Chesterfield

I do hope the missus knows about that part of the suprise trip!

You've clearly never seen me eat doughnuts have you. In the Excalibur in Vegas they have a glass wall alongside the small factory making the doughnuts so you can follow them from raw ingredients to finished articles in the boxes, then devour a "few".

Liam, Myself and Tracy have been lots of times. Get yourself a cuppa - I like writing about Vegas... Gambling: If you want to gamble, the tips above from 3FIDDY are good. Also, you may want to get a taxi to Freemont street - its a whole other section of Casinos and restaurants (old vegas). The gambling can be cheaper and the experience on the street at Freemont is great, its a pedestrian zone with a huge covered walkway spanning the buildings that is actuall a massive LCD screen which they play shows on. Obviously its unlikely that the missus will want to spend all day gambling. In fact last time we went I dont remember gambling - though perhaps only a bit in Casino Royale (about halfway down the strip, and they have the famous $1 MicheloB beers or Margaritas). Tours: I think that helicopter company is the one we did our tour with last time. Ill check. Taking the helicopter all the way from Vegas to the canyon (via Hoover Dam) and back is without a doubt the most comfortable way to do it. Some tours have light aircraft and a helicopter ride at the canyon. The turbulence in the light aircraft is awful - so best to stick with the heli all the way in my opinion. If you want to visit the Hoover Dam, it is a great experience - perhaps just a half day will do though. There are various other road tours around the famous houses and streets, unless you are overly interested in seeing the concrete wall and wooden gates of houses that used to belong to celebrities but now belong to multi billionaires, then I would pass. What to see: If only for the experience, get a Limo up and down the strip at night - there are dozens available for hire, and I think the going rate last time we went was about $70 for an hour. Driving up and down the strip taking in the sights of the casinos at night is fantastic. Dont miss going to the top of the Stratosphere Hotel, I'd reccomend doing it at night. The view from the top (which is about 120 floors up) is simply stunning. There are some pretty exciting rides at the top of there - if you suffer in the slightest from Vertigo, then you probably wont bother. Heres one: And no, there is no saftey net under that ride, its your seatbelt/harness between you and a freefall of 120 floors or so. The hotels themselves are absolutely incredible. Gondola rides three floors up along a full size venetian canal, which is inside a hotels own shopping centre gives you some scale of the size of these places. From Ceasars Palace to the Wynn, they are all amazing experiences just walking through the places. Ahh, Walking. Take some VERY comfortable shoes for walking. If you want to experience as much as possible while you are there, then you WILL walk MILES. Temperature. Depending on when you go, Vegas can get VERY hot. The grand Canyon even hotter. 140 is not out of the ordinary in the heat of summer at the Canyon. Plan your timings of walking around or any trips to avoid the heat. If you do find it hot, then most casinos are linked to each other either directly of by short bridges etc, walk through the hotels/casinos and take advantage of their air con. Shopping: If your Mrs is a shopaholic like mine, then there is enough in Vegas to keep her busy for the rest of her life. There is a newly developed shopping village just to the south of Mandalay Bay. You may want to get a taxi. This is an area the size of a small village/town built entirely of shops. Then you have the fashion show mall and the las vegas premium outlets. And all the casinos have their own shopping arcades, some of which are without exageration aproaching the size of the bullring. Shows: Vegas has some excellent shows. In the times weve visited we have seen KA, O and The Blue Man Group. Out of the three, O is probably the best all round entertainment. You cant describe the show other than to say Ive never seen anything like it in my life. The acrobatics, illusions and variety are all staggering. Blue Man show was just great fun. The colour, sounds and way they put a show together to music, even generating music is brilliant. KA has amazing acrobatics, a great story and is an amazing set, although I confess to having eaten a big meal before watching KA in the warm arena and probably rested my eyes a few times. If its a romantic break, then Id try to get tickets for O. I would reccomend getting them now. Try two weeks before you go and you wont find any. If you do they will be the worst seats in the house (although I dont think you can call any of them bad seats), and at times that arent best suited for many. Belagio fountains. A romantic break with the missus would not be complete without a stop in front of the Belagio fountains in an evening after a nice meal out. They play every 15 minutes in the evening. Tips: Dont forget to tip the waitress doing the rounds serving free drinks & cocktails while you are at the tables or the machines. Tip well and she will seek you out more frequently. Couple of dolars a drink or so. Same with the Bars, tip a little more, and when you go to get your next round, if its busy you wont be waiting long Things to watch: Dont do anything stupid like put your wallet in your back pocket or in an easily accesible place. There are a lot of people in Vegas with a lot of money, that attracts the odd undesireable. Although Ive never seen trouble or experienced theft in any of my times there, I dont want to leave myself open. One minor point.. When walking down the strip at night, there will be what myselfm Tracy and our friends call "clippy clippys". These are the men on the streets trying to hand out calling cards for hookers/strippers. There are lots of these idiots. They cant heckle you as they made that illegal some time ago, but they can annoy the hell out of you by constantly ficking these cards and sticking their arm out on fromt of you for you to take one. They dont care if you are with your missus or not, they still do it. Two's company, three's a a party in Vegas. It can be emarrasing and very annoying. If you take one, youll be swamped to take one from them all - so ignore them. They arent allowed on the casino/hotel property, so walking through the casinos and hotels will avoid them. Above all, have fun. Many people say you either love Vegas, or you hate it. Myself and Tracy absolutely love it. You dobt have to gamble in Vegas to have a good time, there is so much to see and do, we have spent about 6 weeks there in total over the years and havent even scratched the surface of what is available. If you've any questions just ask.

