Couple of quick eclipse shots, before I kip:

Stuff directly related to my Beloved Moggie Minor
Couple of quick eclipse shots, before I kip:

Some days you just think ‘oh for goodness sake’, don’t you? I got up this morning, struggled through my morning routine a bit quicker’n normal so as I could pull on my bike gear. Hopped on Cherry and headed out, filled her up with petrol and got to work. Work, fine (Foot still hurting).
Headed home, and y’know what? Everything was fine…but you know how this story ends. Last set of lights before my house, I filter round the cars, shoot through the lights as they change to green and as I’m riding, I think ‘hrm, the back end is getting awfully squirrelly, I wonder if I’ve hit some oil’. Over the next couple of seconds it gets worse, so I pull over and look round and lo, I have a puncture. Glass? Nail? Who knows, it’s nearly flat. Tubed tyres do not maintain their state well when they have a hole. I did *try* and gently ride on, but it was somewhat like having a sumo wrestler leaping about on the pillion seat as I attempted to make forward progress.
Admitting all forms of defeat I pushed my sad little cherry red bike back to the house. It was not fun. My bike remains ‘heavy’ – especially with a flat. However, it was good that I rode the bike to work. Why?
Well, obviously the flat tyre puts the bike out of action until at least the next early, so I looked at the ‘new noise’ situation on the moglet.
The starter motor, the one that had inconveniently cracked the cast metalwork? Well it’d managed to work loose, so it was more sort of decoratively hanging than actually attached. I’m shocked that it worked, and shocked that it didn’t fall off. Very lucky is what I am.
I’m a bit nervy now though, the moglet is obviously not a happy creature if she’s shaking ancilleries loose, and the bike is out of action for another couple of days. I may, if I’m feeling enthusiastic and it’s dry, attempt to get the wheel off tomorrow, then I can run it to a tyre place. I am however in another ‘argh’ type situation – the tyre’s not worn out – it’s probably got a good few hundred miles in it… ‘cept… well, if I’m paying for someone to remove the tyre and put a new inner tube in… well, aren’t we into the arena of ‘might as well replace the nearly worn out tyre’. Hrm. I guess I’ll see – if they’ve got something nice and mid-range in stock then it’s probably replacement time, otherwise we’ll go with the tube.
My life is just too exciting for you all I expect…
I promised my GP I would spend my time off relaxing and healing. I’m unfortunately at that frustrating level of ill where – whilst I’m aware that I’m not well, and standing up for long periods definately leads to woozyness in the head department; I’m also terribly, terribly bored.
I’ve got plenty of books I could be reading, but there is an insistant desire to be *doing* something after days and days of lying around.
However, I’m being good, mostly though that’s ‘cos my head feels like it’s attached to my body by wobbly string. The new remote arrived – cheap and cheerful as it is, I wasn’t expecting it to be quite such a behemouth. Still, when I’ve got 4 charged batteries then hopefully I can get it all set up. I fear it’s battery usuage too. I’m quite looking forward to being able to watch all my DVDs though.
In other news, I’m debating another minor – if I’m offered it at a price I can afford. Rebecca’s engine really sounded attrocious yesterday, I’m not certain how long it’ll last – so a cheap second minor to run me round while I get Rebecca properly sorted would be handy. The one I’m considering though, has somewhat of a reputation, so, we’ll see. It’s not been a bringer of great luck.
In other news I finally worked out how to get coverflow up on the Windows machine’s iTunes. Okay, it’s obvious – but if you don’t *know* it’s there. What’m I meant to do, click on random buttons? *sighs*. I love macs, I love my mac, but sometimes *get a clue guys*. It’s not, incidentally in the help file anywhere.
