Here we can all be heard for a little while. Part 2

Georgiegirl256

Hugs HBS x x Re the staticy trousers, do you have any hair spray on you? If so, spray abit of that into each trouser leg, it should stop it from clinging to your legs.

Georgiegirl256

Presents for Dad's, might there be anything in here that would take their fancy? https://www.sciencemuseumshop.co.uk/christmas

tea_lover

Did someone mention Christmas biscuits..... just shout if you need a tester

Well, made it here (just about) Am still stressing about the fuel issue as I too have driven away from a garage after being confused by a hire car before ono! Also, when I first got my current car a nice man took pity on me and had to show me how to open the damn thing. I seriously do not get why they are so complicated! First meeting of the day went ok, am hoping the second one is nice and short so I can hit the motorway before it gets too busy.

Duvet hugs to all xx

Pyxis

Ono, did you try ringing the hire company to ask them?

Was there a manual with the car?

Was the cap screwed on too tightly? Or was it key-operated?

I am confused!



I had a shock yesterday when my car wouldn't start. I thought the battery was dead. Luckily, I've been in the AA for nearly 25 years, and it's worth every penny. It's got me out of horrendous scrapes in the past, especially when I did loads of motorway- and middle-of-nowhere driving!
Anyway, I called them, (I have Homestart), and they were here in about 45 minutes. Lovely man! My heros!
Anyway, apparently it wasn't the battery, the engine was flooded! Now I hadn't gone anywhere in it for a week, but then he asked me if I'd just moved it a few feet. Well! 4 days ago, I'd swept my front garden, and there were a pile of leaves behind the car, so I moved it about 3 ft, swept, and moved it back. That's what did it!

In the old days, you had to start a car with the choke pulled out. Now that cars have an automatic choke, fuel floods in automatically when you start the ignition, but if you don't actually drive anywhere, or only a couple of feet, and don't let the engine run, it floods the engine!

I never knew that! Although I have moved the car short distances like that before, I must have let the engine idle for longer than I did this time!

Anyway, he showed me how to remedy it if it ever happens again!

(In neutral, you floor the accelerator, while keeping the ignition key turned, until the engine starts.)
The difference in noise between a flat battery and a flooded engine, I now know too! The flooded engine makes a sort of whooshy sound, whereas the flat battery is more of a laboured grinding.

Anyway, the peace of mind the AA brings is worth it to me. Dunno what I would have done, or what it would have cost otherwise! Only a few months ago I had a flat tyre.....they came and changed it for the mini spare, then drove with me to the tyre place to make sure they could fit the replacement straight away. Phew!

It's bad enough when I'm at home.....imagine how awful it was on the occasions I was on a motorway, miles from home, (3or 4 times), down country lanes, or the worst one of all, the middle of the night in the middle of absolutely nowhere, in a layby with some strange characters up the other end of it! When the AA man arrived, he asked if I was cold, as I was shivering, but I said no, not cold, I'd been dead frightened! What would I have done, if I hadn't been in the AA or similar?

As well as being in the AA, I also keep in the boot some jump leads, a towrope, and very old but warm and waterproof clothing, a rug and a foil emergency blanket.

tea_lover

I did that with my old micra Pxis - moved it two feet forward to wash it and then couldn't start it. Which is why I don't bother washing cars anymore

Waves_and_Smiles

Well done, tea! I remember WaSp had a hire car once, a Lexus. We had an embarrassing 5 minutes whilst WaSp pretended to be checking mirrors at the car hire place when in fact he couldn't start the engine. It didn't have a key, he had to press the button on the little remote thingy to start it up.

The AA are wonderful and we always keep membership up. They saved us once on the motorway to my teacher friend's when a tire blew. WaSp thought he could change it easily but because the car is a Saab it has special bolts that need a certain key to undo them, normal methods don't work. Luckily the AA man had something that did work but WaSp is still vaguely embarrassed about having to call for help to change a tire.

Sofa avalanche is dealt with and oven is soaking in Cillit Bang. WaSp and I had a half joking conversation about how no one really needs an oven and that it might be easier to take a flame thrower to it and pretend this never happened.

Pyxis

tea_lover wrote: »

I did that with my old micra Pxis - moved it two feet forward to wash it and then couldn't start it. Which is why I don't bother washing cars anymore

I love you, Tea! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Pyxis

WaS, one time years ago when a tyre blew when I was away from home, I said to the Aa man that I was embarrassed I couldn't change a tyre. He said that tyres were now bolted on with those pneumatic things, and that it would be extremely difficult even for him, a strong man,to undo them manually.
And yes, cars have their own locking wheel nuts now, to prevent wheel theft. Each car has its own.
I don't feel guilty about anything mechanical to do with cars now! After all, if my washing-machine goes wrong, I don't feel guilty about not knowing how to mend it!

tea_lover

My parents fitted a new kitchen last year and I couldn't even work out how to open the fridge without being shown :rotfl:it's in a weird cupboard thing and the handle isn't anywhere near where you expect it to be.

I am not mechanically minded

codemonkey

Gingerbread men and sugar cookies are both quite easy to do I think WaS. You should maybe use American recipes if grams/oz confuse you. American recipes tend to use cups so you can just get WaSp to buy you measuring cups and no more weighing.

I don't know why we don't just ask about cars but it's like a pride thing! :rotfl: I think cars need to be more like phones. You can have 3 kinds - iphone type cars which are stylish and easy to use for everyone, but pricier and locked down, Android which run the range of stylish to ugly, cheaper and able to be serviced by the owner, and windows, which everyone knows how to drive, but occasionally they release a windows 8 type car which everyone hates and sometimes they just stop working unexpectedly. That way everything would be more or less in the same place in each type so you always know how to drive it, you'd just need to ring the hire company and say "Hi, I'd like an android/windows/i car please."

When I say the 14 jeans fit, what I mean is, they button up without hassle but I am using the hairband trick so they don't dig in when I sit down :rotfl: