I know its Still early days for my wife and I with a 10 month old to give much of a long term experience but ill tell you how we’re doing so far. We are mid 30’s, good jobs, small mortgage, together for over a decade and very much in love. Seemed like the responsible and right time to have a little one, talked about it for a few years, both sure we wanted it! Now both agree we’re stopping at the One. Hardest 10 months of our lives. We love our son to bits, but he nearly killed my wife and we’ve nearly killed each other a few times since. Its getting easier now though. Wifes back in work a few days a week where she can stop being a mum and engage in normal non prenatal conversation which has restored her sanity. I get a day a week to myself again, and now he’s sleeping we get some quality “us” time back in the evening, and the odd dinner out with friends. Our boy loves nursery too, so everyone’s happy. We both fear that if we had another, we’d loose the fine balance we have now and it would be a strain on the relationship so I’m watching this thread carefully to see how others faired.

Its a football thing according to my Preston colleagues. Preston North End fc are nicknamed “the Pies”

I’ve got one 🙂

I wouldn’t go near the 1.9 diesel though. As mentioned above, DPF, intake manifold swirl flaps and fuel pumps are all common faults that are expensive to fix. Other common faults are the wiper mechanism which can be fixed with new rods of ebay for £30. Snapped springs on the last coil, but that’s common with most cars, and rear tie-rod bushes can wear (but mine haven’t in 4 years of owning it).

I got a V6Turbo petrol with every option, including AFL headlights, sunroof, satnav, hidden tow ball for the bike rack, etc for a bargin £6k four years ago with 60k miles. Its been incredibly reliable (touch wood) except for the wiper mechanism failed, which is basically a ball joint that wears and pops off.

Its thirsty, 27MPG average, but its got 280hp and goes in a straight line very quickly indeed. I wouldn’t attempt any aggressive cornering with its size and turning circle but its not that kind of car.

The boot isn’t estate size, but the back seats fold down in a fancy way that leaves the whole luggage space completely flat and plenty big enough to through a bike in without removing the wheels etc.

Only two proper rear seats, and an emergency seat in the middle for small people if your desperate. Rear leg room is biblical! They managed this by pushing the rear wheels right back, giving it a long wheel base without the Vectra estate length. Good for towing, but it results in a slighty larger turning circle that means “u” turns are impossible on all but the widest roads.

I’m very happy with mine, but if it wasn’t for the VXR donkey under the hood, it would be a very practical yet mind numbingly boring car.

That said, my uncle borrowed mine and loved it so much he bought himself one, a 1.9 diesel, which hes had three years and hasn’t missed a beat. Guess its luck of the draw.

bottom line, its a good size, comfortable motor with typically more extras than other cars for a damn sight less £ because its not cool or particularly well known. You cant go too wrong if you buy wisely

Before you bin it, try a hard reset and get rid of all third party apps. In my experience, its your installed apps that aren’t compatible with the new OS that causes the hang. Give it a few weeks or months and the apps will be updated to suit.

looks like a coin or something got between the drum and the casing and burst out. dosent look to be a structual issue, just a leaky one. Patch it with fiberglass, chemical metal or sugru etc.

They’re sat too close to your fod. You need to pinch the nose rests in a little so they sit slightly further foward. If they dont have movable nose pads, then get some sugru and fashon some so they fit better. A lot of sports glasses are made “one size fits all” so it makes sence you may need to make a little adjustment/modification. Helps them from steeming up too.

Just look on fords website to get your head around the various specs. My farther owns a titanium x estate in lunar sky with the sports pack and tinted glass. Looks really classy in my eyes, and far better looking than your average nazi waggon. Its a fantastic drive and genuinly handles like its on rails, you forget its an estate. Id have one in a hartbeat if I could afford it. The only minor bad point is the tyre wear. He’s only getting 20,000 miles out of a set, where as the older models were good for 60,000 the way he drives. Hes checked the tracking and its all fine. It will be in part down to the 18″ wheels, and the keen handeling.

excelent. Ill seya next thursday then

set your bathroom scales to lbs and push on them to gauge how much force 50lbs feels like. Now use a 1 ft long spanner on your nut and apply the same force as you did the scales on the end of it, and hey presto 50ft/lbs. Its really that simple 😀

you can guess how 50Inch/lbs works now cant you!

guessing i dont need to explain newton meters? 😆

Im working nights this week, but if its a regular event, i’d like to join you the week after? 8)

I’ve Just replaced my old faithful 9 year old Bosch blue GSBVE2 with……..a LI-ion Bosch blue GSB18VE2 😀

Only reason I’ve bought a new one is because the Ni-MH batteries were getting tired and harder to find with a decent capacity.

