Zel's Fleet Blog - BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D & 230TE, AC Model 70.

[Gibbo2286]

Those cars came from Rustburg, VA maybe.
Wanna buy a house while you're out the Zel, my daughter has just put her place on the market.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4949 ... 4286_zpid/

[myglaren]

Strange when they are so finicky about emissions, headlight placement, rotating tyres twice a day and changing oil weekly then let the rest fall to pieces.

[CitroJim]

Strange when they are so finicky about emissions, headlight placement, rotating tyres twice a day and changing oil weekly then let the rest fall to pieces.

A perfect illustration of double standards!

[Zelandeth]

Those cars came from Rustburg, VA maybe.
Wanna buy a house while you're out the Zel, my daughter has just put her place on the market.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4949 ... 4286_zpid/

Looks a nice place!

It's been odd being here again after such a long absence. It actually, despite the number of things which are really different to the UK, feels more like home than England in a lot of ways. If it weren't for the complete train wreck that the US healthcare system is I reckon we may as a family give serious thought to relocation to this side of the pond. As it is being a family including two people with mental health issues, a diabetic and a now epileptic stroke survivor, getting health insurance in place here would probably run to a four figure sum *monthly* and heaven help us if we ever needed to claim on it.

-- -- --

Today's rant brought to you by Ford. Specifically this bit of Ford.



I have developed an absolute seething hatred for this centre console since I first encountered it in 2015. Having not seen it for five years hasn't helped endear it to me either. The vehicle dates from 2014 I believe.

When I first saw this I assumed it was a rubber membrane keypad. That's what it looks like. Not the worst idea in something claiming to have off-road credentials (yeah right...), though I had doubts about how hard wearing it would be.

Nope. It's a touch sensitive panel. Which makes those contours they have moulded into it to make it nearly possible to find things by touch totally irrelevant, as even the lightest touch on any control is interpreted as a press. Made worse as pressing several "buttons" changes the operating mode of things requiring several inputs to get back to where you started. If you can even figure out what you did. It's completely impossible to operate without taking your eyes off the road.

So it has all the disadvantages of a touch screen UI, but without the flexibility of a screen.

What on earth were they thinking when they signed that nonsense off?

[CitroJim]

What on earth were they thinking when they signed that nonsense off?

I think that statement can fairly apply to around 99.5% of modern car design and implementation Zel

[Gibbo2286]

Not sure about the '"Train wreck" health care Zel the reason my daughter's home is for sale is that her husband had a brain haemorrhage about five years ago and he needs to be a bit closer to the city, his medical treatment has been impeccable both from his first arrival at A&E and continuing to this day.

They do of course have medical insurance which has covered every aspect of his treatment.

I think if he had been here he would probably have not survived with the state of the NHS.

[Zelandeth]

Not sure about the '"Train wreck" health care Zel the reason my daughter's home is for sale is that her husband had a brain haemorrhage about five years ago and he needs to be a bit closer to the city, his medical treatment has been impeccable both from his first arrival at A&E and continuing to this day.

They do of course have medical insurance which has covered every aspect of his treatment.

I think if he had been here he would probably have not survived with the state of the NHS.

True. Though the quality of care wasn't really the question, more the accessibility and affordability of it.

It's a difficult subject to make sense of, especially with how alien the system seems at first glance from a UK resident's perspective. It's an interesting one to discuss in our house given we've got someone here who's originally from the US, but now lives here and did their university studies on medical science. So we do get to see both sides of the coin a bit more than a lot of folks.

We did look halfway seriously into things a few years ago and our monthly medical insurance bill would have cost very nearly what our current mortgage does - and still had a plethora of get out clauses to try to not pay for anything related to preexisting conditions. The excess was something like $1500 per visit to a specialist too. That was well before COVID appeared too, so it wouldn't surprise me if it was even more pricey now.

I don't doubt for a second that if you can afford it that the quality of care makes the NHS look like a laughing stock. However I know a lot of people over here, many of whom have chronic health problems which are just going untreated simply because they can't afford it. Insulin shouldn't be $100+ a vial, and an EpiPen shouldn't be $300+. Let's not forget the $15,000 bottom line for a routine child birth in a maternity ward. Which is one that a lot of providers like to find ways to worm out of. One of the folks I know suffers from severe epilepsy, and even after their insurance deductions, his meds still run to nearly $20 a dose, three times a day. Double that if he's having a rough day.

There's no huge love lost between me and the NHS either. My father essentially died back in 1995 in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary following follow-up treatment following - would you believe it, a brain haemorrhage. He pulled through the original event fine, the treatment fine, then we are absolutely certain suffered a morphine overdose. This isn't the sort of treatment you recover from then relapse - you either get over it or you don't. He was absolutely fine, though understandably in quite a bit of pain a couple of days after the operation. His main concerns were when we'd let him back out so he could go to the pub and whether the cat was doing okay in his absence. Aside from a headache (given they had basically removed a whole side of his skull for the op, unsurprising!) he was himself, and was up and about and we went for a lengthy walk around the hospital grounds. This was the very warm summer of 1995, and ARI lacked working air conditioning or opening windows, it was an oven! Then we visited the following day it looked like he had aged 40 years, and he was never the same person. Several years of rehab followed, but he never put on his own shoes again, never mind worked again and needed 24/7 care for the remainder of his life until he passed away in 2016. He really should have moved into assisted living at that point, but we basically didn't have a penny to our name and there was no way on earth we could afford it.

