When we bought a rubber set (and boot liner) to swap out the carpet mats in the OH’s car, we bought them online from a Czech Republic skoda parts dealer – ‘fraid I cant recall who, but even with shipping it was a good saving (well, before Brexit’s effect on the exchange rate). Separate mats ? – not sure that’s a thing unless it’s a van.
3rd party mats generally seem to be pretty poor IME, so I’ve repaired the wear patches on hers with black shoogoo – doesn’t look fantastic, but it’s tidy – it’s not as if you look at it much – and it’s actually worked really well. Apply fairly thickly then cover with clingfilm (and pref heavy book etc) to get a decent finish, it builds up in layers if you can’t (almost certainly) do it all in one go. Make sure you give it a few days to cure before refitting.

The US embago has absolutely no effect on phones in production.

For those phones yet to ship, the problem seems to be around access to Google-licenced apps, esp. the playstore, and that looks like it may be possible to circumvent, tho’ I don’t have any specific details.It’s normally possible to download/install from a .APK file outside of the store (as I did with a very old HTC whose reset ‘marketplace’ wouldn’t talk to playstore, so I had to find an old but compatible playstore APK).

In the company I used to work for we had out own arm-based soc (system-on-chip) which was configured into an android tablet for the Chinese market just before we were sold off/broken up. The open-sourceness of android IIRC makes it impossible to prevent its use, except that theres the tie-up into the playstore (etc). There’s also the issue of first tier early access to android releases, which the big companies have (and Huawei lose), but it’s just delayed – and manufacturers typically modify anyway.
I think these links are reasonably representative, but being out of the industry now I don’t know the latest or fine detail. I guess if the mate30 looks like it may float your boat, wait, and keep an eye on playstore workarounds for it.

https://www.pocket-lint.com/phones/news/huawei/148102-what-does-huawei-s-google-ban-mean-for-your-huawei-or-honor-phone

https://www.pocket-lint.com/phones/news/huawei/149446-huawei-chief-the-mate-30-series-won-t-work-with-the-play-store

As an apprentice in the 80s they were used throughout the servicing/calibration/QA section of BT. Someone gave me one some years later (no case or full probe set) but useable.
A few weeks ago whilst replacing the soldered-in rechargables in a razor, couldn’t find my Radioshack meter from the 70s, or the BT kit-build from my apprenticeship. Managed to find the avo, still works fine 🙂
They’re big and heavy – and even 30 years ago were a bit big for other than bench work- but in 30yrs of electronic engineering (and assorted home dabbling) about the only thing extra a DVM gives you is a little more easily read precision, and mebbe a continuity buzzer. And there’s less to go wrong in an Avo.

Still, less of the misty-eyed nonsense 😉 -looks like you might get between 20-50 quid on eBay (many don’t have case or leads) or a little more if you’re lucky.

If you’re going to repurpose it, it’d be a shame to hack a working/complete bit of kit, but it might be possible to be creative
.. just wire it in circuit with a few banana plugs, if you can think of a use.

Kinda -see bottom.

Sounds like you need a combination of stretching/releasing acoss the chest and upper back, plus strengthening the upper back and muscles that stabilise the shoulder blades (and there are some good suggestions above).
Btw – stretches don’t so much lengthen the muscles but rather allow the nervous system to allow them to lengthen.

Chest/shoulder release : wall angels – make sure you engage your core (‘cinch’ in the waist/scoop the belly and close in the ribcage) to stop your lower ribcage from popping up off the wall; lie face up on the floor(prob feet drawn towards the bottom), either a foam roller at various positions under (across) the upper back, or a small 7″ish inflatable gym ball (inflate to suit) in a similar position, and extend the upper back over it (support the head with your hands). With the ball in a similar posn can also open the chest, or can lie on the roller with it lengthways along the spine, and allow the arms/shoulders to release towards the floor.

Exercises: seated cable row, sitting upright, don’t allow shoulders to shrug/keep them down, keep shoulder blades snug to ribs and down the back – stabilises shoulder blades and engages lats;
shoulder blade/scapula pushup (engages muscles that stabilise them); shoulder blade pullup (either from a hang or from holding the bar on a lat pulldown machine) pull the shoulders blades snug to the ribcage and down the back, them release to allow the shoulders to elevate, repeat..; (pilates) dart/cobra prep -to extend upper back(thoracic and cervical) and strengthen it in extension, plus the ytwl mentioned above – tho’ I’d ditch the L and lie down prone, doing them bent over standing just adds another level of confusion over precise form IMO..for dart/cobra prep/ytw, tho you’re prone on the floor , engage the core to support your lower back; pilates swimming (or the upper body section thereof) – extends upper back with added load of arms forward, and also has scaps hugging ribcage hence stabilising.
Standing chin tucks -not exactly a tuck, but move/press the skull backwards using the neck (might help against a wall so you know the rest of your spine is static keeping it vertical, so the chin starts to tuck towards the throat. Could also do that lying in bed, pressing the skull into the mattress. Similarly if holding a plank position (snugging the scaps to the ribcage !) – don’t let the head drop, it should be in line with the spine/similar chin tuck, so you’ll be looking slightly fwd of your hands, not towards them. Can also do the aforementioned dart with a chin tuck, rather than extending up through the neck.