The VE2 is the model to go for, and the 4Ah batteries provide bags of torque and outlast all other drills we’ve got. Awsome drill, makes the Makita look like a kids toy. You pay for it though 🙁 Might be a little overkill for you?

http://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-gsb18ve2-li-18v-4ah-li-ion-cordless-combi-drill-coolpack-battery/96811

Wharfedale 9.2’s and SW150 sub for my HIFI. You’ve read the reviews, I quite like them!

Roth Oli 4’s and Oli 2’s for my surround sound. No Sub required. Not so common and scantly reviewed. Picked them up for a bargain with little to loose. Absolutely blown away with the quality and reproduction. Punch well above their weight IMO.

I think we can grant leniency for your heinous crime based on the mitigating circumstances. I mean chips without vinegar, Eughh

Made £123.70p busking for 3 hours with my Mum for children in need, although I was more the help and her the artist. Still, an afternoon well spent cheering up the locals and raising money for charity. 😀

I had the usual blue/brown inhaler combo, and still suffered. I struggled for years then actually bothered to go to one of these annoying asthma reviews I was forever getting letters for. They tried a couple of different drugs, but they didn’t improve it much. They patronised me about sealing my lips around the inhaler and the usual crap, but then the asthma nurse suggested yet another different inhaler that’s not really any stronger than the usual brown jobbies but was a drug combination one that’s purple. Bingo. Just One puff of that every other day and I’ve completely forgotten I ever suffered with asthma. Its gone from waking needing salbutamol twice a night, to absolutely nothing. None of the old triggers bother me either. I guess you may have already tried a few different drugs, but please keep going to the asthma clinics and trying others until you find what works for you. I hate the idea of depending on drugs, but one puff every other day of the right thing has transformed my life and i’m taking a tiny fraction of the medication I used to.

Like for like on a button head screw, Torx wins every time over a hex head. If your still rounding them off, you really are doing something wrong.

Find somewhere to live near high leigh, or lymm. Nice areas and your only 5 minutes from the M56/M6 interchange. The commute to tafford park from either is by a reletivly free flowing A road with minimal lights or obstructions through partington then either up the bypass stright onto the M60 a junction away from trafford park, or yuocan cut through Urmston and miss the motorway completly. 20 minutes off peak, 30/35 peak. Just a surgestion like.

Theres a posh version of the “bag o rice” technique in the form of a “save-A-phone” bag.

http://www.save-a-phone.co.uk/save-a-phone_p7.aspx

They tested one on the gadget show a while back and it seemed to do well on a sea soaked i phone.

Its Just a zip lock bag with some silica gell from what I can see, but perhaps its not your average silica?

Three years ago my wife and I, who both work, decided to sell one of our pre-marital cars and have just one family car. My wife would use the car for her longer commute, where as I’d cycle the 6 mile journey.

I’ve kept it up until last month when I’d just become sick of it. The distance wasnt an issue, weather your going just 2 miles or 15 miles makes no odds, you’ve still got to go through all the hidden motions that add up time and wear you down.

Putting all your cycle gear on and getting dressed four times a day whislt maintaining a steady flow of clean gear to wear day in day out will get tired quickly. Packing your backpack with clean clothes, packed lunch, tools / office work etc, every day, seemed to take longer than it should and was a PITA. Showering up to three times a day didnt do my ecema much good either. Even just maintaining the bike properly each week soon eats into your free time.

Getting piss wet through and freezing your face off at 5am in the morning, after sod all sleep, to start a 12 hour shift at 6am. That wears you down quickly when you have to do it all week.

It wasnt just the commute that bugged me, I work weekends so often have time off mid week, but had no car to go anywhere or be able to go and buy anything big or heavy. You can plan for that to some extent, but after three years I felt i’d lost my freedom. I couldnt just nip down the motorway to my parents or freinds when I felt like it. I started to just stay in all day because it was easier, I’d get cabin fever, and worst of all I started to loath my bike.

Ive had the new car a month now, and Its fantastic. I can roll out of bed and just jump in the car last minute for work and get there warm and relaxed. I can go see freinds and family when I want, and If im on with a diy project and I relise I need another bag of cement or a length of timber, I can go and fricking get it and carry on with the job.

