Fuse mystery (to me)

I've had all 4 Mazda 323F roof bar mount cover plates stolen. Dealer £5 each.

All 3 wipers. Dealer £60.

2 front euro blade wipers from Tesco £10 (couldn't get to scrap yard on Sunday). Cover plates and rear wiper from scrap yard £2 + a cut down wiper refill I had in the cupboard for last 15 years (knew I'd need it one day).

Galling thing is I saw the C**T nicking them and didn't twig, just thought he's got a Mazda 323F as well and drove off (in my other car). It was parked for 5 days 100m up road from house so it was safely above high water flood mark and this C**T thought, "POS has been there 5 days, must be abandoned, so I'll strip it for spare parts!"

Have you ever considered moving somewhere less pikey?

I live in the village conservation area in a grade II listed property. You can buy a picture postcard of a watercolour painting of the road and stream in the local post office. It was parked within 100m of Rolleston on Dove Church. Scene of the crime was just to the right on this Xmas card.

The problem is the massive increase in rented property in all villages. Jez Clarkson says Burton on Trent is the pits but it's surrounded by some of the nicest villages in England.

Except that brook can be 10ft higher, then it's 6" deep in the living room. 2012 was 1-2ft short of high water in 2002.

In compensation I've sat on my doorstep and watched a kingfisher. Please come to the transport festival, bank holiday 26th May 2014, hopefully it won't rain this year. Sun came out in afternoon and it had dried out when I took my photos. They had a Bugatti Type 38B visit this year (I think it got pretty much everywhere this year as I saw it on the M1 a few weeks later and in Lichfield later in the year). They used to race ducks but it was banned due to the damage a rampaging escaped duck could do to the environment.

The kingfisher was in your living room?

And?

You still appear to be living near pikey scum.

I've lost count of the number of times I've accidentally left a car unlocked on the drive, or my garage unlocked, since we moved here. Yet nothing has happened.

Just as well you don't live round here. I've lost count of the number of times I've left my BMW locked - only to find it unlocked the next day. And rifled through. Perhaps twice a year in the 15 or so I've had it. BMW say it's impossible without a key - but I have all the sets that came with it new.

What can happen though is one fails without being noticed. So when the other does and it is noticed, the reaction is to think they've both failed at the same time.

Me too, and I've lived in some quite notorious areas.

Notable exception being a mk2 Golf GTI. The local apprentices seemed to consider it a rite of passage.

Quite a few years back, we were out one night. Both headlights worked when I parked. Later, I got back in, started it, turned the lights on, and they went bright-dim-bright-off. Both of 'em. First thought was relays or fuse. Nope, turned out to be bulbs. Both of 'em.

I'd replaced one when I bought the car, a few years before. Both the replacements were still in when I sold it several years later.