Category: General

I promise, it’s not all car stuff. Skip the first 3 paragraphs to skip the car talk.

It has, by my standards, been a while since I updated. This is because I’ve been busy and/or tired – having come off nights my body’s been rebelling; not wholly unusual, but not that common either. We’ve singularly failed to achieve the positively huge amount of work we needed to do on the house this week; but Jejy is sporting a new front wheel bearing and her exhaust is only leaking a bit now; Vixy has been to the garage and returned with new wheel cylinders. Vixy’s also sporting two brand new spark plugs, it looked like she was running ‘a bit rich’ – so that’s been tweaked (the new gunson fuel-mixture-doojit has been tried out – and as someone once said to me ‘the mixture screw’s really not very fine adjustment on a DAF’; 7 screws in (more lean) and it was continuing to show a pale blue flame – which is what it ‘should’ be – but it said that when I started adjusting it; the plugs said she was running rich, so I made her run more lean.

I think she might be a bit easier to start. The huge, vast, enormous hole I discovered in her exhaust does worry me a bit. I slathered half a tin of Gun-Gum on it, and that was no-where near enough. I’m still holding out for the DAF person on my mobile to message me and proclaim he’s found one (or two) silencers. That would help.

Jejy continues to burn the output of OPEC. The parts for Rebecca’s gearbox continue to be MIA and ESM still list king pins as ‘hopefully end of may / june 2009’.

Anyhow.

What we have done, or at least did do, yesterday with our week off was spend a day in London. This was, of course, not because we had a sudden desire to spend the day in London; but instead because my allergy clinic appointment was due. I’d expected that, as usual when I go off anti-histamines the day would be spent with me having streaming eyes and nose, and being fundamentally miserable.

It was not the case.

I’ve been more or less the same – itchy eyes – a bit more sneezy, but not desperate. That’s pretty much been the case all this year; I’m not quite sure why. Pollen counts may be lower… anyhow. So rather than waste a travelcard on a simple trip in and out we decided to head into London for a bit of a wander. First up we hit a shop I’ve been dying to take Kathryn to, it’s a chocolate shop which has an incredibly good reputation; since reading an article on Boing Boing last year – we’d made it to the door – but he’d been shut that day and we could only gaze at the temptation within.

Anyway, this time we made it in to Paul A Young Fine Chocolates and well worth it, the trek was, if I say so myself. I’m not a big chocolate person, in fact, I generally don’t buy it myself; I buy it for Kathryn because I know she adores it. I don’t eat much dark chocolate because I’m a heathen, and so for me to recommend a chocolate shop it’s got to be pretty damn excellent. The chocolates were delicious. Dark chocolate and delicious, words I do not commonly put in the same sentence. We had dark chocolate truffles; and I got Kathryn some seconds, which she’s not tried yet (and therefore I’ve not tried either).

Comes highly recommended.

Anyhow, then we headed over to Borough Market – down by Guy’s Hospital (where the allergy appointment is). We could have spent so much there.

We ended up having Pie for lunch (PIE!) from thePieminster stall, fruit juice from another stall; coffee and tea from two further stalls, buying artisan baked bread to bring home (and some fruit beers (from belgium, I think)); and resisting the temptation to spend more simply because it would have to sit in a warm hospital for a couple of hours. It is always delightful to spend time in these markets, around people who care about the food they produce and sell, who know their products, and who aren’t just in it for the money.

The coffee was excellent by the way.

Despite being close we didn’t go to Neal’s Yard Dairy. This is probably fortunate. I didn’t even buy any cheese from the many cheese retailers, because I’m very good. And it’d’ve got spoilt.

Having munched our lunches sat on the grass by Southwark Cathedral we headed off to my appointment to get jabbed with pointy pointy needles.

The interesting (and very surprising) upshot of which is that I’m going to have immunotherapy to try and coax my immune system to stop overzealously attacking pollen, but it appears to only be pollen I’m allergic to. The other thing I’m potentially allergic to, or which is exacerbating somewhat my allergy symptoms is, rather worryingly, my medication.

Oops.

