coldel

I did see C5UPE on a swap site last year somewhere...

Its completely up to you if you want kids or not, I have a 4 year old and would not hold it against anyone who has decided not to have kids. Problem is that you get people saying 'time for a kid isnt it' then once you have one they say 'time for another they need a brother or sister' - we are stopping at one and we are happy at that to put our efforts into our one happy little lad. Your list above GZ, I don't like any of that either, but I wouldn't have let that stop me having a child when I finally felt ready. I am sure there are many jobs on our cars we hate and despise but didn't stop us buying the thing and keeping it

Couldn't agree more Adrian. Lots of myths around terrorism and the idea we can shut up shop and all will suddenly become so difficult for terror cells is one of those. Another interesting myth is that Islam is a radical religion - in Europe something in the region of less than 5% of all terror acts are committed because of Islamic motivations, most are by natives committing terror for other reasons.

Line, draw, under. I think when Irn Bru said 'lazy romanians' he meant romanians that are lazy, not that all romanians are lazy which clearly they are not.

A few thoughts... I think immigration comes in two guises, one local one national. Local you could argue down to industry locality as well as geography is where immigrants are (and I don't mean this personally) coming in highly skilled in what they do with a very high work ethic, that's not to say native workers are lazy, just that they have a different view on what hours/days they should be working. If you are personally affected by this you would typically say immigration is a bad thing as Irn Bru is saying above. There is then the national view, that you take a wide lens to the economy and its been proven time and again that 'registered' migrants when aggregating their tax contributions, spend etc contribute much more than they take from the economy. What we don't know is what the black market looks like, those unregistered, not paying tax and not re-investing money back into the economy. That said, there are many natives doing exactly the same thing, even though they are registered here in the UK are hiding and shirking their contributions to HMRC. On the issue of terrorism, I think this is completely unrelated, if someone wants to blow something up in another country it will happen and being in and out of the EU even with tougher border restrictions will make no difference.

I hope your right, I've been up for pretty much the last 24hrs with no sleep due to work.....Than my wife is pointing out to me we better get use to it soon because a new born baby is pretty much 24/7 job 365 days a year, with no sleep/brakes . Again can only talk from personal experience but if you decide it will take up your life, it will. There are only two people that can make things happen for you and that's you and your other half. I wont lie to you the first few months I learned a new meaning of the words 'lack of sleep' but the pay back of this little life watching you and holding you offsets that by some margin. It also does improve markedly they develop so quickly in the first year. All I can say is do not try to create yourself as parents based on what the media, parenting magazines and stereotypes would portray the perfect parent as - do what you guys feel comfortable doing and ignore anyone that says you are doing it wrong.

Interesting how there is a view that kids somehow stop your life and doing what you want to do. I admit I was quite lucky in that I had Alfie when I was 37, so before that I had lived in other countries, traveled extensively, tried a number of different vocations, done the partying thing, did Uni etc etc. So do I pine so much for lots of materialistic things and lots of time to myself now I have Alfie, not really. With a child you have to invest a bit more time in planning, but we are still fulfilling lots of life goals, me and the missus were in Berlin on our own a couple of weekends back enjoying late night jazz bars and the like for instance. Is Alfie growing up a happy child despite his parents wanting to do their own thing as well? I think anyone that met him at a car meet last year would say he is a pretty fun and rounded little chap especially the ladies who got their bums smacked in the car park On the 'no rush' thing, just from personal experience I wouldn't take it for granted that kids just happen when you decide. Took us nearly 3 years due to age related issues and its more common than you might think.

And where are the comments from the female zed members, they should be all over this... (awaits stereotyping flaming)

Sounds a bit daft, but works for us (the wife and I), is that we found we ended up wanting to do more of what we wanted because we felt the other was not giving me space to do it and we both became quite selfish. It was a self perpetuating problem and we wasn't addressing it. Now, we sit down every few months and draw up a list of non-negotiables, these are the things that personally we need to have. The idea is not only that we identify whats important for me to be happy, but also how she can support me, and vice versa. Not saying we are perfect and we are not by any stretch, but it took us about 7 years to work that out and had some rough patches before that, now we are much more aware of how each others actions affects the other - washing the car doesn't seem like such a stupid thing to her anymore when she sees how happy I am once its done

I think have an adult conversation, if she really is as you say in that there is all take and no give then that should come out clear as day for either or both of you and you then have to decide between you what to do next.

Its worth a shot, but how about living her shoes for a week, see how it feels for you. Could be that you are driving her nuts with just a few habits that have worn her down and she is struggling with it. Small things become bigger issues over time, I think after about 4 years these sorts of things can be causing big problems when in fact they could be solved easily and quickly if you both understand and compromise. I guess what I am trying to say, is live in each others shoes for a while and see what comes up, talk through what issues drive you nuts and cause complaints, how about remembering when you had good times what it was that made them good, often 'life' can get in the way of these things and you convince yourself you have no time to do them again, this is very stressful. I would certainly just make absolutely sure before you end it, if anything work out what has happened and be better prepared for similar eventualities in future.

OK, sorry your post (coupled with the Astra story) made it sound like you were OK with excessive speed - I have been shouted down on here before but I generally don't go with the view that its safe to hugely speed on public roads "when its clear" or "there are never any other cars on this stretch of road at this time of day" or "I could see for way down the road it was clear" and so on and so forth. Yes I am the boring speed nazi or whatever else people slying reference me as, but I don't care

Convert, I can't believe you are talking about doing *fairly high speed on public roads and that its ok racing your mate if you trust them then end with drive safe neither of which those statements are, and you are a driving instructor? Edit, speed ref removed

Ah. HIDs in ordinary halogen headlights are a major no-no for me... the glare for other drivers is horrific! They went through the MoT fine aligned slightly downward. But yes HIDs annoy me too but have become pretty much standard on half the cars on the road it seems.

Would love some but when they retail around the £400-£500 mark seems like a lot. I have HID on it at the moment so get plenty of light, but agree projectors look much better.

The weekly wash complete!

Saw one for the first time on Richmond high street yesterday, almost didnt notice it go by so it must have been the ecoboost it was almost silent. Sorry but its a no from me in terms of would I. As echoed above, my 4 year old has a fairly good Hot Wheels collection and it really did look like something out of that, it just didn't have presence or aggression in terms of styling and like Dan said when I walked past it again and had a closer look in traffic the panels were all over the place, really disappointing, and I do like an American muscle car

Yep definitely bottom of the pile in terms of purchase cost..! GTR R34 would be my pick of the bunch if you could get one..!

Buyers guide for the 645ci in Practical Performance Car this month wonder how much Dan would agree with it!

You could do a lot worse, £5k would get you a good example. Just ensure suspension work has been done and no rust (check behind any bodywork mods like lips and side skirts) and you are pretty much onto a solid car, prices are starting to creep up now as well.

Not sure what BHP they are running, mine is 280bhp at the moment pretty standard. I know a guy in Guildford who has helped me on a few things has his forged and is a touch under 400bhp and is road going. A guy on the forum who puts his on track only is running it at 531bhp. The JDMs out the factory are 256bhp...

Also did some work on the wiper blades today, they were showing their age... So a rub back to bare metal was required then some matt black paint and lacquer and back on...

Driving through a 30 the other night, cabbie in a prius ripped along in the bus lane up the inside at least 60 undertaking me, 10pm at night. Utter muppet.

You are kidding right, whats 0-60 time on a Leaf, 10 seconds?