Markeh

This was my original plan (I've known he was ill for the last month or so), but his condition deteriorated significantly over the past couple of days and they've moved to end of life care - given the rate he's deteriorated at, I don't think I'm going to get time to. Will double check my travel insurance (fortunately I'm still covered on the one I took out last year)

Trying to book a holiday abroad was problematic enough given I am terrible for actually choosing a suitable trip - cancelled one week of leave at work last month cos I couldn't find anything I wanted at the price I wanted, figured I'd try again in a couple of weeks and see what I could get. Unfortunately, it now looks like a family member is extremely close to deaths door. Now I'm not that close and there's nothing I can do anyway, but sadly I'll be judged if anything happens before I go away and I don't cancel it/for not coming back early if something happens while I'm away, and I'm not in a position to throw £££ down the drain if it happens. So looks like I'm either wasting a week off, cancelling my leave again or maybe I'll be swapping a week in all inclusive sunshine for a few days in a caravan somewhere not too far away.

Oh god the battery warnings on this era of Fujitsu are a pain in the arse. It seems to prevent lawsuits or any other assorted grief, they try and artificially limit used batteries to something like 50% of its capacity. As far as I can tell it does this on age or some arbitrary statistic without actually checking the battery. Automatically installed by Windows Update too.

I wish your brother's project team and manager could teach my manager/higher ups - I get pestered several times daily some days!

There was very nearly one less of these on the roads today after one with a rather inattentive driver came close to ramming me up the arse, tyre squeal and all - the speed of the resultant aggressive overtake with swearing and honking suggests it could have been a V6 example.

To be fair, I drove past several Bayons acknowledging that it was a different model name of Hyundai but just assuming that it was a new name for the ICE powered Kona!

My great uncle had a Mk1 new, though I can't remember it - he would've been in his 60s at the time like most customers I expect. Think he replaced it with an Astra G.

Price difference on parts between countries is insane sometimes. When I replaced the front camera on my Qashqai, it was going to be about £500 from my local Nissan dealer. £300 all in inc import charges from a Nissan dealer in Texas, confirmed the correct part from the VIN.

I had a brilliant one like this about 12 years ago - East Midlands to Dalaman in Turkey. On the way out, it had a stop in Bodrum. Alright, makes sense. On the way back... stops in Edinburgh first then East Midlands... and because it's the first place you get to in the UK, we had to go all the way through the airport, back through security and back on the plane. Did mean you had to leave your duty free on the plane because you wouldn't have necessarily got it back through security! Thankfully the rather dismal airline responsible, Onur Air, no longer exist.

Yeah mine was set to go up £250 until I rang Admiral and complained, got it back down to almost what I paid last year. Comparison sites weren't offering me anything decent either. If that's how bad things are this year without me claiming I'm glad I fixed my little accident myself!

Had the exact same head unit in my Megane II. Was honestly brilliant. Even kept it for 3 years after selling the car in case I bought something that took a single DIN unit again.

I'll have you know it's called Fort Latitude

My work situation is somewhat problematic at the moment (getting tons of shit flung our way and being expected to deal with it with a smile). While I greatly appreciate being invited out this evening with a number of friends, one of whom is a manager (not mine) who is happy to have honest and helpful conversations about how to progress despite all this crap, where I'm going wrong and where I'm doing things right, I'd rather have those discussions in work or just after work - not at a time when I'm trying to bloody forget work and then proceed to keep thinking about it all bloody night - if that didn't completely kill the mood and make me want to go home, stumbling over a kerb and twisting my ankle certainly did!

I was passed by PET 17E earlier on a newer Range Rover Sport. Not sure if named for irony or a massive Jackie Wilson fan.

Had this happen in the shop the other day. Old chap in front of me at the till, kept asking for various things, checking of lottery tickets, getting some scratchcards, that kind of thing. Cashier is doing all this perfectly fine and asking to clarify a couple of bits or telling him that this one wasn't a winner, he's won x amount here, etc. Every time she spoke to him he asked her to repeat it, then when she was turned away looked at me (the only other white person in the shop) and made a comment like 'ridiculous, isn't it?' or 'speak english!' thinking I'd approve. There was a knowing look between myself and the cashier along the lines of "what an utter dickhead". The chap was quite slow sorting his stuff out when leaving so we ended u pleaving at the same time. As we get outside he starts going on about everything being ridiculous, coming over here, all that crap, clearly thinking I'm approving of what he said. Disappointed I could only manage a 'Not really... if you don't like it use another shop' and muttering under my breath as I walked away, rather than telling him precisely what I thought.

