I have an earlier version of the Stihl. I suspect it’s the same inside but with cosmetic differences on the outside. Had it now for 11 years and has remained faultless. Its only for domestic use, wash the cars, clean the patio etc.. The only issue was last week, when the hose which has had a kink in it for a year or so finally burst with a bang! Knowing it was on its way out I already had a replacement waiting.

If you are looking at the Stihl, then you may also want to view the Nilfisk Alto brand. They did and still probably do manufacture the Stihls which are re-branded. I didn’t know this until I’d bought the Stihl.

If you need the new hose, or lance, then they’re the Nilfisk fitting. (not Karcher).

Recommend me a Stocks & Shares ISA

Check out the above. Quite a bit of info on Trading 212 and Invest Engine. A few hints too on what to invest in.

I suggest if you’re new, then you spend a wet afternoon doing some research. There’s a lot of advice out there. Damien Talks Money is a good place to start

Get yourself having a look at http://www.oceanshoreskites.com  A bit of a crappy and complicated site, but the store is magnificent. You could spend some serious money here and come away with some wonderful kites.

Alternatively have a look at https://kiteforge.com where the serious West coast kiters get their kit.

Kite flying is not a cheap hobby. I have amongst others a Djiin (similar to a Rev) and as Cougar says it’s very sensitive. You certainly need line lengths to be near mm perfect. Flying in a field surrounded by trees is never going to be good. The wind will be to unpredictable. The best place to fly, is always a good sandy beach, where the wind is often steady, and your lines won’t get caught up in the grassy undergrowth.

I don’t fly as often as I should, but when I do I find it so relaxing I can loose myself for hours.

If you really want to learn how to fly a kite, get yourself on YouTube and immerse yourself in John Barresi videos. You will soon learn that flying a kite well, isn’t easy but when you can the movement of a kite is a thing of beauty.

We’ve a Pacsafe 45EXP. Used it over the summer as a carry on for a few international flights. Good kit.

Another Enigma rider here. I’ve an Excel gravel. Though obviously not a road bike the gravel geometry makes it a bit easier on my 60+ yr old body!!

I think Enigma have two ranges ‘standard’ are imported from the Far East, whilst ‘Signature’ are hand built in Sussex.  They may however have changed that now.

I know Enigma themselves are brilliant to deal with and will provide you with exactly the bike you want, but I got mine via Prologue in Harrogate (which may keep your Yorkshire demand). They too were brilliant and kept me fully in the loop during the order and build process.

I got a brilliant bike and love it.

I wasn’t there (we weren’t there) but having once been an AFO who was authorised to shoot animals, all I can say is its not so simple as wandering up to a rampant beast and putting a round in its head. They don’t tend to stand around waiting for you! You need to be at a safe distance with a safe backdrop. It’s very likely a 9mm wouldn’t incapacitate it. If you are very very lucky .223 may put a cow down, it may just make it even more angry and frightened. What you really need is a .308 or a rifled slug. Problem is if you miss!………This situation was in an urban / built up area. The round if it misses the cow has to stop somewhere. There isn’t the space for it to fly across fields or bury itself in a grassy hill. More than likely it’ll bury itself in a building or vehicle. Now have a consideration of the negative publicity that would occur if that were the case. Someone in a photo pointing at a bullet hole in their living room wall!! Stopping a wild beast in full flow with no fields in which to coral it isn’t easy. Perhaps giving it a couple of nudges was the only option available at the time.

Time will tell.

He must be on some top notch blood pressure and statin meds. For all the odious character that he is, you’d think all the courtroom drama, guilty verdicts and some more juicier trials waiting in the wings. It must be putting his anxiety and stress levels through the roof.

Shame they don’t dive him Smartie placebo’s!

