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7516

General Discussion Area / Re: Sometimes I feel very, very, very humble

« on: 12 September 2011, 02:16:55 »

The OOF site is a community, full of great characters, who spend their time helping other OOF members, I appreciate this and this is one of the major reasons I really enjoy making posts on the website.

Good on you all those that were able to help TheBoy, you are all a great credit to society and to humanity as a whole, well done. 

Long may the spirit of the OOF website continue and let it be an inspiration to society as a whole. 

7517

General Discussion Area / Re: Forth Road Bridge: Is it the right colour?

« on: 12 September 2011, 02:03:16 »

http://newsthump.com/2011/09/06/were-not-sure-about-the-forth-bridge-colour-say-scottish-women/

 

 

The women sound just like my ex-missus when I was decorating... that's why she is my ex....  ;

When she told me she wanted a divorce for her birthday, I never realized it would cost that much, it's and expensive day out. 

Guess what her new husband is a painter and decorator, you couldn't make it up. 

Having said that, my divorce was totally amicable, her solicitor hated me as when ever there was a problem, my ex-wife said I will call him and sort it out and all she saw was ££££££££££££ disappearing. She was just like the adverts, call scums are us, we will seamlessly sort all of your legal problems at prices even you can't afford.  ;

Me and my ex are now the very best of friends and when I see her hen pecking her husband

7518

General Discussion Area / Re: Woodburning stoves ...........

« on: 11 September 2011, 22:16:10 »

I have had a wood burning stove with a double skinned stainless steel flue for about 15 years. I use it as a supplement to my central heating when the weather is cold, so my gas bill stays quite small.

My stove is dual fuel, quite small about 400m (w) x 350mm (d) and 550mm (h) but it easily heats my lounge-dining room which is about 26' by 13'.

Its cost me about £300 and about £400 for the flue including fitting, but this was 15 years ago and was by a good friend, who did everything at discounted prices. So I didn't have to get planning permission, I kept the top of the flue below the ridge of the roof, which is not ideal as north-east winds cause problems with a cold stove and flue not drawing properly, even though I have fitted a rotating aspirator.

The chimney should be swept every year although you can do this yourself if you invest in a flue brush and rods.

Last winter as the winter was so cold it was used it almost every day and I used more wood than I've ever used before.

I've always managed to get wood off friends and neighbours, so in this time I've never had to buy any wood. 

I have extended my garden shed to make an open ended wood store, with a kindling wood cupboard. It is best to season any green wood for at least a year before burning,. Hardwood (oak, elm etc) burns for a lot longer and gives off much more heat then softwood (pine).

If you live in a smokeless zone, you should only burn smokeless coal or wood from approved suppliers, You can find this information at:

http://smokecontrol.defra.gov.uk/

I have my own chain saw, large axe, chopping block, wedges and home made saw horse, for preparing the wood. When chopping wood look for natural splits and chop along these as they are the weakest points in the wood. If you prepare and burn you own timber, it warms you twice the first time when you cut it and the second time when you burn it. 

Invest in a toasting fork and collect sweet chestnuts as you can't beat cooking those over a wood fire. 

Having a real fire like this is absolutely brilliant, but it does take time to prepare the wood, make the fire and keep topped it up with wood and emptying the ash and cleaning the glass every morning. The floor will need cleaning in front of the fire every day from dirt and dust dropped by the wood as load it into the fire. If you have a fitted carpet, put a rug in front of the stove as Murphy's law says at some point when you are topping up the fire some hot ash will drop out and burn it.  I have tiles in front of mine so it is not a problem.

7519

General Discussion Area / Re: Advice on computer privacy and children

« on: 12 September 2011, 05:44:00 »

I maybe a fool or a glutton for punishment (or it just shows I really enjoy the procreative process  ) as I have my 23 year old daughter and grey hairs, but I now have a second brood, with a 13 month old daughter from my second marriage. 

But my 23 year old daughter has given me three wonderful grandchildren as is already planning more... and my young daughter is a fantastic child who always has a smile of her face. Too me you can't beat family life for all its highs and lows.

But I'm a much better father / grandfather now I'm older. Is it experience or that youth is wasted on the young? 

