Markeh

Fun fact: After holding two officers at gunpoint in their car, Neilson was eventually captured outside a chippy in the village I grew up in! Still to this day the most interesting thing to happen there other than the village hall burning down once.

I've had shite luck with Amazon bulbs. Ordered a pair of Osram Nightbreakers a few years back from Amazon (direct from them, not a marketplace seller) for the Megane after I had one go out - knowing what a pain in the arse Megane II headlights were I figured I'd get decent ones and not have to do it again. I ran out of time to do it and after realising how shite one headlight was on the way to work the next morning, I figured sod this, let's see if the garage across the way from my office will sort them out for me. Dropped the car back off at lunch, I go to get in it to go home, and both new bulbs had blown! Fortunately still open, so had to get them to chuck a set on - gave me the bulbs back so I don't think they were pulling a fast one but can't be 100%. Don't think I got my money back off Amazon...

Used to holiday in Turkey most years until about 2014, some of the chod here brings back a lot of memories - most of the taxis were the 80s/90s Tofas models, although largely replaced by Doblos and a couple of Dacias last time I was there. I remember the Peugeot J9s used for the local 'dolmus' bus services. I go back in a month, and I'm glad it's still a bit choddy!

All 6 of them were relatively modern boring boxes - I'd have had no objection if it was something remotely interesting!

Next door to me at one point had 6 cars. Two on the drive, four on the road, although at least they blocked their own drive with one of them. Was a nightmare for visitors to park outside. Now down to 4 and still two on the drive which makes things a lot more manageable. Admittedly this wouldn't affect me if I just got my drive done so two cars could fit on it as opposed to one!

My new Qashqai does away with the CD player and also surprisingly the 3.5mm aux in! Nuisance if someone else wants to play music in the car, as I don't want their phone connected via BT/CarPlay/AA.

I'm all for a bit of a haggle, indeed haggling is something I enjoy doing a lot - I love nothing more than a bit of bartering on a car boot of a Sunday morning - but maybe find out what you want to know about the item, where I am, or maybe, here's a bold idea, view the damn thing before you haggle. It absolutely fucks me off when someone haggles a price first thing then asks where I am or keeps asking for more info on it that normally results in them offering less - or worse, when they get here and haggle more off. Far as I'm concerned if you've haggled and agreed a price with me before collection, I will not be budging a single penny. Few months ago I sold an old TV locally. Was listed at £50. This chap kept offering £30, we eventually settled on £40 and me delivering (long story short I was driving past the end of his road anyway). Tried to give me £30 there, I was firm and said no, got my £40, off I go to my destination. Phone's blowing up by the time I get there, oh, the smart TV bit doesn't work properly on it, can you come back. I say yeah I'll come back and refund you later that evening on my way back. He wouldn't give the item back, he was insistent that I should send him £10 via bank transfer and he'd keep the TV. I said it's all or nothing, either I come and get it and take it back or you live with it. Silence. All that hassle just to get an extra tenner out of me. I was in absolute disbelief when I sold the Meriva earlier this week - went up on Facebook Marketplace on the Sunday evening at £1250, first person to message me asked for a contact number and when I was about, rang me the next day, came and viewed it, no hassle, pointed out a couple of bits and haggled a little, £1100 we came to. No hassle, no grief, money straight in my account not 5 minutes later. Compared to the usual "cash 2nite" bellends it was a refreshing change!

Sod the company, do the bare minimum you have to do and spend any time you can at work looking for something else - they can't blame you for doing it if they're all in the same boat. When I was made redundant nearly 3 years ago (I appreciate that I'm in tech so different industry), I was on phone interviews in my car in the car park or stood outside the building (and this is literally only because we didn't get good signal in the meeting rooms!), redoing my CV, replying to people on LinkedIn, searching for listings, doing technical tests on my own laptop sat in the office, I did the square root of fuck all for those 3 weeks (AND still had time for the contents of my desk drawer to disappear into a carrier bag - I'd advise liberating what you can) When they said they'd found a job for me in the new structure at the end of those 3 weeks it was quite satisfying to say actually, no, I've found something paying literally 50% more and doing what I want to do.

