In Car news…

On Tuesday night I got trapped in my car. I booked it in a garage to try and get it fixed. The mechanic came and took the car this morning but came back in less than an hour. They said the lock and window are now working. They think the window lock button might have got knocked accidentally? Also the door opens now? I hope it’s just reset itself, but it makes me nervous, I might have to try and visit friends and make sure they are in if I visit. I will also have my phone at the front of the car so I can get to it straight away. If I decide to drive myself to the shops I might need someone to let me out! 


Fixed!

After a month of having no email I managed to restore it on my PC at the weekend. I had over 3000 emails to delete (mainly WordPress notifications!) I had also taken my phone to the phone shop again last week and the technician said he had fixed it. When it didn’t display any emails whilst I was in the shop he said not to worry, it would take 24 hours to show up? This seemed to me like I was being fobbed off, but I gave it 24, then 48 hours, and as it was a bank holiday on Monday I knew the shop would be closed it was 72 hours, and no sign of the emails!

So I decided to try and sort it out for myself. If the email wasn’t coming through the server for the phone perhaps I could get it on an app? I decided to download my email providers app and install it. Then I typed in my password and verified it through the system… And…. It worked! Now it’s working I’m trying to understand why the shop technician hadn’t done that? I will be having a word with him!

Car is home!

I have got my car back! Finally after a week of waiting for it I can breathe a sigh of relief. But among all of the hassle I realise how anti public transport I am. I think it’s because I’ve used buses and taxis in the past, and I don’t know the routes or timings for the buses, and often when I’ve ordered a taxi it hasn’t turned up. One time I had to walk home from hospital because there were non available. Also since the pandemic I try to avoid groups of people, so buses worry me.

Having a car is a freedom and a curse. I walk less and don’t cycle anymore because I have one. I don’t know what to do if we have to get rid of it. The car is very old and it’s like an old pair of shoes, if it needs repairing I have to pay out because I can’t afford to replace it with another (second hand) one. But at least by keeping it we are not wasting new resources.

Cat flap fixed again…

Oh dear! When I got up this morning I found the clear flap part of the cat flap and it’s surround on the floor inside the back door. Clearly our big cat had come through and must have got it stuck round his belly. Luckily I fixed the flap last week so I know which bits to press on to open it up and re-fit the flappy part…. I tried to adjust it… He’s just come back in. Seems OK at the moment, but I don’t want to have to keep putting it back together again!

Washing machine working again

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So after I rang the electrical goods shop about the washing machine, they said the thunderstorms we are having must have blown one of the two pcb boards that control it…

I asked to have them replaced, but that would take two weeks to order them in and the cost would be £60 for one and £80 for the other, then £50 for Labour, plus Vat.

The decision is do that or buy another one. So I decided to go for a new one as I don’t know if I would have problems again with this machine.

So as I say, I rang to order a new machine this morning. Then for some reason I switched the washing machine on again, just to see if the thing would do anything (it had beeped before but the screen you press to choose spin speeds, and the start button had stayed black). I switched it on. Loud beep, I turned the dial to a random wash, I still had things inside from a few days ago… Beep, I saw the panel light up! I pressed start, it worked! Rang the shop back and cancelled the order!

My hubby reckons that the electricity from the lightening had disrupted the pcb panels, but by leaving it a couple of days it had allowed any power to dissipated and the circuit boards settled down. I’m holding my breath! I will unplug it every time its not in use.

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Fixing his train.

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This is what you see when you take off the top of a toy trail (a rovex triang-hornby, 262 side tank.). Prairie wheel arrangement. My hubby decided to fix it, it’s about 60 years old and hasn’t been working for most of that time, though it is now. After taking the top off by unscrewing the  top of the model, you can see the workings of the engine. After cleaning and oiling the toy train is now in working order. Ignore the batteries in the photo, my hubby thinks you can never have enough of them for use in his torches!

Solenoid

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My central heating boiler went on the blink, which is a problem because we had no hot water. Luckily we have a contract with a company so I was able to call them out. I thought it was the timer because the heating was not kicking in when the timer moved round to ‘on’. But no, the nice man from the company could hear the pump kicking in but the flame was not lighting. So he had a look and removed this, it’s a solenoid. Basically the circuit has to close to light the boiler so that the heating comes on its apparently worked by electromagnetism. I’m really pleased he fixed it. My boiler is twenty five and still works well. I’m worried that it is going to become obsolete. Hopefully they will be able to get parts for a few more years yet…..