Martin your concerns, show your a good dad with protective worries and that you are trying your best, but I personally I think that asking for an account password is going too far, (remember reverse physiology), just chat to her on who she meets online and play it by ear from there in a very passive agreeable way, as all you want is a general picture, to decide if everything is okay or if you have a problem. Even if in the unlikely event you discover problems you will find out far more by gentle agreement and chatting than you will by confrontation. Once you have found out the situation, you can act from there.

Part of being a child is keeping secrets from our parents, me, my older brother Tim and my older sister Angela had books in different locations in our house and we decided to join them together as our library, our secret library.  I've still got some of these books (where I'm a hoarder)  and they have SL written inside the front cover to show they were part of our  Secret Library, our parents never knew about this, till the day they died, so all secrets are not bad secrets. I've never even mentioned or discussed this with anybody, since I was a child until today.

7520

General Discussion Area / Re: Advice on computer privacy and children

« on: 12 September 2011, 04:00:59 »

IMHO all you can do is explain your concerns and talk to her about the dangers of society and as a parent you want to make sure she is alright (by now her eyes are glazed, so a waste of time)! 

IMHO and experience you can't lecture a teenager, you just get glazed eyes and a strop, as to me teenage years are fledgling years, changing from a dependent child to an independent adult, but you can set boundaries and get her to understand you. IMO experience the best way is very often using reverse physiology to get them to feel your emotions of anxiety.

For example: You ask her where she is going?

With my friends!

I want you home by 10pm, that so not fair, they are all allowed to stay out to 11 or 12, and Sarah is allowed out to 1am, why can't I?

Because we think at your age 10pm is quite late enough?

Your so old fashioned, it so unfair, why can't I stay out until at least 11pm, I'll only be with my friends from school?

Who are they?

Just my normal friends, that's who, big sigh, can I have names and  mobile number? Glazed eyes, big Kevin strop and sigh, you've got mine what more do you want (in her best stroppy voice)!

Reverse physiology then cuts in by asking her how she would feel if she came home and you and your wife wearn't there... (big pause) it was raining you were cold, wet and hungry (pause). You called our mobiles and all she got was our voicemail (pause). You didn't know where we had gone apart from us saying we were going to be with our friends. two hours later, there was still no sign of us as as we were having a really good time, how would you feel (pause)? (probably normal teenage uncertain answer, So)

Then tell her, if we had told you where we were going and given you our friends phone numbers and you had called them and spoken to us, would you have felt much better? This is the only reason why we ask where you are going and who you are going with and in case we can't contact you on your mobile, you can for our reassurance give us your friends mobile number, (big sigh. ok, if you must it is....)

My daughter was a wild child during her teenage years, but it has all turned out for the good as she is a fine adult.

One day, I will tell you more about my daughters, Miss Melissa Marie, teenage strop years. I always tell her I had no grey hairs until I had her, now my head is full of them 

7521

General Discussion Area / Re: females

« on: 09 September 2011, 07:10:08 »

Conservation of energy - You can't make or destroy energy only turn it from one form into another.

Calories in means it has to be burn off. Diets DON'T WORK, but exercise does. So suggest to her that to keep her figure trim, exercise is the best option and sex is the best exercise of the lot. While you are stoking the fire  4 or 5 times a night and acting the stud I'm sure you are are, you can dream you are making out with Cameron Diaz.... 

The alternative to burn off calories is long walks, running etc, but I know which exercise I prefer 

7522

General Discussion Area / Re: females

« on: 07 September 2011, 21:49:10 »

Pretending to listen is fine, while you are thinking about something much more important like making out with Cameron Diaz in back of a miggy 

Until you get the fatal sentence.....

"Your not listening are you, what have I just said?" 

Fortunately, I find I can always rewind my hearing back by about 10 seconds, pick out a few key words and get away with it. 

7523

General Discussion Area / Re: Is it me or .....

« on: 11 September 2011, 02:03:17 »

When my daughter used to get into a strop I used to call her Kevin, this seemed to calm her down a bit as she didn't like being compared to him. 

She's now 23 and I could not have a better daughter.

To me you can't beat family life and I love it. The highs with children seeing them grow and develop and their personalities form far outweighs the lows, like the stroppy arguments, sorting out when their in trouble etc.

Still look on the bright side, only 50 years to go, as I've heard the first 65 years when you have a child are the worst. 

TEENAGERS!

Tired of being hassled by 
your stupid parents?

