Pillings Lock Marina 2010 #8

Friday 9th April and I am sitting here all on my lonesome. Wifey has traipsed off to Nottingham with Marion and I have no idea when she’ll be back. I’ve had lunch, the pooch has been taken out by our neighbour’s little girl Jess and I’ve been doing stuff to the book.

Now, instead of including clipart to those pages that need a bit of padding, I’ve now decided to add a few pictures. Some of them will be from previous holidays around England, whilst others will come from our store of boating photos. Of course, I’ll need Wifey’s help on that bit, ‘cos she knows where all the old ones are. She also knows where the boating ones were taken, especially which county we were in at the time.

The Air Flow Valve from the car has now been in a petrol soak since yesterday morning and I’ve been using a small paint brush to winkle out any bits of muck, of which there have been many. You would not believe the colour of the petrol now. If the wretched thing still plays me up after this, I will have to find a new part. I’m still waiting for one of the breakers yards to call or email with some details.

This morning I took the flower boxes out onto the stern deck to give them a rub down with a sander. Having already given them both several coats of paint, I then realised they were a little too rough for the canal art I had planned. Duh! As you would expect, I had just got to the last side when the backing pad that holds the sanding part decided to fall off. Another hour later, having re-fixed it with super-glue, I finally finished this small task. Tomorrow, if the weather stays dry, I’ll be out there giving both boxes a coat of paint.

Saturday 10th April and it likes like it could be another warm day. Hallelujah brother, summer has really arrived.

Yesterday, while the girls were off on their jaunt to Nottingham, after finishing sanding down the flower boxes, I chilled out for a while and then, after chatting with Brian, I logged on to eBay to look for this Air Flow Meter. What I found gave me cause for concern, because the items up for sale looked nothing like the item I had been told was an AFM. Oh joy of joys!!

So, having discovered that Steve, our local car mechanic didn’t know what he was talking about, I refitted the item – whatever it is – and, lo and behold, I still had the same problem as before. No surprise there then.

So, back to the laptop to check out the real thing which, according to the vendor who claims his units are not reconditioned, his £80 or so looks far better than Alfa dealers £310 +VAT. I then awaited Wifey’s return to tell her the good and bad news. Today, sometime, we’ll order this part and, with a bit of luck, once fitted, I’ll have no more trouble. But, if I do still have a fault here, I shall take it to a man we met whilst cruising, who has a garage in Loughborough, and ask him to run a diagnostic check to find out exactly what the problem is.

I, categorically, do not have car troubles, apart from the odd puncture and such. Never do I experience this kind of rubbish from any of the cars we have owned. Indeed, just after we sold the Rav 4 to Jayne, the Timing Belt snapped, landing her with a bit of a bill. So, over the years we’ve been relatively free of car problems, until now that is.

Of course, in ordering the AFM today, we’ll be lucky if it arrives by Tuesday and I then have the dubious privilege of fitting the wretched thing, and one thing I really hate, is working on cars. Back in my ill spent youth I quite enjoyed the challenge of pulling an engine apart and replacing valves and big ends and all that kind of stuff. But, as I grew up I grew out of childish things.

But, needs must when the Devil drives, so I will just have to get on with it. Oh, woe is me and lack a day! Actually though, although I’m having this dithering accelerator problem, the car is still driveable and we can still go shopping and pay a Sunday visit to the Fox in Quorn tomorrow, so I really should count my blessings. It’s the money you see, it’s bad enough the boat being a bottomless pit, we really do not need the same with the car. Perhaps we’ll win the Lottery and throw away our financial cares and woes. Yeah! Right!

Monday 12th April and although dry, not quite as warm as yesterday, when we actually did make it to the pub. For some reason best known to itself and folks who know about these things, despite cleaning out the Throttle Control Unit – because that’s what it was, and not the AFM – the pesky car is behaving even more erratically. Perhaps it is because I cleaned it, who knows? I know one thing, I shan’t be sorry when the new part has been fitted and, yes, I will be doing it myself, which will probably astonish certain members of my family. I really am not as useless as some people think I am, it’s just that I take the view, “horses for courses” and would rather let the experts do the job.

