What's made you not grumpy but not smile either today?

[bugsymike]

Perhaps I've seen one of these burbling round the village.

View attachment 449836

But I thought it lived in a garage behind the pub.. although that may be a T350...

Although it'll probably be a knackered Mazda RX8

I never worked on anything later than RX3s and RX4s in the mid 70s at Mazda Dealers

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Perhaps I've seen one of these burbling round the village.

View attachment 449836

But I thought it lived in a garage behind the pub.. although that may be a T350...

Although it'll probably be a knackered Mazda RX8

Something about TVRs which has always attracted me. Pretty sure actually owning one would be fatal though?

 

[StevenRB45]

Something about TVRs which has always attracted me. Pretty sure actually owning one would be fatal though?

The guy who has a T350 has had various ones for years.

Although he's had quite a few "tasty" cars over time so as well as the current TVR he's had a Tuscan and a speed six.

His daily used to be a Abarth 695...and before that he had the Audi S1 Quattro.

He also had a Mitsubishi Evo 9 wagon...which is like dad car holy grail but unfortunately sold it for the Land Rover Offender...sorry new defender.

 

[portland_bill]

Opposite the front of m house, I'm looking at the backs of a row in a cul-de-sac from the next street. This morning, there's a woman stood in the garden, gloves on, secateurs in one hand, coffee cup in the other. A coffee cup from Costa, half a mile away.
Does no-one have a kettle any more?

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

The guy who has a T350 has had various ones for years.

Although he's had quite a few "tasty" cars over time so as well as the current TVR he's had a Tuscan and a speed six.

His daily used to be a Abarth 695...and before that he had the Audi S1 Quattro.

He also had a Mitsubishi Evo 9 wagon...which is like dad car holy grail but unfortunately sold it for the Land Rover Offender...sorry new defender.

One of the first cars I saw in "serious" competition was a Mk1 Grantura - MGB engine I seem to remember? and I just thought "what a really lovely looking car" It's still one of my all time favorites. Then they stuck the 289 Ford V8 in it and called it the Griffith (I think?) and I thought I'd died and gone to heaven! I'm not so keen on the newer ones which are too flamboyantly styled for my tastes but the pulse still quickens a bit if one blasts past me ever.

 

[bugsymike]

Opposite the front of m house, I'm looking at the backs of a row in a cul-de-sac from the next street. This morning, there's a woman stood in the garden, gloves on, secateurs in one hand, coffee cup in the other. A coffee cup from Costa, half a mile away.
Does no-one have a kettle any more?

The only coffee I drink is in Sports Direct pint mugs of black filter coffee that I grind the beans for, any other black coffee gives me a massive head ache and tastes like rubbish to me. Yes I am a fussy sod

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

The only coffee I drink is in Sports Direct pint mugs of black filter coffee that I grind the beans for, any other black coffee gives me a massive head ache and tastes like rubbish to me. Yes I am a fussy sod

I hadn't realized it was the coffee that was making me feel really quite ill. I like a nice strong cuppaccino and was drinking several per day. Mrs J suggested I try caffeine free so bought a jar of Lidl's best and cut the cuppaccinos to one a day and I was feeling back to normal - if you can call me normal? - within a couple of days. Caffeine is a more powerful drug than many realize.

 

[bugsymike]

I hadn't realized it was the coffee that was making me feel really quite ill. I like a nice strong cuppaccino and was drinking several per day. Mrs J suggested I try caffeine free so bought a jar of Lidl's best and cut the cuppaccinos to one a day and I was feeling back to normal - if you can call me normal? - within a couple of days. Caffeine is a more powerful drug than many realize.