SOLD, to the Essex trader buying up cheap petrols in the north to take back down and flog to the ULEZ crowd for £1100. Being collected on Wednesday. Sad to see her go and be down to just the modern but it's for the best.

The Meriva is now force hail

Not much going on with the Meriva at the moment. I've been using it for post office runs and park and ride trips. Have done all the tip runs I need to do in it. Drivers electric window was being a little dodgy but a blast of silicone spray down the window channel seems to have sorted that one. Not bothered sourcing any wheel trims because I can't bring myself to put cheap aftermarket ones on and Vauxhall ones are either too expensive or worse condition. I've ordered a touch up paint and not used it, I've had a terrible go at polishing up the bonnet by hand with some G3 and it looks better but not great still. While it's proved useful, I've only done about 550 miles in it and a good chunk of those were driving it back from Reading. I think I'll get it valeted at some point this week and I'll probably look to list it for sale. I've no idea what to ask for it.

Bright blue Audi Q2 drives round here a lot - plate's legally spaced as LE51 SME. Right below the plate across the back bumper in white stick on letters (in the correct font no less!) it's illegally spaced as LE5 1S ME.

This morning they announced redundancies at work. Our team is safe but the time this morning where we didn't know what was happening/that we were okay has given me flashbacks to when it happened at my last place and has left me feeling shit most of the day so far.

Part of me always questions what sporty little Mazda can accommodate three lovers. I have visions of three people trying to do the deed in an MX-5! Seen them live twice now (Fascinating Aida not the doggers), always put on a cracking show (see previous comment). No car of mine has ever seen any action, though I suspect the Nissan would be suitable enough. Meriva lacks the space and has too much window!

I've only done it once. Went back to Lincoln for a night out with some friends a few years below me after I'd graduated. House party followed by venturing into town, and then I was gonna crash on their sofa when we got back. Only another guest decided to throw up all over said sofa, so when I got back, it was wet from being cleaned and had no cushions as they were all in the washer. A bit drunk at 3am and ready for bed, I decided that the cold tile floor didn't appeal as a sleeping surface and elected to sleep in the back of my Megane. I put the passenger seat all the way forwards and sort of slept in an L shape across the back seats and into the footwell while wrapped in a double duvet with the window open a crack. More frustrating was the next morning when I needed to use the facilities and no-one answered the door at the house, ended up driving down to the local McDonalds!

I generally try and request that if they can, provide something other than a Micra unless they can provide another for the other foot.

I just get various Nissans. Generally end up with either a Juke or a Qashqai, although trying to shoehorn myself into an automatic Micra was fun, being 6ft 4 in both height and circumference.

Taken the Meriva today to my mate's work to service it and change the thermostat. Oil and filter change, air and cabin filters and change the clearly stuck stat. Stat didn't look too happy. Original GM item by the look of it. Air filter was a bastard, all the screws had been rounded off and rusted. Took a lot of work to get them off. Didn't look too grim. Cabin filter also an original GM. Given it requires removal of the scuttle panel and the wipers, can't say I'm surprised! He decided to clean the engine bay afterwards, it's not looking too bad now. ] We were tight for time but he has done a corner of the bonnet and it seems to have come up well. Will be getting some G3 to finish off the rest of the bonnet. Also need to order a touch up paint, couple of blebs on the bottom of the bonnet and top of the wing, and the bit of paint that came off the tailgate. So did the thermostat fix it? Yes it did! Gets up to temp nicely now and heater gets lovely and hot as well. To do list: - See if I can get some better Vauxhall wheel trims for it - Touch up paint and sort the bonnet - If I happened upon a head unit and bits cheap enough I'd stick a more modern one in but the CD player in it works well enough. - Get the whole car valeted. And then I'll look to move it on.

