Thursday, February 26, 2004
What is it with Tuesdays? The stats always suddenly double, and then fall away again. And Keane must be reaching far and wide (that's when they're not getting stuck on a loop in my head). Strangely I'm not the only person who mishears that line, people as far away as Hungary and Lebanon do as well (and, yes, the .lb had me confused for a while too, not least because I couldn't figure out what pounds have to do with anything). See near the end of the January 10th posting for more details.
And who at University College, Dublin, thought Garfunkel was a good name for a computer?
Should I start worrying, as swimming both yesterday and the day before has made me have the same pain in my throat, as I got last week. But on the other hand I am getting quicker at doing my, by now, obligatory 1,000m. But that might just be because I've learnt to push of the sides harder. It's a bit disconcerting when you pass the 15m line (in 25m pool) before you've surfaced.
So what's the third thing? Driving back from swimming yesterday and my car decided to started accelerating entirely on it's own. Twice. Which isn't fun, when you realise you're not quite in control, and so have to try and stop with an engine that's revving frantically. My response consists of braking, taking it out of gear, sticking my hazard warning lights on, turning the engine off. And hoping that the guy behind isn't too close. And then realising that the car behind looks suspiciously like someone I know (but as she was hard on my tail when I was unintentionally speeding...). Oh well.
The first time I assumed it must be the pedal getting caught on something (it was always happening to the Fiesta I learnt to drive in. Not going to buy a Ford in hurry), as the choke was in completely. So I tried to pull the pedal up as far as it would go, but it didn't seem to be down anyway. So I waited for the traffic to clear, and restarted the engine. It seems fine, so I drive off slowly.
Going up the hill outside the house, and the car does it again, this time much higher revs. It screams as I take her out of gear. So having stopped I turn the engine off, wiggle the pedal and try again. The engine starts at the same revs it was doing before. Turn it off. It can't be the choke, as it doesn’t rev that high when it's out fully. The accelerator pedal won't move up, but moves down and back up fine. So restart the engine, and she chugs normally. I go and park her a space further up than the usual one, as I don't fancy trying to manoeuvre round cars if I can't control the acceleration.
I then do the traditional thing, and ask my parents what they think it could be (as it they used to own it, until it managed not to fail the MOT, at which point I got handed it). Apparently it's had the revs refusing to budge above a certain level before, and that was the carburettor sticking, but never had the revs refusing to fall, and increasing slightly on their own (But I'm not sure if the last bit was entirely independent of stuff I was doing).
So I've got to take it to the garage at some point (so they can prod and go "ah...", and wait for you to suggest a fault, which they point they'll say "you know, I think it could be", and go and amend whatever you suggested regardless of whether it's connected to the problem), but I haven't sorted it out yet.
And then yesterday evening I got rung up by my father to say that his clutch had gone, and he couldn't take his car out of gear. According to the AA-man (via my father) it's fault Skoda knew about, and there'd been a recall, which the local dealership should have mentioned when it was recalled quite a while ago. Except the last my parents heard from the dealership was an invoice for the annual service. So much for customer care.
Which leaves one more and thing to come (due to them coming in threes, even though I wouldn't say I'm superstitious, it's just that bad things do come in threes). Which given the other two were to do with the clutch and accelerator, leaves one obvious candidate. Which isn't a good system to have fail. So this may be a case of "touch wood". I'm not doing well on scientific scepticism today, I am?
So on to happy news. You just gotta love this government [cos it's the law]. Fancy a wee holiday in Tanzania?
Would you mind speaking up a bit, some of us didn't quite catch that. [Don't worry it's ok - the Americans told us to].
Hmm, think happy thoughts.
Except I can't because I'm still annoyed that "A suitable boy" did not finish how I'd would have expected or wanted. Actually having finished it yesterday, it still feels like there ought to be more to it, that it hasn't finished, that there are so many plots and sub-plots left trailing, that there must be another twist just around the corner, that there must be more.
And there bloody well isn't. This annoys me.
Random quote from it - not because it's relevant (I hope), but just because I laughed when I saw it, and tend to agree (and I'm sure other people have written it better before): ...there are always people willing to believe anything, however implausible, merely in order to be contrary.
Now if I followed this up with discussion of the emails passed betwixt MiF [see Monday's post] and myself, what might that unintentionally imply?
