y If you traced the plant number on say tesco british beef you’ll more than likely find its halal meat reared in Ireland.

Really!? Is there anything on packaging/counter to alert punters that this is the case and if not why not?

Lucky to have 2 butchers in my small village sourcing local meat. One is also a restaurant (Crinnions in Lanchester) and the steaks are excellent. As an added bonus, my dogs are often supplied with proper bones to keep them happy when I’m there. Gammon steaks are the best I’ve had anywhere.

Worst steak I’ve had for years has to be the effort from The Marcliffe in Anerdeen last December. 6ox fillet which was cremated and tough as old boots. I wasn’t happy!

emissions(!) .. some/(most) of these cars should be destined for the scrap yard

……………..and how many more miles can they do before it even comes close to the emissions from building a new car? :roll:

Saab Aero as ^^.

Wish I’d waited and bought one instead of my 9-5 estate. Even though it’s ‘only’ 170bhp and an auto it’s still respectably quick. The Aero is great spec and performance for very little money.

On the road, when I crashed it was ususally a mistake by no-one other than me.. but sometimes I tried to believe it was someone elses fault. But over time, you slow down

I can’t believe you think it’s alright to have had ‘crashes’ on the road, especially if you have raced on a track, which is the only place it is acceptable to be anywhere near the limit of you or your bikes capabilities! You sound like one of the many idiots I scrape off the road on a regular basis who haven’t been quite so lucky.

BTW if anyone wants a nice, cheap fast bike, this namby pamby nany boy has his Suzuki RF900 up for sale! Email in profile for details.

Have a look at Timefactors, a bit outside the mainstream ‘names’ but very good value for the spec with a few options in your price range.

I’ve bought several from Eddie (the owner/designer/watch aficionado) and they are excellent.

I have a ‘2000’ 9-5 2.3 turbo and I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another. Most comfortable car I’ve driven on long journeys and a fair turn of speed when needed.

Parts are not a problem – I was unlucky enough to have the turbo blow in December and a 2nd hand one was only £100 and new £230. The only advice I would give is to buy something with good dealer or Saab specialist service history. It was advice I was given and ignored, letting my heart rule my head when I saw one I liked at a good price. It cost a few hundred quid to sort out my rash decision.

One of the very few writers I would be read without questioning his opinion. Massive amount of knowledge and experience and a huge loss to cycling journalism.

Condolences to his family and friends.

poah – Member
should be bloody grateful they have a decent job.

I assume that was an attempt at cutting edge STW humour but just in case it wasn’t………….

…………. Cameron et al appear to be doing a remarkably good job in creating that sort of mindset.

I agree about the reduced effectiveness of Swarfega.. And it is bloody expensive. Try laundry power to de-gunk your hands!

Olive oil and salt works and you get nicely moisturised hands as a bonus :wink:

Women at cashpoints. Do you really need to print out a balance then a receipt every time you take out a tenner?
Supermarket ‘browsers’ who block the whole aisle.
Pub/restaurant staff who hand over your drink by holding the top of the glass.
My local Spar, who won’t sell more than one box of painkillers at a time but are happy to let you buy paracetamol, walk out the door and straight back in and buy ibuprofen.
People who ‘have’ to use a fuel pump on the same side as the tank and block the forecourt waiting for one when there are 3 free on the ‘wrong’ side.

Why all the Nissan hate? It’s only a car FFS and there are plenty round here (NE England), for fairly obvious reasons!

If you want a car to hate ie. one that is totally devoid of any style or design flair and is bought by people who look on a car a means of getting from A2B with scant regard for anyone or anything else going on around them, try a Honda Jazz!

Bloody hell JH is37 years old? I now feel positively ancient!

And I’m not going to explain my idea here, I’ve been working towards Thursday for three years, so that’s when it’s coming out.

Good luck with the new venture……. if you get tired of sniffing coke off models breasts you can always design a niche bike. :wink:

I have a 13 year old 9-5 2.3t (170 Bhp) estate. Bought for next to nothing and it’s been great apart from blowing the turbo at 97k. £120 + 3 hours labour and it’s running sweet as a nut again. Parts, contrary to what has been said above are pretty cheap.

Probably the most comfortable car over distance I’ve driven and the boot is a huge bike/dog carrier. Motorway consumption is high 30’s and that is an auto so should be better with manual or later auto box. My mate has a 9-3 diesel and is very happy with it. 50 + mpg on a long run.

The Passat applies the rear brakes in preference, to minimise dive apparently.

Seriously? Have you any more info on that as I would doubt that any car would employ a rear wheel braking preference. Are you getting this confused with ‘hill descent control’ which some vehicles have?

ambulance man arrived and looked at me and said, usually when this happens people go into shock and doesnt hurt that much,

Really! Not my experience. I’ve seen loads of them and not once has anyone been in ‘shock’ and they’ve all been in agony!

it isn’t tax avoidance it is tax fraud.

That largely depends on how good your accountant and lawyer is and I would imagine the former has now lost several clients!

Too true Brack. It will have been bad for all involved.

It will be interesting to find out how she fairs now that (presumably) all financial pressures have been removed. With the right therapy she may even make an Ernest Saunders’esque recovery.

Further to a point made earlier, I would like to hear why the ambulance service appears to be shouldering the entire blame for this case.

Does anyone know how the injury happened, other than she did it ‘getting onto a bus’? How did she end up wedged between seats?

I’m just lazy I suppose as most of the others are from the same agency report :roll:

Some people appear to be letting their dislike of The Daily Wail affect their judgement :wink:

ok Mr Smith
and again

If you are that anal, get the full transcript of the judgement from the court yourself. I’d be interested in reading it next time I have insomnia.

