Wednesday, September 08, 2004
Retro motoring
Nativite N.-D.
Took the car in for a service today to a local garage and received the most wonderful courtesy car. It's a very old Peugeot 30something (the badge has fallen off) that rattles more than a milkfloat, the steering wheel seems to be only loosley connected to the front wheels, no power steering, no air conditioning, no central locking, a manual choke (remember those ?) doors you can see daylight through round the edge, no hub caps, very very shabby paintwork, and a boot jammed shut. The speedo doesn't work at all and I suspect that most of the other dials only give the vaguest indication of the true reading. It does however have velour seats :-) a 5 speed gearbox and electric windows, that work (well the drivers door) !
I love it.
| 6:33:41 PM
Retro motoring
Woodworm treatment
Upstairs in the barn is one large void (15m x 6m) with old oak beams and bracing and cross pieces. As you can see it looks fantastic and I hope to leave much of the best woodwork exposed when renovated. There is evidence of woodworm on some of the structure, so just to be sure I have sprayed, using a garden spray, wormwood treatment on all the wood. I bought a 25L drum but ended up making an early afternoon trip to Rennes to buy another two drums. I've got one left for the ceiling beams downstairs. It was a horrible hot job, goggled and masked up, balanced on a wobbly working platform with a 500W halogen lamp warming the place nicely, not to mention the 200 m2 of black slate 'radiator' above my head.
Woodworm treatment
