HAPPY DAY.

 I have suffered two horrible, cold, rainy, foggy days and it never had the good grace to melt the snow. This morning I surfaced to a sprinkling of fresh snow and a starry sky. I fired the car up to de-frost and went back in for a coffee and a slice of toast. Just before eight I set off to do some horseing. The glen road was snowy but with plenty of grip, perfect. The Newburgh road hadn't been gritted and when I got to the A91 that was even worse with icy patches and snow. I called at the Co-Op on my way home and found out why. Apparently the bread lorry or paper van and a Gritter had collided, not a happy day for those two. Details are sparse but gossip is rife. The A91 is still shut to the east of Muchty.

                      This is a Gritter. A Gritter Thunberg.

Here are a couple of snaps from this morning.

An icy bit of the A91.

West Lomond in the mist.

A snowy bit of the same road. There was plenty of grip on the snow but I had to watch for the icy patches. I enjoy driving on roads like this and was thinking that the Highways could just plough when the snow got deep and save money and Gritters by not gritting in the above conditions at all. Rutted ice slows traffic and allows for the use of studded tyres, if they aren't going to work overnight then this seems a sensible solution should we be in for a couple of months of global cooling.

It looks as if we will have another cold night tonight and the forecast is for more of the same. As long as it stays dry I'll be happy. It should be okay as the wind is in the east.

The following video is from Car Share. I was reminded of it a few days ago and thought it worth sharing for those that missed it or had forgotten it. 

Sian Gibson and Peter Kay work brilliantly together. The bloody BBC sold this series to YouTube so you will have to buy it now. As they are financed by us I would have thought it wasn't theirs to sell but what do I know? I suspect they didn't find it diverse enough. I'm baffled as to why, perhaps they don't know what dogging is but I find that hard to believe. No worries, at least they didn't wipe it.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

SORRY.

 It's pissing down this morning but the snow doesn't seem to be disappearing. I'm just in and was wringing wet. A dry pair of tracky bottoms, a fleece and I'm good as new. The sparkey sorted the naughty machine that was skipping code commands. He's a genius, he opened up the control panel, gave it a good blast with an airline, a suck with his vacuum cleaner and all is now perfect. I'll know what to do if it happens again. I'll charge a small fortune for ten minutes work, a bite out of a Co-Op pie and a bit of gossip.

I have an apology to make. You may have got the impression that I believed the Covid thingy a load of cobblers. This morning I was in the Co-Op shortly after seven for a pie. The lass that does the papers told me that the father of her friends neighbour had seen an industrial unit half full of dead people. The undertaker was in tears whilst on the phone to the Ferrari dealer so upset was he that they only had red ones. I'm so sorry that I've been denying the truth.

  Have fun in these trying times and disregard anyone you hear suggesting that the cure is worse than the disease. They are obviously idiots.

MIDWEEK RAMBLE.

 

The state of us. This is an article by Godfrey Bloom who is far cleverer and more articulate than I.

Modern society never it seems these days platforms morality debates. BBC’s Moral Maze went woke decades ago which negates the whole point of a philosophical discussion. I list here a number of moral questions on which the those interested can ponder. They are in no order of priority  & I leave aside any religious morals which come off the shelf & reflect faith or theology which is a separate subject no less worthy of discussion but another day.

Public service broadcasting

The BBC is but one of scores of alternative TV channels, many free, some by subscription. There are many devoted to specialist subjects, from history, art & geography to fashion & cooking. When the BBC began in the 1920s it was the only radio channel available, then later the only TV channel for many decades. Its reputation for truth & impartiality were exemplary, particularly through the war years. The institution has lived on that reputation until the last few decades. The public, who pick up the bill for the BBC has now lost complete faith in the content & balance of its programmes & political editorship. So here is the moral question. Should the BBC have government enforcement of an annual subscription by threat of incarceration? Should a public service broadcaster pay many salaries of over one million pounds per annum, scores of over £200k? Is the BBC an anachronism? Should those who want it not pay for it?

Banks

The system of fractional reserve banking, quantative easing & central banking effectively means political support for the whole banking system. Central bankers are selected by the chancellors of the day . They are political appointments. Yet when retail banks fail as they did in 2007/8  they are underwritten by the central  bank, sometimes referred to as the lender of last resort. They are no such thing of course, the ultimate guarantor is the tax payer. So when the banks go under, billions of pounds go missing, bankers pocket their monster salaries, no one goes to prison & old age pensioners, those on the minimum wage & ordinary families pick up the tab. In 2007/8 Britain even underwrote the Irish banks!  Surely this is a moral not financial issue. Especially as the system has not been changed & the next break down is not far away. It wasn’t  a one off rescue.

