At the weekend I bought a pair of tomato clownfish, as the tank was looking a little bereft of activity following its descent into brown algae hell, and subsequent return to normality. Of course Mitchell has begun harassing the clownfish in an aggressive and profoundly annoying manner. How I hate that fish. How I wish he would die in a freak yachting accident.
Rain at the weekend somewhat curtailed my plans to make progress on the MGB GT, although I did manage to give the bonnet a further coat of paint (using a roller, not spray … a much more easy method and the results are good), replace the rear wheel arch toppers, and refit the bonnet locating spring receptacle. (If you’d like me to adjust your receptacle, please let me know: I’m quite professional and gentle.)
The 911 was treated to a pair of 1/4″ spacers on the rear wheels. I wasn’t really expecting these to make a visual difference, but they do: the wheels appear to fill the arches out a bit more. Moreover, the car feels even more stable than it did before. Perhaps I am deluding myself.
This week is the first in a while where I have no significant commitments. We have no house guests, and there are no reviews, presentations, proposals or urgent reports to finish. Well, apart from one, which is due later today.
May I please be permanently on holiday, but retain my salary? May I have funding to rent a villa in Italy for a month, and laze about in the Mediterranean sun, eating homemade crespelle, sipping Chianti and dipping my bread in first pressed local virgin olive oil? Many thanks.
Underneath the driver’s seat I found a bright red lipstick, several long hairgrips, and a well-used flat pot pipe:
“You have a woman’s car!”
It is easy to imagine the beehive hair, the polka dot dress, the red lipstick, as she zooms down Pacific Coast Highway in her mustard-coloured MGB GT, taking the occasional long drag from the smouldering weed in her little pipe. And the sound of the siren of the hunky CHP officer’s motorbike, as he pulls her over, she stuffing the pipe under the seat, loosening a few pins in her hair so she could shake it about a bit, provocatively,and wafting the weed-laden air with a manicured hand. Of course she’d flutter her long false eyelashes at him, too, and he’d let her off because he’d recognize Jim Morrison in the passenger seat, and wouldn’t want any trouble.
This weekend I used POR15 on my rust. I got very dirty hands fiddling around under the bonnet, and behind the dash. I removed the radio, and found a whole load of dried up leaves behind there. How odd. How the hell did they get there? The electrics are a little bit odd. Why does the light behind the hot air blower switch come on when the battery is connected? There was so much crap in the radio it didn’t work at all. But I put it on the bench supply, blew it out, and squirted some contact fluid around and it then worked fine. It’s a really old fashioned radio, with chrome knobs and those buttons you pull out and push in to memorise each station. I am slowly removing instruments from the dash so that I can get my hand up to fiddle with the choke cable clamp. Somebody has yanked so hard on the choke that it’s pulled right out, and is dangling down like a flaccid whatnot.
I need to buy some Swarfega, or whatever it is called here.
Yesterday I was “working from home”. Actually I was taking a “Personal Day”. Using up some of my “Accredited Vacation”.
Basically I was fucking about with the MGB.
I removed the pedal box, and the brake and clutch master cyliners. I removed the passenger seat to afford better access to the handbrake adjustment mechanism.
There has been a dog in the car at some point in its history. Also a woman who liked bright red lipstick. There was a little blue plastic card under the seat, with some writing on it. It said “I am a little blue card with some writing on me, and a hole in my top. Thanks for reading me.”
At lunchtime bovril and sarahparah came from work to help me push it into the back garden, which went without a hitch (get it?).
Tomorrow I am travelling to Baltimore, which irritates me because I would far rather stay at home and tinker with the choke cable and twin SU carbs.
