Tag Archives: ford transit

Friday 2nd December 2011 – IT’S FRIDAY …

… but it’s not Five o’clock, and it’s not Crackerjack either. But it is the last Friday that I’ll be spending here for a week or two. I’m hoping to go to the UK at the end of next week.

And despite having gone to bed quite late last night, that didn’t stop me being wide awake at about 07:00 this morning. This sleep thing is becoming ridiculous.

Liz and I arrived at Radio Arverne’s place in Gerzat at about 10:40 for our 11:00 appointment and eventually it was about 11:47 before we started recording.

We did the four Radio Anglais programmes for December and then Bernard sprung it on me. Would I write another Christmas Special for an hour, to be broadcast in … errrr …. 2 weeks time?

I shall have to get my finger out, won’t I?

We got back to Sauret-Beserve 20 minutes late after all of that and I shot off to Montel-de-Gelat and the sawmill to pick up a load of timber.

I had to wait around there for ages as well as they didn’t (despite what they said on the ‘phone) have any treated wood so they treated it while I waited, and that took ages too.

And while I was there I was chatting with the staff and it turns out that the office girl is the wife of the Montel goalkeeper whose photo that I took was published in the paper the other week, and the office manager plays for Pontaumur and one of my photos of him scoring against Pionsat was published a few weeks before that.

There were two clients there from Pionsat too. One of them had an old Transit pick-up that was clearly custom-made. A PTAC of 3.3 tons for a start – that’s impressive. And he had so much wood dropped in it that it was sagging right down at the back end and he crawled all the way back to Pionsat at 40kph. 

And when I returned home and unloaded my wood I realised that I had forgotten the demi-chevrons that I need to finish off the greenhouse.

D’ohhhh.

And so I went upstairs and crashed out for a while instead.

-2

Saturday 27th August 2011 – I’ve found a really interesting …

toolstation weapons of mass construction les guis virlet puy de dome france… plastic bag to wrap all of my tools and electrical bits into when I put them into my suitcase. And I’d love to have a remote camera in there to take a photo of the face of the security guard when he opens it. No sense of humour, these people. Am I the only one to notice that all of the humour and levity seem to have gone out of life these day?

But not to worry. I’ve also put a protractor, a set square, a set of logarithm tables and so in inside the suitcase. They are in a plastic bag labelled “Weapons of Maths Instruction”.

OK – I’ll get my coat.

And so it’s Saturday. And just for a change, I haven’t been shopping. There’s nothing I need to buy before I set off from here on Tuesday to go to Paris. And so I had a very leisurely breakfast – interrupted from my reverie by a large Ford Transit that came bouncing down the track here. “What does Simon want at this time of the morning?” I uttered. But a second glance revealed that the vehicle had French plates. “Is Terry back already?”. But no, it’s the baker in a different vehicle delivering the bread. That livened up the day.

So now wide awake and shipshape, I started to pack. Bill has lent me a big suitcase and Strawberry Moose fits nicely into it. Then, I’ve fitted all of the tools in there, some of the electrical stuff and also the slow cooker. Now I need to fit the rest of the electrical stuff, all of the paperwork and some clothes in there too. I’ve also sorted out some clothes to take – all colour coded and with logos on. I’m into colour-coding and corporate clothing and all of that stuff.

pointing fieldstone wall les guis virlet puy de dome franceThis afternoon I carried on working outside for a change. I finished off the pointing on the wall – at least all that it’s feasible to do right now until I take off the rest of the corrugated iron roof.

I’ve reached right up into the apex of the roof as you can see and over across to the other side of the roof. That’s over half of the roof finished now and while it would have been nice to have found the time to do all of it, I’m reasonably satisfied with that.

It won’t take long to do all the rest and then fit the wind turbine.

pointing fieldstone wall tarpaulin roof lean to les guis virlet puy de dome franceOnce I decided to retire for the day, I took down the ladder and fitted a couple of tarps over the bit where there’s no roof.

