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Post by Big Blue on May 18, 2022 22:03:05 GMT
I was paid more than I am now in 1999.
I was overpaid back then because I was in the tech-bubble sector in the run up to Y2K but that’s not the point…….
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Post by Big Blue on May 18, 2022 18:01:32 GMT
What’s a payrise?
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Post by Big Blue on May 17, 2022 12:10:24 GMT
Today the news is that the ONS records more vacancies than unemployment for the first time ever, so there clearly needs to be some kind of re-set of the economy. There are now staff at all levels that can either tell their boss to fuck off with reduced fear or choose their first / next employer on a wider range of criteria. Part of this is caused by the pandemic making people of a certain age in a certain position decide that work can fuck it and moved house to just potter about, not take expensive holidays.
Recessions are an invention of the competitive economy, which dictates that you must sell more of “stuff” every year or charge more for it. There are far more pressing issues regarding the food chain, with a poor wheat crop in Western Europe and some issues with central and Eastern European supplies caused by a maniac in Moscow and other issues with other commodity supply (steel and aluminium prices are mental due to ongoing project demand and pipeline demand for something that is currently scarce). A massive demand for a thing you can’t get is not really what recessions are about as not wanting it is a more likely cause.
Rising prices relative to income is a huge lag-effect, last seen to great effect in the 1970s when prices went bat shit mental and salaries took years to catch up mainly due to huge swathes of industry being cost controlled by governments. That’s our most likely problem (apart from a war) and the end result will be flat lined house prices against a rise in incomes so that the biggest family cost (housing) falls back in line with the reality of other costs.
Keep the Porsche if you enjoy it and it is not utterly imperative to sell. We’re all going to die in the end so we may as well enjoy our time here however we are able.
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Post by Big Blue on May 17, 2022 8:19:03 GMT
What a fucking horrible noise though.
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Post by Big Blue on May 16, 2022 21:02:57 GMT
The 20mph stuff is bollocks. When there are lots of cars and people about 20mph is totally unattainable; when there a fewer cars and people 30mph is not at all dangerous. And if I’m an uninsured gimboid in a car with a penknife blade as a key that my mate Robbie got me in exchange for an iPhone I don’t give a shit about any cameras enforcing them anyway.
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Post by Big Blue on May 16, 2022 20:15:53 GMT
Church's prices have gone nuts. yes, my thoughts exactly. Whilst not quite at John Lobb levels, the difference is Lobb make YOUR shoes on YOUR last which is why off the shelf casual shoes at that price is simply madness.
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Post by Big Blue on May 16, 2022 8:35:55 GMT
I like these. They look more interesting than most. Agree on the Peugeot cruise switch, assuming it’s the same as the 5008 I had recently. Great backdrop.
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Post by Big Blue on May 15, 2022 10:05:19 GMT
Yep Mi16 is a youngtimer classic.
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Post by Big Blue on May 13, 2022 15:14:47 GMT
Well, true to his word he went to London like the rest of us. The show was recorded in Hackney.
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Post by Big Blue on May 13, 2022 9:33:09 GMT
How did he come across? I can't watch that programme because I would throw things at the TV. I only watched it because one of the chaps on my Arsenal ST WhatsApp group told me he was on. I also never watch it for the safety of the TV, but after the football I was in a bad enough mood anyway so W2.1 and I gave it a go. He always comes across well - measured responses and not too much rambling. He defended his participation in F1 whilst looking to improve the environmental impact well and told the room the rest of Europe thinks the UK is mental for Brexit. He hopes the Ukraine issue means Western Europe accelerates alternative energy and points out the UK has an endless supply of wind energy (although he wasn’t clear if he was directing that at the Parliamentarians present 😆). The Attorney General was the panel Tory. I saw a film about fools thrown to lions in Roman times. This was similar. She just came across as a lying scoundrel with no realistic defence of the current administration. It’s in Liverpool next week. Ill miss that because the audience will have me smashing the TV!
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Post by Big Blue on May 12, 2022 21:47:54 GMT
When I saw Seb Vet was due to be on Question Time I thought it was a wind-up, but no: he’s here on my TV.
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Post by Big Blue on May 11, 2022 20:24:52 GMT
When we lived closer to StGeorges Hospital we had lots of sirens, to the extent you Just block them out. On one maternal visit my mother observed “You have a lot of crime round here!” automatically associating sirens with crime, not healthcare.
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Post by Big Blue on May 11, 2022 9:46:34 GMT
Wow, what a spectacle……..
