Stay….Stay…. Staying Alive! John Travolta couldn’t join me this morning for my six monthly trip to the quack! The surgery appointment was at 10.40 and I was back on the street by 10.45. Must have been the easiest money the doc has made in some time! Apparently the blood pressure was fine and my weight (visual inspection) looked good, so my four months of my own cooking can’t have been quite as bad as I thought. However he has decided they need to do an engine oil analysis. This means missing breakfast one day this week, along with a walk to the local hospital. Last time I went there the oil sample queue seemed to go twice around the hospital grounds.
Today Jan and I struggled to find each other in Rugby. It’s not a big town and you would think finding each other wouldn’t be that difficult. We now each have a new Samsung smartphone (cheap overseas purchase) and I tried calling her on her new phone. It went straight to voicemail so I assumed she had her new phone turned off. We had previously agreed to meet outside ASDA. When I made my third pass of the front door there she was coming from the opposite direction. The battery had gone flat on her new phone! Moreover we appear to have been following each other around Rugby.
During winter Jan had discovered a quirky coffee shop next to Wetherspoons and today we went there for lunch. I decided on the quiche, but the serving looked small. Anticipating it wouldn’t fill me, I asked Jan to also buy me a scone. When the quiche arrived it was accompanied by a large serving of pasta, coleslaw and potatoes. Suddenly I was going from potentially hungry to fattened bull!
After purchasing fresh fruit and veg at the open market we walked back to Waiouru in an effort to shake the lunch down to the legs.
Jan disappeared inside Waiouru to complete more domestic chores whilst I finished yesterday’s religious task making the bed base extension holey! All it now needs is for the edges of the holes to be sanded and the bare timber varnished. The cheap (99p) pack of sandpaper has proven to be a disappointment. It crumbles in my hand when I attempt to sand the timber. My own fault, I shouldn’t have expected cheap sandpaper to be much good.
By 2.00pm I was back doing my Harry Houdini act in the engine compartment. After the last couple of days twisting and turning in the very confined space many of my muscles won’t stretch that ‘extra’ bit.
In the end I discovered I could see the area of baseplate that needed the rust removed and cleaning by tucking my head between my knees and turned it to the right. Then if I placed my right heel behind my left ear I could just reach the furthest corner of the baseplate. Well it felt like I’d done exactly that!
Yesterday the port side of the baseplate looked like this……
After working away at the rust with the wire brush I asked Jan for the container of Jif (Cif) and proceeded to clean the baseplate before rinsing it off.
And now it looks like this
The starboard side of the engine received a second coat of Hammerite and now looks like this.
I didn’t steal the tea towels….. Jan gave them to me as rags!
Sue (Nb No Problem) left a comment on yesterdays post suggesting I stretch all those aching muscles by going for a good walk. The mind is willing, but the flesh is weak!
The old laptop has reached retiring age and has been replaced with a new ultrabook. I must write a boring ‘nerdy’ post about how the new cheap ultrabook has been transformed into Sebastian Coe.
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