ganzoom

Oh the rest of the house isn’t looking bad either, the builders still aren’t 100% done though 😃 ……….not sure why, but the ‘attic’ network hub is one of my favourite parts of the house 🙂

We’ve been back in for about a month now, managed to reuse pretty much the entire 5.1 setup from before. The MS speakers might be old (15 years??) but they still sound amazing, and the apart from not been able to do 4K pass through the Denon

Actually there are loads of roads in the UK cyclists can use but motorists cannot to dare not to :)

Glad you made it through. I haven't been on a plane since COVID and in no rush to get back on one. As I explain to my daughter, 'landing' a mordern jet is basically stopping it from crashing into the ground too quickly, all the while you are stuck in an aluminium can with hundreds of people and surrounded by one of the most combustible fuels around. If I never have to set foot in an aeroport again, I'll be a very happy man!! Cycling on the other hand is the almost ploar opposite. I find it amazing people are happy to accept the risks of flying but find it 'scary' to ride a pedal bike on the roads.

We are finally getting close to completing the interiors . Most of the rooms are nearly ready for carpeting, wooden flooring looks amazing in the mezzanine corridor with the wood tread on the stairs, both new bathrooms are plumbed and nearly finished. Literally last push now, electricians coming back new week, exterior wall rendering has started and cladding will be done too. Just been a long process but 12 months ago, all of this was still nothing but a pipe dream!!!

With the sun out, my 'nice' pedal bike is making its annual appearance. Have put some 40mm tires on it this summer as we are off to Snowdonia soon which should have some nice gravel rides. Have ordered some new wheels though for road use. Gone for some 40mm deep carbon ones similar to the Rovals (but cheaper), and may go wireless on the rear deraliure to remove one cable. I really like the look of the S-Works version but cannot afford ceramic pulley wheels, so going for the look on the cheap :). I've done 16k miles in the car the last 12 months and the nice bike only about 500 miles. But interms of which one I really 'enjoy' taking out on the roads, the pedal bike wins hands down. Mordern pedal bikes are things of engineering beauty in my mind, and far more engaging to use on the roads than any car.

Work on the house has progressed massively, stairs and kitchen is in. New master bed room suite looks amazing, and we might even have completion date soon :). We also ended up wasting some money on something totally unnecessary but so much fun for the garden :)

Flow, same excess/cover as Direct Line.

Renewal from DirectLine was nearly 40% more than last year!!! But 10 minutes online and we ended up with a quote CHEAPER than last year :)

Having owned a N54 powered BMW and tunned it to run at double the factory turbo boost pressure I fully appreciate the need for maintenance :). The IS300H is on a different level interms of both mechanical stress and maintenance, we have no plans to sell the IS till it falls apart which I suspect will be never!!

I suspect our IS300H is unstressed there is probably no need to do an oil change even every 5 years :). It hasn't had annual oil changes now for the last 5 years, so I'm quite comfortable with extending to 3 yearly oil changes.

Our IS300H has only covered 45k miles since taking delivery in March 2015, just passed another MOT with no issues. I only service it now every 2 years interms of oil change, the MOT station did pick up the 12V battery needs replacing soon - not bad given its lasted 9 years now. Still on original factory installed brake pads (40% worn at the front, 20% at the back). By far the most reliable car I have every owned, including a string of Honda/Nissans. I’m tempted to extended oil changes to every 3 years next time, as even a 2 year intervals the oil level never changes!

I didn't realise cycling was seasonal. Google tells me I spent more time on my pedal bike yesterday getting around than the car.

Through circumstance I'm in a similar situation, using a Fold 4 and Honor Magic Pro 5. Samsung blows Honor out of the water on the software and stability front, however the Honor has a genuine all-day battery life even when hot-spotting to the iPad and doing GPS tracking. The V2 is too expensive and doesn't move the game on from the Fold....... I left the Apple walled garden after moving away from the iPhone 5S to a Galaxy S7. However my iPad pro has been really impressive interms of functionality and am now saving up for V2.0 of this.......

Bad weather, holidays etc have delayed some of the works, so running about 1 month late from predicted stage, but things are going at pace now. All the glazing is in now (a certain shade of grey :)). First fix electric and gas is all nearly done, flooring is next before plastering. It’s taken longer than expected to get to this stage, and we are already over the original build quote from pre-covid, but for me the results are worth every single penny. I’m really missing the garden now. I wasn’t sure just how the front glazing was going to look, but quite surprised at how reflective the glass is from the outside and the clear view from the inside. The pace of work in the last few weeks have been amazing, hope it carries on at this rate, and who knows, maybe we’ll be in by Easter :).