Nope, just like any other race except in a car park. Good to see Brundle trending on Twitter with the grid walk offering such quips as “who or what are you?” and replies of “a social media superstar” which received a “ I still have no idea” in reply. Best social bit was Beckham playing football tennis with LeClerc (who is pretty good with the round ball) probably because Beckham was one of the very few media dahlings present that understands and likes F1.
On to the race. Ferrari played it safe by not trying any weird tyre strategies at the end and managing the gap to Red Bull. Sainz again has unilaterally signed the second driver memo after his race start and Binotto is likely correct that with the budget cap Red Bull’s sudden progress to Ferrari will slow or even stop as the races go by - strategy call by Horner to pile points on early.
Talking of strategy, great call from George to stay out in case there’s a SC. There was and he finished way above where he was likely to otherwise. Lewis drove well and we are seeing how good Bottas is in a car that’s not normally at the pointy end of the grid. Unlike Bottas’ good driving I saw Stroll got yet another warning for weaving on the straight - what a twat he is. Aside from that bad driving I felt the Norris crash was utterly avoidable: these are supposed to be the best drivers in the world (OK, not Stroll) so being aware of who and what is around you on track is some basic prerequisite. Gasley was too busy whining on his radio about Alonso and forgot he was in a high speed F1 race. That said, Bottas also admitted he hit the wall because he was too engrossed in the race behind him and what was that MSC / VET crash about? Standards are dropping.
Finally the most disappointing aspect, given this was Miami, was the lack of jokes about Gloria Estefan Ocon. If I was in the broadcast team I’d have had that one in once every 15 minutes.
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Post by Big Blue on May 11, 2022 9:24:47 GMT
Laughed out loud this morning.
i dropped W2.1 at the tube station this morning and as I left the one way system and joined the 30mph dual carriageway I noted lots of blue lights two cars behind me. I prepared to pull over and could see the vehicle behind also looking to make space. Thing is every time the vehicle behind pulled over to make space the blue lighted unmarked car stayed behind it. This happened about three times. We are all at about 20mph now, maybe even 15. I am now incredulous that the vehicle behind me hasn’t worked out that it’s them the policeman would like a chat with. We must’ve gone over half a mile at brisk cycling pace before it finally pulled over. Very amusing.
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Post by Big Blue on May 10, 2022 20:40:05 GMT
Yeah I saw this on a post by Richard Porter. Looks better than the Full fat.
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Post by Big Blue on May 9, 2022 20:38:27 GMT
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Post by Big Blue on May 8, 2022 19:19:07 GMT
.... but the price is surely crazy Yeah you’ve got to really want that particular car to pay that much. I’d rather spend £20k on a car that needs £40k spent on it.
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Post by Big Blue on May 5, 2022 8:38:00 GMT
It was definitely a 6 banger, I could tell by the noise when he hoofed it away for absolutely no reason.No, it was to show that M135i driver over there that he had the B58 engine.
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Post by Big Blue on May 4, 2022 14:40:34 GMT
Ah very nice. I did bid on one recently on Collecting Cars - it went for £35k in the end, which is more than I am prepared to pay for a toy at present, particularly as red is not my preferred shade for a Z1 and it had a very gappy service history. I was going to say “Have you looked in Europe?” but nothing roadworthy under €40k on mobile.de.
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Post by Big Blue on May 4, 2022 9:27:52 GMT
No, I reckon Blarno is right - that’s the kind of wank these douches want you to know.
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Post by Big Blue on May 3, 2022 9:50:53 GMT
I meant polish with wax (apologies for lack of clarity).
Thanks for advice. Interestingly I looked up caring for ceramic coated cars this morning and noted that regardless of being a desperately lax car cleaner whenever I do do it I appear to be doing it correctly.
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Post by Big Blue on May 2, 2022 20:03:44 GMT
I cleaned Eva inside and out today, including dash wipes, leather wipes, glass cleaner etc. but one question:
She’s coated in that Teflon stuff so looks spotless with a shampoo and dried with chamois (and then a micro cloth later in the day.) I oo-ed and err-ed about polishing as well so my question is do I need to polish the slippery coating?
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Post by Big Blue on May 2, 2022 19:59:39 GMT
Great stuff. That’s a proper hobby.
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Post by Big Blue on Apr 29, 2022 22:31:29 GMT
The spa sounds great, but doesn't look it in the first picture. The Danube basin is very very flat (“good tank country” was the phrase my dad used to use) so yeah, it looks a bit grim and uninviting. The ones in the Tatras look nicer.
