Tag Archives: volkswagen

Friday 11th October 2019 – REMEMBER YESTERDAY …

… when I wrote about the evil (because there is no other word to describe it) humour in which I found myself?

Today I was rather hoping that I might have been over it, put it all behind me and moved on. But looking back over some of the stuff that I had written in an internet debate this morning, that’s clearly not the case because much of what I wrote, even though it reflected my true feelings, can best be described as “incendiary”.

It’s no surprise either because there was that much turmoil going on in my head that even at 01:30 the thought of going to bed hadn’t even occurred to me. I spent most of the night wide-awake.

There was some sleep of some kind though, because there are one or two items on the dictaphone. And when I get round to listening to them, it should be extremely interesting to say the least.

The alarms went off at the usual time but I didn’t. 07:15 again for me and this is getting monotonous. The school run too this morning and for a change I had Hannah’s Golf diesel.

So that’s now everything around here that I have driven at one time or another, and my favourite is still Rachel’s Golf estate, although the VWs are far too low for me and difficult to get out of.

Rushed off our feet again today. The place is closed for the weekend and on Monday so everyone wanted their supplies and work done today. I ended up shunting cars around, hauling bags of feed about and going to the bank.

And I’m right about tiredness too. Despite my dreadful night I kept on going all day with only a brief pause, not like yesterday when I was stark out. I was expecting to be much more exhausted today.

Excitement up on the railway line at the back of the depot. The old station was formerly a tractor-pulling venue but it’s up for sale. It seems that the fixtures and fittings have been sold and there were people up there dismantling the grandstand in order to move it to Grand Falls.

This evening there was just Darren and me. He had an omelette and I found some leftover vegan meatloaf in the fridge, followed by apple crumble.

later, I was reviewing some postings from my Arctic voyage. A few (well, one particular) memory came flooding back to me and so I decided to listen to some music to distract me and to soothe my fevered brow. It wasn’t a particularly good choice though. I played Colosseum Live, which will forever be associated in my brain with late, dark, cold nights on board The Good Ship Ve … errr … Ocean Endeavour in the High Arctic, and that is exactly what I’m trying to put out of my mind.

Yes, events in the High Arctic have scarred me somewhat and I can’t chase them out of my mind. It’s all very well listening to Joachim du Bellay and that I should be “Heureux qui comme Ulysse a fait un beau voyage”, I’m more inclined right now to the words of the Duke of Marlborough who, on his way to fight at (thinks) Malplaquet, said “God knows I go with a heavy heart, for I have no hope of doing anything considerable”. Or even John Major’s legendary “When your back’s against the wall it’s time to turn round and fight”.

On that note, I’ll go to bed, I reckon. I’ve had a hard couple of days now that demons whom I thought that I had laid have now come back to haunt me. I have to remember, I suppose, that today I really should have been in hospital having a blood transfusion – having already missed three. Bit I’m missing this one too.

Who knows what state I’ll be in when I finally return home?

Perhaps I need some more music
All of the sudden she disappears
just yesterday she was here
somebody tell me if I am sleeping
someone should be with me here
I wanna be the last thing you hear when you’re falling asleep….

Sunday 6th December 2015 – IT’S SUNDAY TODAY …

… and in what can only be described as a first for about a hundred years, I set an alarm for s Sunday morning.

Not that I wanted to, but the nurse is coming round some time between 08:00 and 08:30 to give me an injection of anti-coagulant and so I need to be here. Not much point in him coming if I’m still in bed asleep.

But I was glad that I awoke because I’d been on my travels during the night. You won’t be interested in them because I’m not. It was all about hospitals and injections and blood tests, and I’ve had a darn sight too many of all of that just recently. It wouldn’t have been so bad had a nice young attractive nurse featured prominently somewhere, but as if that were ever likely to happen.

We had some more excitement later. Terry and Liz have a Volkswagen Golf but it’s been off the road for a while due to an undetected fault. According to the ECU there’s nothing wrong with the vehicle, but it just won’t start. Several garages have tried (and failed) to get it to go. In fact, it’s just like Crawshay Bailey’s famous engine, and “going to Cardiff College for to get a bit of knowledge” would be about just as much use in this case too.

However, on the internet a week or so ago, there was a very low-mileage engine for sale at a very democratic price and so, to cut a long story short … "hooray" – ed … the engine turned up at lunchtime. With a bit of luck, God’s help and a Bobby, the new engine might be fitted this week some time and who knows? The car might even go!

Anyway, that was about all of the excitement for today. I’ve done a pile of stuff for my course on Hadrian’s Wall, and I’ve been told that in 5 weeks time my course on Animation will start.

Did I tell you about this course on Animation? As you know, I mess around with a 3D program on the computer, one where you can create your own models and perform simple animations, but I’m not much good at it. Whilst the poor specs on this laptop don’t help, a lot of it can be put down to my own lack of technique and so I’m going to be following this course to see what it can teach me.

And that’s really all today. We had the second helping of curry for tea tonight and it was even better, as predicted. And right in the middle of tea the nurse came round to give me my evening injection. Magnificent timing!

I had an early night too – the strain of an 07:45 start on a Sunday was far too much. But someone with whom I hadn’t spoken in ages came on line just as I was about to switch off the laptop and so that put paid to that idea.

Sunday 18th September 2011 – SUNDAY IS A DAY OF REST …

… and after my late night last night, I deserved a lie-in. And when I was finally awake I went off to have a nice shower too. But something that I saw made me burst out laughing and I wish that I had a camera with me. Someone came to fill up their 50-litre water container – one of these round ones that looks as if it might be on wheels – and then towed it away with their car. It’s rather sad really.

old volkswagen scrapyard keswick fredericton new brunswick canadaThey say that old Fords never die – they just rust away. But here is the proof that old Volkswagens never die either. They just merge into the landscape.

There’s a good few parked up here, and it did make me wonder what the owner is intending to do with them. There’s a few there that haven’t moved for a considerable period of time.

chevrolet chevelle ss L82 new brunswick canadaI said previously that it’s a rather sad affair when I’m taking photos of vehicles like this and calling them “historic”.

This is a Chevrolet Chevelle SS L82 and it’s a single headlight model that dates it from the very early 1970s I think, although like Eomer in The Lord of the Rings, I would gladly learn better. I do know that the SS refers to SuperSport and that the insurance on one of these would have been unaffordable to most people.

peugeot boxer caravanette german registration fredericton new brunswick canadaThis is however much more interesting.

Not so much that it’s a Peugeot Boxer caravanette, and I bet that you’ve never seen one of these in North America before, it’s actually on German numberplates. I managed to track down the owners to have a chat with them, and it transpires that they came over with Seabridge and Atlantic Containers, the same companies as those whom I met the other week.

So it clearly works and I shall have to look into it. And it’s amazing how quickly my German of 30 years ago comes back when I have no alternative but to speak it. I was impressed with what I could remember.

rick fines harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canadaThere was still plenty of music to be found here and there around the city. Rick Fines and his lady bassist were playing at Officers Square to quite a healthy crowd sitting here in the sun.

I had quite a chat with the bassist afterwards and, to my shame, I forgot to ask her name. That’s rather embarrassing. But she did tell me that she’s been playing guitar since she was 9 and bass since she was 13.

Today is also the day of the Terry Fox run – he was someone diagnosed with cancer who set out to run across Canada to raise funds but died before he could make it.

Now, on the third Sunday in September, loads of people take to the streets to complete a little section of his run.

blue train terry fox run fredericton new brunswick canadaThe run through Fredericton follows the public footpath that was formerly the railway line through the city. and here they had a band to help them along.

They were called Blue Train and while the music didn’t appeal to me all that much, they are local and the vocalist certainly could sing. He had loads of stage presence too so it was quite an enjoyable little concert.

>Now here’s the answer to a question that I have often asked.

tesco truck bodies fredericton new brunswick canadaWhen I worked with that weird American company a couple of years ago I was talking to a couple of people who worked for the giant UK Supermarket company Tesco, and I asked them why they had never set out to conquer North America. And when they did invade North America, they used a totally different name to Tesco, a strange decision when their brand has so much recognition in the UK

So here’s the answer. Someone else owns the trade name in North America. A manufacturer of lorry bodies.

rotten GMC Tracker fredericton new brunswick canadaWe’ve seen a few of these before, and here’s yet another.

Not the GMC Tracker, but the state of the outer sills just in front of the rear wheel. I can remember welding up dozens of cars that were rotten like this back in the 80s but the last welding that I have ever done on a car was to weld up an exhaust pipe on my old Passat in 1997. I haven’t welded up a car body for over 20 years.

And if you notice, the rot here is on the offside, not the nearside. That’s rather unusual as the salty water is usually in the gutter alongside the kerb. One thing though – I can see that there are plenty of openings for me over here. I won’t be short of work.

I went off for a little drive later on and found a Canadian Tire place, where I couldn’t persuade them to sell me their display model AIR403 wind turbine. And here, parked outside, totally unattended and with the engine running, was a big black Jeep.

Could you ever imagine a situation like that in the UK?