sipar69

I've had Babyliss and a cheaper Philips one. Actually much prefer the Philips.

cat, dog, bunny, sloth, cheetah, wolf, wolverine (pic) mantis, fox, rat (could be here all day)

I make my own quite often (not quite a big as those bad boys . You do tend to discover that mince is pretty tasteless unless you chuck quite a lot of stuff in it. You could try any of the following in addition to salt and pepper: cumin powder, fresh thyme, rosemary (chopped very small), tarragon, mustard, (Worcester sauce or Oxo, like you were thinking), parsley, veggie stock powder, chopped fresh chillies, ketchup - the list is pretty endless. I avoid raw onion, as that's all you end up tasting. Delia Smith moment now over..........

Did you put any flavouring in the burgers or were they basically two big frisbees of mince?

I've replaced mine with the Bosch retro fit ones - work really well and look a bit better than the OEM ones http://www.wiperblades.co.uk/bosch-aerotwin-ar22u-wiper-blade/

V sorry to hear that. Cats can touch our hearts so much. It's not true when people say they are aloof - they can be as close to us as dogs. Chin up mate.

Yep. Definitely looks like she had some sort of major mental flip out.

That sucks mate. Sounds like a job for a pro to sort. Shame people have to express their jealousy like that.

Childhood?! Lego is great for any age! Defo. Best toy ever.

Can't be any duffer than the previous Hollywood version.

It is my hope that the radiation will create a species of enormous and very angry super-whales that will turn the tables on the [insert expletive of your choice] who kill these incredibly majestic, intelligent and wonderful creatures in the obviously bogus name of scientific research!

Nice idea Coldel! I'm always getting the "you can do mine next" when I spend hours making the Z look shiny. I did reply to one guy that I'd do his for £200 but maybe that was a bit optimistic

There's nothing wrong with people expressing opinions about things they don't have direct personal experience of. It would be an odd world if we could only talk about issues we had direct experience of. Just think how many of you would have to stop discussing how good/bad Premiership footballers are unless you'd played professionally.

No I have a GT - just my wheels are nismo LMGT4's, hence the sig pic. Actually, I've had the car for a couple of years now (it's done about 23k miles) and the exhaust note seems to be loosening up a bit - just like the 350z's used to (but the 350's were starting from a much better sound in the first place, of course). These days I can definitely get a tiny little growl out of it if I try hard enough. Maybe it's rusting through already Ahhh........ Well I can definitely recommend swapping out the OEM exhaust - the transformation when you put a decent one on there is remarkable - really puts a smile on your face. You definitely won't regret it and there are a ton of choices.

Do you have the Nismo 370Z? And if so, does this mean you're not happy with the exhaust note? (Not heard an Invidia - I have the Stillen which I think it meant to be quite similar - very nice sound.)

But surely "can't afford them" equates to "can't be sure of properly looking after them". I know I'm not the most impartial commentator on this issue - I've never wanted kids; they irritate me - but even from a child's perspective it can't good to bring them into the world unless you can afford to look after them.

Going through college I cleaned toilets, picked fruit and stacked shelves amongst other things. It wasn't fun but I reckon it does you good to experience that kind of work. It makes me appreciate having a good job and it makes me admire the people who do it for a living, rather than sit at home on their backsides!

I don't think you should be surprised that a debate of this nature went beyond the scope of the original question; that's entirely natural. I totally agree that not everyone should be tarred with the same brush. I also agree that it would be plain wrong to suggest that the majority of people who are on benefits are having a great time and want to stay that way. The problem is that the small proportion of people who do ‘play’ the system and languish on benefits cause a disproportionate amount of anger and frustration to many of those of us who get up and go to work every day, see the cost of living rising and the value of our wages falling. Most of us are brought up from an early age to believe (rightly in my view – it’s a theory that dates back to Aristotle) that there is more value in working for something than being given it for nothing. There’s something inherently unpleasant and sneering about people who would rather sit at home and take but not give back. For what it’s worth, I think there is a lot to be proud of about this country but I do wonder if the concept of the value of hard work has been lost. I saw a programme recently in which a guy with a degree in media studies was refusing to take a job unless he could use his degree. I have a good degree from a good university, but when I left uni’ I didn’t consider myself to be too good to do anything that wasn’t directly relevant to my degree; I took the first job I could get so that I could pay off my debts and build a career (I’m still in the same line of work now). Similarly, we have a friend who owns a couple of hotels in the Cotswolds. He pays the going rate and even gives free staff accommodation – the hotels are good places to work but he can never get English people to take jobs as bar staff etc. He says they simply aren’t interested in the work, so virtually all of his people are Eastern European. I sometimes wonder if the celebrity X-factor culture isn’t partly to blame in convincing people that normal work isn’t worthy of them – everyone’s a promising musician, footballer or pop star! So while I’m with you that it’s easy to blow these things out of proportion and Governments will always look for vote winning policies even if there are bigger problems to address, I do think those of us who work hard have every right to be critical of those who don’t.

I quite like my heated seats but can't say it's a deal breaker. I would say this but I reckon the Black Edition has the best interior of all the variants. I am also thinking about going for a Nismo in about a year though. I see on Autotrader some of the ex-demo ones are already coming down in price a fair bit (black though - much prefer the white and just wish they'd release the red one here).

Cool kits!

We don't always agree Ekona but I'm with you one hundred percent on that. I am sick to death of people (unemployed or otherwise) moaning about the cost of having kids. Can't afford em, don't have em! I was on a job that paid a lot, my wife had a great job lined up, between us earning a fair amount of cash. Then her job suddenly got dumped out of the blue and I got made redundant in the same week with a 3 month old baby. Yes we took a punt that I was paying for everything and that my job would be safe when having our baby but we had a huge amount of bad luck in the space of a few months financially, and to be honest how else can you plan for a baby other than having a job and not being in debt? Also we were having trouble conceiving, time was running out as we both approached 40. So it was now or never. Prior to the job nightmare we had I had been in continuous employment for 12 years, I don't shirk work. We lived off our savings for a while but that child benefit made a massive difference to simply paying for some food shopping as we tried to make it stretch as both of us coped with the demands of a young baby and huge life change and trying to find work in a recession hit market place. Its not always just scroungers taking in child benefit. My comments are aimed at people who seem to think that having as many children as they want is fine without first thinking about whether they can afford to look after them and then expecting those of us who have no interest in children to subsidise them. Obviously if your circumstances changed that's entirely understandable, but there are people who should already know that they can't afford kids but have them anyway because they know the State will always bail them out. Then they start moaning about the cost of bringing up kids. That I do not understand at all.

Probably better to be honest with yourself than hang on to something that doesn't make economic sense right now. There'll be plenty of options when you feel the time is right to come back. Maybe you'll jump to a 370 next time you're in the market for a Z

We don't always agree Ekona but I'm with you one hundred percent on that. I am sick to death of people (unemployed or otherwise) moaning about the cost of having kids. Can't afford em, don't have em!

Back off or I'll unleash my ninja squirrel on you

Agree with this. I'm not what you'd call a green or a leftie but I do think the fundamental problem is the belief that the world was put here for us to make use of and that everything on it is just for our benefit. That wasn't such a problem until industrialisation and massive population growth, but now it seems as though we are taking more than it can give. It freaks me out when I think I'll probably live to see tigers totally extinct in the wild and that's entirely down to the actions of people.