State Education

State education is a post code lottery. There are some very good state schools but the overwhelming  majority are either average or really hopeless. The fact that thousands of parents who are by no means wealthy are prepared to go through unimaginable financial hardship to send their children to private schools. Not to get a net working advantage as one might get at Eton College but simply to get a sound rounded education with access to sport, music or drama that used to be readily available at the Grammar Schools of yesteryear, the alma mater of some of the greatest contributors to British society for hundreds of years. As state school teachers at the time of writing, although at almost zero risk to Coronavirus themselves are at home on full pay. The education system has ground to a halt. Yet there are no rate rebates for parents. There is no choice of school in the state apparatus, your child simply goes to the nearest. There is no tax help for parents who have to pay twice, once for a place in a private school & once for a vacant place with the state. Surely another moral issue?

The NHS, The British Sacred Cow

Not withstanding the dedication of most frontline staff & the great almost religious devotion to the NHS we seem incapable of seeing any flaws in a system designed in 1947. Ponder this, do you drive a 1947 car? Use a 1947 TV? Telephone? Cooker? Refrigerator? Of course you don’t.

Do you expect a service or goods delivered free at the point of delivery in any other sphere than health? Beer? Butter? Cornflakes? Petrol? Chiropody? Veterinary science? Golf? Of course you don’t. Imagine your local pub paid for out of taxation. The beer is ‘free’ at the point of drinking. What would be outcome? What would the beer be like? What would the service be like? Imagine the pub being Hobson’s choice, determined by Postal  District , like schools, take it or leave it. Do you imagine if there was only one supermarket with no competition what it would be like? What sort of car you could get if there were only one make ? Clap all you like it has been the private sector that has stepped up to the plate in the last ten months.

The NHS employs 1.2 million staff, consumes £2,200 per annum, per head of population & yet we have to ‘protect’ it! By the by fewer than half those employed have any medical qualification at all. I know reception, administrators, cleaners & technicians are required but 600,000? All this is a moral question.

Coronavirus

I do not intend to crunch numbers here or argue the toss on vaccines or mortality, although my website has an in depth article & debate recording available on the Open Dialogus website or mine (godfreybloom.uk) but the genuine moral dichotomy is martial law acceptable in a free society under any circumstances? Total deaths in the UK for 2020  are in line with the last twenty year average. Covid is not Ebola. But this has to be a moral issue when government  tells us with whom we can spend Christmas.

Illegal Immigration

Thousands of illegal immigrants come ashore ever year, many risking their lives to do so. Mainly young men. No serious attempt is made to either stop them or return them, so they continue  to arrive, with all the expense & problems it entails. This failure is often mistaken for compassion, but is it? Would a tough approach now stop real & increasing risk of disaster in future? Probably the very near future? Another moral issue at present not even discussed,

Green Stuff

Greeny stuff has enjoyed the moral high ground for years, Saint David of Attenborough, HRH Prince of Wales, Greta Humbug,  the BBC,  highly paid charity CEOs. Everyone is on the band wagon. Net zero is another financial  disaster coming down the track. No public debate, no MSM dissent allowed on the Apocalyptic Global Warming hypothesis,  long past its sell by date but the cost of net zero in expensive energy will hit the poorest hardest, another moral issue.

Post Ministerial Office

The last three chancellors have taken appointments with investment banks. George Osborne has a BlackRock  appointment paying £500k p.a. for one day per week commitment. What favours in office were given for this astonishing salary? A massive moral issue ignored by MSM.

Charities

Last but by no means least the great corporate charity scam. When you put that coin in the tin on the High St or sign a banker’s order with a chugger, more fool you, do you realise the CEO of that charity is almost certainly on £150k+ pa. They will claim that top people are needed but they are not top people, Google their CVs, almost none have serious senior commercial experience. They are usually pseudo political appointees.  Moreover top people could be found at quite modest salaries from the ranks of successful entrepreneurs happy to bring their expertise & connections to a charity in exchange for a CBE or knighthood. Some charities are State sponsored  lobby groups. Sadly military charities are no longer the exception. They are awash with cash, millions in fact owing to the unstinting generosity of the British people. Too many now on high salaries to top up already generous pensions. Small local charities struggle with volunteer workers only. Seek them out. Golden rule, never give money to a charity where the  CEO earns more than you. It’s another moral issue.

