The new news 24 thread

[Timewaster]

15 hours ago, richardmorris said:

having  drinks and nibbles with Timmy mallet tomorrow. Not sure if grin or grump - free alcohol and nibbles though so on the whole ++

Next morning, stick your tongue out and go "bleargh"! 

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Waiting to get this on the MOT ramp, apart from a tyre I do t think it’s that bad.

Although it has got a clunk...

Although I did just give it a £10 wash- the first its had since @sporty-shite delivered it and No1 Daughter has put about 4,000 miles on it.

[SRi05]

Got a taxi into work this morning following the collection of the 406 last night. The driver turned up in a Chevrolet Cruze, and I liked it ?‍♂️ I'm going to check if they're nearly at shite money yet

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Result £8 Roffle win lives another year £35 MOT and a £25 Continental winter part worn( the front advise was a “Fucking serious advise, bruv” ! 
Surprised how nice it is to drive- it’s not slow either.

[dozeydustman]

[HillmanImp]

Woot! Finally got round to testing the 944.

 

[chaseracer]

5 hours ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

...probably resulting in Blingo coolant hoses becoming unavailable.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO..........!!!!!!!!!!

In other Blingo news, all of the electric seems to have escaped.  I have bought a power pack and will "charge to 200!" tomorrow, if it stops raining.

[richardmorris]

13 hours ago, barefoot said:

I should imbibe excessive quantities of the free pop & repeatedly smack the fucker over his head with a real Mallet.

I’m just back, hic. Lots of wine and lovely nibbles- blini,  samosas, sausages on sticks, etc. 

He was very pleasant and remembered everyone’s name and knew details about north wales. There were a dozen of us I think and he had paintings set up around the shop and took people round explaining details. His wife was a hoot, Australian presumably, though I could be off by NZ. Had a long talk with her - including what she thought of Rolf Harris and dropping certain contacts instantly.  She also remembered names and I liked her a lot.

 

i did like one of his paintings in particular and was tempted to ask the price, but didn’t in the end. I expect it was more in the thousands than the hundreds I’d have paid. He has a book out in January folks, so watch out. 

Still wearing bright glasses and shirts.

[SiC]

Over two years ago since I opened this up. Thought I'd give it another crack. At the very least get it working again and maybe release it for free? Or a very low one-off cost.

Next step is to fanny around updating the Android libraries and then write some unit tests.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

The CX is ready for collection in the morning. The Mistress' bill is massive. 

Next year, the spheres and LHM are due a service....

[Aston Martin]

The Cactus is booked in for a full service and an MOT... at Halfords, the service doesn't include spark plugs. ?

Wish me luck.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

15 minutes ago, Aston Martin said:

The Cactus is booked in for a full service and an MOT... at Halfords, the service doesn't include spark plugs. ?

Wish me luck.

I wonder what Halfrauds' service is like?

[Aston Martin]

2 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

I wonder what Halfrauds' service is like?

The car goes back in 3 weeks, if it was my car I wouldn't use them. ?

 I think the autocentres are franchised?

[Aston Martin]

"It'll be 4pm" ?

So I'm currently in an leathered Insignia estate taxi. I'm confused as it's basically a 4 seater.

[davehedgehog31]

So today I'm going to be bidding on something in South East London SE6 3DW, it ends at 2:15pm today. 

If I win I'll be heading south on this train, staying somewhere in order to collect it tomorrow morning:

Any suggestions on somewhere cheap to stay between Kings Cross and the above postcode? That I'll be able to reach at night by public transport? 

Alternatively if some kind London area shiter fancies picking it up and a very comfy trip north to Stevenage or Peterborough for a rendezvous, I'd be happy to furnish with return fare and some sheckles for the inconvenience. 

[Cavcraft]

Sodding winch went to shit after one use (but it sort of paid for itself with that one job) as the wire got all bleeding tangled up. The lad who fitted it for me said that would happen and to buy some synthetic rope, but just ignored him. Anyhow, just carefully* tried to untangle it using a screwdriver, then carefully* tried to untangle it using a jemmy, then finally very carefully untangled it using an angle grinder. The bastard (wire) is off now, in several pieces. Just ordered some really shit looking synthetic rope from an internet auction site, via China. 

[Aston Martin]

Unsurprising

[Aston Martin]

The Halfords Autocentre experience.

Because it's in the town centre, I parked in their yard. But also on double yellows as they had no spaces.

"We've saved you a parking ticket, the warden asked if we knew about this car"

 

So, thank you for that. I didn't tell them what the car needed, but the rear drums make a horrible sound when wet. That noise has gone, they've filled my washers with blue shit and the oil is new.  

 

Maybe not the worst place as they are franchised, but it was pricey.

[JeeExEll]

???

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-50529593

[Tadhg Tiogar]

9 minutes ago, JeeExEll said:

???

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-50529593

I'm not sure we should even begin to ask how that came to be. 

