JohnnyBoy

Just had ours done and they used 4:1 sand to cement mix. I was worried after as read should use part lime and cement only mixes can be stronger than the brick and cause them to spall. Also cement traps the moisture so walls don’t breath. Had a couple builders round to quote on another groundwork job and they commented the pointing looks good and not to worry about no lime.

I don’t think Sheffield has changed that much in the 24 years I’ve been here. If working then commuting is a consideration. Having a young un, you’ll want to be near some outdoor space so not going stir crazy cooped up and Sheffield is blessed on that front, Hillsboro Park s6, graves s8, endcliffe s11, Chelsea park s11, millhouses s8/s7, meersbrook s8 and loads more. if don’t mind commuting and have car then you can look further out like penistone. as others have said it depends what your budget is and what sort of preferences you have

Hi, I’m after someone to cut a clay pipe where our roof downpipe feeds into as it has a crack in it and replace it pvc coupling, small section of pipe and bottle trap with square/rectangle grid. I’ve already dug down round clay pipe (might need bit more excavation). Also to patch the wall behind where trap is, under ground level, with some mortar . Can anyone recommend anyone? cheers john

It is going to be a gym and sports bar.

Hi, we are after some quotes for getting our cellar converted. Can anyone recommend anyone? Cheers

We got ours done at mastercast on valley Rd, S8. They moulded matching reproduction and fitted us too about 8 years ago and still looks great.

Hi, I'm wanting to get a half sleeve done and I'm after a portrait sitting on a background of things relevant to the portrait. I've had a look through this thread and there are lots of recommendations but it seems artists move on etc and a lot of the posts here are quite old. A lot of portraits look a bit naff so was thinking of ditching the idea but then I saw Nigel Kurt's gallery and his portraits were brilliant. I looked at Feline and some others listed and theirs didn't look as good. Would you say Nigel Kurt is the best around Sheffield/South Yorkshire for portraits? Or is there any equivalent/better artists whose gallery I should look at that I might have overlooked cos there are a lot of pages. Cheers

A section of our rd was resurfaced last week with Amey due back later to finish off the other half. The next day Yorkshire water dug up the newly resurfaced bit. Barmy.

Cowley lane riding school let them start at 7. The kids get to groom the ponies after. Costs £23 for an hour. My daughter really enjoys it there.

It's only a small lawn, turf prob been down 4-5 years. Looks good and lovely green from the house but when standing on it looks pretty thin/sparse. I've put down iron sulphate as a moss killer and Vermont weed killer. Raked about a quarter and got a lot of thatch out but even in area I raked I can still see dead stuff so thought scarifier might be more thorough. Planning on raking the rest and then aerating with a pitch fork before overseeding. Trying to persuade my better half to let me buy an electric or manual scarifier. A losing battle at the moment!

Hi, I was wondering if anyone had an electric scarifier or manual roll one that they would be willing to lend me to do a small lawn? We are in S11. Depending how good the results I will prob buy one as I've read you are meant to do it twice a year. Thanks for any replies :-) John

About 15 yrs ago, I used Frog Walk for a couple of yrs every day, even middle of the night. I lived on Stalker Lees Rd, where frog walk starts and my gf lived at Westbrook Bank. I never saw any bother but heard it wasn't a great place so was a bit wary - now I'm older and sensible I would certainly think twice about going up it on my todd in the dark, just not worth the risk to save 5-10 mins. But you can see why people use it, a real handy shortcut to get up to sharrowvale and to be honest in the day time it is a pleasant little walk by the river.

I had mine done at vision express in meadowhall in Feb. Still not quite 20/20 but well worth it. My prescription was -4.5 and -4.75 with a stigmatism. Initially quoted nearly 5K for both eyes even with their vouchers so wasn't interested. Then got an offer out of the blue for £2013 in jan for both eyes, no catches and could get 0% on it. So went for it. Had it done at about 5pm and was really uncomfortable till about 11pm and then i could see well enough to see a film to take my mind off the grittiness. They do feel dry at times (only had it done for 6 weeks now) but far less than when i was wearing contact lenses. I had a check up in the week and the fella said the dryness can take a year to clear and sometimes takes few months for the eyesight to settle down and if not up to scratch they perform free followups. With my presription I have a 6% chance of it not being quite right. All in all I think it is fantastic and highly recommend it if you can get a good deal.

Yeah, maybe I should encourage a cheaper hobby instead otherwise I'll be spending my beer fund

Hi, My youngest is 6 and animal mad, especially about horses and dogs! We've taken her for a couple of pony rides when on holiday and she loved it. We keep meaning to arrange some riding and never quite get round to it. To treat her we've bought her some cheapo jodpurs from decathlon and want to surprise her by arranging some lessons in the New Year. So I'm after some recommendations for stables. I think she would also love the grooming/mucking out side so maybe a stable with a pony club. I've seen recomendations for Grenoside and Smeltings at Ringinglow are BHS registered. There was also some good reviews for White Acres in S6. We are S11 so I'm after the most child friendly place, that would allow her to be hands on with grooming etc when she feels up to it, that is a reasonable commute and price. Failing that would it be worth nipping in to the horse and rider shop in crookes and asking if they have a recommendation? Thanks in advance

If it's the one I'm thinking off I would happily volunteer just to help clear the gardens - seriously! It looks a cracking place - but the spooky single light bulb that is always on is a bit 'woman in black' spooky

TrickyWingers is good, run by an ex wednesday pro. They run mini kickers at tapton on a monday at 5pm and I think some other schools for £3.50 a session. Their site lists the places http://www.trickywingers.co.uk There are other ones like techno football and kickstart but from watching my kids at them and what they get from it I prefer trickywingers. Saying that mines does both but doesn't play for any club.

