BondandBigM

Surprisingly rather than the Internet some of the best deals we've had have been from the ticket kiosk in our local station. It's only five minutes from my flat so it's always worth nipping in and asking and as you say some good deals if you buy tickets well in advance and are prepared to go off peak. Before covid we used the train a lot. One time we got tickets direct to King's Cross for £45 return. If you add petrol, congestion charge and parking I couldn't have done it in the car for that. I think this is the way forward for electric cars, use them reasonably locally or within their range and use trains for longer trips. As for the away games the landlord of my local runs a bus. Much more fun when there are 30 or 40 of us.

The distance thing maybe it just needs another approach. Other than the current prohibitive cost I could easily use an electric car, I don't do that many miles and any longer journeys we go by train. Brutus did a job for us to get to Scarborough the other week. Spotlessly clean, bang on time both ways with connections at York and as we were in no rush we went off peak so cheaper than taking the car. No sitting in traffic jams or dodgy grub from rip off service stations.

When I was an apprentice one of the lads I started with used to borrow his fathers Traveller, we went all over in it. It was a dog with fresh air holes in the floor and wet feet when it rained but it got us there. I'm surprised anybody would still want one.

Yep price on these old clonkers have already went crazy and showing no signs of slowing down.

Possibly but manufacturers will still be able to sell petrol/diesel cars in plenty of other countries that aren't buying into this zero emissions malarkey so I'd be surprised if many of them completely stop production of them all together ??

So do some of the others, I've just had a look even a fairly basic Renault with a few extras added in is just short of £30K. Some of the lease deals initially look reasonable but they all have a very low annual mileage limit, as soon as you want to add a few more thousands of miles a year the monthly price shoots up. Any bets on when it gets to 2030 Dot Gov does a u-turn. It wouldn't surprise me.

No spare charged up batteries Boss Best excuse going for a bit of coffee drinking and a skive at the last engineering place I was at. People used to hide the chargers or the batteries so always another excuse for a wander, just looking for a charger Boss. Bare wires on the 110v extension cables was another good skive, just nipping down the maintaince to get a new cable Boss

It’s common with industrial electric forklifts to rent battery packs. We had a truck that the batteries were shot and I just rented/leased a new battery pack for it. You wouldn’t just scrap a forklift because the batteries are goosed, currently at work there is station with a whole row of spare battery packs constantly on chargers and when a truck starts running low the drivers just pull up an swop them over, it only takes a few minutes and they are back at work so there are companies already providing this sort of infrastructure to industry. I don’t know about the latest deals but a bit back I looked at an electric Renault and the batteries were on a separate lease. I would think that this could become the norm in future.

Is it possible that the bezel and insert could have been removed, possibly for cleaning or replacement, and then refitted in the wrong orientation then the insert snapped in place. Just a thought.

That was in a Thai sweat shop that knocked out various goods like tool boxes and so on, any brand name you like on them. In a previous life I visited a few factories in the Far East and China, the conditions in some of them were absolutely shocking. I doubt if much has changed. Sadly it's the old catch 22, if we in the West didn't buy all the cheap sh!te two for a fiver 4XL fatty b@stard t-shirts that the Asda Georgio and the like sell they wouldn't have jobs or eat. Imagine life working in a place like that and living in a tin shed out the back. In one place they were living in the loft space above the factory and in another some even turned up with their own camp beds.

Ann Marie is in concert on Capital FM later tonight. Big M has it on all day and they've already mentioned her and played her records about a dozen times and I've only been up for a few hours. I'll do my best not to throw her radio out the window. Are you sure Big M isn't a lost relative of yours.

Something like this will sort it out, the cast alloy will be fairly soft and it shouldn't be difficult, just stick it in a drill and you'll be good to go. You get them in various grits and diameters, they only cost a couple of quid for half a dozen. We used them all the time at work for opening up tight holes in steel parts.

They have attentive assistants in yours In our TKMaxx all they have is a few daft youngsters wandering around paying no interest at all. People trying on clothes in the isles and generally helping themselves. I've bought one watch from them and nobody batted an eyelid when I just picked it up off the display shelf took it out of the box and tried it on.

Rolex Fakers I don't buy this super fake thing, maybe the ordinary Joe public might be fooled but any professional that deals in and handles high end merchandise on a daily basis shouldn't be. As with anything for most people although not entirely fool proof it's worth the extra couple of quid to deal with professionals of good reputation. And yes I like to have the boxes and any documentation, it just adds a bit to the overall purchase.

Dog sitting for Big M's daughter for a few days. Grunts and snorts like a pig, as thick as two short ones or in Jock Speak as thick as mince, can't walk the length of himself and stinks. Apparently he cost about as much as a three bed semi and could be kidnapped at any moment. Designer mutts I can't see the attraction