Had many, but the Ship Inn in Levington, Suffolk was the most recent memorable experience. Unusually tender melt in the mouth steak, topped with large pan fried mushrooms, baked tomatoes on the vine and jacket spud, mmmmmm yummy! 😆

I often make a dog’s face of it!

I don’t think he has to try at all!

Of course, the company will have to check they are genuine blondes.

I’ll swerve “Old Mutha Hubbard” island, but make sure I include the Maldives and your blonde girl island.
in the itinerary.

Here’s an exterior shot of my one million pound caravan…. 😆

Cars I’ve driven with it you certainly feel the drag on the engine when the compressor is on, it certainly uses more fuel

I’ve never noticed any difference on any of the diesels i’ve driven. This problem was very apparent on a 1.8L 3 Series BMW petrol I drove 5-6 years ago, but not the little 1.4 Honda Jazz I was driving last week.

I guess thechnology has moved on a little.

MacBook Pro! 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆

Cheers fubar!

Looks like the heel of a shoe!

Don’t buy a Saab!

They are a virtually a cottage industry brand which has limped along, nearly gone bust a few times and haven’t fully developed a car for decades!

The 900 was a dog of a car to drive, but what do you expect of 1970’s technology? I recall holding them in high regard when I was young, but that was when they were juxtaposed against cars like the Morris Minor, the Austin Maxi, the Datsun Cherry, Renaults.

The 9000’s were based on a Fiat Chroma which was a piece of unreliable crxp!

If you crash a Saab, or need spares for any other reason, you’ll get a shock and this will be after you have schlepped miles and miles to find your nearest dealer.

If you’re still determined to get a Saab, go for a 9-3, but why not buy a cheap workhorse like a Vectra? Afterall the Saab 9-3 is based on the Vectra.

Personally, I wouldn’t touch Saab’s.

My recommendation would be any VAG Group car.

I need advice on a new laptop too. I know from personal experience that it is very easy to spend a pile of money to get the best machine with every conceivable upgrade, only for it to turn into an underperfoming worthless pile of tin in not many years! My next machine was hugely better in many respects and cost less than a third of the first one.

My requirements are pretty straightforward; I do the usual web browsing, office functions etc. I’m not interested in gaming but will be ripping DVD’s and compressing them to more manageable file sizes to backup to my NAS. This video manipulation will take some processing power and RAM, so this is probably the only thing that will put the machine through it’s paces. I also do the odd bit of photo editing, but nothing heavy duty.

In the old days, choosing a CPU was relatively simple, but the choice these days seems a bit bewildering.

So, what would be useful is if someone can give us a quick summary of the different CPU’s available and what level of performance each level one is aimed at.

The other area is GPU’s. A few years ago, there was no choice of onboard graphics and these laptops were mediocre, or worse when replaying video. What would be the minimum spec graphics card needed for smooth HD HDMI/DVI output to an HDTV/large LCD monitor?

Storage and RAM are pretty easy to work out, but I have found it’s usually cost effective to buy a PC with underpopulated RAM slots and max it out with aftermarket chips.

I would now never go for leading edge products, but something just adequate for the job and preferrably as cheap as possible. This would preclude buying from Comet, Dixons etc because I have never found them to be anywhere near competitve on price, or that up to date with the latest crop of technology. The other thing is that their customer service will almost certainly be total rubbish (I’ve heard many horror stories of needless data loss and overcharging and am completely aware of the lack of knowledge/gumption the staff generally have in firms like this. I can only blame the management for hiring monkeys, but when you pay peanuts what do you expect?? ….. no offence 😉 ). Wouldn’t let them anywhere near my PC, but then being ex-hardwares support, i’d be fixing faults myself.

I like HP and Dell as brands, but it all really comes down to specification. Battery life is of interest as is a cool running machine.

Back to daydreaming then….

You won’t get me iDave coz i’ll be heading towards Madeira in this.

And because i’ll still be able to get online via satellite i’ll be putting the world to rights on here. How about that then?

How many of you are still daydreaming of a big win?

The result:

No. of matches No. of winners £s per UK winner UK Prize fund

Match 5 + 2 Stars—-0———-£0.00————-£0.00
Match 5 + 1 Star—–16———£268,411.50——-£1,610,469.00
Match 5————–18———£67,707.40——–£203,122.20
Match 4 + 2 Stars—-389——–£2,237.80———£174,548.40
Match 4 + 1 Star—–4,470——£129.80———–£102,282.40
Match 4————–6,591——£61.60————£72,318.40
Match 3 + 2 Stars—-14,343—–£40.40————£115,220.80
Match 3 + 1 Star—–171,491—-£17.20————£615,140.80
Match 2 + 2 Stars—-168,704—-£15.10————£557,476.90
Match 3————–243,776—-£11.10————£590,808.60
Match 1 + 2 Stars—-788,968—-£7.40————-£1,337,246.60
Match 2 + 1 Star—–2,195,498–£6.30————-£3,123,899.10
Totals—————3,594,264——————–£8,502,533.2

So not one ticket matched the £87M jackpot and now the prize fund is expected to top £112M next Friday.

