Sirbendy

Skoda. Just bought Jem a 2000 plate Fabia 5 door 1.4mpi. Tax would be cheap (on Jems it's still under the old system, on newer ones I have no idea but with a 1.2 engine available that's apparently very good, I would think cheap), seats do as you say - front cushion raises and the backs fold flat. Yonks of space in it (may not look it from outside, but it's quite spacious!). Polo parts, so plentiful and cheap. VW without the badge to raise the price.

I've thought of Prius before, but the economy isn't the best, with lugging the batteries round. Yaris can beat them in economy terms..and no batteries to worry about.

I had some studdable winter/snow tyres fitted to the Astra in November...fair play to them, icy roads have been un-noticeable, as has the ice/compacted/frozen snow so far. Running them without studs - didn't get them with it, don't quite see the point really. I also have the autosocks in the boot (which worked well in the last snow we had when I had "normal" tyres on that were struggling - 3 standing hill starts on a ruddy steep hill while all around were losing it..) Just glad the missus and little person are at home tomorrow - I feel considerably less bothered if I know they're in the warm and not stuck in the car with me. It's not that I doubt my own capabilities...I don't. I've done skidpan courses, and taken the car out after "do not drive" has been issued, in deep snow when you can't tell hedge from road without issue for fun. It's all the other people on the road I doubt...hurtling past at 60/70 , when there's no tarmac visible.

I recall well when we had Hex de-noodled...Vet said "He'll be sleepy"... Like hell he was. Psycho kitten from hell that didn't stop for 2 hours, then literally fell over and slept for a day. Bless, he was a little SOD as a kitten, now he's the most patient of my 3 cats, continually being dressed up by the daughter...heh. He was nearly named "Mofo" when we got him...

We had a couple of inches. Today it's 99% gone. However, at work and the area round there, it's still "tracks in the snow", and at tiddlers nursery, it's not even that due to it being on an Industrial estate with no weekend traffic! Cue us riding on top of frozen snow all the way in. The snow/winter tyres did well. "Snow mode" on the gearbox though, less so. I'm afraid I don't like GM's shift strategy in that mode...lots of revs, very little go...feels very uncontrolled. So I turned it off again. Heh.

Yep. Don't like the Astra-H at all. The F, yes, the G, yes..the J, in looks certainly yes..but the H (or MK5) just looked huge with a fat backside. I'd rather push my MK4, or indeed my MK3 come to that. And Maestro Diesels - was it the non turbo, or the Perkins Prima TD? Those were fun. Long legged gears and quite nippy to boot..

Or an Aixam, or a Microcar - both quite fun..or for utter comedy value, a Reliant Robin with a yellowtop engine, minilite WIDE wheels and a wheelie bar

As I recall, I'm paying £300ish on my 1.6 Astra fully comp (34, max NCB), and my missus who only passed her test a few months back has just paid £700 fully comp on her own car, a W reg Fabia 1.4mpi. I was quite surprised..I expected worse!

God knows what the lump under the bonnet is, but it's a quite pretty metallic blue, no idea on mileage/SH etc, and it's in the Midlands..heh.

Video tech has a Gen3 (I think)..he's looking to get shot, citing cost to run. Bless. The Head had an older one - christened it the "Widowmaker"..heh. He liked it, but said it could be a twitchy car to drive if pushed.

My advice? If it has a BT line in, plug a handset in and check it's operational. Phone BT, request connection if needed, and don't be fobbed off - I've been fobbed off in most of our rentals, everything from "you need a new line" (no I don't), to "it doesn't show on our system". If they ask about the line/wiring state, tell them it's fine. I've only found 1 BT guy who was not military about me doing my own wiring..he was good. "What state is the wiring in?".."well, it's on the floor at the moment, I'm ripping it all out back to the incoming 2 wire line box and starting again with proper NTE5's etc".."oh, fair enough - I'll put "excellent" there then..". If they insist on playing silly, or threaten a reconnect fee Google is your friend...I found a way to get into the exchange automated test system via handset on a deactivated but live line, and presented them with the virtual circuit ID, last known number etc...that surprised them..heh. "Oh, yes..we can see it now..."..

Would that be a bad thing? It'd break with the familiarisation "I move to this point on screen and click" routine, and possibly invoke Mr. Throught Process for a while, which is what seems lacking in a lot of ways.. Not MS bashing - I have no issue with them. Just the fact that people are now of the mindset that "MS are everything".

