Metallica rocked, TFL however did not. Thanks to them closing the Jubilee line, it took us 4 hours to get from North Greenwich back to Harrow.

The setlist was apparently something like this:

That Was Just Your Life
The End Of The Line
Harvester Of Sorrow
…And Justice for All
One
Broken, Beat And Scarred
My Apocalypse
Sad But True
The Outlaw Torn
The Judas Kiss
The Day That Never Comes
Master Of Puppets
Fight Fire With Fire
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman

Overkill
Hit The Lights
Seek and Destroy

Given that my Metallica exposure pretty much stops with the Black Album, the first half was somewhat unfamiliar, but the latter part was superb, especially the finale of Seek and Destroy.

Out again for the more or less the same ride as last week, but with Ian this time instead of Sandy. This week it ended up being 0.3 miles further, 20 seconds slower, and a few degrees colder than last time.

Apparently it’s going to be another week or so before my X-Trail is fixed and returned.

I’ve now had the loan of a 56-plate X-Trail for just over a week, and quite frankly I can’t wait to get rid of it. It’s a face-lifted version of my own 03-plate, but in my opinion a lot worse. Admittedly the engine is more powerful/less knackered than mine, but that doesn’t make up for the downsides.

Firstly, the seats and doors are trimmed with what appears to be a nylon version of sand paper, it’s utterly utterly horrible and makes my skin crawl every time I brush up against it. To be fair though the mid-range X-Trail Columbia isn’t really meant to compete luxury-wise with my own range-topping SVE.

The driving position feels a lot worse, the centre console seems wider and gets in the way of my left leg, and I can’t seem to get my right leg comfortable at all, even with the seat all the way back. I feel sorry for anyone taller than me who tries to drive one.

The sat nav in the centre console is almost unreadable in sunlight if you have the sunroof cover open.

The adjusters for the mirrors and lights have been tucked further down on the console to the point where someone my height (6′2") can’t actually see them to operate the buttons.

The power steering is far too light and devoid of any feel, making driving the car a somewhat numb experience.

There seems to be a lot more body roll, possibly a result of softening the suspension slightly to cope with the 17" alloys which replace the 16" ones of the pre-facelift versions, mine certainly feels a lot more stable.

Hopefully mine will be back in time for the trip to London on Friday.

Somewhat belatedly I’ve finally done my first proper ride of the year, a gentle 20 miles to Avoncliffe and back on the cross bike. My right knee is now aching slightly, probably because it’s not used to doing any exercise. It was also the first proper ride on the Uncle John, which after a brief bar readjustment at Avoncliffe feels almost perfect, the chain needs some oil though.

According to the letter I got today from the repair company, subject to parts availability my X-Trail should be back on the 27^th.

Squidless

For the first time in five years I won’t be helping out at the Bath half marathon tomorrow. This is partly because most of our scouts are at camp this weekend, but it’s mainly because we’ve still not been paid for helping out last year, and we don’t work for free.

…another X-Trail. Slightly newer and bluer than mine, but without the leather interior. It’s a fair bit nippier due to the more powerful engine, the fact it’s done about 50,000 miles less than mine probably helps as well.

Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.

Busy at work. Busy sorting out the car after the accident last weekend. Busy with committee meetings. Looking forward to a weekend of not being busy.

Good luck to Grant who goes under the knife tomorrow.

Theoretically Enterprise will be contacting me tomorrow to arrange a hire car to use whilst my X-Trail is being repaired. What do you reckon they’ll offer me? See if you can guess, no prizes for the nearest answer.

This is what happens when a Toyota Yaris gets shunted into a Nissan X-Trail.

Yesterday was Al’s stag do. It actually started Friday night with a “quick pint” in the pub, which was notable for not being quick, and involving rather more than a pint. Saturday was started in a slightly fragile state with a carbo-loading massive fried breakfast. Once this was out of the way we headed off over to Hunstrete to go laser shooting, however when we got there I drove past the entrance and stopped, Ryan stopped beind me, and Dan didn’t stop at all, hitting the back of Ryan’s car and shunting it into the back of mine.

Dan’s car wouldn’t start again and came back to Bath courtesy of the AA, Ryan’s car was somewhat shorter than intended and went away on the back of a low-loader, and mine was still drivable so came home under it’s own steam. It’s due to be collected sometime soon to go away for repair, and will be temporarily replaced with a hire car.

After waiting for the other cars to be recovered and dealing with all the insurance faffage we finally caught the train over to Bristol and started the proper drinking, aided partly by the 99p drinks offers in Weatherspoons. Much beer and tequila was quaffed over the course of the afternoon and evening, with a brief pause for food and Margaritas in Las Iguanas. We ended the night at Jongleurs before heading home in a minibus. I eventually fell into bed at 3am at which point it would probably have been a good idea to turn my alarm clock off.

Get well soon to Grant who apparently lost an arguement with a car earlier this evening. Casualties include a fractured collar bone and a bent Pompino.

This new Fatboy Slim album is nothing like Fatboy Slim, what’s going on? This isn’t what we want!

That was just for Simon :)

I ended up spending a couple of hours this afternoon in Royal Victoria Park with Alex, Jo, Ethan and Evie. We spent a couple of hours wandering around in the afternoon sunshine, and I gave the 5D and 24-105IS kit it’s first proper workout.

Path and Tree

Ethan and Evie

Tree

More photos.

Well for me it was productive. My Sundays don’t usually start until Countryfile has finished, but today I was in PC World just after 10:30 to get my new monitor swapped, and I’ve just finished washing the car.

I’d picked up a new 24" ViewSonic monitor yesterday, but it had half a dozen stuck pixels, all well away from the edges of the screen, so after failing to get rid of them it had to go back. The replacement only has one stuck pixel, right over on the left-hand side and I can cope with that so for the moment it’s staying. It’s not as good as my existing 22" Samsung, but is bigger and cheaper and good enough for me.

All the winter grime has been washed off the car, so you can blame me when the weather deteriorates and makes everything dirty again.