What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread

[Station]

 

It looks like it's from Studio Ghibli's 'My Neighbour Totoro'???

 

And at £150, I'd expect it was bought by two knobhead parents for Oliver and Harry, who frankly couldn't care less who 'My Neighbour Toroto' is.

[MrDuke]

 

Penetrant is pissing in the wind compared to this stuff. I don't promote brands as a general rule but my mate nicked me some of this from his work and it's the shit, just the ticket for rusty fastenings, plus it's called super crack ultra. Win in a tin.

 

'NORMFEST' conjures up an image of 150 silver vectras and mondeos in a field, while the office-dwelling owners sip decaff tea and stare awkwardly at each other's M&S ties.

[retrogeezer]

[Cavcraft]

You got to meet Stirling Moss AND ex-Radio 1 DJ Mike Reid?

[retrogeezer]

what are the chances of bumping into the two of them together!

[vulgalour]

Looks like Sir Stirling is about to draw a knob on that table in honour of Partridge.

[Station]

Didn't he break both legs when he crashed his racing car? You should've asked him 'did it hurt'?

[vulgalour]

I'm not sure but I may need to make use of the Autoshite Hyundai Pony Tropicana... I mean Express.  I appear to have bagged 3 boot lids and 5 bumpers for £20.

 

 

 

I'm thinking I'll probably tank up the beige one and trundle down to collect once I've got the suspension pumped up, she could do with the run anyway and it'll make up for the miles we haven't driven lately.  If I do the run, I might also be dropping some stuff off for another Princess owner over in Surrey and make a proper day of it... I don't know yet.  Should I see if there's Autoshiters I can bother at the same time?  I may need to borrow a SatNav for this one from someone.

[eddyramrod]

Never mind satnav, get down your local big supermarket and pick up last year's AA road atlas for a quid!  You just know paper maps are the Shite way...

[Doctormop]

Didn't he break both legs when he crashed his racing car? You should've asked him 'did it hurt'?

 

Seem to remember him breaking both legs falling down the lift shaft in the block of flats where he lived, pressed button, doors opened, step in and the lift was 2 floors down, think he was once stopped by the police riding a 50cc moped down the hard shoulder of the M1 as well, a true character from a bygone age, can't imagine Vettel or any of the modern clones doing anything like that.

[vulgalour]

Right, so maths time.  440 miles at an average of 35mpg (I get 36-38mpg on the motorway, the run is nearly all motorway) equates to 12.6 gallons.  That in turn equates to 57.3 litres at the local price of about 1.30 per litre which is £74.49.  If I fill the tank on the Princess it's going to take another £85-90 (mahoosive tank) so that would be more than enough.

 

Taking a more abstract approach I have also decided this would be worth it to visit a man with an orange Allegro estate in Maidstone and deliver Princess parts to a man with a poorly black Princess in Surrey on my way back.  If I can do Brooklands and back in a day with some sort of plague, snow, and the perma-rattle of a BX diesel estate that has no radio, I reckon I can do this.

 

Not entirely worked out where all the petrol money for this is coming from yet, but I'll cross that particular bridge when I come to it.  I should be able to net some fuel money in the form of a 'courier fee' for the Surrey delivery as I'm sure I'll be safer than any company I'd entrust the Princess parts to.

 

I am quite excited at the prospect of doing this, I'm not even thinking about the M25 part of the journey too much.

[Angrydicky]

If you fancy coming a little bit further East there's a man in Canterbury with a beige Maestro who would love a ride in a Princess

 

Where are your parts? If they aren't too far from here I could probably collect them, and hang on to them until you can get down.

[vulgalour]

Canterbury would take it up to a nice round 500 miles...  and as much as I really want to see your Atlantic in person, I'm thinking it'll be more sensible for you to come to Maidstone than for me to go to Canterbury, even with my 73 litre capacity fuel tank.

 

But hey, you're more than welcome to have a ride in the Princess, I'll even let you drive it if your insurance lets you.