Regardless, ANYTHING has got to be better than them being taught that an application is purely a GUI, an appearance, with no understanding of what lies underneath, any of the processes that the monkeyuser GUI enables, any underlying understanding of anything they're doing on a useful level - Office2k7 transitions - mass uprising of staff becuase it looks different. Same when we rolled from Studio MX to CS4.."it looks different, waah.". Really. Tables or CSS? If you asked, the answer I can guarantee in 99% of cases would be "umm, dreamweaver". 'nuff said. It's irrelevant. Understand what you want to do, the processes you need to do logically to achieve your ends, and it'll work regardless. There's not enough of that. What kids know now is a GUI. If I plonk a kid in front of..ooh, say Openoffice, some would be lost.."it's not word!". We still have staff bemoaning 7 vs Vista.."I want Office Vista back, or Windows 2007"...FFS, why? "Because It looked nice and worked better.". My arse. Too much pointless teaching of "surface" end user namby pamby IT now, no ruddy teaching of fundamentals and the way it actually works. Send 'em out to sit in front of MS Office apps and say "I know about PCs". Yes, quite. Erm, no. They're not learning much now IMO, merely parroting familiar movements. My 2 year old can do that, does it mean she's going to be a qualified IT geek by default at 6? I think not. Gods, I HOPE not. Both parents in IT, lets hope she does something normal..heh.

I wouldn't mind one, come to that.. Part of me is quite pleased that Gove has done this - I agree that from what I see here, ICT teaching has become too..idiotic. Possibly the wrong word. Basic. Can you use word, excel etc, can you send an e-mail? Can you screenshot? You've passed. I see so many kids that just plain don't see the point, or think it's as dull as dishwater..that's not right. We do robotics club, scratch, and all that too - but it's a niche. I think we should do more "grass roots" IT..how it works, theory, fundamentals...stuff that applies globally, not just in the MS/Office camp. Take away the monkey-UI from our kids, they're lost. Dreamweaver code view - even the staff have problems understanding the code and come to us. I code in Notepad++. We're not helping them understand ICT at the mo, IMHO..and we're not utilising their brains much at all. If texting is more fun than lessons, we've not got it right. Bring back C++, Turbo Pascal, structured english, programming theory, quantitative methods, systems theory and systems practice, and hardware lessons. Never hurt me. I don't work in IT for the software, not at all..bar Virtualisation, I find it quite humdrum. Hardware, now that's different. How it all works, the nuts and bolts..yes.

Yep, we use Riverford for our Vegboxes/fruitboxes. Bifferent sizes depending on needs - right now we're on the mini box. Standard Veg in there - carrot, swede, spuds, cabbage, cauli etc, sometimes you get jerusalem artichokes and suchlike - it varies. Love it. Always got fresh Veg etc to hand, and what we don't use in a week goes to the rabbit/guinea pig, so there's no waste. Fruit boxes are much loved by the daughter.."OOH! 'NANAS!!", etc. I find them damn handy at christmas, we order all the family veg for MIL etc through them and take it down. Missus is also trying the "Well Hung Meat Company"'s meatbox...we'll see how that goes. It's the sheer comedy value of the missus opening the door and asking the guy "ah, are you well hung?"..cracks us both up.

I'm 52 week, but as I've been here 11/12 years now I have 33 days holiday owing this sept-sept. Plus they've got an 8 day shutdown on the building from the 16th. So I'm working until the 21st (first day off), claiming back the 2 days, but losing one as I took my daughters Birthday off. So, here until Tuesday Night, then the missus and I will take tiddler out of Nursery and have a long run-up until christmas, as it'll be our last (hopefully) as a family of 3. First year she really "gets" the whole thing, being 2.. Then not back until the 2nd.

It's a thought..ha! We can give him VLC to his kit down there and forward his phone to the second one I installed in here though.

