It wasn’t the declaration or the Bairstow drops or the Sunday league swishes by Moeen and others, it was a combination of all of those things and an inability to read the game effectively.  They are committed to this approach but still learning to master it themselves.  There have to be times when giving additional wicket opportunities to the Aussies is erased from their mindset – the down the wicket charges at seemingly meaningless points in the game just makes no sense when you are already chugging along at >5 per over in test cricket.

Also, as someone up there says, the Aussie batters will hit some proper form at some point.  I’m guessing if they had known that the wicket would be that dead, Mark Wood might have been picked.

Real entertainment though

Some in Prestbury village in Cheshire. Full of entitled blue rinses and utd footballers. Oldies would rather feed him cake than pelt him and the utd players would probably miss…

I was there in Jan, empty and so much better for it.  Previous visit had been August many years prior and never again!

Its worth allocating a morning or evening to ‘just wandering’ without an agenda – follow the alleys and see whee they take you.

The water taxi from the airport was 27E return (if you were staying out that way) but seemed to be just one per hour – sure there will be more in June.  We went back in the dark and the city is quite a sight all lit up!

I’m looking forward to the next trip but it won’t be a summer visit!

Not being able to choose the best credit card to give me free lounge access at airports…

I actually wanted to ask that on here but thought I’d get slaughtered.

I was really hoping you’d all pile in with “£180 pw is utter madness, we pay half of that”…

Guess my two are headed for a debt ridden decade!

Also on Water to Go – they mention NASA so the child in me had to buy…

The circular attachment is what I use to clean our patio and paths. Really stubborn stuff might need a quick blast with the lance but otherwise the patio head thing saves hours! Obviously the type of stone has an impact – smooth stone really easy, rougher stuff takes more effort because of the friction.

We went through similar with our two – both now out the other end.

We have a private dentist as we couldn’t get NHS when we mved to this area, he is expensive but excellent.

Our eldest had a wait of about two years to get braces after we were initially referred to the local NHS service. We have never encountered such arrogance and rudeness from a medical professional. She wanted to remove teeth rather than spend the time to do the job properly, our own dentist explained to us in graphic detail about the long term issues that would cause and that it was an entirely unnecessary procedure. It was basically ‘production line’ dentistry. He actually ended up calling her himself to explain why her methods were out of date – she hung up!

Anyway, the orthodentist in his private practice took pity and added us to her list (out of area, but worth the travel, even if we did have to wait). Daughter has perfect set of teeth and none were removed.

We wanted the same for youngest but the waiting list had grown to >2.5 years so we went private with this same dentist. Nicer waiting room, closer to us but about £3k. Faced with the local butcher or paying the £3k, it was quite a simple choice, tho recognise it may not be doable for many families.

Sorry, turned into more of a rant than help but I think this will become very common, which only adds pressure to the NHS later…

My first was many years ago when they truly were cheap. My part-ex was departing the site on the back of a loader before I’d signed the paperwork for the new car! That was odd.

When I took the new car, on fumes, to the nearest fuel station I noticed a gouged alloy. Wasn’t there the week before when I reserved the car! Complained, they resisted, I checked the mileage and there was over 100 miles more on the clock than when I reserved it! They caved in at that point and swapped the wheel, obvioulsy been using it themselves.

Still went back many years later and bought my current car. Top spec mondeo estate, 15k on the clock for £14k. Still running it 13 years later! Those prices don’t exist anymore…

I agree – they were up there with the best, now very formulaic in their service level. The helmet may still be within warranty at 18 months old, therefore easier for them to replace than argue or fix.

We’ve tried to get replacement parts for sunnies and had zero interest repsonses back. I’m not suggesting that they are worse than any other company, just no longer exceptional.

I doubt that they will argue with you if you use the known fault evidence given to you up there.

Our lease went back a little while ago and the guy came to inspect and take the car away at the same time – paperwork said we would be given time between inspection and colelction to rectify stuff. The car was a minter after 3.5 years, only 18k on the clock. He still charged us for two tiny scratches and for some rubber door trim that that manufacturer had repeatedly failed to fix properly at service times. >£250

We were given the option to accept the charges and be invoiced; accept his findings but dispute the charges or dispute his findings. Two weeks later and letter from manufacturer (it was their own leasing arm) saying all good, they agree to cancel the charges.

This may be due to it being a direct lease from the manufacturer not wanting to annoy potential future customers over a few quid – don’t know. Considering the final value of the car was £7k more than we predicted it would be when we took the lease, I doubt they want the hassle for £250!

I wasn’t quite expecting so much interest in ‘my left’ ‘your left’ but anyway…

I took the car back, they took it seriously and said that they wouldn’t let it go out again in that condition and I believe them. They use external contractors for tyres and seemed unaware of the mis-match. Safer for the next hirer anyway.

For info, this is on a hire car (quite a premium one) that I discovered once well away from the depot. If legal then OK but still seems unsafe to me.

Thanks for the clarifications

Last day was indeed a powder day! Saalbach region got quite a few cms on Saturday and it was still falling when we left. Should be better for those headed out this weekend.