Earlier this morning, simply because we were a bit doubtful about using the car, Wifey walked into Quorn for some shopping, whilst I, like any dutiful Hubby, carried on with painting the flower boxes. We now have some pretty green patches over maroon background, onto which our rose and castles will be painted.

Tuesday 13th April and, since it started out with a freezing fog at 6o/clock, I do believe it’s set for a warm day. Hopefully the AFM will turn up and I can get it fitted. Also, hopefully, it will cure the problem.

I am currently I am adding some clipart to the book, but I’m not sure it’s the right way to go. As you all know, I did send for a disc full of food pictures, which is what I would rather use, but, since I didn’t actually pay for the disc, it’s very doubtful I would get away with using any of them. However, all is not lost because I will go online later to see what I can find.

Well, it’s now 7.15 pm and, earlier this afternoon I fitted the new Air Flow Meter, which did absolutely no good whatsoever. So, now what do I do? I am on the horns of a dilemma because, having spoken to a mechanic in Loughborough, I now know that there are time when, by fitting a unit other than an authentic Bosch part, that unit might not work. I have also discovered that, along with Jaguars, the Alfa does not always respond to any other diagnostics machine than that which is installed in an Alfa garage. Oh boy!

Anyway, on Monday morning at 9 o/clock, I will be at that garage and, if his diagnostics machine works, I will discover what is causing this problem. Alternatively the nice mechanic will call in another mechanic, who has several thousand pounds worth of machine which, he assures me, will trace the problem.

Now, whilst I was talking to my neighbour Brian, I spotted a car for sale. It’s an ‘S’ reg Peugeot 206, 2.1 litre diesel estate, and the vendor claims it will do about 60 mpg. That is an improvement on the Alfa and would save me a lot of money when visiting Alan in Harlow. So, if the prognosis is expensive on the Alfa, I could be persuaded to purchase the Peugeot which, at just £595, looks like a bargain. Especially when you consider the 6 months MOT and Tax, electric windows and mirrors, and electric steering wheel adjustment. Then there’s the Air Conditioning and the 6 stack DVD player.

I’m not too keen on diesels as a rule but, needs must when the Devil drives.

Watch this space.

Wednesday 14th April and, although dry, it’s a bit blowy with a cool breeze.

Now, as many of you may remember, I have had on my computers, ever since 2004, a wee programme called Typeitin. This stores all the website addresses and emails that I use on a constant basis.

On occasion, as you also know, I run into problems with my computer. Doesn’t everybody? The result of these problems is, invariably, that my Typeitin reverts to the non-registered version, which is rather limited in the amount of groups and addresses it can hold.

You would think, wouldn’t you, that it would be an easy matter to re-register the thing and get back to normal, but you would be wrong. Having tried registering with the original code and finding it didn’t work, I contacted the programme owners at Wavget.com for some assistance. If you ever purchase this programme be prepared to wait and follow up your original request for help. These people are pretty slow where customer service is concerned.

Anyway, yet again I have suffered problems with the laptop and, yet again, have had to contact Wavget for help. I have tried the original code and also the alternative code, which they sent me last time and which was shorter than the original, although it did contain a string of letters from the original code. With me so far??

On Saturday I emailed them and am still awaiting a reply, having tried both codes without success. This morning I emailed again, but do not hold out much hope of a speedy reply. Would you??

Thursday 15th April and still no response fro those Typeitin people. At the risk of repeating myself ad nauseum, I would suggest to anybody thinking of purchasing anything from Wavget, to seriously consider the lack of after sales service. They really are lackadaisical about helping those who have paid. You have been warned.

Anyway, it is now almost 2.30 pm, I’ve had my lunch and so has the dog, and Wifey has gone off to Leicester with Marion. They should be back around 5ish, but who can tell?

