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196

General Discussion Area / Re: Genuinely, the end of an era .

« on: 08 December 2022, 10:11:29 »

They stopped taking orders 2 or 3 years back.  Surprised it lasted this long TBH, and highlights the stupidity of Airbus and their ridiculous (from a business perspective, not from a passenger perspective) A380.

Boeing also announced that they would bring out a new aircraft for over a decade, probably 2035. leaving them with effectively only the 737 MAX and the 787 Dreamliner as the competition to Airbus' range.  Rumour is, Boeing have something already designed, but waiting on the radical new RISE engines, which are over a decade away, in order to create a significant efficiency improvement over the MAX.

Boeing are working on B777X, which is an updated and longer version of the current B777. Supposedly up to 426 seats, which is similar to the B747, although it depends a lot on the number of seats in each class. So BA/QF will probably try and cram in 400+, whereas a proper airlines like SQ/EK will give Economy pax more space than a veal calf in a crate.

B777X is running at least 5 years behind schedule though, with first deliveries not expected till 2025 at the earliest. The FAA have woken up after the B737-MAX 'issues' and apparently reviews of B777X have shown similar 'problems' with the new wide body, and Boeing have been told to re-engineer some things before they even think about going for certification.

197

General Discussion Area / Re: UPS installed

« on: 30 November 2022, 13:49:10 »

Given the increasing likelihood of power cuts, I have just installed two UPS units: One for the office computer (I work from home) and one for the downstairs router.

This means that, in the event of an outage, I should get about 10-20 minutes or so to save my work and shut down the PC safely and several hours for the router, so I will still have internet for the phone WiFi.

Job done! 

Always assuming your local internet system (BT/Openreach/Whoever) stays up for long enough for your router to be able to connect to something.

198

General Car Chat / Re: Wheel Refurbishment

« on: 29 November 2022, 11:29:55 »

If you're looking for someone local, and are prepared to risk north of the border, then I've used these before https://www.wheelshine.co.uk/

They're located on the trading estate just south of Yeovil Town Football club. I've had my Omega and LC wheels done by them, and one buckled omega rim repaired.

199

General Discussion Area / Re: Anniversary meal

« on: 28 November 2022, 23:42:41 »

You do know that you can cut a whole leg of lamb into two parts, and you'll get two half legs? And you can cut the top of a whole leg off to get 2 lamb steaks.

You may need to buy a decent hacksaw blade to cut it - but that gives you an excuse to go to your favourite hardware store as well. Win-Win.

However, it's also true that large lumps of meat cook better than smaller joints. And since Roast Lamb is also my favourite, just roast the whole thing yer cheapskate.

And don't forget the Rosemary and mint sauce.

What d'yer reckon to this for Christmas dinner? This is the kind of thing you have to do for your kid, wish me luck 

No, just no.

They can't even get their own menu correct - The Turkey & Cranberry sub contains "Wafer Thin Seitan Beef" and no Turkey (fake or real), presumably because with this veggie muck you can't actually tell the difference between the fake beef and the fake turkey.

200

General Discussion Area / Re: Anniversary meal

« on: 28 November 2022, 23:36:16 »

You do know that you can cut a whole leg of lamb into two parts, and you'll get two half legs? And you can cut the top of a whole leg off to get 2 lamb steaks.

You will need to buy a decent bandsaw to cut it - but that gives you an excuse to go to your favourite power tool store as well. Win-Win.

However, it's also true that large lumps of meat cook better than smaller joints. And since Roast Lamb is also my favourite, just roast the whole thing yer cheapskate.

And don't forget the Rosemary and mint sauce.

Fixed that for you Malc!   

Good point, well made. Just been watching a program about the "Middle Aisle". Wonder if they'll take the hint and have a cheap band saw there anytime soon.

201

General Discussion Area / Re: Anniversary meal

« on: 28 November 2022, 21:56:09 »

You do know that you can cut a whole leg of lamb into two parts, and you'll get two half legs? And you can cut the top of a whole leg off to get 2 lamb steaks.

You may need to buy a decent hacksaw blade to cut it - but that gives you an excuse to go to your favourite hardware store as well. Win-Win.

However, it's also true that large lumps of meat cook better than smaller joints. And since Roast Lamb is also my favourite, just roast the whole thing yer cheapskate.

And don't forget the Rosemary and mint sauce.

202

General Discussion Area / Re: Jeremy Hunt

« on: 20 October 2022, 13:59:03 »

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/personal-banking/mortgages/banks-ignore-chancellors-intervention-raise-mortgage-rates/

Should have left KK to see it through... The banks couldn't give a shit either way.

The banks are not the money markets. The Govt does not borrow (much) from high street banks. The money markets most certainly do give a shit.

203

General Discussion Area / Re: Jeremy Hunt

« on: 19 October 2022, 14:39:48 »

One problem with all of that.

Inflation is the opposite of growth. Money can also be generated without printing or borrowing or taxation.

Create a positive environment that allows people to generate disposable income that they can spend across the board generating higher income where the spend it. Greater revenue down the chain actually encourages natural, sustainable growth. Those at the bottom of the pile who want to do well can do because there are significantly more opportunities for them.