I’m hoping to organise a trip to my endocrinologist, and we’ll discuss if I should change my meds, and whether it’s worth trying or not. It would be nice not to be gunky all year round.

After we left, and because the clinic was running somewhat behind (it’s okay, I’d brought my copy of The Fifth Elephant (spoilers) which I picked up from a charity shop, an unsigned first edition!), we thought we’d head to the Tate Modern; unfortunately we arrived just in time to see it close. Having decided to stay in London for the evening we uhm’d and ah’d and at the possibility of seeing a play at The Globe. Eventually we decided to at least see what play was on (since three were listed as currently playing) and found out that it was The Comedy Of Errors – which sounded entertaining, unfortunately they were sold out. Fortunately, they informed us that the person sat over there has two tickets to sell. Please buy them outside the theatre if you do want to buy them.

After some more debate, we plumped for forking out the 30 quid for the seats, and watched a very entertaining Shakespeare comedy before eating out at Pizza Express. Thanks to not realising that Blackfriars tube’s shut (uh, ’til 2011, so we decided not to wait) we unfortunately missed the last train back to our little local station, leading us (well me) to curse First Great Western’s lackadaisical approach to transporting people on their trains (and don’t get me started on their ‘replacement bus services’), which was a bit of a shame after such a pleasant day…

…and meant we got home at one am. And now I feel old, because a few days of late nights and I’m comprehensively tired…

DAF pictures are here.
Food pictures are here and here.
Garden birds are here.

Well, I think I’m getting better at this staying up before nights m’larkey. I read some of my exciting Minor Injuries book (although I’m still reading about how Nurse Practitioners need to tread a fine line between nursing and not-being-doctors) – it’s kind of scary actually. Suddenly my ‘you should’ve gone to the GP’ lecture would be redundant – were I trained enough to be an NP. I’m not, though, so you can still expect that if you come to the ED with your 6 month old ache because ‘I was just passing and thought I should get it checked out’.

Yuh hu.

Anyhow, so I’ve just finished reading Trek (by Paul Stewart) – apparently it’s a slightly inaccurate rendition of an attempt to cross the Sahara in the trusty Morris Minor – I admit, while I’d’ve probably been intrigued by it, it’d’ve probably not made it on to my big-ol’-list-of-things-I-want had it not have featured a moggie. At any rate, in reality it is only the small car nature of the Moggie which really features, it could have been any 1950s small family saloon; the book itself is really about the people and the challenge.

It’s interesting, in a way, too, because it features the Empire, that which has disappeared from view and to me (and possibly most people my age) is something so distant and unrelated to the modern world that it’s hard to imagine. It’s funny to think that I have been on this Earth longer than the ‘British Empire’ ceased to exist before I was born.

The very idea of a British Empire seems faintly absurd, we’re tiny, after all – and while I joke about countries which ‘used to be ours’ and the concept that ‘we used to own that’ – as I kind of marker for many strange things in the world, I somehow forget that the joke is based in a really quite disturbing reality. That as a nation Britain did some really terrible subjugating of other countries. What is also interesting, however, is reading the flip-side of the history. The presentation of which makes Britain seem like less of a terrible empire builder, at least, in some ways.

Anyhow, the book doesn’t need an interest in Minors to make it interesting; it does require a suspension of disbelief. I am going for ‘fictionalised around real events’, either that or Peter’s diary was way more detailed than the direct exerpts suggest. Nikki did say to not look too deeply, and I’m not.

In other news, I’m continuing to watch ‘The Wire’, season 2 of which is proving interesting too; it’s silly of me to choose to watch it, I’ve got rather a lot of work to do, and tomorrow – prior to work – needs to be a paperwork day. I have also realised, somewhat unfortunately, that Trek, being newly purchased (but second hand, I promise!) doesn’t really fit into our overburdened bookshelves. Capacious they are not. Carefully organised they are, at least since we took ’em down and put ’em back.

And in other, other news, okcupid continues to send me ‘friend matches’ and one, possibly two, of them look like interesting and not vastly non-local people (London, unsurprisingly). I have mailed one, as part of a whole raft of ‘being nice to people and making friends’ ideas.

