The Ors

Then how about hard-tail MTB with a decent lock-out on the front & two sets of quick release wheels; one wi' knobblies & one wi' road tyres.

Get a road bike. I know that sounds flippant but I'm being serious. From the other comments, it seems that your mountain bike is ok off-road, so why not spend the £1K on a road bike & have the best of both worlds? You could get a decent road bike for £1K & it'll be a lot easier to ride quickly on the road. I have one of each & ride the one that suits my mood/the weather.

Well done that man! I hope they were grateful.

I've been similarly thick. Standing outside work, looking at my watch, waiting for the wife to come pick me up & then, after about 15mins, reaching in my pocket to phone her; finding car key, remembering I drove to work! Security guard laughing his head off as I walked back through the gate & drove off.

An acceptable reason to laugh at a funeral... ...if it's Maggie Thatcher in the casket. (I'm looking forward to that party!)

I think you did the right thing; not much else you could've done unfortunately. I feel for you because I would now be climbing the walls (pent up anger/frustration). Try to polish it out & move on; it's all you can do really.

Religion... By which I mean: Apple/Android/Vauxhall/Sony/Microsoft/Skoda/Vag/BMW/Audi/Tea/Coffee* etc are Brilliant/infallible/fantastic/the dog's etc But Apple/Android/Vauxhall/Sony/Microsoft/Skoda/Vag/BMW/Audi/Tea/Coffee* etc are rubbish/useless/dangerous/spawn of the devil etc. *delete as applicable

Isn't it 4 years?

Slightly off-topic I guess but I would buy another Skoda partly because the forum is so good. We've had a few problems over the years with my wife's Peugeot & it was always more difficult to get to the answers; perhaps because there are so many different Peugeot forums. Another example of a well supported marque, forum wise, is JEEP. Very easy to find info on almost anything when I had my Cherokee. In fact I think 'forum quality' will be a fairly important factor when I buy another car.

Keep the Fabia & spend the £20K on a speedboat/yacht/flying lessons/adventure holiday(s)/pushbike blah, blah, blah. There are plenty of toys that are far more fun than a car & they're usually cheaper as well.

+1 Try this first. £2.50 for a gasket & £2.50 for some carb cleaner. 10 min's work. Search on here for instructions. The throttle on your car is driven by a small electric motor. The throttle body gets gummed up over time & the throttle sticks. Causes rough running & loss of power.

Whatever you get there'll be people telling you that you should have got something else. Get what you want.

I was a school governor for 5 years & have plenty of friends/family in education. My thoughts are: If she is considering it because she wants to teach, then she'll probably like it. If she is looking at ways of improving pay & conditions and weighing up career paths etc then it's probably not for her.

What he said... I don't actually have an iPad. I've used friends but I know I'd use one because of the way I have ended up using my iPod Touch. I was going to buy an iPod classic but got a Touch because I thought I might enjoy the odd game or book during a boring nightshift. Now I do most of my email & surfing on my iPod. It's On-Read-Delete-Off. Easy! I just wish the screen was a bit bigger; hence why I think an iPad would get a lot of use in this house. I never bought an iPad because, although I can see it's usefulness, I think £429 is just too much money. I would've bought a cheap iPad1 at £329 but I'm short of cash atm.

The Octavia is Golf based. It's the Superb that's 'in the Mondeo class'.

Yes. Works well.

Nice pic's. Has that Jag got a 'vRS' badge on it's tail?

If sooty black smoke is your bag; do a youtube search for 'Rollin Coal'. What you get is stuff like or or even ... @ those crazy Yanks...

Could be a drive-off from the fuel station on the right at the start of the vid.

Yeh; I was wondering that?

I admit four is probably over the top but the tale about my friends Dad is true. He had two spring compressors on & the springs bound with wire. A compressor slipped I think but whatever the reason he was in hospital for a while. I've also seen a couple of guys @rsing around at work take off a spring & take it up & drop it off the office roof (still compressed). Bl00dy hell did it fly! I've done a few springs but I have to admit they make me nervous. Better safe than sorry though! :yes:

Is there any way check whether a car you are thinking of buying is subject to an unpaid 'Logbook loan'?

If you're new to this; be careful with the spring compressors. Make sure they're on properly. I always use four per spring as my friends Dad lost part of his face when a spring compressor let go. Not trying to scare anyone but they can be dangerous.

This happened to my mum years ago when we were small kids (but parallel parking, not multi-storey). She drove past the space & started to reverse in. Guy came screaming down the road & got his bonnet in the space. My mum just carried on reversing & knocked his front bumper off. Another 'my mum' story: She was driving in town down a hill with cars parked both sides. Almost at the bottom & a guy in an escort van enters the single file part from the opposite direction; even though he's seen her coming. Starts flashing his lights & telling her she's got to back up (about 500yds uphill). She waits. He waits. He starts shouting again. She switches off her engine & gets out a book. He goes bananas; bright red in the face as he screams his van in reverse. Mum puts her book away & gives him a smile & a friendly wave as she drives past. She said she thought the guys head was going to pop he was so angry.

I agree. We should bigger than this.