I bought a double humbucker Tele from Andertons. It had a minor fault. They offered to replace it, I accepted. They promised to have someone from their quality control team look it over before sending it out. Received it; one of the neck bolt screws is buggered and a string tree spacer is missing.

Refund this time. Shame because minus the faults it would suit me to a T.

Quote from: Nick on March 03, 2022, 09:28:26 PMSir Gavin Williamson ... unbelievable

I do understand the negative reaction to this. I think he knows where some of the skeletons are buried. he wouldn't be my first choice.

But for me, the institution that is the Knighthood was devalued for all time when Ed Davey got one. I could even defend Tony Blair getting one, even though I signed the petition to help send him a message. But not that.

Quote from: pxr5 on March 03, 2022, 09:38:05 PM

Quote from: Slim on March 03, 2022, 07:29:51 PM

Quote from: Rufus_the_dawg on March 03, 2022, 02:07:37 PMI'm trying to buy The Wegde - very expensive waiting tfor a cheap one to come up on ebay.

Also after Demon- Heart of our time cd. I refuse to buy cds for £30

Some CD prices are plain crazy.

It's on melodishop.com at 320kbps MP3 for $0.80 -

http://melodishop.com/the-wedge-2000-remaster-pallas/release_548004.html

FLACs would be nice, but it's got to be better than putting up with vinyl.

Eh, say what? You surprise me Slim. Vinyl is king   

I know some people like the way it sounds. It's a matter of taste I guess

Quote from: dom on March 03, 2022, 10:26:29 PM

Quote from: dom on March 03, 2022, 08:13:16 PMNumber of companies or individuals sanctioned for links to Putin:

🇪🇺 EU 446
🇨🇭 Switzerland 351
🇺🇸 USA 148
🇬🇧 UK 24

Come on Johnson! Get your finger out! Any reason for the stalling?

Still think this question needs answering. With so many Russian oligarchs having made their homes here and invested so much of their ill gotten gains in the UK why has its response been so poor compared to the likes of the US and the EU?

I honestly don't know what the real figures are; my own information was that over 100 people and entities had had their assets frozen by Feb 24th. So this notion of a poor response sounds a bit like spin to me. There's no doubt in any case that we've been pushing for harder sanctions on the international stage. Worth remembering also that the EU is a collection of countries so aggregating their effort, welcome though it may be, into a single score is not really helpful.

It might well be something like wanting to ensure that proper culpability is established, rather than just targeting people for being Russian.

Just read that two Kremlin associates were sanctioned this evening. It's a work in progress, as it must be.

Quote from: Nick on March 03, 2022, 09:25:10 PMInteresting analysis, to me it looks like the Eu has led the way, the U.K. is very much on the sidelines. Massive amounts of defensive weaponry sent to the Ukraine and an open refugee policy shows how the EU has strengthened itself.

German and French leaders have met and spoken with Putin in the flesh, none of that for our clown of a leader. Ukraine, Georgia and Albania now all looking to join the EU.

Looks like we walked out of the best club in town. Farage and his mob are looking increasingly isolated, I can see the U.K. rejoining the EU far faster than we thought if we survive this.

Couple of things here - firstly, there are many reasons that I don't think this country will want to rejoin the EU, but I don't think the current crisis has a bearing on it either. If anything, to be fair, there are negatives in Georgia and Albania wanting to join up. I hear Moldova is keen, as well. It's not the sort of prospect to soften your average Brexiteer's heart. And I believe we would have led the European effort to assist Ukraine even if we hadn't left the EU.

After all we were in the EU in 2015 when we started providing training to the Ukrainian military. I don't know of another EU country that was doing that at the time.

I'm genuinely surprised to see dissent from the view that the UK has led the effort to assist Ukraine because I honestly thought this was commonly understood, but in any case while our example may have helped the other European countries get their arses into gear, it's only a positive thing that the EU countries have started to help now, and it's not a competition.

But for the record, the US and UK have been providing military assistance since 2015. The UK has also sent military forces to the Eastern Mediterranean and Estonia to reinforce NATO's front line there. I have to credit France for contributing military assistance as well since 2021. But then the UK, and to a lesser degree France are Europe's pre-eminent military powers; it comes with the territory and with being key players in NATO.

Ultimately NATO is considerably more important in this than the EU.

Quote from: Hugh on March 03, 2022, 09:19:51 PMI think Boris might just have grown up in the last few days. I wouldn't wish the responsibility that rests on his shoulders on my worst enemy. If this opens his eyes to the realisation that his front bench requires a massive Spring clean then my respect for him would grow immensely. I think there's a decent man in there somewhere if he kicks the kidology into touch and recognises that he was indeed blinded by his blind ambition. Lose the three stooges please Boris.

