Hi all. Moira has done the Christmas tree, it looks lovely, been several years since we had a proper tree. Wine delivery today, should keep us going for a while. Builders are also due, more roof work. Old houses can be lovely, but the work has never stopped in the 25 years we have been here. Christmas meal is also decided on, there will only be the 2 of us, and we will be having spiced duck with a sour cherry sauce, I think i am cooking.
How can you lie there and think of England When you don't even know who's in the team
Oooh @punkdoc that sounds delicious. I might get a duck for the freezer ... we can have it when son has gone back to his boat (he doesn’t like dark poultry meat ... you’d think his parents would’ve brought him up properly wouldn’t you?! . )
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I had a burst tyre on the edge of bodmin moor. It was just starting to get dark (and it gets very dark there, no street lights), and in the early days of mobile phones, I couldn't get a signal. A lovely farmer on his tractor stopped to help, and changed the tyre for me. Of course it couldn't happen today, the car has no spare tyre, just a can of foam and a pump. That's not a lot of use if you have a 6 inch bolt go through the tread of the tyre and out through the side.
Gone are the days when you could fix most things on a car with a decent home tool kit and a Haynes manual.
Actually it depends on the car. OH managed to keep an old Freelander on the road for 3 years that way, despite punishing it by pulling a laden a trailer 20 miles every day. It's sitting in our garage now, in need of new bits that we can't afford to buy atm, but i expect it will be back on the road at some point. The big Volvo estate, on the other hand, despite having the same degree of competence applied, can't be resurrected. The engine management system thinks there's a problem with the brakes and although there isn't any mechanical fault, he can't get the car though an MOT with the warning light coming on, and he can't disconnect it individually. The only option is to replace the faulty sensor but first he has to find it. I'm guessing that one is going to find itself on Ebay in bits one of these days.
My current car has a full size spare wheel. I refused to buy a car that didn't have one. There are a few of them out there, but they are getting harder to find.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Gone are the days when you could fix most things on a car with a decent home tool kit and a Haynes manual.
Actually it depends on the car. OH managed to keep an old Freelander on the road for 3 years that way, despite punishing it by pulling a laden a trailer 20 miles every day. It's sitting in our garage now, in need of new bits that we can't afford to buy atm, but i expect it will be back on the road at some point. The big Volvo estate, on the other hand, despite having the same degree of competence applied, can't be resurrected. The engine management system thinks there's a problem with the brakes and although there isn't any mechanical fault, he can't get the car though an MOT with the warning light coming on, and he can't disconnect it individually. The only option is to replace the faulty sensor but first he has to find it. I'm guessing that one is going to find itself on Ebay in bits one of these days.
My current car has a full size spare wheel. I refused to buy a car that didn't have one. There are a few of them out there, but they are getting harder to find.
Being a total cynic, ( for which I make no apology ) I reckon manufacturers are doing it deliberately to , basically, force customers to come back to their garages for "diagnostics".
When we moved to Belgium in 1991 I had an old Vauxhall estate car which failed its pre MOT service on emissions because the Belgian Opel garage didn't have and couldn't source a castellated spanner to modify fuel flow. I had, somehow, managed to lose mine which I'd bought in order to be able to service my car myself. Drove it back to England and gave it to friends whose car had just died.
Bought a brand new Corsa but one look under the bonnet showed me even back then that it wasn't made for home maintenance by amateurs once the warranty was over. Found a wee chap in the village we moved to and he was great but he couldn't manage the bigger Opels bought as the main family car because he didn't have diagnostic kits but he told me of a younger chap in the village who did so all was well.
Now we're in France there seems to be no price advantage in using local chaps and we have to wait for parts so we drive to the Opel garage in Olonnes and have a day out at the market, restaurant and sea front while they're serviced. The only bits I can do now are oil levels, windscreen washer and tyre pressures. I have never had the strength, even when very fit, to undo pneumatically tightened bolts to change a tyre. That's what "the man who can" is for.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Posts
A bit more drizzle overnight but at least it's not cold.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Moira has done the Christmas tree, it looks lovely, been several years since we had a proper tree.
Wine delivery today, should keep us going for a while.
Builders are also due, more roof work. Old houses can be lovely, but the work has never stopped in the 25 years we have been here.
Christmas meal is also decided on, there will only be the 2 of us, and we will be having spiced duck with a sour cherry sauce, I think i am cooking.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
My current car has a full size spare wheel. I refused to buy a car that didn't have one. There are a few of them out there, but they are getting harder to find.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Bought a brand new Corsa but one look under the bonnet showed me even back then that it wasn't made for home maintenance by amateurs once the warranty was over. Found a wee chap in the village we moved to and he was great but he couldn't manage the bigger Opels bought as the main family car because he didn't have diagnostic kits but he told me of a younger chap in the village who did so all was well.
Now we're in France there seems to be no price advantage in using local chaps and we have to wait for parts so we drive to the Opel garage in Olonnes and have a day out at the market, restaurant and sea front while they're serviced. The only bits I can do now are oil levels, windscreen washer and tyre pressures. I have never had the strength, even when very fit, to undo pneumatically tightened bolts to change a tyre. That's what "the man who can" is for.