GrumpiusMaximus

Big Rover fucks Irishman in findom's garage.

200 for my ancient Golf and 20 for the Bini. I'm fine with that...

There's definitely a good argument to say that MPs are underpaid for their responsibility and paying them more but banning them from third-party activity would significantly improve our democracy. An MPs salary is the same as our household income which, whilst significant, doesn't strike me as excessive given what they are expected to do.

Road tax hasn't got anything specific to do with the upkeep of the roads. It's part of the general taxation pool.

Dear God I hope you’re not going to the Isle of Sheppey.

The car. If my Mum's driving. I've never been more terrified at 24MPH.

I'm sure you do a lot more driving than I do and have a more valid opinion. I'm thinking specifically of a couple of slip road with limited visibility from both the carriageway and the slip road. The one closest to me is heavily used by lorries (near Dover) and is more-or-less blind until the last moment so in my experience, being able to get from 40-60 is more valuable. On a properly-designed road with decent visibility? Probably not.

My Old Ford Ka had 59BHP. I was a lot slimmer then but I distinctly remember going over the Pennines in it with a car full of stuff from Mini and ending up in first. My current car has more than double that and the other one is 110BHP and reasonably light and I’d consider them both ‘more than adequate’ with stated 0-60s of around 10 seconds. What really matters for me is getting up to speed on the motorway from (say) 40 so in-gear acceleration and therefore torque is far more important to me.

Norwegian Forest Cats are pretty huge, to be fair.

I was very lucky to live in a town with a 3-lane 'Dual Carriageway' (the A2 just outside of Gravesend) so before learners were allowed on the motorway, I could learn on what was effectively a motorway. Those few lessons were absolutely invaluable and I'm so glad the law has changed.

Just don't try the ford at this time of year. Used to love that as a kid. Went to the Roman Villa on a reasonably regular basis...

Hybrids are a stupid idea and combine two power trains, adding unnecessary weight and complexity. They are also pointless if most of your driving is above 30MPH or extra-urban. Plug-in hybrids are even worse because they're usually designed as a way of getting around taxes rather than giving a useful electric range.

I think the general standard of driving has improved in the last 30 years.

I have been compared to Jesus, it's true. If he let himself go and enjoyed crisps a bit too much.

I own a MK4 Golf and I like it.

The hero we need, not the hero we deserve.

Saw this up the road from me when out walking the dog. My partner was on the way home and specifically called me when she arrived to take me to 'see something exciting'. She had no idea I'd just walked the dog and seen it - but it was nice of her to think of it! Lomax 232:

Is that similar to the EGR to intercooler pipe on the MK4 platform? I had that go on my 1.9PD when the lugs wore out at about 165,000 miles. Really alarming when it failed doing 70 on the M23...

My Mum bought one of these as an ex-dealer demo in about 2003. It replaced the Focus Estate (which I absolutely loved) and I always did deride it a bit, especially as it was gold and had the 1.4 diesel engine. Just about the slowest car I think my parents have ever owned and I much preferred my Dad's 1.6 Fiesta Zetec. It seems a lot better in hindsight and I now appear to have developed a soft spot for them. Oh dear. Great buyage. This was an absolute bargain.

The Kia Soul: Whenever I see one, I call them a Kia 'Lack of'.

I wonder if they have a collection plate for the van roof fund.

One of my partner's students rocked up the other day and proudly told her that he'd bought his first car. A MK3 Fiesta. This has made me far happier than it has any right to. Fortunately his dad can weld.

If people are taking their investment advice from TikTok or consider Elon Musk to be a reasonable source of information then they really have it coming to them...

If it's any consolation at all, the fact that you're reaching out for interviews is a sign of major progress. You're already way ahead of most of the people that are miserable in their jobs and the fact that you're looking for change and actively persuing is in and of itself a positive. My partner is a senior teacher and had a very bizarre experience last year. She applied for a job in the North in the city we both went to University in. We would both like to end up there again, so she applied for it. With teaching jobs, the typical notice is a term (six weeks, what we used to call half-terms) and this particular job was one that was starting at the beginning of January. She applied on the Thursday. On the Monday, they asked invited her to interview and gave her a date and time but no details. Usually for a teaching job they'll ask you to prepare and deliver a shortened lesson, meet with various senior staff, usually a panel of students and various other parts. Knowing the age group and expectations of the lesson is important as you need to plan specifically for it. As she's applying for a senior manangement position, the interview could be over two days. You do a first day and they can call you back for a second. Bear in mind this was during a teaching week, so she had to arrange cover for potentially two days of teaching. The interview was on the Wednesday. So she had fewer than 48 hours to arrange accommodation for up to two days. They only published the interview details on the Tuesday night so I took time off work to drive to Lancashire and support so that she could write up her lesson plan and other details in the car on the way up. This is not normal and you'll usually get at least a week, so the whole process was seriously expedited. She didn't make it through to day two but neither did anybody else. So they expedited an interview with fewer than 48 hours notice, dragged six people there from all over the country and then chose not to even go to day two with any candidates. They were so slow to feed back that one candidate missed their train back to Cornwall because the last train was at 5PM and they didn't bother telling anybody that they weren't coming back until 6PM. Absolutely ridiculous and a major red flag to actually working there.

This is why I love our postie, Mel. During the week it's highly likely that I'll be in and she knows to wait a few seconds for me to answer the doorbell on my phone (I work in a garden office). Before we had the video doorbell, I had a package that I wasn't able to answer for. She tried neighbours and nobody else was in and then came back at the end of her round and tried again with a neighbour. I was so surprised and in the end sent her a compliment on the Royal Mail website. We had a chat about it and it turns out they actually read it to her, etc. Her dedication to her work is second-to-none and I don't know how she keeps her spirits up given the shit that's constantly thrown at her.