Conrad

I was thinking about that as I posted the thread... The thing that gripes me is I'm made to feel cheap if I don't tip in the US. We went to Florida a couple years back and had an awesome waiter in TGI's. We were more than happy with the service so wanted to leave a decent tip (By UK standards). I think we left around $15 - the bill was around $100. We thought we were being good to him until he came over with a tip chart and our bill and tip. It listed 3 different levels of service: Poor 15% tip, Medium - 20% tip and Good - 22%. He was basically saying our tip wasn't enough as he only makes around $5 an hour. We felt embarrassed at the time, annoyed afterwards....

Does this bother anyone else on here? Maybe I'm just a scrooge but it really annoys me. I appreciate that it's the norm over there but I begrudge tipping for such silly things. It seems whether they deserve a tip or not they expect it, it's just standard to them. I'm off to Vegas on Wednesday and it seems you have to tip for everything, taxis expect 15% on top and restaurants between 15% and 20%. Am I just being cheap?

Repost probably but here goes anyway.... Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard? Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are flat? Why do banks charge a fee on 'insufficient funds' when they know there is not enough? Why do Kamikaze pilots wear helmets? Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet? Whose idea was it to put an 'S' in the word 'lisp'? What is the speed of darkness? Why is it that people say they 'slept like a baby' when babies wake up every two hours? Are there specially reserved parking spaces for 'normal' people at the Special Olympics? If the temperature is zero outside today and it's going to be twice as cold tomorrow, how cold will it be? Do married people live longer than single ones or does it only seem longer? How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage? Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground? Did you ever stop and wonder...... Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, 'I think I'll squeeze these pink dangly things here, and drink whatever comes out?' Who was the first person to say, 'See that chicken there... I'm gonna eat the next thing that comes outta it's ass.' Why do toasters always have a setting so high that could burn the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat? Why is there a light in the fridge and not in the freezer? Why do people point to their wrist when asking for the time, but don't point to their ass when they ask where the bathroom is? Why does your Obstetrician, Gynaecologist leave the room when you get undressed if they are going to look up there anyway? Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They're both dogs! If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests? If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, then what is baby oil made from? If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons? Why do the Alphabet song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune? Stop singing and read on....... Do illiterate people get the full effect of Alphabet Soup? Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him on a car ride, he sticks his head out the window? Does pushing the elevator button more than once make it arrive faster?

Seen this at the pics a while back, great twist at the end... You should check out the movie Juno, same actress Ellen Page in that too. Great film...

They need to do something over there and pretty sharpish. When I was backpacking last year I came across a few South Africans and all of them were dreading the World Cup in 2010. They were all of the opinion that 'the sh*t will really hit the fan' when the entire world will be watching them come the WC. They expect only bad things to come from it...

My first car was an A reg Fiesta and cost me 20 quid! My mate was driving it around before I passed my test so put his XR2 Pepperpot alloys on for me too - I thought it looked the mut's nuts! On a pub car park he asked me to drive around in it as he thought the alloys rubbed. I jumped in and floored it in reverse showing off to a big gang of mates, drove straight into a huge bottle bank and flipped the bank on it's side. My rust riddled fiesta literally crumbled into a write off...

Yeah as stated, go named only. Then cross ref that hotel against a customer review site like http://www.tripadvisor.com to make sure it's not a dog... Teletext are doing one week in Spain in June from as little as 102 quid, now that's cheap!

It's totally intentional too, hence you have to physically type the brand and model as opposed to using drop down boxes like they do with the network field.

I water damaged my phone the other day so my brother lent me his Sony Ericsson K800i until my contract's up in June. As it's locked to Three network I bought an unlock code from this website: http://www.unlockcentral.co.uk/ I entered the required info as requested and awaited my instructions. I've just received an email saying they can't unlock my phone and I would have known this if I'd read the terms & Conditions on this page They wont give me a refund but said I've credit with them until I have a phone that needs unlocking! I know it's only £3.29 (they sneakily added VAT after I'd made payment via Paypal) but it's principal, I'll have to pay that again somewhere else now. Allowing you to buy something they don't have then keeping your money is theft surely?

