Bellend Sebastian

I know next to nothing about active speakers but my understanding is that they're a speaker with an amp built in. Your turntable has got a red and white/black pair of stereo outputs, yeah? That would be perfect for connecting to my amplifier but I must admit I don't know what connections active speakers normally have on them What's yours connected to?

It's deliberately like that to maximise the time you have to spend looking at adverts rather than reading actual content

Have you invested yet? If not, Dr Marco is right, you'd need an amp and speakers. I'm a bit out of touch having not bought kit for ages but when buying an amp for a turntable make sure it's got a dedicated phono/turntable input, especially if buying second hand. With the resurgence of vinyl they've probably got them on again but there was a time when they didn't always include them (my NAD amp from about 2004 doesn't have one) and you need one for a turntable as the input signal is a lot lower than from other sources - if there isn't one you need to buy a separate phono stage/pre amp. I think the old rule still applies: spend the most on the 'source' (turntable, CD player or whatever) slightly less on the amp and slightly less again on the speakers, the principle being that a component can't miraculously make the thing being fed into it better than it is, if that makes sense

And your needs are being met! Unless you have a need for the device you look at Foxestalk to project your wealth and status, but I suspect like me you're lucky enough to not have that one. Someone was telling me the other day that their phone contract costs them 80 quid a month. I'm out of touch (been SIM only for over a decade), but even with insurance built in I'm not sure how that would be possible - there must be add-ons like TV subscriptions, earbuds included or something

Did we ever get to the bottom of why hand grenades are pulled out of the River Soar every few months and everything gets shut down while the bomb squad sorts it out?

Amazing. "Mrs Edwards said she used to bang her trowel on the bomb to remove earth after gardening." I know it says it turned out that there was only a small amount of charge in it but that's almost worse - I think I'd rather my blast injuries weren't survivable

There are a lot of people who are a bit weird about tech aren't there? It must be this or it must be that. I was asked recently if I was "Samsung or iPhone" and when I said my phone wasn't either they seemed genuinely intrigued that other firms make devices. It's like certain brands of cars, isn't it? If you're not seen with a premium brand it seems like you're dead, socially, in some circles. I'm sure I've told the story on here about my colleague who's husband had queued up at the Apple shop to get the new iPhone years ago. It was one of the 'S' ones, so not even a new phone, just a bit better 'under the bonnet' and not really a big deal and when I said 'wow, he must have really wanted it', she said no, he didn't want it at all but felt that he had to have it because if he didn't, he'd get friends and family taking the piss out of him. This is a grown man we're talking about here. It's an amazing world of consumerist bullshit that people have allowed themselves to be sucked into and I think it's very hard for folk to escape from it - people do, but it's rare

I hadn't read this when I got to that bit so it was a lovely surprise as I'd somehow forgotten it completely. It's basically cleaning up as you go along, isn't it? Smashing stuff We did the book in English in about Year 10. I've got what might be a false memory that we then watched the film, but as this hasn't stuck with me at all I've a horrible feeling that I was off sick

I've had to familiarise myself with Apple products to provide the pensioners in my family with tech support. In fairness, I think iOS probably is a bit easier to use from a standing start, but still not easy enough for these old f#£@ers. The other thing that gets on my wick about this as because they're all tight they buy older tiny models and as my eyesight's well on the way to being as bad as theirs and I've got massive hands it's like Gulliver has completed his travels and is now doing IT for pensioners which has NOT been turned into a well loved story like the first bit was

I don't think one is really any better than the other, but one is more expensive to access

I started implanting the idea that he'd never have an iPhone in my son's head about 3 years before we were ever even thinking about getting him a phone and to be honest that's worked a treat. I bought him a Moto something or other and because most of his friends are rocking older model iPhones from 4 years ago a new cheapo phone doesn't look out of place

Always up for a tasty protein based snack

Is that what you're proposing, Wortho? I'll be honest, I'm surprised. I don't think you'll get many takers

My brother in law has worked for JLR for the last few years and this has not coincided with a marked improvement in their quality control which is a shame as I think that's his actual job

