Be Excellent To Each Other

The same for me. It was a really good game.

I was genuinely moved at the end of the game...or it was a very dusty room I was sitting in.

I won a signed print from Hercule Van Wolfwinkle!

https://herculevanwolfwinkle.co.uk/prod ... 2-unframed

Ate a pie, watched footy.

I just had my diabetic review, i am back in the right targets. Which is great as 3 months ago I got a bollockign as it was the worst results since I was diagnosed.

I am bloody happy...

Snow white has had a gritty reboot.

I'm finally able to move around enough that we've put together another bed for our new herb garden - not long now! - and got the grill lit and cooked us some meat and onions for our tea! Yay!

Brilliant news. That bed looks beautiful and sturdy.

What are you going to plant in it. I’m sure I found a beef and onion herb once.

Amaze!

It just seemed to combine both your hats from today into one handy plant

I have read before that it specifically tastes like beef and onion crisps, which I think I last saw in the 80s.

The first swifts arrived on Friday.

Beautiful.

The sun is out here. We were going to go out for a ride but actually we’ve just been in ten garden and it’s been lovely.

Dare I say it, maybe even a bit

Shhh....

After expensive eye-tests, medicals and echocardiograms, I now have a Class 2 medical certificate from the Civil Aviation Authority, so I can now start to learn to fly! Woo!

Try not to crash your plane on purpose for the Youtubes!

Excellent! Is the lawn long enough for a dramatic arrival at Cottage?

Even a small lawn is big enough for a dramatic arrival in a light aircraft.

I meant "glamourous", obviously.

Anyway have fun. Got to imagine flying lessons are way more expensive than when I did them 25+ years ago and it seemed like a pretty dear do then. I'd like to take up gliding I think when circumstances allow.

The obvious solution is to learn to fly a chopper.

On the list if I get the planes out of the way first. Chopper lessons are more spendy.

Have you replaced your tumble dryer yet?

No, but I had a very nice repair man come out and diagnose it as a dodgy start capacitor. He replaced it, all is now peachy!

Get inside and set the spin speed to 88 and report back.

That would be a long weekend of bad Arnie impressions

Especially if my instructor happened to be called Jenny.

CHENNY!

Well,that was a quiet night.

Wednesday up.

It wasn't a red card.

The goal should have stood as there was a literal geological era between first pass and the cross going over.

Barnsley keeper was on fire throughout, as were the whole team. Massive bad luck, honestly must be awful.


Fuckinghell.

Best season ever.

Metal Gear Solid 3 is finally going to be available on PC...

Hopefully it runs decently on the Steam Deck!

Cleared my mortgage today.

Superb! That will feel even more amazing after next month's pay packet I bet!

Did you pay off early or it reached the end of the natural term?

A fair amount earlier. I’d had the money ready, but was waiting to the end of the 5 year fixed rate I was on, so there was no early redemption penalty.

Work has not been fun for much of the last five years but it has put me in a better position than I expected to be.

My daughter has been taking her gymnastics classes really seriously and trying ever so hard - she's keen as mustard.

On Saturday, she was one of 8-10 selected from her club to go and do a little competition on the coast. She did really well and got a silver medal. We were really proud of the effort she put in.

How brilliant. And so lovely that all her hard work has paid off.

I’ve been helping a Ukrainian lady buy a car recently, and it’s been a nightmare trying to find an automatic in a private sale, or at least from a dealer that isn’t obviously a complete scumbag.

Mission accomplished today with a 15 year, old one family owned, top spec 2 litre petrol C Max with about 55k miles in excellent condition for £2600.

The percentage of used cars being private sales has really gone through the floor over the last few years.

I had the same issue. Following my stroke my ability to do decent clutch control with my left foot isn't quite enough that I'm comfortable with it, so I went shopping for an automatic. I'd only had my car for about 4 months, so I got pretty badly screwed on the deal. Ended up trading a 2010 fully loaded manual Focus for a 2006 automatic Citroen C4

It was a real pain finding something good. Anything promising was sold by the time we spotted it, or turned out to be a badly bodged piece of junk.

Well done in finding something suitable! Is this the family you acted as contacts for initially? Why was private sale an important factor?

Nope, someone else. We could have bought from a dealer, but at the £3k or less end of the market most of the cars would have been ones that they got for half that and then added a huge profit.

Buying from a private seller means no warranty, but you can potentially get a much better car for the money. A lot of the ones that were advertised as private sales are actually traders selling cars from the street outside their house which is the worst of both worlds. They still want to make the same profits but try and avoid their obligations as a trader.

Ah, I see! Thank you for explaining. I didn’t know any of that!

We tend to hang on to our cars for quite a while so I don't really know all that much about buying and selling. How can you tell it's a trader selling from home?

Some either don’t care or are bad at hiding it, so you can see if they have multiple vehicles for sale on eBay or Facebook. On one I could spot another couple of cars in the background with signs in the window which is a bit of a giveaway. Likewise, photos of a car on an industrial estate with no house or garage in sight is suspect.

Another claimed to be selling his car, but got really shifty when I asked how long he’d had it and if the V5 was in his name. If they mention part-ex that’s glaringly obvious, and others just have the same badly worded description like they all went to the same school of dodgy dealers.

It would be more obvious when you went to see them, but we were trying to avoid a wasted journey.

The classic advice is to phone up and say that you're asking about the car. If they follow it up by asking which one then it's safe to assume they are a dealer.

Ordered one of these for the Theft Cat and she _loves_ it. As she only visits me in the night, being able to get up and turn the lighting on or off, or get a drank, without disturbing her too much is an boon.

Oh my gosh, you’re the cutest.

Nah, I'm wretched. But Theft Cat!

Big yay that me and Mrs Z are going to see Queens of the Stone Age on the 14th but it’s turned into an even bigger yay now I’ve found out they’re being supported by THE CHATS!!!

Holy shit The Chats are awesome