Schnitzel with noodles - what made you smile today?

[Xaccers]

Walking through the school this morning I passed three girls (one transgender) in heated discussion:

Girl1: "I ripped off my feminist t-shirt and said to my mum I didn't want to be one any more"

Girl2: "I know, it needs to be a bloke, not a woman"

So I paused for a chat.

Yes, they were young Whovians disgusted that the Doctor is going to be played by a woman!

The three felt the change was forced, done for all the wrong reasons rather than because the narrative required it. To them the strong female role models were Rose and Clara (during the Matt Smith years, they thought Clara was ruined after that).

They worried that as a woman the Doctor would end up being played sensibly rather than manic, and so lose the character's charm. The other fear was that the Beeb was doing a McCoy and trying to kill off Doctor Who as a show, what with the poor writing they said Capaldi had to put up with.

I didn't mind Matt Smith (preferred Clara), although I think he would have been better in a decade or so and with less dribbling, and I quite like Capaldi but I haven't bothered to watch it since the end of his first season. I think "Missy" is ridiculous, but then I thought John Simms portrayal of the Master was awful, too much snivelling and again with the dribbling, it made Eric Roberts' portrayal look good.

[hitmanNo2]

Glad to see there are at least some children that can see through such reverse gender empowerment BS.

 

Personally, I don't care if Dr. Who is a man, a woman, something in between, black, white or whatever.  It's a load of old *suitcase* at the end of day and I'm surprised it has kept going this long considering it's quality.

[DarkLite]

Upgrades eh?

 

Do want a V3 Polarstar box as investment capital?

 

Build it into a gun, advertise it, use it as a promo thing and if you sell it you can pay me for the 'box at that point.

I'll take any reasonably fair sum.

 

The loom has been "customised" and can be further "customised" or replaced.

 

Got an FTC MP5 SD3 too with 6 mags you can have a similar deal on if you like.

 

I've got a box of pre-System7 TMP parts you can have too.

 

Or help.

I'll help if I can.

 

Thanks for the offer but I'm working with a tiny budget and HPA stuff requires a fairly hefty investment in tanks, regulators and such and so forth.

 

As it stands in any case, I'm going to be focusing mainly on AEGs and GBBs, especially as the recent changes in law in the UK make HPA power testing a bit gray on the old legality bit.

[amateurstuntman]

No dramas amigo.

[Tw1tch]

I rather enjoy Doctor Who but haven't watched since before the last change. I love the darker side of the Doctor that came out when necessary (two favourites are probably Eccleston and Smith). Here's hoping she pulls off a decent character though, looking for goofiness with dark streaks.

 

As for what made me smile? A rather nice chap has agreed to hold a TM416 upper for me until payday. I've been trying to source one of these for ages but funnily enough people rarely sell the entire upper of a TM Recoil so I was disheartened when I saw it go up.

[DeltaZero]

Apparently I bought my fiancé the Beauty and the Beast Bluray... we are currently sat down watching it and I am in the good books.

 

No issue here because Emma Watson.

[shmook]

Is your fiancé?

 

[Tinkerton]

...dibs?

[Xaccers]

I've been thinking about getting a Nissan Leaf as I do about 45 miles a day, and my old Laguna is only giving me 37mpg (since I gave it some redex, before that I was getting 32mpg!).

So I'm paying about £210 a month in fuel, and £16 a month road tax.

I've got a 3 day test drive booked for the middle of August, but as it was sports day today I had a few moments to myself so went on carwow, and for £215 a month I can get a lower spec one, or for £261 a high spec one with the faster overnight charging socket, even less if I can get together a bit of a deposit.

So I need to sort out a 1 day insurance policy and get Jenny (my one remaining Xantia) MoT'd this Saturday and put her up for sale, and Monty (Laguna II estate) too. It means I may have to drive the wife's Corsa (Bruce) for a while, but I'll have a new car for basically what I'm paying out in fuel and road tax with lower servicing costs. Then me and the head teacher who also has a Leaf just need to find out what grants are available to get charging points installed at school...

[DeltaZero]

I will admit there are actually some similarities.. but alas, no, she isn't Emma Watson! I will also admit I do quite like the film even without her, it is very well done!