This is only going to be a temporary measure while I’m in Canada of course. Once the rest of the wall is pointed and the wind turbine is up, then I can roof it over properly.

Considering it’s Saturday, I’ve been extremely busy today and I’ll be glad to have a decent lie-in tomorrow – I’ve earned it.

Tomorrow if the weather is nice, it’s the Virlet brocante – one of the best in the area and I’ll go for a look around. I also have to plant some winter lettuce and cabbage and there’s some post to deal with – a few letters, two things to proof-read (one for Dave and one for Rhys) and half-a-dozen e-mails to reply to. When I’ve done that I can knock off because that will be everything that needed doing before I leave.

What? Up to date? Me? Perish the thought.

And in other news, at weekend I usually allow myself a handful of sweets. So this weekend I’ve finished the last of the root beer flavoured sweets because next weekend I can buy some more. They are only on sale in North America.

-2

Tuesday 9th August 2011 – I’m off to bed in a sec.

And not surprisingly either. I was working on my stuff for Canada and chatting away to Rhys when he announced “you’re up late”. And indeed I was – 05:15 am. Carried away with work, as well as sleep issues.

And so the best-laid plans etc – they all went gang awa’ today. 10:30 when I woke up and after breakfast I attacked the radio blog. It took ages to sort out all the programmes and convert them from *.wav to *.mp3 format, and ages to upload. They still aren’t finished either. But once I’d emptied the 8GB data stick I copied a load of music onto it. And it works too, which is surprising, although it takes a while to sort out the directory structure.

This afternoon I’ve sorted out the guttering on the house and barn yet again. I know what the problem is on the barn, but that’s not going to be fixed in 5 minutes. It needs the downspout lowering down by 5cms but that needs a pile of brackets re-positioning. But with the improvements that I’ve made today it may well not overflow. We shall see. I also moved around a few more bits and pieces in my quest to tidy up the barn.

And I forgot to say last night – Rhys reminded me of it – on the way back here from St Gervais d’Auvergne last night I was chased along the road by two huge Audi saloons. The road winds around for the most part and is all up and down as well, and surprisingly to some, but not to others. Caliburn outran them for most of the way. Power-on and front-wheel drive into the bends, Caliburn is a match for most things in these sorts of conditions which is not bad at all for a small-engined Ford Transit, although I reckon that the driver and a set of decent expensive tyres have a lot to do with it. In fact it wasn’t until the long straight at La Celette that they managed to pass me. Yes, I’m really lucky to have Caliburn.

0

Thursday 30th December 2010 – SPRING IS SPRUNG.

Yes, quite unexpectedly we had a Spring day today. A weak, hazy sunshine for most of the day with a cloudy late afternoon-evening. And it was quite warm too – 10°C outside for some of the day.

I chopped up some more wood for burning and I’ve had to start on a second pile as the first pile is in danger of overbalancing. Wood is not something that I’m short of, although I do wish that it was of better quality.

I’ve carried on in the bedroom as well and most of the wall is now studded and insulated. It won’t take long to finish that off but it’s unlikely to be tomorrow as I have to go out to move this famous bed.

Mind you, it’s nice having music to work to. It seems to make the time pass quicker and it makes me more enthusiastic. In fact I’m quite pleased at how this bedroom is coming on and I’m thinking that maybe it won’t be all that much longer until it’s ready for occupation. Maybe a month or two. And then I can start on the bathroom.

But of course there’s the gardening to do. I need to build the new greenhouse, shift the old Ford Transit around, make some more vegetable beds and so on.

Even though things are progressing quite nicely at the moment, the work is just backing up and backing up. No danger of it ever being finished.

-3

Monday 6th December 2010 – WHAT A DRAMATIC …

… change in the weather!

The temperature in my room this morning when I woke up was a balmy 11.2°C this morning – a long time since it’s been this high. And outside it was positively pouring with rain – no surprise there.