Turns out that when my mother passed in 2014, he stopped taking all of his medication. Despite there supposedly being a social work carer visiting him daily. We only found that out when the local doctor initially refused to sign the death certificate as she had never seen him - he'd never even signed up at the surgery when he moved into the smaller house.

The UK care system failed both of my parents time and time and time again. As it is where I live now, the wait for a routine appointment at our medical practice (if you're not picky about who you see) is 6-8 weeks. If you want to actually see your GP in person, probably 12 weeks. "Urgent" next day appointments are only available through their web portal and are released at 1900 the preceding day - and are gone by 1902. Last time I did actually see my GP (in 2017 I believe), I was in the office for a grand total of 6 minutes, and never actually got as far as speaking about what I'd gone to see her about as the obsessed over my blood pressure and went to great lengths to instruct me to "stay away from stress."

I'm in theory lucky enough to have private medical cover through my husband's work - though this has two drawbacks. First is that it contains the usual disclaimer about not covering preexisting conditions under any circumstances. Secondly is that to get going with them you need a referral letter from your GP. Who won't give said letter without physically seeing me. Which kind of defeats the whole "In 95% of cases our doctors can see you in less than 24 hours" blurb they proudly plaster all over the glossy covers of the documents.

The other regular headache we have is with prescriptions. Our GP doesn't allow for automatic repeat prescriptions to be sent to the pharmacy for issue. You have to manually order them every time through the GP's web portal (which is a disaster in itself and falls over on a semi regular basis). They have also opted out of all of the services which will order/collect/deliver medication for you. They won't let you order anything more than 7 days before they think you're due to run out. How long does it take for it to get from there to being ready for collection at the pharmacy next door? Usually 10-14 days. Which isn't great when one of the meds involved is an antidepressant which you NEED to take at the same time every day, and it messes you up for the best part of a week if you miss a dose. So I wind up having to chase them for basically every prescription. That gets really old in a hurry.

On the other hand, I do personally know several folks who work in the NHS, so I know even prior to the arrival of the pandemic how impossibly limited resources they were trying to work with. Which I think is where half of my daily headaches stem from - that our GP practice are running at about 300% of their intended capacity. I know that is pretty much the case country wide, definitely in England anyway. They're vastly overstretched and under resourced and by and large are doing the best they can with what they're given.

Do I know how to fix it? Not a chance. Though the US model in my mind definitely ain't it given that if you can't afford it you're stuck. Healthcare should be a right, not a privilege.

[Hell Razor5543]

I don't know what the NHS NEEDS to get it sorted, but micro-managing is NOT the way to go. The way I describe the NHS system is managed is by analogy, thus;

Imagine you have a full laden 38 tonne articulated lorry travelling down an icy slope, with a curve at the bottom (and an old people's home/primary school/pet rehoming facility (your choice) in the firing line if it doesn't make the turn). You have, at the controls, an experienced driver who has the proven ability to handle the lorry in these conditions. However, you also have a couple of 'managers' who could make distracting suggestions to the driver, and who can (should they wish) interfere with the controls (did I mention the lorry had dual controls?). I wonder what will happen?

[Michel]

You've highlighted the big issue here with the NHS Zel - no "standards" applied. It's almost as though Local Surgeries are run on a franchise basis like a KFC. My local NHS surgery is great! Why can't they all be like that?
They have a website. It works. If I order my repeats, which like yours contain things I must take at the same time each day, the prescription is sent to the pharmacy in our village (I use a surgery in another village) and they call and email me two days later to tell me it's ready. Simple as. I have a phone call from the doctor tomorrow morning - phone in this case is ok, as it's about coming off some of those meds. How did I get this appointment? I filled in their web form on Friday, got an email response a couple of hours later telling me the GP would call on Monday morning. Now, I know near enough where you live, and I know it's a larger area, but we have 11,000 registered at our village surgery, and 15,000 registered at the one I use. I order my repeats online. It's amazing.

Now, their website and system isn't that complex. Something like this, with the same timelines, should be standardised across the country for surgeries. Easier to support if it's all the same, easier for staff to move between surgeries (for example, to cover sickness) However, both my village surgery and the one I use have totally different web portals, one is sh1te, the other is great. Totally senseless.

My mother, step-dad, brother, sis-in-law have all worked in the NHS. My brother started as a mental health nurse, but got fed up of the treatment he was getting, so re-trained as a spark, and works in a hospital as a maintenance electrician. Mother was an RMN, then ran a secure unit for the seriously mentally ill. Step-dad started as a porter, trained as a nurse and worked his way through the ranks to be nursing director at Prestwich mental hospital.

I have acquaintances who've gone to the NHS from major corporates to manage and sort things out, at a high level. Highly paid, and not one of them has lasted more than six months. All resigned after realising that the way it's set up at present will never work properly.

