What's made you smile today?

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What's made you smile today?

Don't get me wrong, I'm more impressed with the game than my own navigational abilities.

I'd never presume it was easy in real life...especially given I had 0 interaction with ATC and flew in whatever direction I felt like.

I'm sure you can make it a lot more realistic in terms of needing to and actually using the onboard systems. But I tend to approach games as way of doing the fun bits..without so much of the chores also associated.

Any further exploration got halted as one of the lads I go Karting/buggy racing with from time to time beat my time on Forza and that could not be allowed to stand.

So may say why you aren't you in the pub? But unfortunately these are the joys of childcare and night shifts...
 
Broke up from work today for 9 days..

Couple of beers, watched the new episode of the Expanse..Grand Tour French cars special (they destroy a lot of them but demonstrate exactly why they are perfect for my wife...) and chilling on the couch.

That'll do.
 
Broke up from work today for 9 days..

Couple of beers, watched the new episode of the Expanse..Grand Tour French cars special (they destroy a lot of them but demonstrate exactly why they are perfect for my wife...) and chilling on the couch.

That'll do.
Only watched half of it but did enjoy the off-road section and the way you load a dish washer in a saloon car.

Honestly we go over to france a lot and you should see the state of a lot of the cars on the road. Once saw a new looking Mercedes’ R-class with a whole front corner missing head light and all, the driver had just filled the boot with shopping at the hyper market so clearly wasn’t just stopped to check out the damage
 
Broke up from work today for 9 days..

Couple of beers, watched the new episode of the Expanse..Grand Tour French cars special (they destroy a lot of them but demonstrate exactly why they are perfect for my wife...) and chilling on the couch.

That'll do.
Off myself until 4 January. Technically working Monday through Wednesday, but it's a three day work week, so no travel involved. Just paperwork, email, and phone. If any of that's not happening, I'll be in my garage. After 84 flights, 189 nights in hotels, and countless lousy restaurant meals, I'm looking forward to it.
 
As some of you will know, I've been concerned for the condition of Becky's (our Panda) back axle for some time. I'd intended to attack the rust and treat it with Fertan during the summer just passed but events just seem to have conspired to defeat me at every turn and now it's cold and wet out and this old body of mine is just not up to it any more so I've put it back until the warmer weather returns next year.

Today Mrs J, her sister, my daughter in law and granddaughter used Becky to transport them up town to attend the Scottish Ballet's The Nutcracker at the Feastival Theatre. This surprised me as I'd thought they were going to go in a Taxi, but no, apparently there is dedicated parking for blue badge holders which they can use due to Mrs J's sister being a badge holder.

Due to the tram extension works this meant poor Becky had to be driven up two of the worst cobbled streets in Edinburgh - East Claremont Street and St Mary's Street - which must be the equal of any manufacturer's pave test surface and quite "tooth slackening" to drive over! It was dark by the time they returned but as far as I can see on cursory inspection, she's (the Panda) survived the experience intact. Maybe the rust isn't quite as intrusive as I'd been thinking?
 
Pre-Christmas run up to Cragside all 3 of us as wife is off today as well.

House is done up lovely.
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Still several large bits closed off due to damage from Arwen...but more than enough to wear out a toddler open.

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Hills out of Rothbury were fun....compared to Mazda life of revving the knackers off it that little beast shifts. Reached national speed limit from a standing start without going above 2.5k or any obvious effort/additional noise up a steep hill and easily held that speed in top. It's absolutely is a different country to the old na 1.6 on the same hills.
 
Speak of the devil...just left the supermarket after Xmas big shop. *bong* "imbalance in rotation detected please check tyre pressures and re-intialise." It's dark, 1 degree and raining.

Tomorrow's mission is now to get it fixed though...bum.

Mission accomplished...

Also saw it in daylight with the "space saver" on.

Everyone else: "let's fit a tiny wheelbarrow wheel to save space"

Citroën:
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So...do like the fact it has the markings on it as though its a space saver when it's clearly an entirely normal Kleber dynaxer hp3.
 
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So...do like the fact it has the markings on it as though its a space saver when it's clearly an entirely normal Kleber dynaxer hp3.
Is it the same size as the others?
Ford, with the Fiesta, used the standard steel wheel and tyre from the base model as a spare for all models. If you had a base model, you had 5 the same, but still the spare was marked as yours. For all other models, it was obviously different, so although a close rolling radius match, being different, the legislation demanded the labels and speed limit.
 
Is it the same size as the others?
Ford, with the Fiesta, used the standard steel wheel and tyre from the base model as a spare for all models. If you had a base model, you had 5 the same, but still the spare was marked as yours. For all other models, it was obviously different, so although a close rolling radius match, being different, the legislation demanded the labels and speed limit.
Nah it's 20mm narrower and an inch off in rim diameter (obviously less in totally height due to being a 65 not a 55).

