Did you ever get...?
May. 27th, 2003 08:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fleetfootmikeDid you ever get one...?
Did you ever get one of them days?
When nothing goes right
From morning till night
Did you ever get one of them days?
Sunday was 'one of them days'.
My friend James plays keyboards and guitar with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
rfbooth in a Manchester-area covers band called Wide Open, who rock majorly. He's a regular on the uk.music.guitar newsgroup, as is Vinny Burns (ex of Asia, Ultravox, Ten and Dare). Vinny grabbed James for a one-off gig in Bradford at 'The Gods 2003' to launch his new album, so various uk.music.guitar regulars went along to support him.
Drove from my parents on Sunday lunchtime, in our MPV, which has (in the last couple of months) had a new radiator fitted. Got to M62 junction 27, and got caught in traffic a bit, so took advantage of being stationary to send a text message torfbooth saying "ETA 15 mins". Boy. Was THAT a mistake!
Just starting to pull away from the queue, and the coolant level warning light comes on. And shows no indication of going off. Pull off onto a side street, and inspect - coolant level is way down, so I dump the contents of my water bottle in it, and start looking for a garage. The water I add lasts perhaps 200 yards down the road before the light's on again, so I pull in to a handy Total garage, and investigate further. Leak. Big, visible, water running off into the gutter kind of leak.'Bugger', says Pooh, and phones the AA. It's now 3.30, and Burns Blue (Vinny, James et al) go on at 5.20...
AA man arrives 10 minutes later than promised, at approx 4.35. He tuts at the quality of the work that originally fixed the new radiator, correctly spots which joint is leaking, grumbles at Peugeot's design for it, fixes it, fills the coolling system up, and sends me on my way at about 4.50. I get halfway to the next roundabout, and the coolant light comes on again, so I zoom back from whence I came, before (fortunately) he's closed the job. He reckons it's just an airlock in the cooling system clearing, tops it up again, and off I go.
This time I get about 5 mins down the road, right into Bradford town centre, before the light comes on. I get thoroughly lost, but eventually find the venue at around 5.20. Just in time. There's no visible leak, so I cross fingers there's just another airlock, and head in to catch the start of Burns Blue's set.
No such bloody luck. One of the earlier bands had to pull out, so everyone's had a bit more time, and hence Burns Blue went on nearer 4.50. I catch the last THREE songs of their set for my £27.50 door money (bear in mind, I was expecting to see four or five bands before I had to leave). They rocked, enough that I am even more pissed off at missing the rest. I unwind with a soft drink, chat torfbooth (looking GOOD having lost about 2st in weight) and Trev, then catch the next band (Ken Tamblin - who suck, mightily. The club is NOT big enough for their singer's ego). Expecting to have to detour via a garage to top up the radiator again, I cut my losses and head out to the carpark to do a quick gear-for-cash-and-books-he-borrowed trade with Rick, who I discover to my brief joy I have parked next to, quite by chance.
Trade done, time to go home. Make to move off. Coolant light still on, and my transient joy at parking next to Rick is extinguished by (being distracted by the cooling issue) just clipping his front light cluster with the inside of the 'bus's front wheel arch. I lose this one, big time - he sustains two broken bits of sidelight/indicator plastic, and I get my wraparound front bumper half pulled off its mountings and wedged under the jacking point underneath it. You have to see the latter to understand how its possible, but suffice it to say it took Rick, Trev and I the best part of 45 minutes to an hour to get it unwedged (Rick being remarkably nice about the fact that I just bumped his car.)
At which point, we discover that it won't snap back on for some reason. Hrm. I mount up to head for the garage, as Rick and Trev walk back round to the club, and Trev flags me down as I pass to point out that I have a leak. And some bastard has just nicked the last space in the carpark. I park in a sidestreet opposite and phone the AA again.
About here, fortunately, things start to improve. AA man arrives in 20 mins: different AA man. About 50, Yorkshire Asian, evidently takes a pride in a job well done. The job in question takes him a little under an hour, firstly fixing the radiator hose properly and permanently, then bleeding the air locks out of the system and testing it under pressure for a good 15-20 mins while he inspects the bumper, figures out why it won't reattach, devises a cunning and secure alternative and implements it out of the bits in the back of his AA Relay truck. He then shadows me back to the M62 to be sure it's all still OK
(Steve the AA man - nice letter coming the AA's way about you - I hope you get to read it. Have a beer on me sometime.)