But now, since it’s past 3 in the morning I’m going to fall into bed. Wish me luck on the ‘morrow, for I return to the place of work where I can look forward to 12 hours of hard slog…

We made this (Rustic Greek Pie with Mushrooms in Balsamic Vinegar (Sauce?):

It tasted awesome. We made it using the cookbook bought from Costco, vegetables from our local farm shop (uh, and Sainsburys)… I can’t really say how much I love cooking with Kathryn, it’s sort of quality time, chatting, cooking, kissing, cuddling. Yeah, okay, we’re still revolting.

I just can’t say how much I enjoy being around Kathryn; and that our lives intertwine….anyhow.

We actually did some socialising – we suggested going out for a drink with a colleague / friend of Kathryn’s from work (‘m not sure how to describe their current status) – a while back; finally we actually did something about it and headed into London last night for a very nice dinner (Pizza / Lasagne) at an incredibly good price, doubly so for London; and then sat in the bar near by supping beer/cocktails (Mojitos)/water – chatting and generally being sociable. Kathryn noticed how much *more* sociable I become when I’ve got some alcohol in me. I am Raj, it’s quite upsetting.

Still, we had a very nice evening; although mildly marred by First Great Western’s usual high standard of service*, but still, we made it back uninjured… :)

Today’s been the usual – a bit of work on the car, Vixy now has a correctly adjusted variomatic… and the exhausts on both cars now have a greater proportion of gun-gum on them than before; this will hopefully make Vixy much quieter – since she had about 4 holes before the silencer (resonator) and Jejy much less fumey (since both silencers were mostly holes).

We did a bit of weeding, the garden is continuing to be a lovely space; although the Acer’s not looking quite as happy as it did. I’m not sure if it’s got too dry or too wet, but there’s not much I need to do about too dry because it’s been raining on and off for the last few days. If it’s too wet then we’re similarly stuffed. The last plant there died, hopefully whatever afflicted it isn’t going to afflict the acer…

We also made more yummies today, but I’ll tell you about them another day (if the photo comes out)….

I have always looked in skips since I was little. These intriguing spaces filled with the unwanted and disused. Once, in my youth, my dad and I came home with a complete office phone exchange, 6 phones and the receptionist’s control phone.

I still have a telephone exchange operator’s desk (the metal bit, I don’t have the wood framing) which I need to get rid of (good home wanted). And so, today, as I passed a pile of CRT TVs in a skip, I paused and looked at them slightly sadly. Had I the time and money I’d love to mount an LCD in something of that nature, but really I want a jellymould Bush to do that to :)

But there, lurking in a corner was something to test my restraint (again). A valve radiogram. A ‘Westminster’ apparently, featuring both long and short wave reception.

Fortunately, it’s quite a big radiogram. Were it a smaller valve beastie then I may have been overcome. Instead I just felt sad looking at the waste, and wandered off to see if the chap can get the DAF bits any cheaper than sending ’em from Holland.

Anyway, lunch-then-work call.

So, we spent the weekend down in Brizzy with Nikki and Kate (and Pepper and Eddie); well, we stopped off en-route at my mum’s for a cup of tea and providing some much needed cheer, before ‘speeding’ off down the motorway in Vixy to Nikki’s & Kate’s patch of Bristol.

It’s been a long time since we’ve made a journey under our own steam, in any vehicle, to see our friends. Possibly not since the Viva was consistently giving me trouble and causing trials and tribulations have we attempted to make a journey. Thankfully, while I’m fairly convinced the mixture is still wrong on the DAF (I think she’s running hot == lean??, or possibly the timing’s not right) – I’m making this judgement based on the fact that the top speed varied from 55ish to 72ish when the car was cooler, and the vario belts need adjusting (squeals on big hills, slightly uneven take up when very warm) – she made the journey with no big dramas; in fact, no dramas at all, really.

Anyhow, we had a very pleasant weekend, had a very nice chat over Pizza with one of Nikki and Kate’s friends (Adam). It was just really pleasant, and a bit of a reminder of what we miss out on here in Slough; so we have made plans to start actually trying to make some friends…because going 6 months between seeing people is a bit depressing.

