Old News
19/12/07
Another puncture - is this a record? Sunday lunchtime we drove into Cambrai, had a look around and then came back to Heidi for a brew. After our cuppa we noticed the dreaded flat! We're both convinced it was OK when we got in about half an hour previously, so it'd gone down while we sat there (!) Nothing was open Sunday afternoon so, after putting on the spare, we found somewhere close-by to park and decided to look for a local tyre shop the next morning. The first one we found was shut, the second one couldn't do tyres as big as ours (a kinda French equivalent of Quick-Fit), number 3 spoke so bloody quickly I couldn't understand him (my French is pretty bad) and number 4 recommended number 3! Number 5 didn't do inner tubes, but recommended a place called Point-S, and they fixed the puncture for us - HUZZAR!
17/11/07
Confession time: whilst writing today's news snippet I managed to erase all the news items from earlier this year. OOPS! So, if you're thinking to yourself: "I'm sure this year didn't start in April" then you'll be right. It's all my fault - whatever I'd written in between January and March this year has now gone forever. Derrrrrr It's that time of year again: the dreaded MOT. Got up early on Friday to take Heidi down to BB Motors for her annual health-check. She was covered in thick frost, so we had to scrape that off before driving her down to the garage with frozen hands, brrrrrrrr! Then the bad news: she failed due to a blown headlight bulb (nothing too serious there) and a worn suspension bush. So this morning we went off to RST Land Rovers on Mersea island for a new bush. The year Heidi was born, 1980, was the year they changed the design of bush - so we bought one of each just to make sure. Heidi gets her re-test this coming Monday, so that's another early start. Our local club, the East Anglian Fighting Vehicle Group, has decided to start a web page. We're still in the planning stages at the moment, but webmaster Richard will have something on the web soon. I'll then put a link to it here (well, in the links page anyway).
01/10/07
Well, we survived the weekend - just! Saturday started with a drive to Wooton Bassett, followed by Aylesbury, then Clevedon to recce that night's venue. Then down to Cheddar where we walked the bridleway along the gorge. Then down to see the stone circle at Stanton Drew, which is home to some lovely calves. We also met a friendly cat there. Back to Clevedon for the evening's gig by Inner City Unit. We boogied the night away and got back to our sleeping bags sometime around 12.30. Up bright and early the next day (well, later the same day really) to take a trip down to see the giant at Cerne Abbas. And a very friendly giant he is too. Heidi got us back home safe and sound after something like five hours driving, covering 930 km in the weekend. Went to work this morning with bloodshot eyes and aching knees.
26/09/07
Heidi has been busy just lately. Last weekend we went to EvilStock 2, an event organised by Jim "MogStock" Procter. Lots of bands, beer and tents on a farm in Cheshire. We made some new friends and caught up with some familiar faces from Mogstock. The day started off with the long drive up there, only to get a puncture as we arrived. Can you believe it - another one? Derek very kindly rang around for us and found a garage that could do the repair for us, so off we went to get that fixed before anything else. Back at the farm we had some food and then got down to the party. Jim treated us all to his own particular way of singing, and the bands played on. Everybody had a great time - thanks Jim! Sunday was the drive back home, uneventful apart from the mother of all traffic jams on the A1. Monday we were off again, this time to Cambridge to see Bellowhead. Heidi's next job is to get us down to the west country this coming weekend for a concert by Inner City Unit. Heidi will be fine, but I'm not sure if we humans can cope...
01/09/07
September is here! We've just loaded Heidi full of the remainder of Barry's stuff and we'll be off to Cambridge soon to deliver it. How can people live without Land Rovers eh? The show report for Ursel is now here, which follows on from Lorraine's report. Both of these have pop-up galleries for the pictures rather than embedded photos, so they look grainy on the page but are nice and clear if you click 'em. So get clicking!
27/08/07
Been working some more on the Mog this weekend. The side panels and tailgate are now rubbed-down and in primer, waiting for their new paint job. The bonnet was also rubbed-down, revealing 2 areas of filler (!) which I doubt very much were put there by the Army. Also gave the Mercedes badge a quick buff on the wire brush and was amazed at how shiny it now looks. Next on the agenda will be the doors, followed by anything else I can unbolt.
Lorraine's write-up of our latest trip is now here or you can read it via the events page. Part 2 (Ursel) will follow soon.
22/08/07
Back from Belgium! This seems hard to believe but Heidi had another puncture the other day. We've spoken to quite a
few people about this and nobody is really sure if new wheels will help or not: lots of heads are being scratched. Still, Heidi got us through another 2188 km of driving around Belgium and northern France. Our trip ended with the fantastic Wings and Wheels show at Ursel, which is the highlight of the show calendar for us. A couple of weeks ago Heidi helped Barry move into his new flat. After holidaying in Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Oz, Sri Lanka (and a whole host of other places I've forgotten now) Barry decided to come back to England just so he could go to "Uglyfest" and see Steeleye Span on stage. So now he's got himself a flat in Cambridge and Heidi (with Lorraine in the
driving seat) carted most of his stuff to the new pad.
10/08/07
Lorraine's Beltring report is now here: 2 pages plus pictures. I've also added a few photos to the "Other Photos" section. We're now looking forward to Ursel. Once we're back from Belgium I'll make sure there are some bits in here about how Heidi helped Barry move into his new flat.
