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Post by Big Blue on Jan 16, 2024 9:47:25 GMT
Never been one for making these New Years Resolutions (" NYR") but this year I did and have thus far kept to it. Last year I had an increasing number of Twitter ("X" ) interactions with cyclists who are clearly blameless in everything they do and need have no regard for their own personal safety whatsoever because that's someone else's responsibility. It culminated over the Christmas holidays with a hugely viewed video clip of a cyclist in the dark on an unlit NSL country road with no reflective clothes and no lights. Some of the comments from cyclists were "the car driver should be driving for the conditions" (it was a clear, warm, dry night) going on to suggest that the driver should be doing [12mph] a speed that enabled them to react to any surprising event. Then there was one twat that took the video, aligned the time of the clip against street furniture on the section of road and came to the conclusion that the car was over 60mph (refusing to acknowledge that the video might not be running in real time). In fact there were so many foaming lycra-army twats defending the cyclist and blaming the driver (who was a fully trained emergency response vehicle driver...) that it took a couple of cycle magazine journos to point out that the cyclist was absolutely undefendable and that the cyclists seeking to do so made all cyclists look like arseholes and they wanted to be disassociated from them. So, my NYR is to mute all posts on my X feed that are cyclists telling me how shit car drivers are as they show a cyclist refusing to accept their own vulnerability because they are "in the right". I have even not replied to a Surrey Police clip of four Sunday cyclists being pulled over for turning right on a red light in Cobham. [cyclist whinge voice] "but the clip you showed didn't show them going across the white line...."[/cyclist whinge voice]. Most lycra-clad, oh-so-righteous cyclists are car drivers and it would be really interesting to put a camera in all their cars to see what emanates from their behaviour. Many cyclists are just normal, get on with it and ride to protect their lives but this vociferous few are making cyclists a scourge when they needn't be. A bit like twats in supercars in London, loud exhausts in motorcycles - the few idiots mean that the rest of us suffer for their cuntishness. The upshot for me is that my "muted" list on X is very large..... except Jeremy Vine because he's a total cycling clown that attracts cyclists nutters that I use as a mute pool.
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Post by Big Blue on Jan 16, 2024 9:25:27 GMT
Not necessarily cars, but EVs will be a part of the picture.
I was at an event last night and got talking to a chap and we got on to power. He'd worked for EDF and I've done some projects in the nuclear sector so it wasn't as strange a turn of conversation as it seems. Anyway, distribution was the topic. Many people of an EV-bent go into spasms on social media when you mention the subject of getting the power to the end user. It's apparently as easy as pie (according to them) and the draw is not much of a strain (according to them). I'm currently doing assurance on some large public facilities across the entire country and power upgrades are long term enabling works and not cheap. However this chap pointed out it isn't the amount of work required, not the capability to produce electricity but the issue with making that electricity you've made leave the power generation site and get to the houses, offices, car chargers, steel furnaces (yes: they want them to run on electricity....) etc. The world has not got enough copper. Like physically not enough. The extent of this means there are projects looking at mining hot copper from the trenches at the bottom of the oceans; that the ore yields are 10%-20% of what they were and that new projects replacing copper need to do more to recover the old stuff.
All very interesting. We then got on to silicon and apparently China spent more on silicon last year than the price of all Middle Eastern oil revenues. Not really fact checked that yet but it sounds like the type of thing they would do.
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Post by Big Blue on Jan 16, 2024 9:13:31 GMT
I have spousal permission since a) I turn 50 in February and b) my wife is on her way to Megève at the moment for a girls' long weekend. Snap on the 50 in February thing! Ha ha. My little brother is 50 in February. Must've been the oil crisis.......
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Post by Big Blue on Jan 14, 2024 13:31:26 GMT
The div paid on tobacco shares detracts from the health aspect!
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Post by Big Blue on Jan 12, 2024 14:39:55 GMT
Yes, my 500E was like this. Generally bulletproof as regards things like bodywork, interior and major mechanical items, but with an endless list of aged minor consumables that announced their retirement from action at every service, meaning I never had a service bill south of £1k. Yep. Boris was £1k just if the bloke looked at it for a minute.
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Post by Big Blue on Jan 12, 2024 14:38:08 GMT
I am very thinning on top and grey at the sides - my father-in-law, who has a good 30yrs on me, has more hair and less grey hair, which is mildly upsetting. My wife, who has thick dark hair that hasn't gone grey at all yet, isn't impressed. I am neither thinning nor greying. My beard is flecked with grey but my head is as suspicious as German ex-Chancellor Gerhardt Schrőder, although more red than jet black. I suppose I am thinning but given the density of my kids’ hair I guess I had longer to go before it showed.