[BorniteIdentity]

I find literally anything interesting. Ironically, that probably makes me a dullard - but if someone tells me something that I don’t know, I’m almost transfixed by it for a short moment. I’ve realised twice in the last 24 hours that my world is a small one, and there’s a whole world out there I never knew existed.

Talking to a girl at football yesterday - she runs a company who specialise in pet friendly things. Hotels, foods etc. Do you know there’s a world glass shortage? Me neither. Know that green glass is particularly hard to come by? Didn’t think so. Boring but interesting.

Then I saw a gorgeous £30 magazine in a shop today, dedicated to architecture and design. I had no idea this was a thing. Check this!

Blueprint magazine. A whole piece on junction design. It could probably be a 60 minute documentary for BBC4 tbh.

Beautiful publication. 

Edited November 23, 2019 by BorniteIdentity

[bramz7]

Came across a bit of a bargain on gumtree late last night, text the seller and viewed this morning, despite LUs best efforts to scupper my journey. 

Left a deposit, collect Wednesday. It's an estate. With a 5 pot engine. It's not from Sweden. It's done a smidge over 100k. 

[loserone]

Marea weekend PLS!

[richardmorris]

46 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

I'm not sure we should even begin to ask how that came to be. 

Made me spit wine over the sofa.

[bramz7]

11 minutes ago, loserone said:

Marea weekend PLS!

Bloody hell I wish. No sadly not, but the next best thing IMO. 

[Lacquer Peel]

Bloody hell I wish. No sadly not, but the next best thing IMO. 

156?

[bramz7]

Correct. Late 10v with 150hp. Sounded gorgeous, and the torque....

[Noel Tidybeard]

On 11/21/2019 at 5:58 AM, paulplom said:

I'd like to think it would go back to it's natural home, in The Cotswolds.

ovlovs were designed for antique stealers, they are in the cotswolds ergo that is the true home for any self respecting I roll

[Eyersey1234]

2 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

I find literally anything interesting. Ironically, that probably makes me a dullard - but if someone tells me something that I don’t know, I’m almost transfixed by it for a short moment. I’ve realised twice in the last 24 hours that my world is a small one, and there’s a whole world out there I never knew existed.

Talking to a girl at football yesterday - she runs a company who specialise in pet friendly things. Hotels, foods etc. Do you know there’s a world glass shortage? Me neither?? Know that green glass is particularly hard to come by? Didn’t think so. Boring but interesting.

Then I saw a gorgeous £30 magazine in a shop today, dedicated to architecture and design. I had no idea this was a thing. Check this!

Blueprint magazine. A whole piece on junction design. It could probably be a 60 minute documentary for BBC4 tbh.

Beautiful publication. 

I thought they were designs for wind turbines for a moment then 

[wuvvum]

Been doing a lot of driving today.  I ran the LDV down to Mr. Foxhake of this parish, who then kindly drove me to Reading to pick up this.

I've been wanting to try one of these for a while - I just love the look of them - and this one came up for a price that was too good to refuse.  Its main issue is that the EGR valve has been removed so under hard acceleration it puts out an impressive amount of clag and occasionally it'll splutter briefly until it clears its throat, but cruising at motorway speeds you'd never guess there was owt amiss.  It's the 150bhp JTD so goes well enough, and 70 is 2,000rpm in 6th so it's pretty quiet at speed, and the stereo is decent.  It's an old Alfa so it has a couple of minor warning lights (parking sensors and a spurious warning about the bonnet being open), but all the essentials work.

It feels a bit different to a 156 - not quite as poised - but it certainly handles nicely and feels a lot more Alfa than Vectra.  It has the typical high-geared Alfa steering, which means the twin mini roundabouts down the road from me can be dispatched with a flick of the wrists rather than the manic arm-twirling required to get the Elantra round them.

 

Speaking of the Elantra, it and its incongruous spoiler have been doing sterling work running me to work and back for the last week.  It's the first car I've owned where the trip computer is notably pessimistic when it comes to average fuel consumption - the computer reckons it's doing 42mpg, but I make it high 40s - it's definitely better on diesel than the 75.  It drives OK, although it's by no means a driver's car - the steering is light, vague and oddly low geared.  The clutch has been behaving itself all week, even when caning it through the gears.  It's quite an old-fashioned car in some ways, from the general styling which is vaguely Carina E / P11 Primera to other features that weren't seen much by 2004 such as an electric aerial.

I still need to refit the driver's door card and reseat the window seal after the window derailed last weekend, but other than that all I've done to it is fit a pair of wiper blades (which I had lying around anyway) and swap the bulb holders round from the rear fogs to the reversing lights - the reversing lights didn't work which made reversing on unlit roads interesting - now I just flick the rear foglight switch and I can see behind me.  I almost never use rear fogs anyway, but if I did ever need them it'd be a 2-minute job to swap the bulbs back round.

That spoiler really is ridiculous though.  I mean look at it.