Adjusted the contrast on this one. It looks a bit lighter than it actually was but quite like the effect. This was taken round the back of Colchester Castle.
Category: Uncategorized
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Day 115: Spooky Trees
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Frosted Fence
The top of a fence with frost on it. (Does exactly what it says on the tin. Or title, whatever).
I should apologise, by the way, that this isn’t a “Slade” photo. I’m afraid I just haven’t had time to do one today – I was out all evening at an ordinand’s dinner, straight after work. I do apologise, I’ll try and make a bit of an effort for the last couple on Monday and Tuesday 🙂
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Car Woes
Quick post to moan about the trouble we are having with our car at the moment. For no other reason than to get it off my chest… I’ve already talked a little about this, so I’ll just continue from where we left off.
On Monday I worked from home (again) and got the mechanic to look at the car (again). He thought, as did I, that it was probably the crankshaft position sensor. This is a fairly simple bit of kit which doesn’t cost too much to replace. So, he ordered a new one from the garage, and then left the car. On Tuesday I got the bus into work. I called up in the afternoon to see how things were going, and he said that the dealership had ordered the wrong part! Apparently crankshaft sensors come with 5-pin or 4-pin connectors on my kind of Saab 9-3. My car has a 5-pin one – the 4-pin version had been ordered (apparently that’s more common but still). Annoying, but still – one more day of getting the bus couldn’t hurt!
On Wednesday afternoon I rang again, to find that the part had been ordered and replaced. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the problem: the mechanic (Andy) said that he’d replaced the sensor and then driven the car around again, trying to stop / start and generally replicate the problem. It manifested itself again! He took it into the dealership, who said that the computer was giving a fault code indicating something was wrong with the immobiliser! It makes sense, it explains why sometimes the car won’t start, but it’s really bizarre though.
Apparently they’re snowed under at the moment, so it will be next Monday before they can fix it! Fortunately, our friends AJ and Jen (who let us stay at their house a couple of months ago while our boiler was being replaced…) have let us borrow their second car for a few days, so I drove into work with that today. It certainly beats standing out in the cold for 45 minutes waiting for a bus – especially in this weather.
I just hope that the car does get fixed on Monday. It’s quite frustrating, having the car out of action for that long – especially over the Christmas period, when we need to get out to church for various services, when it’s freezing cold and not pleasant waiting for the bus etc! To be honest I’m a bit worried about the car as well – that’s the second thing gone wrong with it which really shouldn’t have done. It’s always a bit worrying not knowing if anything else is up with it. I think cars are just a problem, especially when you’re doing 250 miles a week (as I do), and they’re 10 years old. Perhaps after this I’ll have no more problems with it.
Anyway, if we do go to college next September we will probably be looking to get a different car – the Saab is lovely to drive (I’ve certainly missed it the past day or two borrowing AJ and Jen’s car. There’s nothing wrong with it – a 2003 Nissan Almera – but it doesn’t have climate control, and a few other niceties – it’s also a bit louder), but it’s not the cheapest car to run! – it’s really designed for cruising on the motorway, not driving in traffic.
So, there you have it. That is my tale of woe regarding the car! I’ll stop moaning now…
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Day 113: Waiting for the snow to start to fall
Sam the snowman is waiting for the snow to start falling. Judging from the weather report, he might not have long to wait!
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Day 112: Run for your life…
The Slade lyric today is “What will your daddy do When he sees your Mama kissin’ Santa Claus?”
I decided to go with a slightly darker theme – as you can see, Sam the Snowman isn’t as pure and innocent as that happy smile betrays… this is a grainy photo, it’s the best I could do without him killing me too. (just kidding)
The title is a reference to ‘Run for your life’ by the Beatles…
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Quick update
Time for a quick weekend update. Bit of a mixed weekend, this one, actually. On Friday night we went out to 21 for the Christmas Party (our last meeting this year). It was really good fun, I think all the kids enjoyed it 🙂 Although I think we might have to think logistically about what we do with the chocolate fountain next year…
Backtracking a little – on Thursday night we were meant to go out to the prayer meeting, but we were unfortunately prevented from going by the car not starting. Anyway, I had our mechanic round on Friday to look at the car, and he couldn’t find anything wrong with it! We drove out to Fordham with no problems. Unfortunately, the way back wasn’t so simple. We tried to start the car… and nothing happened. As in, the car turned over, but wouldn’t fire. We called out the AA, they took 15 minutes to arrive, and the guy asked us to pop the bonnet up and try to start the car. It started first time. Doh! So we drove back home.
On Saturday we did a bit of shopping and various other bits and pieces. I finished off my ‘priesthood project’. In the evening we chilled out, wrapped a few presents and watched ‘Airplane’ in honour of Leslie Nielsen who died recently.
On Sunday we went to church in the morning – unfortunately due to problems with the car not starting, we had to get a taxi! Doh! Still, we got there, and then stayed on for the student lunch afterwards. After that … we stayed around! We couldn’t go home as we didn’t have transport, and even if we did there wouldn’t have been much point going home given that we had to be back for the Sunday@6 music practice. Anyway, we stayed on for Sunday@6 – and then got a taxi back home.
So, that was our weekend! I was working from home again today – but the mechanic has taken another look at the car, it appears to be the crankshaft position sensor (which apparently do go in Saab 9-3s), the part is on order and should be in tomorrow. So that’s good news anyway! Tonight I’m going to meet the bishop of Colchester, which will be interesting. I will report back on that soon…
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Day 111: Rock n Rolling with the best
Sam the Snowman is about to pop some tunes on and dance around, iPod rave style. Unfortunately he’s a bit shy so didn’t want me to record a video of it, but he was having great fun…
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Day 110: Beautiful Sky
Love this sky. Shame there’s a tiny bit of lens flare, not sure if that’s exactly what you call it!
Anyway this was taken while out on a walk in Fordham this afternoon.
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Day 108: The Old Songs are the Best
Today’s line “Does your granny always tell you that the old songs are the best?” Sam the Snowman is fetching down some old songs which granny might like!
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Day 107: Are you sure you’ve got the room to spare inside?
Sam the Snowman is sure about the room, but he’s not sure about the bed space. He’s popped up into the cupboard to check on the status of the airbeds and sleeping bags, just in case…
