I will try to get there:)

It's been a busy day in the chat room today. Over the next few days you should see a big change to it as it becomes more integrated with the rest of my site. There are often a lot of knowledgable CAG people in there if you want to ask a question in real time. (see, that's the subtle way to bump a thread)

I think you are exactly what he does need, the fact you are back taking the pi$$ out of each other shows that whatever his sexuality, you are there as a friend. I don't think there is ever a right way to tell your parents that your gay but if he can do it with the support from friends then it will make it easier. I think you should take pride in the fact that he trusted you enough to tell you about the problems he is/was having, it must take a lot of courage for this and you were there for him

It seems odd that the drink driving was the main topic of this, seemingly overlooking the fact that she had taken it without consent. It doesn't say but I get the impression that this person was able bodied and therefore removed the facility provided by Asda to their disabled customers

Tilly can you tell us which version of windows (95, 98, ME, XP or Vista)you are using and which web browser (internet explorer, firefox, opera, etc). It sounds like you may have a virus. If you are not using firefox then I would install it. If you are then are the same things happening when you use internet explorer?

I'm free on Monday to do that if you want. Croydon is going to be a lot better than Ashford for shopping

With OpenOffice you can still save and open Word files (apart from the new docx format) too

Internet shopping is wonderful if you have someone that is going to be in whne the goods arrive. I live alone and work for a living so every time I order somthing from the internet I get a card posted through the door from Royal Mail or one of the courier companies say come and get it from our depot. Royal Mail isn't too bad as it is only a trip into the middle to Gateshead but I have had these cards from CityLink and a couple of others. Ironically, if you don't drive(one of the reasons for internet shopping), you can order on the internet and get the goods Having the luxury of being able to choose from multiple shops is something that a lot of people in the small towns don't have. You list a number of shops above and the only one Ashford has is M&S (well up until I moved away 2 years ago). For transportation reasons I will be doing my Christmas shopping in Ashford again this year, I'm hoping Woolies still has a reasonable amount of stick when I arrive.

I disagree. I used to browse in Woolworths when I had one near where I lived for a range of different things. They are still one of the cheapest places to buy things like CDs and DVDs. I will miss Woolworths for Christmas shopping as, in Ashford where I used to live, it was the best place for buying toys and gifts for young children. I suspect it is similar for most small towns. I suspect that sooner or later we will end up just shopping in one shop for most things and that is likely to be the out-of-town supermarket. This will be a great loss to many of us who have always shopped on the High Street.

It's no use posting in the Bear Garden either. Bear Garden posts don't increase your post count.

I find it ironic that the thread title has an apostrophe in blondes. An apostrophe is not needed for the plural. Is the poster blonde by any chance?

No, he definitely would not like that lol

I text him yesterday and got the response that it wasn't his birthday too. Maybe he can call this his 'official' birthday like the queen

Dave Dave, you know him.

I had this happen in my family about 25 years ago. My older sister went off with her boyfriend at age sixteen because my parents (rightly) wouldn't let her sleep with him at home. She ran off to her mums house (she is my step-sister) as her mum would let her do what she wanted. During that time a lot of really bad things were said by everyone involved and it wasn't nice. After about a year my sister contacted her dad, both of them apologised and everything since then has been fine. She is married with three great kids. This sort of thing is always hard to deal with but things do work out after a while.

If you are buying a dongle then check that you get an unlimited data allowance. The files from the slingbox will be large and you may incur large data charges

I used AVG right up until I got rid of windows and it worked fine for me. I have installed Avast on my mums pc and it has worked fine for the past year for her. ZoneAlarm is an excellent firewall (If you have a router you almost certainly don't need a firewall as they come built in to the router). DO NOT rely on Windows firewall, there are so many problems with it. Nowadays you really don't need to pay for any of these things. The free ones are as good as the pay-for ones and when tested they equal the pay-for ones.

If you are buying a dongle then check that you get an unlimited data allowance. The files from the slingbox will be large and you may incur large data charges

There are a lot of free programs that will produce PDF files for you now. I use Open Office but there are also free print-to-PDF programs which act like a printer from any application.

Lol no, I have someone very good helping me with the setup of the site and the minute I get root access without being supervised I messed it up. All ok now though.

In reply to YB, yes it is the same format as previously. Still working on tweaking it at the mo.

Hi, I was tinkering a bit and managed to corrupt the database for the forum. Should be back within half an hour using a backup. Spicey you will have to reregister though as you were the only new member between backup and me breaking it

Hi all, with a lot of help from dave I have now relaunched my website on a new server and with a new name. The site is now hosted by the same company that hosts this website and will hopefully be much more reliable. There have been a lot of changes to the front end of the website with a complete new look. If you registered with www.blueskies1977.co.uk then your log in will work with the new site. YouComment

It is not illegal not to vote at all. It is illegal not to REGISTER to vote but whether you actually vote or not is your choice. I have been a member of RMT (and currently a rep for RMT) for many years and, although I disagree with a lot of the policies that Bob Crow proposes, I do agree that there should be a new party for the workers as Labour does not represent us anymore. The cynic in me does concede, however, that whatever new party is formed will fall into the same trap as the current 'labour' party.

I have no sympathy for the large pub chains such as Punch/Whetherspoons/Yates etc but do have sympathy for the owner landlords. Since I moved to Gateshead 18 months ago we have lost 3 pubs within a 15 minute walk of where I live. One of them, the Green Mandolin, had been a labour of love and not produced a profit for three years until it made the owner personally bankrupt. Dave from this site has told me only this morning that two of the pubs in his village have closed since I last paid him a visit. The pub has traditionally been the starting point for democracy. A lot of the political movements in this country have started in pubs. The pub is central to local communities and is the place where a lot of the political movements have started. To push the pub trade out of the question will, in my opinion, stem organised reaction to government policies from the man on the street. The supermarkets sell alcohol as a loss leader a lot of the time to get customers through their doors. This is the method they have successfully used to get rid of the milkman (in most areas), soft drink deliveries, independant greengrocers/butchers/fishmongers etc. The seemingly unstoppable rise of the supermarket has to be stopped somehow before that is the only place left open