Stainless Sam

Yeah, they just disintegrate when you get snot or saliva on them don't they? er, no actually. They're not baby nappies of ladies' hygiene products with water reacting chemicals built in. They are close woven or non-woven matrices that will pass gaseaous molecules but hold on to bigger stuff. If you are employed as a technical scientist by 3M, Kimberley Clark or someone else making masks, then I bow to your expertise. Otherwise, a snotty mask left hanging in the sunshine will still be a snotty mask next time you put it on.

Synthetic materials (i.e. masks) won't generally heat up in a microwave. But we all know water does. Spray mask with water, chuck in microwave, water boils, kills virus and anything else in there short of mad cow disease (a non-viral, non-bacterial pathogen). Allow freshly steaming mask to cool before putting back on face. One word of warning - beware masks with the little bit of metal at the top to bend around the bridge of your nose. Like all metal placed in a microwave it could cause all sorts of problems, up to and including blowing your microwave to bits. By the way, microwave communications are at a different frequency and at a far lower effective power than your kitchen microwave, which is basically a cavity magnetron tuned and focussed to heat small volumes of water. Having said that, the big, golf-ball, cold war radar domes at Fylingdales in North Yorkshire used to have a "do not fly" warning for private aircraft. It wasn't because of the risk of aerial spying, it was to avoid GA pilots who got too low and too close getting fried by the massive power they were pumping out across the North Sea.

Twice the land mass and a population of 8 million. It would be a tough sell. It's not even like they have much in the way of mountains stealing space, Norway got most of those. Add to that, the houses are knocked up with wood and they've got trees all over the place so building materials aren't exactly in short supply oe expensive to procure. .

It's just the simple chemistry of youth and romance. What you don't know is attractive, seductive, must have. After 40 years of marriage you know better and even small problems can tee you off. Sometimes the marriage has to end, even if it upsets the kids. Of course, when you are young and someone steals your vision of perfection you get mad about it and want to punch someone. When you see her 20 years later you're glad you dodged that bullet. They'll get over it in time. .

I have an OTM alert for a particular postcode that I'm interested in. Instead, I get e-mails with every bit of tat and dog kennel within a couple of miles of the single street I want. Result - if I were selling my own house I'd insist the agent was using Rightmove and Zoopla, anyone insisting on OTM would be dead to me and I never even bother looking at OTM for houses. .

Anyone who takes on a bridging loan without a firm, time limited deal to provide an endpoint might as we bend down and kiss thier family tackle goodbye. They didn't ought to be allowed to breed. .

Her best bet is to move the house ownership to BoMD, either directly or indirectly but in such a way as to ensure they have a call on the value of the house. In extremis, the only people who could challenge this would be the mortgage provider and (presumably) she would be happy to capitulate. If not, why doesn't she/they just enter a formal loan contact with BoMD at 0% interest so that they can call back the silver spoon money on demand. That way, it becomes a joint debt on marriage. Or else, just re-mortgage to take out some equity and put it in BoMD. House prices can only ever go up so it's entirely risk free. Disclaimer - this financial advice comes from a non-legal, non-financial professional and is offered on the express condition that and is valued at exactly how much you paid for it, zero. Marriage advice is also from someone with only 35 years experience so is equally worthless. . .

If they go bust, even if you get the cask you've probably got to pay the tax man for the duty. Worst case, they go bust and HMRC insist you pay tax on "your" property. .

It seems indecently early to be mounting a leadership challenge, but if he's going to outflank Teresa May and Boris he needs to start cultivating the swivel-eyed loons pretty vigourously. Be careful what you wish for, Osborne. But the other side of the coin is that in an environment where Junker is sticking two fingers up and saying, "no renegotiation" it does no harm to fly a kite. . .

She was warned about big bang, poll tax, selling council houses (without allowing replacement stock), and a dozen other disasters. And yet, still worshipped by too many numpties. Makes you understand why people like Pinochet, Marcos, Peron got away with it so long and are still missed, even though they turned their countries to $hyte. .

