chrisp65

Great way to spend a Monday night. Loud, funny, loud, fantastic, loud.

I've just searched my phone, only currently got the one photo with my garden on it....

I wouldn't bother with onion seeds. Buy a bag of onion sets (small onions), stick them in and they'll grow in to big onions. No, seriously. @mjmooney ouch, he's not impressed is he. Interesting that Bosch have a hand in a cheapo range they only flog through Argos. Churn out crap for the bottom end of the market without jeopardising your good name. Qualcast wouldn't be a brand I'd automatically go for, that post only reinforces that. It does appear it's for when you're on a budget and willing to take a punt. My dad once bought an Austin Allegro and he never once had a day of trouble out of it. So I guess we're just lucky sometimes!

Yeah, I think unless you are going to go for something like Stihl as a brand there's an element of pot luck. We're on a Bosch roll at the moment, they appear to be pretty decent in everything from mowers to washing machines. But we were a bit financially embarrassed when we needed to replace the strimmer, so beggars couldn't be choosers. The Qualcast strimmer is 'ok', it takes a bit of fiddling to change the cable, it vibrates a bit, it's loud. But it starts easy enough, it doesn't leak petrol all over the boot of the car and it cuts the grass, so there's certainly no reason to buy a replacement, even if I'm not exactly in love with it. But agree some Qualcast can just be junk. The trouble is, you need to justify the spend somehow, call it a keep fit regime or social thing, or you end up trying to justify spending hundreds on kit to grow carrots and spuds with a total value of £30 or so.

Avoid the brand name Sovereign. In my experience, every stereotype about cheapo chinese tat applies to sovereign. Weird non-standard unavailable parts, rubbish build quality, overheats whilst dripping petrol. So dangerous I bent it and threw it away rather than give it away. Other than that, fine. We've currently got a bottom of the range Qualcast petrol strimmer which does the job ok, nothing special and nothing bad to note.

Dept for Business Innovation & Skills - UK Trade Performance That report takes us up to and including the crash. Even accounting for the 2008 crash, that still left trade with the EU massively increased over where it had been a decade earlier. As a percentage, yes, trade with the EU has shrunk since 2001. As a figure, it's increased. We export more to the EU now than we did in 2001. But we also export even more than we did to the rest of the world. But the EU is not a shrinking market, it's growing slower than others. thanks, I'll get my coat....

If the youngsters aren't good enough or aren't mentally or physically up to it to play out a few practice games that have no meaning, why on earth are they here? What is the plan during the summer to get them ready for away games at Leeds, Millwall, Birmingham, Sheffield...... I guess the club is just planning on selling Bacuna to Real Madrid and use the winnings to buy 15 proven promotion quality newbies.

First off a couple of points of background: I commute using a car as my day often involves unscheduled visits to far away places that aren't right next door to train stations. I understand some people like to cycle to work, that's fine with me. Some cyclists are lycra nazi's just itching to be offended by something. Some drivers are nasty and stupid. Some drivers can't drive and need to be re-educated. So with all that set out, here's what happened on Friday: I rolled up to a red light at a junction, stopping at the point cars are indicated to stop. A cyclist (middle aged man, all the gear, big helmet, camera), cycled up in front of me, positioned himself square in front of me in the middle of the lane. Clearly, unless this guy has a hidden rocket booster or runs the red, he is going to slow me down across this junction. He then proceeds to do this jiggle thing where he's giving it half a pace forward and backward to keep the bike upright without putting a foot down. Light goes green, he tries to propel forward. But instead he does a sort of drunk baby giraffe sprawl all over the road. A sort of wobbly tripod of bike and lycra. He didn't completely hit the tarmac. But he spazzed out stumbling around for the entire duration of our green light. I didn't roll forward, I didn't toot. I may have smiled. He totally lost his shit! Scowling at me, pointing at the front of the car. waving his arms around. A bit more scowling. Then decided to take his chances just cycling across the junction on a red anyway. I actually wondered if he thought I'd nudged him. I doubt he'll be sticking that one on youtube or twitter.

Last game of the season for my local team today. A lovely sunny day, everyone there for a good bit of chat and a shouty sing song. Then a very pedestrian 0:0 draw which ensured we'll finish 2nd not 1st. An excellent result that is the highest finish you can have without promotion to financial ruin. Three completed seasons since the club became fan owned, 2014: 1st and promoted, 2015: 1st and promoted, 2016: 2nd, stick. Isn't football great....

I'm anti TTIP and it is probably the one thing that could persuade me to vote out. But once out, we will have a tory government, and being realistic we've probably got at least 9 years of that. If the outers win then the right wing of a right wing party will have the upper hand. Anyone that thinks we will be 'protected' against big business by the right wing of the tory party needs to have a serious re think. Anyone that thinks the right wing of the tory party is here to protect the NHS really really needs to think on. We might be out of TTIP, we won't be out of the hands of business and profit over people. Having just googled the conservative and conservative MEP position on TTIP they are strongly for it. So these people once out of the EU would then protect us against it? Dream on. ----- What on earth is this bizarre rubbish Boris Johnson and Farage are going on about today claiming Obama's Kenyan ancestory means he's deliberately plotting against us? That is proper right wing swivel eyed conspiracy stuff there. Farage this morning on the radio also started on about how Obama had got rid of Churchill from his office so we shouldn't listen to him or trust him. There's plenty of reasons not to trust Obama, what ornaments he likes is well down the list. Boris has apparently come out with something similar? Weird.