[mickthemaverick]

Unashamed ad for an idea you may not have come across!! Have a look:

viewtopic.php?p=731799#p731799

[Zelandeth]

Interesting to have a few minutes free today while the rest of the group were in a shop and I was about to claw my own face off if I couldn't take my mask off (I've managed to pick up a stinking cold, what fun) so went and sat on one of the plentiful benches and watched the world go by for twenty or thirty minutes.

Interesting to compare the public transport here to in the UK. Lansing is actually quite unusual in that by US standards it actually has a pretty damned good bus network provided by CATA.

The trend in the UK seems to be for cheaper and cheaper and more flimsy vehicles being brought in year on year. Quite a contrast over here. These look to be their main workhorses these days in our area.



Compared to anything in the UK they're built like a brick outhouse. Obviously hybrid drive, and seeming to actually run quite a bit off battery power - out of four buses I saw go through here only one actually had the engine off idle. The interior fit and finish seems very basic by UK standards, but that's just a fact of differing standards on this side of the pond. It's all wipe clean surfaces, including the seats. Which given COVID isn't actually a bad thing now! Despite the lack of seat padding or powder coating on metal surfaces though the seats aren't uncomfortable as they're shaped like actual human beings and the buses ride nicely. They're also fitted with air conditioning, which ACTUALLY WORKS. Something I don't think I've ever come across on a local bus service in the UK.

I haven't tracked down what it actually is yet, but I know someone who drives for CATA so hoping they can find me a fleet list. Says a lot about the company that they officially retired four years ago, but still drives for them part time because he actually likes both driving the buses and working for CATA.

It's also worth noting that whenever I've seen CATA vehicles they've always been nigh on immaculate and near spotlessly clean - even when we've visited in the depths of winter when everything else was plastered in about a quarter inch of road salt. The buses were still clean!

This route over here would probably be operated with something like a bunch of Wright StreetLites...be really curious to see how the comparative purchase costs, weights economy and maintenance requirements stack up.

[NewcastleFalcon]

I haven't tracked down what it actually is yet, but I know someone who drives for CATA so hoping they can find me a fleet list. Says a lot about the company that they officially retired four years ago, but still drives for them part time because he actually likes both driving the buses and working for CATA.

Many look like they are built by NOVA bus (including the oner in the photo), https://novabus.com/buses/bus-models/ part of the Volvo Group.

Regards Neil

[Zelandeth]

I haven't tracked down what it actually is yet, but I know someone who drives for CATA so hoping they can find me a fleet list. Says a lot about the company that they officially retired four years ago, but still drives for them part time because he actually likes both driving the buses and working for CATA.

Many look like they are built by NOVA bus (including the oner in the photo), https://novabus.com/buses/bus-models/ part of the Volvo Group.

Regards Neil

Cheers for that. It does indeed seem to be a Nova Bus LFS. Sounds like they have generally been pretty well behaved by modern commercial vehicle standards. Being an integral vehicle rather than collection of parts from different manufacturers sounds to have made maintenance less of a headache than on a lot of modern buses.

-- -- --

Charity shops in the USA are rather a different kettle of fish to those in the UK. As such I always try to make time to visit a few while I'm over here, my usual targets being old cameras, calculators or the like.

Over here you're looking at stores the size of your average B&Q or big Tesco Extra. Between the four we visited today they contained among other things: more clothing than your average Primark, a complete small block Chevy V8, every household appliance you could think of (washing machine/drier $50, side-by-side fridge/freezer $75), an early 90s Compaq server cabinet the size of a telephone box, a collection of vinyl which would have taken me probably a couple of hours to go through, more CDs, tapes, VHS and even 8-tracks than you could shake a stick at, recent laptops with a warranty, furniture which all looked nearly new aside from the antique stuff, tools from a socket set to a jack hammer and the trailer mounted compressor to run it, and as you'd expect mountains of assorted misc. They are absolute heaven for folks who like to go and have a good rummage for a bargain without anything specific in mind.

The moment I set eyes on this thing I knew I needed it.









I'm going for mid 70s?

Cost me a whole $10.

I've wanted a proper bedside lamp and clock which fits in with the general theme of my room for years. This absolutely does - or will once it's been totally dismantled and cleaned to within an inch of its life anyway. The mech will probably need a good clean and service itself anyway. The volume control is *incredibly* scratchy too, unsurprisingly.

The grooves in the controls in particular are absolutely gross. As the timekeeping on this is handled by a synchronous motor it's locked to the mains frequency so absolutely wouldn't work properly just hooked up to a 240-110V transformer and fed with 50Hz. Thankfully I already have a converter which provides a proper 110V 60Hz supply so that shouldn't be a problem. Once it's had a good service and clean it should work perfectly back home.

The lamp is a 12V 10W automotive one, so I don't need to worry about being unable to find a replacement in future.

Will be a nice little renovation project for when I'm back home I think.

[CitroJim]

Wow! Absolutely love that Wake-O-Matic Zel What a find!

[NewcastleFalcon]

The moment I set eyes on this thing I knew I needed it.

...and for a name-noticer like me...the name...absolute classic!

Regards Neil