Any question answered...

Doesn't matter

Kind of, but it's best to avoid it. It doesn't stand up to any scrutiny, because the "'d" (had) after "rather" is redundant, as it already sits after "you".

I can't think of a time when you'd say "rather had", actually.

Filling out an application for an ETA for a holiday in Sri Lanka. It is asking for our "port of departure". If we are changing flights in Dubai, do I put Dubai or where our journey starts (Gatwick)?

NVM - not a compulsory field

If you don't have kids just do the washing up yourself; saves water and energy (controversial), makes your dishes last much longer (as long as you don't drop them) and gives you a chance to stretch your lungs as you belt out "Sir Duke".

Modern dishwashers filter and recycle water so they can use less water than hand washing.

Do you really want to spend your scarce non-work hours washing dishes by hand?

Yeah, I've heard all that. I've also heard that the comparative studies included running the water non-stop! I'm not sure whether they take into account manufacturing, energy use, transport and ultimate disposal of said units.
I've only worked 4 days a week for years already, I find washing up to be kind of therapeutic and since there is only two of us we don't generate that many dishes.

I'd rather'd you'd given me that cake.

I had rather had you had given me that cake?

New question - is it worth getting my 5-6 year old £200 dishwasher repaired? It's a bit old-feeling, and it's now properly broken - wash cycle behaving weirdly, getting down to one minute and then the pump just sucks dryly for ever

Pretty much any appliance cannot be repaired 'economically' these days, i.e. so much less than the cost of a brand new replacement as to be worth it. Unless you do it yourself. And that requires getting the diagnosis right, getting the right parts first time, and not making things worse when you actually do the repair. Big ask unless you have little extra to do.

Things to try before you bin it however include checking the waste out pipe for a blockage (fnar) and running a boat load of dishwasher cleaner through it.

@bashthebox

We repaired our Bosch dishwasher the other day.

Had similar symptoms, all we needed to fix it was a torx screwdriver and some towels to soak up some water. They are actually pretty simple beasts - definitely worth a go yourself, there are loads of youtube howto diagnosis/fix videos.

Yes - I've fixed out Indesit one a couple of times, too, and the fix has usually been discombobulating the bits that can be accessed, giving it good clean, recombobulating then praying it works again. And usually it does.

To clarify: is it worth the cost of having an external person repair one? Probably not. DIY: possibly.

The trouble comes when something genuinely is broken, like a pump or PCB - again fairly easy to replace but requires correct diagnosis and its quicker and only marginally more wallet crushing in some cases just to buy a new unit, environment be damned : /

THAT'S WHAT I SAID. Possibly.

So an update to the dishwasher - I googled around a bit, and it sounded like my pressure pump was bunged up. Took the side off the dishwasher, and indeed the drainage switch was stuck. Cleaned it a bit. The pump itself is REALLY bunged up with gunk and scale though. Did my best to clean that out, but there's no easy way to remove the pump so I had to push a drain cleaning pipe cleaner thingy in through the pump outlet in the dishwasher.
Result - the dishwasher does now work again, but is a bit leaky. Like, half a cup of water during a cycle. I think the machine is on its last legs but I've at least given it a few more months.

Skip hire North London? Any recommendations?

I rang up the skip company and said, "I wanna skip outside my house in 15 minutes."

Bloke on the other end said, "We'll I'm not going to stop you."

They're all much of a muchness I think but I used http://metrowaste.co.uk/

I did a lol.

Installing Sram Omniums. I have always used a Chris King BB with mine, but the BB is creaking and clunking so am replacing it with a Sram GPX BB.

Chris King use a weird spring washer for bearing preload. The Sram BB has no such preload device, is it really as simple as put mount the BB cups to the frame (and copperslip the threads) insert cranks (greasing the crank spindle) and then tighten up the crank bolt? How do you ensure there is no play at the BB, or that the bearing preload is not over done?

How do you ensure there is no play at the BB, or that the bearing preload is not over done?

The NDS bearing is captured between the NDS crank and a shoulder on the axle

Ha, was just coming back here to post this link

http://trailtiretv.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/srams-gxp-bottom-bracket-how-it-differs.html?m=1

and

Does anyone on here run a proper loud bike horn, and if so which one? Do they find it makes them safer?

was looking at these
http://loudbicycle.com/ (hilariously patronising video)
http://www.thehornit.com/

When I worked in an lbs we had these in stock

It worked perfectly for sneaking up behind colleagues and giving them a jolly good 115db fright right as they were making tea or doing some fiddly

Were they reliable? How often did they need re-pressurising? I like the idea of no batteries, but it's very bulky.

You only got a couple of blasts at full volume

Yeah waste of time. I pretty much want to be blasting it constantly at every child / old person / mother with pram that I see.

.

2 Attachments