We bought one of these a few years back, has seen alot of use & have been happy with it:

http://www.flamingbarbecues.co.uk/3-Burner/Outback-BBQs-Excelsior-3-Burner-Hooded-Stainless-Steel-Barbecue

The Retronaut site is good for similar:

http://www.retronaut.co/

A Bristlenose Plec. Interesting to watch, and they help keep the tank clear from algae.

Roderick Charles do some very nice semi-tailored suits at very reasonable prices. Great shirts too.
M&S are pretty darn good for off the peg suits.

I had a pay rise a couple of weeks ago, followed this week by redundancy!

pedalhead – Member
S-Max owners…do you think there’s enough space for someone 5ft 9 to sleep in the back next to a bike?

Absolutely, good for up to 6′ 7″.

Info from owners manual:
Max cargo length to back of front seats = 2053mm

Current Mondeo, Galaxy & S-Max all use the same EUCD platform, as do some Volvo’s and the new Range Rover Evoque.

I have an 08 plate 2.0 Tdci S-Max & really like it, it handles well considering it’s 1700 odd kg unladen kerb-weight, and returns an average mpg I calculated of approx 45mpg in mixed driving conditions.

The higher seating position is good for me as previous Focus, Mondeo & Passat estates have always left me walking away with ankle / hip aches after a long drive for some reason. This doesn’t.

It drives well, and swallows huge loads if you put all the rear seats flat (or take them out). Back of drivers seat to tailgate opening dimensions are probably similar to the Mondeo estate, so count on being able to carry similar gear. S-Max feels much wider, though not actually measured that to confirm.

For bike carrying duties, I put the one of two 3rd row seats flat, and one of the 2nd row seats flat. I can then fit in 2 adult bikes (sans front wheels and saddles) a kids bike, riding gear, dog (in cage), 2 adults and 2 kids. Works for us! Plus the odd occasions we’ve needed to utilise all 7 seats for people on a day out, it’s been great & much better than utilising 2 cars.

No faults at all since we’ve had it. Has 225/50R17-W98 tyres which can be a bit pricey, though I last shod it with 4 Barum Bravuris tyres for about £320 all in, and they have performed excellently! Set of 16″ steelies for winter rubber (tyres are much cheaper in 16″).

A nice Christopher Ward limited C9 ‘jumping hour’ for something different:

Or a nice C90:

Ah yes, insanely catchy that. It’s Civilization by Justice

3W CREE I do believe.

jimmy – Member
would you join the force?

Yes, currently giving serious consideration to joining the Met as a special.

Offer 310 if you really want it, else i’d go with a cheeky 307 & prepare to be knocked back.

The space in the rear of the current Passat estate is ridiculously small.
We had an 11 plate one for 6 weeks as a loaner when our old MK1 Focus estate was written off.

A lovely car to drive (it was the 2.0 Tdi BlueMotion) but I couldn’t fit half the stuff in the rear of it that I could with the Focus.

Once we handed that back, I bought an S-Max. Great decision so far!
I can fit a ludicrous amount in the back, and it is still a pleasure to drive.
Last weekend it happily lugged 2 adults, 2 kids, 3 bikes, assorted junk plus the dog & dog crate. All inside as yet to buy a towbar & rack.

Once you experience Samsung’s unbelievable (lack of) customer service / after-care, it really puts you off owning any of their products ever again. 🙁

Excellent pic. Captain Oates is on our family tree & we have a few bits n bobs the museums don’t. 😉

And remember that the panoramic roof models have a lower load limit.
There’s a few threads over on the S-Max owners club regarding roof bars & cracked roofs.

Regular roof or Panoramic?

don simon – Member

Which means you’ll remeber the name of the machine they used to use for school handouts.. I think it was the spirit copier or something like that, no?

Oh my, that’s just triggered a ‘smell’ memory & given me a huge school flashback!

I’m not white though, more of a pale pinky / peach. White isn’t even close to my albino mate Tom either!! No way you can classify me the same as that freak!! 😉

Hi Tom!

No cooked bones though, they can splinter easily & are not properly digested.

It would appear that the old nano’s we sent back are being replaced with the new 6th gen models! w00t!

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/12/20/apple-indeed-replacing-recalled-ipod-nano-units-with-current-generation-models/

Empty the clippings from the office hole-punches into someone’s umbrella.

Fill it with rice, that will absorb the moisture.

part and parcel of having a dog really

Depends on the breed. No shedding at all, nor any doggy smell from our Doodle. Apart from the odd house clearing fart if he’s been eating horse shit.

We’d like to put him on the more nutritious higher quality stuff, but we’re worried he won’t eat it/it’ll give him the runs. Is there anywhere that does smaller tester packs?

Some brands do testers, some don’t, usually 400g bags for a couple of quid:

Orijen: http://www.petplanet.co.uk/product.asp?dept_id=793&pf_id=50348

Green Dog: http://greendogfood.co.uk/index.php?route=product/category&path=39

As kibble’s go, our dog found the more expensive brands ‘boring’ and would often just leave them. The only one he did enjoy as a full-time food was Royal Canin. If / when you do decide to switch his food over, do it gradually over a week or so, especially if his tummy is sensitive.

