Grunts Groans and Moans 2013

The Admiral wrote:The garage lied, we still haven't got the car back it will now be 31st at the earliest. To make matters worse someone slashed two of the tyres and badly scratched the courtesy car overnight so now we have to make a claim to get that repaired and be given another one!

   that is bad stress factor through the roof     

Hope it's all sorted soon Jayne x x x

I'm moaning, it's 6 weeks tomorrow since I stopped smoking and at first I felt great .... liberated even  

Now I feel crap  been coughing a lot and have a mouth full of sores ...... not a happy bunny  I am not going to start smoking again just because I've hit a blip  but I am going to wine about it, and then I may even think about going to the docs if it doesn't stop just in case it's nothing to do with stopping smoking.

Helen wrote:Hope it's all sorted soon Jayne x x x

I'm moaning, it's 6 weeks tomorrow since I stopped smoking and at first I felt great .... liberated even  

Now I feel crap  been coughing a lot and have a mouth full of sores ...... not a happy bunny  I am not going to start smoking again just because I've hit a blip  but I am going to wine about it, and then I may even think about going to the docs if it doesn't stop just in case it's nothing to do with stopping smoking.

I'm really sorry you're feeling so rubbish Helen, hopefully your body will sort itself out soon

   

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Is this the end    

     

I'll have to stock up or start on the spirits  

It's worse than that:

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Australian wine company to destroy $35 Million of stocks.

If we had a tantrum emoticon I'd be using that now  why destroy it, they could send it over to us lot for our next meet .... used to camping with old things anyway  Oops sorry did I say old, what I meant to say was vintage  

Just back from the annual wine run to France. We had a nice if slightly damp week a little north of Paris. We had thought of venturing abroad with the Dandy this year but with additional ferry and fuel costs it worked out far cheaper and easier to get a mobile home. In fact forget the ferry and fuel costs, the static for a week was cheaper than a pitch for the Dandy!

So I can report that there was lots of grunt loading and unloading the boot with bottles, a bit of a moan from the rear suspension on the way home, and a serious groan from the cellar shelves (okay, the dining room cupboard shelves  )when they were stocked up.

I did see an article in a magazine, which my very limited French was able to decipher as a suggestion that Bordeaux wine prices would rise due to increased demand from China. So we added another couple of cases to the haul as we might not be able to afford it next year  

Ah peridot nothing to do with your continental jaunt as such but as you appear to travel across the channel more than many I'm wondering if you can enlighten me.

In this country there is only a marginal price difference in the cost of  beer or cider at the pub and the cost in the supermarket. Now heavens we all know that it is years since the original concept that supermarkets should be cheap.
If you live up north there are a variety of pubs where you can buy a choice of quality real ales at £2.00 to £2.20 per pint supermarkets are only pennies cheaper than this. My local does a variety of beers at £2.05 with the more expensive ones coming in at £2.20. I even went to a monthly open night at a brewery last Friday. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]  £2.00 per pint and that is far more than they will get selling the beer wholesale.

French supermarket beer is cheap and vin ordinaire at supermarkets or direct from the vineyard is dirt cheap but it's a mortgage to buy drink in a bar.

Is it just our thieving supermarkets or is there a difference in the way the two countries trade?

It's an interesting question TI ... I don't know if there's a valid reason. I assume the same low rates of duty that make beer and wine cheaper in the supermarkets apply to drinks sold in bars and restaurants so it would appear that their rates of mark-up are much higher in France. Perhaps the French tendency to linger long over a single drink means that the proprietors have to recover their overheads on that one, rather than over more indulgent consumption.

The French do also seem to value and support their small local businesses. Many bars and cafes appear to be busy at only short select times of the evenings but manage to survive with limited patronage during the day. Perhaps folk are happy to pay to ensure that the facility remains available.

Mind you, spending time in London has left me difficult to shock when it comes to beer prices. A single small round there cost more than a good night out in south Wales where it's still possible (although getting more difficult) to find prices like the ones you mention.

Well after all the talk of a wine shortage and the price of cider going up we thought we had better get busy. We collected all the apples we could scrounge, about a ton and went round our friends at the weekend who had done the same. They also have access to a press so here is Mrs P on the masher and Mr P on the press. We did about 2 tons of apples. They have just told us they have acquired another 2 tons for next weekend. 

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I would have thought going through 2 tonnes of apples with that press is hard going?

Out of 2 tonne or perhaps more like 4 tonne how much pulp are you left with? Did it just get sent down the tip or did you know someone who would add it to animal feed?

It wasn't too bad the press is probably bigger than it looks in that picture, try this one.

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We did about 8 presses in all. The pulp was then put into barrels and will go through the press again next weekend. The chickens and turkeys will then get it over the next few weeks, they love it.

It's a good job this is a grunts and moans thread. We have to pay £4 a pint in Bristol. I very rarely bother now, it is just too much. I can't enjoy drinking it at that price, it's very hard to swallow.

