To all on B3TA
You are all Heroes and Villains in equal measure.

From a barely computer literate middle-aged Aussie lurker: you have all made my 2011 a little more bearable.

One wife, two mortgages, three kids and one thousand memorable stories and images stored in my mind courtesy of this website.

I now make my own bread, learned some classic put- downs, and picked up some new and interesting phrases to add to my vocabulary.

AB's.."...so, your story is...mundane fact", Shambolic's scathing one-liner come-backs.

Any amount of snorting coffee through my nose inducing stories of mis-adventure that we can all (well, pretty much all) identify with.

Any amount of WTF admissions of past sins that should probably merit police investigation.

Apeloverage's bizarre take on life...it is a rich tapestry of weird shit.

Resident Loon, you sound like a fucking nice bloke, only this afternoon I was having some technical difficulty with a bit of DIY and I thought that someone like yourself would sort it out in a flash.

And BGB, in another life, you sound like the perfect girl to woo.

Happy New Year Chaps and Chapettes. You are a strange bunch of bastards, I wish you all the best, wherever you are in life, love and geography.

Might go and have another beer. Or ten. Newkie Brown, can you believe, served at room temperature too! How fucking Aussie is that. Not.
( Ken Oath, Fri 30 Dec 2011, 11:35, 2 replies)

Newcastle Brown
has to be served at room temperature. When I'm boss of the world, I'm going to make it illegal to serve it ice cold.
( His Popiness the Hole Invaded Poland on, Fri 30 Dec 2011, 14:49, closed)

*doffs cap*
True story: this week we have been visiting our respective parents. My wife's mother uses a walker, one of the type with wheels and a seat and handbrakes. One of the handbrakes wasn't working, and she asked my father in law to fix it.

He puzzled over it for a time, holding a pair of pliers and uncertain of how to proceed. She called from the other room for him, asking if he had it fixed yet, and I could see his frustration mounting, so I offered my help, which he gladly accepted.

It turns out that they work by means of a cable, just like on a bicycle, and at the bottom of the cable is a threaded bit with a nut that braces against a bracket for tension. I pulled it back with my fingers, twirled the nut down a bit with my fingertip, then released it. Wallah! Adjusted. It took me less than twenty seconds to get it sorted.

He looked stunned. I grinned and said, "That's why I'm an engineer and you're a PhD in mammology. I can't do your work either."

He chuckled as he wheeled it into the other room.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Fri 30 Dec 2011, 15:50, closed)