Anyhow, the next day we abandoned our eco-credentials and went to Costco. We were pretty good – 85 quid later and we’d bulk bought many handy things that we would have bought anyway; and a couple of things we’d’ve probably not bought…and two cookbooks. It’s an interesting experience; while I’ve done Cash-And-Carrys before, I’ve not done one so big… And what was also interesting was how, on many of the items we wanted, the savings were pretty minimal. This was handy, because Vixy didn’t have to lug litres and litres of juice back with us, and since they don’t stock eco-cleaners we didn’t have gallon containers of laundry detergent and such to bring back. It was also interesting that because they carry largely brand or ‘Kirkland signature’ stuff, whereas we’ve cut corners much deeper than that (so our toilet paper is the stuff of cheapness; two ply plain toilet paper, none of this quilted m’larkey) in quite a few cases what we pick up non-bulk is actually cheaper than what you can get at Costco.

However, it did prompt us to consider that we maybe ought to start doing our dual shop again. Perhaps triple shop, if we occasionally branch out to supporting our local farm-store (which is very nice, but pricey).

Another interesting thing was that we have found that our vast fridge is, ironically, not actually appropriate for Costco shopping – the artichoke hearts container was so big we had to shuffle shelves, and now have a useless shelf less than a block of butter high for the next however-many-days. :)

Anyhow, we had some nice Mexican food prepared by the Kate creature, sat and chatted muchly, and had a very pleasant time before piling back in the DAF and racking up more miles heading back (she seemed happier, perhaps because I opened the heater vents and kept the engine cooler).

One of the things that came about from the weekend is a new desire. I’ve wanted to build an EV for a while. The EV Viva being the first of those failed desires, I quite fancy and EV-Daf just because I think that with the Vario you could probably build an incredibly efficient (for a classic conversion) and surprisingly quick EV.

But the one that is the biggest sin in the eyes of many a classic owner that I want to build…?

Well, now there’s two. There’s the one that started the idea in my mind, an EV-Austin Ruby:

They’re so cute, and small, and would just be such an awesome EV? I guess you could do it with a Ford Pop too, but the dinky simplicity of the Ruby, I rather like it.

Anyhow, that then led on to wondering about what else in my vague desires list would be excellent to convert. The Tatra T603 would be a cool conversion, just because it looks so futuristic…

The problem with a Tatra is that it weighs about the same as London Bridge. You might as well attempt to EV a routemaster using only lead-acid batteries and a lego motor*.

But what I really rather fancy doing is a Moskvich 400 conversion. I’m sure these are ridiculously inappropriate cars to EV. But 400’s are dinkily cool, they’re Russian, which is always a good start, and quirky and coming from Europe the just have a subtly different take on styling. So that’s my plan. If anyone fancies subbing me the cash, I’d be most greatful…

*Okay, so with good batteries and a whopping great motor you could probably build an interesting EV with a Tatra as your base car; it’d look damn cool anyway, even if it didn’t go anywhere quickly.

+ Spending an evening in London with my beloved wife.

+ That she knows me so well and got me such an awesome birthday present.

+ “It’s Science! I’m experimenting!”*

+ Finding my motorbike gloves (both summer and winter) exactly where I thought they were**.

+ Her resting on me in the train on the way back.

* While eating Stitchelton on an Almond Thin and drinking Skull Splitter (Scottish) Ale.
** I’m not sure if this is a quiet thrill or a quiet ‘argh!’ because I’d actually taken the entire contents of the wardrobe out, dug around in the back of the larder, panic-attacked my way around the spare bedroom and the loft before noticing a little orange bag I swear wasn’t there the first time I looked through the bottom of the wardrobe containing my gloves and the bungees for holding my bag on my bike…

I’m not on Quiet thrills, but Kathryn is, and I voyeuristically read occasionally. There’s a few things on her friends I read over her shoulder…

+ Dancing with my love around the bedroom, half dressed, to gramophones.

+ Coming home at half-midnight and finding she’d stayed up to see me.