bullseye

I would also recommend this place. Went there yesterday. Had 2 starters, 2 wok fried rice dishes, 2 Tsingtao beers and a glass of wine all for £15! Food was good and portion sizes are huge. Unfortunately there were only a couple of other tables occupied when we arrived and this was very much the case when we left as well - at this rate I wonder how long they'll remain open.

There'll be a lot more in the next few nights - we're approaching the peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower - see this BBC news link for more information.

This was the case a while ago but isn't now. I crossed the Snake Pass on Wednesday evening - resurfacing works all appear to have finished.

Many thanks Katy - I will certainly give that a whirl. Concerning the oil, should I just use a good quality vegetable oil or something else?

In the same vein - any suggestions on how to do onion bhajis like you get in a restaurant? I've tried a couple of different recipes and they've turned out nothing like those you get in a curry house.

Yesterday morning I was sat in the terminal building just above where the car impacted enjoying a cooked breakfast before flying down to East Mids - scary! Mercifully there appears to have been no fatalities or serious injuries. The airport would've been particularly busy today as the schools in Scotland broke up yesterday.

Totally agree with you there Halibut.

... which is something of an urban myth, see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4719364.stm

What you definitely need is some electroluminescent wire - sounds scary but it isn't - it's the stuff that boy racers use to chav up their cars. It runs off batteries. To see the sort of thing you can do with it look on wikipedia here and here I'm available to .... ahem ... help with wiring it up :wink:

No Jen, it's more than innocent - definitely a certain "sexiness" for me.

Hi Jen, Very much so.

Copies of all lecture notes and tutorial questions and answers are handed out free of charge. I personally spend several hours at the start of each semester photocopying notes for my students. I can't speak for other departments but this is certainly the norm. in mine.

Not sure what your source is Jon but it is very badly mis-informed. I work in a department where ALL the undergraduates get paper copies of lecture notes, tutorial questions, past papers, etc. etc.

Can't agree more Longshanks. I work at the Uni and have yet to find anyone there who likes the "The University Of Sheffield." logo. What's more there has been a stream of various edicts from on high forcing us to comply with this rebranding process. As for the logo - just how this is supposed to imply academic excellence when it doesn't adhere to basic rules of English frankly beggars belief in my opinion.

What's a "nipble"? Is it a cross between a nipple and a nibble?

Whenever I travel anywhere new I always choose a hotel with the help of the tripadvisor web site where you can read hotel reviews from loads of people that have been there before. I've done this countless times and never been disappointed. To get the low down on Rome see this link.

Haven't got a price yet Albert, once I do I'll PM you. Bullseye

I used uswitch in the spring, at that time and given my circumstances EDF were the best bet - so far so good, no problems at all and a lot cheaper than the previous tariff with Powergen.

Glad to hear we haven't put you off Albert - I'd happily go back that way and indeed am hatching a plan to go and see the total solar eclipse on the 1st August 2008. The path of totality passes through Russia, Mongolia and China. See Nasa's web pages for more info. Bullseye

I did it in mid-May last year which was a good time to go too. When I flew to Beijing we overflew Lake Baikal and it was totally frozen over. However when we arrived there a week later (having spent a few days in Beijing and Irkutsk) the ice had all gone - it was really beautiful down by the lake - the largest volume of fresh water on the planet and not a trace of tourism to be seen anywhere. I liked Irkutsk a lot. Did you find the Yuri Gagarin statue down by the water front? Had Omul during my homestay at Baikal - delicious!

You win hands down - I "only" managed 7 or 8 hours there - mercifully. Oh yes I'd forgotten about that! I seem to remember that I got mine from some hardware shop for about 89p - best investment for the whole trip. When did you go?

Certainly never feared for my life. A group of young Mongol youths tried to pick the pocket of my travelling companion just after we'd got off the train at Ulan Bataar but the Russia Experience guys who'd met us were clearly aware of the problem and were watching out for it and shoo-ed them away. The only other slightly scary moment was at the Mongolian-Russian border where things are very formal and strict. We were told to get in our compartments and stay there as the Russian border guards came around. After they'd been to our compartment I got bored and wandered down the carriage and stuck my head out of a window only to have a russian border guard point his rifle at me. cgksheff's posting on Naushki rings very true by the way. So Albert - have we convinced you to go for it??

Totally agree with you both. My personal circumstances were such that I couldn't afford the time to put the thing together myself and I was happy to pay the premium for someone else to do it all for me. For sure you can do it a lot cheaper organising the tickets, etc. yourself. We did have Mongolians in our carriage as well as an eclectic mix of Europeans, South Africans, Omanis and Europeans. Also the Mongolians provodnistas used our carriages for all their smuggling of goods across the China-Mongolia border which was entertaining.

I did my Trans Mongolian trip with a company called The Russia Experience they organise what they call "semi-independent" tours - basically you're met off the train at each stop and taken to the hotel/homestay/Ger camp, etc. After that you're very much free to do your own thing if you want so you don't tend to feel part of a package tour. On the other hand the local contacts do organise optional activities if you want (e.g. Mongolian Throat Singing Concert, Horseriding with the local nomads, homestay of the shores of Lake Baikal, etc. etc.). I can really recommend this company and they do the Trans Siberian route too. Prices are on their web site.

Yes, you can. All you need is a FreeSat card from Sky (£20 for 3 years). Here's a link to the list of FreeSat channels. Twiglet is right, you can't get E4 on FreeSat and there's limited music channels.