Adding physicality to the abstract of a concept.

So, I’ve had a busy day. Really busy; no; busier than that. But before I get into that; you – people – go watch Hot Fuzz, it’s very funny. Saw it yesterday, laughed lots, really a very silly film.

Yes.

So, today. Well, first up because I’m too late for Snapshot Hunter (I’m really fracking *bad* at getting the shots in on time) here’s what would have been my entry:

And yes, I do indeed need new chain gators for my MZ. Well spotted….

Anyhow, so, on with today. Today was long. No, seriously, it was long. The concept was: Collect van, collect trailer, fly to mum’s, collect money, fly to Bristol, collect Nikki, fly to Wales, collect the car, frly back to Bristol, drop off Nikki, fly back to my mum’s, drop off the car and the charger, fly back to home and drop off the trailer (before they shut) before finally, ideally dropping off the van before *they* shut.

It didn’t quite work out like that. I was a bit late arriving at Bucks Car Hire; but then I don’t see the point in sprinting there for 0830 when both times I’ve been there for 0830 they’ve been….shut. So we commenced the day at 0845. Not too bad.

Then I filled up with derv, well, filled the van up with derv, not myself. Uuuh, and collected the trailer. I had a bit of a chat about using the trailer; despite my lovely licence being adorned with many exciting things I’ve not *actually* driven with a trailer before (although I’m entitled by my licence to drive a fuck-off-big-van with a fuck-off-huge-trailer; not just a little dinky van with a trailer, which is what I did today).

Anyhow, so van hitched to trailer and fun and games explained I headed out to Bristol.

And without too much trauma made it to Nikki’s house. Although to get the trailer into their courtyard I ended up unhitching it. While I was just about working out how to get the trailer where I needed it with it hitched, a lorry turned up and rather than sit in their way for a few hours I just unhitched it and moved it.

Having collected Nikki, and somewhat fatefully, Pepper we continued on down the motorway to Wales.

Now, I haven’t got any photos of the car in Wales, there are several reasons for this; one is that it was pissing with rain as we loaded up the car, and, well, I got quite wet (although, for reasons I shall come to, I was already a bit damp) and thus was in a hurry; another is that Nikki had her camera, which is somewhat better resolution than mine, and she was merrily snapping away, but the main reason is that I came to understand with a real deep, physical awareness, what the phrase ‘as sick as a dog’ actually means.

I’ve travelled in vans with Pepper a grand total of twice. On both occasions poor Pepper has been sick. Last time Pepper was sick on the floor, but today, Pepper was sick…. on me. Mostly, thankfully, on the van. But also on my bag (now in the bin…) and also on me. Nikki (who I thank from the bottom of my heart for coming and helping) works out today that if you feed Pepper not too long before a car journey he’s sick! Gaaah! ;-) You have to bear in mind that I didn’t have a change of clothes… and so rushed in to meet the very nice chap selling the car, who kindly showed me to the outside toilet where I scrubbed at my trousers with soap and attempted to rinse the worst off; while Nikki attempted to clean the van.

Unfortunately, for the rest of the trip, the Van smelt of dog-sick. At least, until we got back to Bristol where I forgave Febreeze for all it’s sins; and sprayed it merrily all over my trousers and the van seat. I’m hoping that after 3 doses the smell will be weak enough to pass off as non-existent.

Anyhow, so, we got the Enfield onto the trailer without too much difficulty, and even more impressively, the charger into the van…

The Enfield charger kinda dates the car. In many respects the enfield is not far off modern city ev’s; in fact, it can easily be made *better* than a lot of modern city EV’s, but the charger is a good old fashioned fracking huge transformer in a *BIG METAL BOX*. It needs to be set up correctly for the batteries in my mum’s EV, anyway, before we do anything with it. So I need to talk to our resident EV guru.

And lo, here is the Enfield sat on a trailer:

And from the back…

And yes, that’s Nikki untying the Enfield…

And here’s a slightly better shot of the car, once it was unloaded…

Apparently they kept changing the design of the interior, certainly the location of the dials and gauges seems to vary enormously from car to car (here’s the three shots (1) (2) (3) of the dash of the other Enfield I looked at, the for-restoration one)

And finally, here’s the front. It’s been slightly modified in so far as it’s got a grille from a Rover stuck on; with the rover badge replaced with an Enfield logo. I can’t quite decide what I make of it (the original look is here).

Unfortunately, it needs a new horn and a new MOT. But hopefully, we can get it all sorted quite quickly. However, what is bad is that having played a little with it; one is more tempted by the sickly one. Which, fortunately is being stripped for spares; otherwise I’d be tempted to do something silly.

At any rate, I didn’t get back to home until about 7:30, by which time I was pretty tired, but I did do one more useful thing before collapsing on the sofa…

….with the rather nice dinner my mum very generously left for me (and the desert. Home grown strawberries, some raspberries and a nectarine all chopped up and with cream. Nyum).

And now, now I intend to sleep.