Saturday 26th November to Friday 2nd
December
Saturday 26th November
As I mentioned yesterday, having checked
online to determine if the skirting on the SAAB should be black or body
coloured, and having decided on black, I now need to find a sunny spot in the
marina where I can see clearly to apply the black.
Meanwhile, although I do have a system disc
for this laptop; or is it a USB drive?; I think I’ll make another one, because
the one I have is now quite old.
Sunday 27th November
Well, I girded my loins and, whilst Wifey was
playing with her latest toy – a much quieter vacuum cleaner – I trotted off out
with my bottle of skirting cleaner. What I expected to be a black paint like
cream, actually turned out to be white in colour. However, after taking my
trusty cloth in hand and liberally soaking it in this liquid, I was very
surprised at how well it cleaned that skirting. There are still a couple of
patches that require further treatment, but, on the whole, I’m very pleased
with the result.
Having read up on the SAAB prior to buying
this 2007 model 9-3, I know that changing the oil on a regular basis, is
paramount to keeping the engine healthy. I also know that, if this is not done,
it can result in a build-up of sludge. So, my next move will be to get Dale to
service the car.
However, I’ve also noticed that, when I start
the engine from cold, a warning message comes up, telling me that the car is
due for a service. This warning can be turned off, as I discovered just a few
minutes ago whilst trawling the Internet. But, since the only evidence of a
service being carried out on this SAAB dates back to 2013, I don’t know if it
has been serviced by the owner recently. Best be safe than sorry, so I’ll get
it done as soon as I can.
Today will be a typical Sunday, with a walk
to the shops for the paper, followed by an hour in the local pub at lunchtime.
This will further be followed by a roast dinner tonight, which is something we
very rarely bother with, preferring a snack instead. But, since we have a
rather excellent butcher in town, we intend to make full use of him.
Monday 28th November
For yesterday, see above paragraph. Roast
pork was excellent and succulent. Since we rarely indulge in a Sunday roast,
it’s an even greater pleasure when we do.
In the pub at lunchtime, we sat next to a
family that included a young daughter, her parents and their parents. We got
chatting to grandpa, who gave us some ideas about this area and especially the
Ashby canal, which we might pursue whilst we are here.
Today is a ‘free’ day, in that we’ll probably
do very little of anything important. Although, I might just give the car a
polish, assuming the weather allows. Other than that, we do have a bathroom tap
that needs a new washer.
Interestingly, I asked Dale how much to
service the SAAB and was told, the same as any car, £75.00 plus parts. So, on a
bit of a whim this morning, I looked up the price of oil and filters; of which
there are three; and the total came to about £68.00, depending upon where you
order them from. I could, therefore, save myself Dale’s service charge if I do
it myself. How hard can it be?
Tomorrow we’ll be driving to Ventura Park in
Tamworth, where we’ll be indulging in a bit of retail therapy. Wifey wants a
new and better sewing machine and I want some more long-sleeved sweatshirts. I
also want a 12 volt vacuum cleaner for the car. I’m sure we’ll do some
Sainsbury’s shopping also and we might call in at Atherstone on the way back.
Tuesday 29th November
A really cold and icy start to the day.
Hopefully the sun will come out and we’ll get to Ventura Park this morning.
But, as there’s no hurry, we could take the bus into Leicester and do Ventura
later in the week.
Yesterday, when we went out to the car to look
for polish, the key fob wouldn’t work. Fortunately we have two, so it wasn’t a
problem. All I needed to do was put a new battery in. However, I wonder how I
would have got out of that had I been out and miles from home, when suddenly I
can’t get into the car!! Hmmmm!
Wednesday 30th November
Pretty darned cold again this morning, so on
went the fan heater. Much better!
Yesterday we took a drive to Morrison’s for a
BIG shop. And, it was big, a trolley load and two bags full to the brim. Most
of our shopping is done in the village, simply because we have a very good
Co-op, an even better butcher and a greengrocer, so big shops aren’t always
necessary. However, since we needed to call in at Halfords for polish, we
decided on a big shop at Morrison’s. Simples!!
