The year has really flown – much like the car – I can’t believe I’ve had the car a year. I’ve covered 18720 miles and every single one of them has been a pleasure. I’ve been especially impressed with the fuel consumption. It’s never dropped below 35mpg, and in a few cases, it’s been up …
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Category:Car
The gardening begins…
With the clocks changing last night and the lighter evenings beginning to appear, it was time to devote some energy to the back garden. …so I washed the car, whilst Ann did all the hard work!!! Well, that’s not quite true, I did rake the lawn to remove all the debris left behind by the …
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Biscuit and Bon-Bon for a bath!
We took the cats over to see Patsy of Rushden Persian Rescue for their six-weekly ‘bath-and-brush-up’. This is only their second visit there. Their first, back in January was because the previous groomer had been arrested for cruelty to animals after an RSPCA raid late last year!!! We made good use of time today, popping …
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A Productive Sunday!
We started the day with a bacon sandwich and coffee – perfect! We then caught up with episode two of the excellent Edge of Darkness DVD. It’s amazing how well the plot has stood up to the passage of time. So much stuff from TV in the 80s looks horribly dated crap when watching it …
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The White Stuff
In yesterday’s post entitled, ‘Snow Go’ I may have mistakenly given the impression that the snow was on its way out. At a round 4pm today, the snow returned – a little at first, then it got heavier and heavier. By the time I got to the station to pick-up Ann around 6pm, the whole …
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Trapped in the snow!
I didn’t sleep too well last night and was awake at 3am! Looking out the window, I noticed it had snowed a lot – what a pain in the arse as I’m off to Daventry today. I assumed that the journey was going to be bad so I decided to leave a little earlier than …
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Nuts!
The car went in to have the locking-wheel nuts replaced. Strangely, they had completely rusted during the last few months. They’ve been replaced with some shinier new ones of a slightly different design! – nice! Rob also touched-in the two ‘nicks’ I had on the front alloys – cheers Rob!! Steve PalmerI got into blogging …
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New front tyres @ 14000 miles
Well, that was a bit of a surprise. The Mondeo needed two new tyres on the front. After only 14000 miles! They’re ‘Continentals’ and they’re apparently quite ‘soft’. The new ones are ‘Dunlop’ and it’ll be interesting to see how long they last! The rear pair, I’m told, will be good for another 10000 miles. …
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Pick-up Mum/Ann still not well
I drove over to Bedford Station to pick Mum up – I dropped into Denise and Steve’s on the way through. Denise made me coffee and forced a mince-pie on me and we sat in front of her open fire in the lounge – lovely! Steve was out getting plumbing bits and pieces and arrived …
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PaintShield – Great! O2 – Not Great!
I drove up to Grantham today to PaintShield to have the film reapplied to frontal area of the car as well as the off-side wing. Nice job guys and gals thanks! ..and thanks for your hospitality too! Boo to O2! My phone went wrong last night and I was surprised to learn that they don’t …
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Anniversary Weekend in Manchester – Sunday
Our 24th Anniversary today! As we’re leaving early today we exchanged our presents last night. At last, it’s stopped raining! We decided to go for an earlier train back to Rugby, so instead of getting the 11am, we aimed for the 9.30 out of Manchester Piccadilly. This was a good connection as we were back …
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The Cecilian Singers’ Carol Concert
I joined Val and David at The Cecilian Singers‘ Christmas Carol Concert in Leicester tonight. This is becoming a regular thing (we went last year and the year before that) and it’s a brilliant way to get us all in the mood for Christmas. Val and I travelled there in my car because Ann was …
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Trouble comes in 3s!!
Today’s the day when the cats get a haircut and a bath. Take cover! 🙂 They’re well overdue for both and I reckon it’ll be difficult for the Pussy Parlour to get rid of all their knots (without shaving them)given that it’s been so long since their previous visit in August. This is the longest …
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LNG Meeting in London
I travelled down to London with Denise for the last LNG Meeting of 2008. Denise ran a session on Project Management whilst Luke and Philip talked us through a rather good management profiling tool from The Good Boss Company. The venue was Sam’s office just off Piccadilly Circus. The meeting finished around 2.30 which gave …
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Mondeo sorted!!