 

© Godfrey Bloom 2021 – http://godfreybloom.uk/blogs/

I'M SPECIAL.

 It's a beautiful day but cold. First thing this morning it was -8°C. I started the car as it is a horse day, went back into the warm and had a coffee whilst it was defrosting. Twenty minutes later I rounded up and loaded the dogs, hopped in the car and for some inexplicable reason decided to turn round in the field as opposed to reversing down to the yard. I missed the hard ice under the snow and fell in a bit of a hole. I'm an idiot. Dug out the tow rope and the screw in towing eye got it all set up and went to fetch the tele-loader to drag it out. The barn doors were frozen shut but after a few minutes persuasion with a crow bar they slid open enough. The bloody loader wouldn't start and I hadn't keys for either the tractors or the Hilux. Fortunately they were up and awake in the house and came and dragged me out. I was frozen and felt a right Muppet.

It's not much of a hole but there was no way the Renault was going to extricate itself unaided.

Yesterday I was playing in Blender and found a quite pleasing effect.

Now I am well aware that my voice sounds a bit strange so I always do my best to clean the audio up in Audacity. I have a workflow that is quick and easy. I leave a few seconds at the end and sample it for noise reduction, then I use the Compressor with the threshold set to about -15db. It's then on to the equalizer to boost bass and reduce treble a bit. The equaliser has gone in the new version. I was really perturbed and had to go online to find out where it had gone. It's been replaced by something called Filter Curve. I filter curved but think I may have overdone things. The final step is to normalise and check the volume is something like. Job done but I wish I hadn't updated Audacity.

As I said it is a wonderful day and tomorrow looks to be set fair as well.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and have fun.

BEST STAY IN.

 More snow last night, again the snow was wet so despite it blowing half a gale the snow isn't drifting. I could get out but I doubt I could get back. I'll stay in and do some Blendering and read a book.

The car could do with a wash but it's forecast to freeze so were I to wash it the chances of opening it are zilch.

We still only have a few inches of snow but the glen road is steep.

Molly enjoys the snow, rolling in it and dashing about like a lunatic.

President Trump has been deposed and President Biden installed. I enjoyed the Donald but I guess it was all too much for the Globalists. Time to get an imbecilic, paedophile puppet back in the top job. Not to worry it was fun while it lasted.

SCORCHIO.

 Friday afternoon I was promised nice warm weather. Friday lunch the Highways decided to salt the glen road. I was just wandering back with the dogs and noticed he was just going through the motions, nothing wrong with his driving but he wasn't flinging salt out. I flagged him down and told him. I said we have all done this whilst seed drilling and fertiliser spreading, it makes you look an idiot but one lives and learns.

 I learnt never to question the council. 

He said I was given a route and told them it was too long for the salt. I asked why he continued when he knew the truck body was empty. He explained; it's much easier to do as you are told than argue. That's the council for you. They employ happy folk but unfortunately they would never get a job anywhere else as a machine driver. I do wonder how some can pass the driving test, happen they don't have to if working for the council.

Saturday the heat wave still hadn't arrived. This despite us running a couple of machines that would send the Wee Greta a greetin. 

The old Lister genset is a devil, belches black smoke for a good ten minutes before one dares to lean the pump off. If it's only half warm the beauty is impossible to start till it's cold again. Starting is very hard work both mentally and physically. One has to decompress the cylinders turn a little tap on the injector pump, check fuel is flowing, I do five minutes meditation then crank like a banshee till you think you have enough time to nip round to the back and flip the exhaust valve lifters without her stopping. She always goes when one gets to know her but I'm getting to the age where I'm not as fit as I was and dread misjudging it. To be honest I'm buggered after ten or twenty cranks. I am thinking of rebuilding the decompressor linkage or getting a twenty something year old totty to pop by and get fit by winding the crank. It's really hard work but is free unlike gym membership.

 I suspect the decompressor set up broke in about 1935 and as there has always been someone young about, to race about I guess it was not worth worrying about. 

I did give the Lister a new set of of reconditioned injectors three years ago. I like to think she appreciated the gesture. I hope so as I spent thirty pounds on some posh 3M lapping paper, stuck it to a bit of float glass and rubbed and rubbed till the wee Lucas spray disks looked liked tiny mirrors.