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Post by Big Blue on Jan 11, 2024 22:13:58 GMT
I used to make risky trades based on the concept that after I’d made some gains losing them in risks that might yield big returns was fine. Then I changed tack when I actually had a decent chunk and the lockdown induced market falls made “safer” shares more affordable based on the likely dividends. So now I too buy dividend yielding shares. Like ones that have consistently paid a dividend for decades and sell goods or services the western world can’t live without.
I also have other investments and pensions because nothing is certain.
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Post by Big Blue on Jan 11, 2024 20:55:29 GMT
Yes. Boris the 500SEC was a case in point and in the end the reason for the Gorilla going was the unknown prospect of some £10k bill arriving.
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Post by Big Blue on Jan 11, 2024 9:50:23 GMT
Much discussion in our house. Can't decide to have a week away in the sun in May / June half term or the October one; Easter will be a family visit to SK; Summer will be 6 weeks WFH whilst visiting family homes with a week long break somewhere in the middle - Switzerland / Austria / Croatia are favourites; if we can W2.1 and I will get to the Maldives for our belated Honeymoon next Dec / Jan, although we have friends that recently moved to Zim and my cousin's son just sent a load of photos of him and his GF on holiday in Simonstown so Africa's a winter family option too.
This thread is very "first world matters" but none of us can help where we arrived on the planet. I saw a thing yesterday that said "2024 isn't the year you're going to fulfil all your ambitions and dreams; it's the year you're going to be thankful for what you have." Never a truer word said.
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Post by Big Blue on Jan 9, 2024 10:40:38 GMT
We had a Skoda over Christmas. Unbelievably good cars. Not sure why anyone (self included) need anything more aside from vanity. One thing that struck me was that the in car computer for mpg was ridiculously accurate. Fuel to fuel calculation by me was within 0.05mpg of the computer read out.
It was a Scala Monte Carlo. Had everything except HUD, including a three-stage heated steering wheel. More leg room in the back than Eva and took our luggage without resorting to packing in the cabin. Went like stink as well.
Enjoy.
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Post by Big Blue on Jan 8, 2024 18:57:13 GMT
You mentioned Strasbourg....... Massive argument with W2.1 last summer when we overnighted in Strasbourg after Disneyland. "It's in Germany" she proclaims. "It's in France." say I, with the confidence of one who knows. "It's Germany. Definitely Germany...." "Then why does that police car have 'Gendarmerie' on the side of it?" Anyway, we check into the hotel. Chatting to the guys on reception; girls are all Disney-fied from head to toe. "Ah, you've been to Disneyland. We have a similar place here in Germany." "This is France." say I; "I told you!" says she. "Yes, well it is France but we're not really French." Arsene Wenger was born in the Alsace (in fact I made us drive through his home town) hence his Germanic attention to detail allied to his desire for the flamboyance and style in his teams. Basically they're messed up.....
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Post by Big Blue on Jan 8, 2024 15:25:04 GMT
I've driven in Germany an awful lot, and standards aren't what they were in the 90s. However nothing beats driving through the centre of Frankfurt's business district on the Autobahn at very high speed knowing that it would fuck Khan right off if someone proposed this kind of road for London.
I like Germany and away from the Autobahn nonsense the towns and villages are well ordered and lots of picturesqueness down south in Bayern. Alf's description is about right.
One very large word of caution driving in Germany in March. The German winter tyre rules are based on ambient temperature, as opposed to the Slav countries where it's November - March. So when I went to look at the Gorilla the first time I wasn't allowed to take it out because despite it being mid-April the temperature was below the magical 4oC and the car was on summer tyres. So if you have cross-climates or winters on it, fine. Summers: check the forecast.
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Post by Big Blue on Jan 5, 2024 18:17:19 GMT
I don't actually object to 20mph on residential side streets, but I find it ridiculous that pretty much the entirety of central London is now 20mph, including wide thoroughfares like Park Lane and the Embankment. This is where I am. 20mph on the arterial roads in London is ridiculous. The times pedestrians and cyclists are about you’ll struggle to get to 30mph or there is an utter dearth of risk. All it does is piss drivers off.
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Post by Big Blue on Jan 4, 2024 11:35:24 GMT
Yep. I’m fine understanding that not all crimes can be solved but the lack of action is just not acceptable.
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Post by Big Blue on Jan 4, 2024 10:00:13 GMT
I worked with a Finnish girl once and we were talking about driving parents' cars, when I used to drive across Europe at the helm of various of the W124s. She said "Well, my dad won't look at any of his Astons". Any of them......
