WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Tizer]

`Classic Vauxhall models go on display in Luton exhibition' LINK
Some pics of Vauxhall cars but I'd prefer to have seen more older ones; the Velox is my favourite of those shown but the Cresta would be my choice otherwise. I was given a lift to Southport in a two-tone Cresta with some friends in the late 1960s and it made a lasting impression - like being in an American film. Here's an example from the Wikipdia page...

[Wendyf]

We had two Crestas in the 60's, the first one was two tone green and the next one was two tone blue, so much chrome! They didn't last long. I do remember that they had cigarette lighters in, and one summer holiday my brother took to killing flies with the lighter just to upset me.

This was the green one, shame it's b&w because the caravan had a matching colour scheme. We were leaving a Caravan Club road rally at Mallory Park in 1964.

48360739_1493218704047922_4668254929603788800_o-1.jpg

[Tizer]

On the other hand, it's cousin the Vauxhall Victor got a reputation as a rust bucket - any good specimen now must be worth a fortune!

[Wendyf]

I've probably posted this before but never mind, this is the invoice for the Cresta. I resented it because I loved the soft top Landrover it replaced in our lives.

Central Garage.jpg

[Wendyf]

My dishwasher failed this morning, full of water. Today has been total chaos with kitchen units dismantled to get at the drain pipe in case it was blocked but it looks like the pump is the culprit. Water everywhere and very irritable husband. Why do white goods fail at the same time??

[Big Kev]

My dishwasher failed this morning, full of water. Today has been total chaos with kitchen units dismantled to get at the drain pipe in case it was blocked but it looks like the pump is the culprit. Water everywhere and very irritable husband. Why do white goods fail at the same time??

It's a conspiracy, definitely. I replaced a faulty pump in a dishwasher about 12 years ago, my son was still using it up until about 4 years ago.

[Stanley]

Billy Harrison had a Cresta and when he couldn't drive after his brain operation I used to drive him to Morecambe every Saturday to see his son John who was living there with his mother Fran, they were divorced. Billy used to complain if I was doing less than 85mph up Thornton Drag. That was two tone green as well Wendy.
I had a Victor which I bought for scrap price because it had a bum engine. I put a short engine in it and it was a flyer, I ran it for three years, gave it to Margaret when she lived in Clitheroe. She ran it for four years, loved it, sold it for more than I had spent on it and gave me the money.
Susan did my feet. They are singing this morning! I can do them myself, just, but having that personal attention is real luxury! Too much information I know but a hilarious interlude when a flying big toe nail clipping landed in her cleavage. I had to avert my eyes. Daughters are worth a fortune.
As for the dishwasher, Ethel and I stayed with a friend of hers on Long Island, a very wealthy widow. While we were there there was panic when the dishwasher flooded. The repair bloke wouldn't come out as it was a holiday so Ethel persuaded me to have a look at tit. Dead easy, once I got it drained I found a chicken bone in the pump. The widow offered me a live in job as handyman with perks. I very nearly took it, she was a well preserved 60 year old.....
[As someone once remarked, I have had a full and interesting life.]

[Stanley]

Have a look at THIS NY Times article sent to me by Martha. Route 66, old cars and rust.

[Stanley]

The warm weather. I have had to put a thin shirt on!

[Stanley]

Rote 66 was on my mind yesterday after looking at the link Martha sent me. It was one of the best trips I ever did in the States and if you have the chance, go for it.
This pic is of the last Rainbow Bridge left on the road, it's in Kansas and is now redundant but has been preserved. This was the standard design for all the bridges on the original road. The car was one that Budget Rent a Car asked me to take to St Louis so it was nearer to it's home base in Boston. When the manager in LA asked me if I'd take it for them I asked to see it and when I was about 300 yds from it said it would be OK. He asked me how I could tell from that distance and I told him that anything with tyres as wide as that and two exhaust pipes would do me!
It was a good choice and I really enjoyed the drive.
One of the things that struck me then was the desert in California, I remember being in a town called Needles and at that time it held the record for the highest day time temperature in any town in the US. I can believe it and that thought has been on my mind when looking at the films of the fires on the West Coast.
If you ever get the chance to drive Route 66, grab it, lots of it is still there and it's fascinating.

[chinatyke]

It was still there in 2015, a little spur off the main road. Brush Creek Rainbow Arch bridge. Route 66, Kansas.
A Norwegian friend was riding Route 66 on a Harley and I mentioned it to him because you had put your picture up at the time.

