Tag: grannywagon

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New year was a bit of a washout then. I was going to go to the pub but it was raining exceedingly heavily, so I resorted to my own supplies.

The Grannywagon was serviced and tested for another year. The rear shock absorbers needed replacing, but overall the cost was not too excessive. I was expecting the shock absorbers to be a big spring, but in reality they look more like the stays on the boot lid. The coil springs are a separate component, apparently.

A couple of trips out. First was a day trip around the Dearne triangle of random small towns. The highlight was the Wath Tap micropub, where I ended up surrounded by a birthday party for one of the regulars there. I was also able to collect a few more Spoons for the tick list.

Next was a couple of days in Blackpool. It snowed and froze over whilst I was there, unusually for the coast, so I slid over a few times and obtained some cuts and bruising. The copious amounts of booze consumed on the Thursday pub crawl probably didn’t help.

My new years splurge was on a Choyong LC90 radio which, probably uniquely, combines both a shortwave tuner and an internet stream and Bluetooth receiver in one unit. It has some quirks and oddities but seems to work fairly competently. I’ll probably write up some more substantial opinions on the thing once I’ve used it for a few weeks.

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The unusually cold weather seen previously became unusually mild instead. The communal area of the flats has no heating so didn’t heat up as quickly as outside. This resulted in a three storey slip-n-slide being created as condensation settled on every flat surface. Equilibrium was reached after three days.

A return visit to London, this time for the annual Christmas-time tour from The Kunts starting at the New Cross Inn. A suitably cheapo hotel room (a Travelodge, of course!) was obtained at nearby Deptford Bridge so a walkable evening was in order. The Shirker’s provided pre-gig drinks, plus I was pleased to see that the venue bar at the New Cross now has a bank of cask pumps in place. The gig was therefore enhanced by several pints of Brockley Pale.

I was also talked into a run down to Milton Keynes, for the final stop of the tour at the Craufurd Arms. Gem and Lee are to blame for that. It was a no-go originally, as I was supposed to be working an early shift on the Sunday, but the new rotas starting that week changed it to a late instead so I could wangle an overnighter in. It also gave the Grannywagon a good run. Both the Craufurd and the hotel bar stocked Brixton Reliance Pale, which is apparently owned by Heineken now and brewed at Beavertown in Enfield so has lost some of its provenance.

Speaking of rota changes, I now have the Nottingham line signed off on the route card. Not a bad run, but they can get rather busy on the weekends.

Additional Grannywagon mileage was also clocked up over Christmas week, primarily caused by bad planning on my part. I had a pub shift in Derby on Boxing Day between socials in Merseyside on Christmas Day and the 27th, so two round trips were put in. I got four different routes each time though:

  • Snake Pass, M67, Manchester city centre, M602/M62, M6, M58
  • M58, M6, M56, A555, A6
  • A50, A500, M6, M62, M57
  • M57, M62, A57, A50, A537/Cat & Fiddle Pass, A6, 13 Bends

The roadworks on the M6 through Haydock have finally finished, so it was a pleasure to drive along the newly resurfaced carriageway without worrying about average speed cameras.

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Never underestimate the stupidity of the general public:

  • Missing your stop does not constitute an emergency, Get off at the next station and take a train back.
  • In case of disruption, we are not capable of rustling up a substitute bus within ten minutes. Wait on the platform until we can do so, or until the next train comes/the line reopens.
  • The driver, conductor, and dispatcher are pretty confident as to where the train is going. Listening to them is better than believing whatever nonsense Trainline is shitting out. Certainly, do not convince a train-load’s worth of passengers to alight, and then re-board within 60 seconds.

I had an IBS flare-up towards the start of the week. The supermarket have decided that diarrhoea medicine requires you to be 18 or older to be able to purchase it. Underage? Nah, go shit yerself kidda! As an aside, the same supermarket only needs you to be 16 to buy paracetamol, a product that is more likely to kill you should you decide to overdose on it.

The insurance on the Grannywagon has been renewed for another year. The good news was that the quote given was £100 less than last year. The less good news is that that is still £80 more than it was in 2022. We may return to normality, as it was, one day.

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The Grannywagon is now 10 years old, so inevitably parts have started breaking on it. Latest repair is to replace the pump for the windscreen wash which had stopped working. In a piece of inspirational design, the pump and washer bottle is conveniently located in the bottom corner of the engine bay and access involves removing the front wheel and taking out the arch lining panel. A bit beyond my capability as I’d do it myself otherwise.

Fortunately, a local garage was able to replace it with relative ease although the motor factor store had to order the part in which took a couple of days. I can at least see where I’m driving now.

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Coming up to the end of outside only pub trading. I’ll be glad to be back inside – both as staff and customer. Britain is not really built for al-fresco dining. Several shifts have seen rain, whilst being under a tent does not mitigate cold or wind. It’ll still be table service initially, presumably because pox particles linger around on wooden counters.

The Grannywagon took another animal victim in the form of a badger. On the A61 again, but about a mile up on the other side of Shirland. I’d considered badgers to be relatively sedate and slow, but this one was giving it a good run across the carriageway. Unfortunately not quickly enough though and it went under the tyres. No damage to the motor this time, just some muddy marks on the wing where the badger got bounced.

I’ve an invite to a wedding next week and so went to dig out my nice shoes to wear. I couldn’t find them which would suggest I sent them to the charity recycling when I had the big clear out before the move last year. Looks like I’ll have to brave going out to town to pick up a pair in the week.

