WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[PanBiker]

Drivers in Barlick could beat all those especially at "school run" time and accessing the cash machine and One Stop on Church Street. The latter has double yellows, a junction and the zig zags of a zebra crossing that don't seem to apply to lots of drivers! You take your life in your hands on that particular Zebra sometimes. The disabled bays are all fair game on the Coop car park and up at the Sports Centre which are abused daily by drivers waiting to pick their little dears up many with their engines running to add insult to injury. Pavement parking on Skipton Road opposite the Town Green, I could go on but won't, rant off.

[Stanley]

"Pavement parking on Skipton Road opposite the Town Green"
That one gets my goat every morning! Ian is quite right. Many shoppers, particularly the ones with large expensive Urban Assault Vehicles think it is their right to park directly outside every shop they visit. It must be a nightmare for the fire and ambulance drivers.
We don't have/need/want Parking Wardens but an occasional police purge of offenders wouldn't come amiss. The Rainhall Road car park is virtually empty every day, problem is it's 200 yards from the Town Centre. The drivers have lost the use of their legs!
The fact I am now in my 85th year......



In support of Ian's point about pavement parking. This morning's light crop of illegally parked cars (There are often as many as six) on Skipton Road this morning.

[PanBiker]

but an occasional police purge of offenders wouldn't come amiss.

The Police are no longer responsible for parking Stanley although there is the alternative of the parking wardens who can issue fines. Problem as I see it is that they only visit on odd occasions. It actually needs a prolonged campaign, they would have enough work in Barlick for this to be a reality. Like anything else though, there aren't enough of them to cover the demand.

Happy Birthday Stanley.

[Tizer]

We live in walking distance of a large hospital which has a severe lack of parking places, even for staff, so we get our streets lined with cars, reducing them to one lane. The streets are cul de sacs which makes matters worse. The County Highways department won't put any more restrictions in place `because it only moves them on elsewhere', the police can't do anything and the hospital management won't do anything about their parking problems. Something will happen at the hospital eventually and force change. The road to it is often gridlocked because people are trying to get there and park but can't, and the queue is beginning to tail back to the traffic lights at the junction with the A38 trunk road. Everybody knows it's a shambles but no-one will sort it!

[Stanley]

Thanks Ian. Susan and Mick visited and brought me haggis in quantity.
As always, the wonderful taste of my daily pint of proper coffee, just brewed it, always rewarding!
The realisation it's copy writing time again for the BET! As Wendy says, time flies!

[Wendyf]

Stanley, is your haggis made by Hornigs in West Calder?

[Stanley]

No Wendy, McSween of Edinburgh. Don't know where they got them apart from the fact they did a shop in Colne.

Something has cropped up in the last few days which has surprised me and is particularly pertinent in view of the weather we are expecting. I have been hearing reports for a while that the new hybrid vehicles seem to be very sensitive to water. A friend's 14 month old Toyota Rav packed up on him last weekend while he was driving normally in wet weather. He didn't do anything silly like drive in deep water but after driving through some normal puddles the vehicle packed up on him and gave him a very clear error message, "send for recovery". He did that and after an investigation, due to the fact it is a leased vehicle on a very comprehensive insurance policy, it has been decided that water has got into the engine and it is not worth repairing! The computer diagnosis is flagging up a long list of problems with no guarantee that replacement of all these parts will cure it. (Only 14 months old remember). A final decision is awaited but almost certainly the car will be written off and he will get a new one on payment of the excess on the policy. This all seems very strange to me but the garage has told him it is quite common in cases like this.
Not like the old days at all!

[Cathy]

Goodness, just think of the landfill.
That’s appalling.

[Stanley]

It may be just bad luck but the word is that this is quite a common fault Cathy. At today's standards of build these vehicles ought to be good for twenty years at least.

[Tizer]

The problem must have been with the conventional IC engine and not the electric motor because the design of the latter is covered by very strict safety regulations about preventing water ingress.

[Stanley]

Possibly Tiz but all I know is that the diagnostic programme flagged up numerous errors all connected with 'water ingress'. My point is that as it had not been in deep water, how did water get in? If a vehicle is only viable in dry weather there is a design flaw somewhere. In all my driving experience, some of it in very deep water, I have never had a problem. That includes driving over the wooden bridge over the Ouse at Cawood when all you could see was the top two feet of the hand rails. They'd never let you do that today! (Mind you it was in the AEC tanker so I was pretty high up.)