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Post by Big Blue on Apr 26, 2022 14:15:45 GMT
Well the red team did it again: snatched failure from the jaws of a podium. Just what goes on in the minds of these teams is beyond the wit of the normal person. Charles was never going to catch Perez and as soon as he gave them a pit stop window of their own he was never going to get fastest lap either. As to Carlos, between him and the racing Gods it’s already decided he’s number 2 driver.
Good showing from the local team with a very unexpected podium for Lando - he’s a solid driver with great pace. Mercedes on the other hand are done for the season. They may start hitting the front in July, just as the summer break arrives. That said Marko’s comments that Lewis should’ve retired “after losing in 2021” means I still hope for more Red Bull engine failures.
Bottas looking like the driver he is, the one that deserved his former Merc contract and Seb still knows how to point the car in the right direction. That sprint race bollocks is still just that though: bollocks and the DRS was comically bad, making the following cars look like an upgraded video game car against a bot driver. Overall though a weekend was not that exciting. The MotoGP made up for it, with a mass crash in Moto2, bikes on fire, a flag to flag win for Fabio and the return of Valentino to the pit lane. He’s racing his new car at Brands this weekend if anyone is interested.
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Random
Apr 26, 2022 10:35:10 GMT
Post by Big Blue on Apr 26, 2022 10:35:10 GMT
Blimey. That's shite. My last EasyJet flight was about three years ago and the biggest difference was the Cabin crew. We had really attentive team led by a really driven customer service manager whereas a lot of BA crew just go through the motions (although the BA flight last week was staffed by a great team). Like all projects I've worked on the team is what makes the difference.
I've recently flown on a newly fitted plane and a slightly less new but not bad A321. The new slim seats on the Nice flight were OK but lacked that little space at the top where you can hang an iPad for in-flight viewing. The Vienna flight had them.
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Post by Big Blue on Apr 26, 2022 10:11:32 GMT
Well this is possibly the only holiday rental this year worth writing about until Christmas as we're not going to Spain (Turkey instead) and intend to drive across in the summer as we did last year. I did have one rental already (a Fiat 500 Hybrid in Nice which was unmitigated shit) but it was not worthy of writing about. So this time I got a Peugeot 5008, as mentioned elsewhere. I could start by saying that "blah blah blah.... worthy family lugger.....blah blah blah.... I'd never buy one......etc. etc." as I always do but that's not the point, maybe more so in this case. Let's start in the dark car park at Vienna's Schwechat Airport. As we walked to the parking space number given it was apparent that this thing is HUGE. As tall as me and as long as a bendy-bus (remember them?) So a quick once over of the interior based on that impression and later inspection. I can sit behind myself and the girls still have space in row 3 (I found out it had a third row of seats on day 2). Using row 3 totally negates luggage carrying ability though so it's a seven seater car but you can either FedEx your luggage ahead or buy a roof box. It has a flat floor which means the middle (individual) chair in row 2 is a proper adult seat - a bonus when visiting family, as we were. The row 2 outer seats also recline and the middle row slides fore and aft (individually) to give more or less leg and boot space and there are nice touches like fold down tables. As with all things children related they insisted on being at the very back even though there was no one in the middle! To my delight the car had cloth seats. They're not quite Eva's seats (probably not as good as the Mini's actually) and were not as supportive as I’d like, but then I’m spoiled by Eva’s items but I so want to have full spec luxury seats in my next car covered in cloth of some sort. The driving position, is a bit “sitting-round-the-family-table-ish”, but then that plays dividends when in 7 seat mode and in five seat mode there is a huge amount of space in the rear seats. One thing that I did find very noticeable was the tiny steering wheel. Now just because it looks like a bus I don't expect a Routemaster-style 30" steering wheel but this was like holding a joy-con for a console! Even W2.0 mentioned that I looked ridiculous with some kind of pinwheel in front of me. More on that in a bit.... In terms of family ownership the huge tailgate needs power assistance! Fine to open on gas struts but I'm over 100kgs and there were several occasions where I failed to close the boot in one fell swoop. Without being all-Tory MP misoginistic about it it would be almost impossible for a smaller lady to fully close it I reckon, especially as she tried to distract me by crossing her legs. Another family related issue is the Climate Control. On the way from Vienna I found it nigh on impossible to cool the cabin enough, even though some subsequent journeys were OK. The individual outlet control is also bollocks: instead of a mechanism to partially restrict output from each vent you need to turn the vent to the side to close it meaning it's either blowing a gale or off (dependent on fan settings). In full auto mode the Climate control doesn’t cut the