What to do? Where to go?

I have a week off on the week of the sixth. I am currently at a loss at what I should do. If I stick around the house for a week, sleeping patterns are bound to become mental and days and nights will merge and become a single blur I shall Christen either Dight or Nay.

So, I’ll need summat to do. If the weather keeps up like it has for the past three days, then I may want to go camping somewhere. Somewhere further away than I’ve ever been. I’d probably go alone, as there’s nobody I know who’d alsobeup for a pointless camping journey. I’m currently thinking either Scotland or Cornwall.

An update

I have finally updated the WordPress software here, which means that the nasty error I was recieving with the tables has gone away. It also allows me to write on WordPress through the iphone, as I am now doing. Pretty nifty, seeing as 3G coverage in my town is excellent.

I still haven’t had my cars offending parts from the recall replaced, as I be lazy. I recently celebrated my birthday in town with workmates, and remember little. I’ve also been driving further than I used to. Last week it was randomly Cardiff. I wonder where to next? The UK is my oyster!

Just a quick test of the built in camera function of the WordPress application. Also pretty nifty.

Car Recalled!

I recieved a letter today from Vauxhall that states my car is being recalled as there is a fault with my specific engine model that could possibly cause oil to “self-ignite”. Dangerous.

No worries though, as the rectification is free! My only question is how did Vauxhall know I own it? Certainly the previous owner would have been given the letter?

No photos.

It’s all them ramblers fault. They keep parking their obnoxiously large 4x4s, complete with pointlessly towed trailer in the small parking spaces on the side of the roads, where I usually park to find some photographic locations. Not only that, but GWYNEDD COUNTY COUNCIL ARE BASTARDS WHEN IT COMES TO PARKING FEES. They can charge obscene prices, such as £7.50 a day. The SNPA aren’t much better – £4.50 for a day, even when there’s a free car park down the road.

What are they trying to do? I mean, people are going to park somewhere. To the side of the road, with most of them. There aren’t any traffic wardens in rural locales, so people find it easy to park on double yellow lines. I spent 20 minutes navigating through Beddgelert, a small village that should only take two minutes to drive through, just because of these people, and oncoming vehicles challenging the priority. As a result of this, no photos.

Updates! OMG.

Update time. The new car is ABSOLUTELY FLIPPING BRILLIANT. I’ve been driving it for a few weeks now and I can honestly say woo. Woo I say. The best thing is the Air Con. It was the hottest day of the year so far today – Not as hot as where it might be for a lot of people, but with the sun out it seemed even warmer. With the Air Con on, though, there was no need for any windows to be electrically brought down!

I went Quad biking at Catton hall on the weekend. It was brilliant. We turned up a bit early, after overestimating the drive time, but a guy was available, and so it was just us three on the entire 15km course. They’re very easy to drive, as they were automatic. It’s quite the thrill, and I recommend it to everyone, provided you’re over 18.

Last weekend we’ve started preparing ourselves to walk up Snowdon. I could probably do it now, as long as you know that there’s no turning back, but when there’s a car waiting for you back in the car park, the temptation to turn around when tired can prove too much. (Personal experience, Moel Famau) – Which leads me to think we need to park in Llanberis, and take the bus to the Pen y Pass pathways, so we need to press on to get home. Anyway, while walking up a random hill last weekend, I discovered a valley filled with bits of industrial past. Being a sucker for abandoned industrial equipment, I took some photos:

Looks like an old Aerial ropeway!

New Car

Hurray! I now have a new car sitting in the drive.

More photos soon! Woo.

Finds.

I was recently rummaging through some old things. My Grandfather was a fireman (in the steam engine sense) for British Railways in pre-dieselisation days. However, when Dieselisation came along, he took a position as a driver, operating out of the depot at Wrexham.

While rummaging recently, I came across an old book (left) dated 1962. The design is that of Class 55 Deltics, showing its dominance in peoples minds even then. At first, this might be naught more than your standard old book. Inside, to begin with, is a brief history of diesel engines. Seriously, it’s as if people had never considered combustion engines before, and for most railwaymen of the time, they wouldn’t have come into contact with one that often. There are technical readouts of diesel engines and how to perfom simple maintenance and even reparation tasks – A different mindset from today where our health and safety laws prevent a driver messing about with the mechanics. There’s even blueprints of the “Type 4 IC CI”, “Type 4 B-B” and the Class 08. Such a find was interesting, but as I was thumbing through the pages, I came across several old, brown documents. Each was dated 1893 and was handwritten, different from the text I had been reading.

Each one is signed by a Mr “G Grant”, and two seem to regard the Eisteddfod at Llandudno and passenger excursions, and the rest rugby clubs. A single letter is from the superintendent of Carriages and wagons Paddington station, and seems to grant some horse boxes and enclosures for usage. Every letter has been signed by “Mr Edgecombe”, leading me to believe he was filing these documents or was a secretary for G Grant.

I contacted the National Rail museum, but they already have similar correspondence in their archives and are not interested. I will attempt the local history museum and see if they will be interested in taking care of these letters, as I fear their condition will deteriorate if left around here.

No Photos

I don’t think there’ll be any photos for me to take this weekend, what with the fact that taking my car above 1500rpm might send shards of metal flying around.

