GrumpyOldGuy

Indeed, but Clam Chowder in a hollowed out sourdough bread is even better.! Eaten strolling along the Wharf.........!

Yah, and number.... 9) Proper SF Sourdough bread - never found that taste anywhere else. 10)Some local wines - the Napa valley close by produces some of the best boutique wines and they are really cheap. 11) Chocolate from the GHIRARDELLI chocolate company, famous in SF. 12) A plastic souvenir from Alcatraz Island - its rubbish but ya gotta have one. ......Forget the bicycle stuff, you wont have space.

Wow, that is a great picture, kinda reminds me of "Christian the lion" - also a great feel good story.

Yah, Led Zeppelin were great, lots of good music, but Stairway to heaven was an epic piece indeed.

Yah, these electronic keys are helluva expensive, plus mine had to be coded at the dealer, even though the car was still under maintenance plan the re coding of the key and the computer was for my account.

Sure, and close to you, PM sent.

Yah, thats really not good, I dropped my Audi key into the pool once and it cost me 4 k for a replacement, and some of the codes had to be reset at Audi later as well, was a real headache. Later, I found a locksmith down near my holiday house in the Vaal who does generic keys for BMW, AUDI etc, he re codes them on site and I think it was about 1.5 k - he says they work fine, I dont know but its a significant difference in price, however I am sure there are others around, just call around to some of the better locksmiths if you want to go that route, - but obviously just remember if the car is under any maintenance plan or something rather stick with the BMW originals or it may become a warranty issue. Hope you find it.

Yah, if its working then its worth hanging in. Gout is a bugger, my boet gets it quite often, if its not too severe he takes a herbal medication "Devils claw??" I think its called, otherwise he gets something from the doc. ....BUT maybe its worth having a doc look B,Ben, I am not sure gout goes away when you are up and about unless its fairly mild maybe, I dont know, but it might be something else. I find if I start increasing my running distances or lay off for a while and start again I get terrible "Planters Faciitis" which means I need to go off to the Doc for some anti-inflammatories to help it settle down as well as wear a special insole in my shoe for a week or two, ...........when I was younger that never happened, but Yah, it sucks getting old.

I think what you mean is anyone but the official importer selling the product would be doing so outside of the manufacturers officially recognized channels and the goods may not be warranted, it is however perfectly legal to sell in the context of SA law. SA is a free market country, which means anyone can import anything (obviously within reason) and has a right to sell it on as long as it has passed through the regular SA requirements like customs, and all duty and relevant taxes are paid up. This is know as a parallel import and is very, very, common, note its "parallel Import" and not a "grey import", which is a product that has been imported through dubious or illegal means, by unregistered importers and usually incorrectly or not declared at all to SARS to reduce duty or taxes, thereby giving the importer an unfair advantage) - It is very important to note the differences, Parallel Imports and Grey Imports are not the same thing. Only if it could be proved the product was "Grey" would it be illegal to resell.

Ah, Hah, ........you and my wife would get along just great..............I always felt you can never have too many estate agent branded wine or champagne glasses around,............

Ha, Ha, yeah, my cycle rides are too short for my wife's liking, she much prefer it when I disappear for the day on the golf course, although I have been told if I bring home another branded rain umbrella or cheap pop up toaster I won I will be in serious trouble.

Yeah, I am also tired of him, theres a time to come and a time to go,..........Charles Fortune was also great at one stage.!

Oh yeah, I agree. My daughter has long ago finished school and varsity so I have sort of fallen out of touch of the price of education today, but just listening to some folk at a dinner the other day it seems you would not get too much change from your 30k per month salary sending two kids to private school in Jhb these day either. Its quite shocking really.

Hmm, interesting that, .....the manager playing down some good form, or the truth I wonder.?

Yeah, but what if you lived 50 kms from work as many do, start at 7 and finish at 5 and do manual labour daily. Thats the reality for many, and cycling 50 kms in the freezing cold after a day laying bricks and lugging concrete up and down a building site for 9 hours is not feasible, it can work in some environments but not many unfortunately.

Yeah, but it will only apply to certain industries DD, if one looks at production lines at factories, engineering workshops etc they cant work flexi hours, the guys that run the lines and do the tool work all have people upstream and downstream who first start and later continue their work, it would be a logistical problem of biblical proportion to co-ordinate that kind of system. I guess it could work in certain area's, perhaps as you say, the IT community, sales staff, etc where they have a slightly more flexible time system and any reduction of traffic can only be good, but, I fear its never going to be a daily reality for many unfortunately.

- Yah, quite entertaining, I had a good chuckle at the Phil Liggett story.

Yah, the Sunday Times had an article on income required for a four person family to maintain a basic living standard, no frills, kids to public schools, 1.2 mil bond repayment, private medical, insurance, etc, have two small cars and maybe save a small amount monthly for a rainy day, and it was estimated 30k per month income was the minimum. .....and you are correct on the cost of food in the USA and Canada, its substantially cheaper for basic commodities, even meat from a supermarket is not that much more expensive than here, depending on the cut its pretty much on par. The only thing I found more expensive in the USA than here was toothpaste, go figure, for some reason its about 30% more expensive for the same brands we get here, but then one can get local brands like "Crest" which is much on a par.

I felt like a bit of rock n roll, so I put on U2 - The Joshua Tree, this is one of my favorite songs on the album, turn up the volume and enjoy ( it only starts at 2 minutes in) but I kinda like the lead up.......30,000 people arrived watched this live shoot.....incredible...!

- Yeah, it is.! I hear what you say and I am in agreement on the injury issue, but I am still not sure its legal to disadvantage someone due to your component upgrades over which they have no control. Its a toughie I guess, I would be interested to see case studies on similar incidents / occasions and the relevant rulings, I think it would make relevant, if somewhat boring reading.

- Yah, Yah,........ like Capt said lets use "the reasonable man test" and as a reasonable man (or at least I like to think so ) I would not expect to carry costs associated with a warranty claim. ........but theres a famous saying that say's "Theres the way it should be,... and theres the way it is...!" ...and it seems to fit here.

Sure, but then that not a warranty, thats an "agreed part payment plan" if things go wrong. A warranty should cover all the costs of putting you back in the position you were before the breakage with no costs to yourself.

Indeed, but this is the crux of the matter really, as a client I would expect that the distributor reimburse the retailer, who is in fact an authorized extension of his sales chain for the costs the retailer incurs in putting my warranty claim to bed, that it is not happening is obvious, and hence the cost implication to the client, but, like the OP, that would not have been my expectation.

Hmm, not sure thats correct legally as there is no consequential damage to the parts, they are simply an upgrade or different in size or fit, that is not the clients fault, and in my opinion he would be unfairly disadvantaged if they used that clause as an excuse.

Okay, fair enough, I hear what you are saying, but if a shop is an authorized representative of that distributors brand, then surely they should also be bound by the warranty. Personally I would not think its normal to take a product in for a warranty repair / replacement and end up paying for parts to be fitted and removed, as you say its possibly the way things are, but I dont think its right. One could really extrapolate it forward and say if my dishwasher breaks down and Samsung sends out a private but authorized repairman then he can charge me for opening the machine, checking whats wrong and replacing it all afterwards? Samsung only needs to cover the broken spring.? because thats really what is happening here. But as we know, Samsung will cover the cost to repair my machine and put it back in working order including the costs of stripping and replacing, surely that should be the way with a repair here too.??