Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

[Hell Razor5543]

Grin! Grr!

[Peter.N.]

Unfortunately I don't know anyone who lives near Aldi, we live in Charmouth Dorset and our two nearest Aldi's are in Honiton Devon or Yeovil Somerset.

Peter

[CitroJim]

Unfortunately I don't know anyone who lives near Aldi, we live in Charmouth Dorset and our two nearest Aldi's are in Honiton Devon or Yeovil Somerset.

Peter

Mine is some distance away too

The only grocery shop we have locally and in walking distance is a bloody awful and expensive Co Op which can barely provide the basics...

[Peter.N.]

We don't have a shop of any sort in walking distance - at least not my walking distance, 3 - 4 miles at least, one in Devon on the A35 and the other is with the garage where I have my MOT in Dorset. I like it that way Jim.

Peter

[CitroJim]

I like it that way Jim.

After spending a lovely weekend in a beautifully remote corner of Somerset last weekend at least 5 miles from any shop of any kind, I too could like it like that

When you're in a beautiful, tranquil, peaceful and restful spot it's no real hardship to have to travel a bit for shopping - it just needs a bit of planning...

The benefits certainly outweigh any disadvantages, I know that...

Once I retire fully - less than two years now - I'll be returning to rural Somerset to see out my days in peace and quiet. To be honest, it can't come soon enough

Life where I am now is just far too hectic and stressful...

[harryp]

Currently in the Yorkshire Dales experiencing some very refreshing liquid sunshine, not the kind out of a bottle, but the driving rain sort and having a dog who insists on his twice daily walks, we are getting pretty damp. So, shop? What shop? No phone signal, bliss! Nothing other than the beautiful countryside and peace and quiet. I check the mail occasionally and f2f is the only one I answer. The rest go in the bin, lol. Back to sitting in front of the log fire, and yes the rain continues outside

[CitroJim]

Currently in the Yorkshire Dales experiencing some very refreshing liquid sunshine, not the kind out of a bottle, but the driving rain sort and having a dog who insists on his twice daily walks, we are getting pretty damp. So, shop? What shop? No phone signal, bliss! Nothing other than the beautiful countryside and peace and quiet. I check the mail occasionally and f2f is the only one I answer. The rest go in the bin, lol. Back to sitting in front of the log fire, and yes the rain continues outside

Harry, that's the very epitome of bliss in my book All the afternoon here I've been assaulted by the near constant sounds of reversing bleepers, emergency service sirens and other miscellaneous rackets of an artificial and aggravating nature...

Goodness knows what's going on around here with all the sirens... I guess the usual run of calamitous happenings on the nearby M1. Hardly an hour goes by - day and night - without some emergency siren being heard...

Even worse is the constant sound of reversing bleepers at 3AM every morning...

And then I see all the people around here rushing around like crazy things trying to live their daily lives and clearly really miserable and stressed to the eyeballs... It's no life at all..

Roll on retirement and an escape to the country!

[Peter.N.]

The far north of Scotland and north Yorkshire are my favourite places but I rather like where we live now. Type 'Higher Spence B&B' into Google maps and then 'satellite', You might even see some French cars.

Peter

[Mandrake]

We just called into a different, larger Lidl than the one nearby that we usually go to and I grabbed this little bargain for £17.99:

I've wanted a temperature controlled soldering station for years but never got around to it due to the cost to get a decent one, so I've been making do for occasional use with a typical crummy 30 watt iron with no temperature control and no stand to sit the iron in - meaning I was forever risking burning things, didn't really have enough power to solder heavy duty components (like speaker crossover parts, which is the current project...) and on the other hand if I left it switched on for more than 2-3 minutes without use it would overheat leading to the tip getting oxidised easily... meaning constantly manually turning it on and off every few minutes and trying to guess what temperature the tip is, making good soldered joints difficult.

I saw this one for £17.99 and thought I'd take a punt on it as I've had good luck with lidl gadgets in the past - 48 watts, temperature controlled with digital controls and readout, 200-450 degrees, a stand for the iron. I've plugged it in briefly to try it and it heats up very fast indeed from nothing to 260 degrees in under a minute, with the digital readout showing the progress. It also has a power indicator bar graph on the right side of the display and from watching this its clear that it has proportional power control instead of just on off cycling that most cheaper units use, so it should maintain a fairly accurate temperature under varying soldering loads.

It has 3 tips and although it remains to be seen what the quality of the plating on the tips is (which is often a problem with cheap irons) it seemed to solder very nicely and being temperature controlled wont suffer from the tip constantly overheating like my old iron.

So if you're in the market for a very affordable digital temperature controlled 48 watt soldering iron get down to Lidl while they still have some!

[myglaren]

May well invest in one such

[white exec]

Likewise. Parkside tools all good so far.

[CitroJim]

That looks excellent Simon and a steal at the price...

I have no need as I still have two or three 'old faithful' Weller TCPs for my soldering endeavours in my vintage wireless...

[Mandrake]

Likewise. Parkside tools all good so far.

Spanish Lidl synchronise their deals with UK Lidl do they ?

[myglaren]

I had intended going to Lidl today but ended up at B&M instead.

Disappointing as I spotted this after returning home'

Tokaji late harvest

I polished off a bottle of Tokaji Fermata last night and it was superb, especially at the price they ask for it and the late harvest stuff is much better for not much more money.

[white exec]

Lidl in Spain - sometimes the same as UK, sometimes not. Less choice, but some good tool and gadget goodies.

If buying wine in Lidl, see if they have a label "Cepa Lebrel". Spanish red, with Lidl taking almost all of the production under this label. Three versions: grey label (Reserva), pink label, and cream label (Joven). The last sells here for €1.79 a bottle - I kid you not - with restaurants running it out at €9-10. Absolutely lovely, Tempranillo grape, which ought to sell at several times that price.