at9

Landlubber? Yes Scurvy? I eat lots of oranges Dog? Woof! See you in Barking. (For the benefit of our foreign friends this is a suburb in east London)

suggests that they are largely hereditary rather than due to badly fitting footwear. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22555774

And a cutlass. Arrrrrr!

My partner and I went to the Bicester Outlet VIllage yesterday for the first time, mainly because it was on our route home from a short holiday and we had a little time to spare. Didn't realise that it was mainly expensive designer outlets where the villainously expensive becomes potentially affordable if you're lucky. My partner rather fancied a multicoloured jacket. Reduced from about £3500 to about £1700. Ouch! Wasn't even remotely that special. It was a bit downmarket seeing a Clarks store there but she got a new pair of trainers for £10. From the kids section as she has tiny UK3 feet. (That's EU36, US womens 5) At Sergio Rossi I saw some gorgeous "over the knee" low heel boots reduced from about £750 to about £150. Just about affordable. They were EU42 so I stood a half chance with my nominal EU43 feet and the boots looked fairly big. Then realised we were running late for a timed entry ticket so we left without me trying them. They probably wouldn't have fitted anyway but how will I ever know. Certainly not driving 70 miles each way to find out. Can't find the exact boot online but they were quite like this picture. No metal insert above the heel and with a top section that could easily be cuffed down or up. I've never worn boots over trousers out before but with those beauties I could see myself buckling my swash around town.

You can buy aerogel insulation boards to reduce heat losses, espeically from solid walls. For example: http://www.instagroup.co.uk/instaclad/insulation-range.aspx I suspect they need careful handling to retain their performance.

Well, I've just disabled AdblockPlus for HHP only and still don't get any ads. Ad blockers only arose because some sites overdid the advertising so that we had to put up with too much stuff that was too intrusive. Likewise pop-up blocking. I can remember the odd site creating loads of popups so quickly that the only real cure was to pull the internet connection. Unfortunately websites like HHP who use advertising sensibly and thoughtfully have suffered from the fallout from this arms race.

Old proverb: One who does not back up data will verily lose it. I know a couple of people who knew they should have backups lose a lot of important stuff. In one case it was hard disk failure, in the other case it was theft of the laptop. My backups should be sufficient to protect against anything short of an aircraft crashing on the house. Even then, if I'm at home at the time I've no further worries.

Have you ever listened to opera in English (assuming you are a native speaker) and tried to follow the words? For the most part the words are not very intelligible.That's why most opera houses now have surtitles, regardless of whether the opera is in English or a lesser tongue. Not sure if that's a good thing or not. I'll make an exception for Gilbert and Sullivan. You really do need to hear the words so it needs singers with really good diction. I strongly suspect that italian opera is just as hard for italians to follow and so on.

:pulsingheart: From one lover of Searle to another :pulsingheart: I have many of his books including: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tr%C3%A8s-Riches-Heures-Mrs-Mole/dp/0007449100 I saw the exhibit of the "Mrs Mole" originals when it came to London a few years ago.

You look wonderful/marvellous/gorgeous/pretty/stunning/fabulous/superb (delete as appropriate) in/wearing that/those dress/skirt/boots/shoes/hat/necklace (again, delete as appropriate) From the Universal Compliment Generator (UCG). Patents Pending. As against the Ikea Komplement generator which is a large factory somewhere.

Quite right. Always: "You look great in that dress", not: "That dress looks great on you". Remember that however wonderful the dress it's the woman who really looks great.

The Earth's tilt has just shifted as dead biologists around the world are spinning in their graves.

Perhaps that accounts for the lousy weather we've been having.

I find the beads don't slide on the wires unless I oil them occasionally

whether you loved her or whether you hated her,whether you agreed with her policies or not i think the so called 'celebrating' her passing is in bad taste!!!

As is recalling parliament at the taxpayers expense to have a "debate" about her. Could have easily waited until parliament returned from Easter recess next week. As is giving her something close to a state funeral with military honours, again largely at the taxpayers expense. I just hope they don't do the same for Tony Blair or any other prime minister when they join Mrs T.

I think you'd be better off looking on the fetish sites such as Kinklink and Fetlife. Virtually all the events advertised there would welcome HH wearing males. I won't give links here because the sites contain content that would be unacceptable here at HHP.

Megan, I think you put that rather politely. I refrained from commenting since I doubt I would have been so restrained. I live less than half a mile from her old constituency office. There were 4 satellite news trucks outside yesterday. Megan, please remember that in American eyes (well Fox news anyway), socialism is anything even slightly to the left of Ghengis Khan. Yes, Churchill was a dangerous leftie because he was party to the setting up of the welfare state at the end of WW2.

A couple of UK11 items on offer in the HHP classifieds at the moment. I've met tthe vendor and he's a decent guy. Here's one: http://www.hhplace.org/classifieds/item/40-leatherworks-leather-court-shoes-size-11-uk/

This is the sarcastic version of GIYF: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=giyf

The idea of encouraging people to do their own basic research first goes back to well before google existed. The comment "RTM" (with optional F before the M) may go back to the 1950s. Judging by a wikipedia article there's quite a bit of sociological and educational background to this sort of comment. I even discovered some related acronyms that I would have had to google in order to decode.

@Tom-NL, I like your JFGI reference. In the UK we have a dangerous organisation called Ben's Bargain Centre

Thank you, Tom N-L. I don't know what GIYF means either.

GIYF is the polite version. GIYF = Google Is Your Friend

JFGI is the crude alternative.

That sounds like an idea, and I'm all for giving prep school boys a run for their money. Teach them what life is about before they go to Eton and it might stop them from messing all our lives up.

Like sticking a starting handle up their big ends. Oh, sorry, I forgot. That's standard practice at prep schools

Like many members, I look regularly and post when I feel I can contribute.

It reminds me of the thing the clown used to turn the titles at the end of Camberwick Green.

Camberwick Green? Isn't that found at the bottom of the Walworth Road on the way to Herne Hill?

Megan, the battery replaced a wind up clockwork device. It was called a starting handle. I can just about remember my dad starting one of his cars that way when the battery was flat. Here's a photo of one I found online: http://a2.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/123/0d737ce0a3dc328262041cd95a4c7bf7/l.jpg

Could be worse.You could suddenly switch to Russian, or even arabic. Megan, as a special gift to you when you have this problem with german I hereby present you with a matching pair of: öö

There's a problem in that URL. Here's the correct URL: http://www.imakebootsngloves.com/new_products.html