14 March 2024

The Illegal Eagles @ The Leas Cliff Hall

I was a bit late seeing the advert for the group's annual visit to Folkestone and so the seats we have aren't as good as previous years. Which is a shame.

But the show will be as good as ever I expect.  Date for the diary April 5th.

Another wallet bashing - Molly's Tax and Insurance

Fack me! The wallet took a bashing a week ago with the services and checks and today it's another wallet smasher!

Today it's taxing the vehicle. have done ot for six months so that in September we can do the year and move it to a different time of the year to get the big bill!  

There's not much we can do about the insurance as it will always need renewing on April 1st!

Still, hopefully once this is all out of the way and we can get the warranty work doing that needs to be done, then we are free to enjoy the summer holidays and plan trips away.



13 March 2024

Whaaat?

Well. That was a shock.

Molly passed her MoT test on Thursday afternoon. No advisories. No problems. Good for another year on the road.

The engine service was done and there were no problems found. 

I did find it a little annoying to find that when I checked the AdBlue level, by adding more to the tank, that it took over a litre to fill it to the top. Surely as AdBlue is necessary in Euro 6 diesel engines it should have been done.

I had already filled the wash/wipe bottle so that it would get through the MoT.

Where the shock came in was with the habitation check showed we have relatively high levels of damp in three places.  One each side of the moho roughly where the Peugeot cab is joined to the Elddis body.

The other between the habitation door and the rear bumper around where the gas locker is.  These are all around 25% damp.

The problem is that JC are no longer Elddis dealers, even though Molly was sold new by them in 2019 and again to us in 2023, They are unable to do Elddis warranty work.

Once home I emailed Elddis for help with a dealer that can do the work. ALl they did was refer me to their website!  It still shows JC as dealers!

I saw that Marquis are oficial dealers and I checked their website. They undertake Elddis warranty work, and provide a service to anyone that hadn't bought from them new or even used. At a cost obviously.  It was shown to be £100.

I emailed to check that this was still current information. They replied and have put me in touch with their nearest branch in Surrey.  They have suggested that we book it in during week beginning March 25th. The test takes about an hour and the van needs to be empty.  It can take between 2 and 24 weeks for Elddis to process the claim and send any parts needed.....

We have started putting stuff back in the van for this weekend's trip to Norfolk. We have four nights away at Cromer, Wells next the Sea and Walcott.  Plus we have 3 weeks in Spain and France in May!

10 March 2024

Vera's First Ride of the Year

After the trials and tribulations of the first ride on Thursday I decided to give Vera a longer run.

For TV the Arsenal game against Brentford was moved from 3pm kick off to 5.30pm. 

This meant I felt more like riding up to my usual parking place at the church at St Joan of Arc. In the past when I worked for Islington, the school next door was a regular stopping off point to support their IT systems.

I set off around 2.30pm, about the time I would have left for the train. All went well until the A13 after the Dartford Crossing.

Amazingly the crossing was free running and it was easy going.

Then we hit the traffic. Barely half a mile after the Crossing and it was solid. I split the second and third lanes and eventually reached the front of the queues almost by Ford at Dagenham. 

The problem? A multi-car accident complete with fire engines and ambulances. The police were letting one lane get past. 

Once through we had to contend with the changing speed limits! It's 40mph, then 50, then back to 40. Then they throw in a 30. All backed up with cameras to fleece the unwary driver. No other reason for the fluctuations.

The traffic remained heavy up through Hackney and Dalton. I eventually arrived at the church almost 2 hours after leaving home. I paid my fiver and set off for the Emirates Stadium.

The game was the usual frustration with the Arsenal winning the game late on to go to the top of the Premier League.

After the game I made my way back to the church. The bike was where I had left it and untouched. I togged up and set off. 

Vera had run very well and the F1 error from Thursday had thankfully not returned.

Heavy traffic back beyond Hackney and onto the A102. I decided to do the Blackwall Tunnel back. Once moving the rode home via M25 and M20 went smoothly. Coming home was about 30 minutes quicker.

First longer ride of the year was successful. It was a little chilly but mostly dry.

It was also the first time I have worn my leather jeans for many years! I can't remember when I bought them. I have for many years worn them over boots as modern road/race boots are too narrow to get them inside. 

Next ride? Maybe back some of the same way to Dagenham for an Oldham away game.

Sadly no photos today. Why? I have no idea why my phone saved none of the pix I took.

7 March 2024

Motorcycle Parking

There is one space in Waitrose. 

The spaces in the main public car park in Hythe are either at an angle or right behind a car space.

In Sainsbury's we campaigned for a space and they agreed. So they put it as far from the store and it's basically a square lined on two sides with the fence and the other two with car spaces. It seems the dumping area for any car owners rubbish.

