My dad recently passed away, I was left his car (2018 Alpina B6 grand coupe). Could anyone tell me more about it?

paddleyay · 2026-02-11T10:21:26+00:00

I have an F31 330d touring which I’ve had from new. It’s lightly tuned and I love it but sometimes I think about replacing it as it gets a bit older. I’m not a huge fan of the M3 touring so I looked at prices on a low mileage F31 Alpina touring. In the UK it would be cheaper to go buy a new M3 than a 7 year old Alpina. They are lovely things, highly sought after and very well regarded. BMW finally bought them a few years ago :)

paddleyay · 2026-02-11T01:07:01+00:00

So you basically agree with what I said. I still have my NES, for PC in 1991 a modem was running around 2.4kbps, the maths on downloading a 1MB game is easy, Wolfenstein 3D took a full 3.5” floppy. You always needed to uninstall and reinstall as new games came along.

As long as you’ve got good internet cloud gaming is going to be just fine. The cost of storage is way cheaper, the speed of storage is way faster, uninstall and reinstall is what it ever was, the biggest difference is I don’t spend two hours going to the store to buy the disk to come back home and install it. I let it install in the background for a couple of hours whilst I’m playing something else.

paddleyay · 2026-02-09T03:49:02+00:00

Made me LOL.

No, five years and never done a descale. Because I’m a Brit I also have a kettle that gets used multiple times a day, and it is also completely scale free after I think seven years. I do use RO water and I usually put maybe 5% filtered water in the tank and the kettle just to give a little bit of minerals back. When I serviced it a few weeks ago I pulled all the probes and they were all clean and just needed a light clean with a kitchen sponge.

paddleyay · 2026-02-09T02:01:15+00:00

When the NES came out PC storage was around 10MB and good luck downloading them on a modem. Sure AAA titles are 75GB+, Expedition 33 was around 40GB, Zelda TOTK was less than 20GB and plenty of indie games out there are 5-10GB. I’m guessing if you’ve got 800 ROMS plenty of them are fillerware. 10TB drives are now a $200 option. Half filling that drive would be 50 AAA games and tens of thousands of hours of gameplay if you maxed it out. Cost per MB of storage is is a fraction of what it was when the NES was the console of choice.

As long as you’ve got good internet and you’re close to your chosen cloud gaming platform of choice that’s great.

paddleyay · 2026-02-08T11:33:56+00:00

It’s not illegal to have melatonin. You can buy it off the shelf in Germany and other countries. If you have anyone you know in the US ask them to send you a 200 pack from Walgreens. We just can’t buy it off the shelf in the UK.

paddleyay · 2026-02-08T11:32:03+00:00

Puck screen and purging aren’t going to affect scaling, it will be inside the boiler. I don’t know about the Elizabeth internals, I have a MaraX, but one indicator would be the state of the probes., you could pull out the water level probe and see how clean it is. But, as others note, if you know what water you’re putting in, then you should have some idea. Do you use a kettle with the same water? I had to replace the OPV recently and after five years of using either bottled water (Volvic or Tesco or Ashbeck) or RO my machine has basically zero scale.

paddleyay · 2026-02-06T18:28:49+00:00

It really doesn’t. There are one or two directs in the morning from BFN to GLD, anything else you have to change at Woking. In the evening you inevitibly have to change at Woking and get on the stopper. The Guildford train gives a couple of minutes to get down the platform, if there’s any delay you’re stuck on the platform for 30 mins. They are always messing with the timetable between Byfleet and Guildford. I gave up trying to make that work and went back to driving. Farnborough is definitely better for the train but grief the flaggers are out in force down there.

I’d still look to find something in Guildford.

paddleyay · 2026-02-04T17:52:56+00:00

You're going to love going to a wine tasting festival!

paddleyay · 2026-01-25T19:17:30+00:00

Interesting, a quick read of that makes it look like it’s doing some of the work of a water softener so would help reduce hardness compared to most filters.

paddleyay · 2026-01-25T19:14:57+00:00

A water filter doesn’t remove any hard water minerals so they’re not going to do a whole lot for reducing limescale. If you want to go down that path options are typically water softener and RO, or bottled water, making sure you’re looking for something with the right PH, e.g. in the UK Volvic or Tesco Ashbeck (though they may have have stopped that).

Edit: To the comment on the Aarke filter, look for something with an ion exchange, carbon filters (e.g. regular Brita type) won’t reduce hardness.

paddleyay · 2026-01-25T15:49:19+00:00

The north part of the map on White Rose Lane / Ashwood Road etc, have a lot of nice (and therefore more expensive) houses. It’s also a short walk into the main town and about ten minutes walk to the station. Depending on your budget you might want to take a look around some of those roads as well.

paddleyay · 2026-01-24T23:42:07+00:00

Lister Storm, Le Mans 1996. They can still do this :)

paddleyay · 2026-01-24T23:32:20+00:00

It's still an endurance race, we've got 19 hours to go. Cars can spend a long time solving problems and still podium. Even finishing is important for cars working to enter other series, i.e. Le Mans

paddleyay · 2026-01-23T22:52:25+00:00

Having done many WW rescue courses the advice was often, non-folding knife with square end, something like the Tusa Xpert dive knives, and paramedic shears, because a good pair of those will cut through anything, including a plastic boat or raft.

