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Back in the days when I had the time, I used to do lots of climbing and mountaineering and it was always good to cool off in a mountain tarn or a stream at the end of a long walk or bike ride. One of the best ever was the Etive river, which runs over flat glaciated slabs on Rannoch Moor and is...

That's not a bad idea, thanks!

My neighbour has two heavy hardwood gates, T&G plank panelled, which are sagging under their own weight and no longer square. Each gate is about 5' wide so the leverage is considerable. The timbers are not very tight together and they seem to have been assembled mostly with wood dowels. I think...

My MIL recently died of a sudden unexpected rupture of the heart; the coroner said she wouldn't have known much about it - she was found on the floor looking relaxed and as happy as a corpse could be said to look happy. I reckon a quick bleed would be a good way to go. When I get the dementia...

Some vents in the outside walls to allow ventilation.

The consequences of a blocked tunnel would be terrible; Europe would be completely isolated.

It doesn't get any better as you age. I'm 59 now and a weekend of DIY leaves me feeling tired and stiff all over. I go road cycling and my legs are strong and accustomed to the effort but nowadays even 30 hilly miles are enough to leave my quads tight and sore for 2 - 3 days. As the summer...

Only when I was about eleven and I got into a punching match with a kid at school - real manly punches to the chin. I ended up on top and in a position to thump him really hard but got up and walked off. My jaw was so bruised that I could hardly eat for two days. In adult life I've lost my...

That joke works especially well in Spanish because a favourite Spanish expression is "Hijo de Puta!" which means "son of a whore" but is used in the same way as the Americans say "son of a b***". The little boy asks his mum: "Mama - las putas tienen hijos?" meaning: " Mum - do whores have...

Yes, build a solid wood frame and fix it to the wall to spread the load. I did this for three pans in our house and they are all fine, even when grandma plumps her considerable weight down on them.

A young Polish girl stows away on a ship. After a few days she is discovered and taken in front of the captain. “What are you doing on my ship?” he asks. (Polish accent here) “Well, I came to UK to work as waitress and I met this nice boy from Liverpool and we fall in love so we decide to...

No, the valve is fine; I know because I changed it a couple of years ago when it started clonking on changeover. For the same wiring reason I just retained the old motor head and refitted it to the new valve, which is why I've got a brand new motor head spare.

Er..... explain please? Can the motor be removed from the gearbox and chassis? Eedit: dammit, just checked and yes it can.... come to think of it, I think I knew that a few years ago but had forgotten because one doesn't do these things very often! The little plastic plug on the blue wires...

Sorry - I can see that I've misled most of you by including the circulator in the picture. It's nothing to do with the circulator, it's the wiring to the synchrono motor in the 3 port valve. I want to change the motor and am wondering if there's a better and more user-friendly way of doing...

Synchrono motor on our CH/HW is playing up so I plan to replace it with new. However when I pulled the wiring out from the trunking I found this: Is this allowed? Can I just remove the crimped connectors and use a 15A terminal block for ease of changing the motor in future? Is there a...

Could also be a blob of solder dancing up and down in the flow of water in the vertical pipe though that will stop - as ours did - when you turn the flow down.

I'd love to be able to run a comparison of one week with CH twice daily against one week with CH on full time. If you could be certain to get two weeks with identical temperatures I bet you'd see very little difference; I'm mindful especially of when you come back from a winter holiday and the...

Biggest waste of money known to Mankind. Your wife will go round and open them all up to full in the belief that it will warm the house up quicker. Seriously; don't bother.

I love the atmosphere of happy anarchy at that festival; Elfin' Safety would have a fit if anybody tried that in miserable old Britain. The copious clouds of dense white smoke remind me of childhood experiments with weedkiller (sodium chlorate) and sugar. I still can't understand why my Dad...

Hmmmm... a greasy waistcoat pocket? Reminds me of a girl I once knew....