It’s a Blog ! Not a Log !

Yep if it is’nt one thing its another, on the way to work today my engine cut out on me, luckily I had enough speed built up to allow me to cruise to the curb, where I attempted to start the engine again, but alas nothing happend the starter motor turned, but the engine just would’nt fire up, something similar happened on Friday, which I’d put down to the engine being flooded, but with it happening a 2nd time, thought it best to give the AA a call.

After waiting about 20 mins the nice man from the AA turned up and got me to try and start the car again and yep it started first time, so after feeling like a complete tit for a few minutes I enquired if he had any idea’s, which thankfully he did, but before divulging his knowledge he attached a handy little wireless device to my car’s computer and ran a system diagnostics on his laptop.   After running a couple of tests and finding no faults he consulted what I can only call his online encyclopedia of car makes and their faults to confirm what he thought was the problem . .  I waited with baited breath while he gave his answer . . .

Its your crankshaft sensor he explained, apparently this is common amongst BMW’s as well as a few other car makes, so after following me to work to make sure that I got there safely he got me to fill in his paper work and suggested I contact my local BMW garage, which I have done and they’ve got me booked in for next Monday morning, when they’ll hopefully be able to fix it for me, though at a cost of course, at the moment its looking like £85 for the sensor and then 2 hrs labour at a cost of £55 an hr, so £200 of my wages are taken already . . .  just what I need when I have a vets bills amongst other things to pay for, not what I needed this month to be honest.

Am now sat here wondering what the 3rd thing this month to go wrong will be, cause as you know these things never happen in two’s . .

Its a sad week I’ve had  . . .  my dear and trusted friend Mr Beamer has been diagnosed with terminal engine failure . .  we’ve had a good 5-6 years togeather me and Mr Beamer, but alas the long journeys and heavy usage have finally taken there toll, and its with sad eyes I must bid my BMW goodbye.

He’s been a good friend over the years taking us to 2 Big Chills, a journey round Ireland, 2 holidays to Cornwall, a holiday in Dorset, a couple of trips to the Lakes, he’s even been to Essex, but all those miles he’s clocked up just brought this day a little bit closer.

All being well he’s being replaced with a newer friend also called Mr Beamer, though this one’s a 2002 model rather than the 1996 model I’ve been driving round, so he’s only 8 years old, rather than 14, it’s going to be quite strange saying my final farewell’s to the old boy . . , but hopefully someone else will take over on his final journet to either spare parts heaven or scrapheap hell.

You were a good old car Mr Beamer and for that I salute you, I’ll always have our time-lapse car journeys to look back on fondly . . .  goodbye dear friend . .

might have been one of my favourite lines in the movie Apocalypse Now, but for me this morning the worst smell was of burning oil coming through my car air vents this morning, thinking there’s something serious the matter with my car, checked the oil levels and they seemed OK, but still smell burning oil and the car’s got a very high temperature, am presently trying to get it booked into the local BMW garage to get it looked at, as can’t be without my car, need it to get to and from work as well as run god knows how many different errands.

Why do things like this always happen at the end of the month when your skint and have no money what so ever to spare, I just can’t be doing with this right now, especially what with it looking like I’ll just be getting the cost of living rise at work and that’s even looking as if it will be delayed for another month.

Someone up there must really really hate me right now to have this happen right now . .  heres hoping its nothing real serious . . .

Decided to take Blue round the Millennium Nature Reserve by the Manchester Ship Canal today and it seems like everyone else and their dog did to, the place was overflowing with every sort of dog breed you could think of (cue people commenting on breed of dog that weren’t there).

After spending about an hour there we headed to PetAtHome to do Blue’s weekly food shop, 12 Cans of dog food and 1 big bag of dry mix, oh and a bag of gravy bones (her favourite snack), also tried on a few of the dog coats to see if they’ve finally got some in that will fit her, but alas again the only one that does is the Del Boy sheep skin coat, which to be honest doesn’t do her justice, so again we left disappointed.

Now just sat at home wondering how to spend the rest of Sunday, thinking maybe catchup on a few episodes of Supernatural or White Collar then listen to a few tunes with a beer . . . , would’nt have minded going out for the day somewhere in the car instead, but money’s a bit tight at the moment so can’t really be wasting money, maybe next weekend, just have to wait and see.

