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oldgregg

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Posts posted by oldgregg

  1. Does anyone remember this guy?

    https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/dec/05/youtuber-jailed-after-staging-plane-crash-to-make-video-trevor-daniel-jacob

    The YouTuber who had the misfortune of suffering an engine failure on his light aircraft and had to bail out.

    Lucky that he was wearing a parachute and had a fire extinguisher strapped to his leg under his trousers..... :default_norty:

    It wasn't long before people analysed the video and suggested that the FAA got involved. He got six months in prison for staging the crash.

    • Like 4
  2. 33 minutes ago, twowrights said:

    Google AdSense pay monetized YouTubers, figures I've seen quote between ten and thirty pounds per thousand views, depending  on things such as subscriber numbers. 

    Indeed.

    And this is why there is so much clickbait on YouTube.

    There's lots of "You won't believe what happened" and "My latest car purchase was a huge financial mistake" titles on Videos, with the bigger channels also able to add a custom thumbnail of them holding their heads in despair.

    It's aways a good way of spotting the dullest videos where they were scraping the barrel for ideas.

    • Like 3
  3. I watch a lot of YouTube, particularly car and photography content but a fair bit about boating. Not so much about the Broads though.

    But I don't really watch any of the Broads 'influenzas' any more, they're all just producing the same stuff year on year. New faces and channels come along but it's just exactly the same formula rehashed again and again and again. 

    Someone sent me a link to the Ludham Bridge video person the other day. It was something like a 15 minute edit of just boats coming up to the bridge, some getting through, some turning round. I skipped through it, to see if there was anything interesting... Spoiler alert but there wasn't. 

    I get that sensationalism is easier and to make genuinely interesting content requires real talent and a lot of time and effort and therefore genuinely interesting content is going to be rare, but it's good to see there are still a few people about doing that.

    • Like 3
  4. Oh I didn't say they were any good.... Those approved repairers are often pretty terrible.

    It's more the case of they have to replace everything which is damaged rather than skip stuff which you or I would think is okay to leave. It's more about 'well, the insurer is paying' than actually doing a good job.

    But of course a 'specialist generalist' repairer is never going to have the knowledge of a brand specialist.

    It's all really broken.

  5. 18 hours ago, grendel said:

    All insurance companies are interested in nowadays is scrapping cars even with minor damage. and paying out as little as possible

    Unfortunately, having worked in the industry, I don't think you're too far from the truth.

    I get that the repair prices are high because insurers need to use approved repairers who meet a certain standard, and for the work to have a warranty etc.

    They also aren't allowed to compromise on repairs, again for example if a door was heavily damaged but there was nothing else apart from some very minor marking where the door had brushed against the closure then you or I would just replace the door and ignore those tiny scuffs. Insurer-approved repairers aren't allowed to do that and so a perfectly good car would be written off.

    The example I have cited happened to Mrs OG when she was hit by a third party and we settled for pretty much market value plus the car back as an unrecorded write-off. I found a replacement door for less than £100 and never did spot the marks that the car apparently had. There's something very wrong with the insurance industry.

    • Like 6
  6. I didn't realise it had closed, bit of a shame if so as it seemed to be a useful resource. The shop stocked the sort of stuff one tends to forget and the cafe was a handy breakfast stop.

    I've not stopped there since before covid, but I was talking to the owner back in 2019 and it did seem to be very much a lifestyle decision to be there.

    • Like 1
  7. Everything I've heard about the NDR from people in infrastructure seems to suggest that the Western Link was always planned, but that the council knew they'd never get the cost approved to build it in one go so they split the project into two.

    The overall cost of doing so (allowing for inflation, analysis etc) is almost certainly going to be more but that's public sector procurement...

  8. Gotta love 'Stives'.

    We've not been since autumn 2020... At which point any sort of holiday anywhere felt like an absolute luxury. A sunny week in Cornwall even more so.

    Only the other day we were saying how we need to get back there. Time for a pint in the sloop, and lunch at the Seafood Cafe :17_heart_eyes:.

    • Like 1
  9. I think that's the sweet spot. The post-2011 cars have more power but way more problems.

    I'm 6'2" with fairly long legs so a lot of cars don't fit me properly.... Z4's are better than most, though.

    • Like 2
  10. 17 hours ago, BrundallNavy said:

    You can buy mine only 24000 miles. Trouble is I will have to prize the keys out of H’s hands first. 

    It's surprising how many low-mileage examples there are out there, even in the first gen. They do seem to be a car that people keep a long time and cherish.

    I'm guessing you went for a pre-LCI with the N52? I test drove an LCI (I think it was a 2013 car) 20i at Inchcape and it was a lovely car in many ways, but without the six pot it didn't really 'feel' like a BMW roadster. I think the 23i and 30i are probably the ones to go for.

    24,000 is properly good though! If you do ever think about selling, I could be interested.

    • Like 1
  11. 20 hours ago, Mouldy said:

    Prestige brand and prestige prices!  Should be spelt Ow-di.  Could be worse - could have a BMW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . oh, forgot, he has! :default_coat:

    I think he's got one with the M54 though.... That and the N52 are pretty solid.

    It's the later turbocharged stuff with direct injection that is troublesome.

    I'm currently trying to work out which Z4 to buy. It's a bit of a minefield, but generally DI and turbo(s) = trouble - NA and port injection = reliable.

