Category Archives: poplar motors

Friday 16th December 2011 – JULIE’S MUM …

loaded caliburn ford transit… said to me that I could fit a few extra things in Caliburn, because her son in law (Rob) had told her that it would be quite empty coming back.

Well, absolutely. As you can see.

Shall we run through all of the stuff that isn’t there? Like no scaffolding for a start? No rolls of insulation?

As Clare said when she saw the photograph “it’s a good job that I forgot to ask you about the three-piece suite”. Plenty of room for that.

I left my hotel fairly early and did another trip around the supermarkets and tool supply places like Screwfix and Toolstation, all for stuff that I had forgotten.

Another trip down to my storage box and collect the last of the stuff that I had ordered. And my luck was in again – I managed to source another Ford Transit wheel for Caliburn’s winter tyres.

Northampton was next, and Michael very kindly sorted out a 98-litre immersion heater for me from his plumbing supplies place. This is for the solar hot water at home.

Rosemary had asked me to call at a place in London for 7 rolls of this space-blanket roof insulation, and then back out to Luton for Rob and Julie’s stuff.

No wonder I was exhausted.

I made it down to Pompey – Portsmouth – with time to spare – which surprised me totally. Enough time in fact to go to the chippy for another huge dollop of beans and chips all smothered in malt vinegar, just like the evening that I arrived, which seemed like a year ago.

Now I’m sitting in the queue for the ferry, which leaves at 23:59. I hope that there’s a nice corner for me to curl up into. I’m exhausted!

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Thursday 15th December 2011 – A WISE DECISION …

… staying here.

Not the least of reasons being that I’m warm and comfortable and at a reasonable price too.

It means that I can load up Caliburn a lot earlier than I would otherwise have done. And so I’m not rushing around panicking at the last moment like I always seem to do.

Having picked up the scaffolding yesterday I can run off to Manchester today, do a trip around Trafford Park for Screwfix and Toolstation for more stuff. Including a 35-litre plastic water tank.

As you might remember, the metal drum for my home-made immersion heater melted through while I was in Canada in the autumn. I’ve decided to build the next one with a plastic container. This is a cold-water container, it’s true, but I’m hoping that it will withstand a regular 60-70°C heat without too many problems.

I’d love to find a copper container somewhere, but I’m not sure how I’m going to do that. Eventually though, I’ll be lucky enough to find a good 50-litre copper immersion heater, and I can then make a new mounting plate for the element.

Later on, I went round to rescue Percy Penguin from work, and enticed her back to my lair to see where I was staying. She doesn’t live too far away from here. I had thought about taking her out for a meal, but when I asked her if she fancied some coq au vin, she got into the back of Caliburn.

But tomorrow I’m back on the road. I’ve a long way to travel and a lot of things to do.

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Wednesday 14th December 2011 – HAVING SLEPT …

… in the warmth and comfort of a hotel room, I was up and about quite early and fit for almost anything – if this stinking head cold will let me.

So having gathered my wits which, let’s face it, doesn’t take as long as it might these days, I was off to Liverpool.

As you know, I’m spending a lot of time working on my house and even though I own half a scaffolding, I can never seem to be able to use it as it’s always out doing other stuff.

That’s a situation that is really getting me down so I made a decision a while back that I would buy two bays of scaffolding and keep them just for myself at my house, for use when I want to and at no other time.

And, of course, now that I’m no longer sleeping in Caliburn this trip, I can load him up.

But I had a stroke of luck on the way. Passing a Ford breaker’s down some dingy back street in Speke I noticed a Ford Transit being dismantled. Stopping for a look, it still had one wheel and tyre on it, and the tyre wasn’t too bad.

Not a major manufacturer, it has to be said, but not a remould either. But it wasn’t the tyre that I was really interested in anyway.

Regular readers of this rubbish will know that, being fed up of having to swap tyres over every Spring and Autumn, I’m trying to collect a spare set of wheels so that I can have winter tyres fitted permanently.

This wheel and tyre will do nicely for a spare, and the original spare wheel can come and be rotated onto the road. And so after much negotiation, folding stuff changed hands and there we were.

Even more skilled negotiations down at the Scaffolding place. We had a lengthy chat and I bought what I needed. But because I had my SIREN (French trade registration certificate) with me, I could buy it VAT-free for export. So that saved me a bundle.

Yes, having been lucky with my B&Q trade card when I was here earlier in the year, I brought my SIREN with me so that I could capitalise on whatever other opportunities come my way.

Surfing around on the internet a little later, I noticed that Macclesfield were playing Chelmsford City in an FA Cup replay. That’s not too far away and if I can put my skates on, I can make it. Years since I’ve been to Moss Rose.

So, just like Janet in Tam Lin, off I went, as fast as go can me.

I missed the first five minutes which was no real problem (finding a parking place was, however) but found a comfy seat in the stand behind the southern goal, chatting to a local kid.

But what a dreadful match it was. Macclesfield Town could have played with Stevie Wonder in goal and it would have made no difference because the Chelmsford City attack was woeful.

Chelmsford City had two players – Akurang and Modeste – who looked okay (so it goes without saying that they were both substituted) and Macclesfield had a full-back called Carl Tremarco who was easily the best player on the pitch (and he scored the goal).