There's a Note half way up a reasonably well used road near me that's clearly been twatted up the rear and punted into the kerb, wheel on the rear corner not looking healthy. First clocked it on Boxing Day, still hasn't moved and now has at least a broken rear quarter window. Might try and get a pic tomorrow.

Probably not, although I wouldn't be upset if it took a while to sell. Not exactly the most engaging driving experience I've ever had but it's capable enough at being an car.

New year, new badly scuffed wheel trim from twatting a kerb. I treated it to some mats off Ebay, £12 posted and they clip into the original clips and fit pretty well! It's been used as a tip run car to get rid of a load of rubbish from the back alley my garden backs onto and at least two Christmas trees. I've also been using it to do the mile round trip to the local post office/UPS point to drop off parcels, and taking it on small journeys because it had more petrol in it than the Nissan. Just ordered the bits to give this a service and hopefully change the thermostat. My mate (same one who cleaned up the Sedici and bought the 206 with me) is hopefully going to help me do this at the weekend. Given the muddy state of my driveway and limited time, we're probably not going to get round to washing it. All the service bits except some new coolant (which my mate has plenty of) and the new stat have cost me just a smidge over £100, although it's Euro Car Parts so I'm not holding my breath. Once I've done a few miles in it after that (probably including standing some car boots if the weather dries up a bit!), I'll probably think about getting it cleaned and moving it on - it's a tight squeeze and very muddy to have two cars on the front at this time of year, and given next door takes up most of the on-street parking near me, that's not too much of a viable option either. By the time I need to do more tip runs and such I probably won't be as worried about making a mess of the Nissan. Although part of me would be tempted to swap for something more interesting (because it certainly can't be less interesting)...

The irony is I've got the opposite problem, I finance a new car and some of my friends are the ones who roast me about spending x amount of money on a car a month or taking the piss should something go wrong with it. Didn't get nearly the same amount of stick from them when I had the Megane. It's not as if they're into older cars either, the worst culprits have a financed (albeit much cheaper and bought second hand) 17 plate Sportage!

Intended to rent a van when I moved into this place, as I was moving out of my folks it didn't make sense to hire proper movers as a large amount of my stuff was boxed up ready to go anyway. Figured an SWB and a few trips will be fine. Delays with exchange meant I had to book the van the day of completion for the next day. And that's how I ended up behind the wheel of a Luton Transit. Looking back it made life a lot easier (except for anyone I was with who was made to watch me reversing because I was petrified of hitting something)

Even better if you can grab it on a S*n £9.50 deal like most of the big chain caravan sites. And even better than that if you find the codes posted on social media so you don't even have to buy the bloody paper in the first place!

Center Parcs has definitely gone downhill over the past 10 years. I believe they got bought by another company and cost cutting started big time. My mother worked as a villa cleaner in the late 2000s at Sherwood. The perks were pretty decent back then, she could take people in for day visits to the facilities like the pool and spa, we could book unused chalets with a week or two's notice for something crazy like £50, any household stuff that was left behind could be kept - in 5 years we never had to buy toilet roll, washing up liquid or dishwasher tablets. Anything alcoholic or decent had to be handed in but if not claimed in x amount of time could be had. Big hampers of stuff at Christmas, invites in for events like fireworks shows and that sort of thing - Nothing like that now, I'm led to believe! I stayed at the Woburn one which is reasonably new just before covid kicked off - it was nice, probably because it was still new, and they did bend over backwards to help two people with mobility issues in our party, but £600 for a 2 bed "executive" for a weekend in January seemed steep! The maths only works out if you're going off-peak with a group of adults and are splitting the cost I would say. It's mad the amount of local people who go there for a holiday as well - I don't understand how you can go on holiday somewhere that's a 15 minute drive from your house. For the money, I'd rather go abroad.