Thursday, 30 March 2023

Triumph GT6 Colours

Apropos of yesterday's post regarding the near completion of the garage and workshop, I hope to be collecting my GT6 project fairly soon - within the month is the target.

I found a few colours I rather like, when eventually I get round to painting it:




The first one is quite attractive, if non original and is a German car. The colour split makes it appear lower and sleeker. However, no GT6 was ever two-tone.

The gunmetal is redolent of classic Aston Martins. 


The final one looks similar to opalescent golden sand, if a tad browner, which was a colour used by Jaguar between 62 and 68 (my dad had an S Type Jag in opalescent golden sand and a lot of E-Types came in that colour).



I think I'll go for opalescent golden sand. Understated, yet refined and sophisticated. The problem with that colour, however, is that there are a lot of different shades, depending on manufacturer.

I had been toying with the idea of Ford Tangerine Scream, which is a pearlescent yellow. 


A bit in-your-face though and not at all classic.

I stress tested the colours on some acquaintances. The older ones (over 55) liked the golden sand, but the younger ones much preferred the gunmetal, labelling the golden sand as fuddy-duddy, which will do for me. I could still be persuaded either way though.


Wednesday, 29 March 2023

Guerilla Electrician

Unbeknownst to me, a guerilla electrician has been busy in my workshop installing electrical sockets.


He (aka Hay's dad) must have crept in on Monday while I was out.

Taking delivery of the Triumph GT6 project is a step nearer; all that's required now is for Colin, our tame builder, to fashion the ramp into the garage area.

I could do with the roll-up wall being in place at the entrance, but there's no chance of that till May and so a car cover is going to have to suffice.


Tuesday, 28 March 2023

Afro Wigs

Apparently the organisers of an ABBA virtual concert have asked people not to turn up in Afro wigs, as they're deemed culturally insensitive.


Yes, I agree - Scousers will be very offended. Ey, ey..... Calm down, calm down....

In another story, Rishi Sunak is to ban laughing - the gas, actually, but it won't be long before he makes it illegal to laugh at the government.

The reason given is to clamp down on antisocial behaviour, but what's antisocial about laughing?


Monday, 27 March 2023

Hereford

Had a couple of days in the motorhome at a place just outside Hereford, a place I've never visited and will not be sorry not to visit again. I don't mean the campsite, which was fine, but Hereford itself. 


It's not Hereford's fault, but that of the businesses that have decided to create the not-so-unique shopping experience. Costa Coffee, the Edinburgh Wool Mill, Primark, Mountain Warehouse, Boots, numerous mobile phone shops, Marks and Spencer, JD Sports, New Look, Poundland......

One town is now no different from any other homogenised one and independent traders have presumably been squeezed out by extortionate rents. I just looked up who owns the centre of Hereford and it's the council, so it is Hereford's fault. The best place is the Hereford Butter Market, a traditional covered market with independent traders.

I do wish more places could be like Totnes and not allow the big chains into the centre.

Anyway, while walking into Hereford from the campsite I spotted these chairs in a garage window.


They're made from oil drums. Might have a go at making a couple of these for the workshop. I can get oil drums by the dozen from a local car dealership and all that's required is a bit of plastic edging strip, some castors, a bit of paint and a few tools.

Decided to have a shower at the shower block at the campsite before coming back home yesterday morning. I asked Hay for a towel and she gave me something the size of a flannel. I protested that this duster stood no chance of drying anything other than my face, but she assured me it was a highly absorbent towel made of microfibres.


I should know by now not to argue with her - it worked perfectly, despite its diminutive size.


Sunday, 26 March 2023

Old Fossils

I am sick and tired of fossilised, climate change naysayers and numpties who go on about there not being any power when the wind doesn't blow or the sun doesn't shine.


They seem incapable of grasping that either a) excess renewable energy can be stored, or (b) fossil fuel can be used as backup, but there would be a massive drop in the amount of fossil fuels used because the bulk would be produced from renewables. Simple logic. 

Then there are the other forms of renewables that are regular as clockwork - tidal and geothermal.

