Brew

The 'P' (park) position is for parking on an automatic and locks the transmission.

Lets face it a car is basically a box with a wheel on each corner. They can make them vary slightly in shape and colour but basically they're all much of a muchness. So what can the manufacturers do to persuade you buy their cars rather than a competitors? Gadgets. More and more gadgets to differentiate the models, gadgets that are very rarely used but 'must haves'. My seats do all sorts of things but once adjusted they stay that way and I'm then just hauling around the dead weight of motors and compressors etc. The gadgets they fit are usually electronic and the cheapest part of the con

My thoughts are not just about pet shops and regarding convenience, do we really want to traipse round a dozen different shops down the High St gradually becoming more and more burdened as we lug our shopping in and out of different stores? There is usually a fair walk to a car park or you can stand in the cold and wait for a bus with our fingers going numb from the shopping bags. As I said it's a nice pipe dream that in reality never was, especially for men, (traditionally we don't do the shopping) and at the end of the day a tin of beans is still a tin of beans. Modern supply chain me

Money talks and we all go for the bargain. We can get all misty eyed about the 'personal touch' and 'friendly service' but when the chips are down we all pretty much prefer shopping all under one roof, out of the weather, where we can park the car and prices are reasonable.

Take a tip from the horse brigade and make yourself a mounting step, swap it for a 'step through' or so as I do with gadgets, put 'em in the garage and pretend not to notice they're there..

It's called Distronic Lizzie and yes, like stop/go, it can be turned off. The lane guidance is more disconcerting first time it happens. Let the car drift over the white line and the steering pulls you back unless you indicate you are changing lanes.

Last year I was walking in Amsterdam with some Dutch friends who damn near had heart attacks when I started to cross an empty road before the pedestrian lights went green.

My car has a separate battery for things like the stop/start feature. If I do mainly short journeys the battery doesn't fully charge and auxiliaries like the stop/start won't come out to play. Maybe the car needs a good run?

Suh was wrong wi it.. sahns reight enuf ter me.. yer got cloth ears or wot?

I don't think growing up we even had a doglead for our dog. My friends and I would roam all day through Clifton, Ruddington and the surrounding areas. The dogs just went with us and we wouldn't even consider going out without taking him with us. Like RR said if we didn't want to go out we simply opened the door and off he went. happy as Larry, sometimes gone all day and came back when he got hungry. The difference then and now is the the amount of open space we could access and virtually do as we pleased.

I've not renewed with the same company for house insurance for years - bugger'em

What about letting the contract run out for a week or so and then start again as a 'new'customer..

If you think Virgin are bad try TalkTalk, before you do though I strongly recommend a course in Gujarati and gobbledegook. All the providers are much of a muchness. I had problems with Virgin and eventually they sent a 'technician' who stunned my by admitting he's only been trained to tighten the connections and had no idea about routers or networks. He also carried a Mobile phone that displayed a WiFi download speed of almost 300Mbs. Challenged to get the same on my phone produced a wobbly 60Mbs. When Virgin works I'm a happy bunny (Talktalk and Plusnet are both much slower - 7/8Mbs

Yeah but the locals still only put the lights on so they can find the matches for the candles...

Same as Ozta here too

Unfortunately not Margie, the author was given as anon so apart from the title I've nothing else to go on.

A short story I read as a teenager was in an anthology I've long forgotten the title of. The story is simply called 'The Cricket Match' and tells the story of a village team playing their local rivals. It was without any doubt the funniest thing I've ever read, real laugh out loud stuff and I'd love to find it again and see if it's still as funny to me now.

Not many do that here nonna, at least not twice. I dislike ignorance and I'm not slow at announcing my displeasure. Next door had some building work done last year and the workmen thought the low wall on my property was just the right height for a makeshift workbench. Not only that but using a Stihl saw to cut bricks is fine and brickdust covering our cars was just 'one of those things 'cos it's what I do'. As I said he didn't do it twice...

Not at those prices BK..

Just arrived home from going to the Lea Salonga concert... we left at the interval

Vistas I am never likely to see in real life... great pics..

Lizzie awake, up and about at 7:30 now I know the world has finally gone mad..

I'm sure they are trained at their mothers knee Trogg. The look, the pursed lips etc all learned from an early age. " Now see here young lady that's really annoyed your father... another good way..."

Is it any wonder? There he is riding along thankful you haven't hurt him and the minute he tries to see where you're going you go all Queen of Hearts on it..

Which means it's difficult to fill a petrol car with diesel but easy putting petrol into a diesel