I think I mentioned to you before Jock, I used to be all day at an auction drinking the crap coffee and I thought it was the peoples cigarette smoke that was giving me a head ache, but one day they ran out of coffee so I had hot chocolate all day, bingo no head ache!.
So now I drink as much of my filter black coffee as I want with no head aches, Continental and Brazilian beans dark roasted, not a strong mix but I like it and not decaf either. I still drink more normal tea than coffee, but no fizzy drinks etc. My second wife used to go through loads of 2 litre bottles of Coca Cola which probably had tonnes of caffeine in those days, but then I wouldn't have described her as normal

 

[porta]

The only coffee I drink is in Sports Direct pint mugs of black filter coffee that I grind the beans for, any other black coffee gives me a massive head ache and tastes like rubbish to me. Yes I am a fussy sod

I have a soft spot for lavazza that’s nothing to do with liking Italian stuff. I think costa and Starbucks are no better than Nescafé original. The best filter coffee I ever had was in a German ice cream cafe but they wouldn’t tell me whose beans they were!

 

[vexorg]

I have several strong coffees a day, keeps you going

 

[Cheest]

I cut back on my coffee by a third and I have less stomach issues now. It still gets things 'moving' in the morning, though, if you know what I mean.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

I have a soft spot for lavazza that’s nothing to do with liking Italian stuff. I think costa and Starbucks are no better than Nescafé original. The best filter coffee I ever had was in a German ice cream cafe but they wouldn’t tell me whose beans they were!

Yes, I fondly remember the morning cups of coffee at the Nurburgring back when I worked for Firestone. Very early rises to beat the crowds to the circuit and the coffee, which was delicious, really got you going. A close thing perhaps, and a different taste, but some of the coffees I've had in the States have been memorable too. I remember one in particular at a wee coffee shop tacked on to the motel we stopped in doing the Mohawk Trail which was pretty damned good! https://www.mohawktrail.com/ Note: didn't "do" the zip wire - coward that I am!

I also remember the sense of bewilderment at the choice of coffees available in some of their coffee shops. Sometimes we had to wave people past us as we tried to make out minds up which one to have and what options to add on. Sometimes I wanted to say, "for goodness sake, I just want a coffee!" but once the decision was made I never regretted it.

 

[porta]

Yes, I fondly remember the morning cups of coffee at the Nurburgring back when I worked for Firestone. Very early rises to beat the crowds to the circuit and the coffee, which was delicious, really got you going. A close thing perhaps, and a different taste, but some of the coffees I've had in the States have been memorable too. I remember one in particular at a wee coffee shop tacked on to the motel we stopped in doing the Mohawk Trail which was pretty damned good! https://www.mohawktrail.com/ Note: didn't "do" the zip wire - coward that I am!

I also remember the sense of bewilderment at the choice of coffees available in some of their coffee shops. Sometimes we had to wave people past us as we tried to make out minds up which one to have and what options to add on. Sometimes I wanted to say, "for goodness sake, I just want a coffee!" but once the decision was made I never regretted it.

Mines easy, strong and black but still they give you a small jug of milk! In Turin I’d get a triple espresso as they always gave you a half mug with boiling water so that you could get a large kickstart

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Mines easy, strong and black but still they give you a small jug of milk! In Turin I’d get a triple espresso as they always gave you a half mug with boiling water so that you could get a large kickstart

Oh yes, Italian coffee is epic stuff! As engineering staff - as against the tyre fitting crews who traveled in the trucks - We were allowed to take a partner to two meetings a year with most costs covered. We spent so much of our time away from our homes I think the company did this for goodwill and I for one appreciated it. Mrs J always came and Monza was one of the ones to go to as we supplied several big name teams but especially Ferrari (this was the sports car racing so stuff like the 512 Ferrari and 917 Porsche, Such exciting days - so there were social events and Ferrari did them in real style! I particularly remember one occasion when Mrs J had the devilled kidneys for her breakfast which were so heavily laden with garlic the fitting team wouldn't let her anywhere near the hospitality tent for the rest of the day. The main part of my job was technical support to the teams but there was also a certain customer relations aspect and I had to keep her away from the customers too! Luckily she'd "recovered" by race day so it all went well on the day.