Well I'm pleased to see a bit of respect for the PM here, albeit grudging - but this notion that he's not quite "grown up" by virtue of his occasionally irreverent personality is a wishful-thinking caricature, in my view.

He's been the "clown" who won an 80 seat majority and got Brexit done in a matter of months. He was the "buffoon" who led one of the most successful vaccine rollouts in the world, and led his country out of the worst of the pandemic sooner than any other Western nation.

I don't think all of his front bench are stellar but I can't doubt that we have the most talented and capable government I've known for a very long time.

On a more positive note, the UK government has without question led the way with assistance to Ukraine. We've been training and provisioning the Ukraine military since 2015 when the EU was doing nothing. The Germans even refused permission to fly over their airspace, and blocked other NATO countries from transferring weapons to Ukraine.

We had to embarrass Germany and Italy in getting support for the SWIFT suspension.

Boris Johnson has become a hero to the Ukrainian people, and he received a standing ovation when he visited a Ukrainian Cathedral in London the other day. Zelensky has thanked him personally for his support. Boris is actually the only NATO leader to visit NATO countries on the Ukrainian border.

Quote from: Rufus_the_dawg on March 03, 2022, 02:07:37 PMI'm trying to buy The Wegde - very expensive waiting tfor a cheap one to come up on ebay.

Also after Demon- Heart of our time cd. I refuse to buy cds for £30

Some CD prices are plain crazy.

It's on melodishop.com at 320kbps MP3 for $0.80 -

http://melodishop.com/the-wedge-2000-remaster-pallas/release_548004.html

FLACs would be nice, but it's got to be better than putting up with vinyl.

Quote from: Nickslikk2112 on March 02, 2022, 05:12:34 PMAs a general rule, the more you shell out on bib shorts the better it is for your comfort. My Rapha ones are far and away the best I've had, but Wiggle's dhb aren't bad.

Just ordered a pair of dhb shorts from Wiggle. Perhaps I'll wear them for longer rides. Haven't had a new pair for a couple of years.

Took me a long time to think of the fourth word.

Wordle 257 4/6

🟨⬛⬛⬛🟨
⬛🟨🟨⬛⬛
⬛🟩🟨⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Unfortunately my photo stash domain name (truth.justdied.com) doesn't work for some people - I think BT put it on a blacklist for spam, mistakenly of course, some time ago. I believe someone falsely reported it maliciously. I must start using a different domain name for that.

Just changed the image in the top post to a free photo hosting service (I usually just use my own web server) - let me know if it's working now? Thanks!

I only recall this event very vaguely, but I'm sure the settee was repositioned for the photo. It usually faced the wall on the left.

I got bored of it halfway through the last series. It really seemed to ramble and lose momentum.

I have a different point of view than Jonners in some respects. Firstly - inexpensive stuff from Amazon can be thoroughly adequate. My favourite cycling shorts cost £13.99, I have two pairs of them but they've lasted for ages. I did a 200 mile bike ride in them in 2020 and they were fine. I also have a couple of pairs that I've had a bit longer than those ones, and they are still fine as well.

I would agree that bib shorts stay in place better but they are very awkward if you want to stop for a discreet wee behind a bush so I never wear them.

My helmet cost £8 or something from Tesco and it's thoroughly robust. In all honesty I don't wear one that often. When it's cold I wear a woolly hat and when it's warm and the sun is a bit dazzling I wear a cap. I'm not recommending this approach, but - I have done 32,000 miles on a bike without my head colliding with anything more substantial than a wasp or a twig, so statistically I believe it to be a reasonable policy.

My brother has been going through old photos from my mum's house and I've just retouched and enhanced this one. This was taken on the occasion of my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary in 1970 at their home in Hartlepool. This scene consists of my grandparents, their children, their childrens' spouses, and their grandchildren - minus my brother who I think is behind the camera.

That's me on the bottom left. Only the persons in the front row, and my mum (immediately behind me) are still alive. To my left at the front are my cousin Martin, my brother Eric and my cousin Fergus.



Sorry to say that my cousins' family has been touched by tragedy to an unusual degree. My Aunt Alwyn, pictured on the right, succumbed to cancer this same year, in her mid 40s. Six years later her husband Gordon, top left here, suffered a fatal heart attack in his early 50s. And their daughter Katherine, standing between Gordon and my dad at the back, died in January 2016. I think she would have been 59.