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 :).

Our IS300H is coming up to 9 years old now. I've gone to doing an oil service every two years (still doesn't use a drop of oil), on original brake pads+discs, and I've never owned any car thats needed differential or gear box oil changes and that includes cars with nearly three times BHP of the Is, so I'm not going to start doing that. For this year I might even move to 3 yearly engine oil/filter changes!!

Aside from the F40, that's the only Ferrari I would want to own. Shame you sold it! I gate crashed a work colleagues leaving do(head hunted to go and work abroad) recently, got chatting to his two neighbours, one was a yacht dealer and other the manager of a Ferrari dealer, who's driven more Ferraris than I've had hot dinners. Some reality interesting stories, including been invited to Michael Suchmacers official retirement party as Monza where Michael ragged an Enzo around Monza. That really is priceless!!! What really amazed me though was which car brand the manager really admired the most..... The Chinese manufacturers that's coming, BYD, MG etc. His own car that he spends his money on, was a MG!!!! Amazing how all of us normalise the prevailages we have every day and fantaisie about irrelevance of what others have. I also need go and have a word with our neighbours and understand why they aren't in line of selling yachts and Ferraris :).

When the only 'worry' that comes about a use car is the 12V battery it tells you everything you need to know about reliability:). For balance, our 2015 IS300H which we've owned from new is still on its original 12V battery, and has done less than 40k miles so spends lots of time sitting around, never trickle charged, and so far still no signs the 12V needs replacing!

Amazingly planning was fine, as we are literally just outside the boundary of a conservation area. The biggest 'risk' to the project by far was getting the steels installed, we needed 35 tons of worth split into about nearly 100 pieces. Both the builder and steels fabricators openly confessed half way through getting the structure up they hadn't realized how complicated the structure was and that it was the hardest domestic project they have done. I had serious worries one or both were just going drop the job due to the complexity, but we got there in the end, and the result is essentially the entire new section of the house doesn't require a single supporting wall, all the weight is carried on the steels, which opens up so many options for room placement etc. It's a shame most of the steels will be hidden by insulation/plaster boards, but we will leave at least one bit on show. The construction of the front gable really was something I couldn't picture until it was in!! Looking forwards to 2024 and seeing if we can move in before the summer :D.

Update before Xmas/end of 2023. We have some glazing, and pretty much water tight (still waiting for roof tiles though). The interior spaces are really taking shape, overall the house is now really taking shape. Hoping for a 2024 Easter moving in date :).

I use a tow bar mounted carrier on our SUV 2-3 times a week (I cycle to work by leaving the car at the school doing the school run). The bike also fits inside boot without having to drop the rear seats, but as you say I don’t want the inside of the car as dirty as the outside. Our IS300H sadly cannot compare to the SUV for practicality or the pedal bike for excitement. It is however more reliable than either, but where is the fun in life without some unexpected shenanigans 🙂

https://www.carscoops.com/2023/10/toyota-admits-mirai-has-not-been-successful-will-focus-on-hydrogen-commercial-vehicles/#Echobox=1698403435 This ‘news’ will make some people on this thread happy :).

I can only hope you are a nicer person in real life versus the internet persona :).

The difference is we are in 2023, Nissan made the Leaf in 2011. Anyone who thinks EV are still 'new' tech needs to get out more 🙂 Our current EV is our 3rd, and despite being 6 years old seems to have more range and better technology than a brand new RZ. The problem isn't EVs, it's the RZ. It's about 10 years behind in technology compared to what everyone else is selling right now. You have to be a die hard Lexus/Toyota fan to buy one.

Hope you don't need to go on any long trips when it's wet, cold, and windy!! With poor consumption like this the RZ is effective a very very expensive city only car. Sub 3 miles per kWh at 60mph in summer is unbelievable. How did Toyota/Lexus get it so wrong? For a company that started the whole thing with the Priuis they seem to have forgotten how to innovate 😞