and today i have mostly been...

[steve_earwig]

Tea bags should really go in the compost, however you need to actually empty the bags as the stuff the bag's made out of (Max keeps telling me but I forget) doesn't decompose.

Vampires? Klingons?? Little brown boats with pretty coloured sails...

Personally I'd re-plumb the outside tap 'cos they're useful.

[Welly]

Errrr.........Vampires T-Bags = Sanitary Towels. At least I hope* that's what he meant.

[steve_earwig]

Ah, an apostrophe is always useful too... We called them jam rags where I come from.

And I was wondering why Welly would be putting used tea bags in dog poo bags, I just thought... never mind.

In other news, the yoyo is now wearing its summer shoes. 20 quid fitted and ballallanced. They should've been back on 3 weeks ago but I don't seem to get time for anything at the moment.

[Uberderv]

Errrr.........Vampires T-Bags = Sanitary Towels. At least I hope* that's what he meant.

Yes that's what I meant

Personally I'd re-plumb the outside tap 'cos they're useful.

I probably will, the house is rented though so I have to ask for permission before doing jobs like that.

[steve_earwig]

Ah, I did wonder about that. So possibly a previous tenant has recovered the plumbing and sold it for scrap.

[Uberderv]

Ah, I did wonder about that. So possibly a previous tenant has recovered the plumbing and sold it for scrap.

I don't think its been weighed in as scrap, more likely that recent work on the house has been bodged

[steve_earwig]

Importing the Yamaha. Well, Tuesday actually, although today we had to go back and pay. Christ, now I know why Goran never had time to help me, a whole morning wasted hanging about and waiting.

Goran finally gave me the paperwork to go and sort it with Max as translator (he was concerned that Max would blow up when confronted with all the bullshit). Goran reckoned I should just ride it there with Max following up in the yoyo but I really wasn't keen on the idea, what if some twat knocks me off? Plus customs & excise is crawling with coppers, so it seemed a bit dodgy to me. So Max conjured up one of his mates with a trailer:

All aboard!


What's towing it:


A 1995 Disco 2.5td, apparently it was the first one officially imported to Croatia:


Yup, still there:


At C&E


The C&E buildings have a massive yard, mostly full of lorries awaiting approval (i.e. some twat to drag himself out of his office and give it the nod). There were about 20 cars and 3 bikes where mine was:


Max doing his "Mr. Pissed-Off" bit:


After lengthy enquiries Goran had finally discovered that we had to go to room 37 of this preposterously large and pointless building in order to proceed. The 3 bored looking guys in room 37 sent us next door to room 36, where two more bored looking guys in uniform immediately* sprang* into action* They're meant to do the inspections at 10, 11 and 12 am but... of course, the only one they actually do was at 10:30, so we spent a lot of time hanging about in the sun.

And the cost? 240 quid for the duty on the bike (but I've owned it for 17 years!), we also had to use a spedition company as the paperwork is horrendous (they bloody know it is too) plus a tenner A FECKING TENNER! JUST SO WE COULD PUT THE BIKE IN THEIR FRICKING YARD SO IT COULD BE INSPECTED!! Bloody crooks.

Max was surprisingly calm throughout the whole ordeal.

Anyway, before I burst a blood vessel, some more disco:






I asked the chap (Fritz) what sort of mileage he got from it, he said between 9 and 10 (28-31mpg) which I didn't think was too bad and said so, and Fritz said he had something special under the bonnet. Er, yes?






Umm, these things are snake oil aren't they? Well, apparently not. He has one after the air filter and one in the pipe between the intercooler and the inlet. I'm still dubious but he reckons the results are real

[Uberderv]

A friend in work had the same on his Discovery. He said they made a difference too.

[Welly]

What is it? an air 'swirly roundy' device?

Looks like a fun* day anyway Steve all that red tape must put people off doing so many things.

[steve_earwig]

He was calling it a "cyclone" (he did tell me what it was actually called but I have the memory of a demented goldfish) but as it's angled it must put a turn into the air. How this helps before the turbo is anyone's guess.

Zagreb has dozens of buildings like this one, full of bored people in offices just creating work for themselves. The C&E building also contains lots of offices for these spedition firms, who seem to have a handle on all the bureaucracy and probably profit from it hugely.

At the same time we're still doing the solar panel thing, we now have a huge file of forms, my wife has even had to change her tax status. What seems to happen is the electric company ask Denis for a form so he calls us and tells us what we need. We then go along to the council offices where they tell us what form we need to use, we then go to the paperwork store and buy it, fill it out, take it back to the office where they record it, charge us a small fee and then we get to send it off. Then they want another form, so we go to the council offices, they tell us what form we need, we go off and buy it, and so on ad nausium. Someone very obviously did make this sh*t up

[Ares]

Steve,you should see the trouble when importing classic american cars in this "country"

Do you know they label them as "Hazardous material"
Bunch of twaats.

[highlander]

"Hazzardous material"

Fixed that for you:

[Welly]

"obnoxious material" would be better

[Uberderv]

He was calling it a "cyclone" (he did tell me what it was actually called but I have the memory of a demented goldfish) but as it's angled it must put a turn into the air. How this helps before the turbo is anyone's guess.

He called them Hyclones see here- www.rimmerbros.co.uk/Item--i-GRID007136# looking at the LR forums they are another snake oil product. From what I've read airflow into a turbo should be as laminar as possible so you'd be better off fitting the grate you can see on a MAF sensor.

[GingerMagic]

I've just cleaned my patio..........