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Stopped for lunch at Bala lake edge today, another nice run around the B roads of North Wales...

Well thanks for the ideas guys.so I started looking around for best price on pack safe and after looking at the pictures and thinking "how hard could it be to make one" which is what normally enters my mind so a quick look on fleebay and £30 later and a few evenings work I'm halfway done . 1.5mm stainless steel PVC coated wire rope and a bag large bag of crimps

@ MOT with Pass 🙂

No midgies at KH John...wont comment on the wellies (the paddock is cunningly designed to allow rapid clearance of water viz has a bit of a slope)

couldn’t resist. Sorry.

DVSA do a free MOT text reminder service, it's very good too https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-mot-reminder-service-launches-in-beta

@AdamR top marks for this thread it’s closer to a lot more of us than we think 😎

Yes Jude, and I understand the pope is also a Catholic. 😁😁😁

Wasn't sure where this should go... Stuff? Yeah I guess so. Nonsense? Not a bit of it! Anyway, perhaps I'm a day late with this as Mental Health Awareness week was last week, but here goes I've recently (almost) finished building my car, and all along the way this has had me dancing along a psychological tightrope. Due to various factors I have a tendency to strive for perfection, and this can get me into a lot of self-inflicted trouble (and has done in the past!). In a recent post I decided to 'come out' and share a bit of my story, in the hope that it would help others to be more open about any sort of mental struggles they have had, or are currently dealing with: https://forum.wscc.co.uk/forum/topic/130867-the-lobster-88-se-rebuild/page/41/?tab=comments#comment-1422129 This can be anything from suicidal thoughts, right through to relatively-harmless-but-totally-draining overthinking (something I still do too much - mentally composing email replies at 3am while I'm lying awake, or practicing phone calls in advance!). If this describes you then you're not alone - even within this club - and I have always found the support that comes from all angles when I 'break cover' to be overwhelming, completely the opposite to my original fear of being seen as 'crazy', or being ridiculed, or even excluded. In fact it kinda makes you feel like you're in some sort of exclusive club when people pop up (both 'publicly' and privately) offering similar stories or support and understanding. It's extremely heartwarming. So, I guess the over-riding message is that it is perfectly normal to feel like cr@p sometimes, and that it's absolutely OK when that happens. There is support available all around if you allow it to come into your life. I will personally offer myself as one of these support mechanisms if I'm able to at the time, I'm only a PM away Feel free to share any stories here, you won't be judged and as I said, we'll be part of a (relatively) exclusive club, haha. And don't forget that whatever happens, there's always a fun and engaging toy with a shouty engine sat in / on your garage / shed / drive to allow you to clear your head at the end of a bad day Take care everyone, x

Hi all, just a reminder of the next Warwickshire meeting is on 18th July from around 7.30pm at The Falcon, Birmingham Road, Hatton, CV35 7HA. Hopefully we can have a good turn out as we did last month. See you all tomorrow!

A video of various cars from Fridays track day. 24 minutes of video with other cars, from 1 hour 50 minutes of video track time..I drive on my own a lot is seems 😞 The @KugaWestie 'not so slow' mini at 17mins. Hopefully most people are in the Video somewhere?

We are very lucky to these places on our doorstep (almost). Bob

Just nearly stood in some craic but thankfully avoided it. Ended up booking Sole on south William street which has just won European seafood restaurant of the year so hopefully will be good!

Bob - Apologies, can't make the Saturday (weather looks poor now anyway, Sunday looking better). Cheers, Matt

Cant make it again! Out for lunch for my dads birthday. I will manage to meet up at some point.....

There's a good express bus service from the airport. 12 euro return I think

were of to a log cabin near to east of York 2 nd august we are off to the agricultural show at Thornton le dale its every year so may call on way to museum has its near show ground oh and Julie what smeled lovely the old man

Everything in Dublin is expensive Hotels,Guinness,taxis But the craic is amazing get yourself down temple bar some quality bars and everybody is up for a laugh

24 cars turned out.

Essex monthly meet stated with a hour and a half blat around the countryside then back to Runwell Toby to meet our guests from Essex 7's good turn out nice guys interesting motors.