Also just try to lengthen up through the spine when standing – just be aware that some people (mebbe us old gits) equate that to ‘standing to attention’. Which *might* help in your case but might just mean you extend your lower back rather than further up..I used to do that slightly but I’ve seen one bloke almost bend over backwards!

Fwiw, office chairs that come up much past mid back drive me nuts -ymmv – I like to extend back over them, swapping to a new spanky high back chair years ago gave me a cranky back within a day or two, fortunately I rescued my old low-backed one 🙂

Despite having generally good posture (and improved over the last 15+ yrs of practising pilates – and more recently, training to be an instructor), I’ve often been fighting shoulders that pop up towards my ears when it’s cold (or even when it’s not)..noticed this more mebbe 6 months ago when I started doing more seated cable pull rows in the gym, and my shoulders weren’t staying down. Reduced the weight till I could keep my shoulder blades back and down (and hence shoulders), and have steadily increased the weight since, and including far more pulling/hanging type work than o used to. Have also kept awareness of what the damn things are doing, and seem to be winning. Funny thing is, mostly they behave, esp. with heavy loading, but with light loading, not so much – standing, my shoulders elevate, holding a plank, sometimes the shoulder blades wing.

Finally -and I would say this 😉 – mebbe try some pilates matwork classes (there’s machine/studio based stuff too but more £££). Just make the teacher aware of the issue (tho they should quiz you anyway), and be aware that *some* classes -but not all – may be quite flexion (think upper body crunch-like)-centric . In fact, much of that stuff is harder with the head down, and in reality most people need more extension because they’re hunched over desks..

Err..hope there was something worthwhile in that lot 😉

‘London and the south east benefitting at the cost of everyone else’ ?
To most of us here it makes absolutely *no* difference, so cut tbe’be efit’ rubbish please. There’s a velodrome / cycle circuit which replaces the old Eastway circuit I used to live near in the 80s – which if Herne Hill hadn’t survived would been the only track down here(AFAIA)- I’ve been to the white water centre on a jolly but it’s not easily accessible for many. There’s a bigger shopping centre/various bars across the site but not exactly somewhere i’d ever aim to go.
As someone that lives pretty near London and goes on a few times each week, I and many others aren’t happy with the post-2012 ‘benefits’, specifically affordable/social housing, and a stadium being chucked away at a football team. But this kinda stuff happens with many Olympics, and I can think of a few ‘festival of’/’expo (insert year)’ events from around Europe or the wider world where the sites have very often fallen into disrepair, disuse and abandonment. Over the last 33 years the commonwealth games has been held in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, and Brum gets its turn in 2022. I can’t vouch for the effect on those, but at least 2012 has regenerated an area, much of which needed it. And the unfortunate truth is that a nice shiny stadium, wherever it is, can’t remain empty and be self funding. ‘Course, not everyone’s happy, some businesses had to move (I wonder whether they were compensated sufficiently), and some have moved out purely because of increased premises costs – not limited to Stratford, and that’s a related but separate problem. As is the issue of developers all over London/SE trying to scale down social/affordable housing which many council struggle to deal with in terms of getting stuff built.

</lurk>

Or one of the WTO articles here ? – I forget which was originally linked, but it’s somewhere in the blog

https://www.explaintrade.com
<lurk>

“Don’t lump me in with the angry brigade.
Surrey voted Remain.”

And ‘my’ local MP is Dominic-bloody-Raab in a 60+ percent remain constituency. Now, I wouldnt vote for any Tory round here (tho the councillors are actually not complete idiots), but how does deselection work… ? ;p

*what she said in that interview has been spun.”

It doesn’t need to be spun, she just doesn’t understand the facts. The UK *will* have left, the interim period is simply an arrangement to help the UK in lieu of a formal trade , no deal.Hence no MEPs.

A minor diversion, and apologies if it’s been posted before, but related to ”Rees Mogg is dangerous’ upthread :  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/nov/09/mystic-mogg-jacob-rees-mogg-willam-predicts-brexit-plans

“Dyson has long bemoaned government’s failure to support manufacturing in this country”

I’m not sure I’d be able to find a relevant link, but ISTR one statement from him in the last few years suggested one (main ?) issue was with employment policies – effectively the hire/fire bit wrt to production demands (ie time-varying employment requirements), and how that would have to change before he’d consider production in the UK (I guess there’s still the issue of relative cost, but the point made he made about Singapore re car production is that costs there are relatively high).

‘Course, perish the thought that anyone would want the stability of a full-time job.

>Apparently its what they taught to do.