Oh nearly forgot it’s Valentines Day today so suppose I’d best show you the home made card I made for Mel

Its amazing what you can do with post it notes a biro and a mirror

kennys party 071, originally uploaded by BagRat.

Kenny reached the grand old age of 50 last week along with Andy reaching the 40 mark, so they had a joint party to celebrate and used the oppurtunity to get everyone back togeather again.

It was good to see all the faces from the partys togeather again having a laugh and just generally getting on, party kicked off at of all places Stretford Cricket Club, then moved onto Lisa’s flat, where drinks flowed and people talked bollox (mainly due to what they’d had).

We left fairly early on in the morning 5:00am so maybe not so early, but the party carried on after we left, ending only when John, Ben and a few others decided to place most of Lisa food stuffs in the freezer . . . oh and after Ben had emptied a full bag of flour over the sleeping Lisa’s head (not nice Ben).

Gotta say Kenny was looking good for an old man and no doubt has many years left in him, all the best Kenny and Andy

gt in my car and drive across to my mothers to bring her across to Manchester so we can spend the day at the Imperial War Museum North looking at the Captured exibition.

Why the captured exibition ?

Well my mum was a civilian internee of the Japanese from the day after Singapore fell to the VJ day, so this exibition will be of great interest to my mum and may even have exihibits from camps she was interned in.

Anyway got to shoot if I want to get across there and back before it gets to late.

Byyeee

Drove across to Market Weighton on Friday night and thought I’d set up the time-lapse camera on the car and do a night time-lapse of the journey along the M62 Motorway from Manchester and heres the result

Quite liking how the rain hitting the camera at the end of the trip makes it sort of trippy, got a few more to add over the next few days of our holiday in Dorset and Cornwall, so keep checking back for some more timelapse trips

Sky, originally uploaded by BagRat.

Took these photo’s on the way home from work last night, stopped because there was a Rainbow, so took a few shots of that, then as I turned round to go back to the car saw the way the Sun was shining down this road and thought it would make a pretty decent photo

Today started off with a flat battery, just what I needed at 8:00am, believe me trying to find a neighbour with jumps leads and who’s not rushing off to work at that time of the morning is like trying to find rocking horse shit, spent about 30 minutes knocking on neighbours doors trying to find someone who hadn’t already left for work and could spare the time to give me a jump start.

Thankfully Mona’s son from 2 doors down was just walking past his front room window and I managed to catch his eye, so after about 10 minutes the car was up and running, really need to get a new battery for the car though now that winters here, this is about the 3rd time in as many weeks I’ve had problems starting the car.

Anyway got into work a bit late, but had rang up to let them know why, so didn’t get any shit off anyone when I got there which was a nice surprise, was expecting to get a 20 minute lecture on the pros of leaving for work earlier . .

Rest of the day was spent using photo-shop to mask some images for a catalogue I’ve been asked to create by a colleague, seems to be going well and I’m quite enjoying learning new photo-shop tricks, so the day passe’s by pretty quickly when you’ve got your head immersed in adobe.

Anyway 5:15pm came about pretty quickly and left work early to get home so we could take Blue to the vets for her annual checkup and her booster shoots.
She’s getting pretty used to the vets now and just walked in without any fuss, previous times I’ve literally had to lift her across the threshold, which for a big dog like a Cane Corso is not good for one’s back.

Vet gave her the booster shoots and some worming pills and gave her the all clear with her checkup, also complemented her on being a beautiful looking dog, something I think Blue already knows and uses to her advantage on many occasions.

Took her for a walk around the football fields afterwards and treated her to a large sausage from the chippy for being a good girl at the vets, don’t know what it is about our dog Blue, but she is honestly the most well behaved dog I’ve ever met and by far the best dog to cheer you up if your ever feeling down, so glad we found her . . .

Well most of the stuff ready anyways, got a new stereo for the car, seeing as the CD player died on the last one, also got a new cigarette lighter to ensure the SatNav stays powered up for the journey, just need to give the car a quick service to ensure that we dont have any water or oil service problems.

Still not really planned our days out yet, but will have a looksee on the net tonight to see what fun days can be had in Dorset and Cornwall, if anyone has any suggestions feel free to let us know.

Just 3 more days and then I’m free from work