What I don’t understand is why the ticket price is double that of a normal lotto ticket, given the hugely extended odds of winning this draw, not to mention the much larger audience it attracts.

Good job I didn’t waste money on a ticket, or dwell too long on the prospect of winning. I’m only stupid enough to buy the odd national lotto draw ticket at 15m to 1. 😆

This Lotto thing is not good! I believe Camelot should be forced to state the odds of winning at the point of sale. At least then, people would have some idea about their chances.

The Lotto takes advantage of people’s ignorance, or their faith/optimism. You’ll always here the line “someone wins it”. I respond by saying “someone also has a meteorite land in their garden”. This probably happens more often than people winning the Euromillions!

It really is just another tax, albeit discretionary.

I think I actuall need a shrink! It’s been years since this ended, but it still eats away at me when I let it.

if you were that disillusioned why did you carry on doing it

Initially due to not understanding what was going on, then a bad recession hit in the 90’s leaving no real alternatives, then being stuck in a job because of doing it too long pidgeonholed me.

I tried for promotion several times and was offered two of these, but both jobs were canned after budget freezes/cuts. My then bosses openly told me they didn’t want me to move when I got these internal offers because I was good at my job.

I’d bent over backwards for these firms and in the last one, which I worked for over 7 years, I’d frequently work stints of 8-9 weeks without a day off and this was a salaried position so i didn’t get paid. In the early stages, I found myself covering a patch whilst not properly trained, when a guy left as another went on holiday.

Getting time off was always a struggle and one never knew when that free time would be. The last straw was whwen my annual leave request was declined 10 months before the event due to a 1 week overlap with another guy. They wouldn’t tolerate two ppl off at once, despite putting me through that on more than one occasion. I could not change the dates as this was an extended family trip booked by my Father in Law.

Flexibility and loyalty was a one way street in that role and as there had been numerous examples of this over many years, I decided to quit.

In hindsight, possibly a rash decision, but I certainly don’t miss being yanked out of my pit in the middle of the night, night after night, or cancelling countless evenings out with friends. Having rows about why I wasn’t coming home for the dinner my wife had prepared. Not having my her screaming at me down the phone at 4am when i was onsite, because the **** at computercall had woken her up with yet another of their rude awakenings in the middle of the night because they hadn’t checked if I was already out on a call! Being asked to fix complex machinery you hadn’t even seen before and in a system down situation. Not schlepping out of London for and hour and a half on a Friday night, only to be called out to the opposite side of London at the second my front wheels hit the driveway. Sitting onsite in the middle of the night for hours waiting for parts which the call centre forgot to send, getting the wrong parts, broken parts, sometimes all of these problems in succession. 36hrs was my longest single shift without a break.

I could go on and on and on, but suffice it to say it was a shite experience, especially towards the end!

It started out as a rewarding comparitively well paid job, but as technology became easy to fix and revenues slumped, it got very boring. Firms could then get away with hiring low calibre, low salaried people. We experienced engineers would have to carry these people and most of them refused to pull their weight They really weren’t up to the responsibility of looking after customers.

The stuff of nightmares!

many folk are full of hot air

Isn’t that what sales is all about, as opposed to real work?

I can recall account development managers “hoovering up” significant sales as a direct result of those who did proper enduring account management – taking care of equipment maintenance schedules, seeing that everything got done in an organised timely fashion, bending over backwards 24/7 to ensure 100% availability, managing the customers’ needs, presenting statistical performance data, dealing with issues in regular review meetings etc. Perpetually going the extra few miles, for no thanks, appreciation, or respect!

Generally meeting and exceeding customer expectations and performing in a professional manner in frequently very adverse conditions, at any hour of the day. All for a fraction of the pay of the salesman!

However, the salesmen would be the only ones who got the standing ovation at the annual christmas dinners, for their “outstanding” achievements. This was whilst a significant chunk of the support team looked on whilst drinking Coke and expecting their pagers to go off at any moment! I remember one event held at the National History Museum, where we’d all schlepped there by car as this was the only practicable choice, only to discover that our regional manager had failed to tell us we could have had a cab there and back, or a night in a hotel (on expenses). The tight cxxt trousered the budget he’d been allocated. I bet he got a bonus for saving the money! The award ceremony singing the praises of the sales team lasted 1 hour and 45 minutes! This was our Christmas treat!

Then every year, the sales team would all fxxk off in January, to some exotic far flung place in the world such as Hawaii, for a week of 5* pampering and “toughing it out” in a few kick off meetings. This was inbetween sunbathing and quad biking. All expenses paid! Meanwhile the engineers got on keeping the business running 24/7 (as per usual).

