Goodwood Revival – The other bits…

This year we didn’t see much of the racing. We spent most of our time taking in the static cars and aircraft, the shops and stalls… and the fun fair.

Alex (5) wanted to go on the rides. He started small and moved up to the Dodgems with me…. and then a family ride on a violent Waltzer! Alex is very keen to go on a roller-coaster, so I figured a few smaller rides would see how he coped.

I thought the Waltzer would be too much for him, but he watched from the side and still wanted a go. He loved it….. so it’s roller-coasters next year!

As in my previous post, the SPITFIRES stole the day…. Not a lot could contend, even though the event had plenty to offer.

Anyway… here are a few photo’s… (with more in full size HERE)

There are plenty more photos – in FULL SIZE… OVER HERE on FLICKR

The end of a decade…

Happy New Year…. New Decade EVERYONE!

This last one was like a shower with a mixer tap that just can’t make its mind up if it is hot or cold.

The worst of times, the best of times – all in the last ten years. I haven’t had a ten year stretch that has had such extremes.

Ryan – who was nearer a brother to me than a friend, died. – I got married.  – My Dad passed away.  – Alex was born.  – We lost house deal after house deal, money hand over fist, before we finally settled. – We gained 3 cats but lost one. –  I had to leave a job due to medical conditions (now cleared up).  – Met new friends, great friends –  Left another job after a works injury was shrugged off and left us on the edge of losing the house….and then landed in the great job I am in now. – I started shooting and got the highest awarded proficiency the NSRA give, won a few competitons… then had to quit shooting due to the works injury.  – I lost the last family member from my Dad’s family tree that had grown up with him and who had all the missing answers.  – Boilers failed leaving the house below freezing, water tanks ruptured flooding the loft!  – The family car was written off… Too much other stuff went down and up and up and down to mention – but it was a roller coaster.

Things I wouldn’t change for the world – and things I would do anything to change…

Hot. Cold. Hot. Cold. Hot. Cold.

Things have settled down – One day at a time.

Here’s hoping the plumbing is sorted for the next ten years – it would be good to have a bit of middle ground for once.

From Guns to the X-Factor to Augmented Reality

Flickr reorganised my photo’s & broke picture links….

So… let’s try again – and this time with an update & more pictures!

I was on the lookout for some captioned t-shirts recently and just couldn’t find what I wanted. In the end I found a place that allows you to design your own… and sell them if you want.

Well, I purchased the one I wanted (after designing it…) – and once it arrived I was impressed by the print quality and the actual quality of the t-shirt. I then went back to the store and looked into how to sell my designs, after all, why not?

Since then I have added several designs – including a mug and notebook case to go with all the shirts…

If you like any of them, go to http://sometimespace.spreadshirt.co.uk/ and have a shop around… if you can’t find what you want, I might be able to sort something out for you (if you don’t want to do it yourself!).

I started out with some shooting orientated ones and then added a few more various others…These are a few of the designs…

SOMETIMESPACE – THE SHOP

Click the shop link above to buy any of the items below! These designs are on shirts, bags, mugs, bumper stickers…. Go for it! Alex needs new shoes!

Traffic problem and road deaths – SOLVED

Okay… this is just a thought – It is not 100% figured out, and to be honest, I would be pretty much against some aspects of it – BUT I was just musing over something that MIGHT be the better good for the greater many for the future….

Feel free to add constructive comments!

So anyway… the roads are getting clogged up with too much traffic. Motorways are reduced to a dribble and often just stop during rush hours. Sometimes it is due to roadworks, sometimes due to accidents, and all compounded by pure volume of traffic.

That gives 3 focal points…. Roadworks, Accidents, volume of traffic.

All of these add to pollution in a big way, after all if a car takes longer to get somewhere due to traffic slowing it down, then it is burning fuel and not getting anywhere… Also, lots of cars = lots of pollution.

To reduce roadworks we need to reduce the number of vehicles on the road. The question is which ones do we remove? The answer to this will reflect on the accident rate on the roads…

To reduce accidents we need to remove as many drivers from the road that are likely to cause problems… and by reducing accidents we take a huge load off of the emergency services and hospitals (frees up the Police, Ambulances, Doctors, Nurses, Fire service etc…) and we keep the roads moving more freely due to less road traffic accident caused jams… This saves a lot of tax payers money allowing it to be routed in other directions…. one of those directions would be public transport… but more on that in a moment.

