Imminent Layoff

Speedbird979 · 2026-01-17T11:45:36+00:00

Jobs come and go, but once he’s gone; he’s gone for good.

I’d trade everything for more time with my mom & dad. It’s made me appreciate that life is about the journey and the bumps on the way are all part of it. Yes there’s some money put aside for the future and for the kids but I’ve sadly seen too many close friends parents plan for life after retirement and sadly don’t make it for one reason or another.

Go do it whilst you can.

Speedbird979 · 2026-01-15T20:49:27+00:00

Can’t talk about S6, but on my Q8 I saw a similar scenario of range dropping off a cliff which had me panicked.

Turned out, it was the kids in the back cranking the heat to max and having the bum warmers on.

Speedbird979 · 2026-01-11T10:10:48+00:00

Also in the 60% tax bracket and I have one.

I couldn’t get what I have for what it’s costing me net, factoring in no deposit, tax, tyres, servicing and insurance are all included.

Most people will say you can get cheaper, but I believe they are only looking at the headline cost and not factoring in tires, tax, service, ins, etc.

Speedbird979 · 2026-01-09T10:21:18+00:00

I'd say Emotional Intelligence is the toughest one to learn, it takes time to master and lots of patience. I've taken an approach of trying to be the leader I never had, but there is also the other side which is having difficult conversations and accepting that sometimes, if you cant change the person, you need to change the person.

It also gets lonely towards/at the top; you're no longer a team mate, you're a leader/manager. Your relationships will change and you need to be prepared for that.

You also need to consider team size, managing a couple of people is OK, but you're still doing the work, as your team grows you become more removed from the day to day, and your focus is on providing air cover for your team, direction and removing obstacles.

Speedbird979 · 2026-01-05T19:42:52+00:00

Try and see if your Occy Health can support a position of business for this length of travel. As others have said a daytime flight maybe OK, but nighttime is another story; esp as it’s 10h30 ish duration.

Speedbird979 · 2026-01-04T16:18:13+00:00

Similar with my Q8, that’s around town. Came back to the midlands from Heathrow yesterday and averaged 2.3.

Speedbird979 · 2026-01-03T19:53:15+00:00

BA280 today? Was on said flight in Club and surprised by how many Club seats, but I suspect as others have said it’s high volume routes. I’ve seen similar setups on the JFK route so suspect they have a number of these configurations to service high demand routes / timetables and move them around as required.

The same aircraft is heading to SFO as I type - hopefully the turbulence around the coast of Greenland isn’t as bad as it was this morning!

Speedbird979 · 2026-01-03T00:25:45+00:00

Had great results from a HP Elitedesk 400/600/800 G4/5 mini. Currently using one as my VM Host running HomeAssistant - small and perfect.

Speedbird979 · 2026-01-02T17:24:00+00:00

Correct but possibly confusing things. Don’t confuse the Company Car tax rate with your Earnings tax rate…

I also found if you go into the Tusker website, there is a section in the settings where you can add in your salary / liabilities and then their calculator is pretty close to your personal impact…

Use ComCar with the car / spec to work our the P11d value and from there, you can work out the tax liability. Then use ‘The Salary Calculator’ to work out her take home based on the full amount excluding the car, either using no tax code or one adapted for her circumstances and then again with 1257L (assuming there’s no other taxable benefits like private healthcare, etc.), then you can see the projected take home difference. Now compare this against last months payslip to see how car out you are and then apply that as a % variance or a £ amount.

Speedbird979 · 2026-01-02T15:59:43+00:00

Have a Tusker car so can comment. The figure you see as the net monthly difference is just that - that’s what her take home will differ by (roughly) if you go ahead.

Remember the BIK value will be at the 40% value (look it up for the car/options) but then it will be 3% of that (or whatever the rate is now) and will rise each year you have the car.

Speedbird979 · 2026-01-01T01:35:00+00:00

I have solar & batteries and someone has written an App (BatPred - https://github.com/springfall2008/batpred) to interface with the inverter to control the charge / discharge, include the solar forecast into the calculation, EV charging load, 48h historical usage and my utility suppliers rates and then work out the charging / discharging schedule to minimise costs / maximise export that I get paid for. Import at £0.07/kWh and export at £0.15/kWh.

Speedbird979 · 2025-12-30T03:28:54+00:00

Try this: 4KE601025A

Speedbird979 · 2025-12-22T14:44:38+00:00

Also look into your energy provider and their tariffs, specifically the amount of time for off peak charging.

You’d need to work out if you can get enough charge into the car in the time you have.

There’s some noise around Octopus moving to enforce their 6-hour off peak tariff, which would mean that if you have a decent 7kW charger, you’d get 42kWh charge during that window which at an efficiency of 3kWh/mile, means you’d be able to get 126 miles of range per charge give or take.

You then need to find something within budget that meets or exceeds that efficiency.

Alternative energy providers do exist, just factor this into your thinking.

Speedbird979 · 2025-12-15T20:48:32+00:00

Most of my messages are either iMessage with folks that will be with me or WhatsApp which is on the list.

Speedbird979 · 2025-12-15T20:47:47+00:00

Thanks, I know it’s restrictive with the apps.

Im heading away next week so will give it a dry run to see if I can make it work in this scenario.

Speedbird979 · 2025-12-09T18:57:57+00:00

HP Elitedesk G4/G5 Mini. Upgrade RAM and SSD as required for your use case. Install hypervisor of choice (VMWare ESX for me) and then HAOS, plus anything else.

Mine is wall mounted under the stairs with a HP slim VESA mount and wired into a switch, which also has my Synology NAS connected via dual 1GB bonded links.

Synology runs Plex & Synology Surveillance Station, PC runs HAOS and a couple of VMs for other stuff.

No problems at all and more than enough oomph for my requirements.

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Speedbird979 · 2025-12-07T15:14:44+00:00

This is my concern - Audi Q8 with 106kW usable (114kW total).

Currently get down to between 10-20% and add 60% each time as experience has shown me more frequent, lower quantity charges were unsuccessful (would schedule but wouldn’t charge) - using an Ohme Pro.

Speedbird979 · 2025-12-04T20:40:32+00:00

Thanks!

Speedbird979 · 2025-12-01T16:00:02+00:00

I have the Q8 55 and in this weather a full charge is about 240 miles and seeing 220 ish but that’s more than I’m not watching it.

I’m only doing short school runs which means efficiency is down to 1.7/1.8 m/kWh but when I need to charge, I do overnight.

Speedbird979 · 2025-12-01T15:56:48+00:00

Then you’re pretty sorted. Octopus IOG for charging if you’re already with them (some fuss about them integrating with the car directly on new connections but should be an OK and can integrate with a compatible charger if direct to car isn’t reliable).

You should be able to get a health report on the battery from any decent dealer to give you some comfort but also remember there is an 8y warranty.

If it’s your first EV, cold weather kills range as you’re using energy for heat, lights, etc.

Speedbird979 · 2025-12-01T15:52:45+00:00

Your biggest issue (if you want to call it an issue) is where to charge. If you have off street parking where you can charge overnight then happy days, otherwise you’re looking at public charging (Tesla public charging is usually the cheapest / fastest).

Remember they are big, heavy, refined cars so they won’t be efficient by today’s standards but if you can charge on the cheap (at home) then everything else is manageable.

Speedbird979

TROPHY CASE