I'm hardly in a cupboard (big office, with NM office behind a glass partition, and a server room at the end), but yes, it's lonely. The doors are maglocked - there is only staff/student interaction when they come in, and that's usually not the best time to interact, as it's a "nned" call. It wasn't as bad when I had a junior tech sharing this office with me. We could converse, have a laugh and make even the bad days go well. Now it's just me and the NM, and we're on the verge of a big disagreement in terms of..well, everything really. We rarely converse "normally", and a lot of what I get is..not entirely pleasant. Our Video tech feels the same, again - he's hardly in a cupboard. Big office, back of the theatre, control decks like a concorde, Avid rigs etc etc. However, he's behind maglock doors too, and it's just him, in isolation. I know he's frequently bored and isolated feeling. So, we're trying to combine forces and get him up here 3 days a week as honourary IT support. We can then assist him with his workload, and vice versa. I do walkrounds - we have phone, helpdesk, email...but I'm finding a HUGE chunk of "everyday" issues aren't reported, purely down to the "argh, more work to submit it than it's worth", or "I don't want to call up in case I'm told off/doing something silly", or "I don't have the time to do this while teaching a class". NM isn't overly happy about the walkrounds, but as I see it, my role is end user support...and any means to that end has GOT to be a good thing if it means we stay on top of everything. God knows, a small ignored issue soon snowballs in unexpected directions.. It's not like we don't have SERIOUSLY good radios if I'm needed, after all.

Ha, the time passed... I no longer own my P reg Astra...some twunt smacked it up the rear and twisted the chassis. Much missed car. I now own an M reg MK3 PH1/PH2 Mybrid with a 1.4MPi engine and autobox, and an X reg MK4 1.6MPi Autobox equipped Astra. The X is a 5 door and my daily driver, a lowly 8 valver Club class, but it's plenty nippy. The M is a 3 door, with more issues than Readers Digest, and is a project.

Neither me or my missus have ever had credit cards and live by the "if you don't have it, don't spend it" rule...might be because I had an IFA go over our funds and organise the mortgage for us, but we were accepted for the mortgage and in in 2 months.

I'm still getting mail for past owners of our place. I've already exploded at EON and STW about their bloody stupid billing systems that allow multiple occupiers at one address without flagging a "WTF?" check. Most mail I bin, some I will open if they look urgent/bad enough..like EON/STW threatening final action on debts.

Tell me about it. Luckily Astra ones are held on with 2 big Torx bolts, so I broke out the wrench, bit and a breaker bar..heh. Once it was off, I put 12v to it, and it was indeed utterly jammed. Brought it into DT here, clamped it in a vice, WD40, big hammer, heat treatment blowtorch until nice and pretty, more hammering, more 12v pulsing, rinse and repeat. Soon started moving again! Went for MOT last time, the guy looked under the bonnet.."I see what you did there..good call!". Never caused me any issues. Thinking on, I bought a cheapo 12v impact wrench (think wheelbolts) - it took standard sockets too - one of those is a lifesaver for stubborn bolts. Satisfying too, hearing the flywheel spin up, then "CLUNK!" and off goes the bolt.

I never thought I was a cat person, but these days I appear to have 3..heh. All moggies. 1 ex-farm cat, who is huge, hulking, black and looks quite a beefcake, but is THE most tolerant and loving puddle of fur I've ever seen...he takes everything my 2 year old can do and just accepts it serenely. Even clothes/baby wipes/feeding imaginary soup. 1 is a rescue cat, we had from about 6 weeks old (if that). Was in a box in a cupboard, no parent cat...poor chap. Hand raised, with the help of big cat. Now he's a lean, lanky, nervous boy who'll keep his distance from anyone but family, and will only consent to being scragged/fussed for any time by me, so he's "my" cat. Part oriental, very lanky, very mournful and yowly meow. The newest member of the cat committee is a gorgeous ginger girlie, her brother is part norweigan forest cat (he's HUGE)..she's quite slim, and as thick as a brick sandwich.. All house cats, until I cat-proof the garden. Too many nutters out there for my taste.

Either blank off, cardboard material (as said) or coke-can steel cut to pattern..heh. I blanked mine off with a purpose cut plate, left it connected but cabletied out of the way (there's an ECU flash for a manual to write it out, but not for an autobox car), and it's been no trouble since...heh.

Congratulations.. I have to say, it only gets better. My eldest is 2 next month, and I'm loving the whole thing. Even the nappy washing, and I never thought I'd say that! It's addictive, I warn you..if all goes well, we should be doing it all over again mid next year, heh. Take as many pics and vids as you can, it's amazing how fast they develop - Izzy now is almost unrecognisable as the Izzy in the "2 hours post birth" pic on the wall.