Not convinced about that – my local instructors are quite encouraging as well as correcting when necessary, it’s been a while since I’ve been though that bit of my course notes but ISTR feedback and encouragement figures..ought to, at any rate. In any case, there’s several different ‘schools’ wrt Pilates – and instructors often don’t advertise which (probably ‘cos for most people it’s not that relevant), so ‘they’ might be a specific bunch…

Didn’t want to get too specific, but yeah, instructor is the main thing, in ability, style, and attention to detail. Not a uniform truth, but instructors that treat it as their *own* workout really should be avoided – they’re not watching what the class is doing. TBH one instructor I’ve been to – whilst good otherwise – can be a bit of an offender sometimes..not to say that she doesn’t correct people, but there’s been odd occasions where the eye is somewhere else but on the ball. Demonstrating as the class goes through the exercise too is fine depending on what it is, but after that they should be paying attention.

The problem with a lot of the fitness industry is that in theory there are various qualifications, but how it’s administered is something else, with rather variable result. Eg – one bunch of trainers gave the instructors at our gym a weekend ‘fitness pilates’ teach-in as a cheap way of running some ‘pilates’ classes (and most don’t know the difference). Fair enough I guess..but when I looked further, they also teach a Level3 Pilates qualification, for which the sign-off is sending them a video of a class the applicant’s taught. Not exactly a rigorous procedure IMO :/

Curiously, some teaching has gone away from cueing specific muscles/sensations – I suspect because this can cause over emphasis of one thing rather than concentrating on the movement.

As mentioned above, depends on what type of yoga – can’t comment on much else but I’ve done quite a few sessions of Iyengar in the past, which tends to hold poses/stretches and is a bit more concerned with alignment via blocks/straps. But useless (IMO) if you want to do any strength work in the gym afterwards since the stretches temporarily fry your muscles (certainly in the case of my quads). I’d guess that Vinyasa or Ashtanga might be a little more flowing.
Not sure what style of yoga a colleague used to do, but he went on to practise ‘acroyoga’ which probably requires more core strength – looked like fun anyhow.

IME I’ve never found iyengar to be much of a challenge as regards core strength, and even regards flexibility other than a few things, but then I’ve always had relatively good flexibility for a bloke (*not* dancer-flexible !). So a fun class to do, but not that bothered if I don’t, and I can happily drop into a class without knowing what’s coming up. As far as increasing flexibility – it’s all static, which isn’t necessarily so useful functionally. Again, other styles may be more useful for dynamic stretching.

Pilates – well matwork (there’s another area involved apparatus): I did a taster class of pilates, and of yoga, and stuck with the former, that was maybe 17-18 years ago. Currently enrolled on an instructor’s course (for which I need to get my finger out and do the supervised teaching bit..).
Aimed at (but not exclusively) core strength and general flexibility/mobility, and with precision and control..also involves the small stabilising muscles in the body.
That’s not to say alignent has to millimeter-perfect either – in practice different instructors are more/less fussy, and some alignments may be depends on pilates ‘school/method’. In general it’s more about moving the right thing, whilst keeping the ‘other’ thing in the right orientation (tho’ that could be moving too !).

(By comparison, in other gym-going I see some bloody awful attempts at what look like pilates or what a gym instructor’s dished out, and lack of control/use of momentum are achieving nothing other than moving some limbs in vaguely the right direction, possibly with injury if they carry on like that…)

Pilates class sizes tend to be limited to about 12, so the instructor’s got more opportunity to spot incorrect practise – yoga classes I’ve been to tend to be somewhat more, which may be why they’re less picky, but YMMV. And in some come cases a small aligment difference can be quite critical to the exercise – eg turning off hip flexors when trying to work adductors.

Pilates (nowadays at least) is based on biomechanics, and some things have changed over the years – and much is used in some form by gym instructors and physios..one organisation/school is APPI (australian physiotherapy and pilates institute. Also used by a fair few dancers to control their tendency towards hypermobilty, which can mess up joints in the long term.

In practice many pilates instructors incorporate bits of yoga/physio exercises into their classes..not sure the converse would be true, but then Pilates borrows a lot from other areas anyway. And there’s lots of ways (inc using small equipment) to make exercises easier/harder according to the ability/flexibility/injury of the individual concerned.

Personally, I’d go with pilates on the strength/flexibility aspect – quite a good complement to cycling – but it depends on what you want out of a class, and moreover, what’s available near you and what the instructors are like. It’ll probably take about 10 sessions to work out what you’re doing with either, so stick with it 🙂

Had a variable-length goatee for almost decade, then went for the metalhead long goatee for most of the next one, then just grew the damn thing out. Only bothered doing much to it now it’s fuller and feels wirier (it’s quite curly too).

Olive/avocado/almond oil (I’m a tight git) doesn’t seem to cut it so after a shower/bath, just rubbing some leave-in conditioned through it helps soften it up.
Best one I’ve found – c/o my OH – is KMS Moist Repair, but it’s bloomin’ expensive (15 quid for 125ml, mebbe a tenner on ebay if you’re lucky). As a guess, tried some more afro-targetted stuff – ORS Curls Unleashed (!) Leave-In conditioning Creme isn’t bad, cheap at about 6-7 quid from Boots for 454g but a bit sticky, whilst the ORS equivalent Shea Butter/Mango Leave-In Conditioner *isn’t* sticky but similarly cheapish at 6-7 quid for 355ml and does most of the job of the KMS..and you don’t feel so bad about using it every time you get a shower at the gym. Smells okish too, tho’ not my first choice.
On-and-off I’ve brushed the conditioner through but it just seems to consolidate any tangles – combing through with fingers seems to work better. Using conditioner in the bath/shower seems to have little effect by comparison. YMMV..

