofbars during my 8 year sentence at Halfords. No they are not all equal.

Cheap brands – avoid – they tend to damage your car. Paddy (Shoddy Hopkirk) were particularly aweful

Mid-range – Fine, they just take longer to fit/take off. Ideal if you aren’t going to use them much

Thule – the best. Pricey up front, but they sell secondhand very well. I’m still trying to find a secondhand pair of 969 areo bars for less than I can buy them brand new. They fit in a few minutes (very handy when it’s raining). They tend to be quieter if you buy the aero bars and they often have locks included. I still buy Thule even though I only use them a few times a year.

I got my parents a Chromecast for Christmas. Technologically, they struggle with the landline. They got it working in minutes and now everything is streamed from iPad or my dad’s phone. Even when it’s live on telly?! £30 can’t go wrong.

I’ve had loads of stuff from CRC recently. They seem to be cheap for the bits I’m after. That said I’ve had loads of stuff from Wiggle and Evans too. I haven’t ordered any bike stuff from Germany. Mostly because I’ve had problems with other stuff from Germany. The return postage always puts me off.

Halfords have got better. They are still pricey, but every now and then I get a bargain. Plus I cycle past it every day so it’s convienent.

I’ve always liked the met office. Both on Android and iOS. Gives wind data in the detail section.

Halfords (Hamax) one has been excellent. I don’t like the front mounted ones. Drivers behind you cannot see how have a baby on board. Mind you I’ve still had a few @@@@ get far too close despite them being clearly able to see the child seat.

Painters Thumb

One of those makes the job of cleaning rollers a much easier task. I got one last year. Cannot imagine decorating without one now.

Sounds like you might have hidden files lurking in the background. I’ve had this problem before. Simple things like cheking for iPhone/ iPad back ups and deleting them all bar the last (they are about 5GB each). Email accounts can get huge.
Multiple copies on photos and multiple copies of music files can eat space too.

As other have said get a disc tool to see in more depth what’s on there. A quick thing would be to use Finder and do an advance search for files bigger than 1GB, then 500mb. That sould find some junk.

How much £11 for two? £15 for three? FFS how much!

Am I the only one thinking that’s really cheap? I paid £30 for 3 in Animal recently. They seem to last a couple of years. I saw a three pack of Ted Bakers boxers for £35 and thought that was good value.

I did try some cheap boxers once. Based on the front opening, I can only assume they were designed by a woman. It was more like basket weaving than going for a wee!

I would like to stop drinking but seem to struggle. My wife moans if I bulk by beer/wine. I do this to save money rather than to drink more. (we go through a bottle of wine a week). However, I suggested I stop and started to throw out all the spirits in the house. Including some Serbian Rakija. Wife goes mental. “Don’t throw that away, people gave it to you!”

How on earth does that help me!

Like the sound of cordials and fizzy water. I heard a food programme on Radio4. There are some posh cordials now. Companies who put as much effort into non-alcoholic drinks as others do into alcohol. I will investigate.

I think the problem might be that many parents don’t link “game” with violence, sex, drugs etc.

My little brother was allowed to play GTA from about 10 years old. My parents just couldn’t get their heads round a “game” having an age certificate. I tried explaining it was the same as films. Would they let him watch Hellraiser at 10. They just responded that it was a game and therefore fine.

I’m hoping my kids have the same view as me – too many friends and too many bikes to waste time playing Xbox. Except Street Fighter 2. I kick arse at Street Fighter….

I tried all the check-a-trder sites. However, there is no one anywhere near me listed. Presumably because the review websites are charging the traders to be listed. The wife looked the neighbours house, said it looked fine. But then it’s difficult to inspect someones house when they have all their stuff in it.

Everyone else I asked for recommendations just said “why would you pay someone to do a job you can do yourself?” I think they missed the point.

Neighbour gave us his no. Said he did a really good job. Either he’s rushed mine, or they have low standards. Not on facebook, but h doesn’t seem to come up when I do a search through facebook. The whole thing seems to rely on the trader being online. So if they don’t want to be reviewed (i.e. because they don’t think much of their own work) then no one else can review them either. That seems odd to me.