The Leftie idiocy being pedalled across the West is the opposite of this. The wealthy stop spending, the middle classes cut back and the poorer can't afford to eat or heat anything. Two or three shitty minimum wage zero hour jobs doesn't cut it if the economy is trying to bankroll the country.

It’s no coincidence that the places that recovered quickly from the 2007/8 recession and Batflu are generally right leaning with low taxation. Oh and the tend to have the best funded public sectors too.

Kwasi was right and it is a crying shame that his boss doesn't have the balls to see things through. In fact he could have gone one better and outlawed both the minimum wage and zero hour contracts

Whilst I agree with the gist of what you're saying, it doesn't and can't happen overnight. It's effectively chicken and egg.

If you lower taxation to promote growth, the growth doesn't yield results for a year or two, but the drop in taxation income happens immediatley (well in April). If you're already running a budget defecit of £20bn, and then suddenly try to more than double it with no warning, the people/institutions that you want to borrow the money from to tide you over between cause and effect are going to get spooked. And if the money markets don't believe your policy is going to actually work, they will refuse to lend the money at all. So the Govt ends up going to 'loan sharks' to borrow the money, and ends up paying 5% interest.

Lowering taxes by £36bn whilst you're already spending £45bn more than you're raising in taxes (due to energy price support, Covid etc) could never work. I suspect that's what the chief secretary to the treasury tried to tell KK before he was given his marching orders.

204

General Discussion Area / Re: Jeremy Hunt

« on: 19 October 2022, 11:44:52 »

Kwasi,s mini budget recieved negative comments  by the IMF, the U.S. president and the German Chancellor. At least two of these have no business whatsoever commenting on or getting involved in UK domestic politics.
A Globalist conspiracy ? 

I disagree. If the worlds 6th largest economy goes to hell in a handcart because of the actions of its own govt, then it will also affect other major economies. I've little doubt that the inter govt communications behind the scenes after KK's budget were more 'lively' than anything that was said in public.

The reality is that the govt only has 3 sources of money

1. Taxation. The budget attempted to cut taxation by circa £45bn.
2. Borrow it. The money markets basically said fark off. We're not funding this tosh.
3. Print it. This is inflationary, and devalues the currency, so even if money markets are prepared to lend, they'll want higher interest/yield. Inflation is already 10%.

It doesn't take Einstein to work out that you cannot spend money you haven't got, and can't raise from some combination of 1,2 or 3 above. If 2 & 3 are out, then you can only reduce taxation if you also reduce spending by a similar amount. Promoting growth by cutting taxes is possible, but takes time to have effect. You can't do it on day 1 and expect results on day 2 - and the markets will say no.

I can't find the exact quote, but the jist of it is "When politics meets economics, economics wins"

205

General Discussion Area / Re: cordless vacuums

« on: 18 October 2022, 16:41:55 »

wifey wants a new cordless vacuum . so looking for recommendations

Give her your credit card, and the bus fare to get to the nearest Currys. Then make yourself scarce - you don't want to carry the can for choosing the 'wrong' one. If you are in any way part of the decision on which device to buy, it WILL be your fault.

206

General Discussion Area / Re: Mobile WIFI USA

« on: 20 September 2022, 05:14:22 »

It's not the 3 SIMs that are the problem. Its that none of the US telecoms companies implement the 4G-LTE communication protocols, which is what the two widgets I bought from eBay require.

So far it's not been too bad - both cars I've rented have had Satnav without me having to pay for it.

207

General Discussion Area / Mobile WIFI USA

« on: 11 September 2022, 03:54:45 »

Not sure why my previous thread has been locked?

https://www.omegaowners.com/forum/index.php?topic=149706.msg2011262#msg2011262

Anyway - turns out neither device work in the USA - the 4G LTE bands apparently aren't used/enabled here. So I'll be relying on McWifi for the next 3 weeks.   

208

General Car Chat / Re: So what have you done to your car today?

« on: 30 August 2022, 13:01:51 »

Woooohooooo - Elsie through the MOT for another year. Slight whinge about the handbrake reserve travel - but the handbrake has always been close to useless on it.

209

General Discussion Area / Re: Energy price cap.

« on: 26 August 2022, 10:46:14 »

.....until some normality returns to the energy market.

I suspect this IS the new normality. What makes you think the price of gas is going to return to anything like its previous level?

The price of a barrel of oil has hovered between $50 and $150 for the past 50 years. It's currently $100 ish, which isn't that much different to before COVID. Yet the price of a gallon of petrol?

The market can adsorb short term spikes in commodity prices, but if a problem persists for more than a few weeks, the inflationary effects get baked in to the price, and no matter what you do the price won't return to its pre-problem level.

210

General Car Chat / Re: AirCon regas frequency

« on: 26 August 2022, 10:11:42 »

Those figures don't sound right to me. Fairly sure the Omega takes about half a bottle of oil, which is waaayyyy more than 13g. The Carlton takes 250g of oil.

And despite what people tell you, I've never believed that you can suck all, or even most of the oil out of an A/C system. Sure you'll probably need to add back more than you suck out.

The other point is that the oil is quite thick, whereas the gas is an (err) gas (at room temp and pressure). Ideally the system shouldn't leak at all, but if it does, the gas will leak out well before the oil does. I can't think of a mechanism for the oil to leak out, but the gas to remain in place.