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Bet it would have been ready if you'd taken the finance & gap, wheel, paint, interior and all the other insurances.

After the cold the previous day, we thought it would be a good plan to move further south to Greece for some sunshine. Of course, that lined up nicely with a thunderstorm where we were going! We booked a hostel in Thessaloniki for some shelter and set off early to try to get there ahead of the weather. At the border crossing, I got pulled over by the Bulgarian security. "nice car, but you've got a problem" he told me. He then went on to say that I hadn't paid the road tax, or vignette. I had, and I knew I had done it right, as it had been checked by the police when we got pulled over for a photo op the previous day (oops, forgot that from my last post!). He looked a bit bemused when I whipped out the receipt, and then tried to claim that I'd mistyped my registration, confusing a 0 with an O (I hadn't), before acting as though he was doing me a favour and letting me off this time. The clouds were looking a little threatening on the way down, but didn't quite look like they were going to break. Joe was getting a little nervous with my optimism about staying dry though, so about an hour out from the hostel we pulled over to put the hood up. The hostel was down a maze of one way streets and sure enough we had driven past the garage entrance before we realised it. We pulled over and I ran in to ask them to open the garage for us, and while I was doing that, the heavens opened. I had to do a loop of the block to get back to the garage, and in the streets there, that took 10 minutes, just about enough time for me to stay dry inside! The frustrating thing was that if we hadn't stopped to put the roof up, we would have made it in the dry! Once we were checked in, showered, and fed with some gyros, we cracked open a couple of beers and sat down to relax (and post a few updates on here). The hostel (Crossroads hostel) was one of my favourites so far. Only space for 14 people, ran by two best friends who just decided to set it up about 5 years ago. Hadn't been packed as full as possible for maximum profit, but just to a comfortable level, and had a really relaxed vibe. We spent a good bit of time chatting to two of the other guests, one Austrian and one Swiss. The Austrian was just in the final few days of his trip, having been to a load of the places planned in our next few weeks, so we got plenty of pointers, and the Swiss guy was from 10 minutes down the road from a few of our other potential hikes! Plenty of people have told me I'm crazy for driving the Westfield on a trip like this, and if I'm honest, I couldn't wholeheartedly disagree, but this Swiss guy, at 19 years old and fresh out of school, had cycled from Alps down to Greece on his mountain bike. That's commitment!

Having one big hike under our belt, we decided to continue the tradition the next day with another big one around Seven Rilla Lakes. We had about a 3 and a half hour drive to get there, then a chair lift up to where the hike started. The chair lifts stop running at 4:30 and we figured on about a 4 hour hike, so getting there at lunch time seemed to work. We hadn't quite anticipated the pricing though. After paying for parking, we only had enough money for chairlifts up, so had to add an extra 2 hours to the hike back down to the cars! It was a little chilly at the start of the chair lift. 20 minutes later, we were surrounded by snow! Very different views to what you see if you Google the place but it was absolutely beautiful anyway. We hiked up to the summit but it was above the cloud line, so we didn't stay too long! By the time we got back to the chair lift, it was nearing 5 o'clock, so we would have missed the last lift down anyway which made us less annoyed about the extra few km back to the cars. We also came across more great views on the way down. We had planned to camp nearby, but realising how cold it was at this altitude, we thought it would be best to drive a little lower down before making camp. We found a spot down a dirt track away from a main road to set up. Chris's mx5 needed a little shove once or twice when it got stuck, but the westie made it without issue thanks to the realisation that I can sit on the tunnel and drive it with all 4 corners in view to navigate the tricky bits! It was made a little difficult by the fact that my clutch pedal had been acting up though. It had started "popping" when I was releasing it a couple of days before but was working fine and I just hadn't had time to diagnose it, but suddenly it has become quite hard to press more than half way. I assumed an old favourite garage yoga position with my legs over the roll bar and head in the foot well to find this: The nut at the back of the clevis had wound itself off. Sure enough, in not being quick enough to diagnose and fix the issue, I'd damaged the thread too, so couldn't just nip it up. Instead I had to take the pedal out of the way entirely, wind the other nut out until it bound at the end of the threads (not sure how or why, but it did), and then use this as a reaction to allow me to wind the other nut back out. After much swearing, the end result was a very high clutch pedal, but at least it was working again!

Cracking run out today, no rain, not that cold, and the sun came out when we got to Bala PonderosaPonderosaBlue sky's over Bala LakeThe lake was like a mill pond

Hi Andrew..yes I survived..just..quite a lot of Clio's Astras etc there plus BMW's Honda's etc.. pouring with rain track soaked..did the three sighting laps and then thought I would wait before I went out and let the lads get their testosterone levels down.. after the second or third laps one of the guys stuck their car into the barrier on start finish straight..one hell of a bang and destroyed car and destroyed Armco.. luckily driver ok but took over an hour to repair the damage.. I went out and had a good run, but heeded your advice and took it easy on the straights because at 70 mph things got quite twitchy.. Phil who shares the car went out and managed to spin it going up the hill on the long straight round the back! There were a number of red flags with others parking in the Armco! To be honest the worst thing was not being quickest on the straights and having to let others past..and with the small mirrors and terrible conditions I was waiting for someone to hit me from behind! However going round copse and the following corners in the wet was awesome, as was the gooseneck etc..the mountain was outright scarry trying to keep in a straight line and hall bends and barn was like ice! After lunch the rain stopped and later on there was a dry line and it was fantastic..car was handling really well with loads of grip..but get off line and it was exciting!! At end of day I had a really long full tank stint on a nearly empty track which was a fantastic way to end the day..with both drivers and car in one piece!!

In fact the nova was parked not far from us..it was actually not too badly smashed up..considering the impact... Yes croft a bit of a trip..and if meaty pants takes Lionel it will definitely be wet!!

Agree, what a bonus, the weather was lovely over in Wales after drizzle first thing. Just put the car away after removing the usual cow poo and general road muck. Bala lake was like a mirror. Thanks Jeff for organising and route planning.

Not in the same way as yesterday, I hope!

Yeah cracking afternoon😎

If the weather is dry I'm up for a spin around the beautiful peaks.

Might have @a15cro and @Kris Mc joining in with luck too

Me, @syman84 and Lionel chomping at the bit (Insert pic of current mx5 status here)

Bit harsh referring Julie to that angry faced young "lady" that badly needs her legs slapped! Simon

We prefer to run mini offers on many various parts instead of running a monthly offer on the same parts. We feel it benefits more customers by offering discounted parts on a few occasions each month. Instead of running 12 offers a year, potentially we could offer between 24 - 40 offers in the same period. The offers would be hitting broader audience and the parts alter each week/offer, instead of monthly. It also depends on stock availability. If we receive a large quantity of stock, we offer discounts on what we have here to clear it. If this was done on a month by month basis potentially, stock levels would drop to a reasonable level before we have chance to offer them at a discounted price. Regards Patrick

This might be for sale if interested

There’s one just about to come up for sale that might suit but you will need to up your budget. it’s a 2016 registered FW Special Edition Zetec built to a very high standard by one of our local members. I know the car well and Dave will be posting an advert later today. look in tech talk section for the car built by @Sand Dancer

Try...

b*******, I’ll have to count them now.