thursday what the eye don't see won't break the heart

sungod

'ning

brekkie soon, though i'm still stuffed from much raw meat, saucisson, duck, beer, wine, cheese, crepes, and other fundamental food groups, i don't recall any green veg being involved

should be back in london in time for bubbly with mrs s and revert to local nosh

hope you've all been good

tlw1

Wasn't good after a shoot day and the current wife frozen to the core watching the youngest play in a football competition we had dinner at the local - it's a lot more fun

Today continues the fun week with little restbite on the horizon

lincolndave

Morning, freezing here, did anyone see the moon last night, I didn’t but Jackie said it looked a reddish colour, besides that all back to normal, dog walked, breakfast consumed ,tea being drunk

Matthewfalle

Just having coffee having taken The Hound for a walk. It’s bitter out there.

Will head to work in a minute to dump the Madone in a shed and try and sell it.

thistle_

Morning,

Organising some photographs today, and possibly a hire car for a jolly next week.
Might go for a run at lunchtime when it's a bit warmer and lighter.

Lincolndave wrote:

did anyone see the moon last night

No, these celestial events are the best weather forecast around: it's always thick cloud, usually raining when they occur.

veronese68

Morning folks,
Traditional mild Thursday morning hangover is present and correct, at least it is actually Thursday this time. Probably be quite a busy day as it's the 1st of the month so all the account customers will wake up again. I'll just have to keep my head down for a bit. Popped out to look at the moon last night at about 6ish, there was a house in the way so we crossed the road and it was a bit bigger and brighter than normal, but not spectacular enough to warrant all the hype. By midnight it was higher in the sky and looked like a fairly normal full moon. Quite nippy out though.
It wasn't completely dark as I wobbled in this morning and going home yesterday it was light enough that I realised my chain was a strange brown colour, but completely silent. I've been using Squirt chain lube and it seems to work well but the side plates do tend to look a bit rusty in bad weather.
Where's my tea?

step83

Morning, missed the best of the supermoon last night due to pesky work came out it was huge an very low in the sky, ill upload an image I took in a bit slight blur to it as I couldn't be bothered to go five minutes down the road to a dark area an do battle with the red deer.

Plan for today is to laugh at the manager fudging the stats to make us miraculously pass SLA when we missed it by a country mile. and craft a sign which reads similar to "Fark Off" for my desk, oh and experiment with the coffee press thing I picked up. Takes nespresso pods!

seanoconn

BBers car question.

Apart from the moral environmental argument, what are BBers thoughts on Diesel? Would I be daft buying a 3/4 year old Diesel? Is it likely Diesel cars will be banned from cities, taxed severely or the price of fuel will be hiked up in the near future?

Thanks.

fenix

How many miles do you do ?

veronese68

Fenix wrote:

How many miles do you do ?

And where do you do those miles?
A diesel makes sense for our family holiday driving to Italy, for the other 11 months of the year bimbling around town it would be more trouble than it's worth so we went petrol.

seanoconn

Fenix wrote:

How many miles do you do ?

About 60 miles a week.... on a bike.

But seriously, while my parents are both in good health (touch wood) they aren't getting any younger and live about 60 miles away, so I envisage frequent visits in the near future. Added to that will be family outings at weekends. Friend of mine has both diesel and petrol and says the theory that using diesel for pottering around London will block up the jets or something is a bit of a myth with modern Diesel engines?

veronese68

seanoconn wrote:

Friend of mine has both diesel and petrol and says the theory that using diesel for pottering around London will block up the jets or something is a bit of a myth?

Your friend is talking rubbish. Modern diesels have loads of filters and stuff to keep emissions down, at low speed and until the car has warmed up these filters get blocked up, at motorway speeds the crap gets burned out of them. Used exclusively in town for short journeys the filters eventually become so blocked they need to be replaced and are very expensive. You can pay to have them cleaned, not as expensive or there are companies that remove the filters which is illegal. A girl that works here bought a Volvo XC90 diesel and would drive it to work, you can see her house from the front of our building. She has spent thousands because of all the problems caused. Her husband would thrash it down the M3 once a week to try and prevent the problems. She eventually sold it for not much more than scrap value and now has a petrol engined BMW. That's the most extreme example but I know of many others.

seanoconn

Veronese68 wrote:

seanoconn wrote:

Friend of mine has both diesel and petrol and says the theory that using diesel for pottering around London will block up the jets or something is a bit of a myth?

Your friend is talking rubbish. Modern diesels have loads of filters and stuff to keep emissions down, at low speed and until the car has warmed up these filters get blocked up, at motorway speeds the crap gets burned out of them. Used exclusively in town for short journeys the filters eventually become so blocked they need to be replaced and are very expensive. You can pay to have them cleaned, not as expensive or there are companies that remove the filters which is illegal. A girl that works here bought a Volvo XC90 diesel and would drive it to work, you can see her house from the front of our building. She has spent thousands because of all the problems caused. Her husband would thrash it down the M3 once a week to try and prevent the problems. She eventually sold it for not much more than scrap value and now has a petrol engined BMW. That's the most extreme example but I know of many others.

Point taken, thanks V.

seanoconn

Thanks oxo. You know you're pretty helpful when you're off sick and not sleeping

keef66

Clear skies over East Anglia, so spent much of last night trying to get to grips with new compact superzoom camera and googling for tips on photographing the moon. Eventually managed a couple of properly exposed and focused shots using a tripod and having discovered how to do everything manually. I'm sure it would all have been a lot easier with a DSLR, but they are a PITA to lug around when travelling.