Act NOW

Move out, get a job, 
pay your own bills....

Do it now while 
you still know 
EVERYTHING!

A friend of mine with two teenage kids used to have a copy of this on his kitchen wall, as soon as they got into a strop with him, he just used to tell if they didn't like it then take the advice on his notice. 

7524

General Discussion Area / Re: Eat insects! (possibly boring to some)

« on: 09 September 2011, 05:45:16 »

I had a spider running around my bath yesterday, turned on the taps to fill the bath, he wouldn't run up the side to save him himself, so phoned.....

 Switzerland, Dignatas, to help him commit insecticide!!! 

7525

General Discussion Area / And you wonder why the country is broke

« on: 10 September 2011, 04:47:02 »

The UK government is spending about 52% of GDP on public services up from (37% in 1997).

This is a very good example why 

Broadmoor submits £250m redevelopment plan.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-14851509

How many patients does Broadmoor treat about 250, so they are spending about £1m per patient on redevelopment. 

This sort of madness (no pun intended, ok you know me, so there is really  ) is why I can't wait to move to a low tax country, where I'm emigrating to Ukraine. There the Government spends about 40% of GDP and the Government debt burden is about about 40% GDP against 63% in the UK and growing fast!!!

tr]

Tax	UK	Ukraine
Income	Basic 20%, max 60%	Basic 15%, max 17%
Saving Interest / Dividends	20, 40, 50%	5%
Council Tax	I pay £1993pa	In Ukraine £0
VAT	20%	20% but will be reduced to 17% by 2015
Petrol	£1.35l (£6.16 gallon)l	about £0.77l (£3.51 per gallon)
Water Rates	£493	£0, (from well with electric pump into header tank)
Gas / Electric	£180 per month	Not sure but I think it will be about 25-50% of UK prices

[td]Food[/td][td]Globally Competitive[/td][td]About 75% produced yourself with small holding[/td][/tr]
tr][td]Consumer goods[/td][td]Globally Competitive[/td][td]About 10% higher than UK[/td][/tr]
[/table]

If you are self employed in Ukraine, you can register as a Private Entrepreneur and turn over up to 300,00UAH (about £23,000) and you pay a fixed amount of tax per month 200UAH (£15.38) and their equivalent of NI 86UAH (£6.61). If most of your turnover is your personal labour cost, like it is with me as a computer programmer then you can earn £23,000 and pay £264 tax / NI per annum. If your turnover exceeds £23,000 then you pay 17% on the excess above this.

The disadvantages of Ukraine are: Very cold winters, very bureaucratic with very corrupt public servants, poor infrastructure, poor Internet connection outside of major cities, but speed better than UK in cities, with Wimax available. Roads poor (but no parking charges except in Kiev), health system very basic, free in theory but in practice you pay for medicines and bribes incentives to be treated by doctors, unless you take out private health insurance at about £40 per month and use private hospitals. Secondhand cars are very expensive min. price for anything is £2000 (40 year old pile of rust) and about 4x same price in UK, road fatalities about 4x UK, murder rate about 2x UK.

Advantages: Hot summers about 30degC, no nanny state, nobody cares much about what you do, unemployment benefits - none, your problem, most people in this position are supported by their friends and families, when communities and families have very strong bonds in Ukraine, education system generally good with 5th highest percentage of qualified engineers and scientists per head of population in the world. House prices in my wife's village are about 100,000UAH (£7700) for a bungalow with about 1 acre of land.

Sadly the UK cost base and taxes means it is no longer a competitive place to do business. 

7526

General Discussion Area / Re: Channel 4 - Operation Armadillo

« on: 09 September 2011, 17:48:46 »

Why did they say exactly what they did - they should have masaged it

Yes, as part of the mission debrief, which then got out into the public domain through one of the soldiers telling his mum in a phone conversation. It then showed the officer addressing his men on how to handle the fallout from this and how to justify their actions. Not a clever situation when it is all recorded on camera. 

The camera was on the front line when the contact was made, initially they could not work out where the fire was coming from, even though it was only about 20m in front of them. You then saw one of the troops lob the grenade, the resultant explosion, followed by them charging the position.

It was an interesting documentary, as you saw the debrief from each of the patrols they went on and they were very frank on each others and their overall performance and what lessons could be learnt and improvements made to their soldiering.

7527

General Discussion Area / Channel 4 - Operation Armadillo

« on: 09 September 2011, 07:47:04 »

Anybody watch this on Danish troops in Afghanistan?

After the Danish troops had been ambushed and were under very heavy fire by the Taliban, to neutralize them they threw a grenade into a ditch and badly injured 4 of them.

When they charged the ditch they found the 4 badly injured Taliban and in their words, "they emptied 5 clips into them as it was the most humain thing to do" and then the officer fired couple more clips down the ditch which killed the 5th member of their group.

They were heavily censored by their commanders back in Denmark for the possible unnecessary killing of the 4 and indiscriminate killing of the 5th. The officer that that killed the 5th in his defense said if he had stuck his head down the ditch to check the situation of the 5th Taliban he may of had his head blown off as he may have been dead, injured or pointing a gun down the ditch...

To me it seemed very humain and proper that the 4 injured Taliban that had been trying to kill them seconds before should not have to put up with much pain and suffering and were able to join Allah at the earliest convenient moment, quickly followed by the 5th.

What do you think?

7528

General Discussion Area / Re: The Motorcycle Action Group (MAG)

« on: 07 September 2011, 23:13:24 »

MAG and other European pressure groups have been more successful than most other pressure groups in opposing and stopping EU legislation. 

Last time they proposed some of these regulations, bikers grid locking Brussels for a day with slow riding tactics, this seemed to concentrate MEPs on the proposal and it was postponed by sending it to a committee for further consideration. 

But it has now resurfaced. 

Unfortunately, within the EU hierarchy there are many bike hating officials, with bike bans being proposed in the past. 
Fortunately, Germany is a major bike manufacturer (BMW) or there is a real chance it would have been successful. 

If the no tuning rules are imposed, it will stop ALL engine home repairs and servicing and the use of secondhand and pattern parts. Manufactures will decide the age span of a bike, by stopping the supply of official spare parts, say after 5 years, (or in a recession say 3 years, to boost profits) so you have to buy a new one. Once it is law it will be too late to stop, manufacturer lobbying will make sure of that. 


My understanding is that bikes are a test bed with the intention to extend this so all car engines are likewise sealed units. This legislation is aimed at making sure all vehicles comply at all times with emission standards. So don't be surprised if service intervals become compulsory. 

The Brussels politburo is deliberately non-democratic as the people aren't trusted, they might derail "The European Project" (driven by the German-France axis), by voting incorrectly. When this happens in treaty referendums, like ROI, then they have to keep voting until they come up with the right 'Yes' answer.

To see what is going to happen in the future then look at the history of the USSR as that is where the EU is heading politically and economically. 

The world is changing, the new dynamic West is the East (Asia), the new dynamic North is the South (America). With western economies consuming too much and producing too little and with Governments and individuals borrowing too much to try and keep up living standards, this is all going to end in tears. 

The USSR only broke apart when they were effectively bankrupt and could not feed their population. Fortunately, this happened in a relatively peaceful fashion. When this happens to the EU who knows if it will be peaceful or not!!!! 

7529

General Discussion Area / Re: political correctness gone mad !

« on: 09 September 2011, 05:51:47 »

You can lead a bureaucrat to water but you can't ever make him think, and he will NEVER ever make a decision 

7530

General Discussion Area / Re: Up for a Cup of Tea

« on: 09 September 2011, 05:33:00 »

I suffer from insomnia, some nights I can sleep easily, other nights, like tonight, I'm hyper and can't sleep, I'm still wide awake at 5am even though I had a big nightcap (which puts my blood pressure right up!!!) I'm wide awake. 

I used to survive of adrenaline and 4 to 6 hours (or less!) sleep a night when I was running a computer games company, but in middle age it has all caught up with me with a high glucose intolerance (pre-diabetes) due to lack of sleep and high blood pressure. I have since slowed down, but I can't get control of my sleep patterns. 

At the moment after getting my blood pressure under control for the last couple of years with a no added salt diet and good exercise (I'm a keen cyclist) its all going pear shaped, with blood pressure going up into orbit!!!

The fact my wife and daughter are in the Ukraine (I'm missing them terribly) and I'm working hard to get house sold etc, to join them is making my stress levels very high and late payments / bad debts, from lack of money out there, where I'm self employed doesn't help.