Mincey

For those of an Android persuasion: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/aawireless#/ Only £70 shipped too.

Curses! I've just checked the dashcam's SD card and the clips with the white LC have been overwritten. Yours Truly forgot that as it's recording front and back, there's only half the space now and even though it's a 32GB card, this is about an hour and a half's worth of footage. Time for a larger SD card methinks. Anyway, it was a 17 plate LC and I'm sure it was a hybrid.

Today, I had to take the current Mrs Mincey to the hospital at Stanmore for a checkup. I will freely admit that I was looking forward to it, because it would give the ideal opportunity to compare the trip in Betsy against the same trip in my IS300h. The trip to Stanmore was, incidentally, the furthest I'd driven in the IS300h during our short acquaintance. Anyway, I digress, which I'm sure you will all agree, is not unusual. It was an early start - the appointment was at 9am. This meant an alarm for 5.30, then departure at 7am sharp. I had primed Waze with the route, as I wanted to see how it worked with guidance via Android Auto. All was good. All suddenly stopped being good at around 6.32. Mrs Mincey was watching BBC Breakfast when the local travel reporter announced that the A1 was shut southbound. I checked Waze. Waze now told me that the trip would be 92 miles, not 65, and that it would take two and a half hours. This was not good news. Not at all, in any way, shape or form. We had to leave immediately. Shoes were hastily put on and and coats grabbed. Betsy was roused and we set off in a Northampton-ish direction to pick up the M1 as suggested by Waze. When we reached the junction of the Peterborough Parkway system with the A1, it was congested to say the least. Luckily we were going towards Oundle, so we could dodge the queue. This is where it started to go a bit wrong. I used to use this route to get to Redditch and Coventry in a previous life as it was the quickest way to get to the westbound A14. I recall it being a pain in the derriere on occasions, and boy, it was hard work today. Queues at the Oundle roundabout, queues all the way from the edge of Thrapston to the A14 junction. I was not a happy bunny at all. Mind you, Betsy was being very kind on the mpg front as most of the movement was being done electrically. Nice one my lovely. As we approached the A14 roundabout, I put a question to the current Mrs Mincey. I wanted her to confirm my suspicion that if we headed down the A14 towards the A1, we would miss the part which was closed and be able to continue on our merry way southbound. She concurred. After waiting for what seemed like months in the queue to reach the roundabout, I sped off on the first left into the bright sunsheeeeine (as Liam Gallagher would say) towards Huntingdon. At this point, Waze got the hump badly. It kept trying to route us back home. I was not impressed at all. In fact, it was only when were were 5 minutes away from Stanmore that it finally understood what we were doing and routed us in a sensible direction for the remainder of the journey. Once on the A1, we hit the usual holdups at the Black Cat Roundabout (although the Black Cat was sporting a poppy, which was a nice touch) then Sandy, Biggleswade and Stevenage. To be honest, Stevenage wasn't too bad, unlike the run up to the roundabout near Elstree. This part was made worse by having to endure the awful Zoe Ball talking pretty much non-stop to Sophie Ellis-Bextor about her 24 hour dance marathon thing for Children in Need. At this point, I should point out that I would normally be listening to Planet Rock, but the current Mrs Mincey has gone on record to say that only people who haven't grown up listen to that, hence having to suffer Radio 2. We arrived at 9.30 which given the circumstances wasn't too bad. Just about everyone else who was there was complaining about the traffic, so I didn't feel too bad. They always run late there anyway. The return journey went without any dramas. I followed a white LC500 for a bit around Welwyn - I shall grab some stills off the dashcam at some point and post them here in case it's anyone we know. Now the bit you've all been waiting for. How did the trip in Betsy compare to the trip in the IS300h? I cannot compare how tired I felt after each trip because after an early start preceded by a restless night, I'm knackered anyway. However, I have to say that Betsy is much more comfortable than the IS. Mrs Mincey said she found Betsy's seats didn't squeeze her ample bottom at all, unlike the seats in the IS. Betsy is so smooth and feels so planted on the road - no skittish behaviour or bouncing over bumps. She does have a slightly annoying reflection of the instrument binnacle on the windscreen in direct sun however. Other than that, tick VG all round. Crawling in traffic is much smoother than in the IS as there is no jerk when taking off, and she is very, very quiet at motorway speeds. MPG? This wasn't a true test because I'd done a couple of short trips after filling up, but I did get an indicated 47.4mpg and an Excel-derived 46.4 which isn't bad. I did get 51ish from the IS on the same trip, but I did drive like a girl on the way back. All in all, I'm very happy. I'm happy too because Mrs Mincey has been signed off and I won't have to make that journey anymore. Yay!

"My Lexus" tracks Betsy's travels under "My Journeys". I'm not going to let my wife know about this, but I haven't turned it off just in case anything untoward happens to her (Betsy, not the current Mrs Mincey). I don't know how many journeys Lexus record, but I'm on seven pages so far.

