Tag Archives: safety certificate

Saturday 26th August 2017 – WHAT A DAY!

And I’ve slept through most of it, I reckon.

Despite my early night it took me quite a while to drop off to sleep and then, once I’d gone, I stayed gone until the alarm went off.

Mind you, I’d been on my travels during the night. I’d been arranging a convoy of driverless lorries to travel along the road somewhere, and having assembled that, I went off to somewhere else to assemble another convoy to attach on behind it as it passed by. But while we were all waiting for the first convoy to arrive, I noticed that it was running on a parallel road and that had me all in a panic because I didn’t have a header-lorry to lead this convoy so it had absolutely to attach itself to the first one otherwise we would be stuck. So I was dragging this convoy behind me as I was dashing down side roads trying to connect up with the first convoy.

As a result of this I was late leaving the stinking pit and didn’t have time for breakfast. I did however manage to grab a big glass of my almond milk.

At the tyre depot there was just Rachel and me in the office and Darren and his father in the workshop. And you’ve no idea how busy we were.

We had to give someone some very bad news today too. They had just bought a car that had just gone through a safety inspection and they wanted Darren to check it.

You’ve all heard me talk and you’ve all seen photos about what kind of bodywork is or isn’t acceptable in Canada, so for Darren to turn round and say that this car shouldn’t be on the road at all gives you some idea of how bad it really was.

After we finished at lunchtime we went to the shop. Saturday is a good time to go as there are lots of reductions and rachel has a big freezer. We loaded up quite a bit of stuff.

I hadn’t eaten at all so far so I was starving by now, and so I made myself a huge pile of butties – and then I fell asleep for a couple of hours.

I managed to pull myself together and start to clean out Strider. But I didn’t get very far. I didn’t have the enthusiasm.

The OSB shelf in there has collapsed and all of the contents decanted all over the floor, including the rice and pasta.

And I clearly can’t have been feeling myself either because although I had given Rachel some stuff out of Strider, there was another lot in a plastic bucket that I had evidently forgotten to bring in.

Too late to bring it in now though – the extreme cold had shattered a couple of the glass jars and we had jam and tomato sauce all over the stuff and in the bucket – so that all needed to be washed off.

That much exercise totally wore me out and I was back on my bed and fast asleep. And that’s were I stayed until Rachel summoned me for my stir-fry tea (which was delicious).

Now I’m back in my room and it goes without saying that I can’t sleep.

But then isn’t it always like that?

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Monday 12th September 2016 – I WONDERED …

… as regular readers of this rubbish will recall from last year, why it was that Strider had a tendency to wander about on the road. I put it down at the time to a worn damper, but now I know the truth.

Yes, the insurance has come through. This morning I went down to the tyre depot and I faxed off my application form. I left things to stew for half an hour or so, and then called up the company to pay them over the phone. But, as you might expect in this long-running saga, the person dealing with the matter was out of the office.

I called them back just before lunch and luckily, the person “had just returned to the office”, so we were able to deal with the payment. Surprisingly, the credit card that was blocked in Montreal the other day was accepted for the payment and 10 minutes later I had a faxed copy of the insurance card in my sweaty little mitt.

The original will follow in the post “in due course” but knowing Canada Post as I do, and as you do if you were around here back in 2011, it will mean that I’ll receive it about a week after the expiry date of the policy. But a faxed copy is good.

And so at lunchtime, as Zoe was going past the house, I had her drop me off and I could drive Strider back to the tyre depot.

Once we had dealt with a headlight in a Chrysler HHR and a tyre on a farmer’s lorry, we could wheel Strider into the garage and stick him up on a ramp. And this is where we found that a track rod end was almost hanging off. No wonder he was wandering about a little.

So a new track rod end is on order and should come tomorrow mid-morning, and that will (hopefully) mean that Strider should have his safety certificate (MoT to you lot) by lunchtime. Then I can go down to Service New Brunswick in Florenceville and tax him, and we will be on the road.

Once we had done the check on Strider, we had an hour or two spare and so we started to strip down the axle on this Chevrolet lorry. Taking the half-shafts out was straightforward (although it wasn’t that easy) but dismantling the bearings in the axle casing was anything but.

The reason for this is that they are held on by a nut that requires – would you believe – a socket of 3.25 inches, and 8-sided at that. And who in the world – apart from a Chevrolet lorry dealer – would have one of those? It’s almost as if they make them like that deliberately to stop anyone other than a main agent from doing the work. We had to order one and it won’t be here for a few days.

But I might not be here by then. The sea is calling me.

Back here, there was some kind of ladies’ party going on here. Rachel was having one of these demonstration things and we were surrounded by women. But this kind of thing does have its advantages, such as when someone asks me to empty half a bowl of home-made guacamole. Luckily there was a bowl of crisps handy and so I was able to oblige.

So now I’m off to bed – and I deserve it as well. Although my night was slightly better last night, waking up definitively at 05:50, it still wasn’t as good as the one just recently. But having worked hard today at the tyre depot I’m fairly exhausted.

This might mean a really good sleep. I hope so!

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Wednesday 19th August 2015 – HERE I AM …

prevost orleans express bus montreal riviere du loup quebec canada… at 03:30 at Riviere du Loup, and this is the bus that brought me here – a Prevost.

It took that length of time for the bus to come all the way out here but to be honest I don’t remember all that much about it. I managed to have something of a doze.

But here, I had to change buses as this one that I was on is off down the Gaspe Peninsula. I’m waiting for the Coach Atlantic bus that will be here at about 04:00 ready to leave at 04:30 for Moncton, and that’s going to drop me off at Florenceville.

prevost coach atlantic bus edmundston new brunswick canadaAnd this is the Coach Atlantic bus, an older Prevost, that brought me to Florenceville. We’re at Edmundston when this photo was taken, stopping to pick up and drop off passengers and also parcels because the bus does a parcels delivery.

And that gave all of us the time to have a coffee and to visit the bathroom, which I for one needed after all of that drive.

Strangely enough, we arrived at Florenceville on time, and Rachel and Amber were there to meet me. And I’ll tell you something for nothing, and that is that I will do this bus trip again. It was extremely painless, and much more comfortable than I ever imagined it to be.

I was dropped off at the garage to pick up my new toy, Strider the Ranger, and then took it round for its safety check. It passed okay, but I’ve had a new spare tyre put on it. The one that was there was quite worn and in any case it was the wrong size. I may as well have it done first as last, and it gave me an opportunity to clean and grease all of the spare wheel fittings.

Armed with a valid safety certificate, I went off to the insurance and there I had to lie down in a darkened room while I recovered from the shock. North American motor insurance is horrendous, even worse than Belgium.

I took the certificate back to the garage so that he could have a copy and so that he could register the sale and obtain the number plates. At the moment, Strider only has a temporary registration certificate.

On the way back up here, I noticed that Strider has a chronic misfire on one cylinder so I’ve booked it in on Friday to have a full service – that’s something else that I may as well have done before I go too far.

The three of us (Darren and Hannah are tractor-pulling this weekend) went out for a meal later at Woodstock and a good old chat, to catch up with what we have missed since last October. And then I came back here and crashed out.

Hardly a surprise.

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