Saturday night was forecast to be scorchio. It was a degree or two warmer but not so I noticed.

Old snow and a eucalyptus branch lying dead. Two dogs looking very clean and a road cone left over from when we had to social distance caravans or were allowed campers. It was before my time but there used to be five eucalyptus trees here I assume to get rid of midges. Buggers are eucalyptus they drop branches at the drop of a hat. Campers drive into them. Pain in the bum they are. Best outed. 

I told you, the Met Office told me Scorchio it is no more than a light frost on the car this morning. Not quite scorchio but easi  open doorsio.

 I guess the covid is to blame. Too convenient is covid I suspect it is lovely for the new age never do nothings to have a non deadly, invisible virus to encourage idle idiots to isolate. FIAT money and equality is at the bottom of this idiocy. You the hoi polli are entering your last days if you don't ignore the MSM, Politicians and government. All are as always totally incompetent opportunists making the most of their time on earth. Accept death and let your kids have a future. Life without risk is not any sort of life. Live life. Have fun.

IT'S WINTER.

 We have more snow forecast for tonight, the stuff in the town has mostly disappeared, just a few slip slidey patches but up here we are left with a mixture of nice flat snow and nasty rutted ice. I rescued my car this morning as I had to be away horseing. Blathered in ice it was. The car takes ages to defrost as the heater fan only works on number one. I think the thinghy at fault is a little thyristor, costs a few pounds but it means dismantling the car interior to change it. Whatever it is it will cost a few pence to produce and causes serious grief when it fails. My passenger window goes up and down fine but it does it at random intervals, I suspect there is an icicle inside the door. The car also has a very swish looking air dam as part of the front bumper, it is a go faster type thing to smooth the airflow under the car, load of bollocks on a Renault Scenic. It is obviously not intended as a snow plough and seems to be suffering a bit with the snow and worse the ice. Hopefully it will grind away to suit the conditions without getting ripped off. I don't like modern cars and will look for a cheap van or pickup next. 

I am still playing with the swirly transformation but am missing something basic. It will half work it's just something I'm doing that confuses the computer. 

I decided to try and recreate the Marvel Comic look. I was never a fan of the stories or the comic but liked the way they are drawn with lots of dots a bit like early pixels or crude inkjet printing. This node tree will, with an hour or two spent refining produce animated comic videos. 

The image below is a very quick, crude snowman. It could be anything with a single material applied as the computer is only reacting to light.

SNOWMAN.

This is recognisable. It also a bit daft as who in their right mind would question how a comic book illustration was created. They were created by jobbing craftsmen using tiny dots and must have required great skill and application. Streets ahead of Jackson Pollock and folk of his ilk whose only skills are self publicity and vanity. 

 I know this is monotone but it's a start. Already I can change the dot size and swap white dots on black for black dots on white. I can change the size of the dots, alter the light intensity and more importantly animate the snowman or anything I fancy popping in front of a camera.

Here he is rotated a bit with bigger dots. I could give him eyes, nose and mouth. Could pop buttons down his front. Any mesh can be used including text but excluding a sun lamp for light. Multiple point lights animated could look good as could coloured light but I suspect they would just look dimmer. The scene has to be limited to the camera or window view, things can move within in it, also if one zooms out you get a Moiré pattern as the dots react with the pixels. I can live with that as it is dependant on ones monitor resolution and possibly not on print resolution. I'll give messing with it a whirl should anyone be bothered. This has possibilities as a bit of a title sequence or just as a fun way of making a computer think and learning how they think.  What I have to accept is that node based programming is the dumb clucks answer. I am a dumb cluck, it's taken me years to get where a half bright fifteen year old would consider me easy meat. 

Have a great weekend.

WONDERLAND.

 It snowed for the best part of the night, there was no wind so it hasn't made things impossible. I managed to get into town and 99% of the way back but the last bit of concrete defeated me. It's starting to rain now so I'll see how it goes before getting a machine out to drag the car the last couple of hundred yards.

I like fresh snow, it cheers everything up.

This is the glen road just before it turns into it's impersonation of the Cresta Run. There are a few children at the head of the glen but as the schools are shut the council don't bother ploughing or salting.

There are salt bins but they are all empty and have been for over a year. It will be fine if it doesn't freeze or blow a gale and snow. 

