+1. Train driver (+instructor) here, enjoy my work in a passenger firm. Freight isn’t what it was though, coal is dead in this country now and there is a surplus of freight drivers. The quirks of freight contracts are far more of a threat to his job as a driver than any mooted automation. I have nearly 30 years left in this job and can say with utmost certainty that my role at my retirement will still be in the front cab of trains with irreplaceable technical knowledge and skills.

Manchester Tarts FTW.

Honda Jazz owner here, ’04 (Japanese built) owned since new. 150k miles, manual.

-both rear wheel bearings needed replacing, all brake calipers needed replacing due to binding, air con currently U/S, either needs new compressor clutch or maybe even compressor, air con compressor clutch relay went after 70-80k, easy and cheap to replace though. Clutch has been very squeaky for last 70k and radio has been completely dead for last 50k, CD works though. Handbrake is useless and needs adjusting constantly.
Gearbox is now making a slight ‘click’ noise as though there is play developing in something, gearbox bearings are notoriously made of cheese.

On the plus side – it doesn’t seem to suffer from the leaking tailgate due to dodgy adhesive that most early Jazzes get, and it is still on all its original exterior lights, except headlights and front sidelights.

We have GU10s rather than G9s, but found Ikea ‘Ledare’ are hard to beat for the cost. We have more expensive Megaman LED GU10s in the kitchen for comparison. Ikea ones are decent quality, genuinely ‘warm white’ even compared to the Megamans, and long lasting – we had some Ikea in the bathroom for a few years and have more recently covered the rest of our new house in them. Four quid a pop.

Although looking on the Ikea site, the G9s are only 90 lumen. :/

Just put a load of Ikea ‘Ledare’ GU10s in.
36 deg, 4w, 2700k, 200lm. Hard to ignore for £4 each.

Other than that, Megaman – the new GU10s on fleabay some chap keeps listing in batches of 10, work out under £7 each, although he did list 10 for £55 last week.

Pah, who works Sundays?

4-day week here-
Week 1 Wed Thurs Fri Sat
Week 2 Mon Tue Fri Sat
Week 3 Mon Tue Wed Thurs
Repeat ad infinitum.

Umezushi[/url]. Just opened, pretty much right underneath the arena, not very big but also not very easy to find.

Although just checked and not open on Mondays, so, er, disregard. But worth noting for future reference.

Small donation & bump, good cause.

See if you can resist the call of Rusholme in that case.

Fringe bar usually has a couple of lambics on tap. Bar staff will make sure you know how much it is before pouring you a pint (or maybe I just look poor)…

I’ve polished Paul Scholes’ ring.

When I was 15.

…I put it in an ultrasonic bath in the office of the jewellers I worked in at the time, giving it a clean while the shop owner tried to extract more money from him.

But more seriously, I am a good friend of a gold medal winner at last year’s olympics.

And my name has been in all the national papers in the last 18 months.

Keele +1. It’s a hole. Had to stop there urgently once (after getting carried away with a bag of sugar-free sweets on my journey down the M6 but forgetting about their effects) and while on the throne in Keele I was nearly eaten alive by flying ants.

Last year we drove to Cardiff and stopped somewhere, can’t remember exactly where, and it was as though we had been transported back to 1986.

Since about ten years old I have had intermittent ingrowing toenails on both big toes, on the inside. Usually dug them out after a hot bath but a few years ago one didn’t want to go away for months, that got sorted with a visit to a podiatrist which was about £22 and completely pain-free. Lasted fine for about six months before some muppet stamped on my toe at an eels gig and broke my nail. I have freakishly big big toes complete with a little mop of hair on each and my feet are so ticklish underneath I can hardly even bear to touch them myself. I had all sorts of worries about kicking the poor podiatrist in the face from being accidentally tickled while they fettled my feet but all was well, one of the best £22s I have ever spent. Phenol & surgery seems a bit like an overkill nuclear option, definitely worth going to a podiatrist first.

Done 120k in one (Japanese built ’04). Still on original clutch, only major faults being rear wheel bearing went after 40k (fixed under warranty) and two brake calipers siezed (one front, one rear) after 100k. Little bit of rust appearing under seal on rear door. Only other minors being headlight bulbs (all other lights apart from rear numberplate lights still original bulbs after 120k!) and compressor clutch relay went after about 80k (easy £35 fix with Honda part). Radio packed up after 110k, CD still ok though.
70mpg on a longer trip if you try very hard, otherwise 45-50mpg around town. Have moved house twice, had fridges etc easily in the back.