[Stanley]

Nice one China. Yes, that's it, Brush Creek. R 66 just cuts through the corner of Kansas. I'd read Manchester's biography of Winston Churchill and when he was in LA Bernard Baruch sent his chauffeur and limo to drive him back to NY using R 66 and I thought of him being driven over there thinking about all the money he had lost in the Wall Street crash. (Baruch was his investment guru and he wanted him in NY to sort out the mess.)

[chinatyke]

A call from the estate management office in Nanning to say they had a car parking space available if we wanted to buy it. Only 200,000 rmb! Yikes, that's only £23,000 at today's exchange rate! Luckily I'm not allowed to drive here so I'm spared these expenses. Interestingly, that's a higher Sterling price than we paid for our apartment on that estate.
On refusing their offer they immediately asked if we would like to buy another apartment at 9,000 rmb per square metre! No thank you!

[Stanley]

Being car-less is a big economic advantage these days China.
I was listening to a very interesting programme on World Service this morning. An architectural historian was arging that the new 'garden cities' being planned here should make no provision for cars as very shortly they will have been superseded by different forms of managing transport other than car ownership. His point is that the houses will have a far longer life than car ownership. I think he has a point.

[Tizer]

Was it the same as this Costing the Earth episode on Radio 4? It's a similar topic...

Autopia to Utopia? Car-Free Cities LINK
`Lockdown saw many more people jumping on bikes and walking - as much as a way to get out of the house as get around - but pollution levels dropped and nature could be heard without the background roar of traffic. Jheni Osman asks if this the way it could or should be? Has this given us a new way of thinking about how we get around and can city leaders bank on this to change the infrastructure to be 'car free'?

`After 100 years of city design being built around the private car, this is a rare opportunity to bank on the behaviour change to reduce pollution, improve air quality and get more of us active. Temporary moves to give over more road space to public transport, bikes and pedestrians may give way to more permanent measures and has accelerated plans for 'Car Free Cities'. Jheni explores models that have been applied elsewhere, looks at changes coming in across Milan, Bristol and Birmingham and asks what's needed to make them work? Will we be zooming about on e-scooters and goods transported underground instead? Plans aren't without cost or controversy but is this a rare moment to make a radical change the new normal?'

[Stanley]

Almost certainly the same programme Peter. certainly the same topics. I think they might have a point.
The programme made me think of the problems in a pre-car era town like Barlick where street parking is the norm with consequent restriction of available road access. The Vogue for semi-detached houses that started in the late 1920s gave access down the side of the house to a garage or parking space enabling off-road parking.
Will we see a reversion to a modern style of terraced housing in new developments? Lots to be said for them in terms of lower cost of build, better insulation and maintenance costs.

[Stanley]

The fact that the tickets for Margaret's next flight to UK from Oz are paid for. She tells me that Emirates have promised to honour their failed booking whenever flights resume.....

[Tizer]

Mrs Tiz's sister and her husband have booked themselves a month long holiday in Turkey. They want to get away from everything here!

[PanBiker]

But they will still have to come back and the situation will probably be considerably worse in another month!

[Tizer]

They're not like us, they `live for the moment' and they're going to enjoy themselves and forget about it all for a month. It's also because when they're at home they have lots of family `get togethers' but can't do it now, it's too many people at once. Going away leaves the younger ones to be together. Even in normal times they have lots of holidays - it's a live now pay later approach. Not the way we live but they seem to believe they won't line long and must do as much as possible now.

[Tizer]

This is what grabbed my attention today! OGFB is up and running again! Many thanks Ian. Now we just need to pay our repair bills.

[chinatyke]

This is what grabbed my attention today! OGFB is up and running again! Many thanks Ian. Now we just need to pay our repair bills.

I go away for 2 days and come back to chaos! I thought you'd banned me and locked me out!

[Wendyf]

Well done Ian (and Mark).

[Tripps]

Wow - good to be back, and thanks to Ian for the fix. His usual detail of the repair is impressive. Certainly no game for cissies is it? If there is any extra cost involved - don't be shy to mention it.

[PanBiker]

Our hosting fees will go up a tad but there may be some savings to be made also but they may take a bit of time to organise. The hosting fee for the new virtual server is half price for the first six months then it will go up to the full rate. I may do a bit of an interim finance report so folk know where we stand. I mentioned in the other thread that the original database deal that came with the package landed us between a rock and a hard place as it could not be expanded. We have a scaleable solution available now.