The General Chat Thread (2016-2022)

Status
Not open for further replies.
rascal said:
car is 8 years old, prolly should replace?
Click to expand...
Youngest car I ever owned was 7 years old when I purchased it. An Audi A4 Quattro, 2.8L V6, 5 valve. (1998 model) Fantastic car. Totally reliable, dangerously fast, fun to drive. She was 14 or 15 y rs old when we sold her to cycle around the world...

Oldest is my current vehicle, bought 2 years ago. She's also a 1998 model. Toyota Landcruiser 4.5L V8.

It's often cheaper to repair a vehicle you know than buy another 2nd hand vehicle and find things out later on...
 
Our cars are 2006 Honda with just over 200K miles and a 2012 FIAT (bought in early 2011) with just over 160K miles.

Unlike a lot of people, I hate buying a new car. I hate shopping for one, I hate arguing with the dealer, I hate comparison shopping, I hate getting it home and taking a year to figure out all the crap on it that's different from the old car, so I usually drive them until they won't go any more.
 
rascal said:
I've been to Stonehenge, eerily spooky. I've got pics somewhere.

Russ
Click to expand...
There's a much better and nicer henge in the far north of Scotland. Because of its remote location, it is little known but much better preserved and unlike Stonehenge is (was?) free and you could still walk around it unfenced and with no other visitors the last time we were there. It was magic. Somehow for me at least, it had always meant much much more.
When I first went as a teenager, they were literally just stones standing in a farmer's field, nothing more. They could have been a house or similar. You had to know about them to know to visit them and there was no literature regarding them there. Now there is a visitor's center with a cafe!

Callanish Standing Stones are believed to tie in with the moon rather than the sun.
Calanais Visitor Centre, Callanish, Isle of Lewis – Exhibitions
Calanais Standing Stones
The Calanais Standing Stones are an extraordinary cross-shaped setting of stones erected 5,000 years ago. They predate England’s famous Stonehenge monument, and were an important place for ritual activity for at least 2,000 years.
Click to expand...
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn - thanks for that, we've had that on our list for a little while now, 2020 (or 2021) may be the year we get there.

Both the wife and I really enjoy Neolithic/ancient monuments like that. Whenever we're in the UK or Ireland especially, we always find out what's in the area and make a point to seek them out.

Ireland is especially thick with them, they're scattered all over the countryside. The last time we were there, we were driving around, and we had this monument marked on the map, and we go from an A road to a B road, B road to single track road, single track road to little more than a tractor trail (it was lovely, BTW, because just as we were sure we'd screwed up and really shouldn't be driving across this field, the postman popped over the hill in the distance, so we knew we were ok), and finally, finally, we got to where the map said the monument was.

I had a photo of it from a website, but I didn't see anything, and we got out of the car and started tramping around up this path and down that path, and we finally went back to the car ready to give up, and I stopped to rest on a pile of rocks right next to the car...yep, that was the monument, right there the whole time, six feet from the car. :laugh:
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
There's a much better and nicer henge in the far north of Scotland. Because of its remote location, it is little known but much better preserved and unlike Stonehenge is (was?) free and you could still walk around it unfenced and with no other visitors the last time we were there. It was magic. Somehow for me at least, it had always meant much much more.
When I first went as a teenager, they were literally just stones standing in a farmer's field, nothing more. They could have been a house or similar. You had to know about them to know to visit them and there was no literature regarding them there. Now there is a visitor's center with a cafe!

Callanish Standing Stones are believed to tie in with the moon rather than the sun.
Calanais Visitor Centre, Callanish, Isle of Lewis – Exhibitions
Calanais Standing Stones
Click to expand...

Orkney has some impressive stone sites, too. The ring of Brodgar is probably the most famous.

Orkneyjar - The Standing Stones of Stenness
The Ring of Brodgar, Stenness, Orkney
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
Youngest car I ever owned was 7 years old when I purchased it. An Audi A4 Quattro, 2.8L V6, 5 valve. (1998 model) Fantastic car. Totally reliable, dangerously fast, fun to drive. She was 14 or 15 y rs old when we sold her to cycle around the world...

Oldest is my current vehicle, bought 2 years ago. She's also a 1998 model. Toyota Landcruiser 4.5L V8.

It's often cheaper to repair a vehicle you know than buy another 2nd hand vehicle and find things out later on...
Click to expand...

When I was young and making lots of money, I traded in for a new car every year. Cash.

My first Audi was a 2001 A4 quattro with the 1.8L turbo (with modifications). Loved that car. I went to the Dallas Auto Show, saw this beautiful red A4, and told one of the Audi reps that I wanted one just like it. Most Audis here are black or silver, this one was Laser Red. He told me the car came from a Dallas dealership, and would go back after the show. I bought that car.

My current ride is 12 years old. I MINI CooperS. I'm not being frugal, I just like the car that much. It looks like new, and it is a blast to drive. 30 MPG around Dallas is nice, too, although it only drinks premium gas.

CD
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
There's a much better and nicer henge in the far north of Scotland. Because of its remote location, it is little known but much better preserved and unlike Stonehenge is (was?) free and you could still walk around it unfenced and with no other visitors the last time we were there. It was magic. Somehow for me at least, it had always meant much much more.
When I first went as a teenager, they were literally just stones standing in a farmer's field, nothing more. They could have been a house or similar. You had to know about them to know to visit them and there was no literature regarding them there. Now there is a visitor's center with a cafe!

Callanish Standing Stones are believed to tie in with the moon rather than the sun.
Calanais Visitor Centre, Callanish, Isle of Lewis – Exhibitions
Calanais Standing Stones
Click to expand...

Never saw that in Scotland, maybe next time,lol.

Russ
 
View: https://youtu.be/bljEbkcA7kY

We stopped off at a cool little bar in Las Vegas - the Oak and Ivy built inside a shipping container. I've mentioned it here before.
A couple came in visiting from Scotland. He a rep for Johnny Walker she a teacher.
Looked like they just stepped off a wedding cake.

I asked all about the “labels” Johnny Walker produces and he had some interesting info.

In the US one just orders “Green label” or “Black label” or "Blue Label" or the label of choice.
JW also has labels we all never heard of he told us. “Platinum Label” for instance.

So we got to talking about Scotland and how the Scottish are depicted by Hollywood.

I have lots of family and friends there as do they of course.
We got a good laugh and all agreed none are the puddin’ face, one tooth, wearing gloves with fingertips worn out, warming themselves over a stolen lump of coal singing songs with a shop-worn beret wearing tabby cat name McTavish.

I bought a few rounds for the house as did others but the Scottish couple preferred to pay for their own.
Kinda funny, taken back by some, but we were all cool with it in the end.
 
Last edited:
It is going to be quiet at work tomorrow, there are normally 13 of us in the office-tomorrow there will be 4-2 of those will spend time on the shopfloor. A lot of the shopfloor bods have booked tomorrow off. Most will be back on Tuesday, last day we usually finish around 10.30-11.00.
 
I'm at DFW airport as my flight gets one delay after another. My gate got changed about five times, and this is a really big airport. The airport is actually a city. It has its own zip code, police department, jail. Now we have the gate settled, but the plane is broken. But, there are bars and free wifi. Of course, airport drinks cost 15-bucks.

I fly about 100 times a year, so I'm used to this stuff. It's interesting to watch people who rarely fly try to cope with delays and gate changes.


CD
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom