Category: Uncategorised

I found out about this beautiful car thanks to The Grand Tour’s, Eurocrash special, in which ‘the boys’ – well, ok, old men – travel from Poland to Slovenia.

Jezza’s large frame and portly belly find him getting stuck in a Formula Easter car at one point earlier in the same show. And frankly, it’s pretty surprising he fits in this sleek little number.

The remainder of the pics of this little doozy come from Skoda’s own web pages on the machine.

I mean… you gotta dig those wire wheels. And the lines are positively shark like. One can easily understand Clarkson’s rapturous reveries.

Read more about it in Wikipedia, here. And I’m always interested in finding out whether such things exist in model form (as that’s as close as in likes to get!). All I could find is this.

Been so busy working, and doing the bedroom floor, this Tiger tank project has had to wait.

I put some axles in the bottom of the hull. The only thing I could find of approx’ the right diameter was some old very soft solder wire.

My first attempt at the engine itself – above – was way too tiny. And ultimately got scrapped, and turned instead into an inverted engine base/support. See below.

So I had to rebuild a far bigger engine, pictured above. I decided to built just a top slice, so to speak. As what lays below will be unseen, mostly. This was hard work, but fun. And I had ample opportunities to use various sized hole-punches from the set I recently acquired.

The above pic shows a trial fitting. Whilst it’s nice to see the engine more or less in situ, it’s definitely sitting too low at present. I also note that I’m going to need to build some of the front detail up, as this will be visible.

So the engine comes back out. And tomorrow I’ll do some front detailing. Then there’s all the little oddments of detail I’ll need to add to the internal walls and tops of the compartments. At present they’re way too plain/blank.

All good clean fun! And very enjoyable.

Much more than half in love with easeful death…

FOOTNOTE: (8/2/‘24)

Well, I’m still here. But I posted the above, fairly obviously, in a moment of deep dark depression. such moments have been too frequent, alas, in my life. And in the last year they’ve plumbed new depths. Prior to this I only really thought about suicide. But in the last 12-18 months I’ve attempted it. Twice.

It’s kind of embarrassing to leave this post in public view. But I feel that I ought to. Such things are, sadly, a part of many people’s lives. And sometimes their deaths. And having this out in the open might help someone, be that me, or whoever, to see that such things usually pass.

Hmmm!? Apparently this ‘new’ Beatles track is an old unused demo, of a song by John Lennon. And, so I’ve read, rather as tech’ was used by Peter Jackson recently, on the Beatles film (?), this allegedly uses AI, to flesh out the meagre source material.

It’s quite a nice if rather maudlin ditty. I don’t mind it. But I’m not crazy about it either. The biggest problem for me is it smacks somewhat – as does so much ‘cultural production’ these days – of…

Myaah… I can’t be arsed! Read other folks reactions. They range from enraptured to (almost) enraged! GOAT often gets bandied around in relation to The Beatles. They’ve never been that for me. Merely a very good and very popular ‘beat combo’, with a better than average songbook.

I took up the carpet, in the ‘master bedroom’, over the last few days. We’ve been here nearly eight years, and I’ve been wanting to do this since day one!

The old Victorian floorboards are all long gone, alas. Instead we have chipboard floors. And, rather weirdly, the name Billy appeared, in one corner, once the carpet was gone.

I did a layer of grey underpants… er, I mean undercoat! And then a layer of ‘heavy duty floor paint’. Both shades o’ grey (albeit not 50).

And I did all this after an evening delivery shift (5.45-9.15pm).

Once I’d got to the point pictured above, I took a break. I then resumed, but took no more pics. I opted to move all but one of the larger chests of drawers (that’s three out of four!), and paint where they sit.

This still means I’m tackling the floor piecemeal; the room’s too heavily in constant use to simply clear it. Plus there’s too much stuff and not enough space to do so anyway. So I’ll have to work around stuff.

The undercoat was dry in next to no time. The heavy duty floor paint needs a whole lot longer to dry. I’ll be checking in on it tomorrow – which is actually now later today! Pics of that to follow…

Went to the doc’ today.

