Well, it’s a dying trade. Most shops in UK don’t take them anymore.
Sidenote, I was in North America last week, I was surprised at the total lack of “Chip n pin”. Signing for stuff at the checkout, I’d forgotten how to do it 🙂

What do you mean by “chip in pin”? Do you mean like just waving your card over a scanner and going through? Or swiping a card and entering a pin number…..just wondering……Hear in the northeast credit card machines are everywhere, which also accept debit cards (with ur pin of course). Im just interested to hear your experience 🙂

You and I should run the planet!

In UK, we don’t get money for drink cans.
The large fizzy drink bottles no longer have a deposit upon return (a) Because they are plastic and (b) they are plastic because a glass one can explode if dropped (I’ve done this just to check!!!)
I do not use the new lightbulbs because they are shyte. By the time they warm up to give enough light, one has finished in that room anyway. And, even when they are “On”, it actually hurts to read by them. I’m back on 60w real bulbs all over the house. 150w in one case.

We recycle glass / papers / plastic / cloth because the Council pick it up every fortnight.

If it combustable like heavy cardboard or wood etc I torch it in the garden incinerator…..the ashes go into the compost bin, which eventually end up on my vegetable garden.

If it costs me money to go green, then it isn’t green. The new lightbulbs “Could” save me money but at the cost of my eyesight and sanity.(I’ve never worked out the payback for a bulb that is 6 times the initial outlay cost but uses 20% of the energy)

My car does 34 mpg (Imp) and is 17 years old with only 116,000 on the clock. (59k of which are mine since 2005).

And yes, Global warming is real, but it isn’t due to man. A single volcano eruption puts more harm in the air than man can do in a year. The whole scam is just another way for Guvmints to find a way to make you pay more tax.

Oh yeah, to add to what I said, the biggest lobbying group in Washington DC is not the oil companies as many would expect, its General Electric/GE……

Now we ask, why would GE have such a vested interest in what laws the guvmit (as my friend across the pond so pointedly said) passes? Cause they’re the biggest green commie crap company to come along since the old FDR days of the great depression…….Call me crazy, but the numbers do add up.

All I can say is heres a toast to Earth Day, praise the Lord. Oh wait, I cant say that. Anyways, well Ill raise my drink (can I do that?).

Quite frankly, this whole subject has become so politicized its nothing but a joke anymore…….lets just drop it…..unless we all want to discuss politics etc etc……cause to do otherwise would be pointless.

I may be wrong, but didnt a lot of the earlier BUFFs have this outter pylon to carry a foward firing chaff pod? I thought I had read that in one of my books.

Errr, US is everything but an oil producing nation..

I know, we “were” and quite frankly could/should be again, thats all I was saying.

What….you paying $9.66 a gallon? (Imperial) Or $8.05 (Artificial US measure 🙂 )

USA would stop in its tracks if people were forced to pay that much.

Well I have to agree with ya there, we arent paying that much and yes you are correct, if prices climbed that much……A depression would not even describe the shape our economy would be in.

In the past year and a half or so, diesel has gone from the mid to high $2.00 range to at least mid $4.00 range and still climbing…I totally expect to be paying $5.00 by mid summer if not earlier.

But, our problems are similar (government meddling).

Here in the states we had a major bridge collapse in Minnesota a few months ago. Washington DC was up in arms, they need more money for infrastructure improvents and refurbishment they say. Some senator aka ignorant A*Shole, came up with the brainy idea of adding another 50 cents onto every gallon in order to “fix the roads and bridges”.

But low and behold, when the budget was passed, someone did some digging. And wouldnt you know, $700,000 was to be spent on I what I believe was bike trail or some such nonsense in Minnesota, yes the state with the collapsed bridge. Now, if I dont believe my goverment can decide which is more important, a trail or the dam bridge, why in the hell would I think an extra 50 cents a gallon would fix anything?

I firmly believe if the government would keep their hand out of a lot of things, let alone printing US Dollars faster than they can make the paper, oil prices could be a lot cheaper. But then again, as I’ve said before, Im just a uneducated carpenter 😀 .

Didnt mean to rant, I know you guys over there have been paying out the wazoo for years, but its starting to hit here in the states big time…..and quite frankly, I blame it all on the government for instigating a fake energy crisis. There I said it, come on…….flame one, flame all :p

Very nice piece……much luck to ya and hope it helps ya fill up your freezer.

I have seen Discovery Channel. Everything from the Blackhawk helo (which can’t even operate in Afghanistan because it is too hot and too high) through to the LCAC, and everything in between is described as the worlds best.
Not just by the narrator, but by the users of the material/aircraft/vehicles.
Even the Humvee drivers seem happy on those programs…

US fanboys are even worse.

I do agree with you Gary that those shows are definitely biased…..but I mean what are the guys supposed to say? Ahhh this equipment is crap. Or, well its pretty good, but this and that are better. I mean these are only entertainment/informational shows…..not serious documentaries. (What really bothers me is the editing or lack thereof sometimes in these “so-called” documentaries on tv). And I will admit we Americans are proud, we like what we have, its just the way we are. We like to show it off, let everyone try it out…..I guess maybe its a cultural thing? I mean after all, the only difference between a man and a boy is the price of his toys right? Its just boys and their toys 😀

On top of all that, these shows are designed for the regular population, not someone with even an inkling or any knowledge whatsover in the defense sector. So you put up some flashy graphics, cool words, good music and wam……people will watch. Even when they call a F-16 an F-14 and make mistake after mistake after mistake.

Me? I watch them for entertainment, see if I can find anything new out, and to pick on the shows to see where they went wrong haha.