mustard in my opinion. On to the current bane of life for motorists of a certain age: the interfaces. Firstly there are buttons for various elements of the screen display (the top row) and other useful functions (bottom row) but the buttons are not well lit so the first journey (at night remember) was filled with rear screen, display changes, hot seats and heating controls as W2.0 and I stabbed in the dark. The issue was that the top row are faux-rocker switches and the bottom row are front-push buttons below the icons themselves and set back from the leading edge of the rocker switch row. This entire set-up further adds to the argument elsewhere that the iDrive controller in BMWs is so much better than anything else out there (like arseholes we all have an opinion ). On to the screen Display element, which had no real ease of sub-menu finding but was very responsive. After a week I was used to it and the nav screen was good. One major issue I had was making the music shuffle all songs. See that little "all" in the bottom left: I had to go onto Google to find out how to do it. As you can also see I carry a usb stick on holiday with (currently) 4,609 songs on it. Fortunately the thumb wheel on the steering wheel flicks to the next song as I'm not always in the mood for Persian disco music or early synth music by D.A.F. I will say that the screen always displayed the heating settings and a quick touch sent you straight to them. Whilst the climate control is not that good the on-screen control of it is miles ahead of the Volvo I had in summer 2020 and probably the first touch screen heating control I've not wished for analogue control alternatives. Well done Frenchy. So, the instrument binnacle. Firstly it has a separate binnacle, which I guess owes more to a design signed off before all-flat-screen cockpits were de rigueur. You have probably all guessed by now that I hate the idea of the driver's view screen not being in a binnacle, making me an old fogey so let's look at the old fogey setting for the clocks: When we were parked in the Vienna Airport car park I thought that huge square in the middle was some kind of signal not to move. It is of course a zero, as this is the digital speed read out - making the clock on the left utterly redundant. Also notice that the rev counter, whilst round, goes anti-clockwise (i.e. backwards) and with the car having an 8-speed auto was also utterly redundant. You can also see from the red line that this is some kind of diesel (I have no idea what kind). The only time this reading (and all but one of the others) was used was to take these photos to write this rant section. At the other end of the spectrum, the minimalist view. Just the digital speed, the gear and the fuel gauge. Probably very sensible for the non-car loving, because-I-have-to-drive driver. Then there was this "car" setting. For the life of me I had no idea what this was supposed to be advising me. Looks like the fly-behind view on Real Racing 3, the most interesting aspect being the speedo and rev counters on either side being in sliding scales designed to emulate those old Americana gauges with a fixed red line and spinning number-wheel from the early-mid 1960's. The Nav view would be a good alternative to HUD as it fills the screen with the map and junction advice, retaining those aforementioned Americana gauges....... .....but for the personalisation setting. The circle on the left normally showed me the song playing, very useful as I used the centre screen for the navigation and the one on the right flashes up junction information at the critical points. This therefore rendered the Nav view utterly pointless to me (but I can see why others would like it, especially if they opted to turn off the centre screen for night driving). As you can see there is no pointless rev counter or speedo dial; just a big number telling you the speed (and also the Cruise setting when set underneath). The oddest part is the clock timer on the extreme right: this tells you the cumulative time that the engine has switched off in traffic during the journey. What one is to do with this information is anyone's guess. So after all that I stand by my view that rev counters are utter wank in modern cars with auto boxes, rotary speedos are pointless when accompanied by digital speed read outs and am forced to agree with Martin that if the info isn't relevant why is it there at all? The pilot home agreed....... Amazingly on the day before we flew home T5 asked why there were no "lady pilots" and we explained that there are lots but she never sees them. Then our first officer on the flight home was a "lady pilot" so I told the head of cabin crew and the girls spent about ten minutes chatting to them when we landed. Looking at that A321 cockpit and going cross-eyed I think we should go with HUD only in our cars and get rid of the binnacle or driver screen. I shall write to Munich....... I suppose we should look at what is likely the last consideration when buying a thing like this: what's it like to drive? Well it cruises on the motorway with no issues and is actually utterly stable, gathers speed well and never seems stretched or anything other than relaxed - a proper mile munching family wagon. But then I took it down a familiar road in sport mode, alone. WOW! is the only word I can reasonably use. How can such a leviathan be so surprisingly agile and sprightly? Then that smaller steering wheel made much more sense, as it made the car feel like a Golf to chuck about through a