Does anyone know (before I spend hours hunting) of any utilities that allow you to add more art for CDs it doesn’t recognise. I don’t expect it to know about AM / Underground or AM / This is me dancing. Or indeed quite a lot of my more eclectic music, but I’m sure I can dig out covers (or at worst, photograph the originals (yeah, yeah, I’ll get a scanner again one day)). I can’t see an *obvious* way to do this, and I’d rather not do each and every one manually. The original coverflow pulled covers from various sites, but the one embedded in iTunes can only use the iTunes store, which is a bit pants. That and the embedded one won’t go full screen. Come on Apple! Give me fullscreen album art lovin’!
What else? Hrm, dunno. I’m meeting someone on Friday – and as is normal for meeting someone new for the first time my body has responded – it’s produced a spot the size of frickin’ Mars on my bloody nose. Am I not old enough now to not get spots? Seriously.
*sighs*
I guess that’s enough of an update for y’all.
Oh, but before I disappear, falling into the ‘humour’ catagory, just like last year – severe weather warnings…

Oh my goodness no. Not 2 entire inches? Good lord. What will I do. I best break out the snow plough, the snow machines and start preparing to shovel my drive ;-)
So, Xmas and Boxing day and so on. Yup.
Xmas – I worked the morning, and then went to my sister’s in the afternoon. This is the first year I’ve not got Xmas dinner, probably in my entire life. It’s weird, I’ve actually *lost* weight over Xmas (which is good), but I still feel pissy that she (that is, my sister) invited me for Xmas dinner, and then proceeded to cook and eat it before I even left work for the day.
Fortunately I had nutritious, healthy, traditional ‘left over Xmas Eve Pizza’ to eat; so I didn’t go too hungry. She did cook an awesome xmas pudding. Then boxing day, I spent that with Claire and Michelle, and their 2 kids, and their respective families. I had a great day, but I must admit it was a trifle odd to spend Boxing day essentially as a psuedo-family member. I had a great, relaxing evening, it kinda reminded me of Alaska – in the whole – being part of a family that’s not my own.
I spent some time thinking about my own family that day, and that night. And my dad, and the destruction his loss and illness has wreaked upon my family. Where once we seemed such a nuclear family, now we’re all feuds and arguments and it seems so odd. It’s not like my childhood was idillic or anything. But compared to the disaster that is my family now? I guess I find it all a bit weird.
My BT Broadband connection / Homehub continues to be fairly atrocious; if you put the wireless bit under any kind of load then you rapidly seem to loose all connectivity. It also appears to need to be beaten with the power-switch of doom on regular occasions. this, once must say is less than impressive.
That thought was brought to you by ‘oh look, I’m disconnected again’.
Anyhow, so, I met up with Amy, or more hunted her down in the store where she works. Impressed, I must admit, was not the first look that crossed her face. In fact, the meeting was ‘difficult’ at least, from my side. She doesn’t want to see me again. That, I have to admit, is another new experience for me. Not one that I’m keen to repeat. So, yeah. Her loss, and incidentally, from her revelations on that night I’m quite *pleased* that I’m not seeing her again.
My car, that’s now got electronic ignition; she’s running a lot better now. She’s also serviced. She’s still not *right* though, I’m not quite sure why, I suspect I need to read that Timing lamp’s instructions again, and the instructions in the haynes manual. She’s definately running better. The handbrake however, remains a bit of a mystery. The cable seems to have stretched, and is, I suspect on it’s way out. But I’m not sure that the rear brakes are really doing that much… I think I may have to resort to the ‘someone with more experience’ looking at it.
I also need to find out when the MOT is, just so that I can work out how much to panic about the now missing new exhaust.
Oh, and I’ve painted the woodwork in the lounge…
One thing that has been odd in my little world, I’ve taken to listening to CBC Radio 1, which is what I listened to in Canada; I’m particularly fond of the Dead Dog Cafe, but generally quite enjoy listening to Canada’s equivalent of Radio 4. But it’s odd, because I read Torontoist, and you start to feel a real connection, or a greater connection to the place when you’re reading the news, and hearing the news, and it’s difficult to explain, particularly in my current really quite tired state of mind… but it’s odd.
Yeah.