To help reduce the amount of drivers on the road, a much tougher driving test is required. Much, much tougher. This will keep a lot of the drivers off of the road that are dangerous. The less able drivers, the careless, the worriers, hesitater’s, the heavy on the gas drivers etc, all of these would get a taste of a cull. I’d even say that in this day and age the smoothness of a persons driving could be judged – after all a smoother drive gives greater fuel economy and less emissions – and also a smoother drive is a safer drive.

This would leave a lot of people stranded with nothing but frankly shitty public transport to rely on.True, one option could be lift sharing – and that would help save people money by sharing the fuel costs. Not a bad option really, once you see how many cars there are on the road in the morning with only one person in.

Back to public transport though – I had to travel to my work place by train recently as my car was being serviced… it cost over £30 for a return ticket…I had to get up 45 minutes earlier to catch a train… the journey took over an hour longer than my drive and I finally arrived home 1 hour later than usual…. The next day I hired a car and that worked out cheaper than a train ticket!

So how can this dire public transport be improved? I’d envisage more and better bus services… subsidised taxis, Heck, why not mini buses more frequently than the current buses? Who knows? Just SOMETHING!!!

With more people being forced to use public transport there would be more money being spent on travel – so prices could be reduced (finally!). Some of the money saved on emergency services and roadworks could be funnelled into improving the public transport system. In fact with less cars on the road, a regular stopping or fast track coach system could be set up on the motorways (after all, some places aren’t near train stations).

It may even get to a point where unlike my experience with public transport, it might be better for me to use public transport – Cheaper, faster, cleaner….. I can dream!!!

The more people that use public transport, the better it would get due to the cash injection (it would HAVE to get). So there you have it – a rickety theory on reducing the number of cars on the road and at the same time saving us and the Government money from areas that can have spending reduced (the reduction of road traffic accidents & road repairs due to lighter wear and tear etc), whilst at the same time reducing carbon emissions, and road deaths!

One point here… If I was one of the people who were caught in “the cull” then I’d be pretty annoyed… BUT I’d hope that an infrastructure was in place that would alleviate the pain and suffering that losing a car would give me. In fact I’d hope that if a scheme like this ever took off, that some people would simply PREFER to ditch their cars due to a much improved alternative… (stretch your imagination!)

Maybe, as a great deal of accidents are Motorway situated, my theory could be to just make a tough test for people to pass prior to travelling on the motorways. That would mean people could still have access to cars for local travels, but keep the main motorways clearer… hey… it’s just some random thoughts here!

Yes, it is a dodgy theory with many holes in it, but it is just the bones of a discussion that other people might look at and carry on with….

Children in Need FAIL

Good grief…

BBC news had story about a youth disco/club venue that is being shut down because of the underage drinking & fighting it caused…. and then within 5 minutes they show a clip for Children in Need where they want our money to fund a disco/club venue to keep kids off of the street & away from underage drinking & fighting….

Which one is it you want?

Okay, I think there are some charities that deserve my money -BUT I’m growing to hate the big events that take our charitable donations and give it to unworthy causes.

For charity, my money goes direct to the cause I support. I’m not letting some huge event organisation distribute it for me… and tonight on BBC News my beliefs have been well a truly cemented. I was disgusted – well and truly disgusted…. maybe I’m just getting old, but there is no way Children in Need are getting my money.

So there I was watching the BBC and that Children in Need advert I mentioned at the start came on. This concentrated on funding a disco/club venue for kids not having anything to do apart from go out and cause trouble – “because there’s nuffink else to do, so we, ya know, just get our kicks and cause trouble..”

They aren’t wanting for money as they currently DO go out drinking, smoking, (some do drugs) fighting – all because they supposedly have nothing to do! For God’s bloody sake! Every year there is more and more for people to do! When my Dad was growing up in the 1920’s & 30’s he had more to do than his Dad. When I was growing up there was an even bigger leap of things for me to do than the gap between my Dad and Granddad! Now Alex is growing up…and if he ever says there isn’t anything for him to do I’ll be amazed! There is so much to do!

