2022 Trip – Day 2

Distance Average Speed Max Speed 49 km 15.9 km/h 26.9 km/h The day got off to a bad start! Last night I set my alarm clock to Finland time. Unfortunately, since it is radio controlled, some time during the night it set itself back to UK time so when it went off at 08:00, it was actually 10:00 in Finland! After a rather late breakfast I reviewed my maps with Timo. I say this every time I come, but I

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2022 Trip – Day 1

The moral of today’s story is never to rely on a bus to get you to an airport! After a reasonable night at a Heathrow hotel I gathered outside the front door at 0820 for the once per hour bus to the terminals. With a last check-in time of 0930 and a travel time of about 15 minutes this seemed just fine. However, by 0855 there was still no sign of the bus and the small group gathered to wait

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Camera repaired – Again!!

Regular readers will recall that back in early 2020 my Pentax K50 DSLR developed the dreaded “aperture block” fault and that I repaired it by replacing the faulty electromagnet with one purchased on eBay. Readers may also recall that sadly this was a short lived repair and that the problem returned a little over a year later. Investigating the issue online, I came across this extremely useful post. The first half explains how to replace the magnet, which I already

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Replacing the front top mounts on the Fiesta

Another year and another MOT for my old Fiesta. As usual, it failed and this time the problem was the front offside top mount which was apparently badly worn. I also got an advisory for the other three together with both front springs. With the weather being cold I decided to buy the parts for both sides of the front suspension but only fit the failed offside for now. Since I would have to remove the springs in order to

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Blasted Golf door lock

It is often assumed, by those who don’t engage in car maintenance, that fixing the engine must be the most difficult task. However, in my experience the areas which give the greatest difficulty are either parts of the suspension which – being exposed to the road – become badly rusted or, worse of all, doors! The people who design engines organise for the thing to be held together with a sensible sequence of bolts which can be clearly seen and

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Английские эвфемизмы

Как известно, англичане стесняются рубить правду-матку, и их язык изобилует эвфемизмами. Скетч про мертвого попугая из “Монти Пайтон” дает великолепную подборку эвфемизмов про смерть. Но это далеко не единственная тема, которую неловко обсуждать в приличном обществе.