Xac's adventures with Cassy (and friends + wife)

DickieG · Post by **DickieG** » 07 Dec 2010, 23:22

sorry to hear that Xac, my thoughts are with you.

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 07 Dec 2010, 23:40

Thanks Richard, mum, her sister and nan were with him when it happened.

Post by **myglaren** » 08 Dec 2010, 08:20

Very sorry to hear of your loss Xac

CitroJim · Post by **CitroJim** » 08 Dec 2010, 17:52

Oh dear Andy, sorry to hear of the news, my condolences are with you and all the family.

red_dwarfers · Post by **red_dwarfers** » 08 Dec 2010, 21:27

I'm sorry to hear of your loss Xac

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 08 Dec 2010, 23:02

Thanks guys, dad's headed down there to be with mum.
The funeral is on the 21st and work's given me the day off.

Sid_the_Squid · Post by **Sid_the_Squid** » 09 Dec 2010, 10:58

Sorry for your loss Xac, you have my condolences.

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 11 Dec 2010, 13:51

Got the tyre changed over to the right way round on the alloy, and have taken the headlights out to check them.

Looks like someone's tried to use an oversized phillips screwdriver to adjust them. The adjusters are designed for a long allen key or a PH2 to adjust them (allen key being preferable).
They're pretty mashed up, but an idea has struck me, if I clean them up, I could epoxy in some cheap screwdriver bits so that a socket screwdriver can be used to adjust them.

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 11 Dec 2010, 18:07

Jenny's passed her MoT!

So I've now ordered tax, but from the looks of the law I can't drive her until the it arrives

CitroJim · Post by **CitroJim** » 11 Dec 2010, 18:37

Xac wrote:Jenny's passed her MoT!

So I've now ordered tax, but from the looks of the law I can't drive her until the it arrives

Excellent news Xac

All that faffing around with the headlamps this afternoon has paid off then

Brilliant.

If you did your tax on-line then yes you can drive her legally, as long as the tax is applied for and you have the confirmation email to prove it then you're home and dry...

Go and enjoy her!!!!

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 11 Dec 2010, 18:55

Thanks Jim, I'll print off the DVLA email and bung it in the windscreen too as you said

She drives beautifully.

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 12 Dec 2010, 02:58

Danielle's brother and his gf came over from Luton, so we showed them some of MK's interesting sights; Coffee Hall, Netherfield, Stantonbury and Conniburrow.
So many grot vans selling burgers and "kababish"
Oh and if you ever need a copper after dark in MK, they're all in Conniburrow!
They're staying at the Travellodge, and as we pulled up we were greeted by a drunk with a bloody nose (we think he'd fallen over, he didn't seem to notice the state of his nose) asking for a cigarette or a lift to Bletchley.
Delining both requests, he proceeded to enter the motel and cadge a fag of someone inside.
We chose to go for another drive and returned to find the coast was clear.

Jenny is such a pleasure to drive, and Danielle feels just as secure in her as she does in Cassy (especially with the doors locked when driving through the above locations!).

CitroJim · Post by **CitroJim** » 12 Dec 2010, 11:24

Xac wrote:Danielle's brother and his gf came over from Luton, so we showed them some of MK's interesting sights; Coffee Hall, Netherfield, Stantonbury and Conniburrow.

Yoou took them there

You're brave

I can remember, 30 years ago now, when they were nice places to live. In fact I have lived both in Coffee Hall and Stantonbury in the long distant past. Now, I'd not go near any of those localities unless armed. Last time I went to Fishermead the local Co-Op had a uniformed security guard and walking from there to my car in the early evening I was bloody terrified. It was like a cross between the Bronx and a scene from Mad Max.

Back in the 70's MK Development Corporation touted these places with colourful advertising extrolling their virtures to the middle class executives that they wanted to entice to live in MK. And, truely, they were really rather nice places to live. I loved Coffee hall when I lived there in 70s. Now they're just sink estates of the very worst kind. In fact they have sunk so low there's no further sink left in them.

What went wrong? It's all very very sad.

Post by **myglaren** » 12 Dec 2010, 12:47

Just spotted the sig Jim. Like it

I'm not very familiar with MK but hadn't realised it was as bad as that.

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 12 Dec 2010, 13:07

40 years ago we had a large decent working class who wouldn't tollerate the small chav class misbehaving, back in the days when people didn't believe the country owed them something and if you didn't put food on your table then why should you expect someone else to do it for you?
Then in the 80s social mobility came along and many of the working class were able to better their lot and moved on, allowing the chav class to expand.
As it grew, the working class became less able to keep it in check as there were fewer and fewer of them, as there was more incentive to buy and sell their homes and move into better areas, with housing associations buying their houses for chavs.

Basically in a population of decent folk, a small rude group isn't able to act up because it's put down by the rest, but if you shrink the population of decent folk and increase the rude group, then the members of the rude group can back each other's behaviour up.

Add to this that London shoved out some of it's most troublesome tenants to the surrounding areas, such as MK, Luton, Leigh Park and Weacock Farm, and you get the no-go areas we have today.
Danielle's bus went through Conniburrow, where she saw yobs pushing a smashed up car around while their mates were jumping on the bonnet.

myglaren wrote:Just spotted the sig Jim. Like it

I'm not very familiar with MK but hadn't realised it was as bad as that.

There are some lovely areas, like where I live, and some with amazingly beautiful (and huge) houses, but no grot vans or kebabish.

In the early 70's when MK's developement council decided to expand, there was a brick maker's strike, so they had to use prefab/concrete etc.
At the time the houses probably looked very furturistic, but they soon started to look like the council houses they became. The groups of people that they were targetting decided they wanted proper houses, even if it meant living in a rabbit hutch.