Vagueness and the Aftermath - A sporadic diary

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Hi Tom, I just love how you can post a photo. I say bike? and you come up with a great story to go with it. You do this regularly, love the way you and Tikay both write about your lives. Think you both have a great book in yourselves.

This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  100%

Woah there Missy!

What a pot and kettle statement that is. If anyone on this forum has book inside them it's you.

To write a book you don't have to live a an incredibly exciting life, you just have to be incredibly excited about life and have the ability to pass that excitement on to your readers. You have that in spades.

I'm not saying it's easy. Having a book inside you and getting the bastard out on to paper are two different things entirely.


Ralph is the exception BTW. He writes effortlessly, he just can't be arsed.

I couldn't even keep a diary going! I learned that bearing my soul as to what I was struggling with although it seemed to help others come to terms with things and move on, didn't work for me.

When it comes to soul baring I'm like a shy male stripper. A load of mundane prancing around, with the occasional brief embarrassing flash of my ugly bits.

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I visit the camping shop Go Outdoors about once a year. When I do I usually spend £15/20.

I went today and the place was packed... with customers, not staff.

I manage to find what I want and join a long queue for the one open till while three staff members are busy having a chat next to a closed till.

I march past the queue and ask if someone could open another till, one of them rolls his eyes and obliges.

"Do you have a discount card?" He enquires.

I hand him my card, he swipes it and informs me that it expired last week.

Every year it's the same, my purchases come to ~£15 without the card or £10 with the card. The card costs £5.

I buy another card.

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Leisure goods must be the most overpriced things since wedding goods, and like wedding goods, people just buy them with total abandon, never stopping to question the reason for the extortionate prices.

I bought a half kilo cyinder of propane for £15, for those of you less mentally agile than me where maths is concerned, that works out at £30 per kilo.

I usually buy my propane in 'torpedo' cylinders at a cost of £46 for 47 kilos. Which works out a precisely... well, a lot less.

But, I needed the half-kilo cylinder. I will be illegally and dangerously re-filling it myself in future.

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More mundanery incoming....

So as I said, after 10 long years I finally replaced my old old mower with a new old mower. It's exactly the same except for the colour.

Of course it was broken down when I bought it, but it was an easy fix, clean the carb, adjust the governers and boom, we were away.

For first three weeks it was business as usual. Weekly breakdowns and simple if frustrating repairs, then, about a fortnight ago I turned the ignition key and heard a klunk, then a sound like a coffee grinder, then nothing.

It turned out that the starter-motor was hors de combat, so I removed it, a process which illustrates precisely why I hate this lawnmower....

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There are only two bolts holding the starter motor on, one is easy to remove, the other is hidden behind the dog cog. (It really is called that)

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So to access the bolt that is hidden behind the dog cog I had to remove this big metal cowling.

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To remove the cowling I had to remove this grille and air-cleaner ducting.

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This oil filler.

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And this fuel pump.

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To remove the fuel pump I had to remove these little brittle pipes, which are held in place with little brittle clips. (No prizes for guessing what happened to those)

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Then I had to remove this vented cover.

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So that I could remove this cast iron fan come flywheel come magnito. (it was held in place by a big fuck off nut and it was keyed on)

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So this is how far I had to strip the engine down to be able to get at that one bolt behind the starter dog and this is why I hate this lawnmower.

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But.....

When it breaks it is fixable, so that's why I love it.

[tikay]

But.....

When it breaks it is fixable, so that's why I love it.

Has it ever crossed your mind that you'd have been better keeping the original one?