ahammond

Check the proposed dates for the race given in the article and also today's date.

Not sure if there is a bomb proof pair of glasses but I have the same problem myself of the screws working loose. I have tried loctite, super glue etc. without much success and now just settle for tightening them up once a month or so. You can get a set of very small screw drivers to do the job from any model shop for a couple of pounds.

Strange how at the beginning of December all the old wives and country folk lore were saying that we were in for a hard winter and were rubbished by the meteorological experts. We had about three inches of the white stuff dumped on us last night. The paperboy was about ten minutes later than normal and the post about half an hour. Other than that no problems. My local aquatic shop even got his regular weekly supply of live fish food delivered so I will be off down to get some after lunch.

It may have been just because it was being run down but for the last few months Teletext was a pain to use. It took ages sometimes for the pages to load and even then often as not the wrong page would come up. I generally prefer a text service to a live news broadcast as you can skip all the stories that do not interest you and it is/was available 24hrs whenever you wanted it.

Your car alarm problem could be caused by a neighbours, or your own, doorbell if it is one of the radio operated type. I had a similar problem a while back when the bell push on my neighbours house got stuck on and as a result its transmissions were overriding the remote on my cars central locking. I spoke to Offcom about it as it had me puzzled when it first happened and apparently it is quite a common thing with bell pushes. They actually have a range of about seventy or so yards in the open. Luckily I can speak to my neighbour who was surprised as me when we tested it and found that it was his doorbell at fault. A new bell push sorted the problem.

I think that there is a lot more to this than has been reported in the media. As far as I can gather it was not a matter of a burglar having the tables turned on him and suffering rough justice as a result as in the case of Tony Martin. It was in fact a dispute of some kind between two groups of people who knew each other well. In continuance of that dispute one group attended the others home and threatened them. The tables were somehow turned and the group that had been threatened then became the aggressors. Instead of calling the Police once the threat had been removed as they should have done they instead chased after the others with the sole intention causing them as much injury as possible. As far as I am concerned the attackers in this case got off very lightly. Their use of violence was way over the top by any standard, was totally illegal and in no way could be conceived as self defence.

When I was into cameras a few years back I could have probably interpreted that lot for you. Nowadays it probably means very little anyway as most digital cameras will have similar specifications albeit advertised in a different jargon depending on the make. It is only when you get the camera in your hands and play with it for a couple of minutes that you can find out if you like it. Take a trip to Comet or somewhere similar and try a few different makes for size. You do not have to buy from them but it will give you a better idea of what you are after. Personally though I would go for a quality lens every time even with a camera just for snapshots.

Try www.trustedreviews.com or the Which site. Both of them will give you honest reviews on a range of items including digital cameras. In my own experience what you pay for is not the electronics which are all much of a muchness but the lens. A cheap camera is going to have a cheap lens and no matter what electronics go into it you will never get as good a picture as a more expensive camera with a decent set of optics. I have just bought a Panasonic Lumix with a Leica lens and the difference between in the quality of picture it takes compared to the more expensive Canon that it is replacing is quite substantial. The basic Lumix I think starts around the £180 mark but will be well worth the extra even if it is only used for snapshots.

Good old fashioned November day in Newcastle. Grey, damp, and cold.

I am no killjoy but I think that it is much better this way. Bonfire night is an actual event again and the fireworks can be enjoyed without getting on everybody's wick with months of explosions at all times of the day and night.

Very quiet around here up until last night when there were quite a few local displays. But even those finished before nine o clock. Compared to past years when the firework season started about the beginning of September and went on until New Year with hardly a break it has been a pleasant relief. In fact for once I actually enjoyed watching them from my conservatory and the dog who is normally a shivering wreck hardly seemed bothered either.

I have always found that confused.com and other such sites a waste of time. I have been able to beat the prices that they quote every time by checking around the individual companies myself. The only comparison site that I have ever found in the least bit useful is www.themoneyspermarket.com. and even then their car insurance quotes are generally on the high side but they are good for checking out interest rates for loans or savings..

At least once a month somebody has a race with the tide trying to get off Lindisfarne island along the causeway. They nearly always loose and end up getting rescued by helicopter or the inshore lifeboat. Plenty of signs up warning people and tide tables displayed both end of the causeway. But for some reason they just get ignored.

I was stroking the dog when the wife said "You think more of that dog than you do of me" I said "I think more of next doors cat than I do of you" That was when the fight started. The vicar said "Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?" I said "Yes" That was when the fight started.

What you may be thinking about is the same thing that I have used to put a phone in my garage/workshop/hideaway. The main phone is plugged into a device that that is in turn plugged into a mains socket. You then plug another box into any socket in the house and plug a phone into that. So essentially you can just plug a phone in wherever there is an electrical socket. The only slight snag is that the second phone must be a corded not a cordless phone. I bought mine from Maplins for about forty pounds