Most engineers became sick of the injustice of it all and left. After a couple of decades of this, you end up like me! All bitter and twisted, wondering what you did to deserve to be deprived of the luxury of a nice ordinary 9-5 job, even just paying an average wage. 😆

The salespeople I know as account development managers have an exceptionally well rewarded life, almost certainly above their true worth, but then they do know how to talk the talk in order to get what they want. This level of sales role is ONLY about hot air IMO! Nothing but a bunch of “puffed up shirts”!

As for touting for work on Joblesstrackworld, what a joke! 😆

Good luck mate! You are gonna need it!

give up *****

😆

Happy birthday you jammy cxxt! 😆

Me, I’d be delighted with and extrememly fortunate to own one of these….

She flew out on one of these Boing BBJ’s too….

Yes Sambob, it’s just wrong isn’t it?

My sister, who doesn’t really like sailing that much just had a free week on this….

Gorgeous!!!

If you loose your income, you will get the interest on your mortgage/your rent paid. You also get you council tax paid. There are other benefit you will qualify for, but go see the CAB for advice.

If you become insolvent, your creditors will not be able to pursue you. There are different options for managing debt, again CAB will advise.

Keep off Facebook!

Why stop with classic yachts?

Big boats are always impressive, but there are some really nice smaller ones.

Hallberg Rassy’s are pretty damned nice (if a tad expensive)!

First off, ignore the childish repsonses on here and bear in mind that people love to poke fun, regardless of the consequences.

I think you need to get something sorted out between you and the misses for the benefit of your children.

It sounds to me like she is having her cake and eating it, but where do you fit in? Is everything that happens, on her terms?

Are you divorced. or just seperated?

Have you actually discussed with her the reasons why she left?

There are some guys who would quite like to have space between them and their other half. There are quite a lot of couples who live like this and it sounds like your “arrangement” could continue indefinitely. If you felt secure about her committment and loyaly in the current circumstances, could you live with that?

If you haven’t had any relationship counselling, this might bring some clarity, but perhaps neither of you want to face up to the reality of your situation. You have dependants however and their welfare has to come first!

If the marriage is over, I can’t see the point in continuing with recreational sex. It could be that one partner is taking it more seriously than the other, thus making themselves rather vulnerable. For that person, all that this is doing is keeping them dangling on a string and so they will struggle to move on.

Whilst this will possibly seem a bit scary, get professional advice as a couple and sort it out.

Good luck!

Got £95k to blow…..

Wouldn’t one of these make a lot more sense?

There are loads out in the woods today where i was walking the dog. This spot is popular with dog walkers.

I was thinking I could get a meal or two out of these, but thought better of it after the dog wazzed on some! ❗

A Martindale tester or eqivalent won’t be able to find intermittent earth leakage faults, but I always ise one before and after I do any work in my house.

3view HD PVR website

It gets good reviews.

It also has internet functionality which will soon be on PVR buyers’ list of “must have” features.

On front pads, before you remove the caliper, prize the pistons apart while the old pads and caliper are in still in place by gently tapping a screwdriver between pad and disc. Go slowly or brake fluid could spill out of the resevoir. If it does, rinse it away with plenty of water.

For the rears, you may need a wind back tool, but you can sometimes get round this by rotating the pistons back in with a pair of plumbers adjustable pliers, but you will also need a suitable G-clamp to help press the pistons back.

When jacking up the car, put the wheel under the car as a failsafe.

When you do the rear brakes, don’t forget you’ll have to release the handbrake. You will need to chock the front wheels, leave the gear stick in 1st gear and don’t attempt this on an incline.

It’s an easy job which should save you about £50 and will take about 10 mins a corner after you have done it once or twice.

Usually, with resettable circuit breakers, the offending circuit will be identified by the tripped out breaker.

If it’s not an individual circuit, but the RCB (Residual Current Breaker) on the end of the row of CB’s, then you have an earth leakage on any circuit on the RCB.

The RCB itself could be defective, but you’ll need a certified sparks to sort this out.

Try unplugging everything on each circuit one by one to prove it’s not just a defective appliance you are using (very possible).

This could take time! Make a note of each change.

If you get no trip out when a particular circuit has no loads, start to add each appliance back on until you find the offending appliance. As I said, it will take days because you’ll need to wait up to your experienced maximum of 5-6 hrs.

Of course, if the tripping out continues regardless of loads, it could be the RCB, or a fault anywhere in the house’s wiring that is attached and protected by this RCB breaker.

It would be an expensive callout if all that was causing this is an appliance, but if it isn’t, you DO need a qualified electrician.

BE VERY CAREFUL!

😆 😆 😆

You need to get a reader for the ECU and find out what codes you are getting. Better still, get a local Ford dealer to diagnose it.

There are so many sensors on cars these days, that, without an ECU reader, you don’t have much of a chance of fixing many of the faults which can occur.

Good luck!

Ebay!

Ignore it then Lycra Lout! 😆