Drat! Colin failed his MOT...

Colin has a re-test (fingers crossed)!

Okay, so back to Capel on Saturday, a fairly early start, to go and collect Colin from the RANS household (with everything now working - Eternal *THANKS* to Uncle Al!!) and run him down to have his last little bit of work done (engine tuning to help him stop polluting the environment, which took Keith (the chap on the right in the picture above) about 90 seconds to do (amazing!), we had a 30 second panic when one of the indicators didn't appear to be working (but then it sprang into life, dunno what that was all about, but we really didn't need anything else to suddenly go wrong!) and then it was straight into the MOT re-test (which they said shouldn't take long as they only check the things it failed on last time) -

- so he was hoisted up in the air (after the mechanic performed a passable impression of a monster truck by being a little heavy footed) -

- and rolled on the rolling road -

- and we were then left in limbo, staring at what certainly looked like a green certificate being printed out and deposited into the office, before we were finally given the good news! Passed with flying colours, phew!!


As a reward for being so good, Colin was taken for a quick make-over courtesy of the Soviet car-wash gang in Hookwood Tesco car park, which caused some paint to flake off on the front bumper (doh!) so during the shopping I picked up some white "straight to rust" weatherseal metal paint, and a small brush...so another "bargain makeover" coming soon, no doubt...just need a wire brush... ;)

Colin Goes to Carters

So...Colin's MOT...we drove over to Capel on Saturday morning, convoy style (deciding to take the back roads)...first off, when we stopped for petrol Colin just *wouldn't* start again (for love nor money) I ended up having to push his heavy ass away from the petrol pump to try and cheer up the miserable looking queue forming at the station entrance...ten minutes of waiting and re-trying later and he *finally* splutters into life, but we are now worryingly behind schedule so head off at high speed across country, next - a totally suicidal old gentleman with small white dog throws himself in front of Colin by Earlswood lakes, causing Flyingpops to slam on the breaks (so as not to cause his death), we both honk our horns angrily and give the old chap *very* hard stares (trying to to resume normal cardiac rates) then back on the gas, meeting in quick succession 2 horse riders, a large number of tour de France wannabes, a small girl being led along on a very fat pony, 2 more horse riders and finally a man and woman on the back of a large trailer as they whip the tiniest miniature horse I have ever seen (the size of an average dog) who is struggling to drag them up the lane in the extreme heat as the woman flicks him with a long whip...(on reflection the main roads might have been a little less stressful, even though we were running a bit late)...anyway, we dropped Colin off with the owner, Flyingpops telling him that the engine might not start again, and that we are expecting a fail for the welding the other garage had spotted, and then we popped off for a tea and cake in the garage up the road.

Forty-five minutes later (after a little wander around the village), we sit watching the last few tests, and the mechanic feeding the expected red form through his printer and then wait anxiously for the verdict...and...it wasn't too bad, it failed on one break disc (very thin), emissions (but that is likely to be just a tuning issue thanks to the new fuel pump and carb that recently went in), the hazard lights didn't work (but I fixed that there and then with a new fuse), indicators too fast (thought the fuse would fix that too but it didn't) and a dodgy wheel bearing...No welding required at all! The bloke said that he went around the bodywork and chassis 3 times looking for it, thinking he must have missed it! Excellent news!

So we drove Colin over to the RANS household, where Uncle Al had kindly agreed to take a look (and was also expecting to be busy with welding torch, so I think he was pleasantly suprised too)... ;)

Wedding was very enjoyable, excellent sermon and very funny speech from the best man, lovely venue too, and then yesterday such an incredible Grand Prix...I think that is probably the end of Alonso (as far as the team is concerned)...very silly boy...

Car MOT - Carters of Capel

Had to get up super early today to get the car MOT done (9am at Carters of Capel)...

...it passed, apart from one bulb (one of the fog lights), so (apart from the standard price of an MOT test) it cost the princely sum of 49p to get it through...not bad... ;)

Then it was Tesco, which was absolute hell (I'm guessing thanks to the match this afternoon)...

And then it was off to Reigate garden centre to pick up some drought proof plants (got some alpines), some compost and a grow bag for the toms...
Also spotted these Venus Fly traps -

- which were oddly placed at prying children's finger height...I say oddly because if the traps are triggered without a fly being caught then this can kill the stem...still, they looked healthy enough...now back home in time for kick off! Come on England! ;)