JPreston

I've had mine for 12 years but only done 110k, still drives like new and doesn't need oil or water between services. Touch wood...

Thanks folks after reading this thread I changed my orignal plugs for a new set of PFR6Q. Car was running fine or so I thought but idling was sometimes slightly irregular, the revs would drop a little periodically. Anyway with the new plugs I'm got ~10% better mpg this morning , wish I changed them ages ago.

Thanks all, especially anonymouse, for the advice and links above. I did call up the college and spoke to a very schoolteacher-ish woman who told me a bit about the course but then put me through to the wrong building when she tried to transfer me, so I have an idea what the course consists of but need to phone up again. I'm still oscillating between wanting to go and not wanting to go, it's not so much the money (

I've just bought a super-zoom camera, (fuji S9600). I haven't got the first clue how to use it, aperture settings, ISO speed etc :confused: There's an evening class starting at a nearby college - 2 hours for 10 weeks - 'Digital Photography for Improvers'. I can't imagine how they fill so much time while staying interesting, and I have to ring up for any details beyond the title. I'll ring them up, but what do you all reckon - might it be worthwhile, or will it be hours of politely complimenting some old doris' artistic pictures of her cats? I don't fancy learning to use photoshop or similar in a classroom, and already know what a flash memory card is - I just want to know what settings to use in what conditions, and how to frame a photo nicely, and so on

I don't understand this, I've read it a couple of times now, be interested to see where the phrase originates. Do you literally mean silver and gold reserves :confused: I can imagine armchair economists have very deeply held opinions about this but I freely admit I haven't got the first clue. I don't see how silver reserves make the least difference to me - what I do see making a huge difference is to decision to sell the water companies, the railway lines, the airport and ports authorities, and the railway operators all because of a bizarre belief that private ownership increases efficiency even in the total absence of competition. I suppose the millions transferred to the treasury had nothing to do with it, and we aren't all still paying through the nose 20 years later for the privilege of funding long forgotten tax cuts for the wealthiest. Completists might like to consider the slightly less disastrous fire sales of British Gas and the electricity boards (at least you can switch providers now, all of whom are foriegn-owned and oh how cheap energy has become as a result), BT, C&W, British Airways, and British Steel. Midlands-based automotive engineers might also like to remember Jaguar and Rolls Royce, though it seems odd today that the govt should be propping up car manufacturers. Oh wait, the huge bungs of taxpayers money paid to BMW and others in respect of Rover. Who sold the 'family silver' then?

Petrol stations have always cloned cards, I've never used a card at one and it's good to see that some companies have adopted the policy of banning cards altogether. Keep up folks!

People say I'm a dreamer.....but I'm not the only one....

That isn't how international taxation works, so don't let Barclays/ABN Amro keep you awake with worry. So on the one hand everyone is squeaking about paying too much personal tax, but on the other I must be a communist for suggesting corporations should be taxed (oil companies are another good example - how much oil would they have to sell if the state wasn't subsiding them by stationing troops in iraq?). I get it now...

There's probably more than one slight problem in my argument But who ever told you would have a job in manufacturing? They all went 20 - 30 years ago, and it's thatcher's fault (again). Did you think you would undercut chinese factories, where people earn

TBH I don't really know jack , but 1. Who's admitted that? House prices are totally outside the bank's concern, and yes they are independent (thanks to gordon brown). Property has boomed around the world due to worldwide low rates and stable growth, though. A boom doesn't actually benefit anyone, govt included, except perhaps by over-encouraging consumer confidence to some extent. Ultimately it's a pyramid scheme... 2. IIRC social mobility and gaps in relative have grown, slightly but still scandalously, under labour. it's thatcher's fault; 'there's no such thing as society', now it's fashionable to despise the working class, bray about stealth taxes, moan about people having children etc. Baby boomers retiring and depending on the state more and more (BTW nice one gordon, extra