As a point of interest, getting back to the recipe book, I have now re-compiled it. There were one or two errors in the copies I passed around at the family do, which I only noticed a couple of days after posting to eBay. Thankfully nobody made a bid for it, and so it was easy enough to remove it.

So, after giving the matter some thought, I decided to rename it, a task I delegated to my better half, and also to split it into two volumes but, instead of limiting Book 1 to Bedfordshire to Lincolnshire and Book 2 to London to Yorkshire, I have now included all counties in both books, but have split the recipes in roughly half. Thus it is that Book 1 now has 200 recipes and, as for Book 2, until I compile it, I have no idea how many will be in it. Especially since I may find even more before it is edited and compiled.

Now, I have been looking at the problem of copyright infringement and, since the Berne Convention on the subject really isn’t definitive enough, I have enlisted the aid of an online legal group called Just Answer, to advise me on the matter. Many of the recipes, as you all know, are very old indeed and can’t possibly be covered by any copyright. But, some of the more recent ones might just trap me and I would hate to receive a ‘cease and desist’ letter from someone’s solicitor. Better to be safe than sorry.

It will probably take me about six months to compile the 2nd volume of the recipe book which, incidentally, will now be called “Traditional English County Food”, with the sub title of ‘Delicious recipes from around the Counties and Shires’. In the meantime, after we have tracked down all our holiday photos, we are going to collaborate on a book about our travels throughout the UK.

This will take in all the places we visited before we retired to the boat, along with our first three years before the mast, so to speak. But first we have to find those photos. Methinks they are hiding in a tea chest in Alan’s workshop at Valerie’s stables. We surely would not have disposed of them, they are far too precious. We searched the boat, especially under the dinette seats, but all we found there were actual family snaps, no CDs at all. Hopefully they will turn up soon.

Friday 16th April and it is no longer necessary to worry about BA staff going on strike, that volcano in Iceland could continue erupting for quite some time, grounding all flights for months. Indeed, since the offending volcano sits next to another, much bigger one, it could nudge its neighbour into erupting causing a Mount St. Helens situation. Hmmm! I’ll bet that’s given you food for thought.

Now, getting back to the legalities of my recipe book, I have taken legal advice from an online expert in British Law named Nick, who tells me that, all that is necessary to avoid copyright infringement, is for me to acknowledge the source of the recipes. This would be fine had I made a note of those sources in the first place and, with 200 recipes in Book 1 alone, this could take me several days to complete. I have therefore, asked if an Acknowledgement Page would suffice, naming all the sources I have used.

Tuesday 20th April and, as a direct result of all the faffing about with the car and laptop, I fear I owe you all an apology for running so late with this blog.

No doubt I have mentioned the problems with the car? Well, after fitting, what appeared to be, the correct item and finding it didn’t cure the problem, I took it to a garage in Loughborough, who called in a diagnostics man to check it out. The idling problem still appears to be the Air Flow Meter, and so I have had to order another one, but this time a genuine Bosch part, albeit a used part, but a genuine, Bedouin part.

This unit should arrive on Wednesday when, if all goes well, the Alfa will be driveable again. However, if that doesn’t cure the fault, then it will probably be the Engine Management System causing the fluctuating idling speed, in which case it could be rather expensive to repair.

This leaves us on the horns of a dilemma. Do we swallow the cost and have the car repaired? After all it only cost us £700 to start with and, so far, we have spent over £500 on the exhaust system and other parts. Or, as my gut feeling tells me, should we start looking for another car and try trading this one in? Hmmm! More about that when I’ve fitted the next AFM.

For now though, as we have now encroached upon the 9th page of this blog, I suppose I ought to see if I can post it.

Oh, and by the way, apart from a rather strong breeze here, it’s been a pretty good day weather wise.

Cheers for now and good health

Dave, Sheila and Rusty.