Mrs Doubleu’s Dad is a vet, so she was insistent that Jeff, our Bernese Mountain dog, be on Hill’s Science Diet.

A lot of vet’s seem to recommend that, probably down to good aggressive marketing by the manufacturers. IMO it’s not the best of foods, but certainly not the worst.

A friend who is a vet said that the amount of time they have to spend covering dietary requirements of our canine friends is minuscule, so unless they have done additional study in their own time, tend to fall back on Hills.

Kibble is a recent ‘convenience’ food. Some of the brands are good, others are pretty crap. Go back 30-40 years or so and you’d probably find that up to that era most dogs were fed on a diet of scraps, offal and leftovers

Despite stocking Hills, ours promotes a good varied diet, a ‘bit of this and a bit of that’ approach.
So our dog gets all-sorts from chicken frames (raw), blitzed veggie / fruit scraps, random meat (raw and cooked), veal knuckles, rabbit, tripe, heart, liver, venison bones, sprats, tuna etc etc.
Plus the odd handful of Country Value Greyhound in his tug-a-jug.

He does really, really well on it, and it works out very cheap.

They are non-interference engines. Though I have known people with the 1.8 lumps to have bent valves when the timing belt / tensioners gave way.
Mind you, the 2.0 has a lower compression ratio, so the valves sit further away.
Ford rate the belts as good for 100K miles, but not the actual belt tensioners, which are more likely to give up the ghost before the belt.

Strangely they failed to tell anyone oop north about it, everyone ive asked said they knew nothing of it, and it starts in January 2012.

Well, if they had implemented similar in one of those quaint ‘oop north’ taahns / cities, then I wouldn’t have expected to hear much about it down here either. It’s not an anti-northern conspiracy you know.

Subtle slide, but great tune none the less.
Beck – Loser.

I like MW3 for a quick ‘run & gun’ blast at the end of the day, but prefer BF3 for a more involved, tactical few hours.

We have a 17 month old medium doodle. He’s a lovely dog, with a superb temperament.
Great with the kids, and can either be as lazy as you like, or completely full on and nuts. Does have a very strong prey instinct for birds though (naturally, since he is basically a gun dog).
Very smart breed, easy to train & loyal, if a little aloof at times (poodle trait).
What breeder are you looking at?

http://www.surplusstore.co.uk/catalog/index.php/cPath/64

http://www.snowdoniasupplies.co.uk/cgi-bin/index.pl

Tritons are excellent, and my LBS of choice!
I’ve bought 4 bikes from them over the last few years, never had any issue.

When I worked for a local University, our Christmas do was a freebie. Public sector, no?

I’m still trying to get my head round the fact that Cristmas is looming, and that many places have their decorations up already!
To me it feels like it should still be late August / September, not 2nd week into November!

Papandreou attempts the short grift

GEORGE Papandreou may be trying to con Europe with the short grift, experts have claimed.

It should really have a funky soundtrack and a cameo part for Elliot Gould
As the Greek prime minister ‘convinced’ his cabinet to back a referendum on a massive bailout, experts said the move was quite clearly designed to scam even more money from the European Union.

Julian Cook, chief scamologist at Donnelly-McPartlin, said: “It’s textbook stuff. You join a single currency and then borrow a sum of money so huge that it endangers the entire system.

“The other countries offer to bail you out because if they don’t then everyone is ruined, but then you wait until the last possible minute and ask for more cash or ‘you’ll have to have a referendum’.

“The other countries know they can’t let you have the referendum unless you’re definitely going to vote ‘yes’ and so they pony up with the dough.

“Meanwhile, those dumb saps at the Daily Telegraph unwittingly help you along by saying it’s ‘a great day for democracy’. Beautiful.”

Nathan Muir, a retired bunco artist, said: “It’s called the Albuquerque Two-Step. Old Mickey Five-Knees used it all the time back in the Forties.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole country’s in on it.

“I’ll tell you what though, this Papandreou guy has got some serious hustle. Between the two of us we could clean up, maybe pick a small town and then go door to door selling shares in a free-range haggis farm.”
He added: “I love the fact the Greeks fired all their top generals at the same time, making everyone think the country is on the brink of a violent military coup.
“It’s the sort of wit and panache that you used to see in this game all the time. These days it’s all just payment protection insurance and homeopathy.”

2.0Tdci S-Max – 46mpg, mostly school runs!

Tablet & rinse aid compartment are usually controlled by a single solenoid. Likely that that has failed. It’s replaceable as a whole unit. Our Bosch dishwasher seems to need a new one every couple of years, must be a bad design I guess.

Depends. Would he be on a conveyor belt at the time?

White vinegar in the wash will remove the smell. Also, dilute vinegar in a spray will lift the smell from carpet. Clean with something else afterwards though otherwise your house will end up smelling like a chippy.