[Angrydicky]

The Atlantic is in my parents garage in Southend, broken with a dead fuel pump

 

But let me know when you're planning to arrive in Maidstone and if I'm not doing anything, I'll take a trundle down in my trusty A35 (my only working car at the moment). Always good to meet fellow BL fans

 

Sadly my insurance doesn't cover me for other cars, but thanks for the offer.

[vulgalour]

Southend is, I think, where an old friend of mine lives.  Isn't it also where Shep lives?  If I go M1, M69, Surrey (delivery), Maidstone (collection and Allegro) and stop off overnight at Southend before heading home up the A1M that doesn't add a significant mileage to the journey and makes it a bit more manageable.

 

Could do a mini Maidstone meet, or I could meet you at Southend.  I'm fairly flexible about this sort of thing at the moment since I've not even spoken to said friend and have arranged nothing with the seller of the above parts yet.  Shame Brighton is that bit too far out of the way, could've met Gary and Barrett and their collection.  Is this in Trigger's parish too?  There's a lot of Autoshiters I've just put in my Roladex under the category 'The South', but I've no idea how near to or far apart from one another they actually are.

[Angrydicky]

I'll be back in Southend for Christmas from 14th December onwards if that helps! If you were planning to come down after then I could try and get the Atlantic sorted out for you to have a spin in it. If it was before then I'll still be in Kent, so meeting you and AlexG at Maidstone would be the best course of action.

 

Shep does indeed live in Southend, but despite us both seeing each other's cars parked up and passing each other while driving we've never actually met.

[Cavcraft]

That green boot lid should be polished up and put on your living room wall as modern art. You could fuck the telly off and just sit there looking at that lovely metallic green paint all night long.

[Station]

You should've bought a telly for your living room in that ram raid you did Billy!

[inconsistant]

Sounds like this could easily become a winter southern Autoshite get together...

[HillmanImp]

Did Weetabix buy the intellectual rights to Crispy Minis from the Rover Group?

 

[Station]

Why?

 

And why is all food these days called 'body fuel'? Even junk food like this!

[beko1987]

Been to a friends, and rather than go the back way I jumped onto the M40 for a few junctions...

 

Freebird came on as I left my mates, and to cut a long story short I did J2 to my house half a mile off J5 just as the song closed. XM runs alot better this morning...

[beko1987]

Southend is, I think, where an old friend of mine lives.  Isn't it also where Shep lives?  If I go M1, M69, Surrey (delivery), Maidstone (collection and Allegro) and stop off overnight at Southend before heading home up the A1M that doesn't add a significant mileage to the journey and makes it a bit more manageable.

 

Could do a mini Maidstone meet, or I could meet you at Southend.  I'm fairly flexible about this sort of thing at the moment since I've not even spoken to said friend and have arranged nothing with the seller of the above parts yet.  Shame Brighton is that bit too far out of the way, could've met Gary and Barrett and their collection.  Is this in Trigger's parish too?  There's a lot of Autoshiters I've just put in my Roladex under the category 'The South', but I've no idea how near to or far apart from one another they actually are.

If you need to break down by the london end of the M40 I can come say hello!

[trigger]

I'm Ipswich which isn't that close to Kent or the M25 really.

[dugong]

I'm Ipswich which isn't that close to Kent or the M25 really.

Ipswich isn't near anywhere. That's why it's so odd.

[cort16]

I've just had a new (english) work collegue declare that they thought that they only took euros and not pounds in Scotland.

[MrDuke]

I hope you confirmed this for them, and sent them to the nearest post office to exchange all their cash?

[Mr Livered]

They might have to use euros if the silly sausages vote for independence.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

If the EU lets them in that is, otherwise they'll have to have an economy denominated in Scotts Porage Oats or some such

[Junkman]

The EU even let Greece and Italy in. They'd let Angola in as long as the Germans and English pay for it.