tomturd

2.5 and 4mm don't relate the diameter of the cable, I think it represents the cross section/area. Each strand of copper in a 2.5mm cable is about 1mm diameter if I remember correctly. Good that you have a pro coming round. It does sound like you have no earth in any of the sockets. I wouldn't be too concerned. My whole lighting circuit didn't have an earth and we have lots of metal wall lights, but in the 40 or 50 years it was like that, to my knowledge, nobody died. Still worth getting it sorted though I think, especially if you're planning on moving sockets anyway.

I should have added quite a big disclaimer.. I only know enough to be dangerous In this case if it was me I think I'd probably rip it out (safely), do the chasing and run new cables myself then get an electrician in to wire up of sockets, do the CU stuff (that's one place I definitely don't mess around with) and sign it off.

1.5mm diameter or 1.5mm area? In the UK I think the standard is 2.5mm for loops and 4mm for radials. Ring/loop looks like this: Radial looks like this You can find out if its a radial by disconnecting one of the wires in one of the sockets (breaking the chain). If the other sockets further down the chain stop working then it's a radial, if they keep working its a ring (as power is supplied from both sides)

Sockets can be connected in series, its called a radial circuit and that's totally ok according to my electrician. You need a fatter cable because the electricity is delivered to the socket from one direction only. But the 'last' socket in your chain might go back to the CU, which will make it into a loop. You can use thinner cables because the electricity is delivered to the socket from both sides. If you break the loop (by drilling through a cable or something) then you effectively have 2 radials where a loop once was, the sockets still work but now each radial is on underrated cable. That, and that having an earth is generally a good thing, is the about the extent of my electrical knowledge Personally I would get digging in the wall.

I have one, used once. It was easy paddling, we went for miles along the coast from one beach to another. But on the way back, against a gentle breeze, I was paddling for my life. Genuinely thought we were going to have to swim for it. It seemed like we were getting absolutely nowhere, while and old couple who had rented a plastic kayak sailed past with ease. The problem is they have high sides and aren't particularly [insert word thats like aerodynamic but for water.. hydrodynamic?] and get caught by the wind really easily, if you want to use it more than once I would go for one of those plastic sit on top type kayaks.

It's "normal" according to http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=355741 In car related news I'm half entertaining the idea of buying an old (square looking) convertible Suzuki SJ... might be a terrible idea but they sound fun.

As far as I can tell most people on my FB feed voted for a party that had zero chance of winning/having any impact on the overall result, and are now pissed off the conservatives won (for the record I didn't vote conservative)

hannah agrees on yesterdays pointless (8:40): http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05pxdkf/pointless-series-13-episode-8 (this is like the 3rd big coincidence of my week, something strange is going on)

Are you doing that at the moment? I have a house that I rent out, I overpay the mortgage on it even though I know I'll be shooting myself in the foot when it comes to my tax return. The bit that confuses me is, do I: 1. stretch the mortgage out as long as possible, paying the least each month but therefore paying the max amount of interest over the lifetime of the mortgage, but paying the least to the tax man (this is what everyone else does) 2. overpay the mortgage as much as possible, therefore paying (much) less interest over the lifetime of the mortgage, but more to the tax man I'm doing the second option, I just want to get it paid off so that it's not marked down as me having -£XX,XXX when I log into my online banking.

Yours should go down to under £800 ish if you get onto a 2.9% ish deal when your fixed period finishes, maybe less if you've paid some capital off (I'm skimming dangerously close to the end of my knowledge of mortgages here...). My tip: when it goes down to a more reasonable figure, keep paying what you are now. You'll knock years and years off your mortgage doing that. There's 10 year fixed ones out there now at 2.8%ish, so it sounds like the banks aren't too concerned about interest rates going up any time soon.

That looks awesome! Where are you? On the heating front, beware strong tail winds. In my old fiesta the temp gauge went right up to red, so we turned back to find a garage. On the way back, the temperature went back down to normal levels. So thinking it was just a blip, we turned around again to continue our travels. This happened a few times until we realised the wind was blowing in the same direction we were driving

Well it's not often I post here, but I just replaced the bonnet catch on my fabia. Feeling pretty chuffed. The bonnet stays down and everything (after a few heart stopping "uh oh, I can't close the bonnet" moments). It didn't fix the thing I hoped it would though And I only lost one "square ratchet bit to screwdriver bit converter" and the torx bit that was plugged into it somewhere down the bottom of the engine. I think it's on the tray. Not a bad result.

frickers old site? bashguard.com wassit?

