Superb, Old-Nail (you can't see, but I'm bowing to the screen, hands outstretched.)

The old lady is a great character - they all are.


Envy, envy, envy...

(ER, why is the boot lid so rusty...?)

Ooh-la-la.

The boot lid is so rusty simply because I like rust. I've actually seen cars like that, I could have toned it down of course by adding some faded paint here and there, purely a personal whim.

Glad you noticed the registration.

This has been a fascinating read. Who'd have thought we'd learn all about painting techniques on a 2CV forum? Cheers O-N.

Maybe we should start a "Useful Off-Topic Skills" thread. Anyone got any hitherto unshared skills? Beer making? Gin brewing? etc.

I used to make all my own beer, back in the days when I had time. It's a lot easier than it looks (and no, I'm not talking about kits!)

I make bread. French style. It rocks!

Carb problems on the 2cv now. having cleaned out the float bowl of what appeared to be syrup I can only guess that it was sugar and not beer that was put in my tank. Unless it was a sugary drink?

This raises an interesting question. How many people walk around with sugar in their pocket? My guess, none! However, according to my dad the people who live in the house that I parked in front of that day are perpetually complaining about people parking outside of 'their' house, as if by some extension they also own the public road in front of it. Hmmm.... now houses usually have sugar.

If you don't think they'd go that far think about this. On Christmas day In the mid 1980's I bought my two sons a bike each, the kids were aged about six and eight back then. So off they went, eager to play outside on their new Christmas presents, my only proviso was that they only rode them on the pavement in front of the row of houses where I could see them, as although we didn't live on a main road but it was still a bus route.

Within an hour both kids were back with multiple punctures, both bikes had front and rear tyres completely flat. I asked them what had happened and they told me that the old woman in the end house (who never set foot outside of it) had waited until they got to the other end of the street before pouring a box of drawing pins across the pavement. That old hag had done that to two young kids on Christmas day!

I shall consider my response.

Jesus - what a bi*ch.

The old 'sugar in the tank' trick is well known, but I've personally no idea what it actually does - I didn't even know that sugar dissolved in petrol. Any idea what sort of damage it can do? Apart from sweeten up your carb?

Are your folks planning on moving any time soon? Once they do, the revenge on various neighbs could be even more sweet than these ar***ole's dirty trick.

Fingers crossed, Old Nail - http://www.snopes.com/autos/grace/sugar.asp

I remember, as a kid, trying to dissolve sugar in a jar of petrol after hearing of this nasty trick. I thought it would burn rather well if it did dissolve - but it didn't. Dissolve, I mean.

Another site suggested that it would or could cause damage by dissolving and then being burned in the cylinders - this would produce a caramelised mess inside the pots which would then solidify when the engine was allowed to cool. However, the first site above says it's all urban myth...

Have you tried sucking the contents from the bottom of the tank? Looks like a tank-off job might be worth while anyway? Once you carb is cleaned and the engine up and running again, perhaps a fuel additive - y'know, the type that helps clear carbon deposits, etc inside the cylinders - might be advisable?

What a b'st'rd

Yep. they are 80 + and have worked hard all their lives - and then some. Yet they still live in a council house.

I believe Mr. Cameron and Mr. Osbourne have now decided that they will need the old family home to house a large group of Somalian chancers that have come straight off the boat, and having heard the news the other week, my parents gave me a folder which contained details of the little money that they have managed to scrape together, with which to pay for their own cremation.

It's F ucking heartbreaking.

They have lived and paid rent in that council house for forty three years, in other words the poor buggers have bought it several times over. It would kill them to be forced out now, hence the preparations that they handed to me.

Sorry, but you did ask. Ain't life grand.