Cheers for all the advise. I took my old one into Butterworths today and they think they can get it back on the road for me for £50 so happy days. That saves me having to look for a MTB and if I decide to i can get a road bike with cycle to work or pick up a 2nd hand one like TobyJug said. Cheers again :-)

Yeah i went to butterworths first yesterday at about 13:50 but his shutters were down so took it to edinburgh cycles as the next nearest place. I've left my bike in the car and will try butterworths again later today. My back wheel came of when cycling and my gears were jumping so I thought my bike was pretty far gone and stupidly left it outside all summer to the elements. The guy who looked said I would need new back wheel, maybe a cassette, a new chain, cables and breaks and I guess you got the labout/cost of service on top. i would probably shell out £100 to get it sorted but a bit reluctant to spend more. i'll see what butterworths say. Cheers

Not found anything brilliant tbh. Just rest but then you think it is better and do something like a walk and it flares up again! Rolling a tennis ball under the foot seems to be the most help. I've been told I specifically need to do a gastroc stretch, basically just stretching your calf. Lean against a wall with your hands, your good foot near the wall and your bad one stretched straight behind and you should feel your calf and achilles and i repeat this through the day. Specialist says it can take up to 2-3 years to heal There are loads of other exercises too and soft insoles to wear. I'm seeing an orthotist about that and to sort out the skewed foot. Good luck with it and cheers for the advice on the bikes

Sort of. I need a non road bike to go cycling with the kids so I will be getting a MTB regardless as mine is kapput. I need to start doing some exercise - I've had plantar fascitis for 9 months and now got something called a skewed foot too and it is doing my head in not being able to run etc and i work shifts so can't always make trhe gym. Plus going to the gym takes quite a bit of time which got me thinking a turbo trainer. And I thought cycling would be a decent new hobby if getting back to running and football is unlikely I'm only thinking of the road bike if my interest keeps up and with the cycle to work scheme (299 minus tax and NI divided over 12 months) doesn't seem too bad.

Hi, unfortunately I've got to stop running due to a foot injury but to keep active I was thinking of getting a turbo trainer to keep fit at home. The snag is my 15 yr old muddy fox MTB that i used for commuting is a bit knackered - the back wheel came off when I was cycling. I took it to Edinburgh cycles and they reckon it would be £150 to get it roadworthy and even then as it is old other stuff might go wrong with it. They reckon a comparative bike would be about £250. I've been to JE James and they have some mongoose 21 speed MTBs for £200+ that are reduced. And decathlon have the rockrider brand starting from £100. Speaking to them in the shop the rockrider 5.2 (£200 - 24 speed) or 5.3 (£299 - 27 speed) should be fine if I put a slick rear tyre on when using on the trainer. My work do cycle to work scheme but for some bizarre reason they only open it for a week in December so I was thinking of doing this then and getting the decathlon Triban 3 road bike when the schem opens. But in the mean time I just want a MTB that I can use on a turbo trainer with a slick tyre and also use it for cycling outdoors with the kids. What MTB would you recommend - would one of the £99 cheap rockriders be no good? Woukdl the rockrider 5.3 be overkill? Any advise would be great. Also what turbo trainer to use ina terrace house so not too noisy. I've seen good reviews for cycleops mag trainer and the taxc satori. Cheers

We had a squirrel in our attic and it was gnawing away at the timbers. We could see it running along the terraced roofs and then came to ours and got in a through a tiny hole in the flashing. To get rid of it we just fixed the flashing and strenghtened the timbers that had been nibbled. It made it's home out of insulation. If a rat the council will come and lay some traps but if a squirrel I think you have to pay

Cheers for the advice - I'll look into a guide. P.S. Sorry it has taken a while to say thanks - my laptop died the weekend I posted it. Maybe it is a bad omen!

Hi, I was hoping I could get some advice I would like to try my hand at writing. The seed was set when I read an article about things to do before you reach 30 and in one of the targets was having a novel published. The thought of writing has festered away ever since but I've never really done anything about it until now. I love to read, especially mystery/suspense/crime genres and really enjoy authors such as Harlen Coban, Ian Rankin, PJ Tracy, Greg Iles, Lynwood Barclay etc. I would love to try and emulate some of their stories, not necessarily character based stories such as the Rebus series but stand alone suspense novels with a good twist that keeps the reader intrigued to the end. My difficulty is how you go about starting to write, letting the creative forces get to work. Rather than just picking up a pen I was thinking of enrolling in a creative writing course to learn the finer detail and etiquette but I'm not sure if these are worthwhile. Then again, I don't want to write 80,000+ words to find out I got the basics badly wrong from the first sentence! The universities (including the OU) have courses but they seem to cost a small fortune. I also looked at the Avron Foundation but that is £650 for a 5 day residential. The Writer's Workshop had some 6 week couses for £300, which I'm tempted by. They are done online and allows me flexibility - I work 24x7 shifts so attending set times is tricky but not impossible. I've also seen the workshops in Sheffield by Susan Elliot Wright but unfortunately the last course started in January soI've missed the cut off. So basically i'm wondering if a creative writing course is worthwhile and if so where would you recommend that doesn't need me to remortgage :-) Thanks Jon