coldel

Nice route, I just drove to Munich and back last weekend actually - its a long haul from Calais though (stopped in Baden Baden) must be a good 12 hours once you build in pit stops. The roads are a bit dull until you start to hit southern Germany when it turns totally gorgeous

I didnt mean this to be an anti-cycling post. As a few people have mentioned there are bad drivers and bad cyclists, although in my opinion the bad cyclists as a percentage of all cyclists far outweigh the bad drivers. Why? Probably because to be a cyclist you erm, just need a bike, no training, no licence, no explanation of the laws. Cars, you need to at least pass a test, and as a car driver you need to have a much highly level of responsibility as you know you are in a potentially lethal weapon if used irresponsibly yet I see potentially 'killer' moves by cyclists almost every day where they break the law because they decided it doesn't suit them. My point was more to the fact that cyclists are more and more reverting to this physical interaction and potentially damaging cars. If someone started yanking my wing mirrors back I would have to get out the car, which is not good, there is no guarantee you arent going up against some lunatic, but you just wouldnt let it go, you cant. Licence plates wont work unfortunately. The government wants more people on bikes to cut emmissions, the driver is there purely for revenue purposes. What needs to be done to start with is some awareness raising (like you will see over christmas with drink driving) of bad cycling behaviours and the consequences - it needs addressing, bad drivers are targeted, so should cyclists.

Pulled over this morning to nip into the bakers, porshce cayman s behind me slowed so I could open my door into the road, got out and noticed the rather attractive female passenger eyeing up my car - as it cruised by she smiled at me and waved I just smiled and waved back, no idea who it was

A rather worrying trend I am seeing on the roads at the moment, is the habit of cyclists to bang their fists on cars and cycle off. Saw it again this morning, a Mini turning left into a side road off a main road slightly cut up a cyclist undertaking everyone as his route was suddenly blocked as he turned into the side road. There was no danger to the cyclist, but she seemed to just turn into furious rage and pummelled her fist on the car as she cycled by. Now, no ones perfect, the Mini would never have even been in the way had they not been blocked off on its exit, but I am bemused by people who seem to think its ok to actually physically hit someone elses property, deliberately, because of what was a genuine mistake. Unfortunately just more evidence of the dire state of affairs on UK roads...

Fog was mental 11pm last night, fog all day today as well...end of the world kinda thing!

Already got one, for 80 quid about two weeks back!

What part of SW London out of interest, I lived in Wandsworth and Putney for nigh on ten years...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/nissan-350z-z33-nismo-style-rear-diffuser-/250934415666

It has a % measurement on the display, even when pulling away and you touch the throttle in normal mode it registers 25% or something, simply because some peoples leaden foot just doesnt have the control to touch and adjust by mm's. I used eco mode for a few days when driving to Brugges and it certainly made a difference.

Yeah could be right, although mine went a funny shade of green Just took em off and sprayed em...then removed them altogether!

Been made redundant twice in the last 18 mths, once because of what you mentioned mate, about them wanting to relocate me (to the USA!) and a downgrade in job status but still on the same money. I turned it down and in effect manufactured my own redundancy, but, I did get a redundancy payout. I found the other company very good though, yes nice suits, but with an element of humanity about it all. I was just up front with them. Second redundancy was when I was at under-performing company, it had to lose 60% of the workforce to stay afloat and me being somewhat a luxury item at the company was on the list. What happened there was that we had new leadership come in and I was straight on the case looking for other work, I had already had a couple of interviews before I even had the chat about redundancy with my current employer. Think you are doing the right thing mate, stay calm, sit down with someone who you trust who is not connected with it and go through your options. Try to put yourself forwards a few months and how you feel about say living in the midlands, or maybe working somewhere else, you will know what you really want to do. Just dont let them dictate to you, take some control yourself now and it makes the problem a bit easier to deal with.

Its odd isnt it, in theory it cannot make the car accelerate quicker, but it certainly feels like it! This is a scan from the instructions which kind of helps understand it...

You are just too quick for me nowadays

For £59 I would not expect too much, it is though an introduction - if you go to their website they have more expensive offers by the looks of it which is more time laden and involves a lot more - £59 doesnt get you much nowadays, but a few laps adrifting a skyline would be worth it I think?

Why?

http://www.groupon.co.uk/deals/london/allstars-driving-academy/1642942?nlp=&CID=UK_CRM_1_0_0_322&a=9

Good grief! Actually this was linked on the same page, shocking!

£65 BiN as well be quick http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nissan-350Z-Bluetooth-Adapter-Operating-Instructions-/140642791849

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nissan-350z-mirrors-Veilside-/120813284507

..its for the best

crikey !! ill look into this!!!! i have seen other engine covers and inside bonnets and all sorts with this painted on! i didnt know its true meaning.... hmm well its a bit late now.... and i like the cover..... i hope no one at a car show gets offended! hopefully theyll just think "she doesnt probably know the meaning of it!?" which infact is true then! owwh that is a shame!!! I wouldn't worry too much, I still have my rising sun support stick propped up in my living room, no one else knows what it means really. If you personally don't have a problem with it then its fine if someone else does, then that's something they need to deal with, I didn't throw my flag away because my mate was offended by it. Have a read up on it, always good to prop up your knowledge on history, heck if someone does say something at a car show at least you can talk in an informed manner about it!

I bought my shiney beautiful unmarked black Zed ... three months later scratches and bits appeared. Ran it over to Taras who confirmed a 'blow over' and was less than impressed. Generally they only last a matter of months.

Without wanting to throw the proverbial spanner in the works (and without wanting to turn anything into a political debate, just to raise awareness really)...the rising sun flag does have an interesting history, in that it is heavily associated with ultranationalism and in particular claimed atrocities that happened in Japanese occuped territories during the second world war. I actually have one of these flags on a support stick I used to climb Mount Fuji, none of the Japanese locals seemed too concerned about it but when a friend of Indian/Chinese decent saw it in my living room he found it very offensive and was quite upset. I guess the uptake is that it looks nice, but just dont open the bonnet whilst driving around Chinatown...

Surprised it took you lot that long to pick up on that...she is nearly 5'11'' so nearly the same height as me I do have unnaturally short legs accompanied by an unnaturally long body

Before I go and order one new, checking to see if anyone has one they are thinking of selling, ideally still in the packet please!