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Father Ted

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Did the swaparoo

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This Mini is just a bit too clean and tidy to throw away. Most awkward thing is that in July, when the Bristol Clean Air Zone comes into force, it'll not be useful as a car to me anymore. Would make a good track day toy though... 🤔
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4 minutes ago, SiC said:

When I sell, I usually like to break even on what it owes me or a very small loss and very rarely a profit. None of this factors in my labour and if it did, I'd be on a sub third world salary. Kinda ignore that as often I do the work for learning/enjoyment. Also not including insurance, storage, road tax, etc...

But yeah, if I sold the Mini now I'd realistically be loosing ~50% of what it owes me. That hurts too much for me to even consider doing that. 

I was just joking I always seem to lose money. Although broke even on a couple lately.

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3 minutes ago, cort1977 said:

I was just joking I always seem to lose money. Although broke even on a couple lately.

I think it usually helps that I usually have to get a bargain and so buy well below bottom market value. By the time I've sold it, I sell at bottom market market value for least hassle, despite being in better condition than usual bottom market stuff! What I should do is retail stuff at its true worth...

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9 minutes ago, SiC said:


This Mini is just a bit too clean and tidy to throw away. Most awkward thing is that in July, when the Bristol Clean Air Zone comes into force, it'll not be useful as a car to me anymore. Would make a good track day toy though... 🤔

I'd probably have a Bini as a modern if they weren't so fucking needy. My parent's always needed something doing, even from brand new they were in and out of the dealers for warranty repairs.

I only ever tried an early 1.4, it was slow and I couldn't get the seating position to work for me. I feel the 1.6 cars must be better.

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@Crackers, being the top bloke he is, delivered my ramps in his versatile new car
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Which were duly swallowed by the BX's huge boot. Cheers @The Moogfor the ramps! They really are strong things!
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The MX5 sounds absolutely lovely. Like, very, very nice. We may* have found an underpass to test this...😁

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Rented a Transit van over the weekend for my house move and filled it up at the local co-op station as it's going back in the morning. 

It was a decent lump to be honest, only a SWB Transit custom but there's a limit of how high you can stack household items in cardboard boxes before it gets wobbly so a hi-body didn't seem worth it. But it all got there. Wasn't the quickest, but it was quick enough to keep up with traffic, suspect it was around the 100bhp mark. 

The remarkable thing was that it did 43mpg, doing the math after filling up. And I was plodding along at an indicated 75mph on the hilly bits of the M62. That's as good as my old C5 would have got in those circumstances. Except in the C5 I'd still be moving house as big as it was. 

Remarkable from a van. What a good drive. 

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Drove in to Norwich earlier.  One garage had diesel and a quarter mile queue of cars waiting to get in - thankfully there was a bus lane on that bit of road so the queue wasn't blocking traffic, apart from the dozy bint in a Bini who was trying to push her way into the line, until the chorus of horns behind her got loud enough to make her give up.  The Tesco near the university was closed but there was a tanker on the forecourt as I drove past, and a line of hopeful cars queued up waiting.

My local Tesco is back open again but for petrol only, which is fine with me as I'm running around in the Micra at the minute.  I treated it to half a tank - I wouldn't normally have bothered but I need to go into the office for a meeting on Tuesday and a 40-mile round trip bike ride doesn't really appeal.

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19 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Drove in to Norwich earlier.  One garage had diesel and a quarter mile queue of cars waiting to get in - thankfully there was a bus lane on that bit of road so the queue wasn't blocking traffic, apart from the dozy bint in a Bini who was trying to push her way into the line, until the chorus of horns behind her got loud enough to make her give up.  The Tesco near the university was closed but there was a tanker on the forecourt as I drove past, and a line of hopeful cars queued up waiting.

My local Tesco is back open again but for petrol only, which is fine with me as I'm running around in the Micra at the minute.  I treated it to half a tank - I wouldn't normally have bothered but I need to go into the office for a meeting on Tuesday and a 40-mile round trip bike ride doesn't really appeal.

I drove from Swaffham, to Thurrock, back home yesterday and then out to Wells to walk the dogs this morning, back through Fakenham then tried Waitrose in Swaffham too.. not a single garage I passed (Brandon/A11/A14/M11 etc yesterday) had diesel.

Had all but given up with the 335D having 40 odd miles left on the range and was heading home when I noticed the BP garage at McDonald’s had about 4 or 5 vehicles in the queue which all looked to be diesel 4x4s so I waited 5 mins and managed to get £65 worth which will last me the week luckily. The owner was working and she’d said they were the only ones in the area with a  guaranteed supply as they’re classed as a priority station due to having the HGV pumps too. 

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1 minute ago, mitsisigma01 said:

Time to dig out the old/new hardly used bikes and ride to the station then 😬

"We apologise for the late running of this service. This is due to our driver commuting by bicycle from his home 40 miles away and not leaving sufficient time for his journey...."

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1 hour ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

"We apologise for the late running of this service. This is due to our driver commuting by bicycle from his home 40 miles away and not leaving sufficient time for his journey...."

.... " due to our driver having been knocked off his bicycle by an EV driver, carelessly flinging open his door to mock Fuellies queuing!"...

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The paper shortage has been going on for a while now, it seems to be due to the lumber shortage which, in turn, is due to a worker shortage in part caused by the pandemic and is a worldwide issue.  Lately I've been reading updates and news from smaller publishers who are already asking for patience from customers with their Christmas orders - UK and North America based - because they're going to have limited stock as a result.  Some art supplies are harder to get hold of too, thankfully I'm well stocked in that regard.  I do wonder if it's going to cause a boxes and wrapping paper shortage because a surprising amount of wrapping paper also uses plastics which have also been in limited supply this year.  Earlier this year, due to chemical shortages and supply issues, there was a flower pot shortage which affected sales of seasonal plants, even hitting some of the bigger chains like B&Q.  It's impressive things are ticking over as well as they are really, given the obstacles in the path of big and small businesses.  There's issues too with getting items to Germany (not just @dollywobbler hit by that one) though strangely I'm yet to encounter anyone having trouble getting things out of Germany.  Fellow artists are having trouble with international sales in North America, Europe, UK, Australia, and Canada due to the confusion over import and export costs, and delays to delivery times.  Disappearing orders seem to be on the rise too, which combined with the artists I know who rely on conventions and meatspace sales is really hitting them hard.  There aren't alternative job vacancies available for them to pursue either, inside or outside of their existing skills, due to shortages on that front.  This isn't just a UK thing either, this also seems to be a worldwide issue.

I would say the best we can do is to be cautious with our existing supplies, avoid panic buying or excessive stockpiling, and be kind and patient to smaller businesses.  Have a smaller festive period if you can, and help those less fortunate if you're able, the way things are going (current fuel panic nonsense aside) it's going to be a really rough winter for a lot of people.

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Funny how as a guy who has been around older cars since day zero basically how some things are so deeply ingrained in your subconscious.

While waiting at a set of traffic lights earlier today (well and truly snarled up because of a fuel station about 3/4 of a mile down the road in question) I got a very strong whiff of overheated coolant.

It took at *least* 30 seconds for the "oh god is that me?" Reflex to be cancelled out by the realisation I was in a car with an air cooled engine.  Idiot.

The driver of the Range Rover Velar half on the kerb in a lake of its own fluids about 1/4 a mile later wasn't so lucky.  Guess they should count themselves lucky, at least it wasn't on fire.

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