So today I had to use a car space in Waitrose as once again despite there being a dozen, yes sad bastard I counted them, spaces empty and nearer the entrance (!) this clown couldn't read the sign....


Surely anyone looking forward could see that big green sign? If not, god help us when they are on the road....

Wolfang GA100 Action Camera

I have had a long and deep interaction with the support team for this camera and asked for a photo of the two Micro SD cards I had been using and getting all the problems.

They are generic 8gb and 64gb versions.  After a few days they got back and said these aren't suitable for  their camera and that I should buy a "branded" version, e.g. Sandisk.  Or they could send me one.

They also dismissed the fact that both these cards work in the Sony Cybershot (with suitable adapter) and in my Canon 1100D.

I, of course, opted for the option of them sending me one. After all I have had it almost 6 weeks and been unable to use it! Plus the time limit for sending back via Amazon past weeks and weeks ago. So if it doesn't work, I am stuck with it! Okay it's only £40.......  :)

In the meantime I had a hunt around the drawers as I was certain in one of the DSLR's we actually have a Sandisk one.

Could I find it, could I buggery.

So whilst I wait for the Wolfang compatible one to arrive, I checked in another drawer upstairs.  And BINGO! There it was, the apparently holy grail of Micro SD - a 64gb Sandisk!

Wolfang GA100 with waterproof case

I charged up the camera again. It seems to lose around 50% of the battery whilst switched off for a week. Not very lithium like! And inserted it.

Of course I was expecting it to ask for the card to be formatted. I did that and then waited for the error message to say it needed formatting... It didn't come.

So tomorrow when we take Molly to her service and hab check in Rye, I'll see how much I can record of the trip....  It should be possible to mount it on the dash and also keep the power lead into the socket on the dash.

Fingers and toes crossed.

More later and maybe with a boring 25 minute video of the trip. ;) 

6 March 2024

OHREX Upgrade - FAIL Update

Restoring the older (Ohrex 2 - see explanation at the foot of the page) unit with the backup taken on the 4th March at the start of all this, the 2023Q1 maps, worked a treat. It fired up immediately and worked.

This model was superseded over a year ago when it came up with several faults. Oddly it works now!

So I repeated the trick with the latest unit, Ohrex 3 (!), and  of course works with the last year's maps and exe. So now I have two functioning satnavs with early last year's maps etc.

I updated my call to Ohrex Support to tell them what had happened. The reply was quite long winded and assumes that the 7gb download that took hours and a few WIN10 "resumes" has worked.

1. Go to NaviConfig . If not visible on start-up screen go into Settings and scroll right once and select NaviConfig there.
2. Tap in the box with 3 dots and screen should show a box with Resident Flash
3. Tap the Resident Flash box twice you should see a new box called NAVI
4. Tap NAVI box twice you should now see NAVI.EXE
5. Tap NAVI.EXE twice you should now see \Resident Flash\NAVI\NAVI.EXE in the grey box
6. Tap the green tick
7. Tap the Red cross
8. Tap GPS Navigation and you should be in business

I am about to try this on Ohrex 1!!! Rather than bugger up the two I have working!!

NB. I have three Ohrex units.  I have labelled them Ohrex 1, Ohrex 2 and..... Ohrex 3.  That's the order they came in. The first one had memory problems. The second on similar error messages and they eventually sent me Ohrex 3.

5 March 2024

OHREX Upgrade - FAIL

After a total of five hours of copying the current 2023Q1 files to the hard drive on the laptop. 

Then following the instructions to download the latest 2023Q2 zip file and then extract it.  Again I have formatted the unit and then another few hours of it slowly copying the zipped folders to the unit.

Usually all it needs is for the unit to be powered off and an one it's sorted.  This time it was knackered.

It was a total of over five hours to go from the last year's upgrade to a non working sat nav! I have reported the problem to the support at Ohrex.  See what they have to say. 

In the meantime I have dug out one of the satnavs that was failing and have tried again. This time to I have formatted it and have copied the 2023Q1 folder. It might work. Currently it's taking taken half an hour at at 27%!

More later!


4 March 2024

At Greyhound Rescue today...

It's Monday. It's #kentgreyhoundrescue day.

To we have six ex racers in the foster home and two permanent residents.

Plenty of food and exercise for them.

On the left is Tyrone, he is a permanent resident. 

On the right is Boo. She is a smaller female greyhound and she is looking for a forever home.

3 March 2024

Grand Canyon Hotel - Tripadvisor Review

What bullshit is this?

The hotel under new management and so they delete old reviews. 

Wouldn't it simply be kinder to update the hotel info and say that new management/ownership took over on a specific date?

Not #Tripadvisor.  They allow trolling reviews that are obviously based on personal animosity though.... ;)