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What I Did At The Weekend
Well, that didn't go quite as well as planned.
The plan was to travel to Wales in order to defend it from the invading English troops, by way of 12-pound cannon fire. (This, incidentally, in aid of l'Association d'artillerie a Pied de la Garde Imperiale.) This should have been a simple matter of pootling over dans l'automobile, getting drunk in a tent and then driving back.
Unfortunately on the way down my car's steering went - apparentlyone o't'crossbeams gone askew on't' treadle the bit connecting the front left wheel to the steering rack had decided that this was a mug's game and it wasn't having any of it. Luckily I had noticed its wayward tendencies before it became a serious issue and pulled off near the lovely village of Y Fali (or "Valley" if you're a heathen English type) before it actually decided to turn perpendicular to the direction of the car. After waiting for the AA man (actually the AA-approved local chap from Moduron Maethlu) to turn up so he could tow us the 100 yards or so down the road to Moduron Fali (which, by this time, was closed), the other members of La Garde kindly stopped by to gradually ferry us and our kit over to the destination.
We popped over to Y Fali on the Saturday after opening to explain the problem and were told they wouldn't be able to get the parts until Monday. (Incidentally, over the course of the weekend we were told by three separate mechanics that in all their years of engineering they had never before seen a steering element (pinion?) actually unscrew itself from the rack like that. I am a purveyor of technical impossibilities, hooray.)
There followed a display of living history and explosions. This was a lot of good fun, though naturally I was somewhat preoccupied with the state of my car. Unfortunately Sunday began with a downpour which encouraged La Garde (along with the less local members of the Hussars and vikings) to pack up early and head back to the mainland - which sadly turned out to be somewhat precipitous, as by eleven the skies had cleared and the remainder of the day was sunny and warm. Oh well.
We spent Sunday night at the Valley Hotel, the entire staff of which were incredibly sympathetic and helpful with such things as the storage of excessive amounts of luggage and the uncertain departure time. Aside from this the evening was notable only in its general tedium; a brief stroll around Y Fali exhausted most of the entertainment possibilities therein, and naturally neither of us had brought any sort of entertainment (expecting to return directly home following the cannoning). The omnibus edition of Pobol y Cwm was diverting enough but the planned evening in the hotel bar was cut short by an annoying onset of stomach ache. (Most likely caused by stress or eating too quickly.) Still, the freeview selection provided sufficient distraction to pass the time; we found some Father Ted, Mock the Week and The Poseidon Adventure, all of which carried us through to the midnight hour. Then we proceeded to bed in order to awake refreshed in good time for the the Hotel's breakfast selection.
"Refreshed" was not to be; the aforementioned stomach ache continued long into the night, alternating with some acute heartburn. Between the two of them I got about two hour's sleep. Still, allowed myself to be dragged out of bed in time for the breakfast, then wandered over to Moduron Fali to check on the car. Parts, apparently, would arrive around lunch time, so we took the train and spent the morning in Bangor.
After confirming the part's arrival we returned by train to pick the car up (a journey only notable because I managed not to mind the gap, and disappeared up to my knee below the platform), loaded it up and got as far as the roundabout before noticing a faint, regular grinding noise in time with the spinning wheel. After a return trip to the garage we proceeded on our way to Merrie England - not via Penrhyn Castle as planned, as this turned out to be too expensive (£9 each) and did not take plastic in any case; instead we stopped at Conwy which proved both entertaining and educational. (Indeed,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
diegoliger enjoyed showing it off to me so much that he is now considering a career as a heritage site tour guide.)
The remainder of the journey was uneventful and taken in one go; much of it was spent in contemplation of Ben and Dave's Six Pack, which proved as informative and chuckleworthy as ever.
And then we got home
and then we unloaded the car
and then we collapsed in a heap
And then I typed out a post for livejournal
and then I pressed "Pos
The plan was to travel to Wales in order to defend it from the invading English troops, by way of 12-pound cannon fire. (This, incidentally, in aid of l'Association d'artillerie a Pied de la Garde Imperiale.) This should have been a simple matter of pootling over dans l'automobile, getting drunk in a tent and then driving back.
Unfortunately on the way down my car's steering went - apparently
We popped over to Y Fali on the Saturday after opening to explain the problem and were told they wouldn't be able to get the parts until Monday. (Incidentally, over the course of the weekend we were told by three separate mechanics that in all their years of engineering they had never before seen a steering element (pinion?) actually unscrew itself from the rack like that. I am a purveyor of technical impossibilities, hooray.)
There followed a display of living history and explosions. This was a lot of good fun, though naturally I was somewhat preoccupied with the state of my car. Unfortunately Sunday began with a downpour which encouraged La Garde (along with the less local members of the Hussars and vikings) to pack up early and head back to the mainland - which sadly turned out to be somewhat precipitous, as by eleven the skies had cleared and the remainder of the day was sunny and warm. Oh well.
We spent Sunday night at the Valley Hotel, the entire staff of which were incredibly sympathetic and helpful with such things as the storage of excessive amounts of luggage and the uncertain departure time. Aside from this the evening was notable only in its general tedium; a brief stroll around Y Fali exhausted most of the entertainment possibilities therein, and naturally neither of us had brought any sort of entertainment (expecting to return directly home following the cannoning). The omnibus edition of Pobol y Cwm was diverting enough but the planned evening in the hotel bar was cut short by an annoying onset of stomach ache. (Most likely caused by stress or eating too quickly.) Still, the freeview selection provided sufficient distraction to pass the time; we found some Father Ted, Mock the Week and The Poseidon Adventure, all of which carried us through to the midnight hour. Then we proceeded to bed in order to awake refreshed in good time for the the Hotel's breakfast selection.
"Refreshed" was not to be; the aforementioned stomach ache continued long into the night, alternating with some acute heartburn. Between the two of them I got about two hour's sleep. Still, allowed myself to be dragged out of bed in time for the breakfast, then wandered over to Moduron Fali to check on the car. Parts, apparently, would arrive around lunch time, so we took the train and spent the morning in Bangor.
After confirming the part's arrival we returned by train to pick the car up (a journey only notable because I managed not to mind the gap, and disappeared up to my knee below the platform), loaded it up and got as far as the roundabout before noticing a faint, regular grinding noise in time with the spinning wheel. After a return trip to the garage we proceeded on our way to Merrie England - not via Penrhyn Castle as planned, as this turned out to be too expensive (£9 each) and did not take plastic in any case; instead we stopped at Conwy which proved both entertaining and educational. (Indeed,
diegoliger enjoyed showing it off to me so much that he is now considering a career as a heritage site tour guide.)The remainder of the journey was uneventful and taken in one go; much of it was spent in contemplation of Ben and Dave's Six Pack, which proved as informative and chuckleworthy as ever.
And then we got home
and then we unloaded the car
and then we collapsed in a heap
And then I typed out a post for livejournal
and then I pressed "Pos
no subject
And then we had a snack.
...