As an aside, for anyone who might be interested in football trivialities, Macclesfield’s goalkeeper José Veiga is an International for the Cape Verde national side.

On the way back I found a chippy so had a huge helping of chips and beans to keep me going until breakfast.

And I’m glad that I’m not sleeping out in the van tonight. It’s absolute taters and I’m not well.

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Tuesday 13th December 2011 – WELL, THAT’S THAT THEN!

Last night I parked up at the side of the road for a good sleep. But unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out like that.

Firstly, we had a heavy, torrential downpour of freezing rain that lashed the van for quite a considerable period during all night.

Added to that, we had a temperature that plummeted through the floor and it was as cold as Hades.

I’ve slept in the cold before and it doesn’t bother me, but I think that I’ve picked up a bug or something because I spent most of the night shivering.

So with a streaming head-cold, feeling absolutely whacked and not in a good mood, I hit the shops today.

Benchdollar as usual for another load of pipe clamps. Switchblade steel supplies for a load of aluminium profiles – all kinds of stuff like that. A couple of supermarkets too like Tesco’s and Morrisons, and a rummage around in my storage box to see what the Postman had brought me.

But later on, with the freezing temperatures and my streaming cold all combining to make me thoroughly miserable, I was idly surfing through the net when it came to my attention that the “Travelodge” at Poplar Motors had rooms available, and at a bargain price too.

Feeling rather under the weather like this – and there’s a lot of weather to be under right now – I’ll do myself a mischief if I keep on sleeping in Caliburn.

Poplar Motors is ideally situated for where I want to be and what I want to do, and so now I’m shacked up in a warm, comfy room with central heating and I’m not moving for the rest of the night no matter what happens.

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Thursday 2nd June 2011 – I FOUND A …

caliburn overnight parking poplar motors lymm cheshire uk… lovely place to kip last night. A bit of old abandoned road near the Poplar Motors Cafe near Lymm on the edge of the M6.

Another one of those places that is totally deserted at night but when you wake up in the morning it’s swamped out with car-sharers.

And I had quite an early start this morning. Thanks for the text, Percy Penguin

With my early start it wasn’t long before I ended up on Trafford Park at Screwfix and Toolstation – my catalogues are out of date and need replacing.

And then round to Maccess – the auto-spars wholesalers – for some car bits (I still have my trade card for there from when I had my taxis).

Maccess has gone right downhill but I managed to spend £220 there all the same, including the new brake pads that I need for Caliburn (the guy at the MoT station said that they were down).

From there I sped along the M62 to St Helens to my storage unit. I’ve emptied that out and closed it down now.

A quick nip across the yard to Elite Workwear to order some more shirts with logos as the ones I have are getting a little shabby and I need some new stuff. It’s a reasonable quality, reasonable price and stops me worrying about what I’m going to be wearing.

Next stop was IKEA at Burtonwood but there was nothing really of interest there and so I went to the B&Q Superstore at Ashton-in-Makerfield for Caliburn’s suspended floor.

Here I really struck it lucky.

It seems that there was a salesman there from the B&Q Trade Counter working on a commission basis and short of his targets for trade customers. And the advantage of having corporate clothing and the like is that I actually look like a tradesman (which is, after all, the aim of it).

He asked for two proofs of identity which of course I don’t have, but one of the advantages of having a fully-signwritten van like Caliburn is that it looks kosher, no matter what the reality might or might not be, and that was the aim of that as well.

For the second piece of identity, which needed to be proof of a business address, did I not have in Caliburn the lease of my 1 cubic metre of mailbox in Stoke on Trent that I signed yesterday?

And so with a salesman desperately seeking a target figure and willing to turn something of a blind eye to the finer points of the paperwork, I now have a B&Q Trade Card, and you can’t knock that.

Especially as one of the reasons that I am here is to buy 5 glazed interior doors like the one into my little attic (that came from B&Q a few years ago).

I really can’t emphasise this enough – a van isn’t simply a means of transporting goods and possessions around – it’s 15 square metres of mobile advertising space and if you are in any kind of business you should make the most if it.

I reckon that over half of whatever it is that I have done has come due to the £250 I spent in having Caliburn signwritten.

And so to Crewe – and it seems that my house in Gainsborough Road needs a total rewire as the cabling is falling to bits. No surprise there – I bought the house in 1981 and the only attention that the wiring has had since then has been the couple of extra sockets that I added.

Actually, it’s probably them that need replacement – I didn’t have a clue what I was doing in those days … “and today?” – ed.

The estate agents also tell me that they had to replace the carpets on the ground floor as they were all threadbare. “Not to worry” I replied. “They were there when I bought the place in 1981” – which brought the house down.

“Well, you’ve had your money’s worth there then” said the agent.

After shopping at the new Morrison’s at Crewe, next stop was to rescue Percy Penguin, who couldn’t get home after work, and give her some personal attention.

And that was that. Here I am on Sandbach Services with a new mega-fast high-speed interent connection, and free too, thanks to Roadchef Services and BT Openlink.

I’m off to bed in a minute, if I can think of somewhere handy to sleep.

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