Oops, I forgot to...

[Doggy]

Nah, pigs, not goats.

It's a sanglier - from one of my bro's 'murdering' expeditions to the Midi....

[steve_earwig]

Oh, ok, sorry, it was those small trotters and black fur that did it. These are just your domestic had-all-traces-of-intelligence-bred-out porkers. There was one escaped down the road here a couple of days back with three old dears chasing after it, tee-hee. I have volunteered for a spot of pig killin' but not participated yet, I anticipate feeling somewhere between sad and ill. Ah, but those sausages

Alas poor Pinky and Perky


Black pudding anyone?

The old dear is cutting up skin and fat, which will be cooked and pressed to make pig fat and čvarci (that's pork scratchings to you sunshine )

[steve_earwig]

Just for you Welly:


I've been watching it snowing all day, knowing at some point I'll have to do some shopping and go home to feed my cats, but I was hoping to leave it later in the day so the roads had a chance to clear.


At 2pm I had enough, I figured the main road must be clear by then. Wrong. Snow with black bits still. I got to the supermarket and there I saw two cars with chains on, probably from up in the mountains but I just thought bugger it, if I can remember how to fit them they're going on.

I wasn't exactly sure how to drive with them and I was worrying one would break and take out my brakes, so I only did 20kmh (12mph) to my house. I gather that was too slow because I got overtaken by two cars on my road, which kind of looks like this:




So I did 30kmh (18mph) on the way back (the paper that came with it, with the wrong instructions I might add, says 50kph max. but I can't make out if that's snow or tarmac or both).

I cleared enough room for two cars at my place and got going before it started getting dark. I'm supposed to clear the snow off the footpath outside my house but, if the council can't be asked to clear the roads, why should I bother?

That's the first time I've driven with them on, on snow you can't feel them but thin stuff and tarmac makes the whole car vibrate and coming up to a stop at some traffic lights I thought something was wrong with the clutch 'cos it felt just like it was stalling. I tried the brakes in snow, it's gentle braking only as anything harder the ABS cuts straight in and the car carries straight on (one of those times it needs an "off" switch).

Now all I've got to do is take them off again. Where's my bolt croppers?



I just saw your last post (sorry) - thanks, it's been a stressful time but we're pretty much over it now. It was her heart of course, the first attack at home after which she couldn't remember where she lived and the second and final one in hospital in the early hours of the next morning. She was 75, a minor miracle considering how little she took care of herself. It hit my wife hardest of course, so I busied myself helping her cope with everything.

The English way of dealing with someone who's lost a family member - feel awkward.
The Croat way - go straight to them, firmly shake their hand, look them straight in the eye and say "my condolences". If you're visiting them at home bring coffee, cakes, biscuits, wine etc. - anything that someone who's suddenly having lots of visitors might need.

There were well over 100 people at her funeral - family, friends, colleagues of her's, my wife's, my sis-in-law's, even some of the neighbours. Amazing really. There was lots of Catholic-type stuff, which I didn't mind at all because I know the old dear would have loved it.

Now all we've got to do is figure out the house thing

Sretan Božić to you and yours too!!

[STALLED]

This was taken on the first week of November - That's pretty much well summer for us!

Was on a work trip to the Snowy Mountains - it was sleeting up there when I took the photo! The snow is a browny/red colour from the dust storms which hit NSW and the like.

[steve_earwig]

Wow - pink snow! Me likey!! Hmm, I wonder where I could get a wood chipper from

[steve_earwig]

It's c-c-c-cold!! I didn't want to put my car away 'cos it's a block of ice but I decided I had to 'cos it's so bluddy cold:






It sooo didn't want to start, I had a load of warnings come up as I was turning it which seem to have cleared. And which idiot left an almost new battery in the car he sold?

[teamster1975]

-17? Holy sh1t!

[mjb]

-17? Ouch!

MET Office and BBC both agreed (for once) that it's going to be -6 to -7 round here for the next few nights. Thankfully my battery's new and charged, but I'm going to nip out to Halfords at lunch to get a coolant tester. I REALLY don't fancy starting up my car with frozen coolant in the water pump and snapping my cambelt

Think I'm going to get rid of the ditchfinders on my front tyres in the next day or so too. Low tread on no-name rubber = too many 3rd gear wheelspins for my liking.

[Doggy]

It sooo didn't want to start, I had a load of warnings come up as I was turning it which seem to have cleared. And which idiot left an almost new battery in the car he sold?

Guess we've all done something similar

Has this beast got the sump heater, or was that the D8 too?

ditchfinders

* snigger *

[steve_earwig]

I realised when the guy was looking it over, I didn't really think he'd be happy if I pulled out that massive one that was in there and popped in the puny one from the D9... The sump heater was on the D8 too They've clobbered importing car spares now so it'd be stupidly expensive to import one again

Anyway, no more messing about, I have a Fiamm 80ah which will cost about 75 quid when I have the money... I don't actually think the old one's had it, it just can't pass muster when it comes to turning my engine when the oil's like treacle.

I think this is the one, at 278x175x190 there's no room for anything else

Btw while I was in the shop another guy came in for a battery (selling like hot cakes just now, for some reason ), with one mechanic off they didn't have anyone to change it so I offered (after offering to sell him my old one cheap ). Mk 5 Glof SDi, I gave up when I saw all the electronics around the battery, big fuses and god knows what else all in a big holder on the top and I couldn't work out how to shift it. It took 2 shakes to change my one, and that was with my adjustable spanner keyring.

[Welly]

Cheers Steve, this kinda turned into a PM didn't it?

All the best mate

[steve_earwig]

PM? Not really, a PM would have included all the other stuff that happened, including me almost being arrested