Not enough, judging by this thread! In my nearly 10 years on the road I've only managed 8 and technically only 4 of those were bought as daily drivers: 1999 Vauxhall Corsa Envoy 1.0 12v - for a year 2004 Renault Megane 1.6 VVT Dynamique - for 3 and a half years 2004 Peugeot 206 SW 1.4 S (bought to flip) - for about a month, maybe 6 weeks 2018 Nissan Qashqai 1.6 DIG-T Tekna - for 3 and a half years 2007 Fiat Sedici 1.6 Dynamic (bought to flip - should've kept!) - for about 6 weeks 2010 Vauxhall Meriva 1.6 Twinport Club (bought to flip - should've kept!) - for about 3 months 2012 Skoda Octavia Scout 2.0 CR 140 4x4 ex-paramedic/blood bikes (bought to flip) - 48 whole hours! 2021 Nissan Qashqai 1.3 DIG-T MH Tekna - a year and a bit so far, on the hook for it for another 2 and a half unless I chop it in early.

As apparently driven by Michael Schumacher back in the day. I tried unsuccessfully to win one of these near me on an Ebay auction.

Let's throw another Nissan in the mix - I think most people would walk straight past the generation of Pathfinder (mid-00s to early 10s) we got in the UK and just assume it was one of the few Navaras that hasn't split in half already with a Truckman top.

My gran loved hers - she had a 1.8 SE in this grey, 05 plate. Replaced by a trio of Notes. My entry for this would be the Fiat Idea, I only remembered this was a thing because of the recent Furious Driving video!

For once, I've had a free uninterrupted day to get stuck into a load of computers lying around that kept getting in the way and cluttering up the house. It's felt strangely good for the soul to be able to chuck some music on (today's particular choice is live concerts that are on YouTube - Pete Tong and the Heritage Orchestra doing Ibiza classics, and the Avicii tribute concert from a few years ago), forget about the day job and other shite going on and just crack on pissing about with computers and getting the to-do list that bit shorter.

Nope, I feel it too. Keep having to try even harder to get the same amount of joy from a lot of things - which is not good for my free time/mental health/wallet/waistline (delete as appropriate).

0800 00 1066...

Ooh I don't know about that, there were a couple of interesting motors in mine, admittedly about 12 years ago. One of the TAs had a K-reg Rover 416, a science teacher had a modified late 90s Civic, and one of the SLT used to have a C-reg Renault 4.

Very limited amounts of interesting in my current works car park - it's usually exec team and visitors only. All modern SUVs apart from the CEO with a Tesla Model S and one of the directors with a BMW M4. Respect to the C-level exec still rocking a 60 plate Freelander though. At my previous job, we had 3/4 of the building and a consultancy firm had the other 1/4 - one of them had a 70s Beetle of some description. Most of us didn't have anything interesting - someone had an Audi S5 with the V8, we had one guy with a Harley that you could hear half a mile down the road, and someone had an E36 coupe for a bit. Most of the devs were keeping up the shiter end of the car park - For the first 4 months of the job I still had my Megane, we had one alternating between a Zafira B and a Ph1 Mk2 Clio, one had a Smart Roadster before I started but just kept buying random crap to get to work in (I remember a Corsa C, a 206 and a 106 - now has a new Fiesta ST). My mate had an early Mk3 2.5 V6 Mondeo Ghia X in what I think was Juice Green looking back - was a magificient beast but eventually he chopped that in for a Freelander and then as working from home kicked in, a 207. I later saw the Mondeo outside a garage near me - it had been bought from a trade auction and was being used for a banger rally and had been impressively graffiti'd all over - Carbaba indicates it's not been scrapped but it hasn't been MOT'd since after he traded it in. Interestingly the CEO that left shortly before we were made redundant drove round in an immaculate 57 plate Citroen C3 - believe it was his mothers that he inherited - Given the MOT history indicates it had a grand total of 8000 miles in 2017 and was still only on 33k when it failed its last one in December, I'm inclined to believe it (and don't blame him for getting use out of it!). Don't think it's still his given his career change, he's a current Tory MP.

Cruise, DAB, CarPlay/Android Auto and basically all of the heated things, whether it be seat, wheel or screen. Hill hold's not bad either.