Last time we went through DXB, our inbound flight was late (thanks to Manchester airport) which left the transit to the next flight very tight. However we were met at the gate as we got off the plane by Emirates staff and were ushered through the airport using a vey odd route, through locked doors and corridors and all sorts of shortcuts until we got to our connection gate. No problem, we were perhaps one of the last on the plane, but without the Emirates usher, we wouldn’t have made it. ………Only issue and perhaps you don’t want to hear this, our luggage didn’t catch the flight. (we subsequently kept track of it via the AirTags). It pays to have some simple spare clothing in your hand luggage as your delayed bags catch you up. That said they did it efficiently and the bags arrived at our hotel the next day.

OP, I’m a similar age to you, same NCB and the same qualifications (!!). Don’t know where you are but I’ve just today re insured my GS for £184 via Bennett’s through Bike Insurer. That includes, riding other bikes, legal and breakdown. I also included pillion. Interesting that the same details put into MCN were £20 dearer.

We got an Ego at the beginning of the season. It’s quite big and heavy, probably not that much lighter than the Honda it replaced. The battery lasts about an hour, and we can easily mow our relatively large lawn. However the battery reduces in time if you use it as self propelled. Personally I don’t (wife does) because it’s easy to push. Gives a good cut, comparable to the petrol Honda. Interesting feature is the front headlight, a useful feature as I often cut the lawn through the middle of the night!!!!!!!

We came to sell my wife’s Specialized MTB on Marketplace. To be honest it was a nice bike in good nick. We wanted £100. Cheap but we wanted rid of it and the space.

We got a couple of time wasters, then a call from a relatively local woman who wanted it for her young son.

She turned up in a beat up car, and the lad, absolutely loved the bike. It was obviously his dream machine.

Mum, obviously a single mum, probably with not much if any spare cash was delighted that he liked the bike and at £100 it was probably too expensive but it was what he wanted.

She got out the £100, no negotiation and handed it over.

I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t take it. he was so happy, I just gave it her back. Here was a man with his Titanium bike in the garage, the tyres cost as much as this lads bike. I didn’t want the money. His smile was worth it.

Off they went. Bike, and their money. I went back in the house very happy.

And we are off there too. Three weeks in July and August. We’d booked for four nights in Kyoto, but have recently been very put off by the reports of the huge number of tourists overcrowding the town (of which we’ll be two more).
Considering we’ve never been, we’ll never know what we’ve missed, so are catching the train down to Fukuoka and Kagoshima. Hopefully we’ll see some quieter parts of the country, before travelling for four very busy days in Tokyo via Hiroshima.

I was the OP on the jeans thread. Spending £200+ on jeans is a lot of money. But though I’m not wealthy, I can afford it.
I’m now into my 60’s and probably have most of the clothing I’ll ever need. I have enough shirts, sweaters, fleeces, outdoor gear, cycling stuff etc etc. I even have a suit somewhere, though even at funerals and weddings I refuse to wear it.
So, other than socks and underwear I need very little.
My argument being if I spend £200 on a pair of jeans that I get enjoyment. from, then that will just be about my annual budget.

Temporary traffic lights, governing a section of road with no roadworks. Northern Gas Networks recently did some works on my cycle route, finished work on the Friday, swept up, re seeded the verge packed their vans and left site. The lights remained in situ till the following Wednesday. I just cycled through the red lights, dodging into the coned off are if required. Poor motorists had to wait, and wait, and wait.
I guess that’s what happens when the jobs get sub contracted to different companies. Obviously not Gas Networks job to move the lights!

https://www.abacaorganic.co.uk ……………we got one of their cheaper mattresses about a decade ago. Would buy another in a flash!

Have you considered something a bit different? Similar price, made in the UK of natural materials (wool).
A McNair mountain shirt.

Some of the tarmac roads are so rough and covered in mud that they might as well be considered as gravel routes. Depends which side of the city you are staying, but you could consider making your way on roads to the airport, where there is quite a good museum (which will probably be closed) but you can wander around the Vulcan and a few other relics, then make your way via Brampton through the lanes towards Gilsland and Birdoswald along Hadrians Wall. If you’ve time make your way onto the Spadeadam ranges, which are more spectacular the further you go. All on tarmac, but you’ll get dirty!!

I have to say how amazed I am that people have so much time to watch T.V.. I must be doing something wrong with my life!
By the time we come in from work and chat about our day, cook supper, we settle down and watch C4 News. I don’t know if anyone has ever seen it, but it’s amazing. I thoroughly recommend it! It’s on every night and you never see the same episode twice!!
Perhaps then we may watch something simple; currently trying to get through Race Across the World which we’d not seen first time around. Again very good.
Then at nine, maybe a Grand Designs or similar, or catch up on Masterchef or Bake Off.
Notwithstanding all the other great terrestrial TV. Life On Earth, Gone Fishing, Question Time et al.
We don’t have time to binge watch Netflix, Sky or Disney.
All for the price of a TV licence. Pretty good value I’d say.

I often do the opposite. I’ll perhaps go to a room with a beer or three to slurp in the evening. What unopened bottles or cans that don’t get drunk, get left. Hotel staff have a shitty enough job as it is. If they can have a free beer on me after work, then good on them!

DXO Photolab, bit of an upfront cost (which over Black Friday weekend was much reduced) but I find it pretty good software. Read some reviews, but it’s on a par with LR & PS or Capture One.

Car software seems to be universally rubbish

I think I’ve already had enough of the software in our Q4. Sometimes the app connects to the car, many times it doesn’t.
The charging is unpredictable. I’ve read countless pages of forums, there’s no definitive solutions. Either the car isn’t talking to Intelligent Octopus, or IO isn’t talking to the car, or the PodPoint is playing up. Sometimes it charges as per schedule, other times it charges as soon as we plug it in with no schedule provided. Some days it charges to the 80% capacity, last week it repeatedly charged to 70%.
This isn’t just a car, it’s a computer on wheels. If it doesn’t work then it’s unpredictably useless.
I never switch on my Mac expecting somedays it’ll work on other days it won’t.
We are paying huge sums to these manufacturers, they are churning out Beta editions of their vehicles.
Rant over.

About 20 years ago, whilst on holiday in Canada, I bought a bright red down jacket, that was advertised as being used for Polar expeditions and used by ground workers at remote Canadian airports. Bloody hell my Canada Goose was good, warm for Canada, brilliant for over here.
Unusual too. Rarely saw another in the UK.
Jacket is still perfectly serviceable, and still looks ruggedly good, but I don’t dare wear it now. I’d either get robbed of it by one sector of society, the other would cover me in paint!!!
A couple of years ago I had to buy another warm jacket whilst the CG sits unused in the cupboard

Lusso, Men’s Paragon Deep Winter Bib Tights, warm and waterproof. Made here in the UK!

How easy is it to swap chargers? We have a PodPoint installed (we didn’t pay for it, it was a deal with the dealership). It does sometimes work with Intelligent Octopus, sometimes it doesn’t.
Can I (with basic electrical ability) pull out the PodPoint and replace it with a Smart Ohme charger, or will I need a sparky to do it?
Obviously at the moment the PodPoint is all wired into the main meter / consumer unit and has its own separate circuit breaker.

When you are next driving at 80mph in the third lane of a motorway. Ask yourself (or perhaps mention to any passengers) the very same question!

Looking tonight on ADSB I see a small jet an Aero L159 Albatross with registration number G-DKND. It is currently on the move over the North Sea towards Newcastle. It looks like a military plane, but not in the RAF inventory. It also has a civilian registration.
Is it some rich mans plaything or indirectly connected to the Air Force? Are we now sub contracting our defence?.

The Nurse, who yesterday held my hand in A&E whilst administering oramorph for my kidney stone pain. I was in writhing agony and I think her hand holding compassion worked better than the oramorph. Chapeau to the NHS!

We live fairly locally, and rather than walk in the busy Lakes, we walk along ‘The Wall’, often to Sycamore Gap then for a beer at the Twice Brewed Inn.
To be honest I’m totally gutted by this, what hope do we have for a society that does this? Wether it be a farmer, youths or any other idiot then this goes beyond what is ‘normal’. I honestly think those that have done it must be mentally disturbed.
The Wall is historic, and I know the tree is fairly new in comparison to the history of the whole site, but it did give pleasure to thousands.
Incidentally. a sapling was planted nearby about 10 years ago, with the intention that should the larger tree die then it would be a replacement…………but guess what………someone cut it down!!!

