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So, it’s been a bit of a bits day. I was meant to be on a training course, but it got cancelled, and the message didn’t get to me (although I suspected it’d been cancelled). Being a goody-two-shoes as I am, and being as I was on-site I went in to the department and checked if they’d like me to work. They did want me to. So I did a ‘short shift’, and there was enough to keep me nicely busy for a few hours. A few sickies, a septic chap and a chap with heart failure.

I sometimes quite enjoy working in Resus.

Then I headed back to Slough and made a happy little lunch before heading to the Bank, Maplin and finally JetWashing the mogglet.

Maplin was it’s usual depressing self, each time I go there it seems that components are moved further into a small corner and the shop fills with more cheap plastic tat. They didn’t have the battery for one of my watches (the little grey and orange one I used to wear full time ’til I got the chunky, dykey Colombia one – but I like to have a ‘grubby’ watch for wearing working on things). They did though, thankfully, have the battery for my little cheap Fob Watch. I’ve been without it for months and have only just got around to spending the £1.25 required to get it going again. I’ve missed it at work :)

I also spent some time staring at fans. The DAF doesn’t have a fan on it’s heating system, instead relying entirely on the engine fan which, obviously, only runs when the engine is hot. Not such a problem in summer, but in winter… It *is* very effective when it’s running, as I discovered when I took the car out and was suddenly showered with dead leaf. But when it’s not the screen doth mist up something terrible.

So the plan is to build a little fan-insert to go inline with the pipework and with which one can force air through onto the screen. However, my initial thought (which was basically to slap a 60mm fan inline with each 60mm hose) was rethought as I stood with the fan in front of me. See, the problem is, the fan is, well, mostly solid plastic. I want as much air-transmitting-space as possible. I’m thinking that maybe getting a pair of 80mm ones might work better, and putting one inline on each side (there are two ducts), with a box around the fan (obviously) but – that might give enough space for the normal system to work, and then provide enough effectiveness when it’s cold and the engine fan isn’t running.

But I decided I wanted to have another look in the engine bay before I did such things. And look at the routing of the tubules. And so on.

This weekend we’re off for a wander and a food (my treat, I think, since it’s work) in a place which has turned out to be about 10 minutes from my mum’s house. This is slightly annoying, in that I assumed it was nearer where I work. But it ain’t. So we might pop in and see my mum (I shall ask Kathryn’s opinion on her arrival at home). I should also have asked for my workmate’s phone number ‘cos that way we could reconsider in light of the fact that the walk we’re going on is about an hour from our house. Still, it’s socialising, in’t it. :)

Look: A gasifier run ice.

It makes me miss living in Bristol where I had friends nearby who would probably have been entertained and helpful in the process of building such a thing. Clearly UK legislation would make building one of these in a car somewhat difficult (ironically since WWII shots show vehicles with gasifiers pootling around the UK). Clearly a van would be a better basis for producing one, although you’d have to isolate it from the passenger cab.

Anyhow, work calls.

Okay, so one of the Dremels is around 4,000 miles from the house, which is why we have another, second dremeloid*. This is for the sake of one bolt. But when it stops raining and I have some time, that bolt is mine! And once that’s done we can move on to swearing at the clutch.

Also, repairing the inlet manifold is another of the exciting tasks on the list (because it’s got a crack the size of the Grand Canyon in it**, and it’s only a small car). For the uninitiated (who care) the inlet manifold is where the evil petrol(gas) which has been mixed with air in a careful stoichiometric ratio in the carburetor is sucked through to get to the cylinders before being ignited into a raging and rapidly expanding fireball by the spark plugs. (Suck Squeeze Bang Blow). Except in Jejy that careful mix is screwed by the cunning process of sucking in vast quantites of air through a great huge gap in the manifold. This we shall initially fix using the highly technical approach of slopping some chemical metal on it. Apparently that should be sufficient. If it’s not then it’s off to the welder for some aluminium alloy welding.

At any rate, progress shall be being made shortly. As soon as it’s dry (because it’s been both wet and windy today). On the good news front (there’s always got to be something good) – we should hopefully have the garage, assuming the rentees of the house on the corner are happy to have someone else using the garage. It needs major structural reno’s and for the sake of six months it’d hardly be worth it, but it’s rent free garage space, so a couple (well at least 4) joists is definately worth it.

As a side point, how aweome is my beloved, she already owns a dremel. She is such a geek *grin*.

* A Skil 1415, I think, off the top of my head. Looks like a Dremel tho’
** I just watched the first episode of ‘The Wire’, having found it’s been wildly critically acclaimed and I’d never heard of it, I had to find out what it was. The result of this is that I had to resist writing something along the lines of ‘more crack than Baltimore’.

Now, I hate to be revolting. Well, actually I don’t give a fig whether I’m revolting or not, but I just have to say how awesome Kathryn is. She’s sweet and kind and thoughtful. She’s generous, intelligent, creative and wonderful. And today she was just so lovely; despite the temperatures of 2 degrees C (and below), the snow, the oil and the gunk she worked away with me on the DAF today. Without her it would have been impossible to get nearly as far as we did, and getting the bonnet off alone would have been nightmareish.

She is, I am convinced, the most wonderful person in the world.

That having been said, we didn’t finish the DAF. 5 hours of solid work, we’re down to detaching the exhaust from the head (the book seems very vague about this, in fact, it actually suggests detaching the exhaust somewhere else, but then it’d still be curving round the suspension). All the wiring is detached, the bonnet, grill, bumper, air filter, various other ancilleries are also now in the boot and hopefully tomorrow we can get to the clutch and fix the poor benighted object, and then get her back on the road.