I’m just coming to the end of a week in Saalbach. Been above 10 degrees in town some days. Snow forecast for tonight and runs will definitely close if that doesn’t happen. We’ve managed to ski every day but only because of the great cannon infrastructure. Slushy as hell post 12pm

Anyone in or near Saalbach? Headed out on Sunday, wondered what conditions were like!?

Sounds like you’re lucky not to have injuries with that amount of damage!  I got hit by a drunk and suffered quite a bit with neck pain after the event (genuine rather than fabricated pain!).  It took nearly a year to sort but the car was fixed and I got £3.5k for my injuries, which fortunately have settled down.  That would give you some compensation for the auto box!

Blimey, only wanted one to carry bikes as just thought it would be so much easier than the roof. Might stick with roof bars…I’d be looking at £1.2k with a decent Thule rack.

Is £700 really the cost for a tow bar fitted? Would a lightboard be extra to that?

We’ve just ordered a Kodiac and it was £1k for the dealer option, was rather hoping for half of that after market?

Do you have mortgage insurance? I would have thought that this diagnosis might pay out for any remaining mortgage that you owe? Speedy recovery.

Uhmmm, new Kodiac on order! Pretty sure a lot of controls are still manual buttons though as we’re currently driving an xc60 and ‘the screen’ on that is just horrible. For the amount of space and toys that we got there was nothing else comparable at the price. Had a Yeti a few years ago and it was bomb proof, though I’m glad it wasn’t my daily driver.

what was the snow like Digby?

We ordered a Kodiac a couple of weeks ago, late Feb delivery is what we have been quoted. This thread is preparing me for getting it late summer if we’re lucky…

Use wood fibre, performs much better as an all year round product i.e. keeps the house cooler in summer as well as warmer in winter. No itching either!

A mate has just pinged me a list to that and it looks like that could be it. I certainly wouldn’t have voluntarily signed up to that! Guessing its a bit Amazon Prime where signing up for a free trial is easily to do than avoid…

We have a two pronged strategy – other half prefers to lease (PCH) every three years as she doesn’t want the risk of running up and down the country in an old car that ‘might’ leave her stranded. My car is a 2009 Mondeo that hasn’t missed a beat since I got it at 15 months old. It stays until it decides to leave me!

We have the same end of leasing issue as others have mentioned, now extended by Volvo for another year (but can return at any time with 30 days notice). Replacing like for like would be minimum 50% more now than 3 years ago. EVs that are family sized are even more expensive, although I get the fuel saving bit.

We have just decided to replace the Volvo with a new Kodiac as 2nd hand prices were insane (Volvo wanted 29k for the 3 year old car that we are leasing). First time on a PCP scheme, which requires a big up front payment. The only reason that we are doing this is that Skoda had a zero % APR deal on the PCP, which makes a huge difference. We will keep that car for a long time though (I will take it on when the Mondeo dies) and that together with a fair discount on the RRP and 0% make it the cheapest long term option. Quite surprised the dealers were willing to negotiate on price tbh.

Fibre is 500+ as well so shouldn’t be speed of streaming

TV is 65 inch screen. We use the Amazon app built into the tv i.e. the remote has an ‘Amazon’ button that just needs pressing. Don’t recall the message in the top right of the screen.

I had no idea that we could watch the footy in UHD! Is that another channel number or just the usual BBC HD channel?

I would have loved to see Ronaldo cry in UHD…

If everyone has three spaces where are all these cars coming from? Planters is the answer, leaving enough room for you to stick your own car. Leave your car there long enough and they may get the message.

Very nice!

17 years without an England touring test team and barely anyone turns up to watch!

We’re coming from south of Manchester so CLitheroe possibly too far in the wrong direction. Will try and book that Royal arms place but realise we’ve left it late!

Thanks everybody

uhmm, plan B I guess…

Arcteryx is also 15% off the outlet prices at the moment

Anyone seen alything tempting on iphone 13s or 14s – on contract preferably?

How does the 62% discount work? The GCI calculator at £125k still kicks out a 42% saving?

Given the choice (ahem) of which scheme one’s company should join, what would it be? I seem to remember from a previous discussion on the schemes themselves rather than the concept, that one stood out as offering the particpant the best ‘value’.

20 people isn’t a tutorial.

Thanks for the input all, she’s accepted her fate and is getting on with things. Seems 20+ is quite normal but ironically she is now in a class of 9 in physics after that was disrupted to fit the merger of the other class!

Thanks all, bit surprised to hear that numbers are typically so high for A levels but I had only my sample of one to go on! Guess I was lucky in my day. I’m similar to my daughter in that the smaller groups were easier for me to deal with and actually feel engaged (wasn’t an overly confident teenager either!) in the lessons.

We had a real mix at Uni with large lectures coupled with tutor based sessions of 4-5.

Why do say its not good for student experience out of interest? Exact opposite of what my daughter is thinking, she’s engaged in the smaller class and loves the degree of student / teacher discussion and interaction. She fears that won’t happen (she isn’t the most confident) in the larger class. I remember my lessons (it was a sixth form colleage rather than a school with a 6th form) being more tutorial in nature rather than formal writing on the board kind of stuff. Would have thought that gave much better prep for university than a room of 20+?