Having nearly given myself frostbite faffing with the tripod for 10 minutes I have a new found respect for the lunatics who spend hours / days / months on the ice to get a few seconds of footage of penguins, polar bears etc.

Now trying to decide what the company is going to buy me as a long service award...

I have a grand to spend. I don't need anything cycling related. Tools are always a possibility. Some kind of up to date sound system for the house is quite appealing.

I hear good things about Sonos, but at 60 I feel I have a lot of technology to catch up with. At the moment we have a loft full of vinyl but nothing to play them on, piles of CDs we can only play in the cars, and a DAB radio with a failing display and occasionally dodgy reception.

So we could dot the Sonos things around the house and they work over our wifi? And then get Spotify Premium on the iPad to stream virtually anything, radio included? Presumably they all need mains power? (I'm trying to anticipate potential locations for them, and avoid objections from my wife about visible wiring...)

hopkinb

Yes, they all need mains power. We have spotify premium, and yes, you can stream radio. I have a couple of the Play 1 units round the house and the Sonos streamer hooked up to my old Marantz amp and floorstanding speakers. Sound quality is fine, unless you're an audiophile, you won't notice the difference. Set up is really simple.

I hear good things about the soundbar, and the play 5 and play 3 as well, seeing as you have a bit of budget. Maybe the sound bar, and a pair of play 1s? Offers seem rare.

tlw1

Standard answer, but spend the money on hookers and blow

Stevo_666

My spare car is a diesel but I use it mainly to go North to see my old dear and West to go downhilling. Will probably get shot of it when those stop or become less frequent, or if they extend the diesel punishment charge out to the South Circular as they're threatening to. It does a bit of suburban duty as well and like people say, the filter clogs up if you don't take in on a motorway blast once in a while.

On another note, I had a call this morning with the big finance cheese over in the Kingdom of Far Far Away and they have offered me the global tax gig 8) . Out tonight for a drink or three but just celebrating now with a big lump of sushi - may as well get into the swing of things...

keef66

Stevo 666 wrote:

My spare car is a diesel but I use it mainly to go North to see my old dear and West to go downhilling. Will probably get shot of it when those stop or become less frequent, or if they extend the diesel punishment charge out to the South Circular as they're threatening to. It does a bit of suburban duty as well and like people say, the filter clogs up if you don't take in on a motorway blast once in a while.

On another note, I had a call this morning with the big finance cheese over in the Kingdom of Far Far Away and they have offered me the global tax gig 8) . Out tonight for a drink or three but just celebrating now with a big lump of sushi - may as well get into the swing of things...

Many congratulations! Assuming of course you want the global tax gig, and it's not one of those offers you can't refuse and which come with double the responsibility / aggro for no more pay.

keef66

TLW1 wrote:

Standard answer, but spend the money on hookers and blow

It has to be an item, paid for by the company and physically given to me, within HMRC limits, and with a VAT receipt.

I can see a few problems with your suggestion...

hopkinb

Stevo 666 wrote:

On another note, I had a call this morning with the big finance cheese over in the Kingdom of Far Far Away and they have offered me the global tax gig 8) . Out tonight for a drink or three but just celebrating now with a big lump of sushi - may as well get into the swing of things...

Congratulations Stevo.

Matthewfalle

Top stuff - many congrats.

New bike?

seanoconn

Congrats global stevo

veronese68

Well done Stevo and good luck Oxo.

Matthewfalle

top stuff oxo.

new bike?

seanoconn

Matthewfalle wrote:

top stuff oxo.

new bike?

Know anyone selling a bike MF?

thistle_

seanoconn wrote:

Apart from the moral environmental argument, what are BBers thoughts on Diesel? Would I be daft buying a 3/4 year old Diesel? Is it likely Diesel cars will be banned from cities, taxed severely or the price of fuel will be hiked up in the near future?

I can't see VED being increased massively for older diesel cars any time soon, but VED is only a tiny part of the running costs anyway.

I also can't see low emission zones coming to anywhere outside London in the next 5 years - there will be too much political messing around before it gets anywhere near reality. Zones might get extended in London, but like others have said modern diesels are quite clean on paper due to the filters they put in.
Fuel duty - only minor increases if anything. It's unpopular with voters and the government isn't exactly that popular at the moment so they probably won't risk it. Fluctations in fuel/oil prices are a risk, especially if Trump decides he wants to invade half of the Middle East. If you're only doing 120 miles a week, it's not a big cost.

Servicing is generally a bit more expensive for diesels, but some cars wear through parts like cheese whereas others last forever. If you're not doing big miles, repairs won't be that expensive.

If the diesel's nice to drive, and pretty cheap to buy I'd go for it unless there's a nicer petrol alternative. Can you fit your bike in it?

keef66

Bought my last company A3 diesel for eldest son. 4 years old, 65k miles, full Audi service history inc new water pump and cambelt , never thrashed or crashed.

Made sense for him as he was doing 500 miles a week commuting cross country. Now it's a mere 300 but it's still saving him money on fuel. He'll run the thing into the ground so the resale value isn't an issue.

We've been avoiding Audi's recall to 'fix' the emissions; heard too many tales of expensive components packing up shortly afterwards...

tlw1

seanoconn wrote:

Matthewfalle wrote:

top stuff oxo.

new bike?

Know anyone selling a bike MF?

It will need to be a hybrid

Matthewfalle

seanoconn wrote:

Matthewfalle wrote:

top stuff oxo.

new bike?

Know anyone selling a bike MF?

I can ask around if you like

Matthewfalle

Tell you the truth, I couldn’t inflict the Madone on any Bracketeers. I’d be embarrassed to lie and say it was actually fun to ride.

It’s a Trek.