Daniël Bos

On the official support boat, in charge of safety are my sister and brother in-law, Ernie's parents. He's as trained as you can get being an ex army medic turned London paramedic, in charge of stuff. She's a nurse-practitioner and the bossiest person I know. We'll be sweet:001_cool: Should I worry about me not being that daunted? Got a keg for me and my brother, and enough picnic provisions to last us a day or three...

I'll be rowing Lake Windermere lenghtwise, beside my wife who will be swimming it... See also shameless money begging post here: http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/lounge/62754-my-fat-wife-decided-go-wee-swim-good-cause.html#post958447

Hi Guys, I've started this here thread to inform you of a potential hazard in smalls, to beg for money, to inspire you lard-arsed types and to baffle the plain lazy. I'll start with the beginning (it seems appropriate...) In July 2007 I gained a nephew, I already had the one now there was another. Both boys sons of my wife's sister. One month later I became a parent myself when my wife gave birth to my twin daughters. As our smalls breathed their first breaths all seemed fine and dandy. One of my girls seemed a little weedy next to her cousin, but then she'd had to share a womb and he didn't. As the days went by we noticed something was wrong, quite wrong. Ernie (my nephew) never seemed to look at anything in particular and his eyes were constantly moving sideways. A bit freaky really, they'd flick to one side, then scan to the other side in a series of very jerky movements, one "cycle" taking perhaps half to a whole second before repeating itself. When my sister in-law decided it was definitely not right (for a little while one just assumes it'll stop, be ok, fix itself, he'll start to focus soon...) she took him to see her GP who fortunately was very much "on the ball" and he sent them straight to Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridge, where an eye specialist gave the the preliminary but fairly certain diagnosis of Retinoblastoma. Retinoblastoma is a cancer of the eye that occurs in children. As the eyeball grows the retina grows tumors rather than retina. It normally is the case that children that get it in one eye are just very unlucky, children that get it in two eyes are more unlucky still and in all cases thus far have inherited the disease by genetics from their parents. In most cases in the past the children would simply die as the tumors escape the eyeball via the optic nerve that travels straight into the brain. They'd be the kids that were "just not meant to be..." and died without the medical profession really knowing why. There's a multitude of treatments available nowadays and if caught early, most times both the eyeball and the child's life can be saved. Ernie was referred to a specialist unit in Birmigham's childrens hospital where the country's foremost experts on this (and many other) childhood ailments reside. Ernie was unique in how bad his case was. He had RB it both eyes (though nobody in the family carries the genetic markers, a medical first) Another first was that never before have such fast growing aggressive tumors been seen in any childs eye, anywhere in the world. He underwent a range of treatments, ranging from radiotherapy where the implanted a piece of radioactive material in his head, against his eye to try and kill the tumors. Chemotherapy, as most of you'll probably know a range of "medication" so finely balanced on the knife's edge so as to try and kill the tumors but (only just) not the patient. One of the most common side-effects of the chemical cocktail they gave our Ernie is a wide range of different cancers later in life... And the third "main" treatment was "cryo-therapy" They'd freeze his eyeball with a stream of liquid nitrogen to completely immobilize it, the shot bursts of laserbeams at the individual tumors so the difference in heat would make the explode.. One of the main issues with cryo is that where the tumors used to be, the eye forms scar tissue which is forever in the way of your vision. At one stage, between one treatment and the next check-up a period of one month, one of his eyes had formed over 40 new tumors, the next day there were 42. This exceptional rate of growth meant that after a hard and long battle his parents made the decision to have "the bad eye" removed. The other eye, though still cancerous is/was not as bad and treatment continues to this day. Ernie is now six years old and has not had any new tumors for 2 years. His prosthetic eye comes in quite handy (like when he leaves it to watch tv while he has to go have his dinner...) He'll need to be frequently checked for new tumors until he is about 8 or 9 as that is the age the eyeball stops growing, and with it the retina and the cancer. Though his remaining live eye is badly scarred inside he can see (though very limited and he needs help and aides such as special glasses etc) and there is hope for medical progress to help him see better in the future. One of the main ways to spot a potential patient is "white eye" which is where the eye appears white as opposed to red with flash photography. This is the tumors reflecting the flash rather than the retina's blood-vessels. If you spot white eye in a picture of a child, please get them checked by a GP and mention your concerns Last summer, his granddad (my father in-law) who does a lot for RB's dedicated charity CHECT -who are the best support a parent in that situation could hope for, with help and advice, support and "medical translation" etc- decided it was a good plan to raise some fund for the good cause by swimming across a lake. Englands largest lake, the swim will be 10,5 miles at least (potentially more due to currents, and not swimming dead-straight etc). My father in-law is 70, looks 8 months pregnant and only has one arm... He's managed to convince my wife she should come for a swim too, she was 150-odd kgs last year, built for comfort. So, the training began and with it the weight loss and increased fitness. As part of this she ran a couple of 10K races, swam some 60-odd miles in open water and lost nearly a third of her bodyweight. She's still heavier than me (I'm 6'5" and a solid 105kgs..) but boy can she swim. She has the grace of a swam when in the water and swims with the most beautiful clean smooth stroke you've ever seen! Oh, and she's convinced me and my brother to row her support boat:sneaky2: Tomorrow evening we'll set off to our "base camp" to prepare for the swim on Saturday. If you can spare a couple of quid, please will you sponsor her (and mention Arbtalk in your message) any amount is welcome but think, do you need that pub lunch/ new pair of shoes/ shiny toy etc... You've made it through the whole post, would you make it across the whole lake? SPONSOR HER HERE Lake Windermere 2013

5 year old daughter: "When I grow up I want to be a drama teacher!" 2 minutes after: "Daddy, what is Drama?..."

