A Sad Day

Today is a very sad day.

The Lardmobile has been diagnosed with "Big End Failure". Basically it is uneconomic to repair. The cost of repair is more than the car is worth. Which means, It's gotta go. . . :(

Now I've got to find the cash to get myself a new car.

Bollocks!!!

New Website design and Lardmobile Stuff

I decided to do a new design for this page, I got the bug after spending the weekend doing Joanne's new site. It literally took an hour to get the new theme sorted. Rapidweaver is great. I wan't to learn CSS, now, so I can design my own themes from scratch.

I borrowed Peters Land Rover today. I'll need it for work, as the Lardmobile stilll isn't fixed. I jump started it from the Land Rover and there was a terrible knocking from the engine and loads of burning diesel fumes. I think it must be a snapped rocker, not opening the exhaust valve on one of the cylinders. It started, and ran quite well so I took it 'round to Warrington Diesels and left it outside at 10pm. It would only do 30mph, and I didn't want to chance driving it, during rush hour, in the morning. I'll have to get up early and book it in.

Hopefully, if it is a snapped rocker, it wont break the bank. If it is something more serious, and costs a fortune to fix, I'll have to think about getting something else. Something a lot smaller and more economical. Possibly a Suzuki Carry, The little 1.3 "micro-van". . .
We'll have to see.

Building Websites

I've just spent the last 24 hours putting together a new website for my friend Jo. She's a photographer, and specialises in portraiture and reportage work. The site is still under construction, but will contain lots of examples of her work.

You can visit her site at joanneroberts.org.uk

How to rip a DVD to an iPod

I've just added a very short tutorial to the site.
Using free software it is possible to copy a DVD to your iPod with just a few clicks of your mouse.
I'm not saying you should be pirating videos here. All I'm saying is; If you own the DVD you should be allowed to watch it on any device capable. Seeing as the DVD just contains data. You should be allowed to view that data on your iPod. How many times did you copy an LP to a cassette for the car? It's just the same as far as I'm concerned.

Lardmobile Problems Again

I should be in work now. But I'm at home.

The Lardmobile packed in on the M62 as I was travelling into Liverpool. It might be an injector or it might be something else, but whatever it is. It's broke. I phoned the RAC at 18:49 and I was finally picked up at 20:45. Nearly a two hour response time. Anyway I got brought home on the back of a low loader and now I'm trying to find a garage who will fix it . . cheap! :(

In the meantime I've lost 12 hours overtime and I'm in desperate need of a car.

Eight Days A Week!

Well . . . Three days, and five nights really.

I'm just about to start the last night of my epic week at work. I've been doing 12 and 13 hour shifts, and I'm about to clock a 100 hour week!

Just as I was getting into it too.

Save The Cheerleader, Save The World!

I virtually never watch the telly. I'm strictly a radio man. But I'm obsessed with "Heroes".
I've even ordered the box set of series 1 from Canada cos I can't wait a week to see the next episode. The Cliff hanger ending gets me every time.
I missed an episode last week and now i'm refusing to watch this week's episode because I don't want to spoil it. So, even though there's still about 20 episodes to go, I'm going on a HEROES fast until my special parcel arrives from Toronto.
I've even tried to stop time and travel back to last week just to see episode 4. But it's not working . . . Yet!

Slideshow added

I've added another little slideshow. Click on the Images tab in the navigation bar or just click HERE.
All photo's are by Lloyd. All are light trail shots taken from the front passenger seat of The Lardmobile, as we were driving from Corpach to Glenfinnan.

Last night I saw a shooting star

I was working last night, and during one of my breaks, I looked up into the sky. A police helicopter was hovering above the city, its searchlight trained on some stolen car, no doubt.
When: quite literally; out of the blue, a streak of light streamed across the night sky. A shooting star.
I couldn't wait to get home, and tell the world.
So, here I am, telling the world, about my rare experience. Only to be soured by the fact that, about a million shooting stars, were spotted last night, as they are every year around this time.
Apparently the earth travels through the tail of a comet every August and that's why we get shooting stars. . . So they're not even stars then???

Lardmobile Problems

I've been having a few problems with The Lardmobile, recently. It's losing water, and the last time that happened the cylinder head gasket went. :( .
Anyway, tonight I drove about a mile up the road and the temperature gauge suddenly shot up to HOT HOT HOT! So i pulled into ASDA's carpark and topped the radiator up, with about 7 and a half litres of water :( Then I checked the oil. Two Dipsticks?!?!? One was OK the other was empty. Yipes!!!

So, out came the oil can and in went about 3 litres of oil. Checked dipstick's again. One rather high, and one EMPTY. . . Erm!?!

So I thought I'd go home and wait till the morning. Err Nope. The Lardmobile refused to start. I walked home and hoped, (by the power of "The Secret"), that it would just be a flat battery. But why did it suddenly go flat. I'd just topped up with oil and water and then the battery is flat?!?! It doesen't make any sense to me. I thought I had put too much oil in, and a sensor was stopping the engine from turning. Anyway I decided to go back and call the RAC out. That was at 10.30pm last night. The guy turned up at 00.15 this morning. He thought that the cylinder head gasket had gone. Then he thought that I'd probably put the oil in the transmission fluid tank. So that's what the second dipstick is for :D .

