Petroleum Spirit
The big news of the day is that the Suzuki Cappuccino is back on the road again after three years spent dormant in the garage. It needed two new sills, two new tyres, two new brake disks and a number of other small repairs. The repair turned out cheaper that I had originally been told, because the repairs to the inner sills didn't need the expensive repair sections (steel pressings), which were also difficult to obtain.
The repair was also quicker than I'd been expecting, and I got the call yesterday to say that it was all done, when I'd been expecting a message about delays. That meant I had to rush ahead and get insurance arranged, so that everything was ready for today. This morning at about 7:30, I got a wake-up call from aminorjourney, and we were off to Fishponds (in her EV, of course). We arrived, checked the car over, grabbed the MOT certificate, and headed back to the DVLA office. We arrived there twenty minutes before it opened (at 9am) so we made a detour to B&Q. I was the ninth customer of the day at the (newly refurbished) DVLA office and rapidly came away with a neatly printed tax disc. I was back home before 10am, awaiting another call to say that the welding work had been primed with a protective coat of paint. That call came at lunchtime, and I set off on the 581 bus back to Fishponds.
So now I have a valid MOT, insurance, a tax disc and a working petrol car! And I have to get used to the noise, vibration, gear-changing and smells of a petrol car again. In fact, driving the Cappuccino makes the City-El seem big in comparison. Oh, and I've already tried to get the Cappuccino into reverse by flipping a switch on the dashboard, like you do in the EV.
In the garage, I have tidied up and installed the insulation on the inside of the up-and-over door. I've also sealed up a huge gap between door frame and wall, with mastic. This evening, I must offer a few items on FreeCycle to complete the clear-out.
Meanwhile, back at the MSc, I have had a frank meeting with my supervisor and he's basically told me to just get on with making the autonomous car work by any means I see fit. Carte Blanche, in fact. So I don't need to go and meet up with the guy who's designed a PIC-based CAN-bus node. But I do need to design my own CAN-bus system based on the AVR chips. I can't say I'm proud of myself for being so anti-PIC, but at least things are moving again. Oh, and the Uni has moved the deadline back again, to May 2010.
The repair was also quicker than I'd been expecting, and I got the call yesterday to say that it was all done, when I'd been expecting a message about delays. That meant I had to rush ahead and get insurance arranged, so that everything was ready for today. This morning at about 7:30, I got a wake-up call from aminorjourney, and we were off to Fishponds (in her EV, of course). We arrived, checked the car over, grabbed the MOT certificate, and headed back to the DVLA office. We arrived there twenty minutes before it opened (at 9am) so we made a detour to B&Q. I was the ninth customer of the day at the (newly refurbished) DVLA office and rapidly came away with a neatly printed tax disc. I was back home before 10am, awaiting another call to say that the welding work had been primed with a protective coat of paint. That call came at lunchtime, and I set off on the 581 bus back to Fishponds.
So now I have a valid MOT, insurance, a tax disc and a working petrol car! And I have to get used to the noise, vibration, gear-changing and smells of a petrol car again. In fact, driving the Cappuccino makes the City-El seem big in comparison. Oh, and I've already tried to get the Cappuccino into reverse by flipping a switch on the dashboard, like you do in the EV.
In the garage, I have tidied up and installed the insulation on the inside of the up-and-over door. I've also sealed up a huge gap between door frame and wall, with mastic. This evening, I must offer a few items on FreeCycle to complete the clear-out.
Meanwhile, back at the MSc, I have had a frank meeting with my supervisor and he's basically told me to just get on with making the autonomous car work by any means I see fit. Carte Blanche, in fact. So I don't need to go and meet up with the guy who's designed a PIC-based CAN-bus node. But I do need to design my own CAN-bus system based on the AVR chips. I can't say I'm proud of myself for being so anti-PIC, but at least things are moving again. Oh, and the Uni has moved the deadline back again, to May 2010.