I find it quite exciting and have a good ten days of food and tobacco so all is well.

VERY COMPLICATED.

 I am playing in Blender again and trying to produce a few video cards for folks birthdays. I did recall seeing a movie title that started as an object and swept across the screen in bits and turned into text. It's not at all easy in fact so far it has proved illusive to say the least.

This is a torus on it's way to some writing, just what I'm looking for but unfortunately when it arrives it looks a right mess when I do it. I have a day or two so will carry on playing.

This morning I set off for Cupar. I got flagged down by the haircutter on my way through Muchty. She wanted to know where I was going. Nosey cow but as she's a fit nosey cow. I told her I was just off to see some proper, nice, posh totty. She said and I saw pigs flying earlier. I owned up and told her I was going to Aldi. I had my dogs in the back of the car so we banged her two in with them and I threatened mine with a red hot rusty barbed wire flogging if I heard so much as a squeak from them. She phoned her husband to say he could drop the kids off at her mums and get some work done as she was away on an assignation in Aldi. 

I struck lucky in Aldi. A pound of rump beef with fat, aged twenty odd days and all for £4.35p. I ought to have diced it for a stew but couldn't resist salting it for a quick pan fry. Probably be poorly but what the hell my little brother lived on steaks and he was fine until he died at the ripe old age of fifty six. Good job it was ten years ago and not today. The buggers would have had him down as a Covid death. 

Not too shabby and the salt doesn't seem to be drawing too much wet out so a good buy. I like rosemary with steak but haven't got any. Not to worry it will be fine. Usually with rump I pull the meat from the gristle but I'll wait till its cooked and leave the chewy bits for the dogs. I suspect my eyes are bigger than my tummy, hard to believe when I try and find my willy under the latter.

We got pulled by the Bizzies on the way back. I was doing nearish the limit and he said he just wanted to check my details. I said what details? The car is MOT'd  and insured you know that. He wanted my driving licence so I passed that over, silly of me as my licence has a solicitors address. Should just have offered to produce it at a bizzie station within seven days had I committed a road traffic offence. I saw this coming years ago and went off grid.

 Who is this in the car? The dogs had joined forces after an hour of grumbling and obviously didn't want a bizzie stuffed in with them. It was already getting noisy, crowded, not a bit nice.

Smarmy bastard made the mistake of telling the haircutter it would go no further if she said I wasn't family. Dead right it won't she said. One more word from you and I'm out of this car and next thing you know you'll be down, dead and recorded as road kill Covid. I felt sorry for the poor sod as he went back to his Beema muttering bloody women. I'm in love with her but how her husband copes I'll never know. I guess his racing fast bikes gives some sort of perspective. 

Have fun.

BIRTHDAYS.

 The weather here is back to normal, damp, cold and with the odd drop of rain for variety.

This is birthday season for me with half a dozen folk to do a greeting for between now and April. This is the first short video.

 

The mouse is a fully rigged model which is free from MIXAMO. They have loads of characters doing lots of things, most are aimed at the game building folk but they do have some that aren't doing violent things. Thank you ADOBE, they are much appreciated by me if not by the recipients.

I was over at the horses this morning and a lass showed me a Cream Egg advert on her phone. It was awful. She said are you homophobic? I wasn't but had to admit that I easily could be after seeing that. Good job I don't like Cream Eggs as I'd have been put off for life. Dirty bastards and during a pandemic too. She said she almost vomited and used to be partial to a Cream Egg. I thought it a spoof video in bad taste but I'm assured it's the real thing and shown on TV. 

We could be in serious trouble with the liberals. Not content with getting their peccadillos legalised, supplying HIV infested blood to the NHS, shutting cities and towns for gay marches they now have to publicise their perversion in the confectionary industry. Next it will be the paedophiliacs. No child will be safe and that includes your children and grandchildren. It was bad enough when I was a kid protecting my brothers and sisters from teachers and the clergy. It must be far worse now for a parent when it's either ignored or encouraged by the state.

Yesterday I had a visit from a veggie lassie, I was just frying up a load of vegetables and rice in the wok as I had lots of veg from Lidl and Lidl despite being an excellent store is not noted for long lasting veg, hence the wok full. I offered to feed her then she noticed a slice of rump steak, salting under salt, garlic and rosemary. She said I'll stick with a wee dram for the new year. Offered to pop the dead cow in the fridge and she decided that a bowl full of veg would go down fine and fortify her for the walk home. Only after she finished did she ask if I'd used the same knife for trimming the meat as I had for preparing the wok stuff. I only have two knives and one is for cooking, the other does everything from trimming sheep feet to opening grease cartridges. I suspect I'm not going to score anytime soon.