Best of all, I enjoy riding my bike again, even choose to ride it to work twice this week.

I tried to man up for three years, but you know what. B0llocks to that unless you have too.

It’s just you. My fathers got one I borrowed the other week. Fantastic car.

Thanks for the update. Congratulations on the pregnancy and good luck with the new job. I recon you’ve made the right choice, but I’ve a sneeky suspicion you knew all along you had to go for it.

Completed.

I’d go for the hospital job. Those 12 hours will fly by in an intresting busy job and then youll have 4 days a week at home with your baby. Your current cushy job is too easy and youll stagnate, get bored, resent it and time will crawl by. You already know the answer 😉

If there’s any material padding, I’d make sure it’s clean and dry first, or even better remove it, or it might go mouldy if its up there for any lengthy time. Other than that, it should be fine.

I’m off to Chorlton with another riding mate for something different. I’ve no idea where’s good but I’m told the marbel has a good selection of ales, so ill start there. Any recommendations most welcome. 🙂

Memory foam is so last decade. It’s no good to shag on (no bounce) and its too hot. Pocket springs with a healthy layer of latex on top is where it’s at. Stays cooler, bounces back, and its hypoallergenic. 😀

So, what’s wrong with it exactly? 😉

Hand it back to the wife and make her do it. Seriously, I tunes is the most unintuitive piece of rubbish ever. The best way to use it, is by forgetting everything you know about computers first. A lobotomy may just be he trick. Your wife or a 5 year old will make sense of it quicker than you or I.

Sent from my ipad that’s never been connected to iTunes. (And only because the wife’s already claimed my nexus 7)

Push you weight back, pull the front brake fairly hard until you can feel the back getting a little lighter, now move your weight forward a little and use your body weight about the front wheel pivot to control the amount of lift. As the bike slows, and you get nearer to top dead centre (higher), reduce the braking pressure and continually move your weight slightly to balance. Piece of piss. Wear a helmet ;p

Your wasting your time trying to clean it up. Replace it with the Dow Corning 785 and if you can’t improve damp situation much, spray the shower down with a leave on cleaner each time you use it that prevents the mould returning. We use “method daily shower spray” it’s safe non-toxic stuff that seems to last forever and keeps the bathroom sparkling. Loads of places sell it, but I pick it up in b&q.

2 weeks…still waiting 😛

Dont ever do a google search in work for this stuff! 😳

Now that obviously more men are doing their share of the laundry, I wonder how long it is before we meddle with the system and improve it, or at least cash in on the thousands of men who look at the crazy symbols and dials on a washing machine in utter confusion.

I’m all for adding a barcode to the clothes lables, so that you can scan them into a washing machine fitted with a neat little barcode reader in the door opening that then programs the machine for the right wash setting, or at least tells you to take it out again and not to be silly. (maybe even in a pre recorded message from your wife 😆 )

You could do the same with the Iron. Lets face it, we have a knack of over complicating stuff, so i’m surprised its not already been done!

The rapture I can handle 😆 Its the ironing that I cant deal with, or more specifically her fancy pleated blouse’s she wears. Her favorite two have an unfathomable mass of material that falls from the neck and cross over under her bust is a plethora of pleats that you just cant get an iron too. It takes me half an hour a piece to iron them 😡

^ this! 😆

Boom! It hit here today. Knee deep around work site. Proper good snowball fight with the guys today. And my staff decided to climb on the roof, wait for me to exit the building and off-load the contents of the roof with well timed accuracy on my head. I was floored. I think I came close to feeling what it is like in an avalanche…

Thanks, you gave me a chuckle. Nice to know your a good sport, but this requires revenge 😆

I’ve just been signed off work with stress due to our delightful new(ish) neighbour.

So you can spend more time at home with your neighbour? Genius. 😆

I was brought up on Breakfast, Dinner at mid day and Tea about 6pm when dad came home. Never really did supper as such, still dont.

My wife does the whole, lunch then dinner thing. Just confuses things. Ill be sure to use the school dinner reference next time it comes up in conversation.

couple of mm in trafford park. Its been light snow all night, but no real build up. Its got a little heavyer in the last 20 minutes, but I doubt there will be any more than an inch when people get up in a few hours.

Pretty good for drying your bike off, but clearing trails…. 😕