Also it's a T...and the top speed is over 117mph. Which will be why it's marked up, given standard tyres are Vs

What you're saying makes sense...other than base spec C3s which have this size of wheel as standard...had a can of foam for "reasons" only the Flair trim which comes on minimum of a 16 205/55 got a spare as standard. They could have gone full wheel barrow wheel and drop the boot floor 50mm given same restrictions apply either way.

However in reality this wheel wouldn't be subject to the "50 mile" limit and would happily cruise all day at a decent speed if you needed it to, also braking performance across the axle wouldn't be anywhere near as lopsided.
 
Go on, do tell!
Just a simple thermistor off fleabay. had a couple of cowboys, (sorry heating engineers) look at it and one mentioned the ECU board and flame detectors and ignition triggers and gas pressure regulators and potentiometers blah blah blah but said he could put a new boiler in for £2.5k..... the other cowboy (sorry heating engineer) basically condemned the boiler by basically looking at it through the letter box whilst still standing at the end of the drive whilst taking a large inhale of breath through gritted teeth and holding his chin and saying " 20 year old ferrolli! Ha ha these were (human excrement) when they were new mate haha, you can't get the bits anyway mate haha, it's not worth spending any money on it mate it's ( fish hooked) but I can put you a new boiler in sometime in Jan for about £2k haha"
Having been a firm believer of doing any job myself if I can since about the age of six, I thought about it logically... the boiler when cold, fires up OK, heats the rads then the burner turns off normally when up to temp and the pump still pumps the water around until it starts getting slightly cooler again and it SHOULD put the burner on again to repeat the 'cycle', it wasn't, it would fire up but then after 5 seconds turn the burner off, then turn off completely, then after 5 mins try again but turn off, it did however seem to get the rads about 50% up to temp simply by just repeating 5 second bursts of flame for a few hours until I turned it off before it knackered itself completely.
Stone cold the next day it would behave itself until it came to the second 'cycle' then play up until I got fed up and turned it off. What dawned on me was it was temperature related. My last job was an engineer for aesthetic laser machines (these machines had a cooling/heating system in them that accurately controlled the temperature of the laser head for optimum power, basically a mini central heating system, changing thermistors on these was a regular occurance due to failure)
A quick look online searching for the boilers problem resulted in a few threads confirming thermistors on this particular model we're troublesome so putting two and two together I got one off fleabay.
On my boiler there are two thermistors, one for hot water return and one for central heating feed, post burner. the one for central heating was ideally situated OUTSIDE of the boiler underneath so it really was a 30 second job.by the most incredible stroke of luck in the curry house I bumped into a guy I worked with at the car dealerships 25 years previously, we got chatting, his son was now a gas engineer! What! Would he pop round my house to put a thermistor in for me? You bet your bottom dollar he could! He turned up and swapped them over in about 2 mins, new one in and its working perfectly, in fact I had to turn it down yesterday I was so warm. 😅 easy fix but it is a 20 year old ferrolli consisting of a burner, a pump, a single control board and a few sensors so not exactly rocket science. So if you need any help with your ferrolli modena 102 I'm your man ☺️

Cost =£3.50 for the thermistor and a few pints for my ex colleague next time I'm in the curry house.
 
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Finally. A beer I can relate to.
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Most of the in laws were over yesterday and behaved themselves. They devoured the turkey, the ham, the side dishes, and many of the sweets. My nieces' hubby gets political at times because he lives in a bubble and I had to shut him down once. I expect him to be the crazy racist uncle when he gets in his 50s.

Grandma went nuts baking. This wasn't all of it.
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My niece was adopted at the age of 11, from Ukraine. She's about 40 now and a sweetheart, if not the sharpest tool in the shed. Because she was old enough to remember Ukraine when she came to the US, she remembers that her mom and dad had a Dnepr sidecar rig before they died. She asked me to take her son for a ride in the Ural yesterday. Must have been a sight with my camo green rig running down the road with my oldest grandson riding pillion, and my youngest grandson and grand nephew in the sidecar. The grandsons are pros at riding with me but it was the first time for Gavin, the grand nephew. His smile was big enough to crack his helmet.
 
Not only does the little poop run, it's now scary fast.
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Max speed with the old 60cc Kawasaki engine, through gear reduction and governor, was 8 mph. With the new Predator 79cc 4 Stroke, we're looking at damn near 30 mph.
 
Not only does the little poop run, it's now scary fast.
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Max speed with the old 60cc Kawasaki engine, through gear reduction and governor, was 8 mph. With the new Predator 79cc 4 Stroke, we're looking at damn near 30 mph.
Is it a snow mobile or jet ski or such like?
 
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