So, I’m waiting for the HVLP sprayer/compressor to arrive. They alledge that they attempted delivery yesterday; no card, no knock, no doorbell ringing to back that suggestion up. Annoyed, I am. So I’m not able to go out again today; although there’s much less need to leave the house because after shopping yesterday we stopped at Halfrauds on the way home and picked up the DAF’s new throttle cable (universal brake cable inner for a bike), a new set of exhaust rubber o-ring hanger thingies and…
– A Fire extinguisher
– A High Vis jacket
– A GB sticker (with little Euro stars, like I’d have on a modern numberplate, if I had one).
…
This is added to the fleet of things we need to carry:
– First aid kit
– Spare plugs/points/condenser/distributor cap
– Spare bulbs
– Sockets / Spanners / Screwdrivers / Feeler gauge
– Thinking of carrying spare starter and spare dynamo
– Spare exhaust mounts
– Multilingual workshop manual
– Oil / Brake fluid
– Bucket load of prayers.
– Spare fan-belt
As a side point, I also need to mark some km/h markings on the speedo, and I must remember when we get off / on the ferry to switch the headlamps over.
See, I wanted to take Jejy. Jejy’s been quieter, reliable, and clearly at least reasonably maintained for 30 years. Vixy, with her incredibly low mileage (less than 650 miles a year for the first 34 years of her life), has probably barely seen the inside of a garage. Even less so a garage that understood DAFs. The belts are probably all original…. they look okay though.
She makes a variety of interesting noises since the clutch shoes have been changed, all of which I’m putting down to the clutch-shoes clipping bits of unworn drum. I can’t see anything else wrong. I will, however, be booking AA cover for the trip, again – I’m thinking I’ll book cover for a whole year, just incase we decide to toddle over to FOREIGN* again.
Oh, and I’m thinking I want to fit a cigarette lighter, because they’re always handy.
I really want the compressor to arrive today and I want the weather to hold out – because I want to spray the door. I want to spray the door because it has a working window winder, and frankly, I’d like to be able to open the passenger side window on the car – because in France that’s the driver’s side.
Anyhow. Enough angst. I have spent the morning engaged in the useful activity of painting the drawers for the bedroom. I’m trying to bend the piece of pine that’s meant to be skirting board too, exciting as my life is. It’s got the old Denon hi-fi on it (which I ought to freecycle really, considering cleaning the connectors has brought back vinyl into my life). I am now working towards finding the energy to wash-up, and clean the kitchen up.
Chrissy and Lauren are visiting tomorrow – and whilst I plan to spend part of the morning lying under the car, and then over the car (exhaust hangers, fitting the new throttle cable). I’d like the house to be at least fairly neat. I don’t have time to paint the rest of the cupboard – but if I can get the drawers in and varnished then we can put clothes in them. That would be less mess. I can’t do much about the line of albums and records sat in the lounge, but getting the skirting partially fitted would help towards the aim of having them sorted before we go on holiday. Because it’s shite coming back to a messy house.
Am I rambling enough? I think so.
Right. Stop.
* As the world was previously divided in Britain. i.e. Great Britain and FOREIGN (on the rubber mats that came with the car ;) ). Of course, we did have another category – EMPIRE MADE ;)