Several reasons, inc. renewing Co-codamol prescription. It’s always a struggle to persuade them that I need this drug. I think it’s because known as addictive. Anyway, I succeeded.

Another reason was this ‘orrid looking thing – see above pic – that’s appeared recently on my lower right leg. Any and all new/weird lumps and bumps always bring a ‘big C’ scare

I’m waiting to hear what the professionals make of it (via my pic!). Maybe they’ll need to take a better look? One would hope so!

Today was a really weird day. I’m drawing to the end of a course of 13 counselling sessions, that have been really helpful for me.

Overall, I feel I’ve made massive progress. But every now and again, like just now, in the last day or two. I can feel awfully, no, indeed, appallingly depressed.

Not only that, but I also have physical dimensions to my ailments. I have psoriasis, and psoriatic arthritis. Both of which are very effectively treated by the sea medications that I take.

But nonetheless they do take a toll on me. Perhaps even the treatments, as much as the illnesses? Probably this is manifested primarily in terms of energy. Or a distinct lack thereof.

I spent all of today until about midday in bed, sleeping. And there’s so much that needs to be done. Both that I want to do. And that I simply have to do. So I really haven’t got time to be just sleeping the day away.

Anyway, when I finally emerged, from the cozy cocoon of bed, I decided to tackle a more fundamental job then I had hitherto intended. I would take up the old carpet in our bedroom (we’re also trying to de-flea our house).

It’s filthy, ages old, totally not our tastes, and frankly, disgusting and depressing to contemplate. But the issue is our bedroom is so full of stuff that it’s barely possible to move. Never mind do a big job like that.

So, of course, removing the old carpet entailed moving tons of stuff. An activity that, on a daily basis, I waste masses of time on. Nevertheless, I got on with the job. But soon enough I discovered I didn’t have the appropriate tools.

One of the things I needed was a four-way extension cable (or more, but four at the very least). We have loads of these, but they are generally all full of plugs that I don’t want to disconnect, or I simply can’t find them. So I bought a new, one very cheap (£4), from Boyes.

But getting onto the more specific tool area, I had tried using a Stanley knife to cut into the carpet. But all my Stanley knives are old and rusty/dull-bladed. A quick trip to ScrewFix sorted this out, however.

Whilst there – and enquiring about extension cables that have USB sockets built-in – another guy at the counter enlightened me, re carpet cutting; what I needed was a hook blade. So I bought a pack of these (£2.49, I think?). And, sho’ nuff, once back home, they did the job like a dream. It was, to use an old cliche, like slicing through warm butter!

The above are two of many folders, and suchlike similar baggage, that I’ve been carrying around for years. I’ve never gone back to their contents, except to have a look. So they’re useless. Today I’m burning them.

Rather unpleasantly I found this dead rat, whilst preparing my fire. It went on to the pyre.

It always feels good to purge oneself of such detritus. I do t do it near enough! Talking of purging… I need to ‘log on’, in the medieval sense.

Teresa asked me to design the Halloween pumpkin. As usual, I’ve gone with a simple traditional design.

I drew the design. She cut it out. And she used the innards to make pumpkin pie. Pumpkin, to light the evening, and pumpkin pie, to eat.

I picked Teresa up from work, at the local railway station. It was very musty or foggy. Quite aptly spooky. And on the drive home see stopped to look at a particularly fancy display.

Once home, Teresa and I picked The Pit And The Pendulum, for our televisual entertainment. Price – as both Nicholas and Sebastian Medino – is, well… priceless!

This 1961 International Pictures ‘classic’ is the second in a trilogy of Poe adaptations. We also have the first (The Fall of the House of Usher), but not the third (The Tomb of Ligiea).

This amazing building gets its own post.

What an amazing building. I can’t help feeling that these awesome and inspiring spaces need to be repurposed somehow. Perhaps, in the vein of Alain de Botton’s Religion For Atheists, as secular spaces for ‘sociology-spiritual’ well-being?