The new news 24 thread

[richardmorris]

Thanks for the  company details meshking - I'm Bagshot, so not too far away.

[richardmorris]

Dare I ask what a B & M Bargains Store is?

[Ghosty]

What's all this supermarket chauvinism?

Mother Ghosty and I just go in wherever's nearest to where we happen to be, invariably it's a Tesco or Morrisons for some reason. The one exception being where there's a nice M&S next to a Sainsbury's - if Old Man's away it's M&S food and Sainsbury's groceries.

Old Man is loyal to Morrisons and Aldi for things he can't find elsewhere (the latter only because the local one replaced a Somerfield that in turn replaced Kwik Save), says they're cheap.

[cobblers]

Aldi do Black Sheep for £1.25 a bottle and other mysterious tasty ales for £1 a pop so I literally can't speak highly enough of them as I am now about £7 down.

[dollywobbler]

Dare I ask what a B & M Bargains Store is?

 

Very odd places. A cross between B&Q, Lidl and DFS but a budget version. http://www.bmstores.co.uk/

[Lankytim]

The XM is now running GR9 with no issues at all, so I decided to treat it with a bit of an engine degrease. I poured some GUNK degreaser into a garden pump up sprayer thing, soaked the engine with the stuff, then drove to the local jet wash. It now looks lovely, the ally components really shine! The GUNK got rid of all the veg oil that ended up everywhere when I was removing and blowing through pipes last week. Great!

 

I also degreased the drive and the road in various places where I've spilled veg/engine oil e.t.c and generally made a real mess. It was very satisfying to leave it for an  hour to work it's magic, then throw a bucket of water of it and see a river of brown shite disappear down the drain. Not sure of the neighbours realised what I was doing though.

[Micrashed]

 

Tat Collection Thread Under Construction........

 

Keep Watching...

[Micrashed]

Dare I ask what a B & M Bargains Store is?

Started in Blackpool, opened a branch in Kirkham and it was like a mecca to us school kids - Ross headphones for 99p ( total rip off of Koss headphones) and that sort of stuff, but it was amazing what your paper round money could buy in there.

[beko1987]

B and M is great! Often have to stop swmbo from going in as we rarely walk out spending less than £30 on tons of shit we don't need!

 

I bought my massive tub of grease there for £1.50!

[hairnet]

i got up at .6.30

 

made tea went to work

 

finished work at 1330

 

went home shower tea and cheese on toast

 

then went to abingdon at 1430 to collect a batteryless jigsaw for a friend when the seller wouldnt post - aye ive no idea why he bought it either

 

crazy friend gave me 40 quid for petrol?!!?!!!?!!!!! (he lives in dublin it might have cost 20 ish quid to post)

 

got in half an hour ago after only using the motorway from manc airport to home 8 miles

 

and the m1 from derby till daventry (wanted to do 361 which is now a 50 limit yeah right )

 

a44 woo a458 into shropshire woot

 

did 370 miles

[MrDuke]

I avoid Tesco unless absolutely necessary as they're the spawn of Satan imho. I know they won't exactly miss my custom, but it makes me feel better.

I also avoid Asda, partly because Walmart, and partly because they attract the ugliest customers - I've no idea why.

Morrisons are great, except for the fact that they never ever have enough checkouts open.

Farm Foods are way better than Iceland for frozen shizzle.

Lidl are great for fresh fruit & veg, not much else though.

Aldi are awesome for nearly everything, and have surprisingly classy clientele (mine does, anyway).

Home Bargains and B&M are very, very useful but not entirely reliable, as they change their stock all the time.

Waitrose, M&S and Co-op are great for perving over posh totty.

Sainsburys are several hundred miles away.

[RobT]

Waitrose may be good for posh totty, but I find the middle-classes mostly contemptible for their screaming fucking kids that should know better, and the gin swilling rude old buggers you get around these parts. But I've seen Brian Murphy in there a few times, he of George and Mildred fame, which makes it almost worth it. And you get the odd bit of gilt-edged giffer chod in the car park!

[vulgalour]

One of the most satisfying moments of my chod-piloting career has been parking my old Ledbury Maestro in the Waitrose car park next to the newest, shiniest things I could find.  There was at one point an audible tut in my direction as I got out and fiddled with a pin to correct a wayward washer jet.

[rml2345]

We've been shopping in Aldi for years now. I remember when they started as an alternative to Kwik Save that sold edible food rather than the "No Frills" muck KS stocked and they do loads of really nice stuff. We usually split our shopping between there and Asda. Aldi has got mega busy lately as people tap into its budget Waitrose vibe and it's a bugger to park at.

Handily that brings me to car news.

Went to fit the rear mudflaps yesterday to find that some bugger had been into them before and mangled one. Returned to Halfords but had to get a refund rather than replacement as they had no stock.

[Lankytim]

I spotted an old L reg Jag XJ40 on the M6 in Lancs on Friday. It had square headlights and no back seat. Was it anybody here?

[Micrashed]

The totty is a far higher class in Waitrose. 

There is something about a young woman in a dress wearing green wellies....

[ProgRocker]

On yesterday's trip to Aldi I parked next to a 14 reg Toyota Auris 'estate' (or are they called 'Tourers' now?). Never knew there was an estate version of it.

 

Spotted this fine beast in the car park last year:

Austin Seven by ProgRocker77, on Flickr

 

As for posh totty in Waitrose, I really must dig deep into my pockets and shop there one day.

[Timewaster]

Don't bother with my local waitrose unless your definition of totty is old ladies with tartan trolleys and head scarfs. That said, Mrs tops used to work there so the staff might be worth a second glance.