No we don't, we pay to fund current pensioners. (And not singling out any individual's comments but) Honestly all this moaning about how we would be better off under the tories and their famously even-keeled economy, somehow still with the 10% tax rate (that brown introduced) and tax credits (that brown introduced), or living in New Zealand (where the burden of taxation is higher than the UK FFS) is beyond a joke. It's like the letters pages in the Daily Mail. POLITICAL CORRECTNESS GONE MAD THE LUNATICS HAVE TAKEN OVER THE ASYLUM etc etc etc. Surely noone really expected their life to materially change overnight as a result of the budget? I'm about £170 better off, so w00t. In order to be worse off you have to be low-paid and without kids, in which case there is nothing stopping you from borrowing Norman Tebbit's bike and getting a better-paid job, to borrow the popular right-wing mantra. Squawking about how unfair it is that working parents get means tested tax credits probably won't help. You're economically active for about half of your life - so while you are, of course you pay for your neighbours' bins to be emptied and children to be schooled. This was also the case before the budget. What's so terrible and surprising? :confused:

You are a bunch of cynics aren't you....ultimately taxation is a mechanism for the transfer of wealth from the 50% of the country who are in work to the 50% who are children, old, or skivers and this has always been the case - if you think it's unfair, then presumably you spent your childhood sweeping chimneys and upon will retirement will immediately volunteer to be made into soylent green so as not to be a burden on the next generation of noisy tories - I also like the suggestion that before gordon brown single people with no kids never ever had to pay for schools

Thing is it's actually the act of carrying on a telephone conversation that is distracting, rather than the specific hardware you use. I own a car and a mobile phone like ooh about 95% of the adult population, but think this is a great. In a few years the idea of using a mobile while driving will be considered equivalent to drink driving or not wearing a seat belt. IIRC correctly you are four times as likely to crash while you are talking on your phone/handsfree which I couldn't care less about, until I remember this means you are four times as likely to crash into me. Which is when I say BAN THEM :headbang:

Well, you could connect him as one of your Friends and Family....you do have unlimited connections after all :P I believe the retail staff have had this withdrawn because they were offering it to all the customers as a sweetener

Fart is the arabic word meaning wind. There's approximately one million words in the english language, which is more than double any other language. Although to be able to read 50% of all written english you only need a vocabulary of about 100 words. Parrots have been able to learn up to 200 words Here's a fantastic word for any language: 'scrumping' - as in 'stealing apples', not anything else, just specifically apples. For what reason does this need its own word?

Don't buy expensive studded condoms - just use normal ones, but chuck a few frozen peas inside

That's how it's done. Although, you could just eat the skin as well (which is not so unpleasant, a bit powdery is all) because it contains much more carbohydrate and fibre than the actual bit in the middle.

I was just about to jump into this thread and say 'Yeah I'm exactly the same as John! I've been looking at the F5600/F6500fd/Sony H2 and don't know what to get - recommendations?' But all this crazy talk is making me stand veeeery far away....

comments like that just illustrate the futility trying to reason with brand snobs over the internet.

There's a bargain store in Hatfield with a sign in the window saying "Don't ask the price - everything is £1 or £2". WTF, is that supposed to be helpful?!?

Back in the garage safe and sound Funny really, I originally stopped and got out when I saw the other cars across the road and walked down to see if I could help. Then the others pointed out that my car was following me down the hill :eek: Managed to get my hands on the front wing and push the front safely into the kerb. But I was stuck sideways until I managed to dig tracks through the compacted snow/ice back up the hill

Alright then, it's just me who has currently abandoned his car sideways across the road about 30m downhill from my garage and is now faced with a day off shovelling and no pay while I try to get it out of the way At least no one has hit it (yet). There's three cars collided at the end of the road :eek:

I'm a contractor, with no facility to work at home at the moment I'll look out the window in the morning and if it's bad I'll go back to bed; I don't get paid for being stuck in traffic so I'm not getting paid I may as well stay at home

You'd think the girls would at least be allowed to dress down. Like wear a tracksuit or something.

Definitely remove all the stupid obstacle-course furniture from our roads. And put cameras in instead There'd be nothing to make you swerve, brake to 5mph and accelerate away, knacker your suspension, or second guess other cars driven by idiots.