Adrian Baldwin
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Zafira; my new bit on the drive

6/28/2013

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.June has been a fairly quiet month on the blog front, not because there hasn’t been plenty to write about, but rather that life has just been too hectic and stressful and there hasn’t been much time to indulge in writing.

At the very top of my June challenges list has been car trouble. Having bought my first car in about a decade, it has proved beyond doubt that company cars are worth their weight in benefit-in-kind tax.

At the end of May, I bought a 2007 Vauxhall Zafira 1.9CDTi SRi. Not exactly a dream car for me but practical, sensible and well suited to family life. No mid-life crisis sports car for me!

As an aside, if I ever get a tattoo, the word ‘sensible’, in some kind of script etched across some part of my physique, could be appropriate.   Clearly ‘exciting’, ’adventurous’ or even ‘courageous’ would be more inspiring but ‘sensible’ is the adjective for me! If I ever have a headstone marking the place of my final interment, it will read “Here lies Adrian, he was sensible”.

Buying cars is a stressful experience and I’d rather face the prospect of colonic irrigation than do it again in the near future (both shitty you understand?). Concerns range from “am I paying too much”, “is this car what it purports to be”, “is this car in good order” and “can I trust the vendor” – the answers inevitably “yes”, “maybe”, “who knows?” and “no”.

Having trawled through Autotrader over a few weeks and trundled around various places to inspect various vehicles, been thoroughly disappointed that descriptions weren’t accurate, seeing overpriced vehicles and finding cars sold by their owners whilst I was still en-route to view; I finally decided on this Zafira and I bought it from a non-franchised dealer in Northampton. At least the purchase was close to home.

I thought hard about the car before I made the decision to buy it – I even made a list of good points and bad points (seriously, I even created a spreadsheet and I can’t tell you how unlike me that is!) and then weighed up my decision – good things included low mileage, full service history and all vehicle paperwork/handbooks/codes, HPI checked/cleared, better specification than I was looking for, a full size spare wheel, a tow bar already fitted, full MOT (no advisories) and a nice/clean interior. Bad things – some scuffs/minor damage on the bumpers, no road tax (immediate need to pay for that too) and underwhelming CO2 performance and therefore high road tax costs.

Erring on the positives, I duly haggled on the price and got a service and a warranty thrown in.  

My dream of hassle free driving was erased within a week when the first problem manifested itself. The car was whining in sixth gear and the gearstick had this twitching habit; bearing in mind I’d paid for a warranty (thank God), I just decided it was in my best interests to get it investigated. The problem turned out to be a combination of a planet gear and the bearing on sixth and the gearbox was duly removed and sent away for repair.

Whilst the car was off the road, I thought that I might as well get the cam belt replaced. Then the repairer, that had taken the gearbox out, raised the issue of whether or not I wanted to replace the clutch and dual mass flywheel instead of putting the old items back in.  Mr Sensible here thought about it and decided that the ‘sensible’ option would be to replace the clutch and dual mass (without attracting any additional labour charges) whilst reducing the likelihood that the car would have to come off the road again for a clutch in the years that I’d own it.

To be fair, I talked to my dad about the decision; he endorsed it and said he’d have done the same.

In this instance though, the problem with common sense is that it costs money! Whilst the gearbox repairs were covered by the warranty, the wear and tear issues were not and that meant forking out more of my hard earned dosh.

By that point – the price of the car, the cost of 12 months road tax, the cost (paid in one lump sum) for a year’s car insurance had already been funded – now another significant bill on top. I was quoted the rough cost for the cam belt kit and clutch components and said ‘yes’; the actual costs higher and then VAT was added on top (should have thought about that). Ouch!

Another downside of the work being carried out was that having had the car for a week, it then spent a fortnight off the road.

The evening I collected it from the repairer in Northampton, I was driving it home and ‘ping’ on comes the engine management light and the car switches into its ‘limp home’ mode. This mode means that the engine management unit restricts the engine’s revs and the car's speed in order to protect it. Believe me, driving a car in this state is hard work.

So the saga’s next chapter involved the car going back to Northampton for a diagnostic check to reveal that the diesel particulate filter (DPF) was the problem. The repairer of course being completely certain that this issue was completely unrelated to the work done over the previous fortnight.

