Mechanical Problems #1

On the way back from a bike ride, at dusk on the motorway, the engine started to cut out... Brrrr! I made it back, i'm used to drive old cars in various state of disrepair.

Wanting to avoid another costly repair, i checked the engine myself. The mechanics who had changed the head gasket had tightened the spark plug so much that i broke the first one i checked:

Back with a new spark plug, i looked for other problems and found that the botch repair i did on the air filter housing - to get me to the garage last time with the back firing problem - could be causing the fault: the gaffer tape wasn't holding the two pieces together anymore, instead it was flapping inside the duct, reducing airflow to the engine. This time i glued it - again to get "to the garage":

By then i was thinking that it was wise of me to have abandoned engineering for a more intellectual career. Not surprisingly, this was not the cause of the problem and the car is now at the garage. Hearing my tale, the mechanics suggested a faulty temperature sensor, something that is quite common after a blown head gasket...

The story doesn't quite end there. As i was emptying the car, i noticed liquid dripping under the engine bay: a gas leak! - my car runs on LPG- So i can count myself lucky that this was found before bringing the car to the garage, not after!

Hmmmmm

Premiere grosse recolte de la saison. Ne riez pas, ce n'est pas facile de faire pousser des legumes ici! En plus j'ai loupe les semences cette annee.

Les radis sont bons cette annee. Je vais en faire cadeau a Allan et Taissia qui m'ebergent demain soir a Londres. J'y reste 2 jours pour une conference sur le management des risques et un dinner des anciens du MBA. Taissia est originaire de Siberie et aime beaucoup les produits frais.

Les fraises, je vais en faire de la confiture. Ce sont des fraises naines. Pas assez de soleil? en tout cas, elles ont beaucoup de gout. Je rajoute une demie barquettes de fraises fades du supermarche, du sucre, et hop dans la machine a pain:

Et une heure plus tard:

Et le reste des fraises? J'en fait un smoothy:

Je vous raconte tout ca parce qu'au dos de mes cartes de visites maison, il y a ecrit plein de choses du style environmental governance, reputational risks et au milieu il y a growing my own veggies et home made jam. Voila, au cas ou certain voudrait me googler, il y des photos sur le net...

Enfin, une histoire qui se finit bien: le garage a repare ma voiture ce matin. J'ai eut la discussion qu'il fallait avec le patron, et je suis reste sur place avec un bouquin pendant qu'ils reparaient leurs betises. Et avec le sourire :)

A bad day

Went climbing with Mike. The wind was so strong that we couldn't climb anything interesting. We left as the rain arrived.
On the way back, my car broke down. The - alleged - mechanics who fixed the head gasket didn't reconnect the bottom hose to the radiator properly, it came off and with it the cooling water. I had to call the rescue services. The driver of the rescue truck left saying that my day couldn't get worse. Then Zidane lost his marbles.
Had i brought a camera to the hills with me, i could have taken an amazing picture of the advancing front of a shower coming towards us as we sat on top of the cliff. It felt as if we were looking through a pane of glass, amazing. Instead, i'll leave you with this shot of a bumble bee taken 2 weeks ago during a walk in the Peak District with French friends