me jane

3 min walk for me

Thanks for the explanation, Soubriquet. Picked up lots about 4wd & diff locks when I was a kid cos my Dad's hobby was 4x4-ing and I spent a large part of my early childhood in the back of a Landrover halfway up some mountain or at some rally or other. Was never taught me about live axles though. If I remember I'll dig some photos out when I'm home this Christmas. Yep, the Stagea a good ride, but it hasn't ever been "fully tested" CB, I remember you posting a while back that you had given up motorbikes after a scary near miss?

The total with Lufthansa is 128,380 (to Heathrow). There are 4 of us (5 including MMT) flying to Germany on the 18th Dec and then people are going seperate ways from there (Manchester, Dublin & Heathrow). 3 of us are coming back on the 6th Jan and one girl earlier. Anyway if the dates suit you and you want to pay the extra man for the (great Welsh) company and the all important vid on demand seatback TV let me know and I'll give you our seat numbers. We booked through the Lufthansa site, outbound LH711 and return LH714.

I like Rag-doll's idea too. Medical support devices wouldn't need to be included.

I have a Britax Marathon which is a monster seat but it straps onto my carry on suitcase to make an airport pushchair and he falls asleep in it so easily I want it to make the actual plane journey more comfortable (for both of us). Don't fancy trying to keep him seated without it when the seatbelt sign is on. Hopefully the rules won't change before then and they'll let me take it.

That's right Thursday. And they should charge men more for their tickets because they are generally taller, heavier and drink more.

Soubs, I don't think it's selfish to wonder your own future at all. It's completely natural. Stay strong. A positive attitude sometimes seems to be more effective at beating the odds than medical technology.

Thanks Thurs. I missed the cake. Was off on Wed.

I called Lufthansa to find out if I could use MMT's car seat on the plane. First phone girl told me no, email said yes, second phone girl said yes but as the rules were always changing she couldn't guarantee that come Christmas when we fly they would still be allowing car seats!

Some airlines have a weight limit. Virgin is 6kgs and Lufthansa 8kgs for economy. In my experience is has always been very strict at the Uk end and not even weighed Japan-side.

I know but I want MMT to spend some Christmases with UK family. It'll be his 3rd Christmas, first in the UK. Will be back in j-land early January anyway.

Soubs what are live axles?

I've already booked and paid for my tickets so it's too late for me, but this offer looks really good for anyone planning on going to the UK this Christmas. From the BA website: Earlybird Winter Special Offer Travel to London/Europe this winter and save with our earlybird offer in World Traveller economy class from Tokyo, starting from as low as JPY50,000. This price includes a free side trip to one of 49 destinations in the UK and Europe from London, including Paris, Rome or Barcelona. You can stopover in London on your way to your destination for no extra charge. Book by 15 Augus

Japanese tend to charge per person rather than per room so if cost is the reason for wanting one room, it might be better to go for two twin rooms in a "city hotel". They are somewhere between the "business hotels" which have mostly single rooms and the "luxuary hotels" like the Hilton, Keio etc. You should be able to get reasonable accomodation at 7,000 to 9,000 per person. The Rakuten Travel website has an English site and is a good place to search hotels.

For most needs I reckon 2wd (as long as it's fwd) would be fine. They use less petrol than 4wd/awd. I use my company 4wd Estima to go skiing and it is great for space, comfort and traction on the snow. Hate it on the motorway at speed though, I usually drive a Stagea (rwd - husband's choice before I met him) and with the Estima I can feel the wind pulling it sideways. It just doesn't feel as safe or solid as the Stagea. If I was buying a car I wouldn't go for one of those high sided things, just something with a reasonable amount of ground clearance. I remember reading somewhere a while

Yeah I saw that too. Sad. I read that a lot of the children in that school came from dysfunctional families and many of the girls wanted babies because they wanted someone who would love them unconditionally.

I mean the ones that look like babies. This kind of thing...

Mini Me Tarzan was playing with my friend's children's dolls the other day and loved them. He called them babies and was fascinated with the facial features. Decided that when I get chance I'm going to buy him one. I told my students today and one of them actually physically jumped and looked horrified. Just wondering what the general concensus is? I have no problems giving him a doll and I think that saying "no that's girls toy" or something is kind of sad.

I really don't like diet coke. I sometimes drink the normal stuff though.

Medium steak is okay but what is with all this raw chicken? I went to a posh J-fireplace-barbeque type place with work and they kept putting the chicken on my plate and I had to keep taking it off and putting the skewer back in the sand until it was cooked.

What is more disturbing is that I'm not surprised. Did you say anything to the mum? I would have

I think I drink about 2-3 litres a day too. Maybe more in summer. Seen yerba mate in the shop, never bought it. What does it taste like? I've got one of those wood cups and the metal straw you are supposed to drink it from.

err... okay

That's awful Soubs. I don't know what to say either. I hope things go as well as they can.

Originally Posted By: JA How can you list sports drinks as separate from the "chemicals & stuff" category? Just cos there are loads of them sold in Japan and a lot of people I know always drink those but never the "soda" type ones. I don't think they have as much sure as the Gatorade type things you are probably thinking of. (Don't know for sure but they don't taste as sweet anyway). The have the electrolyte minerals like magnesium, sodium, potassiumn and calcium and doctors actually recommend drinking them when you are sick and can't eat anything. They still got a load of sugar and f