Facing the prospect of being without the car for yet more time and feeling like I had the grifters’ ‘mark’ upon me, I decided to cut my losses and take the car to the Daventry Vauxhall dealer. Here the investigations proved that a rubber hose connected to the DPF filter was split – it was duly replaced and the filter force regenerated.  A bargain at £150!

Could the rubber pipe have been split by the gearbox coming out and being put back in – who knows? 

So – car purchased 25th May, finally running properly 21st June.

My out of pocket expenses are too depressing to admit to and I have a car that is worth less than I have now forked out on it. My desperate hope – that I have years of reliable motoring ahead.

Of course having been so frustrated, the fears playing at the back of my mind are that the cam belt might not have been changed and that the old clutch assembly could have been put back in and how the hell would I know anyway. Only time will banish these demons.

Still, I’ll always be relieved I bought a warranty and that it was worth the paper it was written on. I have to acknowledge that I could have left the cam belt for another 5,000-10,000 miles; I could have left the old clutch assembly in place too (assuming I didn’t). I’ll never know if my decisions to spend money now to save it later were correct.

Hopefully the challenges over the last month are just teething troubles and the tempestuous relationship I have with Zafira (for that is now her name) will become a loving one.

Having lived with Zafira properly for the last week, my observations are these:

·         Her 12 volt socket doesn’t power up anything (and it’s not down to a blown fuse)

·         Zafira drinks diesel faster than Mrs Baldwin guzzles Pinot Grigio  

Zafira is like my ‘other woman’ , my new bit on the drive if you like - she has demanded attention, she has taken time away from my wife and family, she has spent my money with wild abandon, she has screwed me, she has promised much and so far delivered little.

Maybe my epitaph won’t be “sensible” after all; maybe it will include “gullible”, “too easy going” or “had the best intentions but….”.

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Bumblebee and the Bygone Babe

6/28/2013

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PictureBumblebee
I popped into Milton Keynes shopping centre at lunchtime today and saw a display outside John Lewis that grabbed my attention. Various new cars were displayed from the Kia, Ford, MG and Chevrolet stables.

To be honest I wasn’t going to stop but then I spied a veteran Ford and decided to go and have a look after all. Priscilla was resplendent in her yellow paint and she looked in fine form for her 99 years. See the photos and tell me if you disagree.

Having come across this bygone babe, I walked around her, looked in her windows and felt genuine pleasure at getting to see something unexpected.

I then wandered off across to the other end of the display and came across the second yellow automobile that stopped me in my tracks. This car, a Chevrolet Camaro, managed to look mean and modern whilst simultaneously suggesting retro with a late sixties, early seventies muscle car appearance that appeals to me on all levels.

I wish my Zafira could transform into this beauty because whilst I bought an MPV, I really wanted something like this.

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Trimming one's hedge is a genuine pleasure

6/26/2013

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Regular readers will appreciate that I write about all sorts of bizarre and random things. Today’s post is no different; I can’t recall any of my previous ramblings having a topiary angle but please correct me if you know my memory to be faulty.

You might have a bush you shape, or a box you tidy up with scissors; I have a delightful beech hedge.   This hedge in question sits at the front of my home and is in great condition and growing strongly. It had its first trim of the year a few weekends ago and is still in a nice shape with no straggly bits sticking out of its sides.

This hedge is a source of genuine pride and pleasure to me and even as I write that surprises me a little. I am not exactly a keen gardener and although I mow the grass regularly and pull the weeds out of the drive, I am no Percy Thrower.

By way of background; when the Daventry off-shoot of the Baldwin family tree moved its roots to its current lodgings (more than a decade ago now), the hedge was looking more than a little sorry for itself – there were holes in it where plants had died and the postman and others used to take advantages of the gaps to walk through. 

One of my early challenges was to find some new beech plants to fill the gaps. These were bought at the wrong time of year and basically looked like dead sticks. The garden centre manager assured me that the sticks would come back to life if left in water for a handful of days and to be fair, he was right (although at the time, I suspected that I was being taken for a ride).

Over the years since the hedge was replanted, it has done very well and today you’d never know there was ever a hole in it. It’s also twice as high as it was when we arrived.