This has a 64bit cpu non? http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/zte-blade-s6-qualcomm-octa-core-2gb-ram-hd-16gb-2xsim-lollipop-4g-13mpx-camera-169-2145627

This one is doing well on hotukdeals: http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/zte-blade-s6-qualcomm-octa-core-2gb-ram-hd-16gb-2xsim-lollipop-4g-13mpx-camera-169-2145627 I had the first version of the ZTE Blade and at the time it was the best phone for the money. I would go for another zte if I ever wanted another smartphone, I'm quite happy with my nokia 100 though

does anybody really WANT a skoda before they've actually got one? pretty sure my fabia vrs is less than group 10, and I think they go for around £2500 now, maybe worth a look. It has it's niggles but its fun to drive, pretty quick and reliable. only problem when I got it (after I wrote off the previous car) was getting insurance - they said it was a 'high risk' car and even though it was in a low group, they still wouldn't insure me.

Is the feedback recent? If he pays part with cash then make sure you check every note. One of these will get you so far: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Counterfeit-Bank-Note-Money-Detector-Checker-Tester-Pen-Marker-Fake-Euro-/371081763168?pt=UK_BOI_Office_Office_Supplies_Stationery_ET&var=&hash=item5666325960

The thread dann linked to also mentions this stuff: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Forte-Diesel-Turbo-Cleaner-400ml/product-reviews/B009E5UJM6/ref=dpx_acr_txt?showViewpoints=1 might be worth a go

It's in the process of being treated, the seller has paid 1.5k for a 5 year treatment plan, they had it sprayed it in april I think. Now it seems they're waiting for it to flower in aug/sept before hitting it again. But yeah, not going in totally blind, we had it in our garden years ago and it took a couple of years to get rid of. I'll be buying some rosate 36 and an injector I think, there are mixed reports about the best way to get rid of it. I think I'll be an expert in a few years time

Happy birthday! I always thought you were older than me. I was 30 a couple of weeks ago. Still am actually. In happy news, our mortgage has finally been approved. The house has japanese knotweed issues, pretty hard to get a mortgage it seems. Looking forward to having a garage, been scouting ebay for table saws, band saws, thickness planers, metal forging stuff and all the things I want to do

Well, it turned up. Well impressed for the money. I thought they would scrimp where they could, but kenda tyres for example are a nice touch when they could have saved £2 and put some unbranded ones on. Attention to details is good, matching anodized qr's, little rubber bumpers on the cables, decent grips. Glad I got a medium, perfect for me and it's surprisingly not too heavy. Not sure what the forks will be like (suntours) so they may be getting upgraded at some point along with the rear shock, but they should do the job for the time being. I haven't ridden it yet, so it may ride like a bag of shit, but it looks nice at least.

No problem, I only gave you about 20 minutes before I bought it haha. Good news that it should fit. Interesting you mention the top tube, I saw this on the french site: http://www.decathlon.fr/vtt-rockrider-500s-tout-suspendu-id_8208677.html - I guess that might be a small one then

Whatalling? Don't be ridiculous

Budget I guess is around £500-£600. That would be a total spend of £850-£950, which doesn't get you much in terms of a prebuilt electric bike, so I can justify that... just about. I have a 350w scooter (don't laugh.. it's awesome ) and I don't think that would make it up the hill.. so I'm tempted to go for 500w. Really can't decide at the moment. Nope, not for a couple of years now. My girlfriend got a work placement near where I grew up (in fact, the same hospital I was born in), so I've moved back to Pembrokeshire. Loving it now I'm back, but totally not in my life plans.. (not that I had any!)

Good question! Do you know much about them? There's so much stuff on the net I can't decide. At the moment I'm thinking 36v 500w. I also like the sound of the mid drive systems because you can use your gears go give the motor an easier time (but the chainsets look crap and they're more expensive). The main reasoning behind this is to get me home from the pub, mostly off road, about 1.5 miles gradual uphill. Any idea if a 250w hub motor would even make a dent on a trip like that? From what I've read it sounds unlikely so I think it'll have to be something a bit more powerful? cool, thats reassuring! there's not much close by in terms of proper off road bike routes (no dedicated DH or XC courses or anything), but I do want something at least a little hoofable if I ever get the chance to ride somewhere decent again. Should find out on Friday if medium was the right choice, as long as it's not too cramped it should be fine