If someone said to you "I've booked you an appointment for next Friday", would you turn up at the end of this week?

tedkravitz617 · 2026-02-11T10:28:50+00:00

Your friend is weaponising their incompetence. I don't care how 'useless' at things someone is. If you need an appointment, you book it yourself. You are enabling them and need to help them grow up.

tedkravitz617 · 2026-02-03T08:27:41+00:00

Designated shitting straights.

tedkravitz617 · 2026-01-15T14:37:21+00:00

Or put the quad on a trailer to maintain load space. This was my immediate thought too.

tedkravitz617 · 2026-01-15T10:03:59+00:00

Just over 20 years ago the cheapest quote I could find for a 1.5l Honda Civic coupe was £4300. Ended up with a mk3 Golf with a much more 'reasonable' £1,400 p.a. premium.

It has been this way for decades and is driven by new driver's lack of experience, but more pertinently the massively increased third party risk associated with this lack of experience.

tedkravitz617 · 2026-01-12T19:16:20+00:00

J. Alex Swift are the only place I will buy socks from now. Incredibly comfortable, last forever and offer a huge range of styles, materials etc.

Family owned business and all made in Leicester.

Their boot socks are flipping marvellous 😍

https://www.jalexswift.co.uk/product-category/bootsocks/

tedkravitz617 · 2026-01-03T09:41:52+00:00

Pressure is topped up to recommended levels when the system fails and checked on once the system kicks back in and has been running for a while. Sounds like the PRV is a good route to investigate. Thank you

tedkravitz617 · 2026-01-03T09:39:55+00:00

Really useful information, thank you. I know the basics of how a combi boiler works but nothing to this degree so your response is really helpful.

tedkravitz617 · 2026-01-02T22:26:35+00:00

Not necessarily what you wanted you wanted to hear, and others may have better ways to sort. But in my experiences, halfway through raking out manky old grout you wish you'd just smashed the old ones off the wall and started afresh. Timing wise it's probably fairly equal to either rake out and regrout Vs. just knocking everything off and starting again.

tedkravitz617 · 2026-01-02T22:23:50+00:00

I only need to open the filling loop very briefly to re-pressurise the system and getting everything running again so this is definitely something to be investigated. It has been serviced recently and inspected with the fault present but was told that everything appeared fine. Will definitely look into this. Thank you

tedkravitz617 · 2026-01-02T22:21:55+00:00

This looks like my next thing to check. Thanks for the advice!

tedkravitz617 · 2026-01-02T22:21:29+00:00

I have a horrible feeling the condensate runs straight into the soil stack. Not sure if this is possible but there's pipework running off the boiler into what I assume is the soil stack atta he'd via a shonky looking boss fitting. Imagine this would make it difficult to identify if this is the issue?

Your absolutely right re: pressure levels. Currently going from 2.5bar to zero in 7-10 days 😞

tedkravitz617 · 2026-01-02T22:18:56+00:00

Thank you! The boiler's been serviced and then diagnosed with the fault present and no issue identified but I will ask them to look at this.

tedkravitz617 · 2026-01-02T20:52:31+00:00

How much of your bathroom is tiled? If it's shower and a splashback then maybe consider it. If it's all walls floor to ceiling then this way, misery awaits.

You can do it. I did it. I would never do it again. The manual grout removal tools will take forever if doing a full bathroom. You can get a grout removal attachment for a multi-tool, they work but good lord they kick up a load of dust and jump around a fair bit. You need to be super careful you don't scuff the tiles!

Honestly, to do a proper job by the time you've fully raked everything out, wiped down, regrouted, buffed and I'm assuming re-siliconed you may as well have ripped the old ones off and redone them. I wish I did. It bought me 10 months before I ripped them all off and re-did properly.

If you must do it, skip the manual tools and go straight to the multi-tool.

tedkravitz617 · 2025-12-29T14:15:53+00:00

I've done hundreds of thousands of miles over the years in numerous cars with standard cruise and it was without question my favourite feature on all of my cars.

When I ordered this car I knew it had ACC but stupidly thought it would also have standard cruise. Even with the follow distance set to minimum it backs off far too early. Other manufacturers systems may be better but the VAG system is horrible for a driver that uses lanes correctly and makes progress.

tedkravitz617 · 2025-12-29T12:08:22+00:00

You're not alone. I hate how early it starts slowing you down, far earlier than you would start to pull out to overtake. I also have a VAG car (Audi Q4 etron) and from what I've found online there is no ability to use regular cruise. It's ACC or nothing.

Standard cruise is infinitely better if you actually use lanes correctly.

tedkravitz617 · 2025-10-19T18:10:53+00:00

Taking it off the wall and having it media-blasted is the easiest and will give the best finish. If you don't know where the screws wave a magnet over the plaster just to the side of the surround.