Beech is deciduous and that means that over the winter the hedge looks rather sorry for itself. In Spring though the thing starts sprouting new shoots and, for me, there is a joy, almost a spiritual uplift, in watching the hedge come back to life, the leaves unfurling and the growth outwards and upwards happening as fast as the weather conditions will permit. When the hedge comes out of hibernation, winter is over and the longer, brighter days can be looked forward to. Honestly the feeling is the same kind of thing that you might feel when the sun starts blazing and banishes the cold.

Gardening is usually a chore for me but I have an electric hedge trimmer and enjoy taking the blades to the hedge in order to maintain its neat and tidy lines. After the last cut, I stood across the street to admire its colour, bushiness and form and decided that a blog post was necessary to share the pleasure.

At the time, I mentioned to my son that I loved my hedge – he looked at me and was cheeky enough to say “you’re mad”. Still before this hedge became part of my life, I’d have had the same opinion.

I said to the wonderful Mrs Baldwin just a few nights ago that I’d miss the hedge if we moved – it’s true too.

So, by way of a final reflection – a hedge is so much more rewarding than no hedge. If the front of your plot is bare, change it – grow something that you can take pride in.

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Success is expressed in brown and red

6/25/2013

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This weekend saw my lad and I head off to Northampton to grade for our next karate belts. I was grading for the 1st Kyu, and my son the 3rd Kyu.

For me, passing was no certainty; in fact I didn’t feel as confident as I would have liked although I had decided to give it a go – my view being “what’s the worst that can happen?”

The answer “I could fail and look/feel like an idiot” but hey, I am no stranger to either scenario – might as well take the risk then! 

As is usual with a grading, it involved a lot of waiting around (the examinations tend to start with the junior belts and then work up to the higher ones). Eventually my son got called in and I carried on twiddling my thumbs.

Eventually I got summoned and then prepared to be tested. By this point my son’s exam was as good as over and I hadn’t seen him perform a single basic, kumite or kata.

During my exam I made one or two errors and showed some hesitation on one secondary kata but kept my wits about me and carried on regardless. At the end when I was advised I had made the grade, I was relieved and pleased that I had made the decision to give it a go.

Unfortunately my happiness only lasted as far as the end of the hall when I found my ten year old in tears because he had failed his exam. Though I had much self-doubt in the run up to this grading, I had never been in any doubt that he would pass. I think that he got confused in his kata then panicked, stopped and duly failed.  The shame is that I’d seen him do it properly many times before. 

He was gutted and I was gutted for him. I’d much rather he’d have passed and I’d not.

Right; that’s more than enough gloom for this post.

What follows is an observation that on this occasion, success is a combination of brown and red (that’s my new karate belt colour). For a seventies stalwart, what better colour combination could there be? In the TISKA world there is no such thing as a brown belt with an orange stripe so this is as good as it gets.

I will have my brown belt with red stripe for some time to come now as the black stripe and full black belt are respectively a minimum of six and twelve months away (and no doubt a lot longer for me).

If I have to keep a belt for a long time then it’s great that it’s this one.

Given my advancing years, declining suppleness and ability constraints, the black belt summit may never be conquered but even if that proves to be true, I’ll take some satisfaction from the fact that I achieved the colourway that perfectly suits my aesthetic.      

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Kayleigh Cakes bakes another blinder

6/12/2013

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PictureA Kayleigh 'Cakes' Production
This weekend saw my daughter’s sixth birthday party and as noisy, exuberant, messy, amusing and demanding as that was; this post will only focus on the cake.

The birthday cake was another spectacular creation commissioned from the talented Kayleigh Howard and once again deserving of its very own article (earlier cake review available).

As the theme of my daughter’s party was pets and vets, the cake was themed to complement. See the pictures for the proof that the theme objective was met.

The cake this time was a sponge double decker with a jam and buttercream layer between the decks. The sponge was perfect – tasty, light and moist.

The thing about great cake is that it doesn’t tend to hang around for long – this one, cut on Saturday afternoon was completely consumed before Sunday lunchtime. I made sure that I got a couple of slices because missing out would have been a travesty.

Kayleigh – if you read this – a brilliant job, thank you very much.

To my readers, if you need a special cake and you’d like to talk to Kayleigh Cakes, send me your details and I’ll pass them on.

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