Tho’ I probably wouldn’t bother at all (as I didn’t) unless the beard’s more than an inch or two, assuming it grows out fairly quickly.

Oh, and I’m probably to old to be called a hipster, but it’s slightly weird being complimented on yer beard whilst piddling at the urinal of some craft beer boozer…

Some reasonable suggestions above (well, maybe not the mophead 🙂 ), but can’t really go wrong with pilates…done properly, ideally with a decent instructor to correct you (I see all manner of nonsense being done by individuals in my local gym..well, it’s movement, but not pilates) – and at the appropriate level/modification). Pilates isn’t just ‘core’ but assorted stabilising muscles, and incorporates stretching/mobility too.

I’m a bit puzzled by the dragon flag=jacknife comment (unless there’s some loopy calisthenics version) – the only point at which they’re similar is with the legs vertical and weight on shoulders or when lying horizontal (both of which which are the easiest point anyway), the jacknife is as much hip and lumbar flexion for much of the movement, and often fairly fluid tho’ you can slow it down. ‘Course, you could just keep the legs vertical and flex from the lumbar region, but that’s a reverse ab curl (not that there’s anything wrong with those either…choice of leg position can made them harder/easier).

Dragon flags..all very good for bragging rights ;)….but I’d suggest they’re a bit like pull-ups, all very well if you can do one, but if you can’t..then you can’t, and need a modified version – or something else – to get you there (eg athlean-x, tapp bros, bh bars progressions on youtube..and don’t forget to start with the eccentric/negative portion if you need to). Plus if you start vertical and can’t control it when legs are entended, you could be in danger of hyperextending your lumbar spine (same goes for roll-outs if you don’t control them – an alternative is walking your hands out, rather than using a wheel.)

Not sure what’s meant by ‘excessive’ flexing – the spine’s intended to flex/extend/rotate and you retain mobility by doing so, certainly ‘folding’ or putting most of the movement into one spot (typically lumbar/thoracic/cervical junctions) isn’t a good idea, you want to encourage movement between individual vertebra. Note that the thoracic area’s good at rotation, lumbar good at flexion/extension so you also want to encourage the opposite – lumbar rotation and thoracic flexion and esp. extension to keep everying moving in addition to their normal patterns of use.

Nothing wrong with planks and all their variations (prone or side), but the core’s more than just resisting flexion (simplistically, flexion = curling into fetal posn, extension is opposite). Eg pilates leg pull back, shoulder bridge variations, much of the lying prone stuff – swimming, cobra, swan dive/variations etc, plus mobility (and side-lying stuff). Some things look innocuous but can be surprisingly hard to execute well, and you can often find unexpected weaknesses or imbalances between sides of the body.

For traditional leather boots, Anatom are worth a look, think they’re uk designed – bought a pair a few months back to replace some 90s Brashers (the modern equivalent has a different last). Pity is I didn’t find them last year, I’d already bought some (leather) Hanwags (worth looking at too), which are fine for the steeper/rockier stuff I do with some mates, but a little high/OTT for wearing all day on holiday or general rambles – whereas the Anatoms are beefier than the older Brashers and could have doubled up duties. Cotswold are pretty decent at sorting the right fit out, esp the branch in Betws y Coed. Couldnt find any Meindls that fit my feet, fwiw.

First off – the ‘in your pocket’ guide – pdf, app, website (and they’re all a bit different) are worth inspecting/downloading – you can also pick up a hardcopy from tourist information .

Re saltmines, there’s the option of the main tour, or main tour with a separate bit added that you don’t see otherwise, which is worth doing. (Excursion tours via hawkers etc in central krakow tend to just do the main tour).

We actually did the Schindler factory over two days, and the gestapo cells (2 parts) https://www.inyourpocket.com/krakow/ulica-pomorska_80950v which is fascinating (?) but probably no less chilling than Auschwitz as a result of the detail/testimonies. Couldnt really face doing Auschwitz too.
The Liban quarry – the site of a nazi labour camp – is kinda eerie, but a confusing mix of stuff from filming schindlers list https://polandian.wordpress.com/2008/05/12/schindlers-list-death-camp-krakow-off-the-beaten-track/

Nowa Hutta – a drive/tram ride out of town is interesting, grand, soviet era new town built to support the nearby steelworks. Quite austere originally but now quite pleasant with lot of mature trees.

Theres various caves/caverns a drive (train ride ? – I forget) from town which were worth a visit.

Check out a few of the milk bars if you can – basic buffets. In particular one on Grodzka (but I think theres a very basic one in the centre of nowa hutte.