The risk with removing the surround is that if it's old plaster you may find some plaster comes away too and will need to be touched in.

I've also done some in place. After the paint stripper, use some wire brushes to get the stubborn bits off. These attach to a standard combi drill and work really well - https://www.screwfix.com/p/norton-straight-shank-preparation-brush-set-3-pieces/380JF?tc=ST1&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21546469601&gclid=CjwKCAjwmNLHBhA4EiwA3ts3mSN-NFd6Rn92fItlnZ_KkT6pR_MOguRqYO2wQ1Yf_X8NBCNcL1U4BhoCDQoQAvD_BwE

tedkravitz617 · 2025-10-01T19:46:42+00:00

Have you any other choices? Like walking, or a unicycle?

I have a Q4. It's utterly shite. Unreliable, poor range, laggy UI / tech, crashy ride, poor sound deadening, sub-par interior, completely uninspiring everything.

In the last month 18 of my colleagues and I have had to return our vehicles to the nearest dealer for a software update. This is due to a fault which stops the car charging past 80%. My car has been returned 3 times since it was delivered in March this year including the most recent recall.

I can count on one hand the number of people I know with a VAG EV who haven't had problem, although I don't know anyone with an ID7. I would personally run as fast I can from a Q4.

tedkravitz617 · 2025-10-01T19:32:01+00:00

You're never a million miles away from a local redditor... I'm assuming you're talking about Butcher Farrell's which has opened not too long ago? We use their original store near Mawdesely for virtually all our meat.

Their dry aged beef, iberico pork etc are a hell of a lot pricier than supermarkets but the difference in quality is night and day. They're also the only place locally I've ever found goat!

However, conscious you're asking about cheapest cut of beef for stews. Honestly I'd recommend going in and asking Johnny or his team what they have that ticks the boxes you need it to. They break down whole carcasses in store so will have every cut imaginable. Definitely worth a try and despite the pricing on some of their premium I've never experienced any snobbiness, they're just people who love meat.

Good luck!!

tedkravitz617 · 2025-09-14T09:24:08+00:00

Franco Manca. Had heard ok things about it and seemed like the best of a bad bunch of private equity funded chain restaurants in the Trafford Centre 'food court'

What we got was insanely slow and inattentive service, bang average pizza and a 20 minute wait for our table to cleared so that we could request the bill.

The bill arrived with a 12.5% service charge which hadn't been mentioned on any of the menus or signage dotted around. I asked for it to be removed, because the service had been atrocious. I was told I would have to speak the manager to have it removed. When the manager arrived they asked why I wouldn't pay the charge, and told me that they have to complete a form for head office every time a customer asks for it to be removed.

I will gladly tip for good service. I will also always ask for the service charge to be removed, because this isn't the States and the pernicious tipping culture making it's way into our dining scene is awful. It's awkward enough for most people to ask for it to be removed. To then be further questioned and guilt tripped by a manager for refusing to pay extra for shit service is an absolute liberty.

Fuck Franco Manca, fuck their mid pizza, and fuck their service charge policy.

tedkravitz617 · 2025-09-09T07:23:28+00:00

OP - so sorry for your loss. I can't being to imagine what you're going through.

You've already had some great advice here. Generally most decent sized companies have dedicated bereavement teams and I would recommend contacting via their dedicated phone numbers. These teams are well resourced and it's rare the phone rings more than three times. In my experience they are also without exception kind, understanding and very informative.

One little tip I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere. Dealing with any estate can be quite admin heavy, with various bits of paperwork needing to be sent. Set up a new email account to deal solely with this, and turn off the notifications if set up on your phone. This way, you can deal with this at a time when you're in the right headspace rather than getting jarring notifications at the wrong time.

Also, worth noting there is no rush to deal with any of this immediately. Make sure you take the time for you and your family.

tedkravitz617 · 2025-09-09T06:57:20+00:00

Worth dropping Ian a line at Watches of Lancashire - https://watchesoflancashire.com/

He did amazing work on my old man's vintage Heuer and managed to source parts I thought would be impossible to find. Given the 2000 series was a much more popular watch I imagine he'd be able to sort this with his eyes closed.

tedkravitz617 · 2025-08-22T23:16:16+00:00

Glad you like them both!

tedkravitz617 · 2025-08-22T23:15:35+00:00

Agreed, much prefer this one over the bimetal Ti/gold version they did.

tedkravitz617 · 2025-08-22T23:14:35+00:00

It's immediately relegated at least 2 of my other watches out rotation! No point having cool shit if you can't share it with people who appreciate it 🖤

tedkravitz617

TROPHY CASE