I wasn’t even into computers so much back when I was a kid. I’d go out and play around with my mates in a local forest. Proper stuff – tree climbing! war games (no paint ball back then though – we had to pretend!)! ride bikes & make jumps! I’d go to the local swimming pool or sports centre. I had plenty of hobbies and things to do…. I had far, far less to do than kids have to do now!

So… there is no way on earth that I’ll give money to keep yobs off of the streets just because they say it is the lack of stuff to do that leads them to cause trouble! There is plenty to do, but the kids can’t be bothered to do them and just use this pathetic excuse to hide behind.

Teenage pregnancy is another thing I really don’t want my cash going on. Once more, compared to “my day” and my Dad’s day, there is so much more information about sex available that I shouldn’t have to fund little miss bored and little miss stupid. Yes – accidents might happen – and I’m sorry for those kids, BUT most of the time these aren’t accidents – they are just lazy, arrogant kids who think they know better. If the kid gets in trouble, then let the parents sort it out – because I put a lot of the blame on them.

This might rub a few people up the wrong way – but we are being to bloody soft nowadays. I’m sorry you had to mug an old lady because you were bored – here… have some money. You have to rob a house to get your drug and beer money because there’s absolutely nothing to do… my heart bleeds for you.

I pay my taxes which goes towards the benefits these people get anyway – and I have no choice where that goes… so there is no way I’m giving more away to them.

Where I can, I’ll place my charity directly where I want it to go. If I want to help real children in need (because I’m not dumb and DO realise there are many that are in genuine need!), then I’ll pay it direct to the supporting group.

Children in Need – you pushed this one out of me – Hope this helps you.

Save cash on fuel

EDITED – See end of text for latest figures!

Since getting my old Audi A4 (1996 Saloon) I have covered over 6000 miles in under 3 months.

I drive over 100 miles a day – and that works out as an average of 76.1 miles a day including my none driving days!

That also works out at £8.04 a day on average…. and 659.8 miles per fill up.

So… I have the perfect chance to try several ways to save fuel.

I didn’t want to do anything over the top. I wanted to make slight changes to see what would happen. The type of changes you could do quite easily without altering your driving style so much.

Firstly I did a few journeys at my normal style. I’m no racer – I keep up with the traffic and drive as the traffic around me drives – so pretty average.

The table below shows a few statistics on my trips. I purchased the car with 113816 miles on the clock – so that is why the first line shows 0mpg – I hadn’t got anything to judge it against.

By the 27/08/09 I had covered 638 miles filling up with 57.63 litres – I had covered those 638 miles at 50.33mpg – a good starting point, as when I chose the car I was looking for 50mpg or more at the very least.

The next entry and I only got 47.03mpg! I knew why though. I was a bit heavier on the throttle and harder on the brakes. I even went around a track which gave the impact of driving the car like a “boy racer” – although that was only for 3 miles…. ONLY 3 miles like an idiot racer and it hammered my economy.

The following fill up gave me 55.66mph – and that was by far gentler driving… but nothing major!

I still drove at the same speeds on the roads as I had done on the previous tests, but this time I didn’t floor the throttle to get to those speeds, and I didn’t use harsh braking to slow down.

I simply put enough throttle down to get the car moving, then as it gathered speed I’d change up a gear – but a little earlier than usual. The time it took to get up to my usual top speeds was a little slower, but it was there that most of the fuel savings took place.

When it came to driving I simply left a bigger gap between me and the car ahead. If I saw the cars ahead start to slow I would come off of the throttle straight away instead of catching up and having to brake.

This way I wasn’t wasting fuel by braking and accelerating all the time – I was just using the throttle to keep me gently at my cruising speed – which was the same cruising speed I had used from the beginning of the test.

As you can see – between harsh driving and gentle driving I had a change in mpg of 8.63 mpg… or 299 miles per tank – at the time that was £6.84 per tank saved. For me that is over £350 a year… which  covers MoT & Tax.

The thing is, the journey to and from work is not taking any longer. Just driving calmly, pre-empting what other cars were doing, having a feather weight foot rather than a lead one… it all added up.

I use the iPhone App – Road Trip to measure all of this. Since using it I have taken a greater interest in my economy – I even have all my expenses set up on it so I can see the true daily cost of my car once insurance, fuel, tax, MoT, services etc are taken into account. Currently it costs £12.21 a day – which is less than half the price of a return train ticket for my work!

