Aston Martin Rust Oration

To get rid of the Japanese knotweed they are introducing a little bug from Asia called a psyllid…

Psyllid, BANG and the knotweed is gone…!

Went to an exhibition at the Richmond Adult Community College at the weekend and discovered that they have jazz music classes on Saturdays.

At Lunchtime the students play a gig in the cafe – and some of them were terrific! Some were more entertaining from their enthusasm rather than level of accomplishment… A saxophonist (who was ace) told me he bought his instrument at the age of 53, and had been playing it for 18 years!

We’ll definitely go back again.

Searle’s sketches

Ronald Searle is 90 this month and to celebrate the Cartoon Museum in Holborn has an exhibition of his work – Quite fantastic. Especially his repotage drawings, and those from his time as a PoW of the Japanese at Changi.

I love the sound of a really expensive car door closing. The thought of ROJ making the same sound almost makes me salivate…

So I put on the doors.

They don’t clunk.

Yet.

But they do give the car a more car like shape.

When I arrived at the farm the weather was appalling – but Monday morning it looked lovely.

And yesterday it was glorious.

Still – I wasn’t there for the weather.

As well as putting on the doors and cleaning up and fitting the window winders, I also renovated and fitted the front brake calipers – using new stainless steel pistons and an AM parts seal kit. The Aston uses Girling 3 pot calipers – the front ones are huge. You may remember I originally painted them gold, and they looked revolting, so I repainted them silver, much better.

So what else did i do?

I broke another tap in a captive nut and had to grind it out using a diamond bit in my Dremel  – what a bore that was.

I took apart the exhaust mounts and painted them with Hammerite – the new springs I ordered flummoxed me, they are coiled in the oppposite direction.

And now it’s back to work for a rest!

I was rather tickled by the packaging that some wire wheels for the Dremel came in – I had ordered them through Ebay from Hong Kong …

A week to go before I am up at the farm again, happily playing with my spanners etc…

Angus will be back from Germany – I’m hoping he may want to give me a hand.

Been really busy at work – lots to do before the election – and this one will be a psephologist’s dream come true..

Will having a general election on the same day as the local elections skew voting patterns for both? And if it’s a hung parliament (some say that certain members of the parliament should be hung) then we’ll be up for two general elections in a year… great stuff.

In the run up to the elections – Parliament hits the streets…

From:
http://www.youdrivewhat.com/

It’s always those who have nothing that tend to lose everything…

Redcross appeal.

Two great films on TV this week-end that made my big TV worth every penny. And both featuring my favourite countryside campaigner Edward Fox.

I defy anyone bloke of a cetain age to watch the  Battle of Britian without a lump in their throat.

The second film was the original Day of the Jackel. Apart from being a great film, it is excellent for spotting classic French cars.

At the moment my dream garage is a WARM one…

But this guy really has made his own dream garage!!

When showing a young american a photo of ROJ – pre-stripdown, he said “Oh wow, is that a Mustang!”

And I suppose i can see his point:

In similar vein I saw a photo of Labour Chief Whip Nick Brown MP and thought “Johnny Vegas???!!”

Happy 2010….

Had a wonderful week in Cologne with Angus and his friends, walked the legnth of the city and visited every Christmas Market. Saw all the sites and even climbed the 156 metre bell tower!

Chuffed with all the classic cars out on the streets too. No Astons sadly, and some I wasn’t fast enough to photograph – but here are a few: