So far this weekend

has been quite fucked up for me! It's Sunday morning, 06.39 am, and here I am, on the deck, having a smoke, and typing this. Friday night went to bed normal time, around 10.30pm. No problem. I was awake at about 2.30am, and eventually gave up trying to sleep some more at 5.45 am when I got up. Then, Saturday evening I fell asleep at about 6.00pm, and got up again for supper at 9.oopm, got back to be after 12.30 am.... and slept poorly. And here I am.

There is no reason I can think off for this, I'm not stressed out any more than usual (work / finances / kids / .....), so I'm stumped. Maybe it's got to do with getting older. I remember older people always saying they could get by with less sleep. Damn, I'm missing sleeping in on the weekend.

Apart from that, I did quite a bit of work on the bar counter Saturday, and also made another frame (version 3) for the coasters. This one seems to be stronger than the first, but cutting those 45deg. corners exact,a\, and fitting the whole this together isn't easy. And in this form, it's going to cost me a bit more than I wanted to spend. if only I could find a cheap and easy solution.
I'm thinking of asking a buddy if he can make up steel frames, using a light gauge small angle iron, or even a deep channel section. Have to check whats available on the market first, and then go chat to him.

GMan's bike isn't pulling too well, getting more sluggish by the day. I told him I think it was being chocked by the build up of unburnt two stroke oil in the muffler (silencer for the SA readers), and so I took it off yesterday to check it out. I sent him off to take a ride without it, and he says it's much faster. I notice it wont rev beyond about 8000, even though it only redlines at 11000. Think it needs to be tuned by a real mechanic. The Yamaha guys did their best, but this isn't a Yamaha, and maybe they just out of their league. Anyhow, the muffler is a sealed unit, ie. you can't pull out it's insides to clean them. So I blocked off the exit, and poured some petrol into it, shook it around, and pured it out. Black - pitch black stuff comes out. I know it's mostly soot - you don't have to sit there and think , "Well what do you expect from a muffler?"!
After the third wash and rinse, I stood the muffler up on one end, and threw a lit match at it. It burnt for about 20 minutes!! All the petrol that was still inside, and a mountain of unburnt 2 stroke oil slowly seeped out and burnt away.
I left it to cool for an hour (or two), cleaned it up, and found that internally it now no longer looked like an oil rag. I've refitted it to the bike, and GMan can take it for a ride a bit later and give me his verdict. Then I'm going to tune it a bit, see if I can get the balance between petrol and 2 stroke finer, and adjust the timing a bit and see if I can get it to rev smoothly to about 10000.

Also on Saturday, as usual, I drove to fetch Witness, my gardener, from where the taxi normally drops him off. I waited from 7.45 am till 8.00 am, then went home. he knows if he's not there on time, he must walk. Problem is, I know how much he need this work, so when he's not there I always fear the worst. He's an old man, even though he's healthy, and he lives in a squatter camp, where, amongst other dangers, there is also a lot of drinking and killing going on on any weekend.

Anyhow, he turn up at the gate at about 10.30. Asked where he was he says he got to the collection point about 5 - 10 minutes past 8.00. He waited for me, and when I didn't turn up he thought he'd better walk here and see if I'm ill!!! Can you dig it!!!

As it turns out, the Metro cops were doing spot checks on vehicles that morning on the route his taxi takes. They were pulled off, and found to be carrying 36 passengers in a 16 person vehicle.! I'm surprised, but not surprised, if you know what I mean.

Obviously there must have been a prolonged discussion around this untenable situation, and more than likely discussions around the size of the fine versus the size of the applicable fine. I never did ask if they were allowed to continue the trip, all together!

This coming week the boys finish their year end exams, and then they are on summer break for 6 - 7 weeks. it's also the Princess's 40th Thursday, and her 40th party on Friday. My brother and his wife arrive on Thursday, so we'll be going out for dinner that night. Then the party, and Saturday we have then still staying over, so It's going to be hectic. Not that I mind, I love having them visit, it's just he can't sit still for 2 minutes, so I know we're going to be building / moving / making / breaking something.... Oh, well.

Salagatle!