AMLinington

It's pretty cool. I love Lego art

Oh that's lovely! I love Lego art

This is brilliant! We were having a discussion in the office this morning about annoying junk mail and about the fact that I get a takeaway menu from every Indian, Chinese and Thai restaurant in a 5 mile radius about every 2 or 3 days then I found these links. Loving it.

Oh I LOVED the storms I saw in Vancouver - we got caught in one in Penticton and it was amazing! I ADORE thunder and lightning and it was the proper forked stuff - none of the wimpy little flashes we get in the UK, it was a full on 'KRAKOOM'. Awesomeness.

Sounds just like Yodel then lol

It's a bit sad but that was the same reason I stopped using iGoogle - I liked the doodles.

IE9 - with the crashing and the hanging and the guh-HOYVEE...

See even I would walk that and I take any opportunity to be lazy. I probably wouldn't even bother with the hassle of riding a bike over that tiny a distance. I used to walk a mile home from the bus stop on my evening commute (the bus used to go a different route in the evening) and it's barely worth the risk of having the bike nicked.

Not at all - enough of a splosh of Brandy and a humble lighter can set it on fire. I have one of those long-necked candle/BBQ lighters. You can get them in any supermarket usually near the matches. We have a leccy hob and it goes up a treat. Give it a moment or two to get hot as it doesn't burn cold, then hold the lighter near the rim of the pan and FWOOSH

Funny you mention ribeye - that Flambe sauce I mentioned is LOVELY with Rib-eye. Essentially: Bunch of spring onions, chopped, 2 cloves of Garlic A whole box of mushrooms (supermarket sized box) Veg stock Brandy Cream Fry off the steak, leave to rest, fry onions and garlic in meat-juiced-pan until soft, add mushrooms, fry down, add generous splosh of brandy, set it on fire (FLAMBE), when flames go out naturally add 1/2 a pint to 1 pint of Veg stock (I use 2 veg oxo cubes and a pint of boiling water but then LeBoyfriend and I eat the sauce with a spoon! 1 Veg Oxo and half a pint will do). Boil vigorously until the stock has reduced to almost nothing (reduced by 3/4 at least), then take off the heat and pour in cream stirring constantly to stop it separating. Add enough cream that it looks like fairly milky tea but still has some colour. Serve steak with wedges or jacket spuds and some steamed veg of your choice. We like Baby carrots, steamed Savoy cabbage steamed with butter and salt, and crunchy beans.

Assuming you get an average of 30 miles to the Gallon, that 120mile per day round trip is 4 Gallons a day. At a current price of around £6 a gallon, that makes £24 a day. Making it £120 a week (assuming you work 5 days per week). Over 4 weeks (a month) this is £480. Assuming you get 30 miles to the Gallon. You may drive a diesel at 50 to the gallon. If so: 120 miles at 50 miles to the gallon is 2.4 Gallons. 1 Gallon is 4.54l so if 1 litre of diesel is 138p, 1 gallon of diesel is £6.26 which brings your daily cost per journey down to £15.02. Which is £75.12 a week which is nearer your £300 a month mark. Both of these assume you are driving in optimum driving conditions at a steady speed. In reality you'll probably get more like 25-26 to the gallon in heavy traffic in any petrol car larger and older than an 04 Astra (LeBoyfriend gets 33 to the gallon in an 04 Astra 'around town', I get 26 to the gallon in a Y-reg Vectra 'around town'). LeFather drives like an old fart and prides himself on getting 56 to the gallon out of an 08 VW Passat on the motorway. Around town you're looking more like 40ish in a Passat sized car. On top of that you also need to factor in additional tyre and breakpad costs. You'll probably get around 15,000mi out of a set of tyres although that depends on the compound, brand, size and weight of car, how well balanced the wheels and tyres are etc That is 125 days at 120 mi a day. So you'll probably do 3-4 sets a year. At roughly £400 a set. I still reckon it is profitable for you, but how sustainable is it for your employer? Also I wouldn't want to drive 60 miles every day then do a full day of work - that is the same as driving Southampton to Oxford every day :-S The commute TO work won't be as much pain as the commute home. I suspect.

