~o~
Saturday 30th. A cloudy, but dry day is promised, with westerly winds. Up at 6.15. After a late walk at 2am.
Why? Because I woke at 2am and suddenly realised that I hadn't collected my old car from the village. It was still sitting where I had left it 15 hours earlier. When I had picked up the Morris. I was so taken up with the Morris that I had simply forgotten to go back. Ain't senility wonderful?
I was dreading the possibility that the battery had flattened itself again. Because, just for once, I hadn't disconnected the negative, cable clamp. There has been a problem with the battery draining overnight since we bought the car. Year after year I had to disconnect the negative battery clamp every night. I had asked at umpteen garages but no mechanic had an answer. Possibly a diode problem in the alternator? Or a short somewhere. It was an old car. Nobody cared.
So I walked briskly, for twenty minutes, in bright [Super] moonlight, down to the village. Where I didn't want to disturb anyone in the middle of the night. So I climbed silently into the car, pulled the door shut, turned the key and moved away as quietly as possible. This time I was in luck and was soon home again. Where I did not forget to disconnect the battery.
9.30. Bright sunshine. Now I have to organise the parking arrangements for two cars. At least until I can get rid of the old car. Meanwhile, I'll go in search of a Haynes Workshop Manual for the Morris Minor. There is nothing listed in the Danish library database. So it will probably be a long search of the charity shops and sheer luck to find one.
The UK would be the obvious source. Except that Broxit is a giant economic hurdle for buying eBay items from Europe. One has to allow about £20 in Danish Post Office customs clearance on every purchase. With possible VAT at 25% on to of that! The same, again, on top of international postal charges from the UK. Printed paper rate? The Danish Post Office hasn't heard of it. Not even items like calendars purchased from well known UK charity sources.
13.00 Lunch. I have returned from a tour of all the charity shops and flea markets within a reasonable radius. There was no Haynes manual for a Morris Minor at any of them. At least I discovered how to turn the heater, hot water, circulation valve off! It was the complete opposite of logical. I'll have to keep that in mind as I progress toward backwards compatibility. With a car born two years after my marriage in 1967.
The Morris seat height makes getting in and out much easier than the old car. Which was, in comparison, like sitting on the floor. The ground clearance is greater too. Which adds to the seat height. The gearbox and gear change are awful! The steering heavy unless actually moving. The brakes are obviously not disks. They aren't allowed in Denmark. Because they are not an original factory fitting. They would be failed as an untested modification in the periodic safety checks. Called a Syn in Denmark. MOT [test] in the UK.
I have previously levelled and enlarged parking space. Though it could be considerably enlarged towards the north. Where there are countless saplings and trees growing furiously over a strip of around 10m x 10m. The ground falls away towards the boundary by about about a meter/yard in level. So I'd need to bring in a new load of self compacting gravel. To provide a solid parking or building surface. Perhaps for a carport?
I must get the unfinished 4.3m Ø observatory dome moved out of its current position! It could become a dome shaped, pea green carport. Straight out of LOTR! Or not! I simply cannot summon up the interest to complete it as a much larger, raised observatory. My lifelong passion for astronomy crashed when my wife died. It shows absolutely no sign of returning.
Dinner was diced chicken. With pasta, peas and tinned tomatoes.
~o~
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