Lady Elanore

I am pretty confident you know what I would think of this car

One day Rob...one day

It's a shame you missed out on the £540 down and £540 a month on an X3M Competition. 500bhp and straight line performance similar to an M3CP! Big standard spec too. Still think you would like a Niva on big wheel/tyre combo (extra ground clearance never hurts). My friend used to run his up a hill in a muddy field to see how far up the slope he could get, pitting it against the local farmers Landies and RR etc. Invariable it won or came near the front of the pack. Probably he didn't care how much abuse he gave the car as not only was it really cheap, but he come from a wealthy family. Car never complained though You know you really want more cars, everyone does...dont they?

The only thing I know about them is a colleague rolled one and claimed he forgot he wasn't in his Mini Cooper (original Mini)

The short wheelbase Grand Vitara is really small, but like the Shogun, you get a proper raised driving position and genuine off-road credentials. I loved mine, it was just using it frequently meant the mpg hurt a bit. I never saw much above 30mpg and usually less

In my youth I used to go out in the snow with a friend in his Lada Niva and tow people out of ditches for a few quid

I hope that CD player has autoreverse, as all the best system had in that era

I had a friend with a swb 3.2 Shogun (had the commercial version with no back windows) and as I remember I think it had not only a centre diff lock, but also a rear axel one as well (optional extra?). We went out in it during a blizzard up in the Pennines where we were staying. Fantastic snow vehicle that's for sure. Ploughing through drifts and very deep snow not even an issue. Nigh on unstoppable with all the 'lockers' on and the engine was just a big soft bungee connected to the horizon

A SWB Vitara 2.4 would be great. There is a diesel model and I think a smaller engine, but the bigger engine has low ratio and a proper centre diff lock (electrically switched, so no rocking about with a lever-mpg is of the "you ask how many mpgs, then you can't afford it" . I think lesser variants of it don't have the same credentials. Mine was great in heavy snow, on the beach up muddy tracks and in very swampy fields that were meant for car parking but were severely flooded I have spent a bit of time in Lada Nivas and they really are fabulous off-road vehicles and a little bit left field ('Left' field...see what I did there?) and a LHD version (cheapest) wouldn't really be a handicap as you won't be overtaking anything. If ground clearance isn't a major issue you could get a Sedici/SX4 Allgrip (mk1) for not much and they too have an electronic locking centre clutch. Or how about a Fiat Panda 4x4/Cross? A car that was always on my wish list but could never find one for the price I wanted.

Funnily enough, if the next M2 looks like this (needs proper M exhausts and deep dish wheels of course), then it would definitely get my vote. Especially if it's RWD and has 450-480bhp (can't see it getting the full fat engine). It would also be a tad too expensive for me, especially in the current climate, but a girl can dream

If it is a great car, people will admire its looks, I'm pretty sure. It might take a while, but even Peter Beardsley seemed to look better after a few years... Who am I kidding BMW sort out the exhaust pipes on the GTS!!

I have thought about wearing the thermostat around my neck so wherever I am in the house the temperature will be corrected

I'm still seeing the alien with boggly eyes that I posted earlier! Of course if the car is fantastic to drive, then all will be forgiven....almost

I must admit I put the Hive thermostat in the living room as it's the only room in the house that I definitely want to be warm, although obviously you can put these things anywhere you want as they are RF linked. Funnily enough I find the temperature feels much more stable than in the 'approved' hall position where the previous thermostat used to live.

If I had shot a few moments more you would have seen marigold gloves washing up stuff...very slowly of course

Not really a photo, but I accidentally took a slo mo of this (meant to take a high shutter speed picture, but my phone auto assumed I wanted a super-slomo). The Key frame is on a fade up so it isn't all black Water Bubbles by Amanda, on Flickr

The Zonda is very 60's Thunderbirds, so it gets a pass on its weirdness, at least in my book. It's also a car I will never own. While the M3/4 is probably beyond my means, even the running cost of a second-hand one will probably be too much for me, it is still almost theoretically possible that I might own one and so it has to look right for my fantasy to live

Does NEST do lights as well? I avoided it mainly because as I said earlier, it can't cope with mains voltage call for heat. Made my HIVE instal a breeze. Everything connected fist time too. I do have a rather whizzy router though

Google seems to find everything I own!! Give it a go if you have android

I've got a couple of WeMo switches and although I don't see them with Hive, they are available on Google, so I suppose I can control everything with Google ie Hive and WeMo. It's a way of having everything on one app so it's still convenient

The Hive Geofencing isn't so clever as some, I believe. It can only send you an email to say you have entered/left a specified radius (you determine this) from your home. It's up to you to then activate the service you require on your phone app. I have a feeling that Nest might be automatic in this regard, but it certainly wasn't a deal breaker for me, as I live in a slightly older house and if I turn the heating off for 30 minutes to go to the shops, it takes that long again to warm up so I would naturally leave the heating on if I was just pooping out.

Fixed it

I think the front is very bold and I applaud BMW for trying something different. As I've posted before, when they came out with the rather heavy-handed 'Flame Surfacing' most people were horrified, certainly the 1 series was a bit of an eye-opener. But now nearly all cars have it in some form and the 1 series morphed into a reasonably attractive looking car. I think the front grill is something that BMW will use again in modified form and we will accept in a year or two, especially if the car turns out to be desirable.......obviously not for some (you know who). But to put that weird exhaust on the back of the GTS, if that is what it is, just smacks of trying to hard, It's not that it is super offensive, but it's hardly sophisticated to look at.

I thought I had the images as jpegs but they appear to be a little different and don't display properly. Fixed it!

Maybe this one