They also moan that electric cars aren't green because they still rely on fossil fuels being burned at power stations. Again, their tiny, gaslit brains can't comprehend that emissions from ICE cars are decentralised and can't be captured, being spewed everywhere in concentrations that make city life hideous, whereas centralising the production of the necessary electricity from fossil fuels at power stations allows the CO2 emissions to be sequestered at source. Generate the electricity from renewables and there are no emissions in the first place.

All forms of power are derived, ultimately, from the solar system's powerplant. Renewables merely cut out the middlemen that act as rather inefficient batteries.


Saturday, 25 March 2023

Smart Parking

Chipping Sodbury of one of those towns where virtually all of the parking is at 90 degrees to the road, and I was desperate to find somewhere where the parking is customarily parallel to the road, just so I could have a go at parking the Smart Car in a very narrow space at 90 degrees.


I drove around for ages, rejecting spaces that were too large, mainly from pride. I finally had to select one, just outside No1 Son's house, where the parking is indeed parallel to the road.


Friday, 24 March 2023

The Problem of Mondays

I was having a metaphysical moment the other day and was contemplating Heaven and Hell and, specifically, The Problem of Evil, whereby those arguing against there being a compassionate God maintain that such a being would not permit suffering and evil.


However, what if we're already in Hell? Monday mornings alone would suggest that we are. Also the fact we keep voting into power these lizard people to govern us, and they are obviously minor demons that inhabit Hell and are sent to test us.

Surely a compassionate God would not give us just a single chance to enter Heaven or be consigned to Hell for eternity? He would much more likely give us an infinite number of chances; you die and are judged at the Pearly Gates and, if you don't come up to scratch, you're sent back for another interminable session on Earth, or Hell as I would call it, in order to try to redeem yourself..

Perhaps our minds are wiped clean before we're sent back as an embryo but, occasionally, the programming goes a bit wrong and memories from previous lives leak through.

I suppose this concept is a bit Buddhist, without the coming back as an animal or amoeba bit, which may just be possible, but rather yukky.


Thursday, 23 March 2023

Andor Continuity Error

We were watching Andor, which is a TV series on Disney + that's set in the Star Wars universe, when I noticed a bit of an incongruity.


Two of the protagonists were sitting in a train on Coruscant and, when the train pulled out of the station, they both swayed due to the inertia. 

This seemed rather strange to me, as they have spaceships capable of gaining lightspeed within an instant, which shows there has to be interialess technology. One would assume they'd be perfectly capable of making trains inertialess, unless it's very expensive technology.


Wednesday, 22 March 2023

Toast Shaped Egg

Had an idea about how to create a toast-shaped fried egg - take a slice of bread, remove the centre to the edge of the crust, chuck the crust into a frying pan and then crack a couple of eggs into the crust mold.


The removed centre can be toasted to place the shaped egg on, but the crust may have to be thrown away, or it might be difficult to separate the egg from the crust mold.

I had a look on Google for a suitable image to use and came across an actual, toast-shaped mold.


I prepared this post on Saturday morning  but, as luck would have it, my regular reader came up with exactly the same suggestion later in the day. However, thought of it first....


Tuesday, 21 March 2023

Split Personality Disorder

Suella Braverman has been visiting that paradise called Rwanda and was extolling its virtues as a place of boundless opportunity. It's heaven on earth, if the hand-picked, right-wing journalists who accompanied her there are to be believed, which they're not, as they still think Brexit is going well.


It strikes me that this version of Rwanda is directed at that audience which criticises what it sees as a hideous policy, somewhat redolent of 1930s Germany and Britain.

Then there's the other audience - the refugees themselves - to whom Braverman wants Rwanda to be a deterrent to crossing the Channel in small boats.

I wish she'd make up her mind - is it a deterrent, or a fantastic place which will act as a magnet for even more boat people to get a free passage to Shangri-La?

It all smells very fishy to me. Not content with dragging Britain back to the 1960s with Brexit and the 1930s with this refugee Bill, I wonder what era they'll aim for next? The 1800s, perhaps, and legislate for children to be sent up chimneys?