But in the verandah we had a pleasant 8°C, and there was an even-better 9°C outside. These figures aren’t bad for a December, especially after the winter we have just had. And the change is dramatic – just a day and a half for the temperature to shoot up.

So after the usual firewood-chopping session (which is diminishing the pile of wood in the lean-to and it won’t be long before I can get to where the stairs will be going) and a long chat with Liz and Terry on the phone I came back up here and restarted on the bedroom

counter battens bedroom wall space blanket insulation les guis virlet puy de dome franceI’ve put another length of insulation on the wall and then I fastened the two conduits to the battens – one conduit taking the 230 volt power and the other one taking the 12 volt power.

Once the cable was in the conduits I made a start on putting the polystyrene insulation on the walls but I ran out of light. With this appalling weather it was dark at 16:26 this afternoon.

So despite the rain (we had 17mm today) it was quite warm outside so I moved one of the two huge piles of recycled bricks out of the way of the pathway down to the garden. They are all stacked up neatly against the barn wall now.

But I have noticed that with the dramatically severe weather followed by the equally-dramatically severe thaw, all of the brush has dramatically died down and I’m starting to find things that I mislaid around the garden. It won’t be long before it will be time to start on the landscaping, version 2011.

In this version I’ll be building the greenhouse, moving the two halves of the old Ford Transit, moving a pile of unwanted trees and digging a couple more beds.

It seems that work never stops around here.

Except on a Sunday of course.

-2

Thursday 9th September 2010 – Here’s a pic …

… of our latest toy.

terry messenger ford transit ifor williams trailer tractor les guis virlet puy de dome franceI told you a little while ago that Terry and I had bought a trailer between us – and here’s a picture.

It isn’t half a mega-beast, an Ifor Williams Trailer with a carrying capacity of 2.5 tonnes. Terry’s tractor and broyer went onto this and the thing didn’t even bat an eyelid. It’s a 4-wheeler with 12″ wheels, detachable sides and back, and a pair of ramps that would be the envy of anyone.

I have the Minerva and the 2000E estate to collect to Brussels some time when I have the room , and this will do all of that without any effort at all. I’m impressed.

terry messenger ford transit ifor williams trailer tractor les guis virlet puy de dome franceSo this morning I went down to Liz and Terry’s where we put one of the old caravan chassis on top of the other one and then put them both on the trailer.

Guillaume and his mate and then Simon came round in mi-chemin and once they had been sorted out Terry brought the load around here. We took off the two old trailers and dumped them round the side of the barn and then Terry loaded up his tractor and set off for home.

I put a couple of buckets of mortar onto the wall and it’s starting to look much better.

Tomorrow I have to go to Bill’s to fix his computer and then I’m off to Clermont Ferrand for a meeting that starts tomorrow evening and finishes on Saturday late afternoon.

If I don’t blog tomorrow night it will because I won’t have been able to find a wi-fi point.

-1

Saturday 19th June 2010 – Now is the winter of our discount tents.

now is the winter of our discount tents camping exhibition montlucon allier franceWell, it was something like that that Shakespeare (or Bacon) wrote in “Richard II” – and quite right too.

If you click on the pic to enlarge it you’ll see exactly what the weather was like today – miserable, grey and overcast. And in a desperate attempt to drum up business the local sports shop in Montlucon was having a tent demonstration. I suppose the idea is that you go and have a look and choose the one that has let in the least water.

The end of season sales are going to be exciting stuff – all these shops having bought all of this summer and camping gear and no-one will have bought anything. There will be tons of stuff on offer.

I also went to the tyre fitters to have Caliburn’s new tyres fitted. And seeing that I’ve spent so much money in there this last week he let me off the puncture repair from the other day which was nice of him. But I’m not too impressed with the scrapyard at Durdat.
“Have you got any 15-inch wheels for a Ford Transit?”
“No we haven’t” replied the manager
“Not even on that one there?” I said, indicating a late-1980s Transit that was partly dismantled down in the corner but still had its 4 wheels on.
“No. Sorry”.
You can’t even give money away to people these days. It’s too much trouble for someone to go down the yard with a trolley jack and a wheel brace. Of course in the good old days before Health and Safety you could go down the yard yourself with a trolley jack and a wheel brace but Central Government has put paid to that.

