Discombobulated pretty much sums up how I feel at the minute.
The garage that is looking after pROJECT mAYHEM rang me on Friday to tell me that the people they had sent the steering rack away to couldn't refurbish due to not being able to get the seals. Quite why it took them a whole week to admit this is open to debate but that is the situation I find myself in so now I either have to stump up for a new one which I really don't want to do at £580 or find one at a breakers. I am hopeful that the search for a replacement will not be as arduous and eventually futile as the search for the ECU but it is fair to say that I have lost a fair amount of faith in my beloved van at the moment. I am torn between selling it (and no doubt taking a heavy loss on it) or keeping it and praying to various motoring deities on the hour every hour for evermore.
On the plus side I managed to get down the ClimbingWorks on Thursday night. There is what appears to be a new set of black problems to go at and as ever they really are very good - open handed slopers, the requirement to do a lot of things statically and general technicality abound. The only problem is that every problem requires scrubbing to death prior to pulling on but it is the price that we must pay for such a good venue which is rightly proving popular with people. I also discovered the circuit board and beasted myself on the 6c problem - managed to get to the right hand end (about half way) on my first attempt before powering out looking for a foothold that wasn't there which I was pretty pleased with. The move that spat me off is not difficult in isolation but after the brutality of the traverse to start it takes on a whole different level. It also really requires you to keep the weight on your feet as much as possible which is good for me - the holds are huge but on a wall overhanging by something like 30 degrees getting as much weight off your arms as possible is a prerequisite. Subsequent attempts never quite got to this high point but the feeling of being totally battered at the end of the session was good - if my poor body ever recovers I will get back on it and try to make progress.
Friday night was spent out with a few mates I used to play 5-aside football with - got way too drunk on cider and then started on a bottle of white wine when I crawled back home. You would think that at the age of 39 I would realise that this is really not a good idea but I seem to forget this every time. I must also try and remember not to listen to Kristin Hersh's
Sunny Border Blue album when drunk - as much as I love this album for its pure rawness and emotion it really is not music for when you have been drinking.
Goes without saying that yesterday (Saturday) was not a good day from the point of view of being hungover. Eventually decided that I should do some work on the sleeping platform for pROJECT mAYHEM which kept me occupied for a good few hours - think that I worked through till gone 7PM but it was good to have something to concentrate on and forget the hangover for a while. I will post up some pictures later of what I have been doing.
Today - got to go and buy some hinges and toggle clasps so that I can fix the doors I cut out yesterday and then relax at home while cooking a Mutton Karahi.
Just in case life needed to kick me one more time I think I am also coming down with something rather nasty. Great...
