Lucky I’ve got more than one car. Lucky I haven’t caught COVID. Lucky I’m not renting. Lucky I get the pension. Lucky I don’t have arthritis, or psoriasis, or food allergies, or addictions … I do count myself very, very fortunate.

______________________________________________

I got a call from the RAC today to tell me that, in regard to the Peugeot 407, they’d received the radiator hose from “the east” and fitted it, then pressure tested the cooling system and found another leaking hose. Again, it has to be ordered as a genuine Peugeot part, and has to come from “over east”. More delay, probably through to next week. Not too expensive, about $60 and no extra labour charge. Lucky.

I’m lucky I don’t depend on this car and I admit, I’m looking forward to getting it back. If the misfiring has been fixed, it should be even more exciting to drive.

_______________________________________________

I’ve been surveying the Peugeot 407 Coupes on sale on-line and considering the low price I paid for mine, with its relatively low “mileage” (137,000Km), I reckon I should easily be able to recoup my “investment”. The cheapest on Carsales is about $6500 and they range up to $14,500. That seems pretty optimistic, but most of the others (there are only about six on offer) are the same spec as mine.

I suspect the seller of mine was worried about the engine knock, thinking it to be a major fault, but I’m not too worried. I’ve been driving it for more than a year now and although it’s pretty lumpy when cold, once it’s warmed up, it feels brilliant. As I said, I did a 55km drive each way last week and it was lovely. On the freeway, if I see a gap and need to pass, a quick prod on the accellerator is like a zoom button. Wow!

________________________________________________

I count myself lucky I don’t live in Afghanistan. What a benighted country – constant civil war over decades, and now a major earthquake to add to their misery.

So now their Taliban rulers, those nasty, cruel, warlike, misogynist bastards are asking us to please send help.

My first reaction is to say no, go fuck yourselves, but of course, it’s the ordinary poor people who are suffering. Applying sanctions on the rulers won’t help the desperately poor people trying to dig themselves out from the rubble of their houses, trying to find clean water to drink and basic food to eat.

Surely it must be within the skills of diplomats and government officials to find ways of tying the provision of aid to improvements in human rights by the madmen in Kabul.

___________________________________________

I received my latest purchase today:

Yes, it’s an N-gauge locomotive, bought from eBay. Funny, it was half the price of other similar items, about $55. I wonder why. Could it be that, although it feels quite heavy, when I spin the wheels, there’s no resistance. No feeling that the wheels are connected to any gears.

Could it be that I’ve inadvertently bought a non-powered “back half” of a pair? That there’s actually no motor inside? That that’s the reason for the low price? Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of my ability to fall for stupid scams.

____________________________________________

“Weird calculator”? The guy who advertised this clearly failed maths at school. What’s weird about it?

Dinnertime.