It’s quite ironic really – they talk about saving natural resources and energy and so do all that they can to encourage recycling, and then another Government department comes along and does its best to stop you recycling anything. Car scrapyards has been one of the earliest forms of recycling and is sooo environmentally-friendly yet they are doing away with it so that you have to buy new stuff thatnks to the arm-twisting that the Auto Lobby applies to politicians. I spend a lot of time in scrapyards – many things that I use in my Renewable Energy projects are from old cars – 12-volt clocks, cables, fuse boxes and the like and I don’t really know what I want until I go down a yard and have a nosey around.

But I digress.

I had no plans to but anything in Brico Depot and so the bill of over €160 took me by surprise. But it’s all useful stuff, including the huge drum of wood-treatment for the new barn roof timbers, 4 sacks of cement in case we need it for the roof and three sacks of chalk for me to do the end wall.

I drove off from LIDL with my two cartons of orange juice on the bonnet of Caliburn and when I got to the swimming baths at Neris les Bains there was one still on. How about that?

And I’m nice and clean now for a change, and talking of change I’ll be changing the bedding too so that I can make the most of it. Tomorrow I was supposed to help Katie at the brocante but she’s called it off – apparently they’ve announced a torrential downpour all day. But so that I wouldn’t be lonely, Bill rang me up. His car has broken down and if it’s not a simple repair he will need me to tow him back from St Eloy les Mines tomorrow.

0

Tuesday 18th May 2010 – You’ll see a few changes ….

wood to make caravan chassis trailer sauret besserve puy de dome france… in this photo too.

In the foreground is a huge pile of wood – 6 chevrons and a load of 40mm planking. That’s the floor of the trailer.

The trailer itself is in middle distance. That’s all been cleaned off and de-rusted, and it’s now painted with Brico Depot’s best anti-rust metal paint in a nice shade of mid-brown

And how does Terry pull the trailer? Well a closer inspection of the back of Terry’s van will now show a towbar and some electrics.

And that was today’s work.

The towbar was interesting though. It’s off my old Transit from the late 1990s that is lying down the field here. It was a 1984 model and I drove it for a few years until the tin worm took over. I took the towbar off for Terry and I also removed the mounting plates for him as the mounting holes looked to be in the same position. In 20-odd years the rear end of a Transit hasnt changed. But ooohhh noooo – the mounting plates don’t quite fit. They’ve ever so slightly modified the rear end.

Now I don’t know about you but I reckon that if you are going to redesign something then you redesign it and do a good job. There’s no point whatever in redesigning and then spending all this money tooling up just for moving two holes by 5mm in the horizontal plane and 3mm in the vertical plane. It’s a pointless waste of money. But if Fords can subtly modify the rear end of a Transit then Terry and I can not-so-subtly modify a pair of mounting plates. And now the towbar is on.

Tomorrow is connecting up the wiring to the van, wiring up the trailer and then fitting the floor.

-1

Saturday 15th May 2010 – His NIbs made some more new admirers today.

strawberry moose julianna enval puy de dome franceYes, we did this furniture removal today and Strawberry Moose came along to take charge, supervise and in general look after the children while the adults did the work.

Of course this calls for a photo opportunity (have you ever known Strawberry Moose to miss out on one of those?) and here he is being feted by James, Samuel and Julianna while Liz, Esther and Lionel look on.

The furniture removal took most of the day, what with one thing and another, but we had a chance to meet up with Clare and Keith. And Clare very kindly donated to the cause a complete set of kitchen cooking knives that she had received as a free gift and which were surplus to requirements. That was really nice of her.

