Pugwash

Me? I'm wearing the one on the right: I mean the one on the left: Yes, this one: As seen backstage at Connect 2007:

Not a lot to say. On the left a TWP Chrono Avenger SS Fantasy and on the right, a SFSO super-rep. click for 1280x960 version

Apparently I have a few people laughing behind my back, but no-one is unsupportive. My brothers have reps and my father-in-law asks after them and finds me watch parts at car boot sales, so I'd say I'm fairly lucky.

So you're angry at her because you didn't know her taste? Yes, it's a tough situation, but would you rather she wore something she didn't like just to make you feel better? I'd hate to be in your situation. Mrs Pugwash once got a gold bracelet from her new sister-in-law who was trying to be extra-special nice for christmas but it was obviously not her style. She was really in a worrying position over whether to just pretend she liked it and have the money wasted on something she had to wear every so often to keep up appearances, or just bite the bullet and tell her, causing a possible rift that would ferment into a feud for decades. As it turned out, it was a lot less melodramatic than that and it didn't cause offence, it got returned and we're still all good friends. Mrs Pugwash's taste is much better known as is her SiL's taste. The bad thing is that they shop together now.

This is the second of today's wallpapers - my IWC 3717 from Precious Time. click for 1280x960 version

I took a couple of pictures today and have managed to Photoshop a couple of them into shape. There's the first - my Ultimate Planet Ocean from Precious Time. click for 1280x960 version

Hmm. Just this afternoon, I was strolling through the site of a 1850 year old Roman Bath-House. Here's the wall of the tepidarium and the caldarium, here's the cold plunge ... I like the history of Europe. I've not spent enough time in the US to pick up on its history, though. http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/features/f...efirst9969.html

Sometimes, it's even intentional. (see? humour, again)

Just try looking ... up!

For one intent on bringing as much humour to the forum as possible, you're remarkably adept at missing it.

That's because the Swiss and Canadians don't wave guns in the air, proclaiming how free they are. They just get on with enjoying their freedoms.

Nice. Someone doesn't know how to read statistics. An increase in vandalised cars does not equate to horrific crime on every street corner. Violent crime has been on a steady decrease, for instance. Besides, I don't understand why the UK crime figures are relevant. You sound like you're just arguing with anything I post to try to win some argument that's simply not there.

Toscana camel, or something.

It's been a while ...

You missed my point. It is the Americans here on this forum that keep telling me they need guns to protect their families. I'm merely acknowledging this and trying to move on. I'm not trying to say one country is better than another, but every time I post about how we don't need guns in the UK, it is misinterpreted as "... and the US SUCKS!!!" Maybe I need to revisit my writing style. How's about this: In a country that has free access to guns, you need guns. In a country that doesn't have free access to guns you don't need guns. The ability to buy guns over the counter doesn't make a country better or worse than one where you can't buy guns over the counter. Please stop waving your guns around as a measure of your freedom as countries without the right to bear arms are no less free. Is that clear and unambiguous enough? And yes, I've been to the US and didn't feel like someone was going to shoot me at every street corner. That is far from my point: I'm not the one posting that I need guns.

Um, hang on. You point at the media and then tell me to disregard the media? One dead kid is a tragedy. Thousands are a statistic. The sheer unadulterated media shitstorm over a kid that's been shot should show you exactly how rare and tragic this kind of thing is. As for the telegraph, the source is important. "The survey, which is likely to prove embarrassing to David Blunkett, the Home Secretary" is published in the opposition party's newspaper five years ago and doesn't seem to have much supporting evidence. Putting your feet on train seats counts towards the crime statistics here.

A friend of mine just got the Maserati Coupe2. You can pick up bargains if you hunt around. Ferrari-built without the Ferrari price-tag. 390bhp 4.2l v8 with the superb computer controlled handling/stability stuff. I'll have pics later.

Couldn't you even find a link that was useful? Here's the sort of data you're looking for: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_...ders-per-capita http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/153988.stm Yes, bad stuff happens the world over. No, you don't need to wrap your kids in cotton wool if you're shipping them to the UK. They're safer in the UK than they are in the US and they're safer in the US than they are in Colombia.

Here's what's on my definite list: IWC Aquatimer Chrono (pre-ordered, awaiting a delivery date) TAG Heuer Carrera (black dial, silver-ringed subdials, steel bracelet) This is the hopefuls and the maybes: Rolex Daytona (2001 white dial, it's getting to the point where I'll almost risk the sec@6) Rolex Seadweller (modern super-rep, if released) IWC Big Pilot (in 2008) ... and on the non-rep list, a Millionsmart Tourbillon Power-reserve. There are other watches, of course, and like a magpie, I will be drawn to them, but that should do for now.

You may have seen some of those screen grabs somewhere before.

Sure, but anyone invading my home is not going to have a firearm and I have the advantage of home ground and a sword.

I use the spell checker in Firefox set to English as opposed to Webster's English. Anyway, yes, some people will just go mad with axes. It happens and it's better that they don't go mad with guns. Sure, your brother's co-worker was lucky to have survived, but would a gun have made a difference? There's no simple way of looking at it. He's not dead, but if he had a gun, someone would be. Like I said, sometimes people will just go mad with axes. I'd rather they went on an axe rampage than a shooting rampage, no?

Sure there are, but they're not armed with guns. Firearm offences do exist in the UK, but they're rare and restricted to very specific regions of large cities.

Your axe-wielding junkie was a fellow citizen. Like I said, I understand the need to arm yourself in the US. What I'm asking you to understand is that you don't need to arm yourself in the UK.

Defend yourself from whom? Fellow armed citizens? You see where I'm going with this, don't you.