PeteB

She came in at 04:45 so I got up. I was going to get up and go at 05:30 anyway. A good, easy drive down to the factory, found a trailer in the dark, loaded the tacked chipper for today's demo and away toward Hay on Wye. A bit of queuing by Worcester an decided to go via Leominster and come back via Hereford for a change of driving scenery. The client and I had a look over the machine in his yard then took it into an adjacent garden where a large Beech had blown down. We chipped about half the brash and left it there and went for coffee in his office. A great bloke and a good firm to deal with too. I had already decided to leave the machine with him and collect it in a few days time. Not something I do with everyone, but I feel some folk are worthy and I hope we get the deal! He told us an amusing story from when he ran a contracting outfit that help deal with all the Foot and Mouth clearance some years ago. They dug a big pit and built a fire in the bottom - railway sleepers and coal! Big enough just to tip beast that had been shot into it and they would burn. For some unearthly reason, one of the chaps decided to carry the carcasses to the fire pit on a 3 tonne dumper and tip them in, rather than dump them on the edge and then push them in with the tractor. You guessed it, he drove the dumper into the fire pit! He got out fairly smartly, a little singed and smelly, but the dumper was burnt to a crisp! He had to settle the bill as it wasn't insured and he had a £15k burnt dumper in his fleet! Getting back to the yard, I had to load my trailer for a thrash to Forfar and back and see to a couple of issues - including someone wanted my expert opinion to reduce the height of a tool box by 40mm. Really important.....Another chap looked at the linkage kit for last weeks tractor job and said 'which idiot authorised only sending the two bottom points?' it was his boss! We had a laugh about stuff that used to happen in factories etc which is now considered 'bullying'. Sending people to the stores for stuff like the long weight, glass hammer and pot of grinding sparks etc. I got sent (as a ten year old at boarding school) to get some Pigeons Milk and a Yard length of Fallopian tubing! I went, I asked....

space

Norman

After a decent nights sleep and a lay in until 8:30 she and I head to town to open a joint bank account - and that proved difficult! My account has been good for decades but no one can see us. Sorry HSBC, not this time! We head to a branch of her spot - they try but not possible today, sorry TSB, not you either. Set up an account online with Lloyds and going to confirm with ID at branch! Simples.... Then have Virgin on the phone - a new department that looks after and rewards loyalty. He confessed that the use 'chatbots' on the online stuff and the algorithm isn't set up well, and the outsource a customer services department and have had too many complaints! Loyalty should be rewarded for that, not chased as new business is gettimng a better deal is my line of thought. He agrees and then tells me 'what you could've won!' Nice......to be told that the offer has been upgraded to same TV and broadband, drop the unused phone line and pay £49.99 per month with the first month free is another kick in the gonads! Folks, go to your suppliers and get a better deal! As for taking the day off, she had a snooze after dinner and I have done a rook of emails and phone calls! Wished I could find the 'off' button. She doing night shift at EMA for a few days so I'm on my own with an early start to Hay on Wye via Alcester tomorrow.

Freak

Arena

I tried, again, to sort out my Virgin bundle. I felt that the money I was paying is too much for what I was getting or needed. I contacted them via their web chat and to cut a long story short, they couldn't help as I wanted to keep BT sport which isn't available at the sort of cost I felt I was comfortable with. I got hold of BT and arranged a bundle with them with a slower internet speed but still manageable and the sport channels that I wanted and the channels that she wanted too. I then rang Virgin to serve them 30 day notice. Their adviser told me that I was making a mistake going to that package at BT! Then told me that the internet speed was too slow and that I could have the same deal with Virgin if had only spoken to them! Nice way to deal with people!!! She finished at two so we went up to hers to see her family. The daughter is working in the pub so we had a couple of drinks and her mum made some supper - the jobs are stacking up at Wood Lane as well as Shepshed. I got to do some treework up there as well as put the Grey Fergie in an already full shed as well as another three mowers etc! Binned work tomorrow, she is off until a late start so we can spend some time together!

Games

A pretty usual Saturday to be honest - set out with some good intentions to spend time getting the Hot Rod going but end up doing the housework, washing, ironing etc! The rugby has been on TV all afternoon, I've watched a couple of matches and it was good to see Leicester Tigers win at home last night. Wished I had got a ticket or two and had a few beers on the terrace. Must get into that habit - even if she is not able to come as she has to get to bed early with work...Up at 02:30 again tomorrow - so I'll have another evening on my own in front of the box with a glass or two of wine! Funny life some people lead in how they work etc....I don't know whether I mentioned this earlier but I seem to be very much in the minority workwise. I've only had two full time jobs since 1982 and both have paid me more than adequately, both I've had a great deal of enjoyment doing, both have allowed me to enjoy a measure of success and be good at it and both have, while they been hard work, allowed me not to have worked shifts! And they have both allowed and encouraged a mechanical 'bent' to come to the fore. I just wished I had some more time to do all the projects that I have scattered about at home! Tom has acquired another Subaru engine - I wondered why he had been industriously cleaning patio area and other such jobs like trying to tidy the garage out etc. This one has been rebuilt before so we will see how far he goes with it! He has driven off into the sunset to see some car buddies at a car thing in Kent tonight! Muppet!

maine

slice

I just got told that there is a central hub which communicates with the various ECU units in the car. If this central hub starts to break down then the MMI starts to not receive or display all the settings. Mine had no screen for air suspension and this box is one issue and the compressor may now have overheated and bust.

