Nick C

I understand your distaste, but I think you're directing it at the wrong thing. The need to prove who you are is already totally ingrained into our society, with many things you cannot do unless you have an appropriate way of demonstrating that you're entitled to them (e.g. driving, travelling to other countries, accessing the money in your bank account, gaining entry into certain places, and so on). We have passports, driving licences, "proof of age" cards, credit cards, company IDs, and so on and so forth. Whether for better or for worse, modern western society simply wouldn't work without people being able to prove who they are - we simply have too many people. The presence or absence of ID cards doesn't change that, they are simply a way of proving who you are, not the reason for it.

I don't get that - if you're not worried about misuse, what possible objection can you have to having a consistent, secure means of proving who you are? It's got nothing to do with treating people as criminals, and more about consistency for proving that you're old enough to drink, able to vote, who you are to the bank, and so on. Mrs C has one, as she's a citizen of an EU country. She finds it utterly baffling that in this country we can 'prove' our identity to banks etc using something so easily forged as a utility bill...

I've heard quite a few things suggesting that around 30-45 minutes each way (so around 90m-2hrs total journey time by the time you've included the break at the far end) tends to be most popular amongst 'normal' visitors - long enough to be worthwhile, but still short enough to stop the kids getting bored. We went to the Eden project a few years ago, and they offered two options, either the standard day ticket or the "as many visits as you like in a year" option - I can't remember the price difference but it wasn't much, certainly a lot less than two days, and gift-aided as it counted as a 'membership' rather than a 'ticket' - so they got the extra 20% on top.

If the original plan was done to 16.5mm and later changed to EM without any alignment changes, presumably the 6ft would be 2mm narrower - assuming the alignment is based on track centres?

The GM of the Spa Valley has posted some fairly candid discussions on cashflow over on National Preservation - the basic gist being that their last gala made a small profit, but the various kid's tv-show-branded weekends make quite a bit more, and normal running days can often result in a small loss. It seems to be the dining trains and other 'specials' that make the best money.

Always good practice to get the tracking done when changing tyres anyway - with the state of our roads these days pretty much every car needs it doing!

Shame the EN57's have gone, I rather like them! I suspect the general public don't though! The last time we went there, the whole line was shut for the aforementioned relaying, and we ended up on a minibus all the way from Krakow to Sucha Beskidska...

The 205XS was a popular choice amongst my student motorsport club in the early 2000's - you could pick them up for a couple of hundred quid, and they didn't rust like a lot of contemporaries (though they were somewhat renowned for electrical gremlins!) Also being under 1.4 got them into a lower (and therefore cheaper...) class in quite a few events, as well as being a lot cheaper to run and insure than the GTis...

If it's any consolation, most of the locals do too - the big Brighton Hill roundabout had just finished a two- year "upgrade" and has been constantly in the local paper ever since with people bemoaning it, largely because the lanes shown on the signs don't match the road markings!

Last year Benji managed to catch a Pigeon, and tried to bring that in through the cat flap...

I was over in ECS doing Computer Engineering (2/3 computer science, 2/3 electronics, as we used to joke at the time...) - I knew quite a few mech and aero students though.

Funnily enough I was just looking at that same cover thinking I'd read it this evening! I didn't know that you were at Southampton Andy - I studied there (rather scarily, 20 years ago...)

Any reasonably fit person could walk it in less than that!

Agreed, it's always been like that, as insurance is all done on numbers - very few young people drive big cars like that, and those who do tend to be more careful (as if you're the kind of young driver who's going to drive like an idiot, you're not going to choose a 'luxobarge'), so there's very few crashes. A friend of mine found this when we were learning to drive back in the early 2000s, and bought a Volvo when everyone else had Fiestas/Novas/106s etc - he was paying about half the insurance that everyone else had...

H & A models had a big stand at Southampton, with kits etc. I'm not sure which other shows they do though.

Didn't Kernow's have any? I know they stock Slaters, Cambrian and Parkside, but didn’t look through their stand yesterday.

Yeah, we did have a bit of a chat while you were shunting the yard, but I forgot to introduce myself! I was the one in the green Watercress Line fleece operating Merstone behind you.

Good to see Ropley today. I did note at one point at least three MHR people all watching!

Good to have a natter this morning, though I never did get the chance to come and have another play!

I thought it was that his whole family were armed police, except for his grandfather who was an armed robber,and died recently, surrounded by his family...

I think in this case I'm going to agree with @johnofwessex... https://www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/news/24172263.bmw-driver-rammed-cars-m3-improve-driving/

I got my copy for £25 from a second-hand stall at an exhibition a few years ago - that was one of those "don't think, just buy, before someone else does" moments!

Ours has that too - great for some things, terrible for others, as it entirely depends on whether the issue you've got fits in with the questions (and possible answers) it offers.

Will be good to see 'Daisy' again - I'm helping Mark & Chris with Merstone & Ventnor West on Saturday, and I believe we're right next to you and Ropley.

That sounds like a major flaw in the company's payment system, nothing to do with either their name or the bank's two-factor authentication. The bank's side of the payment system won't care what their name is as long as the account numbers match. I'd be steering well clear of said company and keeping a very close eye on my card statements if I were you. If you trust the company, phone them and let them know there's a problem with their web payments. Two-factor authentication is about making sure of who you are, by combining something you know (i.e. your username and password) with something you have (your phone) - or occasionally something you are (e.g. your fingerprints) - it reduces the risk of interception as to impersonate you an attacker would have to breach two different things, in this case your PC to get your password and your phone to get the one-time code.