There’s a huge range of craft beers (and numerous bars with them) in krakow – check out beerpubs.pl (beerpubs.com). Problem is trying to work out what’s what..only place we found with a beer menu was stefa piwa, tho we were staying just round the corner from house of beer (I asked for a menu there and the barman gestured at the wall of beer !)
http://www.beerpubs.com/index.php?page=browse_pubs&pub_browse=1&location=kraków

Admittedly we do places in a fair bit of detail, walk a lot etc, but spent about 10 days there -a lot to see if you go looking for it. Hth..

Recovery bloke that picked me up reckoned that the fault often clears and they’re ok, but how long for I dunno. ‘Cept not in my case.

As mentioned, often seems to be an insulation issue according to some reports so a refurb or s/h may be on borrowed time. A couple of injector specialists mentioned on the caddy2k forum, inc Swadlingcote (other’s in Ireland). I was originally quoted 400 per injector (parts cost) initially (vs 230+vat at swadlingcote) but independent managed to get about 270 – 300 inc vat/rebate. Thats new ptices btw. Fitting about 170 +vat + some additional parts, the copper washer under both under one spreader bar has to be replaced so I took the plunge and replaced a pair. 10-15 miles later, one in the other pair went :/ (2012 and about 35k miles). Expensive week :/

Having had a pair of long-handled felcos for mebbe 15 yrs, and some cheaper (non adjustable?) lookalikey jobbies (ditto some gilettes ? from the 90s), I’d stick with felcos.
Have two other pairs of unknown manufacture from 50s/60s or later which are pretty decent too, but they’re not to hand so not too sure why those have always worked better than the lookalikes…problem generally is a pivot which slackens and can’t be reliably set.

Have never used anvil pruners, but I gather they’re different tools – anvils may crush soft stems, but may work better on harder/dry wood.

“Why would you employ an expensive programmer and let them do engineering’

Because the example given was pretty applicable – writing s/w to model a system or part thereof, whether mathmatical, algorithmic/behavioural. But in particular, engineers are problem solvers. (For me it’s actually more the making things, but you still need to do the solving !)

Which is kinda where some consultancies come in (or used to, at any rate..and where I mainly started). You have engineers that may have specific skills but are bright/quick learning enough to pick up other related areas in sufficient depth. I can’t say for sw engineering degrees, but there used to be fair degree of commonality in the first year of electronics/elec eng/maths and probably mech eng too, at least in much of the maths concerned. Plus many of us engineers have our feet in a few camps whether work or hobby. I started as analogue/digital electronics and moved to chip design, chip validation, then finally my own level of incompetence in device drivers (didnt really fit my head, tho im fine coding other stuff), And just as happy messing around with timber/metal as are assorted colleagues.
Career paths don’t *have* to be purely managerial above a certain level (tho they often are.)

Fwiw, after a voluntary redundancy a few years ago im (slowly) retraining as a pilates instructor – i wasnt great at sports but it’s one thing I can do well (15yrs experience) and hopefully impart. Helpful that my current instructor’s set up a new venture, and blokes aren’t really targeted much at the mo’. Gawd knows what I’d do otherwise. ..gardener ?

Re limp mode – I think it depends on the situation, first time I’d just pulled out onto an 40mph Aroad and was accelerating from mebbe 20 so limp mode was v. noticeable. Second time it went at about 70, but in 5th gear I had enough speed/momentum and just enough pull despite limp mode (just give it a *little* throttle, more makes it worse I think) that I could make it the next 1/4 or 1/2 mile at a similar speed to the next junction. Might have been a bit more concerning if overtaking in the outside lane or a long way from a junction.

The caddy2k forums’s not that onerous – prob this sort of discussion is as much in the accessible area anyway.

1.6 is surprisingly good IMO and fairly nippy considering its a big box. Overtakes need planning tho.
Seating’s great -before 2012 or 2011 (I forget) you could flip up the middle row but not remove (well, without a spanner maybe). My normal bike now is a 6ft recumbent, so I just remove the rear bench and flip/remove part of the middle row. The seat weight isnt so much the problem as being awkward – the rear bench is easiest, followed by the single

I’m one of those that’s mentioned injectors both there, and here.
Not sure how widespread, but there’s certainly a few of us with multiple failures on the 1.6 – mines a mid 2012 maxi life. One went before Christmas about 30k, sat on what to do, eventually bit the bullet and replaced the pair under one spreader bar (need to replace copper washers under both if replacing one so labours the same for one or the pair). Picked up repaired caddy, spin down the nearby fast A road for 10 miles or so and one of the *other* pair failed 🙁 Recovery back to garage, and got second pair replaced.

Labour about 170+vat per pair, about 49-50 odds per pair, but about 300 inc VAT per injector. Ouch.

If it was just local running about I *might* have just changed one at a time, but labour+bits is almost the cost of one injector. And it gets mainly used for long journeys -match was a Wales trip for a metal fest, June is another fest in Belgium. Failing on the way back is one thing, failing on the way there and getting it repaired is another level of pain.