 

She's a pretty good alternative though

[Mike_West]

Cheap dollar and euro. Makes me want to shift a part of my savings to an EUR account, in case the local economy faceplants like everyone with half a brain expects it to.

That of course means I won't be able to afford any cool gun in the coming couple of months, but something tells me that having a spare €200 will get me more than the *suitcasey* savings account.

[shmook]

I've been thinking about getting a Nissan Leaf as I do about 45 miles a day, and my old Laguna is only giving me 37mpg (since I gave it some redex, before that I was getting 32mpg!).

So I'm paying about £210 a month in fuel, and £16 a month road tax.

I've got a 3 day test drive booked for the middle of August, but as it was sports day today I had a few moments to myself so went on carwow, and for £215 a month I can get a lower spec one, or for £261 a high spec one with the faster overnight charging socket, even less if I can get together a bit of a deposit.

So I need to sort out a 1 day insurance policy and get Jenny (my one remaining Xantia) MoT'd this Saturday and put her up for sale, and Monty (Laguna II estate) too. It means I may have to drive the wife's Corsa (Bruce) for a while, but I'll have a new car for basically what I'm paying out in fuel and road tax with lower servicing costs. Then me and the head teacher who also has a Leaf just need to find out what grants are available to get charging points installed at school...

Just be aware, and it may have changed dramatically in the last few years, but my Nissan dealership put me off buying another Nissan for as long as I live.

 

Standard customer response was '*fruitcage* you, we don't care' when paying for things like servicing, and a warranty recall I had when the engine stuffed a piston through the block took ages to sort and I had animosity off everyone throughout the repair process.

 

So for the negativity, and do hope it works out for you

[Tinkerton]

I'd look very carefully at all the maintenance schedules and warranties and everything that applied to the battery packs before I signed for a solely electric vehicle...

 

What's the range on a leaf these days? I know it's not apples to apples but the golf GTE hybrid has a leccy only range of something awful like 30 miles.

[Xaccers]

I'd look very carefully at all the maintenance schedules and warranties and everything that applied to the battery packs before I signed for a solely electric vehicle...

 

What's the range on a leaf these days? I know it's not apples to apples but the golf GTE hybrid has a leccy only range of something awful like 30 miles.

 

Services are 18,000 miles or once a year, and there's not much to do so it's basically check the wheels haven't fallen off, the brake pads and discs are good, and the battery is OK. Service cost is £75-100 depending on dealer.

Battery has a 5 year/60,000 mile warranty for the 24kW and 8 year/100,000 mile warranty for 9 bars out of 12. That doesn't equate to 3/4 of the range though, it's a lithium battery, and anyone with a laptop which is a couple of years old will know that although the computer says the battery is fully charged, it doesn't mean it lasts as long as it used to, but most people don't see a reduction in range until well over 3 years.

Real world usual ranges; for the 24kW about 100miles, for the 30kW about 120 miles, so perfect for my 45-50 mile round trips. For longer journeys Nissan can lend you a non-electric vehicle for a week or two, or you just plan it in stages which is fine for me as any long journeys are likely to be from MK to Yorkshire with the in-laws on-board, so no matter what I was driving we would be stopping at least every 2 hours to stretch legs and use the toilet. 30 minutes rapid charge to 80%.

Also around MK there are plenty of charging parking spaces where you get free parking while you charge, and a free permit is available to give free parking in the cheapest parking spaces when not charging.

 

 

Just be aware, and it may have changed dramatically in the last few years, but my Nissan dealership put me off buying another Nissan for as long as I live.

 

Standard customer response was '*fruitcage* you, we don't care' when paying for things like servicing, and a warranty recall I had when the engine stuffed a piston through the block took ages to sort and I had animosity off everyone throughout the repair process.

 

So for the negativity, and do hope it works out for you

 

I've heard some of their customer service is somewhat shocking depending on the dealership, its not a problem.

[shmook]

No worries

[Xaccers]

The head teacher has a Leaf and chatting to him he said that he'd like to get a charging point set up at school, but as he's the only one to benefit from it, people might think it was a tad self serving, but with two of us...

I presumed he was joking, but after talking with another teacher about looking into the Leaf they mentioned that he had been looking at getting a charging point so maybe with the both of us having EVs it could become a reality.

I've given our financial director a headache by asking what mileage I could claim with an EV as we're paid less than the authorised milleage allowance payments of 45p per mile depending on engine size (so I get 11p per mile on diesel). According to what I've found from HMRC private EV's are entitled to the AMAPs of up to 45ppm. Serves the bugger right for not paying me the full car allowance my contract says I should get.

[amateurstuntman]

Good for you.

 

If I had the ability to charge a car at my house I'd get an EV for my wife.

 

Since I don't the Citigo is the next best thing.  Plus I can drive to Glasgow for £35 in it in one go.

 

 

By not having kids my Mrs and I are saving (roughly) 16 tonnes of CO2 per year per kid.

 

So I am going to buy an old military truck and it doesn't matter one jot.

[scorch]

 

By not having kids my Mrs and I are saving (roughly) 16 tonnes of CO2 per year per kid.

 

So I am going to buy an old military truck and it doesn't matter one jot.

This is the same reason I'm planning to buy a second motorcycle and maybe at some point build a small to moderate sized tesla coil.

[Xaccers]

Good for you.

 

If I had the ability to charge a car at my house I'd get an EV for my wife.

 

Since I don't the Citigo is the next best thing.  Plus I can drive to Glasgow for £35 in it in one go.

 

 

By not having kids my Mrs and I are saving (roughly) 16 tonnes of CO2 per year per kid.

 

So I am going to buy an old military truck and it doesn't matter one jot.

 

No drive or garage? No problem. Apply to your council to get a 2 point charging post installed by the kerb.

[Hedganian]

No drive or garage? No problem. Apply to your council to get a 2 point charging post installed by the kerb.

Wouldn't you have to pay for that?

[Xaccers]

Wouldn't you have to pay for that?

 

There council get a government grant to cover most of the cost of the post as it's public not your private charger. You'll pay a little bit more than the domestic electricity rate to charge from it, but it will still be less than the cost per mile of petrol/diesel.

Most public charging points I've looked at cost about 10p per kW, so say 100 miles from a 24kW Leaf that's £2.40, so 2.4ppm. amaturestuntman's trip from Medway to Glasgow costing him a meagre £35 in the CitiGo (which is excellent for 430 miles) would be just £10.32 in the Leaf, in theory if you could stop and charge at the slow rate. In practice you've got 4 stops to rapid charge, and that can be £6 a go, so doing a bit of maths:

The first 100 miles costs £2.4, then the 4 rapid charges at £6 each and you're at £26.40

So about £9 cheaper, with more room inside.

Sure in the CitiGo you can risk it all in one leg, when you should break the journey up every 2 hours with half hour stops, so the 8 hour straight drive should have 4 stops anyway which coincides with the re-charge stops.

Advantage of the CitiGo: You can do the journey in 8 hours straight and it only costs £35 (which lets face it is bloomin' economical!)

Advantage of the Leaf: Saves nearly £9! (pays for a bottle of BBs), you HAVE to take the recommended rest brakes otherwise you'll run out of juice (so you're less likely to fall asleep at the wheel, but it takes 10 hours), it's a bigger car, no road tax.

So if there's just two of you in the car, or you've got small kids, then there's not a lot between them. I would imagine the monthly payments on a CitiGo are a lot lower than the Leaf's too.

 

Of course you could get a 30kW leaf and do it with 3 recharges instead of 4, or wait until the new one is released after September which may be able to do 200 miles on a charge, and that's getting into Tesla ranges.

[Tinkerton]

Finally managed to find a free day to drive down to Colchester and pick the new engine up for my corrado. I never realised quite how busy I was until I tried to find the time for an 8 hour ish round trip!

[DeltaZero]

Which engine did you go for?

 

And also.. Stunt you're based in Medway? I work in Dartford, never realised you were so close! 

[Tinkerton]

Still the 2.0 16v, but its been a bit of a palaver trying to organise it.

Also potentially sourced the more suitable diesel gearbox...

 

In Dundee...

[DeltaZero]

Ahh that'll be awesome! And the box would help with a better ratio, I need to swap the final drive out on the mini, it's way out for the small diddy wheels and churns through revs like a nutcase!