grendel

I too remember those responsible for keeping the electricity flowing on christmas day, those at the call centres and those on standby who might be called upon to leave at a moments notice - even in the middle of their christmas meal to go out and reconnect the power supply in case of a power cut.

well almost.

2.0 litre - pulled like a train, yes it was a mk1 dormobile parcel van

they get the small bits off the plate after carving, plus (if we are not careful) the gravy out of the jug when it doesnt get put down in a safe place, thats aside from getting spoilt rotten with dreamies.

when I used to have the old volvo 340's they always had head gasket problems (I probably had a warped head) but I could swap a head gasket by the side of the road in 20 minutes, an engine swap in the evening was about an hour (I had a spare engine that was as bad with head gaskets as the first) I did find the renault head gaskets fit, and wee half the price of the volvo ones. my old v4 transit, - the tappits would drop out of adjustment, so I would pull to the side of the road, off with the rocker cover, and tweak the tappits by hand until they went quiet - all without bothering to stop the engine. that engine had been rebuilt with new rings, while it was still in the van, the worst problem I had was a starter motor that dropped off in the middle lane of the m40, there had been a traffic queue, and as it moved away I stalled it, then found the starter wasnt on, just dangling from its wires, that was the worst 5 minutes of my life, using a length of studding to hold the starter on to get it running, while traffic flowed around us.

as there are only two of us in the main (and my daughter is off out to boyfriends and friends most days) we have a turkey breast joint for Christmas day, and a beef joint for some other time,then leftovers after that for a week or two, as per the standard rules of Christmas food.

at least a diesel engine can be run on vegetable oil when the petrochemicals run out.

that said, if you ever do get a screw or nail in a tyre - leave it in until you can get the tyre either replaced or repaired, if you pull it out, then the air will leak faster, plus the tyre repair place will be able to find the hole easier, and you will do less damage to the hole, so it may be able to be properly plugged. whether it can be plugged depends on the angle it goes into the tyre.

our office is still open monday, I have 1 1/2 hours drive, the office will open at 9am, and shuts at 11.30, then I have 1 1/2 hours drive home again, ah the good life. I still have a full days work needed before christmas. everyone at work has been sorting out their paperwork, seeing bits they need doing, sending it to me, then heading off on holiday, I might just finish the before christmas job I was given last friday, but all the others that have come in since - well at least they are not in to chase them. then the first week back we are on standdown training, so they wont get them that week either.

yes, especially with my size 14's

I usually buy 4 or 5 pairs of shoes at the same time (usually at sale price - then 5 years later when they have all worn out, I might buy another few pairs. (I should be good for 4 or 5 years now as I bought some this year.

thats another point worth noting, if you do carry a spare, a jack and spanner to change the wheel are another essential (and another weight saving thing car companies do away with to save costs and weight.)

well add it to a beef pie then, at least you could almost claim it as a steak and ale pie. (thats about all that stella is good for anyway)

I think that once you have been driving a while and experienced a few punctures, you may well reconsider this Robin, if there wasnt a dedicated space for a full sized spare in any car I owned, it would be sitting in the boot.

JF, you could always add instant mash powder.

my volvo has the battery under the floor at the back, and a full sized spare. in all of the 3 blowouts I had above, the emergency foam would not have sealed the hole, I could put my hand through 2 of them. if your tyre shreds and the rim is damaged, they may not be able to fit a new tyre onto it, where would you be then, in my pothole incident that would have left me on a narrow country road, between two blind bends. the only reason they dont put spares into cars nowadays is to reduce weight (and cost to produce), this increases the power to weight ratio, and allows the vehicle to actually achieve some of the rated economy that they claim for it.

I have had instantaneous blowouts 3 times now, and both times was glad to have a spare. one I was forced into a pothole which blew the tyre, , one was on the motorway, meaning I was all over 3 lanes, one was semi gradual, allowing me to slow to a stop on the hard shoulder. I cringe when I see some cars travelling the motorways with almost flat tyres. I have also had a horsebox blow a tyre in front of me as I overtook it, it was halfway into my lane in a matter of a fraction of a second. I would seriously advocate having a full sized spare, I could swap mine out for a full alloy tyre if I put the steel rim spare onto my old car, the allow wouldnt match the rest, but would be the same size, if you have to drive more than a few yards on a flat, it will destroy the tyre, and maybe the rim.

it does get a bit like this in the winter, people cant get away and go on their boats on the broads as easily, so slowly go stir crazy.

That looks good Robin, I do have to admit that my new to me (16 year old) volvo has a lot of the same features, cruise control, radio controls on the steering wheel - no camera system though, boot space is probably similar, but I have sacrificed a storage tray under the back load area to replace the space saver spare for a full sized steel rim spare that I can drive as normal on, considering the 30,000 miles i do a year and a 125 mile daily commute, I consider a full size spare as an essential. I like you think the current tyres on the car leave something to be desired, they are budget ones, I tend to go for a mid range tyre - balancing grip with wear life, great grippy tyres tend to wear out at the mileages i do, far too quickly, I am lucky if I get a years use out of a tyre with a good wear rating, at least mine are standard profile tyres so a lot cheaper, I seem to recall I spend about £80 a corner. mine too is a diesel engine, a nice volvo 2.4 litre D5 - this produces plenty of oomph when I need it, plus returns about 46 mpg on the motorway run to work, nearly 50mpg (49.6mpg) on the run from london to Daventry and back for our company Christmas do last weekend.

yes it was in the BA's december broads briefing https://mailchi.mp/6da961e22660/broads-briefing-december?e=b9e683c9ea from the look of the area with the boom around it, that will take a fair amount of spoil.

I recall reading that the hickling spoil would be pumped into an area bounded off by a membrane, to recreate a reed bed, surely as this is not on farmers land, they can keep at it until that area is full of spoil, irrespective of farmers - maybe this is why they are now able to do the dredging. so farmers permission is maybe not so much of an issue, if reed beds can be created - I do understand this will restrict the amount of navigation, but I would think that the area would have been too shallow to navigate in any case.

microwave steam in the bag veggies are still available.

I would prefer custard.

it is always said that a good reputation is the hardest thing to earn, and the easiest thing lost, given that the original thread was over 3 months back, and no satisfactory response has been given to the original contact, I dont see this as overly critical.