If they are paying travel go for it. It tends to be lucrative as you probably won't spend 45p a mile. That being said, a 60 mile drive in the morning is a bit daunting especially in Winter. I have a 15 mile round trip to work and that still takes me 30 minutes. It depends on how long it is going to take you. A previous employer once asserted that they EXPECTED all employees to factor in an hours travelling time PER JOURNEY. I was repping for a games distributor and if a store was 2 hours away (Weymouth for example) I was expected to do 1 of those hours in my own time, so I was expected to be at store for 9am, but in the case of a 2 hour trip, 10am was the latest they would allow similarly I was not to leave until 4pm for a 2 hour drive home. It was a bit complicated but most of my 'patch' was within an hours commute so it sounds like you're probably looking at about an hour or so (traffic dependant). Are you sure they are paying your day-to-day travel and not 'out on site' travel?

Buy a slow cooker from Asda and do Steak and Guinness pie: Fabric and Findings: Adventures in Crafting: Slow Cooker Recipes: Part 1 This is my blog so that is my recipe and it works flawlessly every time. You could serve it up without the pastry with a baked potato and some steamed green beans. :-) Edited to add - if you prep the night before and leave it going all day, it'll pretty much be ready when you get home. I also have a lovely Flambe steak recipe that is SO good. I haven't blogged it yet but it's lush.

I'm certain I read somewhere that Marmite costs more than Petrol (Yes, yes I did - in the Daily Fail). That being said, it is probably only marginally cheaper than petrol now as the days of the £5 gallon are long gone :-( Although LeBoyfriend has the Marmite XO as my mother thinks it's funny to buy it for him for Christmas. He loves it. It stinks the kitchen out.

Agreed, although it must be said that a level tsp of Marmite in gravy gives it a nice richness. Personally I am not a marmite fan, but LeBoyfriend is and I 'tolerate' it in our house. Apparently Marmite and cucumber sandwiches are the food of the gods. I'll pass on that thanks. I'm afraid my breakfast of choice is toasted Fruit Loaf with melty butter. Mmmmm

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH A Yodel van just delivered another parcel to this office. WhyTF can't they have delivered one of my TWO parcels at the same time? This is driving me NUTS! I need it for tomorrow!!! At this rate I'll be stopping at Argos on the way home and buying one in store (at 3 times the price) then complaining until they refund me for the new item.

Jolly Ranchers are WIN.

ACK Hersheys chocolate tastes like bile. You know when you've vomited up everything that was in your stomach and are now vomiting acid? That is what hersheys tastes like. It's vile.

I gave into my rage where Yodel is concerned a long time ago. I would visit their temples and slaughter them all - even the younglings if I thought it would keep Padme safe bring me my parcel. Well, so far no parcel. I now have TWO parcels of the same item sitting in a Yodel depot that I can practically SEE from my desk, yet I am unable to claim it. *headdesk*

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo don't start me on f-ing YODEL!!! 4 days my parcel is late by now! I don't think I'm EVER going to get it! I ordered an item from Argos Online for delivery to my work address (that way there are plenty of people in) on Tuesday 10th. Tuesday came and went. Parcel didn't appear. I phoned Argos, 'Very sorry but the van broke down. It's out for delivery today'. Wednesday came and went. Parcel did not turn up. Thursday is now over and where is my Parcel? God knows. I don't even think f-ing YODEL know where my parcel is now!!! The Ironic thing is that the Yodel depot is around the corner from my work, but I can't even go to collect it myself as I have no 'failed delivery' card as they haven't even bl00dy tried!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAM* Apparently they've now placed a new 'monitored order' for a new parcel for me for delivery tomorrow. I'd ALMOST be willing to bet my HOUSE it doesn't arrive.

I'm a WoW gamer and I have a lovely Iiyama monitor - I'm really pleased with (apart from the strange buzzing from the speakers when a large amount of white is on the screen - like a word document) but it's only 2D. 3D is not widespread enough for it to be worth the extravagent expense. That being said, WoW in 3D would be pretty awesome...

Personally, I am waiting until 3D technology no longer requires additional accessories (such as 'overglasses') to use. Until then, I'm sticking with 2D. If it's work why do you need 3D anyway?

It did that to me on the M27 last weekend - it was like driving through Niagara Falls! I find if you put your fog lights on, it at least makes you more visible to cars behind - I just wish the people in front would do the same. I'm hoping the storm holds off at least until I can get home to enjoy it.

No, but wouldn't it be cool if it actually turned slowly...

That being said, there is evidence of a slight northwards drift next week - the weather forecast looks promising. Perhaps the pattern is shifting, or as per the aforementioned article, it is stuck in a pattern cycle so we get 1 week of lovely hot weather and 6 weeks of rain...