3/10. One point each for the swearing, the spelling mistakes and the rhetorical questions.

Points lost for clarity. Is your rant about the run-down area you found yourself in, or is it about you being personally offended by some young people dressing in a way you disapprove of?

😀

The point about the cost for a rarely used car is a good one, especially once you consider the servicing etc which I hadn’t factored in.

My clio is only 6 years old but has done 100k miles on a 1.2 so I don’t expect it to last forever, hence not wanting to get roofboxes or trailers for it as I will not be getting such a small car again with the kids getting older. Also, Mrs-g needs to learn to drive so the clio will at some point fairly soon be sacrificed to the gearbox destroying task of her practicing.

I think with the possibility of there being 2 drivers in the house, and with the kids getting bigger and wanting a bit more comfort on the long journeys I can justify the expense of an additional car, but yes it will be petrol.

You don’t want the hassle and expense of getting a roof box
…
…
…so you’re going to buy an extra car instead? 😀

If you just want a bigger car, why don’t you trade in the Clio?

Isn’t the definition of a “classic” the first car you had sex in?

Oooh. Nissan Bluebird. My Dad’s. Although he wasn’t in it at the time.

I get dragged along to these occasionally.

At the last one, the hostess (a friend of my partner’s) was so obsessive and anxious that she looked like she would burst out crying if the slightest thing went wrong. So what could have been a relaxing evening with friends just became some sort of horrible challenge. And her loud-mouthed Tory **** of a husband was, well, a loud-mouthed Tory ****.

I tend to smile and nod, eat with my mouth closed and say as little as possible.

Defender

Those Mitsubishi bus things with off-road suspension that look like moon buggies

For people saying BMW, yes I get that they are good looking cars and nice to drive, but are 20 year old BMWs considered “classics” now? Or are they just utility cars driven by people who don’t have loads of cash but fancy a Beemer anyway?

Same with Boxsters IMO. Nice to have, but “classic”?

I’ll get laughed out of town for this, but I don’t care!

Dacia. They have an extremely loyal and enthusiastic customer base (there’s a club and everything!).

I think they’ll attract the same type of enthusiast that has been keeping their 2CV or Austin Allegro going since 1975.

You can hire a new BMW 320 Estate for £357 per week.

I’m guessing that would be less than you’d pay annually just to insure your bangernomics car.

It’s good fun but weirdly, it wouldn’t be my destination of choice for buying a bike. You’re limited to whoever’s exhibiting, and no bargains.

Go anyway though.

But on the wider issue:

Buying, taxing, insuring and parking a whole new car, just for the odd camping trip, seems like a sledgehammer to crack a nut. You just need your Clio, a bike rack, and possibly a roof box.

We’ve done loads of family camping trips in small cars.

big old E Class estate.

Bingo!

^^ Ah sorry just realised that the Mondeo suggestion was not from the OP. Points stand though

Mondeos seem to be huge and cheap?

Yes they’re huge and cheap, but the diesels start to get very expensive as they get old. Disintegrating DMF, blocked EGR valve, constant engine management issues, coupled with a turbo + actuator that is sold as a single (very expensive) unit means that for me, owning an old diesel Mondeo was a fraught and expensive experience. Although of course YMMV.

And old A4 or 3 series BMW might be a better bet?

And are you absolutely attached to diesel? If you’re only using it occasionally then slightly fewer MPG won’t be too much of an issue, when offset against cheaper maintenance costs and not blowing quite so much toxic gas into the faces of your fellow city dwellers 🙂

Yep I’ll have a look at those two charities, among others. I’ll also have a look at refugee services locally and see what they need. I teach English. Maybe I could help out that way, although it doesn’t help people still in Syria.

1. Question EVERYTHING you are told in the media about Syria (from both sides). That includes today’s photos in the Guardian. Why release these images now? Why does the UK media carry these, and not the daily slew of images of corpses and mutilated bodies caused by both sides, which you can find on alternative media?

2. Read into the history of the conflict. Read about US foreign policy since World War 2. Read about the Shia / Sunni conflict in the Middle East. Read about Israel’s relationship to Saudi and the US, compared to its closer Shia neighbours (Iran, Syria). Ask, who is really fighting who? Its not as simple as the mass media tell us.

3. Write to your MP and demand that they vote against any future armed conflicts in the Middle East. Ask them instead to commit to humanitarian support instead.

4. Donate any spare cash you have to charities which are supporting the real victims of the Middle East wars; women, children and the elderly.

I don’t have a problem with any of what you say but I’d like to save the politics for when there aren’t civilians with no food or water living in rubble in Aleppo.