So that’s been my last few days, what’s happened in your world?
…where the personality you put into something starts to cross with a real suspicious set of traits from that object, which starts to make you really feel that the object has got some kind of soul.
I guess, after 37 years on this planet, my car’s collected enough quirks and fiddley bits, and having been hand built, largely, has quite a lot of personality. But this morning, I’d spent a solid 10 minutes trying to coax her to start. We’d passed through ‘no longer going to be early’ and ‘on time’ to ‘do I ring them and say I can’t get my car to start’?
I’d got a work lamp outside, a 1lb lump hammer to ‘tap’ the sticking starter and she still wasn’t starting. I’d get one shot at the starting thing, and it’d then stick, and then I’d curse, run out and tap it. Sometimes it’d free off, and then I could have another go.
Finally, in desparation I sat there and I said:
“Please Rebecca, I *promise* I’ll fix you tomorrow, I *promise*. Please start.”; Turned the key and was met with the completely unexpect and slightly startling sound of the uneven beat of my engine… Not only that, but she idled while I packed away the work lamp, extension lead etc, and washed my hands.
I actually made it into work a mere 2 minutes late.
And I’ve kept my promise, well, actually I worked on her when I got home from Xmas shopping (still not got everything, not managed to send my cards to ‘merkians (bloody post office shut 2 minutes before I got there)). And found much to my distress: uneven running – related to crap points I suspect. Poor starting: points now so worn away that there’s virtually no heel left. they are wearing *insanely* fast. I never got the ‘running well through correctly set points’ phase. Starter motor – casing has cracked. Starter motor sticking due to insufficient lubrication. New graphite applied (thanks to Trey’s habit of ‘saving’ pencils from work, I have a moderate supply of graphite).
In other news, someone poo’d in my hand today – while I was wearing gloves and had a wipe in my hands, thankfully.
At least, the idea in my head was ‘shift, run to mom’s, collect tools, home, write xmas-cards’. In the end, when I ran home I ended up chopping wood. I was late leaving work, and I’ve brought home more tools than I meant to. It’s actually left me feeling pretty knackered.
Especially given Friday night was the work Xmas do (excellent fun!); Saturday my mum came and we did uber-shopping for tools, floors, paint, and I found the bits I think I want for my Bathroom…
And then James came round. And then I worked an Early this morning. And now I’m waiting for pizza to arrive.
My life is so dull…
The girl I met, the cute one with whom I [DELETED]; she’s not texted me back, which is rather depressing. Well, maybe not so far as depressing, but certainly disappointing. She was cute damnit. Cute and [DELETED]. So, yeah.
Apparently, my chinese dress provoked some comment at work yesterday, I think I pulled off the look pretty well at the Xmas do, but I’m always one for Paranoia, so hey. Who can say.
This really is an astonishingly dull post, isn’t it? Well, we’ll continue the dull… My poor car is due a service, well, was due a service some time ago. It’s now past due a service. It’s really struggling to start in the mornings, I really do need to get the electronic ignition fitted – but that needs a strobe to set up the timing, and I’ve not got a strobe. *sigh*. Anyway, that’s my sunday. What’ve you all been up to?
So, the day before going to Canada I get the ‘correct’ alternator for my car, only because they’re too damn cheap to include a pulley, you need to take the pulley off the old one. I was very tired, so tired. My back hurts. My body is tired. It’s cold. And I’m bent over, arms deep in the engine, desperately trying to take the old alternator out. Finally it comes out and it becomes apparent that the old pulley won’t fit the new alternator.
In the end – a great deal of swearing was involked, some semi-weeping and the old alternator went back on. Once on there, I took the new (correct) alternator back to the shop and swapped it for a replacement of the ‘incorrect’ alternator I’ve got fitted. Then I came back to Nikki’s, and despite the rain, swapped the alternator over. Now I ache, I’m tired, but I think I am ready to go to Canada.
Or more accurately, ready for when I return.
