Car exhaust sabotage?

UPDATE! XXXX if you read on please note the nylon fibers are ‘Muffler hair’! It’s stuff they use to muffle the sound from the car exhaust. It is because the exhaust pipe is breaking down and the fibers have escaped!

I originally wrote : Someone has stuffed nylon hair extensions into my car exhaust! I went out this morning to a meeting and when I came out I saw what I thought was hair hanging out of the exhaust (tail pipe). I pulled at it and dragged out a whole hank of the stuff! I tried to feel inside the exhaust but couldn’t tell if there was any more.

On closer inspection it was black brown and grey nylon, like a hair extension. It was quite strong and you could see the sheen on it like dolls hair. I decided to drive home carefully. I kept below forty miles an hour so that I didn’t put too much pressure on the system. At home I saw some more strands hanging down, so I pulled them out too.

Then my hubby and I decided to go out to a local garden and lake, as we drove along I saw a couple of Police Community Support Officers, so I pulled over and asked what I should do. Clearly there was no way of identifying the culprit so they said make a note of it and if it damaged the car I should report it to my insurers. When we got to the gardens there was more so we removed it.

I checked again when we got back to the car after the walk. This time I took hubby’s advice and revved the car hard in neutral. More nylon, a really long strand! Finally we got home. No more stuff. Hopefully it’s all out. It really concerns me that someone would do such a stupid trick!

SO I WAS WRONG, IT IS PART OF THE EXHAUST SYSTEM. Also now I know we need to get it fixed!

Industry

Etruria Industrial Museum is open this weekend. This is a museum that houses Jessy Shirleys Mill. It houses a steam engine that was used to grind bone and flint to be added to clay to make fine bone china. I want to take some photos so I can do some paintings if the machinery. The mill is ‘steamed’ once a month in the summer. They usually have events running alongside the steaming. I am not sure but they might have classic cars this weekend?

Etruria is a part of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire and is named for Etruscan pottery which copied the Italian style. It was made by Josiah Wedgwood.

What day is it?

Queen Elizabeth II from the Internet.

It was yesterday? That our queen died. Prince Charles is now King Charles III.

The BBC has been showing wall to wall reports about everything that is happening. I understand why, its TV channels are the face of the establishment. They have to show what’s happening for the sake of history and posterity. But for goodness sake! The same report about the Queen’s life has been shown on the hour at least six times. Rolling news at its worst? I feel sad that she has died, but being reminded constantly is too much, at least try and vary the content. For instance another channel had stories about artists who had created portraits of her, and had interesting anecdotes. The TV stations knew this was inevitable. Stop making a meal of it. How many days will it be before the obsession stops?

Work in progress

I did a bit of work on this long thin poppy painting too. I need to finish it by next week. I do seem to like putting myself under pressure! I imagine this hung on a narrow section of wall. I want to add a lot of detail and make the poppies stand out against the pale blue background. I hope it has an art nouveau appearance.

Horse painting

As I listened to the continuing news of the Queen’s death I decided to recreate a digital drawing a couple of days ago as a painting. It’s not exactly the same, but yet again I’m focusing on pattern and trying out the experimental style that I have been using recently. See what you think?

Royal news

I have seen on TV that the Queen of the UK, Queen Elizabeth II, is ill and is resting comfortably. What is worrying about it is that all of her family is travelling up to Balmoral in Scotland (about 45 miles from Aberdeen). Our BBC TV station is reporting about it at the moment, lots of speculation is going on. Buckingham Palace is not giving out much information.

Queen Elizabeth has been the ruler of Britain and the Commonwealth for 70 years. She is 96 years old, and recently has been suffering from mobility issues. Today she has been placed under evaluation after further medical consideration.

Not everyone is a royalist, but I do feel sorry that she is ill. Perhaps there might be more news later.