Hey Steve, I stayed at the Ibis in the past for very little. I do remember a cheaper hotel next door to it called Formula 1 - they did rooms for 10 quid each! I've found their website but they're saying rooms are 25 quid now- still cheap though. As for places to go your best bet is Broad Street or The Arcadian. Not knowing what music you're into but I'm guessing you'd want something fairly broad for a Stag do, just hit Broad St and find somewhere you fancy. Another good bet has to be the Comedy Club (held @ the Glee Club) - a cracking night out. Never heard a single complaint and would be a good start to the night...

I insured my first BPU Supra through Sky for a little over 1k and was more than happy with that at the time. When I came to insure my 2nd standard TT with them they wanted nearly 900 quid and withdrew agreed value, I insured with Adrian Flux for 720. They're certainly not as competitive as they first were. As for what Jazz is saying I can totally understand. I'm 28 and my insurance has come down every single year as my age and NCB went up - despite my cars becoming higher risk. I expect it only levels out and starts to increase once you're 30+

Off to America in a weeks time and need to get some dollars. I have £1500 to exchange but wanted to get the best rate possible. Any recommendations? The dollar has been going down lately so it's unlikely I can get the magic 2 for 1 we were getting a few months back...

Yeah those are the ones dude, I bought one for a mate a couple years back. I got if off Ebay but I can't find anything on there.

Thanks for the links guys but I was after the 'When I'm older I wanna drive a Supra' style bibs - not the ones with club logo. Marc, my bro refers to anything I like as Jap Crap. Sure he only does it to annoy me.

Anyone remember these? I'm soon to be an uncle and my brother hates Supras, so this seems like the perfect gift for me to get him. Anyone know where I can get one from?

Sounds like an awesome day out! My parents bought me one of them Red Letter track days when I was 21 as well. On the box was a Ford Escort Cosworth which I assumed I would be driving. When I got there it turned out I only got to drive a stripped out 130bhp Mk2 Escort. I was very disappointed to say the least, the Celica I drove there in was more powerful. Add to that just 3 laps around a course made out of road cones and it was a very rubbish day out. I wrote in and complained but had no reply. It was a 'track' on the A41 near Whitchurch where I went ... Sorry for the hijack!

My Girlfriend's Dad is a freight train driver, has been for 30 years. He's killed two people over the years, both suicides. It's not a very pleasant thing that's for sure. He had to attend inquests on both accounts too to determine what happened. He never says much about it, just that it's a horrible feeling of panic knowing you wont be able to stop in time.

Go to the the cinema dude, this kind of movie is viewed best in that environment. Saw this last night and it really is superb. I had to drive 15 miles to a cinema showing it and had convince my girlfriend that not all foreign movies are pornos! Well worth the effort, my girlfriend actually cried from being so scared!

Watched a few episodes of this Season a few weeks back, absolutely love it... "Hey Earl" "Hey Crabman"

Also, just remember there will be a lot of queues for stuff - it's Easter Holidays still...

I went a couple weekends ago and it is fun (weather permitting). Don't miss the monkeys out as suggested, they're one of the best attractions. I did 'risk' my BMW Coupe through there and to be honest it was a lot of fuss about nothing. They do like to run and slide down your windscreen in the rain and the worse I saw them do was chew on an aerial. I also saw that tour guide you're talking about. The guide tried to crack a joke to his group that over there 'was the Jaguar'. He was pointing at my car but then realised it was a BMW, tit! Check out the maze too, split from your missus and race to the centre. That was a good laugh and even though you'll be convinced you can get to the centre quick, you definitely can't!

Ignore my previous post if this is true...

Jesus, I really feel for you dude. You must be going through hell. There's another thread over in Members Chat about a break up which I posted in. Marbleapple PM'd me about concerns I had over my partner and he seems to be in the know with stuff like this. I'm not sure what his profession is but he gave me some good advice. Somebody else posted in that thread also re 'common law wife' IIRC. Just double check but I don't think there's any truth in that anymore...

Over the years whilst owning a variety of Jap cars me and my mate have always looked at the Keighley ads and wanted to drive up and take a look. The thing is that it's just a little too far to just have a gander. Yet despite the countless threads and ridiculous stories you hear I still wonder if maybe there is something decent there! Surely from all those cars to choose from you could find something decent? You've been there a few times Michael seeing as it's local, is every single car there a total dog?

Yeah been looking forward to this one, unfortunately none of my local cinemas are showing this (yet?). That's always the case with anything small like this and it really annoys me. At least they're showing Meet The Spartans every other hour though..