Ford Escort to go and meet its maker ..

Well later today a car dismantler will be coming to collect my old and abused Ford Escort R914NHG. I will be a little sad to see it go though clearly its time had come

Old car - slightly less old car

- I purchased it from Jack at work a couple of years ago when it had 85000 on the clock and now it is going with just under 139000. This is actually a record I think for any car I have owned. Abuse - up and down to Hinckley, the daily commute from Stirling and worst of all Hinckley to Barwell recycling centre - too may journeys to enumerate there!. The money I shall get for this will offset the recent exhaust purchase (and finger pain!) and make it an excellent value motoring experience. Minus - oil shares likley to plunge as I should not need to buy so much due to worn valve stem oil seals. Thankyou my little blueish Ford Escort 1.6 S you have been a reliable and effective friend for the last 25ish months - Goodbye!

New car ....

Hello, well it has been an interesting few days since the weekend.
Monday just the usual swimming at lunchtime and then in the evening researching second hand car prices - stayed at parents. Tuesday in evening went to the BCA near the Airport. Started by just noting prices for quite a while until a Mitsibushi Carisma GDi appeared - so I put my hand up and suddenly it was mine. Shaking afterwards and full transaction completed in short order thereafter. Only a few problems - this was not enough money as planned in discussion with Ping, GDi denotes petrol not Diesel and it is quite old being an X reg and red. Also have been having issues with the Escort re locking and as had laptop in the boot of the car when at the auction - when I came out I couldn`t open the doors at all - called on some help and that was achieved in quite an interesting way. The result though was that then the alarm was going off consistently and the only way that Allan and I could silence it was by undoing the battery. I had driven there to Currie somehow without problem - but getting out of the car enabled the alarm.
Wednesday 14th April - today - arranged insurance via the Post Office and then road tax on the second attempt when I had actually received by fax the certificate of insurance. This is the first insurance with Ping named so practice can really start now. Left work just before 4pm, got the road tax in Penicuik and then to Susan and akllans and thence onto teh auction. Picked up car - agreed it looks quite good and matbe it will amend Ping`s opinion on my decision and returned to Stirling. Only issue may be rear brake related but need to check over time. Fuel well empty and got £68 in to fill it up!! Arghhh. Also talked to the man who helped me to open the Escort and agreed a price with him to collect it late Friday afternoon without the road tax for scrap / parts. An end of a short but high mileage era I think.

This evening missed chance to fly at Hillend.

I knew that this was a possibility though decided not to put wing in the car this morning - as things to do this evening. Which I really must get on with. Anyhow on driving back from work saw 2 pilots in the air - turned out to be Tim Bridle and Ian Kennedy. I took a few photos and had a short chat with some of the pilots in the landing field before dashing off a few minutes later. Dave H advised flying a bit lumpy. Photos mainly all Tim Bridle coming in to land and landing video sequence. Also present Dorita, Quentin, Mike and Sean from NZ/Australia.

Hillend 12th April 2010

Arrived at Mum and Dads to find dinner ready - excellent and then onto vacuuming the car - to de-muesli it - life is so much fun!
Dad went out to see if he can get into a Science Festival presentation at the Filmhouse at 08:30 by Ian Holt? on the 7 wonders of the Solar System.

Paragliding near Menstrie 10th and 11th April 2010

Yesterday - 10th April I walked up Myreton early - being the first to arrive and then for the next few hours was in the wrong place psychologically. I did take some photos though and they are here ...

Myreton-100410

Then today Sunday walked up again - this time to the same place though I had changed into a crimson or nearly infra-red being! from yesterday. Initially went up little Myreton and again did nothing for quite some time. Then Jan texted me - saying essentially come across to big Myreton or Demyot? so I packed up wing and wandered across. Conditions were strongish thermic and I wasn`t again doing anything though notably Dave was showing what good / great ground handling skills are. Also present were Richard, Jan, Tom and Ian?. Again I took quite a few photos and they are here :-

Big Myreton 11th April 2010

The wind did then ease from the East somewhat and everyone took off - including me - lovely - got past the pyschological problems and had a for me realtively long flight at about 8 minutes! Landing perfect and then even better Lou - Matt Church`s better half gave me a lift back to Menstrie and the car - it doesn`t get better than that as far as I am concerned.
I track my flights using Sports Tracker on my Nokia - and obviously on my Garmin. However it is easier to get a kml file from the phone - the only minus is that the absolute altitudes always seem to be too high - anyhow here is my KML file from which you could if you wish get the gist of my flight on Google Earth. To do this "save link as" and then open it in Google Earth.

Whats happening this week ?..

This week has been pretty much the usual - Monday, Wednesday , Thursday and Friday swimming at lunchtime and Tuesday badminton - didn`t miss it this time by forgetting that I didn`t have my car!. No car sharing this week as L on holiday. Stayed at Mum and Dads on Monday and Thursday nights. On the latter added some foam strip to mums sunroof in the hope that it will eliminate the leak where lots of water ends up in the passenger footwell.  Ping studying hard - as usual. House - advised someone wants to see it so that is good.  Car - something wrong I think back nearside wheel - getting noisy etc.  At work today it was the last day for Grahame and Mairi on our floor as part of the redundancy programme so that was sad. Leanne from Finance left on Tuesday or Wednesday with no emotion or goodbyes. Last wek walked up Myreton but didn`t fly as windy
This weekend weather looking good so up Myreton again and hopefully shall fly this time whilst Ping studying.

Hinckley house finally on the market ....

Well last week 153 London Road, Hinckley, LE10 1HH finally came onto the market and more details can be found here ...

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-29223563.html



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