The faulty injectors *seem* to be one age range – you can check the part number (see caddy2k) on lifting the bonnet. But if finding the older part is there, dunno how much of an indication it is that it’ll fail, there must be a lot out there.

But it’s a great vehicle otherwise, considered t5s but ££ more. Hyundia i800 promising but middle bench only slides, have to unbolt rear bench- tho one or two companies are doing nice camper conversions, do maybe the seat issue is solvable.

Oh, egr valve replacement is about 900 quid! – main cost is labour.

Did one some years ago. Some useful tips/info that you either didn’t cover when you passed your test or had forgotten.
You might feel like an idiot for being there, but you won’t be treated like one.

As an engineer (specifically electronics but also a more general background), funnily enough I tend to be inclined to trust the manufacturer’s design/engineering based recommendation rather than some random homespun theory punted around for the last gawd-knows how many year ago, from when design/materials engineering may have been less advanced and engines were petrol.
(That said, there’s an argument for ignoring similar running -in recommendations wrt piston ring sealing re bike engines. Anyhow..)
And of course, sometimes they screw up (I know 3 owners of Alphas circa 15yrs ago that all had cambelt failures)

As far as ‘ooh, high mileage’, consider : it’s driving behaviour which has more effect. An engine spinning happily on the motorway will be up to temp, generally with minimal loading, lubrication sloshing around nicely. A low-mileage engine may simply have far more stop-start cycles per unit mileage -wear occurs when starting up since there’s no significant oil film between the initially stationary parts (bearing shells etc) as they start to move.
Oh, and diesel fuel has some lubricating properties (tho reduced with low sulphur, hence additives used, if I understand correctly).

Fwiw, there’s (or used to be) a lot of nonsense around re motorcycle engines – most modern engines (last 20yrs) should do a pile of mileage, but resale values used to drop significantly for anything with ‘high’ mileage. ISTR one 96-ish Fireblade that’d got to 200+k miles, probably 170 more than most ever saw.)

But as mentioned in a previous thread, by way of anecdote: we passed on our 2002 1.9tdi A4 in 2015, 220-odd k miles. Oil needed topping up in the first 120k when it was my OH’s company car, other than that no engine work other than cambelts and 2yr/20kmile longlife servicing.

As ever, YMMV, yer pays yer money etc but I’m not sure spreading overly pessimistic paranoia does anyone any good unless it has good basis in facts.

Anecdote..make your own mind up.
My OH had her A4 avant (diesel) from new as a company car in 2002, bought it when she left the company (120k), and we sold it in 2015 (220ishk)

At 220-odd thousand miles it was still running perfectly, but the driver side of the heater matrix made it expensive to repair – if I hadn’t bought a caddy the previous year id have taken it over myself and worn a warmer coat!

Always on longlife servicing.

>See above comment – when I can buy three eight gig cards for £12.93, why would I bother re-using a card, re-formatting increases the possibility of a card failing, and to repeat, using the card until it’s full, then retiring it means I’ve still got the original photos.

Increasing the chances of it failing ? SD card controllers use a ‘wear levelling’ algorithm – it’s unlikely you’ll hit a problem in normal use. Maybe if you were running a continuous memory read/write test on one…!

If you’re using them as your only backup, I’d suggest a usb drive caddy and a 1-3Tb drive for some redundancy. Can’t beat a bit of extra redundancy. And as mentioned, better accessibility.

>It probably does – we’re not talking microprocessors here. You have been able to get signal amplifiers on a chip for 30 odd years.

And the rest – the 741 op-amp (pretty ubiquitous when I was a kid into electronics, 40 years ago) has been around since 1968.
Got an Z80, 8080A, assorted TTL/cmos logic and various opamps sitting in a box in the shed, circa ’79 or 80.
And a 12″ wafer hanging from the study wall, that’s got about 230-odd 15mmx15mm graphics processor dice within it..

(waves at AdamT 😀 )

Best be aware that there’s an injector issue on the 1.6tdi (damhikt) – mentioned on the caddy2k.com forum, seem to be more than a few its happened to (note- you’ll need to make a small no of posts before you see most of the forum outside general chat). Not sure how many years it affects, but one on my 2012 maxilife failed recently. Basically the insulation gives up, often about 30k+, supposedly newer replacement injectors use a better material. Probably gonna have to replace all 4 cos I need to trust it on long trips (most of my mileage, do very little daily stuff). Loads of room, I get a 6ft recumbent in one side just removing the rear bench and flipping up 1/3 of the middle row.

We have a couple of humax foxt2 hdr freeview boxes (one since they came out) – but that and the tv only support iplayer. Was looking for a streaming player (all4, nowtv/netflix etc) and settled on a Roku, 50 quid via a trial of amazon prime. There’s wifi only and ethernet variants – wifi is a bit unreliable IME and esp. in our house (wall construction) so we have the latter. The nowtv box is also a roku but I *think* the wifi only variant (dunno about newer offerings). We’ve actually had a nowtv subscription for movies only running for several months after a free trial but are gonna suspend it for a few months or more, but it’s been ok. Yeah, can subscribe to tv series too, plus there’s amazon prime/Netflix. You *ought* to be able to do likewise with the nowtv box since it’s also a roku, but it’d be worth checking (tho for a few extra quid I’d go wired..)

