Lincolnbaggie

It's supposedly the northern version of the Goodwood FoS - no idea what it's like though as I've never been

Tell me about it - pages and pages of stuff and no idea what any of it means

Everyone is welcome (even bring the dog/cat/hamster if you want)

My rock epiphany was listening to Iron Maiden in the late 70s (when Paul di Anno was still doing the vocals before the airline pilot got involved). That changed my musical direction from The Sweet and Slade that were always on the radio. Then bought an album by a band called Led Zeppelin (you've probably never heard of them) and that was it. Now got over 3000 albums on vinyl covering everything from AC/DC to ZZ Top (including Styx, Journey, Boston, Loverboy, Kansas - JetSet, I never thought anybody else would admit to that - REO Speedwagon, Yes, Wishbone Ash, Uriah Heep, Thin Lizzy, Gary Moore (RIP), Motorhead, Ozzy, Rainbow (Ritchie Blackmore was a God then), Dio (RIP, sorely missed), trash 80s stadium rock bands, Whitesnake, Scorpions, MSG, Def Leppard, The Kinks, The Byrds, Sabbath, Purple, Rush, and a little bit of Santana for those mellow moments, plus loads of weird one-offs from the prog rock era). Only modern band I ever listen to is Airbourne. Off to see Maiden supported by Airbourne (who'll probably blow Maiden off the stage) in Sheffield in two weeks time Planet Rock is the best radio station ever - FACT

Locked as requested.

Got to agree with the The G Man Northern Spain is ace; the area north of Madrid up in the mountains is also beautiful, and you could have a look at both the Pyrenees and Northern Portugal while you're there (the Douro Valley near Porto is also worth a couple of days). Nice and cheap in Northern Spain, and not many touroids, so open roads, cheaper petrol and nice locals. If you fancy going a bit posh try a few Paradores. I've done Europe twice now in the Zed and will be going back - it's what it was designed for. A real mile eater, and suprisingly relaxing (even over 4400 miles in three weeks). I went from Calais to Brussels to Germany to Austria/Switzerland to Northern Italy to Southern France to Spain to Portugal and back from Santander. Brilliant fun.

Not too sure any pension contributions would have gone into a fund, they would have been used to pay the pensions of those people who were retired at the time. That's the problem - the money isn't accumulated and allowed to grow, it's used to pay the pensions of those already retired. That's why there isn't enough in the pot now to pay those who are retiring imminently and we have billions of pounds of shortfall. The payouts are greater than the income and that difference is growing all the time. That's why something needs to be done. I still don't get how people can't realise that the money has to come from somewhere - the outgoing pensions payments far exceeds that coming in and the situation is going to get a whole lot worse - where do people expect the money to come from

Yes.

It's a hell of a lot fatter than anything you get with a personal pension Also, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), workers in the public sector are now being paid more than £2,000 extra a year compared with employees in the private sector. The average public sector worker was paid £23,660 a year, compared with private sector workers who were paid £21,528 a year, in the three months to the end of November.

Chrsi, shouldn't you change the words "The employer" to "We"?

I have to agree with Chris Chesterfield on this one. I don't blame the teachers (or any others who actually do the work in the public sector) for complaining about the increased contributions and extended working life, but they have to get real. The country cannot afford to keep giving hugely inflated public sector pension benefits when there is no money to pay for it. Where do these people expect it to come from? I assume they think that my taxes should go up to cover it? All this rubbish about public sector pay being less than in the private sector doesn't hold anymore either. Most teachers, policemen, council workers etc get far more than the average salary in this part of the country. Council workers get time off in lieu for every five minutes overtime they work, plus most take far more sick pay than anyone in the private sector (you certainly couldn't go off with stress for 6 months in the private sector on full pay), coupled with far more holiday entitlement... Nobody I know in the private sector gets overtime anymore, and most do far more than their contracted hours and very rarely take all their holiday entitlement. I think the problem is that most public sector workers have never worked in the private sector and make assumptions that the whole country has the same benefits that they do. As a self-employed person I have to adjust to the financial situation the country finds itself in - if I put my rates up I lose clients; my pension pot is practically worthless even though I contribute over 5 grand every year; basically my income has fallen about 20% in real terms over the last 5 years. Do I go on strike? No, I grin and bear it, which is what the whole country has got to do. Otherwise we are going to end up flat broke (more than we are already) and nobody will get anything. It's a 3% increase in contributions FFS - mine goes up 5% automatically every year and it's still worth sweet FA. Get in the real world and stop winging that everything is unfair - it's the same for all of us (I do believe that the money wasted by the public sector/government/quangos etc on ridiculous schemes that never get launched coupled with the stupid number of people employed by the state doing jobs that shouldn't really exist and all the beaurocracy etc could cover some of the deficits and is a disgrace, but that's a different argument)