Just built a very modest sized lean-to extension behind my garage. Getting hold of bricks was absolute murder - literally I was chasing the last pack of matching bricks around the country to find out who had them. I even tried brick factors - £400+ for a pack of unremarkable bricks was a joke, Some of the types I wanted were on 4 months+ order or not available for the forseeable future because they were closed down. Two builders' merchants told me it was permanent hassle to source stuff and when I went down to the bottom end of one yard it looked almost empty. It seems that a lot of sites/lines/kilns were shut down when the market dipped and as you might expect, peeps aren't keen to turn them back on for the odd 10k bricks or so. The uptick in building means that they're happy to make money by jacking up prices but still don't have confidence to go full tilt. As for importing bricks - someone tell me the logic of transporting something heavy with relatively low value, that can also be a bit fragile, from the other side of Europe. .

Don't panic Labour-phobes. It's all turning to $hyte in Russia -the global economic shock is going to hit long before the May 2015 target that the Tories have been clenching so hard to reach without an unfortunate, home made (and well deserved) accident. Oily Dave will have someone else to blame it on and once again, it will be those nasty socialists. .

You seem to be mentally conditioned to the idea that a rent increase is appropriate, if only the place was tarted up a bit. We live in a low inflation environment, with no justification for a price hike. Just move. They probably won't get the same price without making it decent and you might get better digs for less moolah. .

Could I just correct the idea that this is a 5 day a week job? Brickies invariably do 4.5 days, with Friday afternoons in the boozer. If it rains after 10am they'll be on their way before the doors open. Saturdays are reserved for private jobs or in the very worst cases, for overtime on the job they should have been pulling their tripe out for all week and it's now running behind. It's a peripatetic career where all you need is a trowel, a piece of string, a bucket to carry them in and a spirit level to lean on while waiting for your morning pick-up. If you get rained off, tough luck, come back tomorrow. Building firms no longer bother with apprentices, let alone brickies on the books so it's hardly a surprise that they milk it when times are good.

Some people would be happy to only earn £10k a year if they got a roof over their heads and access to all the beer slops they could drink. Personally, I'm overjoyed to find the same limited range of fizzy rubbish in every pub. It saves my guts and palate from having to adjust to different ales, plus all the gas helps to stop me drinking too much before it goes through me like an armour piercing shell and I get caught out in the underwear department, so to speak. .

No-one's forced to use bricks nowadays. It's just that people feel more reassured buying something built by the third little piggy. Near me, they were building some social housing that got christened "scumbag villas". All done pre-fabricated, craned in (including complete roofs). Went up in days rather than weeks. But with the brick cladding they look just like a normal house and must be costing pennies to heat. In contrast my conventional brick built house is less than 20 years old. A neighbour, who was a builder bought off plan and kept an eye on the house being built. Or so he thought. Soon after moving in he decided to take out a window and replace it with french doors. All that was holding the old frame in place was a 4" nail hammered into the blockwork at each side. So much for bricks and mortar being more secure. .

No-one's forced to use bricks nowadays. It's just that people feel more reassured buying something built by the third little piggy. Near me, they were building some social housing that got christened "scumbag villas". All done pre-fabricated, craned in (including complete roofs). Went up in days rather than weeks. But with the brick cladding they look just like a normal house and must be costing pennies to heat. In contrast my conventional brick built house is less than 20 years old. A neighbour, who was a builder bought off plan and kept an eye on the house being built. Or so he thought. Soon after moving in he decided to take out a window and replace it with french doors. All that was holding the old frame in place was a 4" nail hammered into the blockwork at each side. So much for bricks and mortar being more secure. .

Cameron told him he was a very naughty boy and should go to bed early with no supper. Surprisingly, he did. .

I'd offer two lollypop sticks and a Des O'Connor record.