My trip to Brean was a Sun holiday (one I didn't even pay for) and I think that was the only reason I didn't kick off. In fairness to The Sun, we've tagged along on other Sun holidays at other firms' caravan parks and they were fine. Hadn't realised that Brean actually closed earlier this year, ahead of a seven figure refit to house workers who will be building a new nuclear power station. Apparently it will turn back into a holiday camp in three years, so there's hope for it yet. Looked like nobody had spent any money on it for at least 25 years when we were there

Obviously there are a lot of people that DO want them, but it's an appeal that makes pretty much no sense to me at all

Steam refusing to deactivate my Steam Account because I cannot remember my credit card details from 2003 or whenever I set it up, which I've not even logged onto for at least 12 years. My only reminder that I ever had the bloody thing are notifications that attempts have been made to break into it from Azerbaijan, Nepal, Brazil or wherever. They're very sorry of course, and understand that what they want is very old but unless I can prove who I am they cannot act on my instruction. I have therefore simply blocked the emails

Our house Our house is east/west facing. I'd say that room definitely retains the heat better than it did, but it probably helped in that it was the only exterior wall in that room. You can warm up any house if you're prepared to have the central heating blasting out for hours at a time (what my in-laws do, despite living in a well insulated gaff where you just don't need to) but that would be terrifyingly expensive in ours. I should add that the outlay for what we did wasn't much - we were getting the room re-plastered anyway, so just got my carpenter to baton out the wall a bit, cut the polystyrene to fit the gaps and then screw plasterboard over the top, so it probably only added less then 200 quid to the re-plastering job cost anyway. If you got a professional insulation guy in I expect that would be loads more expensive, but possibly a lot more effective too. A good cheap fix though

That's true - my brother lived for a couple of years in the basement flat of a Victorian house that had literally no heating at all, and he was fine with that. Not much fun though. My 1929 is still bloody freezing, being that bit too old not to have cavity walls. We put a layer of polystyrene behind a layer of plasterboard in the boy's bedroom when we had it re-skimmed and that makes a pretty significant difference if you can afford to lose about 2" of floor space

I imagine insurance costs aren't helping either. I didn't bother to read it but I saw a headline the other day about someone not being able to insure their top of the line Range Rover, the cost of which was in Taycan territory

Perhaps the Partridge writers, like my brother and I, were left in the care of an elderly aunt, an event that involved my brother having to poke one of her chods down the pan with a stick. And no, I don't know why he felt this was his responsibility either. Miss you, Marge

Despite our horrendous Brean Sands experience my in laws have been to several since and never complained, it was only when they took the grandkids to Camber when they thought they'd been had. The thing I hate about it is that although it's cheap relative to other holiday options it's not that cheap and if you're on your arse financially it's a bleeding insult. There's a difference between something being basic/no frills/cheap and cheerful and it being broken/neglected/filthy and what I've seen of it, it was all of the latter. The visitor behaviour at some of the parks has been pretty grim (there's one in Southport where the local MP complained about it being a blight on the area because of how horrible the guests were) but it's really not going to bring out the best in people is it, if you check in, find the bed is broken, the TV is about to fall off the wall and the kitchen bit doesn't look like it's been cleaned for weeks? They're owned by Britannia Hotels; I've never had the pleasure of staying at one of their actual hotels, but their reputation isn't great either. Makes you wonder if they're desperate for investment or if this is the actual business model

Prestatyn and Camber Sands Pontins holiday camps close with immediate effect: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-67578045 I've not stayed at either of these but I did drop my children off at the latter to spend a week there with their grandparents, without realising it was Pontins and nearly didn't let them stay. I have stayed at the Brean Sands one, and if you're wondering what that was like, I'd say two things: 1) When the roof of the main building collapsed a couple of years later, it was very much in keeping with the vibe of the place 2) Why the f*&+ have the British government spaffed £140 million on not sending anyone to Rwanda when there's a far worse deterrent already up and running much closer to home? Over to you, friends at Trip Advisor: https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g1752567-d607436-Reviews-Pontin_s_Camber_Sands_Centre-Camber_Rye_East_Sussex_England.html

Be your compassionate best selves, folks

Update: my wife thinks she knows who it was and they may well have an "intellectual disability" so I'm prepared to cut them a bit of slack