Pillock

I'm in, Mrs Pillock is in too. I'll see if not so small boy fancies it.

The youngest is doing motor vehicle maintenance at college, and he's doing work experience this term at a garage. Sent me this photo today of what he's been doing some work on...

Are the trains running then?

Just putting my socks on.

I reserve the right to not get up in time, but I think this is a goer

Yes, I turn them off before any sort of dogging activities.

You want a rant? Here's a fucking rant. I gave my old company BMW back in June. At the start of November I got an email from Dartford Crossing telling me I had to bring my Pay as you Go account back to order as it was -£5. Yes, that's right, I forgot to take the BMW off the account and someone had used it over the bridge. I emailed back to say sorry, I got rid, I can provide evidence. They emailed back to say doesn't matter, the terms say you're liable. Me: OK, I accept that and I'm sorry. Out of interest has the driver of the BMW paid? Them: we can't tell you that. GDPR innit. It's your responsibility to keep your account updated. Me: Because obviously if they've paid, your business isn't out of pocket. Them: if you let us know the last four digits of the card number they used, we can transfer the payment to your account Me: erm, it's not my car. I don't know who is driving it let alone their card number. But thanks for confirming that a payment was made. Them: you owe us five quid mate Me: so a payment was made, you're not out of pocket, can't we just forget all this? Them: five. Quid. Me: what happens if I don't pay? Them: we will contact the owner of the vehicle Me: you've just said a payment was made. Oh, and by the way, where do you stand on the GDPR aspect of telling me the dates and times a car I don't own crossed the Thames? Then: it's your responsibility blah blah blah Me: when you say the owner of the vehicle, is it then or now? Them: it's your responsibility waaaaaah waaaaaah Me: Will. Anything. Happen. To. Me? Them: we'll keep asking for the five quid. Me: BYEEEE TL;DR, I messed up and forgot to take my old car off an account. It crossed the bridge, a charge was made and paid for by the new owner, but still my account is in arrears so they can make an additional five pounds. Robbing twatsticks. Oh, and each email takes four or five days so this has dragged out for nearly two months.

I'll have been on trains as the clock ticks midnight, I'll see if Mrs Pillock fancies even more trains. (For anyone local and interested, Great Central are doing their steam and diesel NYE running)

These Trippets just appeared on Facebook, apparently Loughborough based. What are they?

Holy crap. Tracking down* one of the involved parties and giving them a tough interview* is above and beyond! This thread just keeps on giving.

It's "Silvery Green Car Tuesday" at Sainsburys in Kimberley, near Nottingham. Drivers of silvery green cars get up to 8.5% off all fruit, vegetables and toilet rolls. Note the police have turned up in their Vauxhall Astra to control the crowds. Due to underfunding, they have to brush-paint the stripes on their patrol cars.

Ha! I'd missed this thread, been keeping up with the more boring design pictures they'd been tweeting for the 150th anniversary (old packaging and stuff) but had no idea there was so much chod in the archive.

Went to the Nottingham Heritage Vehicles open day a few weeks back. Not a massive thing, but free to wander in and we were visiting friends not far away anyway. If you were in the market for models you'd have been quids in, everything was a tenner. Their depot is the old Trent Buses shed in Hucknall. Anyway, there were the normal Nottingham Standard stuff (feel free to chime in with the names and bodies of stuff, I'll not guess as I'll only look stupid) I certainly remember catching these as a nipper from the bottom of Bells Lane in Cinderhill, near my grandparents. I think the 91 went into the city? Distinctly remember those funny shaped indicators, but then also having a game of spot the difference when I realised they also ran these... ... which would have been a lot newer than the top picture (I'm talking maybe the mid 1980s). I guess this is the Nottingham Standard Bus in action? Further into the shed there's some work in progress, like this - the bumpf explains they found a lot of corrosion and damage in the roof so have lopped it off. This also had some history, I've forgotten most of it but I'm sure it said it was a Nottingham City Coaches vehicle - subtly different as it had coach seating and was in the "Harrods" livery, and then went to a company called "Moving People" hence the stickers. It's currently registered as VIL3382 if anyone wants to look it up. Next up was this, erm, bus. It's a C reg which makes it ancient but just goes to show how little design moved on from this to the X reg further up. Crusty. On the wall was a little A4 page on each of their buses, some of them stored elsewhere. Both myself and Mrs_Pillock were disheartened to hear that many of the vehicles we used to catch in regular service (such as for me, a Trent Leyland Olympian and for her, a Nottingham City B10M) are now classed as Heritage Vehicles. There was also a write-up for this which was apparently a donation that was too rotten to use. I remember those being brand new to service! They're going to refit the cab and use it as a similator. As you'd expect, they were also running some shuttles. I didn't realise a lot of their bodywork was done though Paul S Winson and they also have one or two preserved buses with that livery on.

How DARE you suggest not everything on eBay is exactly what it says it is. You take that back or I'll set the Internet Lawyer on you (the one who was advertising on Gumtree)

It went through late in the day and was £130 or something.