Markeh

I don't know why a pub in Nottingham has a painting of Clare Balding on the wall but it certainly made me laugh.

I saw photos on the Qashqai Owners Club group on Facebook and somehow recognised the reg - I actually think it looks a bit better than the Vectra mods did...

I go to a karaoke evening run at the same pub I quiz at each week every now and then. I'm not sure what amuses me more, the fact someone gets up every time and performs The Champs version of Tequila, or that a company bothered to make a karaoke version of it!

I had one of those ancient White Knight 3kg jobs that was here when I bought the house. My gran at the time had just downsized and had a full sized Indesit gathering dust in her shed, that she said I could have. But wait a minute... it's on the big recall list. And that's how I managed to get a brand new Hotpoint condenser for £99 (upgraded to a bigger one as part of the recall scheme). I do also have a Lakeland airer, although I've just inherited a 3 tier one with the cover, I had a 2 tier without and wasn't particularly impressed (although do bear in mind that as a larger gentleman I can't get as many clothes on it!)

I'm in again.

Made the effort to make a lovely soup earlier. Chopped everything up, put it in the soup maker, came back to it 20 minutes later. Smells lovely, but the colour seems a little off compared to the recipe... Of course I remembered to put the tomatoes in...

Renault Megane II. I heard the horror stories, but it was a lot of car for £800 when I bought it in 2014 - the equivalent Astra/Focus in my price range had nowhere near the level of kit. A couple of months after I bought it, I met my dad in a hotel car park to pick something up from him, after he'd just had an interview for a role at a new garage, which was an authorised Renault service centre - the chap interviewing him took one look at me stood by the car and said to my dad "Christ, why did you let him buy one of them?". 35k and 3 and a half years later, it was only a lengthy commute that made me part-ex it for my first Qashqai. Had I known two months later it would pass an MOT, a year after that I would have moved and cut my commute in half (probably moved sooner not spending £350 a month on a new car...) and that eventually I'd use the bus, I would have run it into the ground. Only ever left me stranded once with a seized alternator that caused it to throw the aux belt (see profile pic). I'd happily have another. I'd even risk a Laguna II.

Not that Avensis is it? EDIT: Now I'm thinking Laguna....

If you try and go through the supposedly 'automated' process to delete your account it fails straight away, and frankly my life is too short to contact their support team to get it dealt with.

Due to having limited mileage on the Crafter van I hired for the weekend (and needing to pick up a customer's dead desktop PC from a very narrow lane that I've struggled to get the Qashqai down in the past, never mind an LWB van!) I left it at my folks last night and borrowed my dad's Splash to get home. As someone who normally drives a car with an electric handbrake, I definitely didn't* have to rush out of bed when I got back when I suddenly panicked and thought I hadn't remembered to put the handbrake on - fortunately I had remembered.

Reading these comments and knowing what the parking is like on my road is really making me look forward* to trying to find somewhere to park an LWB van on Sunday night.

Do I detect a Rover 45 (or something similar, maybe a 600) chrome number plate surround as well?

Didn't seem to relate really - they used it for the investigating detectives and at one point as the car she got out of before walking to her door (which I'm pretty sure from the CCTV clips they showed should have been an E36 of some description). I'm not sure why they used it to be honest - no other attempt was made to use era appropriate vehicles at any other point during the series (except for the infamous blue Range Rover)

CD Bramall unlocked a hell of a lot of nostalgia here - they also had the Citroen and Nissan garage in Mansfield in the late 90s - I think it's where my dad got his P11 Primera from. Brand got swallowed up by Pendragon I think as it later went to Evans Halshaw, then moved - built houses on the Mansfield branch now. Looks like the St Albans one was there and also Halshaw until at least 2018, seems like it's in the process of being flattened on latest Street View.

I don't know whether it's still in the fold but the ex-several people on here I think silver S-reg Boxster passed me on the A610 today - if it was one of you, the weird bloke in the blue Nissan staring at the car was me.