Enjoy the coming week and keep a wary eye out for the Bizzies. They seem to be out to get us.

SMILE.

 It's a cool start -8°C and still black as a witches hat out.

This made me smile.

Have a good weekend.

NEW SHOES.

 New shoes for Bramble. 

He needs them as despite temperatures climbing to the dizzy height of 0°C and some light rain this morning everything is still frozen solid.

He is being a good boy but did object when the postie van came zooming up behind him, ten yards behind him, nothing like close. Horses can be funny creatures, they happily ignore things you expect to spook them like balers and lorries with HIABs then leap a foot off the ground at the sight of a vicious coke tin or an evil crisp packet. The postie van obviously posed a very real threat despite the silly boy seeing it everyday and the dogs dashing towards it in the hope of a biscuit.

I have downloaded an up-to-date version of Audacity so installing the FFMPEG stuff will keep me amused tomorrow. It looks as if temperatures are set to fall again and the roads weren't brilliant this morning, I may be in lockdown on Friday.

It looks as if Pervy Joe will be the next POTUS. Politics never ceases to amaze me. The cretins people will vote for. Sadder news is that a lass was shot dead last night in Washington the good news is that she was white so I doubt folk will be kneeling for her. Don't forget to bang your pots and pans tonight just in case the vaccine doesn't work or worse, does work but in unanticipated ways.

Seriously good news is that Lidl have started selling Malted bloomer loaves. I used to have to do half my shopping in Lidl, then go to Aldi for meat and bread. I can live with Lidl meat so that is one stop less. Aldi malted Bloomers are great, I haven't broached the Lidl version but it looks and smells identical. I forgot to get any Lidl thick cut marmalade it's more than acceptable and cheap at £0.45p a jar. I didn't forget marmalade but I forgot to get myself one and passed them on to folk on the message list. I know, I know I said sod folk that were too frightened to go shopping but I weakened. They think the new strain is worse than the old one. Told them it is. Far worse as the still twitching cadavers were piling up outside Lidl faster than the council could shift them. Had to be seen to be believed it did and when I was returning from the JCB bits place in Dundee the Batflu test centre had queues half a mile long. What the BBC and Sky can do I can do better. I can lie with the best of them. I have never seen anything but folk in Hi Viz and once a car at the Covid place. I suspect the car belonged to one of the staff returning with doughnuts and coffee.

Have fun. 

 

HERE WE GO AGAIN.

 The weather here is a little strange. Last Saturday it was minus silly degrees centigrade, Sunday morning much the same. Then it warmed up and snowed a bit, it then rained a bit and I went to bed. It must have hammered down in the night as the ground was covered in about an inch of hard ice. Monday morning was much the same but the ice was harder. The new wellies failed to cope and I couldn't find my spiky feet. I could find my crampons but folk take the piss if I put those on. Nasty racist bigots they are hereabouts. Ignorant anti-cramponists. 

Monday was quite a good day, I was given two hen pheasants, some folk are very nice. I drew them and skinned them, cut the breasts out and the dogs got half each of what was left less the heads and feet, I chucked them and the guts over the fence for the crows. A posh New Years tea for the dogs and the crows. I have made a stew of the breasts, washed gizzards, hearts and livers. Will keep me going for several days. 

I woke this morning to the news that we are locked down again. I am not starting the shopping run this time. If the idiots still want to protect the NHS then they can get the NHS to do the bloody messages. Deaths seem little different to normal, the NHS are at breaking point but I can't remember a winter when they weren't so sod them. The test is the disease. Where do they get all the test results from over Christmas? I doubt they do. The buggers are making them up. There is another agenda here and always was.

 Were a lockdown imperative to save us then I would stop all flights. All cross border incursions and any invaders landing would be banged up tight in camps. It would be a war footing. It isn't so until it is I will carry on pleasing myself.

Despite all this I am happy, I found my spikey feet and got water without breaking my neck.

I never really used these as the self tapping screws supplied just bent but I swapped them for good screws and they work a treat. No skiddy or slip/slidey over for me.