Anyhoo,
PS. Looking up links for "A suitable boy", I came across this profile. And went "oh, so that's why...". A lot. So much of the book is playing with themes in his own life. Well I did wonder at certain points, but I didn't know about his life, and so didn't make the connection.
And who at University College, Dublin, thought Garfunkel was a good name for a computer?
Should I start worrying, as swimming both yesterday and the day before has made me have the same pain in my throat, as I got last week. But on the other hand I am getting quicker at doing my, by now, obligatory 1,000m. But that might just be because I've learnt to push of the sides harder. It's a bit disconcerting when you pass the 15m line (in 25m pool) before you've surfaced.
So what's the third thing? Driving back from swimming yesterday and my car decided to started accelerating entirely on it's own. Twice. Which isn't fun, when you realise you're not quite in control, and so have to try and stop with an engine that's revving frantically. My response consists of braking, taking it out of gear, sticking my hazard warning lights on, turning the engine off. And hoping that the guy behind isn't too close. And then realising that the car behind looks suspiciously like someone I know (but as she was hard on my tail when I was unintentionally speeding...). Oh well.
The first time I assumed it must be the pedal getting caught on something (it was always happening to the Fiesta I learnt to drive in. Not going to buy a Ford in hurry), as the choke was in completely. So I tried to pull the pedal up as far as it would go, but it didn't seem to be down anyway. So I waited for the traffic to clear, and restarted the engine. It seems fine, so I drive off slowly.
Going up the hill outside the house, and the car does it again, this time much higher revs. It screams as I take her out of gear. So having stopped I turn the engine off, wiggle the pedal and try again. The engine starts at the same revs it was doing before. Turn it off. It can't be the choke, as it doesn’t rev that high when it's out fully. The accelerator pedal won't move up, but moves down and back up fine. So restart the engine, and she chugs normally. I go and park her a space further up than the usual one, as I don't fancy trying to manoeuvre round cars if I can't control the acceleration.
I then do the traditional thing, and ask my parents what they think it could be (as it they used to own it, until it managed not to fail the MOT, at which point I got handed it). Apparently it's had the revs refusing to budge above a certain level before, and that was the carburettor sticking, but never had the revs refusing to fall, and increasing slightly on their own (But I'm not sure if the last bit was entirely independent of stuff I was doing).
So I've got to take it to the garage at some point (so they can prod and go "ah...", and wait for you to suggest a fault, which they point they'll say "you know, I think it could be", and go and amend whatever you suggested regardless of whether it's connected to the problem), but I haven't sorted it out yet.
And then yesterday evening I got rung up by my father to say that his clutch had gone, and he couldn't take his car out of gear. According to the AA-man (via my father) it's fault Skoda knew about, and there'd been a recall, which the local dealership should have mentioned when it was recalled quite a while ago. Except the last my parents heard from the dealership was an invoice for the annual service. So much for customer care.
Which leaves one more and thing to come (due to them coming in threes, even though I wouldn't say I'm superstitious, it's just that bad things do come in threes). Which given the other two were to do with the clutch and accelerator, leaves one obvious candidate. Which isn't a good system to have fail. So this may be a case of "touch wood". I'm not doing well on scientific scepticism today, I am?
So on to happy news. You just gotta love this government [cos it's the law]. Fancy a wee holiday in Tanzania?
Would you mind speaking up a bit, some of us didn't quite catch that. [Don't worry it's ok - the Americans told us to].
Hmm, think happy thoughts.
Except I can't because I'm still annoyed that "A suitable boy" did not finish how I'd would have expected or wanted. Actually having finished it yesterday, it still feels like there ought to be more to it, that it hasn't finished, that there are so many plots and sub-plots left trailing, that there must be another twist just around the corner, that there must be more.
And there bloody well isn't. This annoys me.
Random quote from it - not because it's relevant (I hope), but just because I laughed when I saw it, and tend to agree (and I'm sure other people have written it better before): ...there are always people willing to believe anything, however implausible, merely in order to be contrary.
Now if I followed this up with discussion of the emails passed betwixt MiF [see Monday's post] and myself, what might that unintentionally imply?
Anyhoo,
PS. Looking up links for "A suitable boy", I came across this profile. And went "oh, so that's why...". A lot. So much of the book is playing with themes in his own life. Well I did wonder at certain points, but I didn't know about his life, and so didn't make the connection.