Have used them in the past (pilates classes but the instructor mixes it up quite a bit) -adds an interesting variation, some/many of which you could otherwise do on a suspension trainer (eg human trainer or trx – tho the latter are a bit annoying on a few counts). And *far* more versatile than a wheel. But could use towels on a shiney floor – quite a few videos on YouTube.

..and *possibly* newer injectors have a different insulation compound (partway down pg 2)
http://caddy2k.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=24750&start=15

Ah – seems the injector issue’s on the 1.6tdi : http://caddy2k.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=28782&sid=fffa36f66e66dbae9663ef2d7b7d8bb8

I bought a Maxi Life (2012 model) a few years ago and been pretty pleased with it, nowadays I ride a recumbent which is 6ft long and anything other than vans doesn’t have the height/length. The interior plastics tidy the whole lot up nicely compared to a van – you see a few as taxis – but still leave assorted cubby holes to put things in (there’s a couple of shallow spaces under the middle seat footwells too). Would have liked a T5 but the difference in price was crazy and there seem to be assorted T5 niggles, plus you don’t lose that much space with the Maxi. Re the Kombis, aside from any commercials issue the prices *seem* to be effectively higher once you’ve added all the extras included in the Maxi, but they were too new at the time to tell if that worked through to s/h prices. Prior to 2012 (2011?) the middle seats only folded, the later revision means you can lift them out – and it’s a 2:1 split so it’s not all or nothing. There *is* a thick plastic load liner for it, but it’s 90-100 quid IIRC, and is a weird fit – almost a little too short and a little too wide to fit neatly, and tyres slip on it – an alternative is to buy the kinda circle-embossed rubber matting and cut (oversize) to fit, tucking the excess under side plastics etc (one guy on the caddy2k forum’s done this).

The 1.6 is actually quite nippy – I’ve gone up to Wales with 4 other blokes with rucsacs, there’s been ample room for w/e luggage behind the rear bench and it’s pulled reasonably well through the hilly stuff.

At the time the 2.0tdi seemed hard to find – OTOH I managed to get one with factor tint, so it’s not that easy to see what’s in the back, and I think that might be a pretty common option.

Re mikewsmith’s post about reaching in – the Maxi ride height seem to be a few inches higher than the equivalent panel van – eg Sky or British Gas installers vans – so for anyone with a bad back (eg a neighbour I was dropping off at the chiropactor a few months back) its probably easier to slide in/out than something a little lower/more car-like – the upright driving position’s a lot more comfortable than my OH’s old A4/current Octavia, at least for me (one buttock gets cranky !)

Downside: not sure how common this is, whether it’s across all modern VWs, or just Caddys, or just recent 1.6TDIs, but there does seem to be an issue with injectors failing – typically at 40kish (?), and one of mine’s just gone 🙁 Initial quote from local VW independant is a 500+ repair – which is the figure I’ve seen bandied around on a caddy forum – tho’ they also mentioned it might be 200 higher if they have to buy via VW 😮 But I’m hoping they’re wrong..by comparison, some T5 issues seem to be related to driveshafts and dualmass flywheels (not sure if that’s all of ’em either).

There’s some excellent info on the caddy 2k forum http://caddy2k.com/forum/ but only the main chat area (in which there’s a fair bit of info) is accessible until you’ve made 5+ posts and then request access:
http://caddy2k.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=21024

HTH

Our predecessors put in upvc units in the rear of the house (1926) when they extended it 15 yrs ago – front is wood frames/steel crittalls. Rear is 4 bay (2 with French doors) and 2 others. 3 or 4 units need replacing cos they mist up, the quality of the upvc sills is so poor it actually needs painting, and the design is such that several still allow draughts, and none of the french doors are sufficiently rigid as to close and/or lock cleanlym Oh, and a few screws into the upvc have stripped the plastic, fat chance of repairing that. If u can manage to get my OH past the ‘not matching’ thing if rather replace with timber and modern day crittals. In our previous place (edwardian)I refurbished one bay of sashes, we paid to have the others refurbished and one bay reinstated – here in n surrey/sw london sashes are likely to add to the character and value of a property.If you need to repaint them every 3 years you need a better decorator ! – 6-8 years (maybe more if you’re lucky) is nearer the mark. Sashes are elegant, much upvc (tho some has improved) is often clumpy and frankly pretty awful imo. Upvc front doors are a complete travesty.
As mentioned above, very often wooden frames support the building structure, it’s not uncommon to see upvc’d windows in a bay or brickwork that has sagged as a result. Upvc’s often rubbish for security, it flexes, depending on its exact construction, to the cost of one neighbour last year- a lot harder to break through timber framing…neither stand up to a brick through the pane (as happened to a friend recently).