If the ECU isn't in, nothing works. It has a central communication hub which talks to all of the other ECU units in the car and if that is fried then other things start to go wrong. This hub has broken on mine, csusing, or at least possibly, the messages from other ECU units to fail to get through.

Interest

Woke up with her at 3am and didn't get to sleep again so feeling a little jaded! A couple of emails done and a trip to the dental hygienist for a scrapexand polish. Very lucky teethwise, had four fillings 40 years ago, they all fell out, never redone and all is good! A check up cost a pound per second as there is not to worry about and the hygienist was 3 minutes long! Then went to see the Q7, I'm told that it would appear that brought a lemon! The list of fault codes related to just about everything available! The device that talks to everything is goosed and is 600sobs. That then allows him access to everything else including the suspension compressor, which may be burnt out! Not what I wanted to hear! That's another 1500 more! I rang the firm that I brought it from and they will consider their position...... I had a trip to the factory then to unload trailer and test a prototype. Inadequate in my opinion! Found some unexpected faults in some other stuff which was disappointing too! Went home via the eye people. Our new glasses were ready for collection. My day to day specs were awful! Couldn't see anything close with them! Dissatisfied with the day.... Time for a wine or two! She up at silky o'clock again too! Enjoy your weekend folks!

Try putting the part number into a search engine - I've done that before with something else.

Don't know for sure as I don't have an A3, but, the mesh stuff doesn't look like a windbreak to me, more of a load seperator/dog gaurd type of thing. Try looking for a comparison on ebay or some such.

Wouldn't know where to start with this! When you mean 'aftermarket', are they Audi units sourced from elsewhere or units that fit but made by ANOther? Do they have a maker's ID somewhere on them that you can google? How about putting up a picture?

Hoist

After a decent night's sleep and a tasty breakfast, I went to Lanarkshire council to fester around with this tractor mounted chipper. They had most of the work done for me! A small amount of work and it works! They tried themselves but failed so I looked smart! This unit is to replace the towed one that they had two years ago but was stolen from out of their yard. It amazes me the length or commitment that thrives amongst the thieving population! Then a stop to catch up on some phone calls, a visit to the receptionist of another customer who doesn't see Reps, then the drive home starts. The Ranger was towing approx 2,750kg upwards and 2,000kg downwards. Covered over 800 miles, averaged 19.5 to the gallon and used an estimated 1200 miles worth of AdBlue. Though, I am slightly concerned as, occasionally, we appeared to be towing some smoke too! I left Glasgow services close to 12:30 and got to Shepshed at 18:30, this was non stop apart from the obligatory 45 minutes of Taco break. She got to be up at stupid o'clock again to look for evil spirits and bombs again so an early night is in order. Night All!

Fork

Obviously, last nights wifi wasn't strong enough to get the post up! I had a call at a contractors in Motherwell to make, but, traffic locally was awful so left that for tomorrow. I had to drop a unit at Gammies in Forfar then back heading southwards with calls in Perth, Kinross and get sorted for tomorrow's efforts. I got a few emails to do in the evening which is usual for a rep to do.... The diary is right busy over the next two weeks, which it should be usual for this time of year, but frustrating with another couple of days promoting and delivering in Scotland again next week and not sure when I can get my hands on some kit.... My dealer in Brum wanted a machine for a demo - I agreed, knowing my colleague has it booked from Monday, thinking that a demo is anything from an hour to a day or there abouts. You get a feel whether it passes the audition fairly quickly! The dealer's Rep and his customer, collected it today from the factory and glibly said in front of my staff and the customer "sure you can keep this on site for a week, give you a good chance of getting that job done". He has done this to me before and it lead to some 'unseemly' words as he just assumes that he can behave that way with our asset. It needs to back on Friday morning to be checked over for Monday ..... Was hoping to call on my railway contractors that are based in Scotland but that may have to wait. I will be heading south, smartly at dinner time and hope to be back in Shepshed before 19:00....

The trip to Selkirk took longer than I thought and I got there at 11:00, rolled the machine off the trailer and set off in the Rep's truck to this golf club that wanted to see us. They are looking at a £30k machine! It works well and they are happy with it and then the bomb shell - they are looking for purchase after next April and they have to convince the owners of the club that it is £30k well spent! Usually, the committee will spend that and loads more on grass cutting cut but I doubt that a woodchipper will be on their list. We had hoped for an earlier decision and order. They used to have the estate woodyard come in for treework etc, but once the estate sold them off, they got told to manage and that is a major undertaking when there main job is golf course maintenance of grass, bunker etc. Back at the yard in Selkirk, we then modify the pickup hitch on a tractor mounted chipper as it is too close to the tractor and the PTO shaft is at such an angle, it bust the UJ. The new pick up is one but it only modified the bottom and not the top. True to form, the top link is now too short! I cannot understand why we only did the bottom when I told them that top needed doing too! No other implement that I know of has the top hitch further away than the bottom. I can only get the dealer to source a longer top link and hope for the best. Then a drive along the A708 towards Moffat - what a drive! Have a look on Google Earth. I got to stay in a hotel by Strathclyde Park - close to the local authority who need me to train them on their newly acquired chipper. I rang to confirm things only to discover that they had got the dates wrong and they will be there on Thursday! Oh well, good carvery for tea and a couple of Stellas! She has gone to have a couple of days at her spot - she usually gets there and the house is a tip! Her kids aren't the best at cooking and cleaning! The cryptic message on my service about my Q7 didn't fill me with happiness, something about 'several things wrong and we need to talk - best if you come down to the garage so I can show you...'

Christmas

Holiday