Excellent news! The side-skirt (that was on back-order) arrived and guys were able to finish the car today! They’ve done an excellent job Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), …
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More for the Mondeo!
Paul rang from Central Garage to alert me to the fact that the front tyres were in need of replacement and the rears weren’t far behind! The car was also due for its annual service. So, it looks like the car won’t be ready for Thursday…but I will get it back on Friday! 🙂 Steve …
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Mondeo in for repair…
I took the car to Central Garage in Irthlingborough to get a quotation for the repairs after Saturday’s adventure. Looks like it’ll need a fill-and-re-spray to the front panel, a replacement side skirt and a refurbed alloy. Total bill will be in the region of £600! They think it’ll take a day, maybe two, to …
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Visit Nick and Celina/Val’s Birthday meal
We took a drive over to Stamford on Saturday, to see our good friends Nick and Celina. We met at The Crown in Stamford for lunch and then did a bit of shopping. We decided to move my car from the pay-and-display because it was a maximum three-hour-stay. That was BIG mistake. Nick suggested we …
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Visit Denis and Mae for Lunch/Lottery Win
We’re off to Lincoln today to catch-up with Denis and Mae. The day started cold but then the snow came, albeit not much, but the forecast looks worse. As I write this it’s still -1 degrees outside but we now have freezing rain as well – lovely (not!) The weather started to clear up and …
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Track information and MP3 capability on my Mondeo
I suppose I knew this all along, but I never got round to following it through. Ever since one of Ann’s CDs showed the track information when it played in the Mondeo, I’ve been wondering how it was done. Well, it’s called ‘CD-text’ and I’d vaguely heard of the concept, but had never found a …
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Sunny Sunday!
It was a gorgeous day here today – wall-to-wall sunshine. Ann started preparing the garden for Winter, whilst I started to write the Christmas cards* (In October???? 😲, well, there are around 300 to write!!) It was the perfect day for polishing the car too! *Totally organised or totally sad? (delete as applicable) Steve PalmerI …
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Car in for Warranty work
The car went into Ford’s today to see if they can solve the problem with the front parking sensors. They only seem to work if ‘reverse’ is engaged followed by ‘drive’ – Not much use if you’re heading for an obstacle in a forward direction! Having heard from Ford today, it seems like it’s supposed …
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Mondeo in for Warranty work
I took the car into Ford’s yesterday for some warranty work They managed to sort out the lights problem – I think! The parking sensors are still playing up (rebooked for late September) and the ticking noise is definitely the sat-nav DVD initialising but what Ford don’t know is whether the ticking is louder than …
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Mum returns home
My back was still aching, so Ann took Mum back today at around 10am. Having looked at the traffic cams, it looks like it’ll be a good journey. However, Ann rang after getting onto the M11 where she promptly came to a halt. Looking at TrafficMaster showed a tail-back right up until Bishops Stortford going …
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Family Weekend
An early start for me. After dropping Ann off at the station, I travelled down to Mum’s and picked her up. She’s staying with us for a week. A slightly sluggish journey there, but a better one coming back. We got back to ours just after 10. Roger, Jane and Oliver arrived about 9pm – …
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…and so farewell, Ford Mondeo
Farewell! And so,Today, the final paperwork cameThroughYou are now probably a smallCube ofMetal E J Thribb (aged 7) paperwork.pdf Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness …
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Ian’s Laptop/Mae and Denis’ Car
I drove over to Ian’s today to help him get his laptop up and running. Mae and Denis heard that their Picasso is a write-off – 6k’s worth of damage! Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of …
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Cheque for Car/Trouble with Trains
The cheque arrived today for Ann’s car – £2400 – a fair price. Problems at St Pancras today, so I drove over the Huntingdon to pick-up Ann and Janet. Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology …
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School photos/Meal with Mick and Jane
I set off from home at around 5.30am and got to West Wickham by about 8am – not a bad journey and over 40mpg! Picked up Peter J and we headed for the school where we spent an hour or so taking some internal and external shots. We’re not sure yet whether we’ll publish these …
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Second trip to PaintShield
Took a drive up to PaintShield in Grantham today for ‘part-two’ of the stone-chip protection for my car and to re-do one or to minor areas that hadn’t bedded down properly from my first visit. They re-did the bonnet and added full protection to both the front wings! The car averaged just over 50mpg on …
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