April 2024

 

April 2024

 

I have just written something about “What if” about moving to a barn as the start of a plan in freedom of thought about what could be possible but now I’m writing about what has happened since the beginning of April to keep you up-to-date on developments and disasters unfolding in my daily life. In the last episode the Buell went back to the shop for exhaust system repair. Another expensive job but successfully completed in time for another trip to Whitchurch to see Coops and help the new hood for the El Cid along to another stage. The rear window has been installed and it is now a complete structure.

A new car and there is something weird happening to the display screen. I had a Hospital appointment and was going to go with Gita but there was a fault with the steering and the engine would not start. I went on the Buell instead. We had recently bought a small vacuum cleaner and that stopped working too. 

The fence at the front of the house had gone green over the winter and was a stark contrast with the blue tarpaulin covering the junk at the front. It was opportune that Lidl had a planter on offer, I had a trellis and suitable wood for posts I only had to buy the feather board to complete the project. It took a few days to clean and paint the fence to change it from green to brown and tidy up the front. With the elevated trough the legs were strong enough to screw the trellis to and posts to support the sides. A box from posts, trough linked by trellis was the basic structure and then hid by feather board to make a robust structure attached to the original fence. After painting it I could hide the blue tarpaulin and the junk. The trough has yet to be filled with flowers.

I contacted Russell Hobbs about the vacuum cleaner and they replaced it after much tooing and froing with emails and trying to send a video by email. I can do it on Whatsapp but not Gmail. Why? They are the same people. In the end they sent me a replacement cleaner. Dispose of the old one please. It was two weeks old. I could salvage things from it like filters, battery and head with the rotating brush. It could last for years. I started to strip it removing the motor I found a lose wire at the back of the motor. It was a dry joint on the earth. Joint suitably soldered the motor worked and now I have two vacuum cleaners.

An easy repair was not possible with the Aircross and with the aid of Citroen Connect the RAC was called and the fault not fixed so it would be taken to the nearest Citroen dealer for repair. That was not possible as the nearest one could not take the car until June. Fortunately the dealership we had bought from could accept it in a few days so it went there. We now have a hire car. The El Cid is being worked on, the Burton needs a new clutch. The Kawasaki  and Buell have been repaired and all is well with my world.