Because you are a man of great taste and good sense 🙂

Phew - I have found something to moan about. Parcel deliveries. I'm expecting a package this morning via UPS. It was due before 10.30. It is now 11.10. Why can't all couriers etc adopt the DPD app which tells you which drop number you are and shows the position of the driver on the map. It's not exactly difficult is it? Much better to do this than just say "it'll be with you before [insert made up idea of time]". They could also call or SMS to warn customers of their tardiness too. This is just not good enough.

By jove, I think it does!

I'm struggling to think of something to moan about this morning. This is unprecedented.

It looks gorgeous in white - congratulations!

Stone me!

It is indeed!

What about the serial new and used Lexus owners out there? Surely we have something to offer? 😉

Absolutely - I've learned that the hard way!

Birds. Just don't, ok?

I had forgotten about them. They can definitely go on the list.

(I was only shopping as I had run out of cider!) We've tried most, if not all of the online delivery services - Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsburys, Asda, Waitrose and Ocado. Ocado are simply the best - substitutions are rare, deliveries are always within the slot, and plenty of advanced warning of any change is given. The drivers are without exception extremely polite and helpful. We went to them after using Tesco for many years. They screwed up by employing a delivery driver who insulted my current wife on two occasions. Now, as you've seen already on this thread, it takes a lot to make me cross, but after the first incident I felt it necessary to ring Tesco Customer Services and go ballistic. I was told that the driver would be interviewed and retrained. A few weeks later we discovered that the Tesco Retraining Process was clearly lacking.

Goodness me no. I was just borrowing from Jeremy Clarkson. Or I think I was. I'm a little concerned now...

People in a supermarket who lean on their trolleys to push them. Trolleys have a handle. Put both hands on it and use them to propel and steer the trolley. This will ensure that you do not incur the wrath of fellow shoppers. I could start on people who get a bunch of vouchers (both in and out of date) from their purse, handbag or wallet at the checkout, but I think I've vented enough. No, no, no, I cannot let them slip through. They should be taken out and shot in front of their families, like those who let all the shopping go through the till, THEN they pack it instead of packing as it comes down the conveyor. Shooting is too good for that lot. Bonus points for anyone who can tell I've just returned from Sainsbury's.

You could, but people would point and stare at you.

I was clearly under the same misconception as you.

Talking of TV adverts, one of my greatest achievements was getting Virgin to change the spelling of "moblie" to "mobile" on one of their adverts last Christmas. You'd think someone at Virgin would have noticed, wouldn't you?

Aaaaargh yes - iPhone users, or Apple fanbois in general. There's nothing which your overpriced piece of tat can do which an Android device or Windows PC cannot do. For much less money. So shut it. Ok? I'm going to step away from the keyboard now, lest I monopolise this thread....

Boy Racers. I am going to start an e-petition to extend the powers of the Citizens Arrest to include setting fire to any Golf/Saxo/Leon/etc which either pops and bangs on the overrun or has an excessively loud exhaust. Preferably with the owner still inside it. I think I need a nice cup of tea and a sit down after all this spleen venting....

Children! We live near a secondary school and it's impossible to get in or out of the area when they're coming in and out. If it isn't because of the traffic chaos caused by their doting mummies and daddies having to drive them the 500m to school, it's because they are all walking down the middle of the road, totally oblivious to anyone or anything around them. In my day, anyone not obeying the Green Cross Code would have been hauled up before the whole school in Assembly and ridiculed.

People who speed in 30mph limits. Round here, I'm regularly having to dive out of the way as someone hurtles towards me at more than 40. This is on a road which has cars parked on both sides of the road making it a very long chicane (the parked cars are mostly hospital employees. There has been a long standing fight with the local council to get Residents Parking implemented. A lot has been done, but there are still some areas where the residents don't give a toss, therefore allowing the NHS workers to park there. I'm all for the NHS, but let your workers park for free, for heaven's sake). Speeding is a problem in the area. There have been two separate accidents where cars have overturned, another where a car parked on a driveway was hit, another where a car drove off the road into a retaining wall (the driver was a friend of my father's, and he may have been a smidge or five over the drink drive limit when he did this - the friend, not my father) and then there was this: https://www.peterboroughmatters.co.uk/crime-news/after-two-near-misses-family-takes-fight-against-speeding-to-full-council-1450398 I don't want speed bumps - that penalises everyone who drives at or below the limit. I don't want those ridiculous calming measures - we have those already courtesy of the NHS workers. Put some bloody cameras in - preferably average speed cameras - and this will solve the problem. At the very least do what the residents have been screaming out for - get a mobile camera van in for a while. They even put one of those signs in which show how fast you're going. This just seems to goad people into seeing what reading they can get. In my youth, I would always drive at 40 through here. That was when there were fewer parked cars around and i knew no better. There was also little chance of getting caught. Now that I'm almost a year away from having my slate wiped clean after a minor indiscretion back in 2019, I'm very much more aware of speed limits. My current wife often complains. Sorry, I should have continued that sentence. My current wife often complains about the beeps in my car from the speed warning. I have it set to go off at 1mph over the limit as I don't want to get caught again. It's not worth the hassle and I'd rather be able to stop more quickly when one of those idiots on an illegal e-scooter, clad in black, appears from nowhere.