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Absolutely, meursault, and thanks. My best wishes to you.

All done apart from one clue which continues to frustrate.
For 1a I've got ?A?AS?EH. I've searched my 12 year old Collins and the internet for the 'tribe' but to no avail. My assumption is that the idiot is 'GALAH' around S?E but I guess that must be wrong as no one on this site has had a problem with it. Would love a hint.

Maneh is a Greek weight

Thanks djawhufc. It's always so ridiculously obvious when you get the answer. I got too fixated by galah.

May I just add my extreme frustration to the growing list of complaints. Thought the grid fill was great, figured out the splitting of the two word 5 letter clues to get the three letter clues to work. Shouldn't be too hard to figure out a six word phrase with twenty out of the thirty letters, I thought.

Several hours later no joy. Admit defeat and look on here, assuming I'll kick myself. It's in German. What a liberty. I would be interested to know if anyone who wasn't previously familiar with the phrase figured it out, and if so how.

Much sympathy smellyharry...I didn't know the phrase either.

Having first solved the central 15 letter word , I had a slight suspicion that it might not be the only foreign word in the puzzle. After staring at the available letters in the phrase , I spotted the *NE and *INE which made me think of the same foreign language. Then I noticed the similarity between some of the letters in the top row and the last letters of the bottom row, and putting them together I found the repeated 7 letter word. Not knowing this word I Googled it and then it all fell into place. So ... a bit scrappy and a lot lucky but that's how I got there.

Soooo - if German is OK should I be on the lookout for other foreign phrases in future. Maybe in Swahili or Urdu??? I'm not a jingoist or xenophobic but surely there are enough English words and phrases without having to resort to foreign phrases that most of us can only deduce with Google et al...

Just echoing others' comments/complaints:

It seems strange that the rigour and clarity in the (enjoyable) clues are absent from the endgame, which is not unambiguous and a little strained. If this had been more satisfactory, then the instruction about inserting bars would probably not have provoked irritation.

Of course, this is all from the solver's perspective; it may have appeared logical and straightforward to the setter.

I suspect (hope!) that the Chambers listing is a red herring. Anyway, it's always possible that the thematic phrase will also apply - literally - to completed solutions sent in.

I think I have a final compete grid (with dubious endgame) but can't quite parse the down clue re money in Scotland. Have finalised answers but some help to quell the nag at the back of my mind would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

I think it goes DOUGH ( money) plus T for it = DOUGHT ( past tense of Scottish word DOW) .