Well, the results are back Basically, I've got three degenerated discs in my lower back with annular bulges (L4-L5, L3-L4 and L5-S1) with narrowing of the nerve channel and compression of the root nerve on L5-S1 (which is what is causing the sciatica). No surgical intervention recommended (unless I insist on it, which I'm not) and physio is the recommended root with neural blokers if the nerve compression gets much worse. Arthritis is almost guaranteed at some point On the plus side, no need to change my lifestyle About what I expected really. Time to buy some cod liver oil.................

Check this out

Must say a huge thanks to Martin (and Liz and Lexx) for organising everything - top job. Nice to meet those I haven't met before (mainly the scary Scottish brigade - boy, can you lot drink. Nice kilt as well ) Great to catch up with those I've met before. Thanks to AK for the drive out (and the tea and cakes and the fourteen meals we seemed to get through). Thanks to Rothers for the useful tips on drinking and the great drive up to Manchester (and Blackburn as well ) Had a great time, but absolutely knackered now. (Roo, I lost you on the M6 yesterday, what happened?)

Just wish me and ChrisS could dance as well as the Scottish contingent could drink

Have you organised an event before? This is what happens, because in the real world people can't always make it even though they'd like to. Getting in a moody strop about it and having a go at them won't change that. Nothing stopping people from letting the organiser know beforehand though. 91 names down and about 50 turned up - could have been financial suicide for poor old Martin. Yes, some will have been prevented at the last minute, but I bet a lot of the 40 or so who didn't turn up just couldn't be bothered. Poor behaviour in my opinion. I don't suppose people like that will have a conscience though

Not long to go now Rothers, me and Ken will be at yours for 11 am tomorrow morning (assuming I can fit everything in the car)

Just bought one myself (after ChrisS showed me how good they were) - £83 incl VAT

I bet the owner would be well happy knowing his car list and address is on a public forum now

Best kit ever (but then I am slightly biased)

Must be something in the air - exactly the same thing on my X-Trail this morning. Key fob wouldn't work and no interior light or anything - only used it a few days ago. Put a spare battery in it started fine, so battery is gone (wouldn't even start to take a charge in the garage). Can this be coincidence

Exactly - she drove into your car and has caused you inconvenience. It won't cost her any extra for a new wheel, only her insurance company (and we know how much money they make). Plus a repair is never the same as a new part.

If it's going through the insurance just get a new wheel

Oops, just assumed a 350 and never even looked at the forum heading Yes, mine is a 350 and no idea if it works in a 370

Yep, got one fitted to mine permanently. Find it useful (especially the DTE info which is far more accurate than the car's computer). Got volts, DTE, intake temp and water temp as my four visible gauges, but plenty of others to choose from (speed, rpm, TPS, mpg, km/l and a few others). It's a bit limited on the info the ECU gives it compared to some cars (my XTrail gives a lot more info, such as EGR valve position etc) Also works well scanning for error codes, but only works on UK cars (not JDM imports). You can transfer between vehicles as well - if you have two cars, get the extra lead for it and you can use it in both and it remembers the info from both. Simple to use and easy to set up.