Is there not a degree of morality here. No, you might not watch the BBC on television, but do you or any family members listen to BBC radio. Does anyone ever log onto the BBC Web pages.
No, you don’t need a licence to listen to radio or view these pages, but if we don’t pay then we just end up with commercial radio with incessant adds and Web news pages that maybe not quite as impartial or as easy to view as the BBC.
Is watching Laura Kuenssberg giving Jeremy Hunt are hard time worth every penny!!!!!
Our licence money, doesn’t just fund TV production but a plethora of media that we all consume.

To be honest I think you are all wrong. I don’t think you understand the nuances of the game. Neither Samantha nor the rules of ‘67’ have any relevance here. I think once I say Gants Hill then we all know its game over.

Yes, same again, Fenix 5 battery issues. Out of guarantee. Replaced without question within the week. I hope someone from Garmin is reading this, because great Customer Service results in happy customers who become repeat customers.

Or you could try Bose QC45 (I bet you’d not tell the difference) reduced at Argos from £320 to £190. I have some XM4’s my wife now has QC45’s and they sound the same.

As suggested above, contact Garmin. I had a Fenix 5, just over three years old. The battery got progressively worse, until it would hardly last the day. Out of guarantee, but they replaced it without question. Have now in effect got a brand new watch. You may be surprised in how they can help.

I was (now retired) an AFO, manned an ARV for 20 years along with other specialist firearms duties. I suspect reading what I have from the above, you are reasonably spot on regarding a person being in the house, either making threats regarding his own safety or the safety of others who may enter the premises. As others have alluded to, that safety may not be via a gun. it may be a knife, blowing up the property or opening a phial of anthrax!!!! Once that threat to safety to the individual or others is mitigated any (proportionate) response can be stood down. As for time scales. It’s unfortunate about the shopping, but these things take a considerable amount of time to implement. Resources are not always immediately available. Other officers may have travel a considerable distance. Once everything is in place then the officers can move forward. That said if there had been an ‘immediate threat to life’ then a small number of AFO’s could have responded more quickly.
Officers at the scene are fairly switched on. If they knew neighbours were watching and videoing, but knew that they were either no threat to escalation or in no danger, then why should they be removed? If the OP had been requested to close his door, perhaps close the curtains or even leave the house, then things may have been a bit more serious and I’m sure he would have done so.

Six weeks ago, we decided against building a greenhouse, but putting in a pond on a spare bit of ground. A busy weekend digging down a metre, then forming some shelves. Liner, water, plants and we left it. No fish, and unless they make their own way in, there won’t be any. Leaving it now to see how it develops.

No photo, will try again!!

Six weeks ago, we decided against building a greenhouse, but putting in a pond on a spare bit of ground. A busy weekend digging down a metre, then forming some shelves. Liner, water, plants and we left it. No fish, and unless they make their own way in, there won’t be any. Leaving it now to see how it develops.

We just keep the window open, and have a fan on each side of the bed. Don’t buy a cheap one  (they’re noisy and rattle). Look for one with a DC motor as they are often a lot quieter and balanced. Cost perhaps a hundred quid, rather than a many hundred quid. All for just a few days a year.

I know you’ve made a decision and ordered your new kite, but can I suggest you have a look at the site of a U.S. shop, http://www.oceanshoreskites.com You may be able to glean a bit more info on what kiting is about and of other kites that are available. I’ve been to the store a couple of time and come away with a couple of wonderful kites.
You could also look at https://johnbarresi.com and search out Barresi video’s on YouTube. There you can learn about how to fly a kite properly. He also shows that the movement of a kite through the air can be a thing of beauty. I met him a couple of years ago in Washington and was absolutely gobsmacked with what he can do with a kite.
I have one of his Djiin kites, if only I could fly it like he does.
Other than that, welcome to the world of kite flying.