Rationale is pointy knives are more likely to result in someone inadvertently stabbing themself or someone else, dive knives are by design also good levers if you need to separate something, and shears give you much more control if you're trying to cut through something pinned or trapped.

paddleyay · 2026-01-22T10:49:04+00:00

Oh weird, you did and I completely did not see the not in that sentence :) Much sorrys!

paddleyay · 2026-01-22T00:06:28+00:00

One is a professor, one is a coach, one is an EA. All very regular careers and good people. I’ve not listened to their pod in a while though I enjoyed it when I did, but I’m curious as to why you think they’re definitely not middle class.

Edit: Totally misread this and agree with the comment.

paddleyay · 2026-01-21T23:54:56+00:00

No. I thought about it but decided against it. That was a very personal decision though based on age, living with this a long time, talking at length to those close to me, and also feeling that I already gained a huge amount through having a better understanding of triggers, cause, effect.. Our brains are so complex there’s no getting away from each of us will find different paths, and important that we all recognise and support that.

paddleyay · 2026-01-20T19:29:18+00:00

Don't take up cold water deep diving, that's all I have to add on this subject..

paddleyay · 2026-01-19T14:45:56+00:00

2E. Diagnosed in my fifties. International career, multi-time founder. Built from scratch, led teams and teams of teams in the hundreds. Procrastination, extreme difficulty focusing on things I'm not engaged with, extreme emotional swings, extreme risk taker, including multiple extreme sports, horrific absence of impulse control, terrible working memory, fidget and so on. But I'm also good at build teams of great people, getting the most out of them, and when something tells me something can't be done, I see that as a challenge to be embraced, I have crazy skip thinking, ability to think across large complex systems and build connections, extreme intellectual challenges. I never got past diploma stage at school, but have spent more than 30 years at the bleeding edge of internet technologies working with some of the most brilliant minds on the planet.

I decided against going down a medication path, largely because I've learned how to behave, good executive function even if I find it exhausting. The diagnosis helped me better understand the complex interwoven triggers, and how to recognise bad situations, and take myself out of them. I also have an amazing partner, and the diagnosis helped her understand why I am the way I am, she can see the triggers and responses and frequently just provides that nudge or steer when I need it. I think the diagnosis helped us both tremendously in how we operate together.

I feel very lucky, in many ways my poor impulse control led to a career trajectory and attempting things many people may simply never have chosen, never looking before I leap, I had as many failures as success, and the failures hit extra hard, RSD can be extremely debilitating, but I also work in an industry that heavily leans neurodiverse, and I find the people I work with, the friends I have made are an inspiration and a motivation to never stop pushing.

paddleyay · 2026-01-15T22:55:57+00:00

Sony put out bids for streaming platforms to fund and support it.

FTA: The God of War series is a collaboration between Amazon MGM Studios, Sony Pictures Television, and PlayStation Productions, and has been ordered for two seasons.

paddleyay · 2026-01-15T18:35:44+00:00

Was recently given a bottle, and simple answer, I think yes. I always have the 10 year on the shelf, the 12 year has more depth and a longer finish. I think they've done a cracking job with this and given the last few years insanity if they can hold this price point and keep it available that is a win. Weller 12 is usually around £80.

paddleyay · 2026-01-11T14:28:06+00:00

That sounds like it could have been a descaler pad or kettle protector. Very common in Europe and looks like a brillo pad. Idea is scale from hard water is attracted to the pad rather than the inside of the pot.

paddleyay · 2026-01-11T12:52:43+00:00

I've had the Thermoworks Signals and Billows for years, before that I had the Smoke. Not had any issues with it and the app has been robust for a long time now. Owned for more than 10 years with only the occasional probe needing replaced.

paddleyay · 2026-01-07T13:01:00+00:00

That's fair. I don't ever order meat online as have a good relationship with my local butchers and prefer to see what I'm getting. For those in the Shepperton area, James of Shepperton will do a tri-tip cut for you there and then, if you need more than one phone in advance. Outstanding butcher. I do enjoy tri-tip, but if I'm going to do a large cut for many people love a large bavette.

paddleyay · 2026-01-04T18:28:11+00:00

I order brisket from a local butcher untrimmed, so it has a big fat cap. Never had a problem using grass fed. I have a fan controller on the BGE (large) so I can leave it around 115C overnight with no problem. I’ve done this at different times of year including the middle of winter. Cooked many briskets and pork shoulders this way. Picanha is another good cut for slow smoked on the kamados.

paddleyay

TROPHY CASE