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211

General Discussion Area / BBQ at Keswick could turn out expensive!

« on: 04 July 2008, 11:15:33 »

WARNING.......Don't read if squeamish.

I thought I had damaged a filling while chomping on some meat from the BBQ at Keswick, but then forgot all about it. Had tooth ache for last couple of days and noticed that my gum was a bit swollen, so decided to have a good floss and a load of gunge came out of gum with a lump of meat that must have buried itself where the filling broke.
Looks like the gum is now infected so had to book an emegency dentist
appointment for Monday to get the infection and filling sorted.
Bugger, now my dentist is no longer NHS, how much is that going to cost??

212

General Discussion Area / A few more Keswick pics

« on: 01 July 2008, 11:29:08 »

Didn't get to take too many pics this year (too busy slaving behind BBQ!!) but here's a few random one's I took while wandering about.







Jaime decided to give me a break from BBQing AND nicked my apron.

213

General Discussion Area / More Lakes banter.......

« on: 30 June 2008, 21:48:33 »

As always, good to meet up with the "old" faces and a few new one's.
Don't want to see another BBQ for a good few weeks now!!

I managed to get a few pics in between cooking the food mountain so I'll get them posted up tomorrow.

A big thanks to Jimbob for getting me hammered on scotch Friday night although it was somewhat "medicinal" considering the weather! Felt like crap Saturday morning so had to drag Elite Pete off for a pub lunch and couple of ales Saturday afternoon - nice litle pub in the middle of nowhere.

Trouble is, having got the taste for Scotch, Elite Pete decided to pay a visit to the Scotch Shop in Keswick Saturday and ended up with a £40 bottle of 60.5% stuff..................holy cr*p!! Needless to say one was a tad dehydrated Sunday morning - thanks Emma for the tea's and bacon butties which sorted me out no end!!

214

General Discussion Area / See you at Keswick on Friday

« on: 25 June 2008, 17:32:48 »

Well that's it for me, just about to finish work until next Tuesday so won't be online for a few days.

Busy day tomorrow getting things ready for the long drive to Keswick -clean the BBQ and get more gas, clean the car, check oil, water, tyres etc., get supplies, then pack and load. Leave around 9am Friday morning so should arrive between 2-3pm all being well.

Have a safe journey all that are going and see you Friday.
Hope someone's going to have some nicely chilled beers when I arrive as I'll be gagging after 5 or 6 hours in the car. (don't worry, I'll have plenty of beer with me but it won't be cold!!)

215

General Discussion Area / Music licence for radio in the office?

« on: 18 June 2008, 11:14:09 »

Do any members on here know about music licences for offices? We've recently had 3 letters from PRS (The Performing Rights Society)
advising us that we could be breaking the law by playing music in the office without a licence. We do have a radio in the office but I'm not sure how we stand.

Firstly it's not a large office with only about 12 people in at any one time and the radio is played so quietly that probably can only be heard by 4 or 5 people. Secondly, I was under the impression that the radio stations themselves payed copyright on all the material they play so before I investigate further I wondered if anyone on here had any knowledge or experience of this. :-/

216

General Discussion Area / Millbrook test drive update

« on: 18 June 2008, 12:37:25 »

Well, had a great day at Millbrook yesterday although one small disappointment was that there were quite a few major manufacturers absent compared to previous years at this event. Those that were present were Cadillac, Chevrolet, Citroen, Ford, Hummer, Honda, Izuzu, Khia, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, Peugot, Saab, Subaru and good old Vauxhall.

Some of the cars I drove included Citroen C5 V6 Tdi Executive, Peugot 407 Coupe, Saab 9-3 1.9TTiD, Honda Accord ES 1.8 i-VTEC, Lexus LS250, Mercedes CLS320, Ford Mondeo (can't remember which model!) to name a few. However, the highlight of the day was the VXR8 6.0 V8 Monaro!! What an awesome machine, I really didn't want to finish as it was so addictive. On the hilly Alpine circuit it was beautifully balanced and I felt confident pushing it's handling harder and harder through the corners and hairpins . Then on to the high speed banked circuit.....OMG, flooring the throttle caused the world to erupt. Supposed to be restricted to 100mph but....well......you can't keep to that in a Monaro can you!! I was hitting 140 before I even had a chance to glance at the speedo. [smiley=evil.gif] Oh and the soundtrack was to die for. This easily has to be one of the best road going cars I've ever driven, and I've driven some fast cars in my time.

I was completely knackered by the time I got home but still had a BIG smile on my face.

217

General Discussion Area / Test drive day at Millbrook

« on: 16 June 2008, 16:15:13 »

As I look after our company car fleet, one of the perks I get is an annual invitation from Company Car Magazine for a test drive day held at Milbrook Proving Ground. This involves test driving brand new models from most of the major manufacturers around the various circuits at Millbrook including the Alpine hill circuit, high speed banked circuit and a few others. They also have pro racing drivers there to take you out for special "hot laps" in some really high performance models. Last year I got taken for a blast around the high speed banked circuit in a Honda NSX at 175mph - awesome!!

So, a day off work tomorrow and Millbrook here I come.

Unfortunately I won't be able to take any pics as photography is strictly prohibited.  

218

General Discussion Area / Carlsberg Draughtmaster

« on: 16 June 2008, 13:59:34 »

Anyone got one or tried one?