On a slightly different application, a nearby 20s place recently had the narrow steel, contrasting black crittals swapped out for thick white upc – absolutely killed the character of the place.

>It was unambiguous, a clear majority want to leave, that is democracy.<

Elderly inlaws (2) wanted to leave over sovereignty, 2 mates voted to leave to give Cameron/Osbourne a bloody nose. Woman in local dry cleaners also the latter, seemingly without understanding the ramifications of leaving. I suggest your assertion is rubbish…

> In Flames

>Are going downhill fast! The last album I bought (Siren Charms) was an >absolute turkey! However earlier stuff was good.

Ah, each to their own – I like the old stuff but prefer the latter. Funnily enough saw ’em about 10 yrs ago – actually went to see the support (Lacuna Coil) – but didn’t really get on with much of their stuff til I started listening to Come Clarity.

>I’m a jaded old fart at 33!

I’ve got another 20 years on you and I’m still finding stuff
I like from time to time 😀

Hmm, some newish but mostly older and not mentioned above..generally go-to favourites:

to follow on from Twisty’s theme:
The Agonist (newish Arch Enemy vocalist was there previously, and the new Agonsit new vocalist is way more than a good match)

In Flames
Soilwork
Mercenary
Scar Symmetry
Children of Bodom
Engel (In Flames guitarist – kinda bouncy stuff, great for the gym as is BFMV)

Wovernwar (remnants of As I Lay Dying)

Amaranthe (3 vocalists, melodeth-meets-eurovision !!)
(Could add Epica, After Forever, Revamp, Lacuna Coil, November-7 for more female-fronted melodic/symphonic stuff..The Kells too for female fronted metalcore, a pity they called it a day after 2 albums)

Testament
Annihilator

Hammerfall
Sabaton
Serenity
Alestorm (yaaaarrrr!!!)
Grand Magus

Devil You know (Howard Jones’ new band…bloke from Killswitch, not the 80s 😀 )

If Dream Theater floats yer boat, but a little more metallic and less messing around 🙂 :
Symphony-X
DGM

More kinda rock/metal
Soil
Die So Fluid

Stone Sour
Five Finger Death Punch

And someone’s gotta add ’em 😉
Rammstein

“What makes it all the more delicious is that fully 75% of the 18-25 year olds who are whining about the old people denying them their promised future didn’t even bother to turn out and vote… and of those who did vote, a third of them voted for Brexit.”

Well the ones I’ve seen on tv ‘whinging’ mostly did vote, or were below voting age, so I dunno where you 75% comes from.

Anyhow – funnily enough, despite being 53 now, I didn’t become interested in politics til I started work (after graduating) – reading the broadsheets showed what a can of worms politics was. I’m sure I’m not the only one, can’t recall those of us doing engineering at uni (one of the most intensive courses) talking much about politics, and that was when Heseltine got a can of paint over him at Manchester uni. I was too busy studying or trying to improve my guitar playing..

Now that was in the days when kids weren’t a) working so hard to get their grades b) get into their preferred school c) had outside interests which helped with d) e) couldn’t be so complacent at getting decent grades from uni/college and f) taking on part-time jobs to help get themselves through uni (which those of us of a certain age didn’t need to do). Becoming a house/flat owner is probably another reason people start looking in more detail at politics – how things affect them – but in the current climate that’s pretty bloody difficult, especially with high rents, and student loans to repay at some point etc. And never mind socialising. So no wonder they’ve either got other more pressing concerns or activities to busy themselves with.

Could be tight hip flexors/quads. Tight hip flexors will rotate your pelvis forward/anteriorally (tailbone back/bum out), increasing your lumbar curve. Tight hip extenders (glutes, hamstrings) which’ll tip your pelvis back/posteriorally (decreasing lumbar curve). Either could mess up your lower back. As an approximation, your pubic bone and front of your anterior superior iliac spine(s) – the boney bit at pelvis upper front left/right – should be in the same vertical plane or thereabouts, but tbh i find it difficult to judge on myself . As another indicator, do you think you’ve got a particularly curved or flat lumbar region ? Tho equally, some people are just built that way. (Piriformis is more of a hip rotator/abductor depending on what you’re doing, but too tight can irritate the sciatic nerve – piriformis syndrome – im guessing this masquerades as lower back pain ?)

Bought a caddy maxi life a few years ago – yeah – probably a bit boomer than a car but size, seating flexibility ( rear bench removable, middle 2+1 tip/remove) and a very comfy driving position more than make up for it. Lots of storage cubby holes (annoyingly not for the jack!), lashing points ..not quite as big as a t4/t5 but a fair bit cheaper. And not with some of the reported t5 foibles afaia. 1.6 surprisingly nippy (tho diesel emissions fix awaited), prob easier to find than the 2.0. (or was 2 yrs ago).
Hyundai i800 was another I considered – nearer a lwb t5 and used for camper conversions, but the rear bench is bolted in and the middle row slides only I think…really needs some enterprising company to do a flexible seat conversion (unless one exists already).r

Oh, and there’s a very active caddy forum , caddy2k.com .