Sunday morning Blatter's! Really good drive. Nice and quiet 👍

Hi Dave You should enjoy this short video then (if the link works) Barry

On the front at Woolacombe Ilsham marine drive Torbay, the week is almost over so it’s M5 back home on Sunday

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome, thanks Geoffrey for the offer - I will most definitely join you folks (after my holidays the next two weeks!) Please see attached picture 😉

Job done, thanks for the replies

Hi. I have followed this with much interest and I'm grateful for many of the honest posts. I'd like to suggest many if not all will some time in our lives have some challenges. And we are now accepting and discussing these issues more openly which must be a good thing. So let's keep it up and make these discussions acceptable. Not many know I was affected by meningitis a few years back and was very lucky considering what it can do. However I didn't fully escape and have severe hearing loss and tinnitus in one ear. Hearing loss is one thing, the tinnitus which people can't see never leaves me due to the nerve damage and is like being in the car with the window down at over 100 mph. 24 hrs per day. It's seriously loud . Makes being social within a group almost impossible. But what I'm saying is with time the brain can get the upper hand on these things and you can be in control. Keep up the good work and positive thoughts.

This is so true - and it was not that long ago that cancer was referred to as "the C word" that nobody dared mention. We can all change the attitude to mental health in the same way.

Are you lot millennials? Do you not enjoy the suffering of a stream of cold water and road grime being driven into your crotch by the front wheel? But that does look like a good solution, if only there was a no windscreen option.

Couldn't agree more. And without wanting to disparage the general NHS, who after way more experience of, through family illness etc than I’d like, I’m aware have good and bad people, good days and off days. Do be be careful who you reach out to. With hind-site, maybe either a more specialist organisation, or at the very least, someone who you know and trust. Like a damn idiot, I spent months early last year, the end of the year before screwing up the courage to admit to a problem that had spun outside my usual control and to ask for help. I had a different nurse from my regular one at my six month check up, and pretty much managed to force myself to blurt things out. To my horror, she pretty much brushed things off with a “there are lots of people worse off” speech, handed m the samaritans leaflet and punted me out the door. I already had the metaphorical pistol, she basically cocked it and passed it back. I sat for more hours than I can remember staring at my “easy solution” on the dining room table. (Stockpiled morphine from after my Mum had passed away). And in the end, the only thing stopped me taking enough, was the thought of who would look after my pet cat, (who doesn’t meet new people well). It was as close as that. In fact in my head, I was already over the line, and just waiting for the actions of my body to catch up. My regular nurse was absolutely horrified when I asked to never be seen by the other one again, (she dragged the real reason out of me eventually). And set I should have just come straight to her, or the Samaritan’s or similar, and that they would have helped. She also told me one of the nerve pain meds I’ve been on carries a heightened suicide risk anyway, so I should have been immediately fast tracked for treatment. Thankfully, twelve months or more on, im still here, and it’s been a better year, but it still has its moments, and the problem with depression and it’s related issues, is they never seem to entirely go away, but creep back up on you when you don’t expect them. I can’t pretend to offer expert advice, and I know how little you do want to reach out when it gets bad. But do make those calls, and if you can’t think of anyone else, i’ll Listen. (Though you’d be desperate by then!) Oh well, I guess that’s more than five people who know now.

Adam, I am hugely grateful for your post, I have always tried to share my own mental health issues with people I hope will become my friends and acquaintances. Having been a governor on the Bucks & Oxon NHS Foundation Trust for 4 years I have heard so many mental health patients say that no one understands them... that's because we don't share it! Of course, we don't always feel like we want to share, we feel isolated, alone and unable to put it out there - we may never be able to share our own mental health issues... I have spent all of my adult life battling with depression, anxiety and then bipolar. I was lucky to have a husband who supported me through the down times and grounded me during high times... of course, he is no longer with us so I am finding my way forward alone. Yes I know people think I am a bit quirky, a bit unusual but let's face it I am never boring! My grandchildren call me Nana Fou Fou ( google translate!) So thank you Adam, for putting this out there... few of us are 'normal' but it's taken me a very long time to feel at one with my own personality. The Westfield is great therapy, better than meds!

Thanks Adam, there's a little and a lot of this in all of us. I would hope that here in the Friendly Club is as best a place you'll find to share these important themes.

Sorry to miss this but I am still without any working car so I will be stuck under one of my dead cars trying to achieve at least one runner!!!