This time tomorrow I’ll be on a flight.
It’s been a tiring few days – what with the Starter Motor on the car failing at the least opportune moment (I’d just finished a shift and was about to head home having parked in a ‘quite dodgy area’ when it decided that it’s raison d’être was to be a giant power consuming magnet instead of a motor. This was just before the police arrived to have a chat with a lovely group of people screaming at each other in the 5th / 6th floor flat – which you could hear quite clearly down inside my car). Still, that’s in Warranty.
Which is good.
So is the fact that the clutch *finally* arrived for Cherry, who is *finally* back on the road – and being lovely to ride. I must, however, go buy more two stroke oil as I’m fearing the stuff that I poured out may have bits of shite in it, and therefore is only suitable for premix.
Unfortunately, the goodness ends there. My mum – who I argued the case with about her continuing to pay me… and said she shouldn’t. Well, it seems that the bank saved her the hastle – because my dad presumably set up the direct debit / transfer to stop in July. So I didn’t get any money in August. So the fact I’m still in credit is… shocking. Of course, the fact I’m only notionally in credit – the money I owe to Lauren for rent, and for council tax, is yet to come out. The money I owe to the credit cards is also yet to come out – astoundingly my bank loan has come out. Oh, and because it took them so long to process my timesheet I’m now not getting paid for work I did on the 17th until… wait for it… the 7th.
*sighs*
And my PC is still defunked. I am starting to run out of ideas – James suggested that maybe it needs the Inno graphics card drivers; because it’s an Inno card (rather than the nVidia generic drivers). So I’m trying that now (but I’m downloading them on the laptop because I don’t trust the desktop to stay running that long). Or the processor could be sick. Or… well, that’s it really. Graphics card and processor are all that remain that haven’t been eliminated as the cause of the problem. If it *is* the processor I’m going to cry, because having bought a new motherboard… well… I’d rather have bought a step-up board rather than the same S754 thing, and if it’s the graphics card I’m also going to cry because it’s new-but-off-ebay. So the word guarantee doesn’t apply. But hey. I can’t really afford any of this now anyway. Right at this moment I’m feeling a little bit fed up, really, to say the least.
The A Pride of Minors 2006 EuroPride video is now available for download at the video page. In two flavours, Huge and Quite Small But Not Very Good Quality. It’s also in the process of being added to Google Video, so for those without enormous bandwidth availability it should be on there soon. Just getting verified at the moment.
So, yeah, yesterday. Got home from work via a car-parts shop with enough spray paint to start a career in Graffiti; but I didn’t; no, instead I set to on making the stuff for Pride. After a few hours I stopped and headed over to Nikki and Kates for a relaxing evening eating Kebab, watching Dr Who and Playing Fluxx (we love Fluxx).
And then I came home, chatted to James, went to bed at 2ish, got up at 8:30ish and set to on props for Pride again.
Well, at 10, anyway, because I needed to eat and then my mum rang.
So, yeah, I’m done now.
We have:
– A roofsign
– Magnetic letters of doom
– A blue-light with an extended lead
I just need to nip to the shops, find a white blouse (*CHEAP* and a black, short, skirt). I’d wear the hockey one but I’m not quite back down to size 12. Well, that’s not true, my jeans fit and they’re size 12. Hrm. Now I have to go check.
Okay, so it’s a very tight, but it sort of fits. At worst I *could* wear it. Just.
I also did some ‘pimp-quality paintwork’ on my car. Just to tart her up a bit. She looks way better, actually. Although the quality of some of the paint work is beyond questionable, and I’ve discovered just how close I am to needing a new front wing (–>< -- that close - you can actually, well, could (before I threw filler at it) actually see through the wing. It's that rotten). Anyway, here's some teasers (one you've seen before and some new ones).


You can see how big-er difference it makes having the grille painted white. What you can’t see is how bigger difference it makes covering up the rust with filler. Even really *badly* done filler.
Anyway, it’s time to get on with my dissertation :-)