Yep I've got NO TRANSMISSION FLUID in my gearbox. Make note to self "get Transmission Fluid NOW!"

Anyway I said: "Could it just be a flat battery? . . . Please!?!

He was dubious: but got that box of electricity thingy, out of the back of his van; connected it to the battery. I turned the key and Bingo! The Lardmobile started :D.

Mr RAC stuck around for a bit just incase the temperature went loopy again (It didn't), and he decided that all that was needed was a bit of a run to charge the battery up and SOME TRANSMISSION FLUID!!!. Oh and get the water leak fixed!

Happy Days!

mikeys-art.biz

I'm back on Continental Shifts. More money and more days off. I've been spending today, rebuilding my mikeys-art.biz site. Some time in the future I think I'll add an online shop, and start selling my paintings.

Talking of online shops. the Apple Store has just emailed me with details of the new iMac's. Aluminium cases and keyboards and only in two sizes. 20" and 24". They've also launced iLife 08 which includes an updated version of iWeb. They've added more styles and stuff, but it doesn't look too much different from iWeb 06. I suppose i'll find out when i get 'round to buying it, when Leopard is launced in October.

But the best news is Rapidweaver 3.7 has been announced as a free upgrade. This will only run on Leopard. I can't wait until October. I am getting geekier every day.

Back Home

Well I'm back.

My first proper holiday for,God knows how long? The seven hour journey to Fort William turned into a NINE HOUR EPIC! We were stuck in traffic on the M6 after only travelling for about 30mins. We sat there and moved 4 miles in just over an hour. As usual the cause of the jam was nothing? Why is it, that when you get to the front of a queue of traffic, you can never find the cause of the jam? After leaving at 9am, we finally got to the cabin at 6.30pm. We were on Linnhe Lochside Park. Two miles up the road from Fort William, at Corpach. The camp is situated right on the bank of Loch Eil. A few beers and some food gave me a new lease of life, so I went down to the Loch side and had a wander along the pebble beach. I took a few shots, as the sun was going down, then retreated back home to escape the midges. Then i discovered that I had forgotten the charger for the laptop, so I had to transfer my photo's to my iPod.

The following day we took a drive up to Loch Ness. We stopped at Castle Urquhart. It would have cost over £30 for us to visit the ruin, So we decided to give it a miss, and drove a couple of miles up the road, to Drumnadrochit. The town of a thousand gift shops . . . If I ever see another cuddly "Nessie", I'll scream. I didn't even take a photo of Loch Ness. I realised that I wasn't going to get much of a chance to photograph stuff, on this holiday. I'll have to come on my own if I'm going to play at being a photographer.

Day Three and we took a short drive up to Loch Shiel to see the Glenfinnan Monument and the famous Viaduct. This is where one of my memory cards died. I've got nothing to show for it. Then we followed the road to Arisaig, A tiny coastal village. The road is one of the most spectacular drives in Britain. It would be fantastic in a little sports car. It was just as good in a two and a half ton Lardmobile. We had our lunch in "The Old Library Lodge". Walked along the jetty and then drove back.

Day Four was just a lazy day shopping in Fort William. I finally got the chance to take some more photographs around Loch Eil. I was overcome with a great tiredness and went to bed in the afternoon for a well earned kip.

Day Five. MORE DRIVING! We drove along Loch Linnhe and then took the road to Kinlochleven. Another spectacular drive with amazing views of Glen Coe across Loch Leven. Kinlochleven it's self was a bit of a disapointment. A bit of a one horse town. I stayed in The Lardmobile and read.

Day Six Yep Driving again! Although this was a really good drive! North from Corpach along the A830 and then back along the opposite bank of Loch Eil. Then along the edge of Loch Linnhe on the A861 and up to Strontian. I'm sure I've seen this road on Top Gear! There were loads of signs on trees and posts, for the next few miles, pledging support for Doctor Buchanan. We spent the next few hours wondering what he/she needed support for!?! The road then goes north through more spectacular scenery skirting Loch Moidart and Loch Ailort (Across the bay from Arisaig and then rejoins the A830. We drove back to the cabin for another night in.

I've never slept so much in all my life and I ate like a horse all week.

Day Seven. Another day in Fort William. The only proper rain we've had all week. Then we visited "Treasures of the Earth" in Corpach. It was like something from Southport Fair in the 60's. A museum full of Gem Stones and precious metals. As it was our last night we ordered a massive Chinese Banquet from the local takeaway. Excellent.

Day Eight Well it was just the journey home. . . I was knackered as I'd been woken up at 4am and couldn't get back to sleep. We left Fort William at 9.30am and finally arrived back in Liverpool at 4.30pm. I need another holiday to get over this one. Total distance driven 1880 km's (1168 miles).