Unsung heroes: Skoda Favorit

Nobody laughs at Skoda nowadays. Thanks to the influence of parent company Volkswagen, the brand has become an award-winning mainstream producer of appealing, well-built and highly-regarded cars, and choosing to buy one is a perfectly sensible decision that won't make you the butt of any jokes. Things weren't always like this though and such a remarkable change has come about in less than thirty years. Although they had a small loyal following in the UK, until the 1990s Skodas were generally considered to be crude bargain-basement transport and objects of derision in popular culture. While Volkswagen must take a lot of the credit for Skoda's transformation, it actually began some years before the takeover with the Favorit, the car that marks the start of the transition from the much-derided rear-engined Skodas of old to today's smart modern range and a worthy choice of unsung hero.

A typical early-90s supermini and not something to joke about
(from http://classics.honestjohn.co.uk/reviews/skoda/favorit/)

The plague of disintegrating diecasts

There seems to be a growing epidemic in recent years of diecast models simply crumbling to dust for no apparent reason, leaving many collectors perplexed and upset at the loss of a model through no fault of their own. Known variously as 'metal fatigue', 'zinc rot' or 'zinc pest', this is caused by impurities of lead and other metals in the zinc alloy used in diecasting and should be avoidable with modern production methods, but sadly it seems even expensive high-end models are not immune from it and there is no cure once it has taken hold.

Dream cars: Gordon-Keeble GK1

With Christmas fast approaching, now is a good time to reveal my ultimate dream car in the hope that Santa might be reading. The cars featured on this blog so far reflect my love of the unloved and obscure, and my fantasy lottery-win garage would probably be filled with old everyday transport rather than rows of the supercars and luxury vehicles that most people lust after. I do however have one exotic favourite that is top of my list. Could it be a Ferrari or Lamborghini? No? Then perhaps a Rolls-Royce or a Bentley? Nothing that common, so maybe a Pagani or a Koenigsegg would fit the bill? Nope, it's something even more exclusive than those: the car I would like to own more than any other if money was no object is a Gordon-Keeble GK1. Unless you're a hardcore car geek you've probably never even heard of it so read on to find out why I want a Gordon-Keeble so much...

The object of my desire. Just look at it!

The ethics of unfriending

Some more musings on Facebook, this time the ethics of unfriending and when it is acceptable to remove someone from your friend list, an action that can easily cause offence and awkwardness if not handled properly. I have recently been suffering fairly regular unfriendings by people I considered good friends and over the past few months have seen my friend count steadily decrease. Of course, a user is perfectly within their rights to control their friend list and unfriend anyone at any time, but these unfriendings often come completely out of the blue so why they have chosen to unfriend me is something I struggle to understand. Personally I consider unfriending someone to actually be quite rude and something only to be done with very good reason as there are plenty of alternatives.

The Greatest Show on Earth

Atlas Editions 'Greatest Show on Earth' series review

 

I have previously written about Atlas Editions, so you should be familiar with their business model of offering subscriptions to collections of items. One such collection, announced in 2014, was 'The Greatest Show on Earth', a range of fairground and circus models in 1/76 scale, and as a collector of fairground vehicles in this scale I naturally subscribed to this series. Although I have not received any confirmation that the collection is complete and no further models will be sent, it has been over six months since anyone received a new model and I have exactly thirty so it seems as if it has indeed come to an end and thus I can do a review of the entire collection.

Unsung heroes: Volkswagen K70

If I was to mention the name Volkswagen, there are certain iconic cars everyone will immediately think of: the legendary Beetle, the trendy Type 2 camper and the game-changing Golf GTI. All of those are very much 'sung heroes' though and so much has been written about them that there really isn't anything new to add, so instead I'm going to turn my attention to something a little more left-field that may seem a strange choice to nominate as Volkswagen's unsung hero. This is a pretty obscure car so I guess a lot of you are now wondering just what a K70 actually is, but its rarity belies its great significance as the first front-engined and water-cooled Volkswagen.

The decline of Little Chef

Today I'm going to look at something that not so long ago was a familiar landmark that could be seen almost everywhere and a welcome sight for hungry travellers, but has disappeared in large numbers and is now quite an unusual thing to see: the humble Little Chef restaurant. I had noticed the gradual disappearance of Little Chefs from British roads but didn't realise just how drastically the company had shrunk until I discovered the brilliant Motorway Services Online and ended up spending many hours reading the fascinating information there, including a full history of the Little Chef brand.

This told me that from a peak of over 400 restaurants just 15 years ago, there are now a mere 70 Little Chefs left, which is the lowest figure since the early seventies and a hell of a decline for such a once-popular chain of eating places. Although in many locations they are now a rare sight, there are still two of them within a few miles of each other on my route home from the hospital, at Weston on the Green and Bicester, so for old times' sake I decided to eat at the former after an appointment this week and found it a very nostalgic experience. This is one of the handful of restaurants that were given the 'Wonderfully British' refurbishment a few years ago and has a reputation as one of the best Little Chefs in the country, and certainly I was pleasantly surprised by the clean and welcoming atmosphere and good quality food

A rare sight. The Little Chef at Weston on the Green in its current guise.

Keratoconus and corneal graft surgery

It has been a while since I last wrote on this blog (and to be honest I was expecting it to be even longer than this), but there is a very good reason for my absence. Regular readers may know I have suffered for several years from a condition affecting my vision, which had become very frustrating. Hopefully not for much longer though, as the time finally came this week for me to undergo corrective surgery, and as I write this I am recovering well from the operation. It is a great relief as the eyesight problems were really starting to have a negative effect on my life, causing constant headaches and fatigue and difficulty with simple tasks such as driving and reading, so I was starting to become deeply frustrated by my poor health. 

New records from Ray

Record Review: Song for a Friend and Makes Me Think of Home by Ray Wilson

It is rare for an artist to release two studio albums in the same year, something that would normally leave them short of material, but Ray Wilson has done exactly that in 2016. July saw the appearance of Song for a Friend, followed in October by Makes Me Think of Home, meaning he has put out no fewer than twenty new songs in just a few months. Although these two albums are quite different in feel and were released separately, Wilson had originally intended them to form a double album (provisionally titled Backseat Drivers) and I bought them both at the same time so to me it makes sense to review them together.

Facebook and the tag-comments

I haven't written a tech-related post for a while, so here's one on what seems to a relatively new phenomenon on Facebook that is spreading at a rapid rate and really detracts from the user experience: the 'tag-comment'. I can't be the only one who, when viewing comments on a post, wants to see people's opinions and reactions to it, rather than a huge and meaningless list of names who have been tagged by their friends just to draw their attention to the post.