This is a shame, as I’ve found the right setting to make the D40 stop overexposing grey skies.

Time for a new Car.

My current car is now on it’s last legs. A trip through a deep puddle at speed has bent a conrod.

 This here’s your typical cylinder setup. Mine has four of these. Now, water entered the engine through the air intake. It rushed into the gap between the piston head and the top of the cylinder. When it was the turn of the piston to come back up to the top, it couldn’t compress the water and all the energy was transferred to the connecting rod (Green) beneath the piston head. This bent it laterally.

A car in front had suffered the same problem, and the AA guy who came out to help him decided to spend five minutes on mine for free. After removing the ignition system and spark plugs (the tall thin element between the valves in the image), and turning over the engine, water was forced up and out of the engine. The car then started, and still runs now. Unfortunately I can’t take the RPM of the engine above 1500 else there’s a chance the seriously weakened con-rod will shatter and send high speed pieces of shrapnel in all directions.

So, a new car is needed. I have the loan money now (£7500), which will also pay for a year of fully comprehensive insurance.

So, what will I get? I’m uncertain, but advice is telling me to go for a 1.6 VW Golf or a 1.6 Vauxhall/Opel Astra.  According to WhatCar?, I should go for the Astra, as it’s very cheap to buy and run. For example, even a 1.7 Turbo-Diesel Astra has cheaper insurance than my current car had.

Any suggestions? Please add a comment below!

Snowdon.

It has been decided that I shall ascend it’s slopes on foot. I have the maps and the gear. It will be done after Easter. If it’s nice enough Ben Nevis may be tried later on. It’s not much in the way of climbing mountains (ask johnmit), but it’s a start.

Another week in the life

As I sit in my chair, busting open bottles of Stella Artois with my molars, catching a whiff of the dog basket and scowling (that thing’s waterproof and the dog can’t control itself), another week has come to an end. It’s not a particularly interesting week. It’s not even that interesting in my own life, but I just wanted to write an interesting paragraph into which you would read expecting some sort of life story. But you were wrong, you fool.

Today I went on another North Wales wide journey. This time alone, and again, with my camera. I find I can put the strap over the passenger’s headrest and it makes a perfect substitute for my brother. Today’s weather was very strange. It was sunny, yet snow had miraculously appeared on the mountains by the afternoon. I left the house around 2PM, so when I got back around half eight in the evening it was dark. I tried experimenting with night shots but I left the tripod behind so couldn’t hold the camera still enough. I saw some interesting things on my journey that I didn’t photograph. There was a massive bulky fugly crane near Corwen. Not tall massive, but just bulky massive. Next to it were two massive bridge beams. Looks like they’re finally about to replace an old Telford A5 bridge.

It looks, from this photo, that the Snowdon summit cafe is almost finished. They’ve been using the Snowdon Mountain Railway to deliver supplies to the summit, there being no road access. You can still see the summit stone on this photo, contrasting against the grey cloud and snow.

Yesterday I went out to watch the Welsh match versus Ireland. Hurrah! We wins. Last year, when I went to the Murrayfield Stadium only to see us get squashed by the Scots, Fragged by the French, and Electrocuted by the Irish and Italians, it was only a joy to see that we still won versus England. Woo.

However this year it’s all wins. WINS I SAY. WINS.

Next week we have France to beat to with the Grand Slam. It should be possible to beat the French, heck, England beat em, and we beat England! So, here’s hoping to winning the Grand Slam in 2008.

Oh, and check this out. It’s a nifty RTS game that I’ve become addicted to.

Moar Photos.

Been out in the car again in another phototaking adventure. I’ll make a note to start going to new places.

Finally. Piccytures.

Finally, a spot of good weather combined with some proper transport other than a sporadic bus has allowed photography!

Fixulations of a car.

I’ve modified Tenebrae’s blog title to fit this post! Mwahahahaha!

The car is FIXED. Hurray! Finally I can leave behind the people matchbox known as a service bus, with it’s smoky smell created by unruly teenagers and the exorbitant prices for three miles. For many weeks now I’ve had to wait in all conditions for that bus, and it’s been most very cold and very wet, as well as very dark. As the nights are now continuously getting lighter, greater care can be taken to ensure I don’t make mistakes while driving again.

Where next? I shall wait until April, when I shall get a new car. Why April? My computer tells me that is when I bought it, meaning a full year of credit card. By then my credit limit on my card should have been upgraded largely, as well as the credit rating I have, allowing my loans to be larger. What should I get? Any suggestions in a comment below. (or above, I forget where the button is.)

Arrrgh

Looks like the morons in Leeds have sent us a Rover 75 radiator, which is like a third the extra length. Looks like I won’t be driving for another week. However, a quick trip to “Wrexham Radiators” in town bought us the right one. Here’s them compared. The right one is at the top.

Apparently the wrong one is for a Rover 45. Pretty stupid as the rest of the parts we ordered were for a 25. Arrrgh more. However, a quick trip to a local breakers yard has revealed a similar 25, in a similar conundrum, except it was hit on the passenger side, meaning everything we need is really cheap and really intact. Tomorrow we shall be going to collect said pieces.

It seems however, that my car has an alarm related to the bonnet, as it sporadically goes off when locked now, and always goes off when the bonnet is lifted. Evil.