But surely that's to be expected isn't it? It's hardly a conspiracy that the people in power get to choose the timing and the wording and should try and manipulate the agenda. Is it? There surely isn't a suggestion here that if Downing Street had been shared by Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, they would have refused to have their allies and friends come out with statements advantageous to their side? They'd work out somehow the positive angle of Vladimir Putin being in favour of us leaving the EU. They'd struggle beyond Putin, but they'd find someone, Marie Le Pen maybe. What is more key here, is the utter incompetence of Cameron to have been played so easily by the right wing of a right wing party. He's got himself, and us, in a position where he has volunteered a referendum on a subject he now tells us is of vital importance. A referendum can be won or lost by what is in the news the day before and we are going to base our children's future's on this. In the week before the referendum Cameron and the remain group will be 'hostage' to every tale of smuggled immigrants and overly curved cucumbers. One story about one Belgian born brown muslim terrorist being seen in Birmingham and that tilts 100,000 votes. Unfortunately, this referendum on our future is easily won or lost on what hits the news on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday leading up to it. I fear that we will turn away from the crazy leftie EU with it's workers rights and head off in to the arms of the right of the tory party and ukip lot. Locally we had UKIP on a TV debate last week, the regional leader of UKIP was happy to stand at a platform and deny climate change, he told the audience that they shouldn't 'just believe' scientists from all around the world, they should think for themselves. This got the biggest cheer of the evening. This reconfirmed to me that we are not involved in rational debate here. What chance have we got.

errrrmmmmmm, I didn't know Ar-kan-sas and Ar-ken-saw were the same place! every day's a school day....

Loan to Value of Property is probably the key. I think all these 2.5% deals need an LTV around 60%, if your relatively new in to this I'd guess you're up in the 90%'s. FWIW, 2 weeks ago I got myself a 5 year fixed at 2.4% Not the best / cheapest on the market right now, but 5 years of knowing the budget is just so nice n predictable. It will get better!

Arrived this morning. Not sure they'll be any good for running! Bought primarily for the 3 metre detachable cable, the theory being this will stop me borrowing and breaking the kids' headphones with stupid thin little 1 metre cables made for walking down the street, not giving it the full air guitar around the dining room. Apparently they were cheap because they're an old 2010 design and have been superseded, well that's fine by me. As much as I wanted them to be bright red or white or say Dr Dre on them, black will be just fine. .......edit, and they work just fine, £72 from Juno, but strangely they don't appear to sell them today, so perhaps they really were the last of an old stock.

I'd have preferred something a bit more coherent, less like it was knocked out whilst on strong medication.

So, looks like we're all pretty much agreed, rich and powerful americans shouldn't have a voice in this referendum? I'll sign up for that.

Surround Birmingham, seal it off, contain the stupidity stream, flush the **** out with fire if necessary, house by house. Do not swallow any of his special romantic nourishment sauce.

Zionism is a movement, both religious and political, that promotes a Jewish homeland for Jews in Israel. It is a word with multiple meanings, like it or not. As such, when 'a' says they are anti zionist, 'b' can deliberately or accidentally infer meaning on this. Jewish Virtual Library Now, we might disagree, we might not like the source. We might have counter claims. But there is clearly an ability to mean different things by Zion. This is how the hate mongers on both sides can happily go on going on slagging each other off and threatening each other and claiming to be simply misunderstood by the murderous dogs on the other side.

'romantically nourished' I presume this involves cucumber again?

to be fair, he's realised he's an incompetent fairweather feckless quitter this is progress

For what it's worth, I wouldn't very often think of any part of America as British Colonial America. But for a bit of history I'd personally presume to go on a grand tour of Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Salem and that whole general 'New England' nebulous place I've got in my mind. But Boston would definitely be in there, it would be an 'obvious' place and I'd fully expect it to have a touristy side. New York City I think I'd treat as a separate thing. I really want to go and see the Flatiron Building in Manhattan. That's a bucket list thing for me, plus trying to find some of those stereotype streets from films like 'The French Connection'. Then for me, I will eventually get out there and see the whole vast nothing of the dusty middle. I quite fancy the idea of the old straight road through the red dust from horizon to horizon with a mom 'n' pop gas station every 200 miles or so. Film stereotype: 'Vanishing Point'. Currently getting a whole bunch of vicarious pleasure researching where my nipper might be going for a year. Bizarrely, Detroit is a front runner. Absolutely no interest in Florida, LA, Vegas and all that bright lights chuff.

A proper 1970's breakfast there Mr Stevo. Bread in milk with sugar over it, then off to school.

6'40 in to this video, Prince arrives, an is the coolest guy in France by some margin...

journalists are fine it's creepy hacks with black souls and dead eyes you gotta watch out for