So, five hours in and we have this:

So, uh, wish us good weather for the morrow.

It’s snowing. The thermometer reports a whopping 2.1 Degrees Celcius (that’d be 35.8F) outside and we are working on the DAF. Well, right now I’m trying to find out if my toes are still attached to my feet and Kathryn is kindly making lunch. But we shall be back out DAFing in a bit. This is in aid of Kathryn having a licence and not wasting the 120 quid of poundlingtons it cost to Tax the poor thing.

Unfortunately, it’s snowing. Despite my denial of the snow falling on us, it continued. It’s not snowing heavily…yet. I’m hoping that it’s going to stop, although it seems unlikely to warm up. The weather forecast suggested 4 degrees, which would, I suppose, be an improvement on 2.1 :-/

Ironically, in a few weeks time we may have access to a garage. The owner of said house on the corner having said we can use it subject to the rentees agreeing. He’s renting it out in a couple of weeks tho’ and so we can’t fix it or use it ’til then. I originally thought that 2 joists needed doing, but it looks like 4. Ironically, he suggested the workshop might be a better bet, but for the concrete wall, and the fact the ceiling has actually come down, and there’s no way to get a car into it, he’d be right. The space would be lovely.

So, massively overtired as I was, thankfully yesterday’s shift was in an observation ward. A proper obs ward, not like where I work. Or perhaps that’s backwards. Our obs ward is really just that, it’s clearly intended as a place to keep an eye on a few people who you can’t send home immediately but don’t really need admission. No nurses’ station, no drug cupboard, nothing but a few beds and chairs, and a loo.

This one had a showers and bathrooms and isolation rooms, and a full range of drugs like you get on a ward. It had it’s own resus trolley, a large nurses station and a dedicated A&E doctor. Quite odd. Dear god was it dull though. I hadn’t realised how much I hate ward work!

I’ve not been so bored in my life. Mind, at 50p a minute for me to be bored there are worse things.

And I got to read the independent, from cover to cover.

The trains were very good to me too.

And Kathryn, very kindly, bought me drugs. I came home and there was a bottle of night-nurse waiting for me, so last night I slept all the way through, from 2200 to 0600 when I, with some poking, was encouraged out of bed. Rebecca, you see, had a date. She was to go to Southam Mini & Metro Centre to have her leaky engine looked at. She now sports a new timing chain cover, one without a pinhole in it (I hope), and the water leak has hopefully been sorted too.

Also slightly more sorted is the heater. It’d not been getting warm, as such, and as winter’s got on I’d got bored of being bitterly cold, so asked if they could fit a 88 degree stat. When they checked, they realised it didn’t have a stat at all, being still set up for running in – so that ended up being a freebie (always good), and it does now get warm, at least some of the time. I am vaguely wondering if it’s got an airlock or somesuch problem though, ‘cos it does seem to run cool at points, but I’ve checked and there is definately a full radiator of coolant.

It needs more exploration.

One thought that struck me today, as I noticed I’m less than 1000 miles from an indicated 30,000 is that, well… I got Rebecca at 60,000 miles (ish). She’s now displaying 30,000 (whether that’s 130,000 or 230,000, or indeed more is a bit of a question). So that’s 70,000 miles in her, except… for 2 years or so she sported another speedo. And I faintly recall that one had 30 or 40k put on it was in use.

So in fact, Rebecca and I may have travelled around 100,000 miles together in the last 8 years. Not bad for a 40 year old car, I’d say. Anyway, I need to go and write a note for the owner of the corner house, apparently he said ‘no’ because the roof of the garage is falling in. I *know* it’s falling in, my point was that I’d deal (at least temporarily) with the roof if I can use the garage for free for as long as it’s standing… So I’m going to go and drop off a note.

I have been completely unable to get into a sensible sleep pattern again after nights. Last set of nights was bad, I presume, because I was sick and just spent most of the week asleep. This set there’s no such reason.

I just can’t get to sleep. I’ve got a lot going on in my head with the list of jobs I think need doing; but even still, tonight I woke up at 12:48 having only gone to sleep just after 2200. 3 sodding hours of sleep. Since then I’ve been awake. I’ve counted, I’ve tried relaxation things, and as it gets later I’ve got that angst that comes of knowing that you’ve got a long shift ahead (12 hours) and that you’re tired already.

Lord only knows how I’ll feel walking the mile to the railway station at 20:00 to get the train back home. I’m quite tempted to drive in, but I suspect parking in London Hospitals is a bit more tricksy than the suburban ones I normally do shifts in.

Anyway, one cup of sleepytime tea and we’ll try again, an extra hour and a half of sleep’s definitely better than no more sleep.

I was meant to be going out to lunch today, that was the plan. I worked last night especially to ensure that I’d be tired and sleep through the night and thus wake up at a sensible time.

Unfortunately, my body had other ideas, I woke up at 4am, then took 2 hours to get back to sleep. Either my alarm didn’t go off, or I didn’t wake up, but I then next woke up at 12:32. I was meant to be meeting people for lunch at 12:30, 15 miles away. I guess I missed that then :-/

Have to admit I’m somewhat peeved. I was really looking forward to getting out of the house and getting lunch somewhere nice. ‘s scrambled egg for me today then :-/

Hope I can sleep tonight, ‘cos I’m meant to be on a long day tomorrow.