 

[varesecrazy]

Flat battery on the Punto TA,

It's the factory fit EXIDE from 2012,

Time to power up the system with jump leads to see if I left a light on.. Or it's finally just quit

 

[portland_bill]

Flat battery on the Punto TA,

It's the factory fit EXIDE from 2012,

Time to power up the system with jump leads to see if I left a light on.. Or it's finally just quit

Tayna. https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/types/012/
Best prices, delivered quickly, in very secure packaging.

 

[varesecrazy]

Tayna. https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/types/012/
Best prices, delivered quickly, in very secure packaging.

Yes, that's my plan

I bought 2 modern batteries from them 18 months ago

Glad to report that coupling the 500 and Punto gave the punto enough power to run the fuel pump, and no flashing mileage

So hopefully that has ruled out the Earth Cable. AND B+M Failure

Will fit the new battery next weekend, glad I could trigger the RCL for peace of mind

 

[varesecrazy]

Thanks. I will make sure I use the compression socks. Thats a very useful reminder.

Never a bad think for a flight, keep mobile AND hydrated

 

[Cheest]

The grandsons are back in school today and I am flying with our youngest granddaughter back to Maine this afternoon. I'll be back home tomorrow afternoon. Grandkid free now until the holidays. So, a clean and quiet abode.
Yesterday morning, I asked the granddaughter if she'd like to go with me to the monthly bike night, that runs from 5pm to 8pm. It's a bit of a hike but it's a nice time. She was gung ho on going...until it was time to leave. Then came the usual, "No, I don't wanna". As we were already running late because Mrs.Cheest and time don't mix well, I just shrugged and parked the Ural back in the garage. Mrs.Cheest started to say something to her. I put my hand up and said, "I am so used to you and the kids agreeing to go somewhere or do something with me, then backing out at the last second that I really don't care anymore. I'll go find something else to do."

And I did.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

The "saga"of my neighbour's car battery got sorted today and it's left me feeling a little annoyed.

The car is his wife's. It's a 2009 Kia Rio without anything fancy like stop start so the battery is a very simple "wet" (traditional) lead acid jobbie. I took a look on Tayna's site with it's reggie number and it very quickly came up with a 005 code battery at around £55 (plus shipping I guess) Well, that's simple enough so i then fed the reggie into Halfords site and it came up with "sorry, no results found - please speak to a store colleague" despite the fact they list two 005 coded batteries in general listing. Anyway, confident in the knowledge that the chap I'm friendly with who works there will sort this out, we jumped in his other car and went off down to Halfords. Sorry sir, the chap you know is not in store today, what's the reg no of the vehicle please? Oh dear, we don't have a battery for that vehicle. Are you sure I ask, you're listing a 005 battery in the correct dimensions. Sorry sir, but the computer would list it as suitable if it was. I'm afraid we don't have a suitable battery for your car. I gave up at that and we went ten minutes down the road to ECP where their computer listed a 005 battery for it's reg no! we bought, took it back home, compared it to the one we were going to remove from the car and it matched exactly. This was annoying because we couldn't benefit from using my Halfords trade card so I calculate he's spent about £20 more than I could have bought it from halfords for.

It's been a number of days since I first started helping him with this car and in the meantime it's original battery has "died" almost completely. I was worried it might have lost it's radio code, one touch window memory etc. and, as the battery was so discharged, we took the chance of just disconnecting the old battery without hooking up a memory saver of any sort. The result is I can tell anyone who may be interested, the car didn't loose any memory stuff and radio, one touch up driver's door window etc are all working normally - looks like Kias don't mind having their batteries disconnected? At least one's of this age anyway. Unfortunately it did sound off the anti theft horn when connected, which was cancelled by locking and unlocking the central locking to reset the alarm - unfortunately not quickly enough to avoid waking the baby in it's pram outside the front door of the house opposite. If looks could kill!