Back in November, my Audi A3 finally gave up the ghost. It wouldn’t start, even though the previous evening it was fine in transporting back some boxes and crates from a charitable event we had been involved in. That morning? Nowt. Had it towed to my usual mechanics to see what the issue was, and they said the engine was getting no compression. They quoted some $5K labor just to take said engine apart to see what the issue might be, and then it’d cost more to fix. Alternative? A refurbished engine for some $9K. At which point I decided to scrap it. It was 14 years old and had suffered already from some damaging issues with said engine. […]
READ MOREFor some stupid reason, I’ve not been writing much, apart from work-related stuff. So, as promised many a time before, I should set aside some time regularly to write about … whatever. A friend of mine tries to publish something every day, but I don’t think I’ll manage that. Hence an EOW (end of week) series from yours truly to be published on Friday or the weekend. […]
READ MOREFor me, D-day has a familiar perception. Not because I was there, duh!, but because of what happened when I was young. When I was 7, we as a family moved from Lincolnshire to Le Havre in France. Dad had managed to get promoted to managing a paint factory there (Celomer), a subsidiary of the British company Courtaulds (which is no more) where he worked, and so we all went over there for, as it turned out, three years. For me, it certainly was an adventure for sure. Not only having to learn French, but because we were just over the Seine river from Normandy. This would have been 20 years after D-day. […]
READ MOREJust for a laugh, over the past week or so, I’ve saved a few sentences from spam emails that I’ve received, some to my work account and some to my personal one. Ready? Here’s the first: […]
READ MOREAKA the weekly summary. Yes, it’s time I was more … regular … shall we say. […]
READ MORETime to turn over a new leaf. Because of changes in my life (and my wife’s) over the past 4 or 5 months, I’ve let things drop here on my blog. I’ve had time to recharge — at least I hope so — hence it’s back to regular updates. Let’s see how this goes… […]
READ MORESo, in general, every day I get in my car and drive somewhere. It could be taking the pup to doggy daycare, going shopping, nipping out to get some lunch, whatever. In doing so, because we live in a built-up area of Colorado Springs, there’s traffic lights and, if I’m unlucky, I’ll hit a red. […]
READ MOREAt the beginning of September we were in England to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. What we do on these England trips is to (a) go to North Yorkshire to visit my parents graves, (b) go see my sister’s family in Lancashire, (c) go somewhere we haven’t been before, and then (d) end up in Windsor for a couple of days as it’s close to Heathrow and the flight home. […]
READ MOREJust over 4 weeks ago, we had a problem. Our internet connection went down. I’m sure, like many people, this is pretty dire: after all, I work from home and therefore need it to connect to work. And that’s before you even start to consider getting system updates, emails, Netflix, etc. […]
READ MOREWell, OK, not quite. But today is the anniversary of my arrival in the United States, or, more specifically, Colorado. Yep, I’ve now lived for 30 years in the US. Originally, I was going to stay for possibly three years, but it turned out that after those three years I’d sold my flat in Hammersmith and bought a house in Colorado Springs for my future wife and I (and, as it turned out, three kittens). Still makes me laugh: selling a one-bedroom flat in London to buy a three bedroom house in Colorado Springs. […]
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