[Tizer]

Possibly Tiz but all I know is that the diagnostic programme flagged up numerous errors all connected with 'water ingress'. My point is that as it had not been in deep water, how did water get in? If a vehicle is only viable in dry weather there is a design flaw somewhere.

I can't find any reports on the web of engine problems in hybrid or all-electric vehicles due to water ingress. I suspect it was more likely caused by malfunction of the electronic control systems than the engine. Perhaps these systems are more complex in hybrid vehicles which have to deal with two different types of engine in the same vehicle.

I read a news story in the paper about the providers of roadside charging points for EVs being a lot more expensive than charging at home. The survey was based on the cost for 100 miles. The providers were charging 4 times the cost of home charging and one was 9 times more. Some also charge for connecting and some make you take out a subscription. When I did a rough calculation based on their figures the cost for 100 miles in the electric car was not much more than for my Golf Diesel; but if you read the promotions EVs they always tell you how much cheaper their running costs are.

[Big Kev]

I'll stick with my 60mpg diesel Yeti for now. £30 a year road tax and I I've just re-insured for the year for £240. It would have been less than that but there's a small charge for paying over 12 months on DD.

[Tripps]

Your situation and the figures you give are very similar to mine. The Yeti made it to the short list. Ease of access was a major factor. It's wonderful - best motoring I've had in my lifetime. It seems that I've spanned the rise and (maybe) the fall of the internal combustion engine.

Re electric vehicles - Octopus seem to be ahead of he curve - they have a tarriff which charges (boom boom) - only 5p per kWh between 1 and 5 am. Specially for overnight vehicle charging. The cabling might be a trip hazard for Stanley's morning walks though in terraced Barlick.

[Big Kev]

Re electric vehicles - Octopus seem to be ahead of he curve - they have a tarriff which charges (boom boom) - only 5p per kWh between 1 and 5 am. Specially for overnight vehicle charging. The cabling might be a trip hazard for Stanley's morning walks though in terraced Barlick.

There will be a lot of EV initiatives released very soon, it's a potentially huge market.

[Stanley]

Tiz, they specifically mentioned water in the engine oil.
Cables across pavements is seen as a major problem isn't it.... We shall just have to wait and see. Doesn't worry me as I am always looking for trip hazards and dog shit. (That's how I find pounds in puddles)
The violent wind that is blowing this morning worst we have had! Howling even in the sheltered back street. Must be fearsome up at Wendy's.....

[Cathy]

Our Summer from hell.
The numbers are in... across Australia we have lost
480 million (plus) animals
46 million acres
34 people
2779 homes
3121 buildings

Some good news, some area’s already have new growth.

4786870A-99A6-4439-8133-564844E466FA.jpeg

[Stanley]

Not good figures are they Cathy. I hope the fire season is over, the rain seems to have come in early, we have had reports of flooding in Sydney.

[Tizer]

I enjoyed this short video! But if he'd been in some other cities instead of Cardiff he could have ended up being knifed...
`Cardiff attempted mugging: Man, 77, fights back' LINK

[Stanley]

I saw that report and immediately thought of Monty Python and 'Hell's Grannies'!
(the video in that link didn't work, try THIS Youtube version, much clearer.)
The flooding.



At Tewkesbury, worth pondering on.....

[PanBiker]

That looks a good idea, build the other side of 5 mini roundabouts and in a pond. Free wellies with every purchase over £400,000. They will need a good damp proof course that's for certain.

Oh and once they are built all that water will have to go somewhere else the next time it rains, profit regardless of consequence, the promoter should be jailed.

[Tizer]

This caught my attention today because our neighbour opposite has just told us he's got a problem and asked us to hold a key for his house in case of emergency. He had a stent fitted a few years ago and has been healthy, going to the gym each day even though he has poor mobility, but suddenly his heart is failing again and he has a worrying wait for treatment.
`Heart doctors 'held back stent death data''
LINK

[Stanley]

That was what saved our Doc when he had his heart attack.....

[Tizer]

A headline `Retail sales bounce back in January after weak end to 2019' caught my attention but doesn't match with our experience. I went into town on Tuesday and found I was the only customer in Argos (at least I was out quickly!) and then found Debenhams was very quiet. It's half-term week here and the shops are usually more busy rather than less. The shop assistants agreed it was quiet and complained of boredom. Then yesterday Mrs Tiz went to the big Sainsbury's supermarket and that was the same, oddly empty. Could it be due to virus fears?

[Big Kev]

A long shot but it's worth a share on here

20200220_153850.jpg