12/12/2011

Been a while (again) since I posted anything here. Well, anything worth reading I suppose. But hey, I also got stuff to do you know! Anyway, here's an update on the status of stuff, and if I am repeating anything, tough!
The Matriarch is now comfortable in her new home, settled, and making friends. The house is sold, and registered under the new owners, so that's also sorted. I bought her car from her for the amount offered to her by the second hand dealers, and then, a month later, sold it for a small profit! Every Saturday evening I pick her up, and take her to church. This last weekend I fitted a sliding Xpanda security door (LIU) to her patio door. They all say it's not really necessary, that it's safe, etc, blah, blah, blah, but if you come from an unsafe environment, there is no way you buying into that shit, so I fitted it for her, and now if she wants to she can sleep with the patio door open, or, when she goes out during the day, she dos not have to close up / lock up everything, her home and stuff is safe. Was a bit of a challenge fitting it, especially as I was on my own, but I got it done - good.

LuckyL has had a bit of ad luck with his car - just as I was bragging that he made such a good buy. So, We had 2 new tyres fitted - R 1750 (including wheel alignment), we had the starter serviced (was sticking occasionally, so cheaper to service it now than wait for it to break) and we had the car serviced - 148000km, needed to be done anyway - R 2500, and all this so that he could be safe going down to Ballito for the matric vacs. Oh, and we had a tow bar fitted - R 1950.

get the car back fro the service, and it starts giving error codes on the dashboard. Take it back to the garage. Turns out that the warning light is for a faulty Cam position sensor. OK, call around - Opel - R2200 - 4 days to come from the factory. OPEL A.S.A.P. in Pretoria - R 1300, and he has stock. It's Saturday morning, but we scream through to get it. Monday morning deliver to the mechanic. He fits it - still shows an error. Tuesday and Wednesday we do a million tests, changes, repairs, no help. Thursday morning we fit a new cam-belt and tension pulley. Same shit. By now I know we got shit, and as he was supposed to leave Thursday morning, we let him leave, at 1.15 in the afternoon, with the Princesses car, and trailer in tow!
Friday, and the mechanic says take off the battery terminals, and unplug the computer, leave over noight, and reconnect. Could be that the computer is now confused with all the errors and changes, and maybe needs to be reset.
Funny thing I identify though - if the car has been standing for a few hours (ie it;s cold) it starts and there is no warning light. Then you drive it for a while, stop to pick up something, and then start the car again after say 5 / 10 minutes, the fucking lights come on!!!! Anyway, I do the battery / computer thing, and Saturday afternoon, affter fitting the door for the Matricah, I reconect all the bits, start the car, and it's OK! Great, drive to the petrol station, 2 km away, stop. Fill up. Start, no problem. Great! Drive to the bottle store, push the car a bit, 8 km away. Stop. Go inside, buy some stuff, come out (6 minutes maybe?) and start the car - fucking light is back. Go home. Leave the car for 45 miutes - now it's cold again, start the car, no light.

OK - so I have discovered that the light only comes on if you are starting the car when it's hot. Should make it easier for the mechanic to fault find, with assistance from the Technical Manager from OPEL assisting. Here's hoping - I dropped off the car this am, and need it back by Thursday, as Friday is a public holiday here, and we want to leave for our vacation on Sunday!!!!

OK, so the Princess is using my car, and I'm commuting on the bike.......Fucking cars with fucking stupid ECU's! Gimme a pre 80's muscle car any day!!!!

So, for most of this year I was telling management that if they don't allow me to take leave during school vacations, which happen to coincide with company quarter ends, I will take my leave in December. Not sure if they thought I was joking, but 6 weeks ago I put in for leave from 19th Dec to 3rd January, and I still have another 8 days due to me before end January!!! When I informed management that I had put in the application, I also informed them that if they did not approve it, I would go on leave anyway, and we could sort it out with the CCMA (LIU) afterward!!! Needless to say, it has not been officially approved online, but neither has it been declined, so I go on leave, as of Thursday this week!!! Princess managed to arrange free accommodation with her boss in his apartment on the coast, so I'm looking forward to some serious "do nothing" chilling for a few weeks.

On the transport front, apart from LuckyL's car, my old Toyota is also gettin gto the end of it's life, but I need to nurse it along for a while longer - no finances for replacing that now. I've put all the motorbikes up for sale though, LuckyL's Aprilia RS 125 - he does not ride it anymore anyway, my Yamaha XJR 1200, or his XJR 1200, we need to keep one of them in the family for occasional rides, and. like now, when we short of one car.

I've also started to clean out 'stuff" in the garage. I've given away  boxes of tools I don't need (old stuff, miming tools, inherited from a friends late dad) really big stuff that can only be used really in industry, or on farms. A box full of lathe cutting tools. A couple of old Micrometers (still in inches), and so on. When I get back from vacation, going to do more cleaning out - will do a coule of trips to the antique shop to sell of some old stuff, as well as the local Cash Crusaders / pawn shop, to get rid of other unwanted stuff just stored in the garage - bicycles, bird cage, fish tank, hi-fi stand, double bunk bed, double bed with mattrass... fuck there is a whole houshold of stuff in the basement and garage. Going to clean out, and pocket the cash.
Then I'm getting into the stuff upstairs - the study / library has become a storeroom for stuff. No, I have no idea what it is, but it's going - Dump / pawn / trash / donate - whatever. There is also stuff in the safe that I know I am never going to use / wear / look at / bother with. Need to find a new home for that, as well as some of the stuff in the bar - loads of shit to get rid of. Suppose I'm heading towards a minimalistic lifestyle, makes more sense - hell we work all our lives to buy "stuff" which, one day we realize we really don't need / want / adds no value to our lives. Fuck it - time to clean up!
OK, that was a long paragraph!

Back in a bit - need a smoke.

OK, so on the home front - I fired the gardener, and got a new one. You would think these morons would appreciate a steady, regular job. No way, they start to skip a day here, come late the next ... so I sent him in his moer, and told he he can starve next to the road along with the rest of his brothers. Then I had a chat to my neighbor who has a gardener in twice a week, and got this guy to come in on Saturdays. Didn't turn up this week, but probably due to the fact it had been raining most of Thursday and Friday, and looked like rain on Saturday morning. Hope he comes in next week, or else there will be a jungle of lawn by the time we get back from our vacation.

GMan - well, he joined us for dinner on Saturday, and seems like he might join us for Xmas down at the coast. His girlfriend is in the UK, visiting with her mom and brother and step dad. Other than that, no other news on him.

Enough for now - will post more, if I feel like it, whilst sitting on the deck in Ballito, watching the sea......
Later all

Salagatle!