Wadda Weekend!

Friday was a bit boring. I rang various companies and told them I had moved. There was much fun to be had spelling "Ty Gwerin" over the phone. I also told my previous landlord that I wanted to give notice that I was moving out. He didn't seem too impressed. As if I give a fuck that he has to find someone to replace me. There are always people looking for accommodation, so if they price the flat reasonably (which they don't, but that's their stupid problem) then they should have no trouble finding someone to move in.

After work I drove down to Liz's. I was followed by a Police car for a few miles at one point which was horrific. I hate Police cars, they instill a deep sickly fear in me. When I got to Newbury Liz answered the door sporting her stunning new hair-style. I freely admit that words failed me.

On Saturday we went for a walk to Thatcham and back, mainly to feed the Ducks/Ducklings that were to be found in abundance on the canal. We even got to witness 4 ducklings being led to water for, presumably, their first time. Nothing on this planet is more cute than a duckling jumping off a 1 foot high embankment into the water!

When we reached Thatcham we wandered down to the Nature Reserve and wandered around the lake. We went into the building to get an ice-cream and to try and find a particular species of water fowl. Having failed to identify said bird we then proceeded to begin walking back around the lake again, but paused to eat our ice-creams on a bench. Liz pointed out what was either a Rat or a Water Vole on the shore so we sat and watched it for a while. Eventually several others came out too so we threw them a load of bread. They too were ridiculously cute, especially when one was climbing on a bit of tree in the water and fell in.

Later that night we watched The Beach again. I'd not seen it in a while, and Liz fancied watching it again. It was then closely followed by one or two episodes of Futurama to relieve the depression The Beach left behind.

This morning wasn't quite so great. Long uninteresting story so I won't go into it. In the afternoon we walked to B&Q to get a pipe-fix kit for Liz's burst outdoor tap. Much umming and ahhhing over a kit that had bits missing we decided not to bother and instead get one online. Instead we got some swatches to try and decide some colours for Liz's new flat.

Time being short we didn't get to do much after that. I set off around 5pm. At 8:05pm the car overheated in the middle of nowhere (as usual). While I was waiting for it to cool down enough to put some water in, I decided to flick through the Hayne's manual to see what it had to say on the matter of overheating and to study the anatomy of the engine in closer detail. And then it struck me.

The water pump is driven by the timing belt. Therefore it has to be located at the bottom of the timing belt. While the Water Pump didn't seem to feature in the diagrams of the cooling system (god only knows why) I was eventually to locate it and confirm this. And there it was ... right above the Oil Sump. I'm now 95% certain it has to be the Water Pump that is leaking. I know for a fact that it is reasonably new (within the last year or so) and I know for a fact that the Garage it comes from has done some dodgy work on the car before (although my Mum will never admit this). So my thought is that the "O" ring on the water pump has perished and so, at certain temperatures/pressures it leaks.

After I filled the water up again I put the heaters on and opened a window so that as much heat as possible was drawn from the engine. I discovered that directing the air to the windscreen, and having the passenger window open allowed lots of heat to be drawn from the engine without burning the skin from my face, and so the rest of the way home like that. The car seemed to love it, it just wanted to go! The handling also seemed unusually good, but I don't know why that might be. I made it home only 15 minutes late, which is impressive considering I lost 30 minutes when the car overheated, and I was behind schedule because I had had to follow so many eejits that don't know where their accelerators are.

Managed to skid the rear of the car on a corner in Aberystwyth in true bad-boy racer stylee innit man it's whack bo. Wasn't even as if I was going all that fast - I attribute it to the strange mass of paint on the box junction there. It's just a good job there was no police around ;)

And now I am home and shattered and want to go to sleep.

THE END.