WDB
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Post by WDB on Jun 14, 2021 8:55:43 GMT
I had a surprisingly good day out yesterday. Late on Saturday, I came home from playing to find there wouldn't be much cricket left to watch at Edgbaston on Sunday. But, after some hasty recalculation of our options, we went anyway.
You know the public bit: the match ended in about the shortest possible time, but there was some action and we got a surprisingly good look at the New Zealand team. (They really are very good and deserve to beat India in this weekend’s big final.) So we had some time to spare to poke about in the bowels of what remains my favourite big cricket ground. And a stroll in Cannon Hill Park. And lunch.
And the good bit is that the ECB’s refund policy entitles us to a full, automatic refund of our admission money. Which paid for a very nice lunch in a Peruvian-influenced restaurant, not far from my old student flat. Although (a) I couldn’t have afforded it then, and (b) back then, the restaurant was still a bank. (They’ve converted the vault into a private dining room. The big steel door is still there.)
Boy2 got a bit of a look at the city in which he too may yet be a student. And I got a nice reminder of why I still love the place. Hello, my old friend.
Oh, and the Covid side to all this? The Test match was a pilot event, testing the viability of large crowds without masks or distancing inside the ground. I had to submit a negative lateral flow result to get in, and I’ve done the first of two post-match PCR samples. Good work all round.
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WDB
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Posts: 7,425
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Post by WDB on Jun 14, 2021 9:22:20 GMT
Oh, and my CLS seems to have worn out another tyre. Front one this time. One more thing to attend to before holiday.
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Post by Humph on Jun 14, 2021 10:23:53 GMT
Are you sure that car hasn’t been repaired at the front?
My tyres last 50,000 + at the front.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 14, 2021 10:47:37 GMT
Nice one Dubya. I shall be at Wembley this coming Friday. Quick outdoor pint beforehand at obscure pub some distance from the stadium to avoid the crowd with one friend, and a circuitous train/tube/walk route to get to and fro. Will remain masked in stadium etc. First social outing since February 2020.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Jun 14, 2021 10:52:47 GMT
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Post by Humph on Jun 14, 2021 12:15:41 GMT
It'll be that engine.
Too heavy.
😉
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Post by EspadaIII on Jun 14, 2021 17:09:01 GMT
But smooth and fast - priceless. For everything else there's a lumpy 4-cyl...
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Post by EspadaIII on Jun 14, 2021 17:13:33 GMT
Saturday lunchtime. Outdoor reception for about 25 people in a friend's garden to celebrate their 25th anniversary. First such gathering of more than six people in over 16 months. Very pleasant; especially with nice sunshine.
Can't see the full opening up happening though unless it is in fits and starts over the next two months. Shame but I know a couple doubly jabbed months ago who got Covid three weeks ago. Aged 75-ish their doctor said they would be dead if it wasn't for the vaccine. It works, and it's keeping people out of hospital but ....
EDIT - Restrictions remain in force to July 19th but weddings and funerals can have more than 30 people outdoors if socially distanced. A fair compromise at the moment. Just hope that's it. Israel announced lifting restrictions on doubly jabbed tourists from 1 July but with a change of government who knows if this will be maintained. I have booked a flight for 11th July which will mean I get to be there for the first anniversary of Dad's death (Hebrew date) on 16th July. I really hope that I get there...
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bpg
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Post by bpg on Jun 14, 2021 21:22:31 GMT
Restrictions remain in force to July 19th but weddings and funerals can have more than 30 people outdoors if socially distanced. No indoor dancing though, 30 million blokes heave huge sigh of relief. |
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Post by EspadaIII on Jun 15, 2021 7:50:03 GMT
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 17, 2021 15:23:44 GMT
Had to do a little drive out today, and absolutely hated it. Which isn't like me at all. Had to get from home to Sutton and back, an awful journey involving awful roads and awful lots of other awful people driving like awful clowns through awful suburbs. An accident at the M3/M25 junction had my splat nav directing me round the back road through Chobham, and then up the A3 and into destination via Tolworth/East Ewell etc. Absolutley hateful route. And so busy at midday on a Thursday in a pandemic? WTF?
Coming back was straight down the Brighton Rd to the M25 and the the ordinary route via M3/Bracknell. I used to drive the Surrey section of the M25 every working day, and good Lord how did I not lose my sanity over the road noise alone? If ever I find the absolute bastard who signed off on the road surface material, I shall hang him from one of the lamp-posts on the section, as a warning to other civil engineers.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Jun 17, 2021 15:43:11 GMT
That surface is dreadful. The E220 used to ride it tolerably enough, but that was a very smooth-riding car on tall tyres. But the first time I took my 325 that way, I thought something must be wrong with the car; it literally howled.
Maybe it’s a 1980s specification from a time when a 60% tyre was ‘low profile’ and road noise was less of a concern. The A27 between Chichester and Emsworth got a similar surface in about 1991, and the noise prompted so many complaints (from residents, who could hear it with their windows closed) that it was quickly changed to something more conventional.
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Post by Humph on Jun 17, 2021 16:24:31 GMT
Long stretches of the A50 are like that ( East/West link from the M6 to the M1 in effect ) Used it twice this week. Very irritating.
But, the weather has been nice, had the sunroof open most of the time. 200 miles on Monday, 80 odd on Tuesday, 350 on Weds and 150 or so today. Big wafty car ideal for that malarkey. Lots of dead flies on it now though. 54.5 mpg averaged this week. Not three bad, given my lack of dawdling.
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WDB
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Posts: 7,425
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Post by WDB on Jun 17, 2021 16:50:42 GMT
At least one fuel stop in that itinerary. Only one of those days would have required a charging stop in an EV — and any EV is waftier than any four-cylinder diesel. 🤠
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Post by Humph on Jun 17, 2021 17:00:30 GMT
Bleh. Wotevs.
😉
Edit - I did think to myself on the "long day out" that I simply wouldn't have had the time to wait for a car to recharge, I was dashing between meetings with no time to spare and the places where I needed to park, that wouldn't have been an option anyway.
It'll not matter to me soon enough anyway.
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