Le jeux des similaritudes

Saurez-vous trouver quels sont les points communs entre ces deux photos:

Mars 1996, depart pour l'Irlande:



Janvier 2008, depart pour l'Angleterre:

Monopoly Money

150 notes in my hands to buy the new car...

Apres 5 ans de bons et loyaux services...

Plus une longue annee ou elle n'a pas arrete de tomber en panne,

La 806 GPL est en vente sur ebay!



Elle m'a encore claquee dans les doigts hiers, elle a du etre remorquee a cause du froid je suppose. Pas de pitie, car j'ai deja achete sa remplacente, sur ebay elle aussi:



Je dois aller la chercher samedi...

Reparation a la ficelle!

Je pars en vacance demain, avec cette reparation de derniere minute sous le capot:

Le ressort de l'accelerateur a casse, juste avant mon voyage de deux semaines dans les Alpes...

Pourvu que ca tienne!

Ca commence bien!

Je rentre de vacance, devant bosser dur au sports shop pendant le premier de l'an et les soldes et ma voiture me lache!

Si vous voulez des details, allez voir sur le forum citroen ce qui m'arrive...

Vendredi Tom (avec qui j'ai fait le mountain marathon) m'a pris en covoiturage, samedi j'ai emprunte la voiture de Harley et ai fait un detour de 2 heures pour aller a une casse acheter une piece, dimanche Harley m'a depose a 12km du boulot et j'ai couru, ce qui m'a fait beaucoup de bien pour evacuer ma frustration ! Et Sue m'a depose a la maison. Demain, ca va etre un melange de train et de velo...

Et dire que j'etais content d'avoir vendu la skoda avant noel!

Bon, on va dire que comme le probleme est apparu jeudi, c'est le dernier coup du sort de 2006. Et comme aujourd'hui j'ai fait une course d'orientation avec Mike, que je n'avais pas vu depuis 6 mois, sur la coline deriere la maison, l'annee commence bien!

Bonne annee 2007 a tous!

En photo: Harley me depose a la junction 25 de la M1 dimanche matin


Et une heure avant que ma voiture decide de ne plus demarer, Caroline m'apprend une recette de muffin:

Sir, your indicator lights are pink!

That's what the MOT inspector (controle technique automobile) told me last week. I got the skoda taxed and registered - it used to be a disabled car. Having to deal with government bureaucracy reminded me on why i like it in England. Then came another kind of pettishness: "for profit" bureaucracy! MOT testers who abuse their power by forcing unnecessary repairs on motorists.

The car failed it's MOT for a leaky rear brake cylinder (fuite a cylindre de frein), a missing CV joint clip (un clip de joint de cardan manquant) and "indicator light of the wrong colour" - white i was told (clignotants blancs au lieu d'orange).

I did all the repair myself except, you've guessed it, the indicator lights. They looked orange to me, so i took the car to a spare parts shop on the way to the testing station to ask if there was a different type of bulb i should use. But they confirmed that they looked right and shouldn't cause any problem.

Well, i've never heard of a bureaucrat coming back on his words so when i left the car at the MOT station i told them to change the bulb if they failed the test.

On my return, i was told "Sir, your indicator light were pink"! In conclusion, i need a different MOT station for next year. And even though i had to pay for the new light bulbs, i was pleased with myself for having asked them to give me back the old ones.

PS: sorry no picture, i don't have use of Allan's digital camera anymore...

PPS: real-life Dilbert speak here. Don't forget to read the comments!

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!

Failed

Worn off brake disk, faulty exhaust gasket: No car for a while. And i won't be able to afford weekends in the Alps with Oliver, one of the very few things that keep me sane at the moment.

So onto the bike. After messing with it for 20min, i realised that i didn't't have a hope in hell to fix it without a trip to the shop. Borrowed my housemate's car for a quick tour around town, the only bike shop open only sells mountain bike tyres. Stuffed, i won't tackle a 3-4 hours return bike ride to work on less than a perfect bike.

So i sit at home uploading pictures of last week ski expedition, waiting to see if i can get a lift to work. Maybe i should pull a sickie? The way things are, i won't have much choice...

Car Worries

I have neglected my beloved Mystery Machine lately. So it was no surprise that i didn't't realise that the MOT was due during my ski holiday. As you can imagine, planned to rush it through all the checks i can do myself before bringing it to the testing station on my return.

I had not planned on it being so reluctant to run, let alone to start. The fault was traced to worn off plugs, and more worryingly, corroded HT leads. Having replaced them, i am not worried about the emission test. That leaves the old tyres, the brakes, etc...

I'm dropping the car at the testing station on my way to take the train to London. If it fail, i might have to cycle to work tomorrow. wait, the bike has a puncture too!

It's not supposed to look like this

Coming Soon