Finally get home at 11pm.
Did you ever get one of them days?
When nothing goes right
From morning till night
Did you ever get one of them days?
Sunday was 'one of them days'.
My friend James plays keyboards and guitar with
rfbooth in a Manchester-area covers band called Wide Open, who rock majorly. He's a regular on the uk.music.guitar newsgroup, as is Vinny Burns (ex of Asia, Ultravox, Ten and Dare). Vinny grabbed James for a one-off gig in Bradford at 'The Gods 2003' to launch his new album, so various uk.music.guitar regulars went along to support him.Drove from my parents on Sunday lunchtime, in our MPV, which has (in the last couple of months) had a new radiator fitted. Got to M62 junction 27, and got caught in traffic a bit, so took advantage of being stationary to send a text message to
rfbooth saying "ETA 15 mins". Boy. Was THAT a mistake!Just starting to pull away from the queue, and the coolant level warning light comes on. And shows no indication of going off. Pull off onto a side street, and inspect - coolant level is way down, so I dump the contents of my water bottle in it, and start looking for a garage. The water I add lasts perhaps 200 yards down the road before the light's on again, so I pull in to a handy Total garage, and investigate further. Leak. Big, visible, water running off into the gutter kind of leak.'Bugger', says Pooh, and phones the AA. It's now 3.30, and Burns Blue (Vinny, James et al) go on at 5.20...
AA man arrives 10 minutes later than promised, at approx 4.35. He tuts at the quality of the work that originally fixed the new radiator, correctly spots which joint is leaking, grumbles at Peugeot's design for it, fixes it, fills the coolling system up, and sends me on my way at about 4.50. I get halfway to the next roundabout, and the coolant light comes on again, so I zoom back from whence I came, before (fortunately) he's closed the job. He reckons it's just an airlock in the cooling system clearing, tops it up again, and off I go.
This time I get about 5 mins down the road, right into Bradford town centre, before the light comes on. I get thoroughly lost, but eventually find the venue at around 5.20. Just in time. There's no visible leak, so I cross fingers there's just another airlock, and head in to catch the start of Burns Blue's set.
No such bloody luck. One of the earlier bands had to pull out, so everyone's had a bit more time, and hence Burns Blue went on nearer 4.50. I catch the last THREE songs of their set for my £27.50 door money (bear in mind, I was expecting to see four or five bands before I had to leave). They rocked, enough that I am even more pissed off at missing the rest. I unwind with a soft drink, chat to
rfbooth (looking GOOD having lost about 2st in weight) and Trev, then catch the next band (Ken Tamblin - who suck, mightily. The club is NOT big enough for their singer's ego). Expecting to have to detour via a garage to top up the radiator again, I cut my losses and head out to the carpark to do a quick gear-for-cash-and-books-he-borrowed trade with Rick, who I discover to my brief joy I have parked next to, quite by chance.Trade done, time to go home. Make to move off. Coolant light still on, and my transient joy at parking next to Rick is extinguished by (being distracted by the cooling issue) just clipping his front light cluster with the inside of the 'bus's front wheel arch. I lose this one, big time - he sustains two broken bits of sidelight/indicator plastic, and I get my wraparound front bumper half pulled off its mountings and wedged under the jacking point underneath it. You have to see the latter to understand how its possible, but suffice it to say it took Rick, Trev and I the best part of 45 minutes to an hour to get it unwedged (Rick being remarkably nice about the fact that I just bumped his car.)
At which point, we discover that it won't snap back on for some reason. Hrm. I mount up to head for the garage, as Rick and Trev walk back round to the club, and Trev flags me down as I pass to point out that I have a leak. And some bastard has just nicked the last space in the carpark. I park in a sidestreet opposite and phone the AA again.
About here, fortunately, things start to improve. AA man arrives in 20 mins: different AA man. About 50, Yorkshire Asian, evidently takes a pride in a job well done. The job in question takes him a little under an hour, firstly fixing the radiator hose properly and permanently, then bleeding the air locks out of the system and testing it under pressure for a good 15-20 mins while he inspects the bumper, figures out why it won't reattach, devises a cunning and secure alternative and implements it out of the bits in the back of his AA Relay truck. He then shadows me back to the M62 to be sure it's all still OK
(Steve the AA man - nice letter coming the AA's way about you - I hope you get to read it. Have a beer on me sometime.)
Finally get home at 11pm.