After the removal was over we went back to Liz and Terry’s where we discussed plans for the forthcoming week and also to continue the discussions over our moneymaking activities. We’re a long way from being destitute of course and we are all doing things to keep ticking over but you need to be proactive and take control of matters. Consequently on Monday we will be extracting the old caravan chassis from the wilderness around here, repairing it and loading Terry’s small tractor onto it so that it is ready for work and then fitting the towbar off my old Transit onto Terry’s van so that he can tow it about. Then Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday we will be fixing the pipes at the back of Terry’s house, seeing as the kwikstage scaffolding is up there.

 There are lots of other things too but if you plan to finish them all, the first thing that you need to do is to make the start. And that’s as good a place as any.

Once those things are out of the way we can see where we are up to.

-2

Wednesday 14th April 2010 – I’ve finished all of the beds in the garden

raised bed gardening les guis virlet puy de dome franceYou can see the last one just here on the right of the image.I can’t go any further for to the right are some fruit trees, behind me is the scrap Ford Transit van and to the left of the raised beds are the old Ford Cortina and the diesel w123 Mercedes 240D. And once we get round to next winter I can think about moving all of the vehicles elsewhere.

But 9 raised beds is enough for now, what with the megacloche as well – you may remember that last year it was just 8 raised beds.

There’s a caravan window across the megacloche for the moment. My tray of radishes and my container of carrots are underneath it hardening off ready to be planted. I needed the space in the greenhouse for the April sowing of seed, which I also did today. But nothing much seems to be germinating and that’s pretty disappointing. I’m sure it didn’t take this long last year.

15 of us at football training tonight. We started off with a few laps around the pitch and then had a game of quick-passing football. After that it was a heading match and then we finished off with a 7-a-side game. There was a new player there tonight – someone who I hadn’t seen before. A big guy, bald and a little on the senior side and called Christophe, which is bound to complicate things as there are already more Christophes than you can shake a stick at.

It reminds me of the old days with the Cheese Hall pub in Crewe. If you wanted a labourer or two to help on a job you would stick your head through the door and shout “Paddy”. You’d be trampled to death in the stampede.

But I digress.

There’a a goalkeeping crisis in the club right now – just one fit keeper for all three teams … “I bet he’s busy then” – ed … and this Christophe is someone who somebody else knows who retired from playing a few years ago but he’s been enticed out of retirement to keep goal for the 2nd XI for the next few weeks while Francois, Michael and Philippe recover from their injuries.

But this training lark – I’m miles off being match-fit and at my age I doubt if realistically I can get back into the right kind of fitness. But there is hope for me yet. If Tomi Morgan can crack it in the Welsh Premier League at his age then I can do it in the 14th level of the French pyramid at two and a half years more.

The proof of the pudding will be when I wake up tomorrow morning and see how the bones feel. I did notice that I was running much more freely tonight, and that’s a good sign.

0

Friday 12th March 2010 – No wonder …

old ford transit les guis virlet puy de dome france… it was flaming cold (like 7 degrees) in here when I woke up this morning. Outside it had dropped to minus 9!!! That is just crazy.

So after breakfast in the cold I started to tidy up the wood that I’d cut down. And as you can see I’ve collected quite a pile. That wood is for three years hence and so it’ll stay on the pile for a while until I get round to cutting it up -which won’t be for a while because I’ve broken my loppers. That’s the third pair I’ve broken down here.

On the other side of the patch of land is a huge pile of brambles weeds and the like. And if Monday is a good day all of that will be burnt and I can get on with digging up tree stumps. I’ve washed the inside of the plastic greenhouse ready to move down here and I need to think about uprooting the raised beds.

And this evening I’ve been for a little drive to Clermont Ferrand.

-7

Wednesday 10th March 2010 – If you look very closely …

heavy snow open field old ford transit removed les guis virlet puy de dome france… at this image you will notice three things.