It's like this all round the farm and the glen road is little better. I am not an expert but when a tractor left hand wheel starts turning in a different direction to the right hand wheel it's time for the differential locks and whatever you do don't forget to also pop the brake peddle lock on. Machines are heavy and can easily get out of control on sheet ice. I know. Squeaky bum time it is. 

Have fun. It must be pot banging time again as it worked so well last time.

THERE IS A GOD.

 There is a God and I must be a good little Christian. I woke this morning to another sprinkling of snow. Went to start the car to defrost it and it started. The other day it got me as far as the animal feed place and after being told they hadn't any carrots, they did have dog food. I went back to the car poked the key rectangle thingy into it's slot and nothing. No dash lights and no Brmm Brmm. Took it out put it in again and was awarded with a twinkling light display worthy of Christmas. I got some pushing assistance and it bump started. I thought that a bit odd and decided to take the battery out of the key and give it a waft over my cigarette lighter. Popped it back in and all was well. Blasted thing was flat so I bought a couple more CR2025s and the car is perfect again.

Today I set off to the machinery dealers, no grit on the roads and a sprinkle of snow over ice. Good thing we are all shut down otherwise I'd have been following some Muppet car doing ten miles an hour for miles, braking every for every change of direction and thumping the verge when the car reacted to heavy footedness in a totally predictable fashion. I enjoy driving on empty salt unadulterated roads it makes for a fast, rewarding journey and saves leaving a massive gap to the car in front. 

I got the new throttle body and everything to go with it as well. Suzuki are a bit naughty with this but according to the dealer they are pre-calibrated and should be plumb in, plug in and play. I was expecting to have to rebuild all the old bits like the injector and sensors into the new body, once again the Lord looks after the righteous. Nothing Adrian likes more than less work. 

It came all the way from Italy and must have cleared customs before we became free. I can recall having a Ducati 350cc in 1969 and we got not only the bike but bits for it from Italy, it didn't seem to be a hassle. Took time but then sailing via Gibraltar must have been worrisome with all those big guns in the cliffs to starboard. 

This is what I got. Beautiful I think and I hope you will agree. The black plastic bit is the top of a brand new injector and the silver pipe is where the petrol goes in. Notice all the little blue sharpie marks. It looks as if it's been calibrated or at the least seen a human hand.

The bit with the upside down writing on is the throttle position sensor. I was worried about adjusting it. The shiny brass thing at the bottom is the engine idle adjustment. Not sure what the cheapo black thing is but I suspect feed to a vacuum sensor. The other bit I haven't sussed yet is the posh oblong thing, the only bit I can't identify, it's well secured and paint tagged. Pound to a penny it's the choke or cold start. Injectors don't have chokes but use fast idle to up the fuel/air mixture and maybe also retard the ignition a bit. I'll look into the matter.

This is the butterfly, the old one is a bit gummed up and it's spindle is worn. The Quad is dangerous like this as one has to physically shut the throttle to slow down. It doesn't worry aged folk but younger employees seem to have problem with the concept of on and off. Four hundred and odd pounds for something so simple. It's a silly world we live in. Could I be arsed I'd set up and do a recon kit for half the money. Trouble is you need twenty or a hundred units to set up to do the job and see a profit. Plus I'd have to buy a good Mill and lathe. The fixture alone to hold the old body so that old bearings can be milled out would take me a day and a days thinking.

This is what worries me a little. Sharpie marks pointing out where the throttle cable goes and which hole mounts the thing but not any on the throttle stop. Pound to a penny they are just popped on at random by some deceitful Japanese Suzuki employee. The major irritation is the way the throttle cam is fixed to the spindle. It's rivetted on for Christ's sake. All built in redundancy. I'll get Greta on the job......."How Dare They."

I'll fit it on Wednesday, maybe take a bit of video of a quad being good.

I never watch the BBC. My dad died forty years ago and told me they were all perverts. I think their New Year footage confirms it. Andrew Lawrence sums things up.

Stay sensible, get injected but not by a diesel or even a petrol one. They really are naughty things. Not as bad as the Pharma companies they will do anything but a cure. No profit in marketing anything sensible as they use the hope of immortality to prey on the witless. It's as daft as Daz and their Whiter than White. Get Jabbed with this shit, not me. Your jabber gets £12.50p for doing what he's paid to do. NHS my arse. Last time I went for Yellow Fever and all other things like Hep something the bugger charged me a fortune. NHS is rubbish. 

 

Have a good week.