[richardmorris]

Friend of my Dad's came back from holiday last week and their car battery was flat. Popped the bonnet and found this.

 

Bonus points for guessing the car

[anonymous user]

They're lucky the battery was flat or they could have had this

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/477633/Cars-set-on-fire-in-Orkney-after-birds-nest-in-engines

[meshking]

 

It is amazing how big a garage can look, and then someone parks a w126 in it. Tucked at the back is my 2cv...

 

[Angrydicky]

From a chod-spotting point of view I've always considered Waitrose to be much better than Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons for seeing well-preserved giffer chod. Not sure what Marks and Spencer is like as our local one is in a busy town centre without a dedicated car park. The local Aldi and Lidl are usually filled with Romanian families in knackered Ford Galaxies. Agreed that Waitrose is good for posh MILF's.

[tooSavvy]

The Viva returns....

 

Then there's a small cheaper city car, to replace the Agila. The boxy Agila was a Suzuki Splash in not very convincing Vauxhall fancy dress. The new one will be GM's own thing, based on the Chevy Spark's platform but with Vauxhall-specific styling. That means small but less boxy. The Spark itself soon goes off sale anyway, because Chevy (the Korean bit, not the Corvette) is pulling out of Britain and most of the rest of Europe.

 

.... couldn't care less, frankly..... but we are getting shot of Chevy?

 

TS

[Skizzer]

Friend of my Dad's came back from holiday last week and their car battery was flat. Popped the bonnet and found this.

 

Bonus points for guessing the car

 

Austin Seven Swallow?

Reliant Robin?

Escort Harrier, or maybe Linnet?

Aston House Martin?

 

If they're just a couple of tits it's probably an Audi TDI.

[Ghosty]

Yes, Chevrolet are leaving the UK and Europe. It's been out there since December. Doesn't include Camaros and Corvettes, though, just normal cars.

Chevrolet's statement on the matter (with more repeated phrases than a politician):

http://www.chevrolet.co.uk/pdf/customerinformation.pdf

 

Tenuous, but mum's friend's other half had a Chevrolet of some sort (think it was a two year old Cruze), and he was offered a new one at a vastly reduced price if he traded the old one in. The pdf seems to cover all bases - there's even a point  at the bottom to do with Manchester United's sponsorship!

[michael t]

Decided to finally get cracking on passing my drivers theory exam, not sure what its like over in Blighty but here you get 40 questions with the pass mark being at 35, annoyingly I keep failing by 1 or 2 each time (mock exams on the PC) so now with college over for the summer I can concentrate on getting my license. I hopefully might be driving by the time I go back to college in September-ish. Meanwhile I'll need a place to tinker with my first car (which WILL be shite, just don't what it'll be yet). I made a workbench for my Leaving Certificate (final school exams here in Eire), it's very solid bar the work top which was just a big slab of thin pine, an uncle of mine came over this weekend with a much thicker piece of MDF and so I got cracking on modifying the workbench for my future shite tinkering jobs... Sorry about the GR4.2 quality of the Piccies

 

 

Before De-Cluttering.....

 

 

 

After De-Cluttering

 

 

Glue liberally applied all over......

 

 

 

New MDF worktop on and held in place overnight with various "weights" (Petrol can, concrete block an old printer, heavy tins of paint etc..)

 

 

Excess waste about to be cut off, I was premature with re-attaching the vice as I had to take it off in order to cut the waste wood underneath the handle...

 

 

Job's a Gudd'unn

 

[Largactil]

Had some friends over visiting the other week, who wanted to do the tourist thing and see something other than the inside of a pub.

 

Being car-less meant investing a whole £8 a day, and hiring some modern French shite

 

 

First experience of the 1.5 DCi in wheezing 88bhp form, and OMG WOT A TURD!

 

A three-up day trip to the Wicklow national park had it struggling up even modest inclines in 3rd gear.

 

Usually you'd expect a modern TD to have a decent slug of torque low down, then quickly run out of puff at 3.5-4k rpm, but this was as flat as a witches tit all through the rev range.

 

(Trim was disintegrating too, at less than 6 months old).

 

I shouldn't be surprised - ALL MODERN CARS ARE RAABISH, after all... But this was especially disappointing.

[Bobthebeard]

Aren't witches tits reputed to be cold rather than flat?

Not that this is in any way relevant of course....

 

Edit. Both or either it seems. Every day a learning day!

[Lord Sterling]

Spent the day cleaning out a (expat) mates Renault Trafic van. It's a big Maroon high-top thing, used to belong to company called "Maminette" he has owned it for about 4 years and it's never been cleaned in that time. He saw me cleaning out the company Skoda, housemates Girlfriends Peugeot 306 so asked me if do his van. Obviously he isn't bothered about the outside of it as the paintwork is all matted and chalky and I don't have any T-cut but I did chuck a bucket of water or two and give a tickle with a soapy brush.

 

Inside was very dusty being a builders van, so a good hoover out everywhere including the top of the very brittle dashboard, cleaning of screens and a bit of GT85 to the locks and clutch cable as it felt extremely resistant to being pushed down, much more than any Renault Trafic I've driven before.

 

The van is rattly old thing that just keeps in going, trim and bit are/have fallen off it but it keeps on going.

[Ghosty]

Only a 40 question test for theory - that's better than the British one. 

 

50 theory questions with a pass mark about 46, and hazard percerption, which is a difficult load of rubbish with a pass mark about 36/50.

 

My driving instructor thought hazard perception was a load of rubbish anyway - she said instructors often fail it because they see what's going on and click too early...