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Post by Big Blue on Jan 4, 2024 8:58:36 GMT
It still smarts that when we had our tractor stolen about 15 years ago, apart from a crime number the only contact I ever had from the police was a letter asking if I wanted to be referred to victim support. Yes we got the insurance money and yes we bought another tractor, but I'd rather that AND somebody got their collar felt. This was my precise experience when I had my S1000RR stolen. More police time was expended when the LHS door mirror glass of the Gorilla was stolen (just the glass.....). Even when the R1 was stolen and recovered the Herberts in the van it was recovered from were only done for handling stolen goods so an arrest with a stolen vehicle is not a big win for the police because the deterrent for repeat offending is very low.
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Post by Big Blue on Dec 31, 2023 10:58:37 GMT
Congratulations to alf Jnr.
My older daughter (12) informs me she wants a Range Rover as her first car. I laughed quite loudly.
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Post by Big Blue on Dec 27, 2023 17:23:58 GMT
Jeez. Nothing of much interest. Look forward to seeing the Renault 5. That’s about it.
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Prague.
Dec 24, 2023 21:57:48 GMT
via mobile
Post by Big Blue on Dec 24, 2023 21:57:48 GMT
What was the mood like? Was it tense after what happened? Nope. Everyone got on with their lives. A fair few candle lit tributes and the big remembrance silence was the next day, when the snow bomb hit. The motorway between Prague and Brno was shut after HGVs overtaking one another got stuck in the snow. Never travel on the 23rd December in Europe. Like NEVER. We were at the in-laws on the night of the 22nd.
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Prague.
Dec 24, 2023 10:28:51 GMT
via mobile
Post by Big Blue on Dec 24, 2023 10:28:51 GMT
We’ll be heading to Prague for a day trip early next week. Have you been to see the giant swivelling head yet, it’s behind a shopping centre in the middle? We were only there for a one day stop over. W2.1 had some specialist beauty treatment voucher to use and Prague had one of the clinics. We’re going to go for longer in the better weather in 2024.
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Post by Big Blue on Dec 24, 2023 10:26:00 GMT
... but did you get any snow? The week I spent in Berlin at the start of December really put me in the Christmas spirit, with snow and ice on the ground and the temperature varying between minus 4 and zero. Plenty of Christmas markets everywhere helped too. Yeah. We had snow.
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Post by Big Blue on Dec 23, 2023 14:45:48 GMT
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VW ID2
Dec 23, 2023 8:33:18 GMT
via mobile
Post by Big Blue on Dec 23, 2023 8:33:18 GMT
I quite liked that. Good city / second / commute car that looks like it has a car interior that doesn’t assume all drivers will be teenagers. The MINI is our second car and does about 200miles on a tank over the course of 6 weeks or so. We probably are / should be electric car customers for that one.
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Post by Big Blue on Dec 17, 2023 12:15:15 GMT
They are popular, desirable cars which have offered scrotes and scumbags huge returns as whole vehicles or in bits. It would be good to know what the police are doing about finding the gangs responsible and breaking up their distribution networks. This.
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Post by Big Blue on Dec 15, 2023 14:33:57 GMT
No. Car has heated seats, heated steering wheel, pre-climate. I get infuriated with W2.1 when after about 50metres of leaving the driveway she’s complaining about the heat in the car (although she’s that sort of age now…..) when she’s got three tops and a coat on.
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Post by Big Blue on Dec 15, 2023 14:24:48 GMT
Oof. Glad no serious injuries. Agreed that the buggeration is now the most annoying factor.
Ford driver crossed a dual carriageway without checking both lanes were clear. Clearly never ridden a bicycle or motorbike.
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Post by Big Blue on Dec 12, 2023 15:45:44 GMT
I had the AA one for the Gorilla. Never had to use it so no idea if it was anything more than peace of mind.
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Post by Big Blue on Dec 12, 2023 9:33:54 GMT
Beginning of March to end of October : every three weeks.
Winter: once, but then it’s not used much.
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Post by Big Blue on Dec 12, 2023 9:30:47 GMT
1. The BMW packaging strategy is often all wrong for paying customers and is based on what dealers see as the most shiftable AUCs i.e. the original purchaser doesn’t matter as much as the second buyer.
2. The iX2 is revolting and no amount of FG will make it any better looking.
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Post by Big Blue on Dec 8, 2023 15:06:14 GMT
The Autogefuehl one side by side with the Merc was interesting. The door bin quality issue stood out as a real differentiator - piss poor to save pennies in the touchy-feely areas.
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