Aston Martin Rust Oration

Cold, clear but lovely – had enough of Chrismas markets for at least another year….

Ordered some nuts and Bolts from Namrick and like a dolt put my home address for delivery. Tried for three days to contact Interlink via their website and the phone numbers they gave – no answer on the phone, and no voice mail facility, and the website tells me no record of my parcel. So It’ll go back to Namrick who will have to send it out again with another £8 shipping fee… Grrrr.

Perfect timing!

I got an email this morning suggesting I take my loved one for a romantic Christmas in Paris… on Eurostar! great timing by the e-marketing folks…

St James’s Park looks lovely in the snow. Although I did mistake a swan for a pile of snow in the dark.

Poor old Michael Crick - had to leave his dinner early at Inn the Park to get back to present Newsnight this evening, Nick Robinson and the rest of the BBC Westminster team carried on happily.

Not sure where my invitation to the Today Programme Christmas bash went this year…

As a professional writer I should be able to make anything sound interesting – even the rather dull task of finding and fitting sound-proofing material to a thirty-six year old Aston Martin V8.

The original engine bay insulation consisted of sponge backed thick vynyl material – which soaked up the moisture like, well, a sponge.

I wanted to replace it with something more practical but that looked similar – could I find something? Could I not.

Aston Martin still supply the spongey stuff, but at over a hundred quid for three pre-cut pieces  I was not tempted.. Instead I am using the same insulating foam I put round the fuel tank (remember the fuel tank folks? – that was three years of blogging ago!!)

As my eye is taking longer to heal than it takes for an MP to pay back their expenses, I couldn’t do too much this weekend – so I cleaned up and painted the door hinges and fitted the aircon controller Now, wasn’t that interesting?

While blogging I tend to surf You Tube for interesting music, the Yoshida Brothers are my latest discovery.

Good end to a hectic week….

I spent yesterday afternoon with Shadow Minister for London Bob Neill MP  looking at the proposed World Heritage site in Bromley where Darwin did much of his research.

One of the best things about living in London is discovering interesting places where you’d least expect them. In the space of two hours we saw Darwin’s bog – where he studied carniverous plants, Wilberforce’s Oak tree where William Wilberforce declared war on the slave trade. the remains of a 2,000 year old hill fort and a wonderful medievel tile kiln only discovered relatively recently when someone fell into it!

It takes a trained eye to see these embankments for what they were – the ancient ramparts of a 2,000 year old hill fort.

Some of the tiles still have the finger prints of the men who made them imprinted on the surfaces.

Follwed an eventful day with a splendid evening at the National Theatre – The Pitmen Painters is a very entertaining play, and superbly acted.

Old Greek proverb: Civilisation is when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.

At the speed I’m going ROJ will be a car i may never ride in….

Sophocles (496 – 406 BC), in Ajax:

Nought from the Greeks towards me hath sped well.
So now I find that ancient proverb true,
Foes’ gifts are no gifts: profit bring they none.

…personally, I’ve always found the Greeks both generous and charming.

I was in two minds about going up the farm this weekend – the old eyeball is still giving me grief.

Glad I did though – not least because we had the bonfire and fireworks that we missed on fireworks night.. with Chris the fireman in charge of the matches. I think we would have been safer giving them to Elliot!!!

It was also Sue from Malawi’s birthday – so a large (very) cake made an excellent post BBQ dessert.

Typical Aston Martin over engineering

I have been missing one of the pipes leading to the airfilter on ROJ – a simple piece of corrugated plastic tube, similar to stuff I keeping seeing contracters laying at roadworks:

But do you think I could find some the right diameter… so I bit the bullet and paid an exhorbitant amount to Aston Martin parts for a piece – and this is what arrived:

I know Aston Martin have diversified into clothing – but I didn’t know they now knitted their spare parts!

It does look very nice fitted

I installed some nice new airfilters:

…and put the whole blasted assembly back together again.

If anyone were to ask my advice about which car to restore  – and to date no-one has – I would tell them to find one that is far batter packaged than the Aston. The V8 has everything inaccesible. Look at where the ignition control box is – and the blue relay thingy that I’ve yet-to-work-out-what-it-does.

The new brake hoses (also very expensive from Aston Martin) look nice but were also a bugger to fit.

As I move onto the electrics, and air con I can see the fiddly-ness is just going to get worse.

It was a real bore being off work with a sore eye last week – and it’s also a bore being back at work… Never mind, there are a couple of interesting things are on the horizon before the election.

Last weekend my friend David took pity on my stir-crazy condition and took me up to Birmingham to the Classic Car Show. Fantastic. I just love seeing interesting and unusual cars I’ve not seen before – like an original single headlamp Citreon 2CV. And all the wierd little micro cars.

I also got to play with (well, sit in) another James Bond toy.

David’s wife Amanda makes cracking bacon sandwiches…..

Angus in Cologne has just built himself a bicycle….

That’s how I started.

It’ll be grandpa’s pre-war MG next son…

What a busy half term I’ve just had….

Spent the first week in Malta at the Phoenecia Hotel in Valetta, superbly sited to explore the island’s incredible history.  Annoyingly I had injured my right eye, so spent the week walking around with one eye closed.

Most people associate Malta with the Knights Hospitaler of the Order of St John, but few may know that the oldest man made standing structures are also on the island. The megalithic temples of Ggantia, Hagar Qim, Mnajdra and Tarxien, and the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum are just stunning. Although at €25 each the Hypogeum was an expensive visit!

Malta also has this wonderful fully interactive public transport museum…

And lots of interesting cars to spot…

Che, Che, Che

The Sunday Times were giving away copies of the  Motorcycle Diaries. Great film – but I do have this problem with Che Guevera. I have to be really careful here not to upset my Cuban friends because even though Castro’s gilding has definitely worn thin, Che is still held in great affection.

I have always seen young Ernesto as an idealistic, glory seeking, self publicist. I haven’t yet seen Che with Benito Del Toro, but will be interested to see what slant the movie gives him.

Hot Pies

A fellow member of the AMOC forum posted an amusing story about Natal and curry which brought back a memory from my student days at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg.

Late at night when we took a break from “studying” someone would usually suggest a visit to the Pie Cart. A mobile kitchen dispensing gristle and gravy in a pastry casing – with chilli sauce to disguise the flavour of decaying warthog. The Pie Cart van would park itself in market square – and while munching our pies in the safety of someone’s car, we would watch the world come and go.

One night a bunch of “skellems” roared into the square in something they had obviously stolen from the local scrap heap, slammed on the brakes and the headlamps both fell out – if that wasn’t funny enough, the car shot forward and ran over both lamps!!

I have not laughed so hard or for so long since….

Master Cylinder

Hmmm, sounds like one of te older Jedi knights… But I digress.

Despite still having a dodgy right eye, I spent a few days on the farm after getting back from Malta. I stripped down and overhauled the brake master cylinder and fitted the vacuum pipes around the top of the engine bay, I’ve just ordered a range of small parts ncluding new brake hoses to fit over the winter months.