Gwilo

We had the same issue with the neighbours of our last rented property - husband watched football at stupid volumes all weekend, loud music every evening from when then kids get home till 9, 10, 11, sometimes 3 in the morning. The kids threw bottles and rubbish over the garden wall, nearly took my eye out once with a washing line pole sailing over too. Father was very aggressive when approached about the kids behaviour, never answered the door when we tried going round to ask for the music to be turned down. After 8 months, we approached the Council....who promptly sent us the noise recording paperwork AND wrote to the neighbours to let them know we'd complained about their noise and would be keeping records for two weeks. Cue 2 weeks of silence. Then the letter the council sent to the neighbours was shoved through our letterbox all torn and screwed up, along with a big black boot print halfway up the front door....the kids started verbally abusing my wife whenever I wasn't around, then throwing stones at the windows....then the music started up again. The final straw came one evening when the husband, drunk as a lord, stood at his front window, hurling abuse at some elderly guests we had invited, accusing them and me of being paedo's. We didn't engage or tackle him about it, we quietly called the police - shouting that someone's a child abuser in public, living next to a School was, I thought, a serious matter......the cops felt otherwise, reasoning that as he was in his own house, the father could say and do whatever he wanted, ignoring that half the street could hear him with his windows fully open. We put up with the noise and abuse for over a year in total, the authorities were useless for us. I dreaded coming home, I couldn't relax as I was always on edge waiting for the music, abusive shouting, or the sound of bottles smashing in our back garden to start. We moved. Although we can sometimes hear our new neighbours telly or his gf when doing the act, it's not intrusive or long lasting. Some people are just animals, and attempts to resolve in a mature, tolerant fashion will only antagonise. The authorities are toothless or unwilling, at least in our town. You need to move - it will be liberating and you'll get a better quality of life.

The thing is, the hardware is stock conventional PC architecture, so nothing special. I've got a 2006 Macbook Pro. It's still going running the latest OSX, Pages etc, without issue. Obviously, at that age, the gfx was a suspect NVIDIA card, which resulted in the whole mainboard being replaced under warranty in November 2011,, despite being well out original warranty as well as outside the additional warranty obligations placed on Apple due to the NVIDIA manufacturing issues. Yes, I'm now invested into the software ecosystem, but if I was willing to take a day or two, I could convert all my work easily into a Word format and go back to PC. The cost of a direct replacement is prohibitive compared to a similarly spec'd PC, but the materials in case construction on the Macbook are what set it apart IMHO. Not a lot of brittle plastic on show......the Macbook sports a number of scuffs and a rather industrial dent that would have killed a plasticky Toshiba or Acer......

Looking for a work life in the Blackpool-Preston Corridor to ease the commute. My current job title is "Digital Skills Trainer" in a large HE institute, so IT Trainer is the closest general term in circulation. But I'm entertaining an open mind about future possibilities and direction changes.....

RIP Riley, you will be missed by fans and guitarists , bot amateur and pro. I think my feelings, are best summed up by the title of one of his own songs......the thrill is gone.

The redundancy does buy me a few months....if I pay off loans etc, i've got a month or two pure breathing space, plus another 2 months when it starts to look a bit like squeaky bum time. If I don't pay of loans, we've got 6 months clear and then two months squeaky bum. However, as SWMBO has just landed herself a job, these figures are prone to be extended, so we're not about to start frequenting foodbanks and begging on street corners just yet. Looking at the car sales jobs, basic salary of 12K, but even then they want as an essential criteria, car sales experience. Convincing people to accept overly complicated, unfit for purpose systems/products are surely skills some cars salesman need?

They've escorted people off site with less access to systems than me......I fully expect to see my access to systems and exposure to the rest of the organisation pared back - my training sessions have already been pulled from the booking system and replaced with a "add your names to the waiting list" option. Not saying I'm mission critical, far from it. But given the last round of redundancies I was told my post was "critical to the mission", and the current organisational chaos, seems likely there will be a degree of heavy handedness at some point.

Thanks guys, it's already turning out for the best.... The organisation have just started advertising for, essentially, the old posts that everyone here in the office did 4 years ago before they decided to centralise.Goodness knows what that mean for the poor sods left here after the boss and me are removed from the building. They've also just pulled the partner of one of my team mates in to the office the morning and told them they are redundant as well. Words that do not appear in the vocabulary of the SMT here are : Organisation, Competence, Strategy, Cohesive, Clarity, Intelligible, Rational.

Found out this morning that, on 31st July, I will have to clear my desk and be officially escorted from the building. 15 years as an employee, (18 years here in total) will come to a end. I'm currently staring unemployment in the face after that, but the redundancy and sending SWMBO out to work later this month will cushion the income drop. Can't say I'll miss the bonkers commuting in any shape or form. Applied for one local job so far, will need a few more in by end of this week. I'm even considering stuff outside of my skillset, because IT training has become quite stale to me, at least in HE. Wonder if I could sell a few Skodas...?

You're alive! and back in the Fylde? Please tell me you're running a chippy (and which one) as I've been frequenting the old place (also excellent, but not the same,

Well, i very nearly bought an older Volvo S60 D5 for the cruiser factor. And the seats. Dear God, the seats in the Volvo are a divine gift for the spine. At least for mine anyway. I swerved at the last minute an opted for a newer Golf with a smaller engine (better mpg and lower tax). But I can't help feeling a little sad everytime the car jiggles and shudders and thumps over road imperfections and think I'd have been isolated from all that in the Volvo..... Would I buy another VAG.....I think the next time I replace my car (as opposed to SWMBOs, as she's already eying a Nissan) I might go Swedish. VAG just seem lacklustre in terms of interior style and materials.

Leyland trucks had a EV/Diesel hybrid thing a few years ago - all seemed very viable, but there was no interest from the market in such a vehicle. The one demonstrator sits as a museum piece in Leyland. Wonder if they might test the market again, in light of the rumblings? Cue more urban deaths as silent trucks sneak up and splat pedestrians engrossed in their mobiles.....

That's hardly going to dissuade Councils from forcing through changes designed to line their pockets under the altruistic banner of "doing the right thing for everyone/saving the Earth" Round here, they've commissioned a bus lane initiative that's taking one lane on the major arterial road away from general use. The Roadworks to do this have cause 4 and 5 mile tailbacks at peak times - clearly in the best interests of the environment, all those lvoely cars sitting stationary spewing fumes....... They've indicated a park and ride scheme at the junction of the major motorway serving said arterial road - great idea which I'd even stump up cash to use if it made an appreciable difference to the last/first part of my commute. Apart from the fact they've erected brand new armco so there's no provision for any of the motorway traffic to access the proposed scheme. Genius. There is no such thing as a public transport infrastructure once you leave London that I've ever come across - it's too expensive and too disjointed. I was comparing costs - Oyster card travel in the capital is quite reasonable and capped daily across bus and tube/dlr at under £10 a day. There supposedly a SystemOne travelcard for round the Northwest that accomplishes the same thing, but all the published fares are for off peak use only and almost match the TfL prices for what is a less integrated and more confusing system (odd boundaries like Blackrod rail station, where so few trains actually stop). Either way you slice this news re Diesel, the motorist will be penalised heavily (where am I going to get a petrol-burning comfortable cruiser returning 50mpg+ in the real world that isn't cheap, plasticky, tinny?) in terms of having to stump up more cash to buy a new motor (thereby increasing personal debt through financing - we all know where a debt driven economy leads.....) and then pay more in fuel duty at the pumps? It's another inevitable nail in the IC coffin pushing an agenda based on questionable data (number of early deaths attributed is purely a model, can't actually be proven. Those 'preventable deaths' might also be attributed to lack of poor road lighting, poor road surfacing, the flying spaghetti monster etc). Until there is a viable infrastructure for public transport that is as effective and comparable on costs, or similar to support EVs, I'm afraid we might as well just get our wallet out, drop trousers and adopt the position. If some half-baked idea is implemented, expect to see rising costs passed onto the consumer and a commensurate drop in business growth/overall productivity.

