GrumpiusMaximus

I made sure to staple a business card to my CV.  Do you know what, it was a woman of a certain age on the counter too.  I'm halfway between their two shops, distance-wise so I'm quite literally ideally placed for location and neither are particularly far away from current home.  There's been a couple of funeral director vacancies come up too, as usual the hours are the problem since they do tend to be a bit all over, which would be fine if the pay was a bit higher so I could afford to just have that as a job so I didn't need to worry about juggling current job and the weird hours.  Funeral work doesn't particularly bother me, it's a career path I've tried to get into before, but the hours and the need to have a very reliable car to get you where you need to be at short notice has always been the difficult bit.
Happily, not in a mega rush here so I can be a little bit picky.  Hopefully something part time will pop up that will work well alongside my current job and give me some work variety and wage security which is what I want most.  I'm literally looking for the sort of job that doesn't expect me to work towards climbing the corporate ladder, or Being Part Of A Team, or whatever.  Just a job that pays a wage and expects nothing more than my regular attendance and sunny disposition.
 

They are reproductions I had made of the original plates which I still have- they were just looking a bit tatty and were letting the car down, but these are 100% identical.
Thanks for all the kind comments.
Up until 2 years ago I worked as the Fiat/ Abarth specialist at my local Fiat dealer for 11 years, so most of the parts to rebuild it have been genuine Fiat, surprisingly hard to find, even with access to Fiat parts systems.
it spent a bit of time in the showroom too.
exploit yellow was the colour that Fiat did most of the early advertising with. My mum bought an exploit yellow 55sx (one up from base with black bumpers) in 1995 so I had to have one in this colour.
it also has a lot of very hard to find new old stock accessories, probably worth more than the car as a whole 🙈
headlamp protectors, mats, mud flap kit, boot liner, Philips 6 disc CD changer
I still have the original 14”steel wheels with correct brand new ELX trims, but you could spec Punto GT/ Sporting wheels as a cost option so I’m happy to run them.
its won a prize at the Scottish Italian car day last two years in a row- most people seem to be more impressed in a near 30 year old Punto than all the exotic Ferraris/ lamborghinis’s etc

Love these, my brother used have an 85SX over 20 years ago...went well..

hi there, thanks for having me.
This is my exploit yellow Punto 75elx that I have owned for 10 years, and have restored.
I love this car, enjoy the photos.
simon

I’m at the grand opening of World of Volvo in Gothenburg…

I've noticed that the AC in the Partner has started to get a little noisy.  It's still functioning, but sounds to me like the expansion valve is feeding vapour which would suggest we're low on charge.
Let's see what the gauges say.  Disclaimer here: I used to help out a HVAC technician looking after a bunch of gear on and around the farm I used to live next door to - but I've zero formal training in the field, and what I have learned I'm rusty on to the tune of probably more than 20 years at this point!  I can usually look at things and figure out roughly what's going on though.
I do keep half pondering looking at getting certification in that field, as if you like hands on stuff it's great as it involves a bit of everything.  Though sadly as with just about everything in life I find interesting or have an aptitude for I think I'm probably about 30 years late for the technology I'm happiest working on to be in mainstream use.
Back on topic...Standing pressures first.

Smidge under 60psi.  Definitely a smidge on the low side, I'd be expecting to be seeing nearer 70-80 with the car being warm.
Running (and stabilised).

We're definitely short on gas.  Low side isn't really too bad, but with an expansion valve throttling things that's kind of to be expected until the charge gets critically low.  High side though tells the story, I'd be looking for probably somewhere in the region of 150psi even with how cool it is today.  I was able to get the head pressure up a tiny bit by applying an artificial load by putting the system into recirculation mode with the heater on full, but it's definitely short on gas.
You can't really fully diagnose a system like this purely with a simple set of gauges like this, even with a full set of temperature probes etc you're never going to be charging this by pressures.  Correct procedure is to recover the charge then weigh the proper charge in (assuming it passes a vacuum test - ideally you'd pressurise the system with dry nitrogen and do a *proper* leak down test, but that takes time and I wish you luck finding a garage that will).  
So I'll be getting her in this week to get the system recharged.  

My wife says house sales in Aus take weeks rather than months to sort out. She thinks the relevant section of the British legal and financial professions have a vested interest in drawing out matters over several months. 

Probably a security thing. It’s so easy to fake documents etc especially when everything is done online. By making it so slow, the scammers don’t bother and try easier pickings like getting granny to tell them her bank details.

Selling a house.
Our last house move was 23 years ago. It took just over a month.
Now 23 years later we have also sorts of tech advances etc etc but we've been told it's 3 months minimum..
I mean wtf, why does it now take bloody longer than it did ??!!!

Any better in Welsh ?
No, thought not.
Not sure if a graphic designer got paid oodles of monies for this or if it was the result of an age 4 to 6 schoolkids competition.  

The smiley faces make me want to scream.

The smiley faces make me want to scream.

If we put our bins out early three times, does @sierraman suddenly appear like a shit Beetlejuice?

If we put our bins out early three times, does @sierraman suddenly appear like a shit Beetlejuice?

I catch you in a morning with footage the first time. There isn’t a third time… 😂

@LightBulbFun I spotted an Invacar (or AC Model 70) in Chartham Hatch (just outside Canterbury) this evening.  Parked at a house that has a significant car collection.  It was too dark to make out any details I'm afraid but it looked like it was missing headlights.  Couldn't make out the registration but I'll try next time I go past.  Body looked like it was in very good condition.

@LightBulbFun I spotted an Invacar (or AC Model 70) in Chartham Hatch (just outside Canterbury) this evening.  Parked at a house that has a significant car collection.  It was too dark to make out any details I'm afraid but it looked like it was missing headlights.  Couldn't make out the registration but I'll try next time I go past.  Body looked like it was in very good condition.

I thought you'd appreciate this, Dez.

Surely the bloody aero wipers should have been spotted by someone!

#binfluencer

Just done my bins. I thought of @sierraman. It's a four-binner tomorrow as well

One of the major benefits is that in slippery conditions they are more stable in a straight line.  In ice and snow, a FWD car is somewhat more controllable than a RWD one.  That is, for the average (IE utterly incompetent) driver.  Yes, I prefer a RWD car in the snow, mainly for the LOLs, but FWD is proven safer.
Also for interior space.  A RWD car loses a surprising amount of interior space compared to the equivalent FWD arrangement.

Found my dream house and one of the most amazing sights in Europe!