03/08/07
Well, Beltring came and went (or should that be "got washed away?), closely followed by a short hop over to France. This was a last-minute thing, ostensibly to replenish our diminished Leffe stocks, but we turned it into a mini-tour of Normandy. I'm sure Lorraine's report will appear in here soon. Heidi has new seats! After years of putting-up with tired Laro seats from the Dutch Army we finally got round to ordering a new set from Exmoor Trim. Not only do they look good, they've made me realise just how bad the originals were. The fact that the rear-view mirror needed adjusting, 'cause all I could see in it was the load-bed floor, told me how much higher I was now sitting.
25/06/07
Back again! Just a quick note to let you all know that Lorraine's Aldham report is now available (via the Events page). Some of you may have noticed that there are no photos for this show (or for our "home" show - Colchester Garrison). This is due to the fact that our camera batteries no longer hold a charge, so we haven't been able to take any pictures for Heidi's website. So, if any of you were at Colchester or Aldham and had your cameras with you: how about sending Heidi a picture or two? Leave a message in the Guest Book if you can help.
24/06/07
Yesterday we went to a children's party. Along for the ride with Heidi were 2 Jeeps, 2 Champs and a Saracen. We took it in turns to give the children rides around some fields, then returning to "base camp" for some "rations" of pasties and birthday cake. I think all the children really enjoyed themselves (judging by the noise they were making) and the parents were having fun too. Heidi stickers all round!
Today was the annual show at the Gunpowder Mills, Waltham Abbey. The rain did its best to keep the public away, but those who were brave enough were treated to the sight of an FV432 breaking down, getting recovered and then seeing the recovery lorry getting stuck too. A third lorry was called in to the rescue, but it was unable to pull out the other two. Finally, another 432 came to the rescue and.... oh my god - look at the state of the grass!
17/06/07
Yesterday was Colchester Military Festival, the Army's open day. Despite the month's worth of rain in one day, thousands of people came to see the goings-on. Heidi and Grisselda were there, along with lots of other vehicles from the East Anglian Fighting Vehicle group and friends. The Mog didn't come along, because she's still in bits. The re-spray is taking a while due to the fact that we're doing lots of other stuff at the same time, but we're getting there. As promised last time, here are some photos... Lorraine's report on the Aldham show will appear here (in the Events page) soon. Next item on the agenda is Waltham Abbey.
26/05/07
We bought ourselves a scanner today so this evening has been spent scanning old (pre-digital) photos of Heidi for the website; you'll find them in the photos sections. During these early days Heidi was still painted in British NATO green, as opposed to the Dutch RAL 6014 she's now wearing. The flag was actually painted on (these days it's a sticker) and the tyres were Extra-Grips - which looked the part but were awful on wet roads and VERY NOISY! Bringing things up to date: Grisselda has just had a new coil fitted, which should remedy the weak spark she had on the left-hand side. Heidi had developed a leak somewhere in the middle, which turned-out to be the seal on the handbrake - that's now fixed. And the Mog is currently being partially dismantled so we can give her a re-spray. As bits are removed (and bolts are sheared) there's a lot of dried mud hidden away in all sorts of places. When you consider she's 40 years old this year, she's in excellent condition for an old gal. I promise to upload some photos of the respray soon - if I can ever get away from this desk that is!
20/04/07
It's MOT time for Grisselda, but she's been a naughty girl. The big day was booked for Saturday, but Saturday morning came and the Guzzi decided she wasn't going to start. Why? - no idea! After much cursing, failed attempts at kick-starting (accompanied by the obligatory thwack on the shin) and throwing of various toys out of the pram, I gave-up and cancelled the test. The people at the garage were very sympathetic and said they would do the repairs if I could get the bike over to them. Visions of pushing a dead Guzzi for about a mile gave me that certain feeling... I booked today off work so I could do the dreaded deed and also MOT another bike (which IS running). So, before setting off this morning I thought I'd give it one last try and...bloody hell she started! With a cough and a splutter Grisselda burst into life and THAT SOUND filled my ears (and the neighbours' ears as well). I ran around the garden like Baron Frankenstein shouting "It's alive! It's alive!" MOT is now re-booked for Wednesday, fingers crossed... Heidi came back from Mersea yesterday with new battery leads and the electrical problem seems to be fixed, so that's good news. We now have all three military vehicles back on the streets (well, until Wednesday anyway).
07/04/07
Spring has sprung! Most of our time has, once again, been dedicated to looking after non-military stuff which you're not interested in (are you?) so it's been quiet in here. Some more show dates have been announced and we're now in the position of having to decide which ones NOT to go to because dates clash. Another thing that's taken up too much of our time just lately is an ongoing battle with PIXMANIA. We made the mistake of buying a monitor from these "people" in January which developed a fault within a week of it being delivered. The offending item was returned to Pixmania and we've not seen it since - 3 MONTHS! (so far) Despite constant requests for information they refuse to communicate with us other than pathetic, pre-composed standard reply e-mails along the lines of "we're doing our best and your goods will be returned soon" Well folks, this simply isn't good enough, and they've been told as much. We've even quoted various chunks from the sale of goods act to them but they just don't seem to give a f***. Not a very cheerful subject for Heidi's website I'm afraid, but if one person reading this is put off giving their custom to this company then perhaps I've done my good deed for the day. On a more relevant note: Heidi is booked in at RST Landrovers in Mersea soon. After all these years she has developed a minor electrical fault, which is possibly down to the earth wiring not being up to the job. Strange huh? Anyway: she goes in next week and I'll keep you all updated in here (I promise!)