    • Like 2
  12. Yeah they're very good for the money. I've hired Major 2 a number of times and she's hard to fault.

    In 2020 I had her booked for my usual "boys weekend" in September..... Lockdown meant we couldn't all go together, but I kept the booking and Mrs OG and I had the boat instead.

    They're an excellent boat for a couple, tons of space and with no-one sleeping in the aft cabin it becomes a wonderful lounge/diner.

    Not many boats handle like them, either.

    I think the Pearl provides a more modern take on that design, with a bit of a layout re-jig and better stern and sidedeck access.

    • Like 2
  13. If only there was some sort of social network dedicated to the Broads, which didn't sell your data or use it to profile you for advertising and monetisation purposes and which wasn't run by some greedy global megacorp...

    :default_norty:

    • Thanks 2
    • Haha 1
  14. It's awesome isn't it. I have also wondered where the rest of it is!

    There's a documentary about the building of Castle Mall, it really is a fascinating project as it it woven into the fabric of the city centre like pretty much no other shopping centre ever has been.

    I was fairly young when it was being built, but I remember standing on the temporary bridge to the Castle circa 1990 and looking into the massive hole and seeing the decks of the structure being built under Castle Meadow and Farmer's Avenue.

    Such a complex and clever project. It will be an absolute nightmare to demolish, I suspect they might not do it as a whole.

     

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1
  15. 6 hours ago, ChrisB said:

    I don't know what the answer is either, but I am in the same boat.

    I used to buy new, every three years, then along came covid so I put it off as my mileage was low and bought my "Picnic Car" for summer pottering up to Blakeney, Morston, Wells Brancaster and the odd few days away in Summer.

    So I now have a six year old Ford with 24000 on the clock, worth about £9K on trade in. I would have to put at least £25K to replace with a similar high spec Puma. To do 2500 miles per annum, the economics just don't work. In fact this last year I have done more miles in the Fiat running about in Summer (3500). But that car with 6000 on the clock will be three in Sept.

    So I am going to do the same, Nothing. Like Grendel I doScreenshot_20240208_133628_PhotoEditor.thumb.jpg.c49230f670253ca751b989c2fd503255.jpg three or four long journeys per year and electric just would not suit me as I am widowed and live alone with my only relatives 180 and 11000 miles away, in an emergency I can fill either car in 5 minutes from empty and have a genuine 400 mile range.

     

    If that's your mileage, you're best keeping those cars until the wheels fall off. There's no real need to replace cars that aren't causing trouble.

    I think @BroadAmbition would approve of those numberplates....

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1
  16. 1 hour ago, Bikertov said:

    Yes, a lot of banks do offer it, and for us it is worth it.

    I only use the Nationwide account for the benefits and the credit card (fee free overseas) - I don't use the actual bank account at all !

    - Family Travel cover is typically about £100 a year, and between us all we are away around 6-10 times a year

    - Breakdown cover (personal) for 2 people, can be at least £100 a year

    - Mobile phone cover can also be about £100 per phone, and I have clumsy kids (the OH also dropped her phone down a lift shaft on holiday ...)

    So for the £150 or so a year it costs us, I find it good value

     

    I've bought phones outright and been on negotiated SIM only deals almost forever. I tend to keep them 3-4 years, so do much better than full-blown airtime and phone bundles

    Just be really careful with bundled or 'affinity' insurance as it is known in the industry.

    Those policies seem really cheap for a reason - There will be a list of limits and exclusions as long as your arm. I spent a fair amount of time in the insurance industry and those schemes were seen as a good money maker, you can guess why.

    You can imagine how much the bank is paying the insurer for that cover (and how much commission they earn on it) and you can see how cheap it is versus a 'regular' policy. 

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1
  17. On 27/01/2024 at 09:36, Mouldy said:

    I don’t think they won a lot of friends during the pandemic with the way cancellations were dealt with, or that’s the impression I got from reading so many instances of less than adequate customer care on social media.

    We always used to book our next Broads holiday direct with Summercraft, but Sue used to phone Hoseasons to make the booking and told them what to invoice.  Not many folk used to argue with Sue!

    I personally haven’t booked anything through Hoseasons since 2017 and frankly have no wish to now.  They’re a very different company to the one set up by James Hoseason as my last experience was not ideal, when they disputed an advertised discount and tried not to honour it.

    I did think it would come back to bite them.... 

    They're a company that clearly spend a lot on marketing but they seem totally unable to understand that keeping customers happy is much more likely to lead to repeat business.

    I had a run in with them a while back now over their 'Low deposit' BS. I booked with a £50 deposit (as I did with Ricko's at the time) and later needed to cancel / reschedule as we had other plans. To cancel would have cost another £100 as the 'full' deposit was £150, apparently.

    I suggested moving the booking back a year as that's what I actually wanted to do, but they said to do that I'd need to cancel and make a new booking or take the holiday in the same year. I didn't have enough leave left to reschedule in the same year so it would have needed to be the one following.

    I asked if they'd waive the £100 if I re-booked for next year and they said no I'd still need to pay it. Bear in mind this was some months before the booked date, and the booking was for a Silverline boat in june so there was no way they'd have struggled to re-let it.

    In the end I said okay, I will pay as contractually I have to. But I made it clear that they took the payment on the understanding that I would not be re-booking for the following year with them and would not use Hoseasons for boating again.

    • Like 2
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