What did you expect? A list of a dozen ways to rejig a deal that you obviously over bid in the first place? There's still a flicker of life in the London market, a weak pulse as the patient expires. With any luck you'll get gazumped. My advice - go and ask them on MumsNet. They seem to have the moves you seek and you'll pick up some useful tips about rusks versus carrot sticks for teething.

If the seller seems desperate, I think you should show some human charity and increase your offer. By at least 10%. After all, this is a £1m+ property in London, so will be worth £2m+ before Xmas. It you share the bonus of constantly rising property prices around a bit, it helps the economy massively and you'll sleep better at night. p.s. If anyone tried gazundering me I'd play along all the way, up to the point of exchanging contracts (two days before completion) then pull out and tell them to stick their offer. Just a thought.

The logic is unavoidable. Beat enegy intensive strategic industries to death with carbon taxes and ignore the carbon cost of transporting Chinese stuff half way around the world. You couldn't make it up. Long products means rebar, sections and girders, anything that gets turned on a lathe or drawn into wire. So that's the construction industry pretty much accounted for, as well as much of engineering and some aerospace. If they are selling Scunthorpe plus Dalzell and Clydebridge then it's not just long products it's plate as well. So all your submarines, large diameter pipes, yellow goods, engineering fabrications, etc. are going to be made with foreign steel. Maybe UK sites for a while, but there's European over capacity and it's easier to get rid of people here, so medium term decisions are going to be obvious. The only bulk steel production left in the UK will be strip products, which used to have a big part in car manufacture but guess what, they're all moving to aluminium. You can see where this is going. Now tell me that manufacturing industry is important to the coalition. .

The point seems to be that some disabled people will get enhanced self esteem by the simple act of working, even if it's only two quid an hour and the state makes up the shortfall to min wage. Yeah, I always thought that my self esteem would have been unaffected by my employer thinking I was worth 1/4 of the proper rate for the job. After all, the reward comes in being able to serve, not being paid enough to eat. The controversy doesn't say as much about Freud as about the sort of person who would hold such a view. On Daily Politics today they reported that the man who asked the question had made his gardener a director of one of his companies, so that he could pay a dividend worth less than the minimum wage. They'd be running workhouses if they could get away with it. Farage will help ease the way with his 25 MPs next May. .

A few thoughts from a cripp who buys his own car rather than going motability: All those parking spaces have to be provided, because the majority get filled with BMWs, white vans and Chelsea tractors. Being fat doesn't get you a motability car, it might just get you a blue badge The cars are not free. The market isn't captive. People have to make a conscious decision to go that route. I've bought my last 4 cars with my own money. Everytime I do the numbers, it works out better for me to pony up my own beer vouchers. The Fiesta as the typical car is frequently because people have wheelchairs, walking aids, plus the same number of family members as "normal" bigots to transport around You used to be able to get a car big enough to take a proper wheelchair plus the normal stuff that fitted in a car. It cost you a lot more money, but this option is now dead because of the outrage of the Daily Hiel brigade. If you want something that will actually accommodate a wheelchair with someone in it the lease period is typically 7 years and the advance payment would make your eyes bleed. It's not paid for by the government, it operates on a commercial business model, heavily supported by the car manufacturers and the banks. The single seater Invacar bit the dust because it was ridiculously expensive to manufacturer. On a life cycle cost basis that Ford Fiesta is much better value. And less polluting. Yes the top people are overpaid. Just like everyone else in every other company. Get used to or start voting communist. The choice is yours. Finally, pause with the though that about 20% of the know-all to$$ers complaining about this will have a mobility problem in later life. .

Free legal advice is usually worth as much as you paid for it. But it does say not carrying out any business and must be a single family private residence. Doesn't seem to leave a lot of wiggle room to me. You seriously need to have a chat with your solicitor, take no advice from anyone else. He/she carries indemnity insurance in case advice is wrong.