Annoyingly the M3 then had months of road works – and the reduced speed took the car out of an economic cruise, so I lost the high mileage economy for a while. Still, I managed to keep the average up over 50mpg.

Yellow: Price per Litre / White: MPG / Blue: Average

I am now trying to hone my driving style to reduce the fuel cost even more. I mentioned that I would simply come off of the throttle if I was catching up with traffic. If I caught up too fast (nothing dangerous)  then I was using the brake. This isn’t the best way to save fuel…. You see modern cars that are aiming at giving better economy are now using engine braking to help save fuel. One way you can do this with older cars is to come off of the throttle, put the clutch in so the revs drop off, then slowly let the clutch out again. The speed of the car will then try to spin the engine revs back up again, and as this happens the energy used to spin the engine up is lost in speed. I am finding I can slow down quite smoothly this way – and in fact don’t need to use the brake unless I am coming to a dead stop, or if there is an event that requires faster stopping.

I also don’t sit on the clutch at traffic lights or on hills. I go into neutral and put the hand brake on. It doesn’t seem like much, but it all adds up. Correctly servicing the car, keeping the tyres to the correct pressure (an important safety check in its own right) – it’s all important in the fight to save fuel bills – and none of it is difficult to achieve.

It’s all about being calm – and it is true to a point, driving faster doesn’t get you there any quicker – but driving there with a bit more thought will save a lot of money.

UPDATE!

Even though I spent some time stuck in traffic due to a huge problem on the M27, the results from clutch braking are showing through. I have just returned my best MPG to date at 56.18mpg – giving my daily running cost (including all bills etc) of just over 15 pence!). If I carried on driving hard, that would go up to £1.15!!! That’s a heck of a difference.

One person pointed out that this may wear the clutch out more… BUT… I am using less brakes and less fuel – which more than makes up for any additional clutch wear. Also. the clutch is gently slipping within a small speed & rev range, so the wear is much less than you would get when changing gear. So clutch wear is a mute point here.

King of Shaves going strong

Still baldly going where no razor has gone before….

Looking and feeling good is important. I wouldn’t have said this a year ago – but I hadn’t met Will King back then. After meeting him I started to get into male grooming products. I can safely say that I feel better in myself now for the extra care I take shaving.

Some people just think shaving is something that gets in the way and is just done as quick as possible in whatever way is cheapest or available…. well I used to be that way too until I slowed down and now use my shower/shave time to slow down and clear my head (mentally and physically!!!!).

What has happened since I started using KoS and taking a bit more pride and time over myself? Well…. I got myself a new job… executive level and £7,000 more a year…. Will King’s positivity and drive may have rubbed off on me a bit, but feeling better in myself made me feel a lot more confident. I know it sounds crazy, but the proof is there.

Want to feel better? Just take time out to enjoy your shave rather than just enduring it. Make it a bit of “you time“.

King of Shaves (KMI) is still going strong in our house – infact it is going stronger now than before. KMI have baby products now, and alongside the Azor (the superb Gillette and Wilkinson Sword beating razor) there is now the Azure for ladies.

There is no way I’ll go back to the more expensive brands when the KoS Azor is more cost effective, lasts over 4 times longer and gives a far better shave!

After about 8 months using Azors I can safely say that my initial findings were not fluke. I can shave my face and head more times with the Azor than I could just shave my face with a Gillette! That shows not only does the Azor cost less up front, but once you factor in how long the blades last the Azor is cheaper than a dodgy chemist chuck-away razor! This is what you need in this credit crunch era.

The gels and creams are also amazing quality and cost. The smallest pea size portion of gel does my entire head! Sure, the initial cost may be close to the competition products, but once more it lasts far longer – more savings!

What is the downside though? Well… before the Azure came out the downside was that Chris nicked my Azor – but that’s all fixed now!

It gets better though… I have always had sensitive skin and had to be very careful how I shave. A year ago I would never have shaved my head for fear it would rash up – but the Azor is so darned good I can shave my scalp daily (ooooh and it feels good!). Even better still I have a technique that should really be frowned upon… a technique that would cause me great trouble with anything other than an Azor….