You can’t really blame the Tories. Yet.

It’s a combination of things:

Climate change – predications suggest that stormy weather is becoming more and mor common. We don’t get drizzle any more, just vast quantities of water all in a short space of time. Too fast for thr drains to deal with

Idiotic planning permission – building on flood plans is dumb. The developers build a big drain to get the water off their development. Which means the next place downstream has even more water to deal with. There must be a reason for this – it can’t just be the developers making money. Plus why aren’t councils insisting old deralict properties are knocked down and redeveloped first?

No planning permission for removal of lawns, trees, adding brickweave driveways all over the place. Grass holds a ridiculous amount of water. brickweave and tarmac drain super fast – but then the next place downstream has even more water to deal with.

Spending cuts – EA hasn’t got enough money to build and maintain storm drains. Farmers don’t care about ditches. The unsustainable farming practices in the UK, plus supermarkets remove any profit the farmer makes. They don’t have the money/time to worry about someone elses land flooding.

I really feel sorry for people who cannot sell their house because of the flooding and who cannot afford to insure them.

Both Labour and the Tories have been in power while this is allowed to go on. What annoys me is the current politicians constantly using the word Unprecedented. All the time. It’s not unprecedented. It’s the new norm!
Until they accept this then it’s only going to get worse.

If you have a BSc. then that means you could get onto a Graduate Training Scheme. Many larger companies do these. Your low BSc. score would be overshadowed by you 10 years of experience – shows you can commit and are reliable.

Also, think less about transferable skills and more about transferable Competences. It’s HR BS for how you do things, rather than what you do. Seems to be the big thing in recruitment at the moment.

Have thought about an apprentice myself. I’m in a similar age and family situation to you. The low wage puts me off though. Feel for you. My wife has just lost colleages due to the offshore job cuts.

iTunes is pretty decent once you get the hang of it. No worse or better than the Play store.

I would suggest it depends on how on old your children are. This explains the basics. iTunes Parents account

As with Play store you need to be careful with in app purchases. There are plenty of rip off “childrens” games lurking out there. iTunes seems to be a bit easy to lock down though. You can set it to request the password for every download.

That’s what I thought.

Annoyingly he came recommended by one of our neighbours.

Take a photo of your face now. And then do the same in 3 months time……

Congratulations. The hard work is worth it.

Is that Cilla Black in younger days on the beer label??

As already pointed out No BMW’s aren’t partlicularly reliable. German cars haven’t ben very reliable for years.

BMW Reliability

But there are a few things to note about the brakes. Higher performance cars tend to go through brakes pads quicker. Stronger brakes = greater forces on the discs and softer pads. In the same way that performance pads wear out faster on bikes. BMW replace pads at 50% – just in time for the sensors to wear through so you have to replace those too. Bit of a poor design if you ask me.

Tyres wear fast depending on how you drive, plus what the tyres are made of. 14k for the rears sounds pretty good. My mini used to go through Yoko’s in under 5k – but it cornered like a blue bottle!

I would have said if you want reliable buy Japanese. But my Civic hasn’t been amazing, so I’m wondering if it’s just old people comparing it to their previous Rovers?!

Fish paprikash on Christmas eve (wife’s Serbian), Turkey on Christmas day and proper beef roast on boxing day. Sorted!!

I hang mine from the rafters using the cheapy bike hooks from Halfords. Only problem is the trend for 2 metre wide handlebars means they hang in the middle of the garage.

There must be a better way…..

No. Isolated nut jobs motivated by Jihadists elsewhere.

Are you referring to the two nutters in California? In which case yes I agree. But what about a proper organised militia. Which reading into what a militia ISIS appears to qualify as (along with being horrific genecidal terrorists).

There’s nothing about colour in the second ammendment. Just being American.

Some people have unrealistic views on what second hand is worth. And some things seem to sell for more than they are worth.

I’m trying to get some cheap Thule roof bars (969’s if anyone has some going). I’ve seen them listed for £70 + £10p&p on ebay second hand. Why?? I can buy them new for £69.99 in Halfords!