I will of course make a charity donation (which one?) but there must be more a person can do…

Good for you. I told my boss to shove it back in March. Got a new job while I was working my notice. It’s a more junior position but I’m much happier, have more energy, am more use around the house, and do more with my kids.

i don’t; in ellen’s photo she’s getting a piggy-back from the world’s greatest ever sprinter, who seems to like it. in the other images (provided by the bbc to highlight the unfortunate similarity), i see slave-owners abusing people who seem dejectedly accepting of a torment that at least makes a change from the rapes and beatings.

but then i’m a white male, i have no real appreciation that the entire world has been built for my exclusive benefit, so i try and accept that i might be wrong when i make judgement calls on what issues are and aren’t ‘racist’…

This ^^ is word-for-word my view too, and very well put.

The Daily Mash really have a bee in their bonnet about it

Oooh I got that earlier. I thought my phone had a virus. Is it this site, then, and not my phone?

gobuchul, I’m sorry I called you a dick. I’m giving up smoking. I get like that.

Yes. Yes I do.

Mate you’re being a dick now

I’ll just have a sift through your post, then, to see if there’s anything I fancy.

Not the same at all.[/quote]

It is. It’s exactly the same. They stole their neighbour’s post.

You seem to think that, because the post was sent by a company and not an individual, it’s fair game to steal.

I guess they saw it as a “victim less” crime.

I’ll just have a sift through your post, then, to see if there’s anything I fancy.

You know what you could do? Screw with their eBay business.

1. I’ll bet they’re traders but operating on a personal (not business) eBay account. People do this because it’s cheaper but it’s a T&C violation. So tell eBay.

2. I’ll bet they don’t declare their eBay earnings. So tell HMRC.

3. Bid on their stuff then don’t pay.

4. Absolutely **** their feedback.

etc

Move house.

And this. Life’s too short to live with thieving neighbours.

If the Dyson is still in its original packaging and in their house, then that’s the evidence. However if the rozzers turn up at the door, they’ll just say it’s gone.

I think it’s unlikely that the police with bother with a search warrant, especially since the evidence is probably gone.

As someome else has pointed out, if you call them out on it, they’ll call you a liar and present themselves as victims. This is what dishonest, immature people always do.

Annoying as it is, there’s nothing (that’s legal and moral) you can really do.

Haven’t read the comments, but I expect they go from the inexplicable tolerance of bad driving that seems to prevail on this site, through to calls for the OP to be hanged.

OP, sorry I can’t help you. I hope you are treated fairly by the police and courts, and you get a punishment that is appropriate for the crime of driving while under the influence.

Please don’t smoke weed and drive. Regards, other road users.

I’ve got the same stand as the Aldi one (although I got it somewhere else).

1. It works (It holds your bike securely off the ground)
2. It may not have some features of more expensive models but I don’t know what those features are so I don’t miss them.
3. The benefit of “got a bike stand” over “not got a bike stand” is worth £25.

frame my days

a FACT 9 frame used in a complete bike catalogue

days the same game

Sorry mate I’m a +1 on the no idea what any of this means.

Coffee’s for closers

We do “screen time” and “no screen time”. It works out well.

and sometimes you just need to make them do things they dont want to do for their own future benefit, even if they have a tantrum they soon forget once they are enjoying whatever it is they’ve now learned to do, be it cycling, swimming, etc.

Right. Yeah.

OP, you just have to force him to do it.

My eldest, now 8, was riding two wheels when he was 3. His younger brother (now 5) has shown less interest so I haven’t pushed it. But now I’m going off on fun rides with my eldest, the youngest has become interested in learning again, and we’re nearly there with him.

Maybe have a cool bike adventure with your eldest & don’t try to coax your youngest any more? My guess is he’ll come round. Sometimes the more you try to persuade/pressure kids, the less they’ll want to do it.

Af Chapman in Stockholm is a brilliant, cheap hostel. Fly budget airline to Skavsta, get the shuttle coach to Stockholm T Centralen, walk to Af Chapman (10 minutes), enjoy.

Morally repugnant and feel that money is needed elsewhere.

It’s a fallacy that were it not used for the Olympics, “the money” would be used for poverty relief.

By that logic, nobody should spend money on anything until poverty is relieved by some arbitrary measure. Therefore, if you own a television, you are “morally repugnant” because you didn’t give “the money” to a poor person instead.

I bet you lot are fun at parties 🙄

😀

I rode about 40 miles with the Maillot Noir peloton, until they stopped at the pub. A very well-organised two-abreast group. We all pushed on nicely 🙂

Yeah. The DD has no official start time and people set off when they feel like it between 7ish and 9ish.

I suppose drivers will have to accept that, for one evening a year, they’re not going to be able to boot it along those roads.