I place the Azor on my scalp and do not lift it up for the whole shave… I just glide it back and forth all over… with the hair growth, against the haor growth… no problem whatsoever! Heck, I can do my entire head in less than two minutes!

Using the Azor after anything else is like using a Mac after using a PC…. a real eye opener of how it should be done.

So… What are you waiting for? Grab an Azor for a shave that is better for you and your pocket.

King of Shaves is the Brawn F1 team of the shave world… McLaren and Ferrari are the Wilkinson Sword and Gillette. WS & G have tried to stay ahead with flashy things but with a poorly judged complacency, whilst all the time KoS gets stronger and bigger with the simple ideals of a good product, good infrastructure and an item that works without the whistles and bells.

Congratulations to Jenson Button and all at Brawn and Virgin for another wonderful race victory.

If you want you can follow Will King and KMI on Twitter at: KingOfShaves

Note: Although I admin on the ShaveForum I am independent to KMI and KoS. If Gillette or Wilkinson Sword made a product that bettered the Azor, then I would use it. So far though they don’t. Not even close.

I am going to snap.. I swear…

So… the boiler problem was a simple fix to get it going, but the previous owner of the house had screwed a few things up with the ventilation, and as such I need a big hole drilled in the side of my house and a vent fitted. I also need to put a vent into the bottom of the boiler cupboard. On top of that, the boiler needs a clean out due to the lack of ventilation causing it to coke up…. a potential cause for carbon monoxide poisoning….

…..sooooo… the boiler guy wasn’t allowed to re-commission my boiler until these ventilation issues are fixed… so that means the cost of today’s visit, plus tomorrows brick work and service/clean…. which looks to be around £500 odd quid.

I give up. You win….. Let’s start a new game now please.

Bernie gets a clean bill of health

Woo!

Small victories need recognition in these rather miserable and worrying times. Bernie the Berlingo (Chris named it…) needed an MoT…more cash out, but we need the car. Luckily Bernie flew through with only a dodgy tail light, which was changed straight away. Chris had checked it over before the test, but hey, bulbs go.

Happy days then, as a clean pass meant no expensive work needed doing! Thank Goodness for small mercies!

Woo indeed!

Survival in todays climate

Well, times are pretty tough at the moment. Okay – very tough. Very, very tough – but what can you do?

Me – it is all a course of bad luck and judgement. Things I can learn from – if I get the chance!

It started in 2005/6 when our house move turned to muck due to very poorly managed solicitors and estate agents. We lost deposits and houses left right and centre. Pure idiocy on behalf of the parties dealing with us. In the end I had to stand over the managers to get anything done, but by then we had lost a lot of money, and house prices had shot up. The trouble is, our sale had been agreed, so the sale price was frozen.

That ate all the savings – but taught me some major lessons.

After that I had to leave my career working on aircraft because of a circulation issue in my hands. That meant a career change that really needed to start on the salary I had built up to already… A tough one, but doable, as I had always tried to learn new things alongside, or outside of work. My management and quality skills got me into an office job, and a year later my circulation problem was getting much better, so I moved on to a managerial role that had some hands on engineering as well – all gradually building my new career base up and hopefully salary scale.

Things started to pick up, and other tasks I took on helped out. You have to keep fighting and building up your protection, skills etc.

Now it got to a point where it looked like I could start building up savings again. Due to the house move and career change I had been reduced to almost living payday to payday. It was just a stage. Head down, keep going, fight the good fight.

Then the latest bombshells hit (see previous two blog posts  Here and Here). This has really screwed things up in a very major way. From finally getting to a point where we were rebuilding our finances and even looking to the future and sending Alex to private school, to the darkest place I have yet been.

It reminds me of the saying: “A domestic dog is one missed meal away from being a wild dog” (or something like that). Either way, it’s just a matter of days that can turn a life around.

A small chain of events that hit all at the same time.

Still, it is all part of this thing called life. If you can keep your head in circumstances like this, then you can learn from them and be stronger next time.

If you don’t learn from these circumstances, then why not? If the poop hits the fan and you get covered in muck, are you really going to let it happen again? I really hope next time you at least learn to take an umbrella with you!

As for now, I’m just trying to keep a clear head and carry out damage limitation…and learn how to either avoid or deal with it if it happens again.