The joining pin (i.e. the one that you snap off) is just for RE-joining a chain. It’s ever so slightly thicker than the standard pin. This is because Shimano belive the hole stretches (oo-er) when the original pin is pushed in. If you re-used the original pin then it would not be as tight-a fit second time round.

A new shimano chain has a standard pin that is just pushed into place. The hole it goes into has never been stretched so you don’t need a joining pin.

As above I use KMC links (and KMC chains now).

As above. Eat more oily fish. Mackeral is cheap and reasonably sustainable. Anchovies and pilchards are also cheap – but check the tin for the MSC logo – some anchovy fisheries are really damaging. Eating fish means you’re getting the oil in it’s unadulterate state and also getting a load of useful proteins and lipids.

My house survey says the conservatory was built before the house.

That sums up my opinion of surveyors.

I taught myself to MIG weld (came from owning a mini). It’s pretty easy with a bit of practice (buy a mini). I learnt to braze at school – that’s pretty easy too – just a bit more messy with all the flux.

I suggest you consider why/what you want to weld. Car bodywork for example is suppposed to be easiest with MIG. If you’re welding aluminium or titanium then TIG is worth learning. Brazing is good for steel bike frames.

Lots of people do arc wleding. I suspect this is because the welders are cheap. IME you just get lots of pigeon poo welds. Unless you’re welding something big I’d avoid arc (that’s my suggestion anyway).

I’d start with MIG and go from there.

Having to do it in the car.

My office is full of stupid flies. Apparently they are fungus flies. Thy are starting to take the pi$$. One was buzzing around my face. It landed on my nose. I attempted to swat it and ended up punching myself in the face.

And while we’re talking about the Soul…. has anyone heard anything about a Soul with a 148×12 rear? From what I’ve read the boost standard is here to stay?

142x12mm even

That’s very very cheap. Plus a 2 year warranty it should be fine for DIY stuff. It’s green bosch though – every green bosch thing I’ve bought has gone back to the shop. Same for my Dad. I got a Dewalt with 2×1.5Ah for £99.

2×1.5Ah is better than 1x 3ah IMO. They weigh less. plus Li-ion batteries only take 20 mins to charge. Stick the other battery in while the dead battery is recharging.

I replaced my iPhone 4s with an LG G4 for exactly the same reason as you.
You can get them for £300 now. I’m very happy with it. Photos are really good. I haven’t really used the camera much, but a mate has taken some execellent ones on his LG G4.

I should also point out that I eventually fixed my 4S for £8 plus about 15 mins on ifixit.com Android is garbage out of the box. I had to spend days finding apps that work as nicely as they do on iOS. However, now I have I cannot see the point of buying an iPhone again.

From my experience Apple’s in warranty service is very good. Out of warranty it’s appalling. One of the latest updates destroyed the battery on both my iPhone 4s and my wife’s iPhone 5. I did the online chat thing. After an hour of time wasting they eventually said it’s not covered under an extended recall (despite their website saying it was). £166 to replace battery. That’s an outrage given the battery is about £8 and the sway takes 15mins. (I did it myself using iFixit guide).

If you had an Android phone it would simply be case of phones dead, out of warranty, you lose. Apple just string you along in the aim of ripping you off via repairs.

My solution – bought an LG G4 for £300. A fraction of my work iPhone 6 plus and better IMO. (Although I did have to spend a lot of time finding apps that work as well as the Apple versions – Android out the box is garbage).

If you’re biking a lot then I’d suggest stretching your hamstrings and thighs twice/three times a day. Cycling causes your hamstrings to tighten (according to the oesteopath I’ve had treatment from). This in turn causes your butt and lower back muscles to tighten.

You (probably) cannot do yourself stretching your hamstrings and thighs. And you might find it helps.

Because my current pads are the all in one type rather than holder and insert. At least on the rear.

Rightho I’m off to order some SwissStops. Shame the green pads come with black holders but I guess so long as they stop that’s all that matters.
CAnnot find Koolstop Dura holders anywhere for sensible money.