Bobthebeard

Not been on here for a good long while. Maybe that makes me new .... Hiya all!😗

Well..... Hiya. Been off here for a while due to a nasty virus which has infected some people in hospital and some other folk apparently. Ho Hum. Anyway....... Anyone want a free car? Tax (VED) is silly, £48 per month, but car is FREE. 2007 Chevrolet tacuma auto 2.0

True, but sadly not for me. Am a taxi driver and suffer from diverticulitis.

Our local Booths supermarket is selling reduced sprouts at 80p per big bag. Bought a few bags to make sprout soup. (The price was reduced, not just tiny sprouts) Mmmm. Sprout and almond soup!

Coronavirus appears to be affecting the taxi business here. Airport runs down and the elderly usual customers are staying indoors. Roughly a 25% decrease in business over the last week. Difficult times. Whatever.

Have had a similar experience. Picked up the poo, dogbeard and I went on our way with me holding the poo bag. Mr Angry Bloke comes running up to me a few minutes later. " Oi, fucker, my kid has just stepped in your dogshit " Showed him the poo bag, explained that I had clearly picked up and whatever his kid had stood in was nothing to do with me. He just got angrier and more abusive before storming off claiming " got your picture fucker, you are going on Facebook ". I was shaking with rage and injustice but could do nothing else but go. This was last year and it still upsets me. The Angry and Entitled win every time. He probably forgot about it ten minutes later when the next 'reason to be angry' occurred. I am still clearly affected by the confrontation. Not on your own Eddy!

Because I can't be arsed, shouldn't need to as just a shit design basically. It's a 19 reg. Also the car isn't yet mine. On a rent to own scheme from the Taxi company. Although I do care as it will be mine one day and check the offending dipstick twice a week. Just been serviced yesterday so can only hope the oil level will suffice for a while.

So, another shit design then? Lol. The Honda Accord and other cars currently residing at Beard Towers just use a flat steel dipstick that just shows the oil level regardless. Apart from the Rover 75 KV6. That is hard to read also being blackish plastic at the business end. Flat shiny steel dipstick does the job, even for the general public*. Buggering about pressing blackish plastic tipped dipsticks on a clean paper towel to actually have a rough idea of oil level not so much.

The (engine oil) dipstick design on my Dacia Logan MCV. Renault 1.5 dCI engine IIRC. Impossible to get any kind of meaningful reading of oil level as the oil is wiped off somewhere inside the plastic housing on the way out. One side of the dipstick may* show as a smeary, possibly correct level, the other side has no oil showing. Repeated attempts differ every time. Sometimes both sides are the same, below minimum. I can only assume that there is 'some' oil in there. Can't immediately think of anything much simpler to design than a dipstick, pretty basic concept. No electronic oil level check either as on some other cars with the same engine. So the 'shit design' dipstick is it then. The dipstick assembly looks about as well made as a pair of doll's knickers so will doubtless break soon anyway.

"The garage owner's face fell when he saw me" My local friendly garage has the same response. The owner is polite and professional but his face says it all!

Big grin but a bit unusual. Am a private hire driver. Customer was from an address nearby and was going to an address around eight miles away. Young chap who seemed quiet and unassuming, bit of conversation on the journey. He asked about taxi driving, was it worth it, how much my overheads are etc. I assumed he was interested in taking up taxi driving so answered honestly. My car rent/purchase is around £50 per day based on seven days a week working plus diesel etc. Asked what he did. The answer was "I make my money from YouTube and give it back to the people" I have no idea who he was or whatever he posts on YouTube. Dropped him off at the destination and the fare came to £19.90. Asked if he could pay by card. No problem. Entered the fare and he told me to add the tip. "Oh thanks, how much shall I add on"? Only FIFTY QUID! The guy gave me a fifty pound tip! I was speechless and waffled on a bit, thanking him etc. Didn't know what to say TBH. He just smiled, shook my hand and asked that I pass on some happiness to someone else that comes my way. I feel burdened, so will donate some to a local homeless charity.

Mostly I have been living with Mrs Beard plus various rescued dogbeards over the last thirty years. Oh, and some rescued cars.

This brings to mind the mini doors story told to me many years ago. Graham (a work mate from the 1980's) went to a scrapyard for a door for his mini, only to be told 'yes mate, we have one in that colour- fifty quid...... Graham told them that the previous scrapyard only wanted £15 for a door but they didn't have any at the moment.... 'Well mate, ours are only fifteen quid when we don't have any. When we do they are fifty quid' May or may not be true, it was a long time ago.

All sorts of (legal?) distractions go on as a taxi driver. The dash mounted PDA and dash mounted smartphone using Google maps being two. I do my best to pull over whenever one or the other of them require attention but it's definitely difficult. The Bluetooth earpiece takes care of the incoming phone call distraction...... Finding number 52 Blah Street in the dark whilst the customer is ringing me to ask where I am is definitely distracting. Especially when Blah Street is a posh area with long drives and no visible house numbers. Trying to find 'The Ferns' on a road two miles long in the dark with busy traffic is definitely a distraction.

Me possibly. Still on the road.

Possibly, but only if I push it rather than actually driving it I suspect.

It's been great TBH. Round the doors local work it does around 50 MPG with the above on longer stuff. The adblue consumption seems very low also. A few niggles, trim isn't very robust ( door seals becoming detached with passengers scuffing them with their feet ) and floor covering being thin and fragile, odd position of some switches etc. Am becoming very attached to it though. It does the job and being 'my office' on a daily basis am happy to go to work.

After two back to back return trips to Liverpool airport, doing a brim to brim fuel check and discovering that my Dacia Logan MCV diesel managed to do slightly over 70 mpg. Mainly motorways and at night, but even so. It's a P/H (taxi) so these things matter.

Send that pic to Billy Shatner (The unXplained) It's clearly Mothman and conclusive*proof. The fence is 20 feet high just for scale.... Etc.

Eating Paracetamol like smarties and double dosing on pain meds doesn't sound good. The tone of your post doesn't sound good either TBH. Are you ok? Well, you know what I mean. Concerned.

Probably* already on the Discovery channel. How To Make Guns From Bar Stock And Garden Canes. Doubtless a six part series of hour long episodes mainly composed of much YeeHaaa, yelling and high fives from men with baseball caps on backwards and beards down to their belly.

Years ago (obviously) I had a Montego turbo as a company car. It was great as far as I remember. Fast and good looking in the day. The tyres scrabbling for grip and the wheel spin is a memory.

Have I missed out or can I still get one please?

So...... My Dolomite doesn't need an MOT but still needs to be taxed until 1st April if I read the above correctly? After 1st April it needs neither? Reg is MGJ 57V. Registered October 1979. (It will be put in for an MOT though, because second opinion.)

Just telly eh? Wouldn't be a programme if she had paid the rent on time. May or may not be true.