They are quite pricey (originally £130) but Argos are offering them at around £91 at the moment.

I bought one for my brothers 50th birthday and after a slight problem with the first one which was replaced without any fuss, I think they're absolutely brilliant. 8-) Perfect draught Export on tap and Tesco's are selling the 5 litre kegs at nearly half price of only £7.20 so it works at at about £0.82 a pint. They normally sell for £13.99 so it still works out at a pretty cheap pint at around £1.59. [smiley=beer.gif]

219

General Discussion Area / Good BBQ practice for Keswick!!

« on: 16 June 2008, 10:51:18 »

My brother had a 50th Birthday bash at his house on Saturday and guess who got roped in as BBQ chef?

Ended up cooking for over 80 people!! (with a bit of help from son Greg). Very thirsty work so had to keep refreshed with copious amounts of Carlsberg Export and ended up a wee bit anebriated!

Don't want to see another BBQ at least until Keswick!

220

General Discussion Area / Anyone used these before?

« on: 13 June 2008, 16:57:33 »

www.lmfvauxhall.com

Just got a new Irmscher badge for my grill from them for £8.50 + P&P (excl VAT). They do quite a bit of Irmscher stuff and a range of styling add-ons, although some of the Irmscher kit is quite expensive.

221

General Discussion Area / Bagged a bargain.........

« on: 10 June 2008, 16:36:29 »

As some of you on here that know me and my son Greg, we indulge in mobile disco's (although more Greg than me these days! ). Well our dual CD player has been starting to play up just recently which can be a real pain in the butt when in the middle of a gig!! We still have 2 vinyl turntables as a backup but we decided to bite the bullet and fork out for a replacement. Anyway, this is the beauty we successfully bid for on fleabay.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120269486903&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSA:GB:1123#ebayphotohosting

Denon are top notch professional CD players and this particular model usually sells for around £700 brand new!! So, not bad for £210.

222

General Discussion Area / Dumb blondes - it's true!!

« on: 07 June 2008, 17:33:28 »

One of my friends has got a younger blonde girlfriend that's what you might call a bit "dizzy". Anyway, she decided she wanted to go to Watford (Herts) on a shopping trip and having no sense of direction printed herself of directions from the AA. Now Watford is only about 45 minutes from Hoddedon. A few hours later she phones my mate and says she's lost. Asking where she was she said she wasn't sure but said she was near Rugby!! Apparently there's a small village called Watford near Rugby. Laughing his head off, my mate told her she had selected the wrong Watford on the route planner and she needed to get back on the M1 and head back south. Anyway, she took a wrong turn and ended up heading north. She then phones my mate again to say she was still lost. On asking her where she was this time, she replied Alton Towers!!

She eventually got home having spent 10 hours on the road!!

BTW, no offence if there are any blonde ladies on the forum but you gotta laugh.  

223

General Discussion Area / Bad luck with bl**dy tyres!

« on: 29 May 2008, 17:14:00 »

Having 4 new tyres fitted last June at considerable expense, after 3 months I got a nail in the outer edge of offside rear and had to have it replaced. A couple of weeks ago I had to have both front tyres replaced due to uneven wear (now sorted by WIM). Then on Tuesday I noticed the nearside rear was almost flat while out shopping. Luckily I had a foot pump in the car and got it pumped up but it had a slow puncture. Took it to my garage to get it fixed this morning only to be told that it was damaged beyond repair as I had obviously driven a couple of miles with it nearly flat although I hadn't noticed anything drastic as I was only poodling around town. As it's a fairly uncommon tyre size (265/40/R17) they couldn't get me a replacement until next week, but I contacted WIM who managed to get one ordered for tomorrow. So, another 110 quid for yet another tyre plus petrol costs of getting over to WIM in Chesham and in the meantime I'm having to drive around with the emergency steel wheel at a max speed of 50mph and looks bl00dy awful!  

Best I don't bother doing the lottery this weekend!!

224

General Discussion Area / Cheaper to fly

« on: 23 May 2008, 17:18:49 »

Out of interest I've just been looking at Easyjet flights from Stansted to Ibiza in June and it works out cheaper than driving to my house in Devon!!

Cost of return flight to Ibiza £108
Cost of return drive to Devon £140

Just another example of the ludicrous fuel prices we have to suffer with. I pity all the English resorts that are going to suffer because people can no longer afford the fuel to get there and find it cheaper to fly abroad.

225

General Discussion Area / V8 Star Omega at Castle Combe

« on: 22 May 2008, 15:56:31 »

Alex Watson at Wessex Motorsports phoned me today to say that their V8 Star Omega will be racing this Bank Holiday Monday. He's having a bit of trouble accessing the forum for some reason and asked me to post a copy of his e-mail on here for OOF members, so here it is.

Bob,
Just to let you know the V8 Star will be racing again at Castlecombe Bank Holiday Monday 26th May in the Special GT championship, can you do me a favour and post on the OOF as i cant access it and tell any members they are welcome to come to our Awning and see the car up close & personal!
Please email Jimbob on the OOF and tell him as he lives fairly close to Castlecombe
Regards
 
Alex Watson

I going to try and get there myself as it should be a great day out and a chance to see the V8 Star Omega close up in the flesh. If anyone hasn't seen the car you can find pics here:-

http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1210328713

Hope some of you can make it.