Three cars, two of them dead.

Aaaaaarrrrrrgh!! Another dead battery in the Honda! Completely flat. Bereft of life, it’s nailed to the perch. That’s the third time in a year. At around $200 a time, this is too expensive.

What have I done wrong? Left the lights on? No, I checked the switches. Did I leave a door ajar? No, not that I can see. The horrible thought is that there’s an intermittent battery drain fault, and tracking that down would be almost impossible.

I’ll put it on the charger, but I fear the worst.

The other dead car is the Verada. Yeah, still. It’s got the fault that it will start OK for about two seconds, but then stops. Try again, same. I found the “martybugs” article today and I’m pretty sure it describes my problem, so at least I know where to look. But it talks about a connector deep under the dash. I can’t get down there, not a hope. I’ll call the RAC and get them to take it to their workshops. Even if it costs me, it’ll be worth it.

So both problems are fixable, but I’m a bit tired of having these hassles.

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I’ve talked about the sensitive tyre pressure monitoring system in the Peugeot, where it seems to only take a drop of 0,1Bar to trigger the alarm. (32psi = 2,2Bar). It’s gone off twice so far, once on the left front, the second on the right rear.

Well, Wunderbar, it’s triggered again. What wheel will it be this time? I guess it’s a good thing that it warns me, but I’m getting a bit “tyred” of this. Pardon the pun-cture. Hissssss.

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I’ve had a car cigarette lighter socket to USB adapter for a year or two which is constantly losing its connection, so that my GPS navigator dies until I wiggle the adapter. OK, they’re cheap, I’ll just buy another one, which I did from the Chinese Wish web site. About $4.

Aaaarrrrrrgh, would you believe I can’t even get it to hold the connection for more than a second or two. What do I have to do???

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Batteries again. I have a Sony Clié Personal Digital Assistant from 15 years ago. I never use it, but it’s a very neat device and I think people would buy it on eBay, so I want to get it ready for sale. But it uses a unique battery. Mine died years ago (there’s a story there!)

So for the past few years I’ve been trying to buy a new battery. What I’ve found is that many advertise, but few are able. To supply, that is. They’ll all take your order, and sometimes your money, but in every case so far, they refund my money with either a curt “No stock” or no words at all.

But the latest one has taken my money (A$35.84 back in April) and despite confirming my order with an order number and telling me it’s been despatched (with no result), my emails just bounce. I have two email addresses but neither works. So it looks like I’ve done my dosh. I do have web addresses, so I guess I’ll just try again. Sigh. At least $35 is not too big a loss.

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On the other hand, a few months ago, I paid for a digital telecine (a Super 8 movie film to digital converter). This was A$79. Again, nothing has arrived so I’ll have to find my order and chase it up.

I’ve realised that both these were bought using PayPal, so I stand a chance of getting my money back, especially if I threaten them with a bad review. Hmmm.