...when i click over to pea's 'intellectual' thread, the screen goes weird and massive and i have to kind of scroll left and right to read across the page. it's not doing it anywhere else - what's going on???

I may be wrong, but I think it is caused by the huge, long web address that 404 pasted in for the nerdy Nigel Barker picture. I remember it happened once when someone wrote AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHH for about 500 letters without a space.

clever you

did you get your car de-brailled? (BADhailstone)

It is booked in for early May and it will take about a week to fix .

is the weather too bad for you to cycle? You'll def. need your helmet if those pesky stones start falling again - ouch!

Do you get freaky weather a lot where you live, Piglet?

our australian cousin will be fast asleep, juno

It is only 8.20pm here (Melbourne) now...and I am proofreading my reference list for my thesis - Giddyup!

Not really freaky weather here, although it is changing with that whole climate change thing. Mind you, our beloved Prime Minister assures us all it is merely media hype so he can get away with wimpy environmental policies and continue logging the crap out of our old-growth forests. The bottom half of the country is in the middle of the worst drought on record - really strict water restrictions in place, rising food costs as farmers can't produce a crop, doom and gloom as far as the eye can see.

Basically, I can't complain if my car gets damaged by hail, because anything falling out of the sky is a novelty at the moment!

But in Darwin (where I grew up, right at the top of Australia) they have so much rain all the dams are breaking their banks and roads are cut to towns as river flood. We can't win.

Sounds like a land of extremes, for sure. My knowledge of Australia largely comes from Bill Bryson's "Down Under" (very, very funny )

Think the spiders would do for me. I had one on my balcony here the size of a small crab and that was bad enough. Wouldn't want to risk a full-blown tarantula stalking round my flat.

Is Darwin the rainforest area? I heard that there are trees growing there that haven't changed since the time of the dinosaurs, practically. And those big birds with bloody knives (or something) on their feet? Hmm, I guess Bill Bryson's education of me leaves something to be desired.
I grew up in Blackpool where the biggest danger from wildlife is being crapped on by a flock of seagulls.

shows what i know

lol - or accosted by a hen/stag do!

The seagulls have better manners

Cassowary - that's the bird's name