Firstly there’s a big empty space where the two halves of the old Transit used to be. Thats right – I’ve winched them over to the other side of the meadow (I only bent a chain hook today!) where they are safely installed and this has left me with all of this room to use as my vegetable plot.

Secondly, you’ll notice that the hedge has been cleared out, piles of brambles have been uprooted, overhanging branches removed and tall saplings cut right down. There’s a good view now over neighbouring fields for the moment (until I block it off with the greenhouse) and the sun will get over there a treat.

heavy snow old ford transit les guis virlet puy de dome franceThirdly, you’ll notice the snow! It’s snowed all day and all night and it’s really beginning to get on my wick, this weather. It’s almost the middle of March and we had sub-zero temperatures all day and this flaming white stuff.

The first serious snowfall of the year was almost exactly 3 months ago to the day. Any more of this and I’ll be off to Canada for good. At least over there you expect to have it for all that time and you can prepare accordingly. This is just getting ridiculous.

-5

Monday 8th March 2010 – I’ve started to move the old Transit …

moving old ford transit garden les guis virlet puy de dome france… as you can see. I’ve managed to get it about 6 feet out from the hedge and it took quite a while for that.
Firstly the front wheels have sunk in quite a depth and accumulated humus from rotting vegetation meant that I had to spend a while digging it out.
Secondly I’ve lent out my good electric winch and the not-so-good electric winch had a few issues about it which mean that it’s not up to all that much – hence I had to resort to the old hand-powered chain winch. But what the heck? hand-powered chain winches have been around for centuries and they worked well enough in those days.
moving old ford transit garden les guis virlet puy de dome franceMind you the first thing that I did was to bend two S-hooks that I was using to make a loop in one of the chains – so I had to go and hunt down a couple of bow shackles. And then I snapped a chain! – Yes, snapped a chain using a hand-powered chain winch! And if that wasn’t enough, I actually stretched the other galvanised steel chain! Yes, stretching a steel chain! It’s a flaming good chain winch this – the power I can get on the lever must be phenomenal!

But anyway, the Transit together with its load of one-and-a-half Passats is on its way across the field, and that’s certainly something to celebrate.

This morning was another bright sunny alpine day with quite a wind – just the job for a washday and so while I was doing the washing I was also unloading all of Saturday’s shopping from Caliburn. The solar energy was such that I ran the upstairs heater for 5 hours – another day with 240 amp-hours (almost 3KwH) of sun and I’m thinking seriously about the idea of resurrecting my mains automatic washing machine. I’ve also had some sales material about some fridges that use about 0.5kWH (about 43amp-hours) of energy per day. Energy consumption for electrical appliances is plummeting and it won’t be long before I can have a real fridge here too.

This afternoon I put all of the plasterboard (all 16 sheets of it) upstairs. You’ve no idea how heavy that stuff can be when you are mauling it up by hand. And then I tackled the Transit.

Tomorrow we are recording the second instalment of our radio programme. I hope they don’t lose this tape!

And in other news, you may remember that the other day I spent an hour in the torrential rain moving a car for Bill. Tonight at the Anglo-French group he very kindly gave me a box of vegan biscuits for my trouble. “I felt embarrassed when I saw the state you were in” he said. But as I said at the time, I was quite happy doing it – it brought back many happy memories of when I had my taxi business and the state I was in the other day was the state in which I lived for eight years, so it was no trouble at all. But it was still very kind of Bill to give me the biscuits and I am very grateful. After all, one might say that the efforts that I went through for him – they really took the biscuit!

-7

Thursday 4th March 2010 – I had quite a surprise this morning …

old cars mercedes 240d w123 ford cortina 5 ford transit les guis virlet puy de dome france… despite the torrential rain all yesterday afternoon, evening and through the night, the garden fire was still smoking this morning. It wouldn’t restart though, but nevertheless it was quite something to see.