Re-read Mac's post...it as a question. Has build and reliability improved? I'd have to say it's stagnated, if not deteriorated, and often in stupid little ways that a maker like VAG shouldn't be having issues with. Perhaps that was Piech's issue, and Winterkorn and his supporters are only interested in reaping a quick buck, rather than long term reliability and steady incremental growth?

We've done that every time we'v been down, and never had the same visit experience twice, thanks to various tours, different guides. This time we fancied a change and one we haven't done before, but I'd heavily recommend the British Musuem to be on anyone's visit list when in London, to broaden your horizons and appreciation for rich history of the cultures.

Definitely. Just a shame it's too full of Londoners and tourists!

Next Wednesday. Yep, great timing, hitting london during a general election...... The flyer? Whats that? We're staying out at the Premier Inn at Hendon/The hyde, less than a mile to Hendon Tube. Parking looks a mare, but just going to have to swallow it. Will be ditching the car once there - armed with Oyster Cards for use on Tube/Bus etc. Sites - Natural History Museum, Tower Bridge, Westminster, Covent Garden, and whatever else we can squeeze in. Considering one of those hop-on, hop-off tour bus jobbies, as the Mother-In-Law has never seen London.

The "health and safety" dingbats that decided that although a fire at a waste recycling plant has been put out hours ago and still has some fire appliances just damping things down, they'd shut both ends of a major arterial road just in time for rush hour. And yet it's still ok for pedestrians to wander past right next to the alleged "burning inferno" - which wasn't burning at all at 8:30 this morning...... And another thing - If a Police man is standing next to a barrier (enjoying the sun in his Oakley shades), about 250 feet from the main barriers (prompting me to wonder why you need a secondary barrier when there's no traffic access anyway??!) why is his 3 litre six cyclinger X5 sat with it's engine running, wasting fuel and pumping out CO2 unnecessarily?? And breathe!

Italian Tune-up

Heading for a few days in the Big Smoke and I'm trying to work out the best time to travel..... Sat-nav and Google both suggest a travel time circa 4 hours (Thanks, Highways Agency Roadworks!) We all know that Brum and the North Circular into London can throw huge spanners in the works if the timing is off. Would welcome local knowledge/experience of traffic flows around Hendon/Edgeware Road. What would be the best time to leave Blackpool - stupid o'clock in the morning (say 5am) though that puts you slap bang into London rush hour..... Or leave after 9am, theoretically missing rush hour, but losing probably 4 hours that could be spent sightseeing? And before anyone suggest the Train, prices for tickets are ridiculous.

This. Perhaps cyclists can explain to me why, unless entering the Tour de France or in pressional competion, normal cyclists feel the need to clad themselves in Lycra to give everyone the gift of seeing their crack and berries?

The work-shy bolshevik prol who stepped in front of every single car entering the car park this morning. After leaping into the road, he proceeds to slowly walk across the front of the vehicle and then back again, all the while his militant chums lecturing those trying to get in to fulfil their contractual obligations "you need to be careful you don't damage someone", "he's only going from one place to another", which is the most ridiculous manipulation of fact in the face of logic and reason I've ever come across. Yes, industrial action and picketing is perfectly legal, and I would support the right of anyone to do so. However, military grade sophistry like a politician does the whole cause a great disservice - even more so when it is revealed by the Union themselves that only 27% of the local membership voted in favour of action. The other 73% clearly too spineless to stand up to the local reps pushing and agenda dominated by looking after one of their own 'right-on' clique rather than the average worker. .

I'd be happy to stump up a modest sum for such a device, assuming it could be wired/plugged into a vehicle by an orangutan like myself. Brisky Group buy anyone?

But why let facts stand in the way of a good conspiracy theory?

Terrible news, hope you can access all the support you need in the real world.

Hot water?