So, having shopped and bought polish, we
headed off home for a well-deserved coffee and biscuits.
Now, later in the afternoon, I took it upon
myself to get out there and clean the windows on the car. I discovered
yesterday that the windscreen especially, was in need of some TLC, so out came
the bottle of glass cleaner – that stuff as recommended by Aston Martin, no
less, and gave all but the rear screen a good clean. Sadly, due to the fact
that we now have a saloon car, and also because I find it difficult to kneel
down on my six year old new knees, Wifey has been delegated to carry out that
chore.
Also, since we’ve now bought all we need from
Morrison’s, and all we need from Halford’s, and since the only thing we needed
to go over to Ventura Park was Wifey’s new sewing machine, we have decided not
to take that particular trip. Why? Well, because, where the sewing machine is
concerned, we can either order it online and get it freely delivered, or I can
buy one in Harlow on Saturday. This, of course, is a decision for Wifey to
make.
So, today we’ll walk up to the shops in the
village, grab ourselves a coffee and biscuits when we get back, and then, once
Wifey has cleaned the rear windscreen on the car, we’ll run down to B&Q in
Hinckley and buy a much-needed radiator, because our one in the bedroom has a
leak. On the way back from Halford’s, we’ll call into the local garage and top
up with go-faster juice, ready for my first trip down to Harlow in the SAAB.
Later…..
So, there was I, sitting on a bench in Market
Bosworth, waiting for Wifey to finish shopping, when an email popped up on my
phone, from an old friend, in which he told me he had received an email from
someone who had accessed my blog mailing list. This is now the second such
‘hacker’ sending messages to my blogger email list.
Now, the obvious thing for my friends and
family to do when they receive such messages, would be to consign them to their
spam box. This is easily done in Outlook, because I do so myself with messages
I don’t particularly want to read. My server doesn’t always filter out spam,
unfortunately.
Anyway, it would be unfair of me to sit on my
hands and do nothing here. However, since it is impossible to contact Google
direct to explain the situation – all that’s on offer is the ‘community’ – I
can see no option, other than to close down this blog and start another one
elsewhere.
Of course, if anybody out there, who has
access to my email address, can suggest an easier alternative, I’d be willing
to consider it. But, if nobody can come up with such, I’m afraid this will be
my very last posting on Blogspot.
Meanwhile, I will be contacting all those
people who currently receive my blog automatically, asking their opinion.
Thursday 1st December
At the moment I’m putting aside any decision
regarding the blog. Still thinking!!
Now, what did we do today? Well, after taking
a walk into the village, we read the paper and enjoyed our coffee and biscuits.
However, since we are in desperate need of a new radiator in the bedroom, we
ventured forth, in our nice, new, shiny SAAB and made our way down to Hinckley
and B&Q. Fortunately my wife is a pretty good navigator and we found the
store quite easily. Apart from a slight, inadvertent diversion on the return
trip, all went well.
On the way back we called into one of the
local garden centres for logs, followed by the garage for go faster juice. Not
that we’ve used much since taking possession of the car, but I did need to top
up for my trip to Harlow on Saturday.
Tomorrow we plan on fitting the new radiator,
but that will come after I’ve checked the batteries and given the engine a run.
We also need to clear the engine bay of oil containers. Over the last couple of
years I’ve taken it upon myself to change the oil and filter whilst cruising;
purely as an interim service. Dave Hull will be asked to carry out a full
service before we leave next April.
Saturday, as I mentioned above, will be my
first trip to Harlow in the SAAB and I’m quite keen to see how it performs.
Incidentally, with a number plate that starts YG, I immediately called it Yogi!
Dumb? Of course. But, I simply couldn’t resist the idea. All I need is a small
dummy of Yogi Bear for the back windscreen and I’ll be all set. Any ideas
anybody?