What, in the name of all that God allows to grace this earth, is that heap of @*!#? Good colour though.

And I thought you loved me...

Thats not a bad idea. Many members of car clubs will be hit hard by the Governments constant slaps to the face of the motorist. The car tax on the larger engined cars is proposed to be in excess of £400 soon, yet many of these cars will cover hardly any mileage during the year. Being used just for shows or the odd meet. Ive calculated that due to the Z now being a "weekend car", my Altea will pump out 3 times more CO2 during the year than the Z, yet cost half as much in road tax. If the Government is insistent on linking road tax to emissions, then the above scenario simply shouldnt be allowed to exist. Some of the cars seen at shows may cover less than 1k on the roads, so why should they be charged up to £400+ in road tax?

Ah yes - sorry Steve, been busy with work and wedding arrangements havent sorted any of the pics on the camera since donnington Will sort them. Ive got several of the various Z's giving it full beans round the track

I cant get over Gordon Brown and his constant drivel about talking to suppliers about increasing production in order to releive the burden. Its not bloody supply thats causing the rising prices of oil anyway. Supply at present is resulting in excess oil, its speculators that have driven up the price this time round, and now ammount of pumping will resolve it. Gordon probably knows this, but his visits to suppliers (no doubt complete with well publicised press coverage of him donning a hard hat etc) will server to fob off people that he is actually trying to do something.

Look out for "de-restricted toll roads" being excluded. That covers the ring too. My understanding is that it is best to consider yourself NOT insured when driving round the Nurburgring.

1. H5 2. martinmac 3. Chesterfield

yeah yeah... The purchase of the house with the room for a toy fell through, so sadly had to put the plan on hold for a while until something else comes up. I dont think the planning authorities would allow another garage on the side of the existing house I dont think it will be long before Mrs Chesterfield finds something else that will suit though.

Depends what day it is, and what the weathers like - a trip over the cat and fiddle in the rain isnt much fun.

Could be pursuaded to make an evening drive over the hills for a coffee and doughnut.

Yup thats probably whats being done. Perhaps they could send a set to Littlemiss, after the abortion that has been made of her GT4 rims by a Nissan dealer?

Holy cow! Amazing that nobody was hurt. Thats a sizeable insurance claim there I would think.

There are indeed people that have noticed higher oil consumption on the 2006 engine. Some report up to half a litre every 1000 miles or so. Personally I find this excessive, and am shocked that Nissan never formaly acknowledged this, let alone provided a fix for 2006 model owners. Gives some indication of how valued we are. I think there has been one person that has had a replacement engine, but most seem to be told it is a "characteristic" of the engine. Round pistons in oval bores is the cause that some experts have pointed the finger at. It also seems pot luck whether any individual 06 engine suffers or not. The engine in mine only seems to use oil at what I would consider a normal level.

The angle you had me at meant I couldnt get the camera out buddy. Its nice down here at the bottom of the slope anyway - no worries about being image concious, no special dietary requirements. Sure, there is the shortened lifespan and the wear and tear on shock absorbers, but you get over that in time.

Jay - I used to be a regular at the gym 5 days a week 4 hours a time until a few years ago. Then it started with a single sugared, jam filled, soft doughy doughnut.... Slippery slope you've found there buddy. Ill see you at the bottom

We had two cars, a Seat Leon and Seat Altea serviced at the local Seat dealership a couple of months ago. The difference between the bills was £20, when inspected closer the difference was on the oil. The part numbers were exactly the same for both cars - not that I expected any different, as they have the same engine, chassis and everything else other than the body panels. The dealers first answer when I called was - they are different cars so thats why sir - obvously before I enlightened him that I knew a little about the cars in question. "So what it boils down to is that you charged me £20 more for oil in one vehicle because it has a bigger boot?" After some "errs" and "erms" they said that it was "menu pricing" set by Seat and thats how the prices were created. I instructed them that if they wanted to see any of our company vehicles again, they had better get someone from Seat to call me and explain why a bigger boot on the Altea warrants £20 more being charged for the same oil. I got a cheque for the £20 within a couple of days. They still wont see the cars again though because of their attitude. £220 for Oil, sump plug and filter.

Major activities for me this weekend. Im moving the Z from the right hand garage into the left hand one, and moving the Altea from the left hand one over to the right hand. It does involve moving a ladder which is on the floor and a couple of tins of paint though.

As above really, if you rev the engine high when its still relatively cold (not something I'd advise doing) the pressure wil nudge the far end of the scale. On idle, most seem to have the needle at anything from 30 to 14/15. Mine persoanly sits at around the 15-18 area on tickover. I look at it this way. This is the first car Ive owned with an oil pressure guage, before I just used to check tyhe dipstick every now and then and as long as it was clean and at the right level, that was all I had to worry about. Now with the addition of a guage its just another thing to be paranoid about. As long as it doesnt drop off either end of the scale, and the dipstick shows its got enough, that'll do for me.

Expect massive headlines on gas and electricity soon too. I wouldnt be shocked seeing domestic bills up 25% by the end of next month. Some commercials are already being hit by 40% this year alone compared to 2007.

Choptop does have some video footage, but its a little tricky to post - some people on the video may have been going a little quick on the private road you see... A little editing needed.

yup - but they are over 2300 pixels wide! What about a blue colour coded engine cover and some polished fluid reservoirs?

Needs a polished induction kit Rob.