I’ve had a re-arrange of hosting facilities. Ghost on the VPS wasn’t really cutting it for me and was a bit overkill for what I am using it for (namely writing nonsense posts). I’ve shifted it over to Neocities for two benefits:

* I’m able to access it on the work PC – the firewall blocks the deyes.im domain for some reason and I can’t be bothered calling IT to fix it.
* If I decide to sack off the VPS I can still retain this site for little-to-no cost. I rarely look at either of the Pleroma or Pixelfed services so killing it off saves a few quid whilst ensuring nothing of value is lost.

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The sun visor on the Grannywagon snapped off. I resorted to the internet to find a replacement; the best price I could find was ~£45 from a Suzuki spares dealer. Remembering that Splash was also sold by Vauxhall, re-badged as the Agila II, I searched for the same visor with a Vaxhall spares dealer and found it for ~£30 instead. I really do mean the same item, Vauxhall had taken the Suzuki part and bagged it without even removing the Suzuki labels.

Suzuki branded sun visor in Vauxhall branded packaging
Suzuki branded sun visor in Vauxhall branded packaging

Approaching a year in the house. The rent is going up £20 a month from next month, which is slightly annoying but not bank-breakingly annoying.

Mop Head has progressed onto the next stage of relaxing restictions, which means the pub shifts restarted this week. There are additional tables in the car park and table service only is still in force, so that will have a good return on step counts. 15k on Saturday!

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  • Winter is here, now with more snow now that I have moved to higher ground. Nothing mega, the most that’s fallen is an inch or so, business was therefore unaffected.
    • Apparently, clearing snow off your car before driving it is such an arduous task so you just leave it on and it all falls off in front of the Grannywagon whilst going around a corner/roundabout/straight road. Lazy bastards. I’ve kept an old, slightly worn windscreen wiper in the boot for such a task, takes mere minutes to do whilst the windows are defrosting. Much safer and as, some weight has been removed, marginally more fuel efficient.
  • The MD made an effort to burn down the office by leaving a potato in the microwave for over 35 minutes. It was beginning to ignite when I removed it into the sink. Don’t leave cooking unattended.
  • I attempted to test some GPS traces by travelling on a service bus with a handheld machine. I managed to miss the bus, first by the shopping centre I’d parked in closing the access to the bus station; then, after driving up route to catch it up, by standing at the wrong stop for that particular route. I managed to get the job done by instead walking the route with machine in hand, then getting the correct bus back to where I’d parked.
  • I got around to sorting out the wheel alignment on the Grannywagon. I should apparently see more even tyre wear now. Still noisy though, I’ll make sure the replacements are of an alternative brand.

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New year, same old shit unfortunately. I’m applying the La Linea numbering method here, hence why the post number has jumped up by 48 places. You’ll get over it.

  • The government decided to implement another shutdown. Because the first two worked so well. Guess I’ll just have to hide in the house some more then.
  • In another brilliant decision, takeaway beer from pubs is also no longer allowed. The off-licence or, at worse, the supermarket will be getting my beer money for the time being.
  • Managed to get an appointment at the dentist, which was needed as my recessed tooth was almost built up to the top with plaque. Unfortunately, power tools were not available as a result of the pox so the old fashioned method of the pick scraper was utilised instead. There was some blood.
  • The Grannywagon was due its MOT test and service. Passed the test, just an advisory to track the front tyres as they were slightly off balance. I’ll sort that out in a week or two.
  • Replacement manager started at work. Seems okay.

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Another round up because of slack. I’ll skim over the main points, with some breakout posts for particular bits coming in the near future.

  • The pub has re-opened, so getting some extra shifts in through the combination of some other staff leaving and the rest not coming back off furlough. Free money piss take, no?
  • The relaxation of some of the travelling restrictions, caused by the pox, has meant some adventures have taken place. Durham, Merseyside, Sheffield, Leeds, York have been invaded. Some of those trips will warrant a separate posting.
  • Main work has kept me occupied mostly over the past 14 weeks. Some colleagues have unfortunately been made redundant or have left for other jobs, so I now have a few more extra tasks and responsibilities for the time being. I doubt an increase in remuneration will be forthcoming.
  • I still haven’t unpacked all the CDs/DVDs/books in the new place. A trip to Ikea for some storage solutions may be useful, so I can then rid the lounge of cardboard boxes.
  • The Grannywagon had an encounter with a rabbit on the A61. I don’t know who came off worse, but I think both sides made a loss. I never found the bunny carcass, but I do have the bumper carcass. It’s not going to easily pop back into place as the skin has managed to get wedged behind the structural rods, so I’ll just leave it for now.

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The Grannywagon got though its MOT without too many issues. The garage recommended a flush as the emissions readings were a tad high. This seems to have improved cold running, there’s no longer a large white cloud coming out the exhaust for the first mile.

Gave a blood donation on Thursday, taking my total to 51. This was followed by a rather nice curry.

Tandem Bank rather annoyingly decided that from March credit card holders need to pay them £5.99 a month to keep their card, or GTFO. Since for my use case, the cashback and savings interest earned would be less than the monthly fee, I’d be paying for no benefit. The card will be taking a trip through the shredder, and I’ll be off come March.

I had to visit the Sheffield garage to do some tech work. Turns out a ‘quick job’ takes four hours and several phone calls to the ticket machine supplier to get a smart card profile set up.