Author: Chris

My current car is now on it’s last legs. A trip through a deep puddle at speed has bent a conrod.

 This here’s your typical cylinder setup. Mine has four of these. Now, water entered the engine through the air intake. It rushed into the gap between the piston head and the top of the cylinder. When it was the turn of the piston to come back up to the top, it couldn’t compress the water and all the energy was transferred to the connecting rod (Green) beneath the piston head. This bent it laterally.

A car in front had suffered the same problem, and the AA guy who came out to help him decided to spend five minutes on mine for free. After removing the ignition system and spark plugs (the tall thin element between the valves in the image), and turning over the engine, water was forced up and out of the engine. The car then started, and still runs now. Unfortunately I can’t take the RPM of the engine above 1500 else there’s a chance the seriously weakened con-rod will shatter and send high speed pieces of shrapnel in all directions.

So, a new car is needed. I have the loan money now (£7500), which will also pay for a year of fully comprehensive insurance.

So, what will I get? I’m uncertain, but advice is telling me to go for a 1.6 VW Golf or a 1.6 Vauxhall/Opel Astra.  According to WhatCar?, I should go for the Astra, as it’s very cheap to buy and run. For example, even a 1.7 Turbo-Diesel Astra has cheaper insurance than my current car had.

Any suggestions? Please add a comment below!

It has been decided that I shall ascend it’s slopes on foot. I have the maps and the gear. It will be done after Easter. If it’s nice enough Ben Nevis may be tried later on. It’s not much in the way of climbing mountains (ask johnmit), but it’s a start.

As I sit in my chair, busting open bottles of Stella Artois with my molars, catching a whiff of the dog basket and scowling (that thing’s waterproof and the dog can’t control itself), another week has come to an end. It’s not a particularly interesting week. It’s not even that interesting in my own life, but I just wanted to write an interesting paragraph into which you would read expecting some sort of life story. But you were wrong, you fool.

Today I went on another North Wales wide journey. This time alone, and again, with my camera. I find I can put the strap over the passenger’s headrest and it makes a perfect substitute for my brother. Today’s weather was very strange. It was sunny, yet snow had miraculously appeared on the mountains by the afternoon. I left the house around 2PM, so when I got back around half eight in the evening it was dark. I tried experimenting with night shots but I left the tripod behind so couldn’t hold the camera still enough. I saw some interesting things on my journey that I didn’t photograph. There was a massive bulky fugly crane near Corwen. Not tall massive, but just bulky massive. Next to it were two massive bridge beams. Looks like they’re finally about to replace an old Telford A5 bridge.

It looks, from this photo, that the Snowdon summit cafe is almost finished. They’ve been using the Snowdon Mountain Railway to deliver supplies to the summit, there being no road access. You can still see the summit stone on this photo, contrasting against the grey cloud and snow.

Yesterday I went out to watch the Welsh match versus Ireland. Hurrah! We wins. Last year, when I went to the Murrayfield Stadium only to see us get squashed by the Scots, Fragged by the French, and Electrocuted by the Irish and Italians, it was only a joy to see that we still won versus England. Woo.

However this year it’s all wins. WINS I SAY. WINS.

Next week we have France to beat to with the Grand Slam. It should be possible to beat the French, heck, England beat em, and we beat England! So, here’s hoping to winning the Grand Slam in 2008.

Oh, and check this out. It’s a nifty RTS game that I’ve become addicted to.

Been out in the car again in another phototaking adventure. I’ll make a note to start going to new places.