+1 Tim Minchin, along with Steve Hughes, Al Murray, Dara O’Briain, Rhod Gilbert.

Least favourites: Miranda, Michael McIntyre, Phill Jupitus, Jack Whitehall, Paddy McGuinness.

The likes of Manning, Chubby Brown etc don’t even register.

Er, does nobody else have an Alu seat tube liner in their Ti frame? Only me?

Hot bath & horlicks.

Got accepted onto ‘Darwin Dating’, nothing came of that as I just wanted to see if I’d get in or not. Being a naive sort I went on an online date years ago where it was obvious she was just (desperately) after one thing. When it came to getting a cab later that night in her mind we were both going back to hers but I just bundled her in and shut the door after her. I realised then that the proportion of sleazy desperates on dating sites is probably akin to the fakes on fleabay. Despite this, of the next online date, me and my very sweet significant other have been together eight years this year. She did the initial ‘poking’ or whatever it’s called. Neither of us can believe we were on such a site these days (think it was called Udate or some such, seemed overpopulated by ne’er do wells in retrospect).

Howies, sale on now.

Beaten Marc Almond milk?

*skips breakfast*

+1, you have my admiration.

Ignoring pioneering games such as Pong, from the late 80s when games developed charisma and universal appeal there was Dizzy, Manic Miner, Chuckie Egg, Prince of Persia, Lemmings, R-Type, Tetris, Double Dragon; so many to choose from.

Deore 44/32/22
XT 44/32/22
XTR 42/30

Used my District 3 for one of the first times in traffic the other day, angled sensibly downwards on low setting. Cars were giving noticeably wider berth.

1. Dogs Trust.
b. Honest explanation.
iii. Hefty donation.

Forget putting a GoPro in the car, get one of these.

Blurb.

DVDshrink FTW.

Unfortunately not, I count lots of serial killers among my colleagues…!

My kill count so far:
1 human being
3 badgers
Countless pheasants, pigeons and other small birds
Several ducks
2 tawny owls

(train driver BTW)

A mate of mine hit a dog one night last week, stopped his train to check what it was and when he went back it was still alive, but obviously in a bit if a mess, and trying to pull itself up over the rail with its good front legs. It obviously wasn’t going to survive but he couldn’t bring himself to finish it off. He continued the journey, reported it asap and asked if someone could be sent to sort/move it (no point ringing the RSPCA, they can’t go on the operational railway).

He’s devastated and it’s really shaken him up, I can understand why – hitting a person who is there intentionally ie to end their life is bad enough but animals like dogs will be frightened and unable to escape. There are loads of dead dogs on the railway at this time of year, maybe from owners walking them near the railway letting them off their leads / gaps in fences or foot crossings etc / loads of squirrels this time of year taking advantage of the trees lining railway lines etc, but whatever, people need educating that if their dog ends up on the railway it’s almost certainly not going to get off again alive. I’d hazard a guess that the majority of dogs that go missing in the vicinity of railway lines are probably gonners, but people just don’t put 2 and 2 together.

Anyway, enough on that cheery subject…!

To be fair the keypads are a PITA but as for Santander, their security is so woeful, and fraud depts so incompetent, that they really could do with starting to use them.

Putoline chain wax…

To light it again after you told her what happens is bad enough. To do it and then leave the house unattended (if she’s not actually collapsed somewhere in her own house) is an order of magnitude worse. Truly gobsmacking stupidity and recklessness.

The yappy mutt might be the first thing to keel over. Those who suggest restraint on the grounds that you have to live next door to her, she should be the one with concerns of that nature after what she’s done.

+1 fire brigade, serious situation.

Low (or high!) point in my stealthiness is trying not to rattle the bed too much as I was worried the ti frame and other bits stashed under there would start jangling awkwardly. Went on a mission one day last year and just built it up in the bedroom while she was away. In some misguided way I thought buying her a ’98 Klein Mantra in ‘blastberry’ and rebuilding it using purple & blue ano bits would appease her. She just shrugged.

Cornflakes everywhere now. Great thread!

Very few trains are even scheduled to run on 25/26 December, engineering work or not. This has been the case for aeons.

There is no further capacity on the Hope Valley rail route without extra infrastructure. The trains may be ‘short’ but except for the local stopping service to & from Piccadilly when it gets out in the sticks, they’re certainly not empty.

There is a freight depot at Peak Forest for aggregates traffic, some of which goes to terminals in Salford. The long and steep gradients on the Hope Valley route have more of a bearing on its suitability for further freight traffic as the infrastructure stands. There is plenty of rail freight around each area although other routes are used for inter-regional flows.