Had a fun time yesterday afternoon, son rang at about 2:00 to say he thought that he'd killed my Estima by putting £20 worth of unleaded in the tank (it's a diesel  ) and then driving to work. It was not sounding very well he said  .
If he had done it on his way home it would have been relatively simple to drain the tank and filter and pump some new fuel through until it ran properly, but not in the rain in HMP Risley staff car park  . So off I went and called our favourite rip o roadside rescue service. After being on hold for so long that I had serious doubts about my payg credit/battery life I finally got to speak to someone and was told that someone would be with me within the hour and that a different "adviser" would ring back with an estimate  Estimator duly rang back and said 35mins and £214   but you do get £10 of diesel.
The man arrived as promised in a special misfuelling van, one of 25 that the RAC have, sucked the petrol out of the tank, cleared out the filter,added some cleaner and some proper fuel and, with the aid of his jump leads started it up. It was very lumpy with clouds of smoke but eventually settled down and seems to be OK.

I know that this was self inflicted, but what exactly am I paying quite a lot of money for every year  If I was not a member it would have cost me £45 pounds more, but that is less than I pay anyway.

Comments from Mr Itch and Helen anticipated

Must be something about filling up in Warrington.

I don't know if you caught my original piece about misfueling [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Tow Itch wrote:Must be something about filling up in Warrington.

I don't know if you caught my original piece about misfueling [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Yes I did remember your dealings with the RAC, that's why I expected a post from you  

Not Warrington just dozy son at 05:30. At least it was the Estima he borrowed, I don't know if my super duper common rail Mondeo would have recovered so well

I too have put petrol in a diesel. I had a long protracted correspondence about it with Elf Fuels because I also called the RAC and got stung. Can't rememeber the exact figures but had to pay a charge to the RAC, then a callout charge to the breakdown chap, then a fee for him to get a key out of his pocket and open the workshop to drain the fuel, a contaminated fuel disposal charge, then through the nose for a gallon of diesel plus I had to pay for the full tank of fuel I just put in. About £250 in 1998.

All the diesel pumps at every garage except Elf had black nozzles. Leaded petrol had blue nozzles. Elf in their infinite wisdom had blue for diesel and black for unleaded. I picked up the black and in it went. Luckily when I paid I said 'No 3 diesel' and the assistant said, 'That's petrol' so I didnt run the engine.

I still cannot believe there is/was no standard colour coding for petrol and diesel, especially having been completely spoilt by unleaded always being green and a smaller nozzle. Presumably now there is no longer unleaded maybe things have changed.

He used a small pump which I think was a screen washer pump and attached it to the battery using crocodile clips, indoors, while pumping petrol. A real professional job. For flammable atmospheres we always use very expensive flameproof switches etc so there can be no spark.

You know what happened to Laura's car, in the end we got 50% towards the cost of repairs ..... we weren't exactly happy with it but decided rather than wait we'd take it. The car is running really well and still has the same radiator so it wasn't at fault and the only problem was the stuck thermostat! Laura joined the AA, she also got herself a Kia sorrento and as the Landrover had all that work done they were loath to let it go so Adam uses that for work now. At present we are without cover  we are considering our options carefully but whatever we do we will not be using the RAC.

Moaning about the car, it was recalled and looked at on the 24th Oct 2010 ...... deemed to be okay and just wax oiled. Sat on the car park today luckily not moving and it just went clonk ...... rear wheel is pointing outward   

R/2010/091
Exact Model: Santa Fe and Trajet
Description: SUSPENSION MAY FAIL
VIN: KMHMH81AR2U104355 to KMHMH81VR5U257307
Build Date: 01/01/2000 to 24/12/2004
Numbers: 17791
Defect: Trajet and Sante Fe - Corrosion may build up and weaken the rear suspension arms to an extent where they could fail and the directional control of the vehicle could be affected. Sante Fe models additionally have a similar concern with the front sub-frame.
Action: Recall the vehicles that are likely to be affected to test the thickness of the metal of the suspension arms. If the corrosion is not too advanced the arms/sub-frame will be wax oiled. If the corrosion is advanced, the suspension arms will have to be changed.
Launch Date: 20 September 2010

Time for a new vehicle now   

That sounds very scary    I will be watching Santa Fes and Trajets verycarefully in future in case I need to take avoiding action   
At least you were already thinking of changing soon, this will have made your mind up!

Dont think much to the recall inspection though  

It wasn't exactly scary Jake, the car was parked up and the engine wasn't running but we had just come off the 60 and onto the supermarket car park so it could have happened at some speed ..... now that would have been scary. John's getting the verdict from the garage then contacting the dealer who inspected it.

When I said scary I was thinking of perhaps 60 mph with 1200kgs of Caravan scary   

It's at the garage and the suspension arm has corroded right through and sheared off as though there were a few ton of bricks in the boot ...... which by the way for once is empty  

We sold the caravan Jake after the last meet we decided we like our faithful Dandy best  

It's taken a while to update but ....... we actually got somewhere with this   

We did consider scrapping the car but as we've had everything else replaced and on principle we decided to repair the car and then argue our point ....... using these two photo's. It was argued at first that the MOT station should have noticed but as you can clearly see there was no way they could have and that the remedial works couldn't have been done when it was recalled. We got a phone call today to say that a cheque to cover the cost of replacing both trailing arms will be with us within 28 days   

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We're not sure we want to get rid of the car now as it's had so much spent on it over the past year and it's been a good 'un' but we do want something a little more economical to run as we no longer have the caravan.