Summer 2009 Retrospective - the fun starts here

Edit - Dec 09 - OK clearly I wrote this with every intention of publishing it back in June - but got diverted...

[Hello you lucky people, yes indeed S&N is back from its summer hiatus which has been sorely needed to allow for international jetsetting, finishing one job, moving house, moving city, starting a new job, more holidays and getting into the groove of the daily grind in the big smoke. I have had the feeling of a terrible blockage looming over me and its nothing I need to see the doctor about either! I feel this super bumper mega blog will be sufficiently cathartic to relieve my problems. Enjoy.]

First stop on the summer '09 tour was Oslo for another G&T trip. Henny and Maud get stuck into their Grandma baggage full of goodies and manage a cheeky smile or two to boot.

Maud is particularly taken with her new special box of soaps and has to manage the advances of onlooking sticky fingers

Super cute Henny could always muster a killer smile for the camera...

...although when she saw who was behind the lens she was rather more perplexed. This look was not a one off lucky shot for me either, but rather the look de jour. "Who are you again? You seem awfully familiar but yet not quite normal" was how I interpreted it.

Maud agreed to take her life in her hands by allowing G&T to accompany her out alone to the park! A first for me at least! It allowed for plenty of scrummaging around in the grass...

... and some more personal reflective downtime.

Horsin' around

A few shots from the summer around Adam's yard in Banbury...

Old man trigger enjoying the sun

Me out for a trot on Bumble

Adam keeping the flies out of Trigger's eyes

Bumble out with his pals in Jane's field after our ride

Sunny Southampton (for once)

Today, my friends Heidi and Caroline hopped on a train from Bristol and London respectively, to spend the day with me in Southampton - how lovely. This would be the last time they could (face the) travel to see me as they are both around 25 weeks pregnant, and therefore battening down the hatches for the joys of the third trimester shortly. [For those interested: Heidi is almost certainly having a girl and Caroline knows the sex but is not telling... spoil sport!]

Luckily for everyone, especially little William (nearly 2) who likes to run around a lot, it was baking hot and sunny, and we could enjoy what little open space there is by the water in Southampton. Two big cruise ships were in berth (Norwegian Jade and the QM2) which was good entertainment for a while and we managed to sit down for a few minutes to enjoy a coffee at the Royal Thai Pavillion with their fancy sun terrace overlooking the park.

Floating IKEA... yep really... oh OK no not really... but I fooled my party with that line for a while.. its the Isle of Wight ferry daubed in IKEA colours to celebrate the opening of our new IKEA store which is just to the left of this picture. The QM2 is in the background.

Update

All good news, Sally Saab lives to fight another day. MOT passed OK in the end after a good service and replacing the wishbone bushes and support brackets (bye bye £150) and nearside side repeater bulb (68p). Other than that he said she drives very nicely and is should still be a reliable car for years to come. Hopefully long enough to move me to London! What a performance this week turned out to be, but all sorted now... phew!

QBR-62325

Hooray for QBR-62325! The saviour of Sally Saab! This is the part number for the shorter drivebelt - that Bert from the magic car parts shop ordered in for me - that arrived on the lorry this morning - that I collected this afternoon in exchange for £16 - that I took home and got Pete to fit into the broken car... and now its fixed! Brilliant!

Familiar territory... I've now taken this wheel arch liner off a few times so its easy peasy.

All the gubbins at the end of the engine that makes everything work with the new belt already fitted. Due to the amount of swearing and running around handing things to Pete there were very few transitional shots of the actual replacement. This is mainly due to the force needed to compress the automatic tensioning arm seen on the right hand side of the picture above. In order to fit the belt it has to be compressed - it is remarkably strong for such a little thing and took a nifty trick with a lump of wood, a trolley jack and the weight of the car to shift- but it worked a treat. Slipped the belt on and quick as you like, it was all done!

Pete in action. Couldn't have done it without him - Thanks Pete!

The top view of the new belt from inside the bonnet. Gave it a quick test as it was to make sure all was working as expected and luckily no further catastrophies, so put it all back together again and drove it round the block! Hurrah! Sally Saab is fixed! Now she just needs to pass the MOT! Ugg. Fingers crossed.

Drivebelt drama

Oh dear oh dear oh dear - how embarrassment breaking down in the middle of the street!

Managed to limp to the side of the road and call the RAC. Thankfully I was only 10 minutes walk from home and could wait for them there. 3 hours later, they called to let me know they were on their way so I zoomed back on my bike and met the nice young man.

Problem:

Sally Saab needs a complex arrangement of belt thingemy jiggys to work important stuff like the alternator, water pump, power steering and other useful things like power assisted brakes... see diagram below...

Therefore - if they look like this....

.... this is bad.

Snappage

However of course there must be a reason for this snappage of the drivebelt and the man from the RAC he say "Yes (there is)". The air conditioning compressor has seized up! That would explain the lack of air conditioning and also the squealing noise the car was making just before she went kaput!

Solution (?):

A new A/C compressor is worth more than my car - so thats a no no. Hopefully I can get the SAAB specialists garage where I take her to fit a shorter belt and bypass the A/C unit. Should pass its MOT then and hopefully still be eligible for scrappage - or just driving around until the next thing pings off. I'm pretty confident I've had my £600 worth of car so far anyway so would not be sorry if this was the end of the road for Sally Saab.

A phone call to the garage tomorrow will determine her fate! Watch this space.

London (is) Calling

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Yeah yeah I know this site doesn't have as many (well OK no) snazzy videos of cute kids doing adorable thing (you know who you are) but you can catch up with a few documented snippets from the past few (and final) months in Southampton.

Yes for those of you who have not been glued to the bush telegraph, my days in Southampton are numbered as I have a new job in lovely London. Watch this space for more updates.

On location in London for a bit of reconnaissance and you can't start the day without a good old greasy spoon breakfast. Yummo.

OK well there wasn't too much reconnaissance but there was quite a lot of lazing around in the lovely sun in the several parks of East London (and trying out my new cameras macro function).