I wonder if we put this idea forward now what the response would be seen as NEAS are now using St Johns ambulances as paramedic units.

They are not Paramedic units…….. at least not yet! According to NEAS management, they are merely a stopgap to make up for a shortfall in funding due to NEAS correctly forecasting demand and ‘the government’ getting it wrong. We all believe this, of course and it can’t possibly had anything to do with the fact that St. John’s and Red Cross utilisation is vey much more attractive on the balance sheet!

br – not quite accurate in my area (NE England) but in reality you aren’t far off. Hospital handover times are causing huge problems for ambulance services and as Drac pointed out ^^ there is increasing pressure on Paramedics to use other pathways in order to alleviate pressure on A&E depts. and take on the role originally designed for ECP’s (emergency care practitioners).

I don’t see how this idea would work, as a Paramedic would have to travel if the case required it and it would remove a firefighter from his/her area of expertise for hours, potentially. It’s also a minefield regarding liability should anything go wrong.

Up before 8am on a Saturday when I’m not at work to watch the slope style! Should be great.
Men’s DH is always the highlight for me but loads of other stuff will have me glued to the tele.

And why the hell would anyone have a problem with Ed Leigh’s commentay? Knows his stuff, not a prat, enthusiastic…certainly could be worse.. if it was 99% of other commentators.

Ed and Graham are both bloody good IMO – why knock guys who know what they are talking about and love the sport ?

My guess is that has been sanded down.
If you hit a bus at 70mph, you’re probably not going to slide too far.
Even if you did slide, trying to keep pressure on that exact part of the helmet for enough time to grind it down would surely be a bit tricky?

Having attended a couple of particularly bizarre and gruesome RTC’s involving motorbikes last year, I would say that type if damage is entirely possible. A ‘trap and grind’ situation wouldn’t take much continuing forward motion to do that sort of damage.

Used to regularly see Renault 5 GT Turbos in hedgerows on bends round our way, presumably as a result of enthusiastic driving and the Turbo Surprise.

Also the reason that front near side damage was very common in misjudged overtakes! Fun little car once you got used to the lag :D

However just like any thing financial, why would you take some thing out that you couldnt afford if things go belly up?

Which is why I can’t get my head around buying or leasing something ‘new’ due to the ‘risk’ of something potentially going wrong and saddling me with a huge bill.

I’m a firm believer in bangernomics and my current banger, Saab 9-5 estate 2.3t, does everything I want at an anticipated total cost (excl. fuel) of <£150 a month for the first year including purchase price . Would have been less but I’ve just forked out £400 for a replacement turbo and service. If I get another year out of it the cost will obviously come down ……. if something expensive goes wrong it’s not the end of the world.

I’ve done my own for years and the only things I had to buy were a proper edging tool and the wax. Anything else you need can be improvised.

If you are worried about 1 day before the shop does them, just wipe off the Vaseline and give them a rub with some wax which doesn’t need to be melted.

Sobriety – what did you buy?

I live in hope that my Suzuki RF900 will fit the ‘modern classic’ category. Fits the criteria ie. not far behind a ‘blade in terms if performance and …….errrr…….. unique styling. It’s a Katana for the 90’s :wink:

Wish I still had my Renault LeCar 2 turbo. Haven’t seen one in years and it went like stink while looking like a normal Renault 5 at a glance.

Guy at work paid £800 for a Datsun 120Y, drove 300 miles to collect it (unseen) and uses it daily to commute. Even he can’t explain the attraction!

I got the same impression and wondered if the insurers/H&S bods had a large influence on not going higher. I was also very surprised that it was only filmed a week ago!

Very entertaining all the same and Guy’s lack of concern re potential injury is amazing. He was lucky to get off with as few scrapes as he did when he came if the skateboard and lol that they got it from Matalan!

Have driven the father-in-Laws one a bit and TBH I found it distinctly uninspiring, although I in fairness I have little to comapare ot to as I’ve only driven a Pajero and BMW X1 as a comparison and rarely offroad.

He’s had no problems with his on a ’12 plate and may well buy a new one soon.

ps. my dogs also barfed in the back, something they haven’t done in over 4 years, which may be indicative of the ride quality!

Selfishly, he’s a good instructor and I want to keep going to the classes. Say nothing?

Do you know him and his family outside of the martial arts class? If not, then why worry?

As ^^^ it’s none of your business.

Cheers all.

Konabunny – I’ve no idea what he’s going to do but judging by his reaction to a polite enquiry I want to make sure I go through the proper procedure.

I’ve had another look at it with my Father in law and he’s not sure either that it’s cat litter as the granules seem quite small. I’ll be speaking to the council environment people later.

Still prefer my Flows Graham but it was good to try the K2’s :wink:

I reckon the yoot are getting more and more in to skiing myself, as they see snowboardering as being something the old folks (Graham ) do.

lol

That’s exactly why I’m concentrating on skiing again this year, although nothing in the pipeline yet :? At 54 bending down and tightening bindings at the top of every lift is just so ………. ahem ……. last year :wink:

One question, which people quite rightly ignored the first time of asking, not enough Woppit? Not really the time or place IMO.

Regardless of personal opinion, he was a great driver and I wish him all the best for a full recovery.

Working until 10pm if I’m lucky (longer if the bollox from 111 continues like past few days) and will have a quiet couple of beers and nibbles with the missus as I’m also working next day :(

We’ll done OP, chapeau!

Had to fish my 6 month old pup out a couple if weeks ago when she dived in not realising a carpet of leaves had built up behind a fallen tree. Not good and lesson learned to avoid any possibility of a repeat.

That’s awful mate. You did all you could but i know that doesn’t make it any easier :(