series of curves. I can also see where the whole SUV being easy to place on the road comes from as it was no more difficult than said Golf to put in the exact spot you wanted it to be on. Despite this size it's actually 375kgs lighter than Eva and a whopping 565kgs lighter than the Gorilla, so that explains this fleet-of-footness. Which then leads us to cost cutting. There were some very clear signs of cost cutting, noticeably the main area of the door cards being very cheap looking and feeling plastic: There were other things like the gaps in the seats in row three being exposed, hardly any USB charge points and the cover over the rearmost seats (which fold into the floor) was so flimsy I reckon it would be in the bin by the end of the first summer. So economy. I did 1100kms ish and the first tank, which included town and village driving, a trip though the mountains to Zlin in Moravia and is the most representative of normal use managed 48.40mpg and the second which was basically just straight on the Hungarian M1 and the A4 in Austria was 47.37mpg. Normally I'd say this was incredible for a car like this and the like but having recently done a decent journey in Eva I'll say the PHEV petrol did 39/44 mpg (a mixed tank average and motorway-only average), and weighs more so pretty comparable. However I don't think there is trouble suggesting a diesel is a far better prospect for huge intercontinental driving than a petrol or a PHEV. Taking it further to electric only, I discussed with my nephew the lack of Teslas or electric cars in Czech and Slovak cities and he explained. A friend of his had a Tesla but the total lack of charging and those that exist not being super chargers makes them utterly unviable. He reckons Zlin, a very modern industrial city of 75,000 inhabitants has about 5 Tesla owners in total as there is no way the up and coming Czechs are going to wait around for their car to charge on the long trips to see relatives who invariably move to the rural areas when they retire, or to holiday cottages that are in the mountains or the Austrian lakes. I'd imagine if I tried to charge my car at the in-laws house, built in '74, the electrical system would either trip out or catch fire which is another consideration for the legislators. So back to the start where I said I'd say I'd never buy it etc. Not as true as might be the case. If I had the need, the space and the justification for having a car just for family trips this would be very high up the list, especially at about £35k for a decent spec one brand new. I was so pleasantly surprised by it in terms of usability, drivability and all round functionality that I can't just dismiss it as a car for "other people". That said, it hasn’t lost its Frenchness. All week I was frustrated at there being no dimmer for the screens then on the way back to Vienna I saw it hidden, unlit, to the left of the instrument binnacle. On the right side was the trip reset, which I had also not seen and used the start mileage as my datum point for mpg. Who thinks up this button randomness? Anyway, here it is in a very new car park where the spaces have been designed for modern cars. I can't think I've seen such a thing in the UK anywhere, no matter how new the car park. This one is a new spa, built when a developer broke some land and found a 65ºC spring under it, which is not uncommon in Slovakia. The hot pool is cooled to 39º, the middle pools to 35º and 29º and the cold one is 18º. I spent a couple of afternoons there, just sitting in the sun and the volcanic waters looking forward to retirement when I shall do this kind of thing all year round. Overall a pleasant spring break with a very pleasant car for transport.
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BMW i7
Apr 22, 2022 14:24:06 GMT
via mobile
Post by Big Blue on Apr 22, 2022 14:24:06 GMT
The eyebrow lights are the DRLs. The Autogefühl one even had Swarovski crystals in them…. 🤐 Then the hole under them has the actual led voodoo lights in them.
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Random
Apr 22, 2022 13:37:42 GMT
via mobile
rodge likes this
Post by Big Blue on Apr 22, 2022 13:37:42 GMT
Yeah, not sure California is much of a hockey state to be fair and away fans are not exactly close enough to make many games.
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Random
Apr 22, 2022 11:12:37 GMT
Post by Big Blue on Apr 22, 2022 11:12:37 GMT
When I lived in California, I got to see NFL football, MLB baseball games and an NBA basketball game. The only one missing from the American field sports catalog was hockey. Last night, I was watching tv in my room and suddenly wondered if there is a hockey game nearby over the next week. A quick Google and I ended up getting a ticket to see the San Jose Sharks play the St. Louis Blues and am going this evening. I know very little about ice hockey (I played field hockey in school) apart from there are plenty of fights, so should be an experience if nothing else. How’d it go? Hockey is a great spectator sport: fast, all action and fighting. What’s not to like? Here in SK our regional city team, Nitra, made the cup final against Kosice, who are basically the Bayern Munich of ice hockey in SK. Kosice were 2-0 down against Bratislava going into the final third and won 4-2 in their semi. The NHL ice sheet is smaller than the rest of the world, to make the game even faster. The players can also earn unbelievable amounts of money, even by EPL standards.
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