Friday 2nd December
We topped up with petrol yesterday and
managed to squeeze just under 3½ gallons. (Yes folks, I’m still using British
measurements!) That amount of fuel has allowed us to cover 106 miles which, by
my reckoning, equates to almost 31mpg. Not a patch on the Alfa, but then the
Alfa only had a 1600 engine, whereas the SAAB is 1800 and a considerably
heavier car. What I need to do now, is reset the trip meter to zero and figure
out what it will do on a combined urban and motorway run of about 240 miles.
Throughout the past 54 years since owning my
first car – a Hillman Estate that cost me £1400 at the time – I’ve never
concerned myself with the cost of running my car. The whole point of owning
one; to my mind at any rate; is the expediency of getting me from A to B without
the hassle of buses and trains. The aforementioned Hillman was the best I could
afford at the time, although it did cause some friction between myself and my
girlfriend at the time. Nuff said!!
We’ve owned two SAAB 800s in the past, along
with an Audi 100 LS, a Jaguar Mk 2 3.4, a Ford Escort xr3i; stolen and burnt out within two weeks; a Toyota Celica and
RAV4, and several Alfas, not to mention company cars, always the best for
economy, if you get my drift. The SAAB 800 that we had when running our shop in
Kent, was a very good workhorse and allowed us to do some really heavy stocking
up of the shop.
Now, having spent many weeks perusing the
Internet, looking specifically for a much newer car than the Alfa; which was a
2002 147; we now have a 2007 SAAB 9-3 which, we hope, will last us until I pass
from this mortal coil, or until I feel I am unable to continue driving safely.
Of course, the ‘powers that be’ might decide on that point for me, but I remain
optimistic on that point. Indeed, my licence is due for renewal this year, so I
hope my optimism isn’t misplaced, otherwise I’ll have a car to sell.
Later……
Ok, so, as soon as we had had our coffee and
biscuits this morning, and read the paper of course, we set to to tidy up the
engine bay and check the batteries. I also ‘muffled’ the heater pump, which
ticks away like fury, disturbing the peace in the process. Thus it is
impossible to run the heater in the morning.
Anyway, all that having been done, we then
set about replacing the bedroom radiator. Oh joy, was I looking forward to that
chore? Everything, from removing the old radiator and removing and fitting the
end bits from the old to the new, went well. The problem came when it came to offering up
the new radiator which, due to a slight difference in the position of the
support brackets, meant the pipework didn’t meet up correctly. It didn’t matter
how we wiggled the radiator around, it simply wasn’t possible to screw the ends
in for the water to flow.
So, after much hemming and hawing, we
repositioned the support brackets on the wall and, after some more wiggling,
finally got everything fitted and, most surprisingly, without flooding the
bedroom floor. Success is its own reward.
Of course, it only took me a few minutes to
type the above. The job though took a couple of hours. Normally, where specific
jobs are concerned, I like to leave it to professional tradesmen. My brother
Alan, being one such, was too far away to call upon, which is why we decided to
do it ourselves. I HATE WORK!!!
This evening we’ll be having a really nice
trawler pie – or fisherman’s pie, if you prefer.
Soon after completing the radiator fitting
and, having taken Alex out; rather late as it happens; we were asked to move
our car, because they are having a Jazz evening in honour of the NSPCC which,
at £15 a ticket is far too expensive for us. We, of course, could simply sit in
the downstairs lounge and listen to the music from there. But we’ll probably
hear enough from inside the boat, so we’ll probably stay put.
And finally, on that note and having nothing
more important to do today, I’ll post this blog and ask you to take note of the
info regarding the ‘hackers’ of my email list. I haven’t decided what to do
yet, but will let you know as soon as I have.
Cheers one and all and have a great weekend.
I certainly intend to, because I’ll be visiting Alan tomorrow and, on my way
back home Sunday morning, will be calling in on my eldest daughter.
Dave, Sheila and Alex.
No comments:
Post a Comment