Not quite, that's a link to some heavy lifting crane boat thingie. The rope only has a MBS of a measly 2579 tons.... At only 15kgs/m

I dont see the problem? You've recommended a course of action, the client has asked you to do something else (for a previously agreed price?) The customer now wishes a different course of action to be taken. To me that means a new job, a new invoice. You can take into account the job will be a little easier as there's a little less material left to remove if you wish, as well as not needing to finish the previous spec. Make sure you earn your daily rate, add a bit to teach him to listen next time but dont take the piss. Remember, "the wife thinks" normally means that's the final word and she'll be in charge of the household purse...

I drive a Rover 75 estate. 2,0 BMW turbo diesel engine.Cost me £1250. Superbly comfortable, reasonably frugal (45-50 mpg mixed driving/towing etc) fully kitted out with everything (heated electric memory seats, climate control, cruise etc). Bought it 4 years ago with 80K on it. Spent nothing apart from a set of reconned injectors once, as well as the normal wear and tear (tyres, filters, some bushes and ball-joints) Parts are cheap and easily available. It's now done 230K and still tight, happy and without any rattles etc. I'll keep it till it's dead as it's value in £'s is now less than a tank of fuel but I'd like to see it past 300K at least.

Are you old mr Varty? Because if you are, I must be too...

No it isn't... Whichever way round you'd put the rim it still pushes the same bit of drive link. When you turn the chain it pushes a bit of drive link that's not shaped for being pushed. I reckon it would still be fine though, just keep a scrap chain plus rim combo.

it sold on ebay this week for £910..... stihl ms880 | eBay

for easier comparison...

I'll update on the "bench" thread when I have more time, short version: my fault, company paid me £150 for the scrap saw...

They're really well made and have a fair bit of room for improvement:thumbup1:

I only mildly did mine. As standard they dont give any more speed, seem a little sluggish even but they give a big hike in torque. The transfers have a lot of possibility, not so much on the inlet and exhaust but some. Our colonial cousins in the US seem to like them (according to the interweb...)

STIHL MS660/066 56 MM BIG BORE CYLINDER KIT NEW NISIC COATED 1YR WARRANTY | eBay Not that expensive. This kit is made by Hyway and is superior in quality to the oem one that was on mine... The seller (Tesgol) will give you the very best customer service available anywhere should you have any issues.

Big bore kit, then port it+exhaust mod.

The emoti-whatever thingies you use on a portable mac product can only be seen by another mac. So on the website they don't work, and not on other mobile devices either I believe?

My neighbour makes charcoal from joinery offcuts (his business is next to a joinery). He's got a retort made of a big barrel, with the top on a slightly conical edge to ensure a snug fit. First thing in the morning he lifts the lid off, loads a 44galllon drum full and drops it inside (he's got a little forklift but you could do it without) and sets it off. Then he goes to work, comes back in the evening and takes the (still hot but burned out and fully converted) drum out, and loads another. Then in the morning he unloads the previous mornings one, reloads etc etc. So he gets two barrels a day from the one kiln.

Whilst they have berries on? I have a few of these, all similar age that are bearing fruit for the first time but are now blossoming again. Is this normal,I've never seen it before (but maybe I wasn't looking?)

Same here, the better half was a bit miffed when I suddenly froze mid-action and then went on a little later like nothing had happened, but when I explained to her the move was called "buffering" and porn actors use it all the time she became quite appreciative.

You could do it on foot a lot faster! By the time you've gone to fetch a machine you'd be finished on foot, an hour tops to do it, twice over at half rate to ensure an even spread.

About 3-4" long, moving fairly rapidly, looks like it has a pair of eyes on its arse?

Surely the above is not that relevant? Yes, it may be if you're moving thousands of tons at a time but 6t will fit in one trailer load as either logs or chip (assuming you have a suitable trailer?) What trailer would you use? Do you have a trailer for both options? How is the chipper powered and would it stay in the woods/ at the tip-site?

It's the larva (technically not a caterpillar) of a (elephant ?) hawk moth.

Seeing as you have "registered customers" could you have a sort of savings scheme? If you get a £1 saved for every £10 spent to be spent on your site as people wish. It would equate to the same discount but more money spent with you (whereas the 10% saved otherwise might be spent anywhere) and would give each individual the bonus goodies they'd like.