I’ve finally reached the hedge at the back of the vehicles – you’ve no idea how many brambles I’ve had to scythe my way through – and I’ve made a start on cutting down the overhanging branches (and there are plenty to go at).

old cars mercedes 240d w123 ford cortina 5 ford transit les guis virlet puy de dome franceI’ve also cut around the far side of the old Transit so that is now totally clear of undergrowth so once I’ve burnt all of the weeds and brambles and the like (that’s another fire for tomorrow) I can drag that out of the way.

So this afternoon I emptied the greenhouse and got ot ready for cleaning. I’ll be buying some seeding soil on Saturday to get ready for the sowing but I need to clean the plastic sheeting of the greenhouse and get it ready to move it to its new home. It’s all getting quite exciting.

I also had a play with the Ford Escort but I couldn’t get it started – I think that the fuel cut-off valve is stuck. Ordinarily it wouldn’t have mattered very much – I would have just pulled it out with Caliburn, dragged it down the lane and then rolled it backwards down the hill into its new position. I might have managed it on my own but it’s one of those things that’s unequivocal – once you have started you really need to finish it because you can’t leave it blocking the lane and at the point where it’s likely to become stuck there isn’t anything like a handy tree to attach the chain winch to help me along. It’s the kind of project that I’m going to leave until I have visitors.

-6

Wednesday 3rd March 2010 – I didn’t get as much done today …

old cars ford cortina mercedes 240d w123 les guis virlet puy de dome france… as I was planning to. First thing I did was to put the battery on charge for the Escort and while that was brewing away I carried on down in the field where my garden will be.

It was quite a reasonable day this morning and so I cracked on, and I managed to uncover the scrap Cortina and the W123 Merc. Of course, the Cortina will never go anywhere much under its own steam. It was built in 1980 and spent its entire working life on a salt mine and by the time it was scrapped in 1994 it was rotten in places that Cortinas don’t even have places. It was driven through the night from Middlewich to Brussels in 1995 and since then it’s been moved around Europe on a towing dolly or an A frame, finally coming to rest down my field in 2000.

old cars ford transit les guis virlet puy de dome franceIts purpose is the provide spare parts for XCL – the Cortina Mark V estate that was my pride and joy for many years and which is languishing in a lockup garage in Montaigut. XCL has many happy memories for me – that was the car in which I came over to Belgium from the UK in 1993 with all my worldy goods in the back and for a few years we drove for tens of thousands of trouble-free miles all over Europe.

The Merc on the other hand has another significant memory for me. I was stuck without a reliable car after the Senator and I parted company in 1997 and I had to go to the UK to pick up a caravan for down here (the one that I lived in and was trashed by rats). A lovely girl called Annette from Guyana or Trinidad or somewhere like that and worked in the Guyanan or Trinidad embassy in Brussels wanted to go to visit the UK for a while too on a kind-of conducted tour so a decent car was essential if I were to take her. So I mentioned to a friend that I was looking for something respectable and he produced the Merc. And I had a lovely week in the company of Annette all around the UK. She really was a lovely girl and I was quite upset when she was transferred back home to the Caribbean.

We had a torrential rainstorm this afternoon so I decided to take the towing dolly (which you can see in this photo with the Subaru that Ric and Julie gave me being towed by the old LDV back in 2001) round to Bill’s. He has an old car he needs to remove from off the public highway. I got round there and asked him when he planned to move the car, to which his response was “well we could do it now if you’re free“. No straps, no chains, no anything, but so what?

We winched the Rover on board and with nothing to hold it on I set off to turn round. First bump in the road the Rover bounced out of the wheel traps and the car’s towing eye wedged up against the dolly’s mounting bracket. So when we finally got everything into position where Bill wanted the Rover to be, I had to jack the car out of its position with a trolley jack, two axle stands and a huge pile of blocks of wood. And all the time it was teeming down with rain.

It was just like old times when I had my taxi business back in the 1980s, doing crazy things with old cars in torrential downpours. I was soaked to the skin and I took ages to dry out afterwards. I’m trying my best to get warm now before I go down with pleurisy or something.

-12