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Jab!

Pic of the week 14/3/21

Today I had my Covid jab.

I had the AstraZenca jab at the West Mendip Hospital,

Was thinking it would still be another week or so until we Cat 9s (50 to 55 yr olds) could start booking our jabs, but on Thursday I got a text from the surgery, I booked my slot for today, turned up and, within 10 mins of parking up, I’d been jabbed. Locally, we are obviously doing well as nationally it is still only cat 8s that are getting the jab.

A huge achievement – perhaps humanities greatest in my lifetime? A year ago, it was becoming obvious that the virus was going to impact us, one year on and I’ve had my jab.  Becky gets hers tomorrow. It is the one good thing that we are doing as a nation and I hope that it won’t be too long (June, perhaps?) by the time the children get theirs.

So far, no side effects other than a big grin and a sense of hope.

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New job (role)

Pic of the week 7/3/21

First up, its hard to believe that March has arrived (and we are now a week into it) – I think one of the features of lockdown is losing a sense of time; it feels like we are in a perpetual February. (After last week’s lovely  weather, this last week has been cold and grey, although the sun has shone today.)

The week began with me being told I had got one of the new roles, so as of September I shall be an “AHOS” – assistant Head of Section in the middle school (basically Head of Year 10 ). A little more money, a little less teaching and a lot of extra work I suspect!  After the roller-coaster of the process I must admit I am pleased, and beginning to come to terms with the idea.

Tomorrow sees us start back in school for two weeks, and I must admit I am looking forward to it. It’ll be good to see other people, to break the groundhog of remote learning, and also a sense of change, a sense that, perhaps, things are getting back to normal.

The pic of the week shows some visitors that we have discovered hovering up spilt bird food on the deck.  Not surprisingly, Becky is not keen on these little fellas and so the bird food has been moved well away from deck, and poison placed under the deck. (I did fish out some mouse traps I had in the shed, but decided not to deploy them when I almost suffered a broken finger that nearly got caught whilst trying to set one of the traps.)

On Friday evening a cat got run over on the road outside our house. Becky and a work colleague (who was in the car behind the murder weapon) moved the cat to the bank outside Elmhurst school and I put a message on All New Spotted. By the morning it was gone.

 

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A new hope?

Pic of the week 28/2/21

Two significant events this week …

  1. The weather turned. It’s stopped raining, its warmed up and the sun has shone, and …
  2. on Monday Boris Johnson announced that all children are to return to school from the 8th of March.

The latter led our Head to change tack, and (physically) re-open the school from Monday 8th. Combined, both have led to a sense of hope and excitement, a sense that different days are coming.

So one more week of remote learning, and then two weeks of school, before the Easter holidays.  I think it is the relentless “groundhog-ness” of remote teaching that makes its so difficult, so to have an end in sight has, in me at least, generated an excitement that has been lacking for a while.

This time next week I’ll be polishing my shoes!

(In other news, I took advantage of the good weather today to mow the lawn for the fist time this season.)

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Half Term

Pic of the week 21/2/21

And so half term draws to a close …

Nothing major to write home about – after all, we’re still in lockdown 3, so there’s not much you can do – but I definitely needed the week off.

I’ve run a few times – did another 10K today: little/no wind and on the flat sections was starting to post a semi-respectable time.

On Thursday Becky & I went for a long (10K) walk – very pleasant, and even enjoyed some warm spring sunshine on the skin. But, about fifteen minutes from “home” (the car) the sky went black and hail lashed down. It was painful – particularly when a blob of ice would strike the tip of an ear!

On the whole, the weather has warmed up this week, but it has been fairly wet throughout. However, when the rain stays away you do get a sense that spring may be round the corner – the days are lengthening and bushes and trees are starting to bud up.

The decision has been made to shorten this term by a week and add it on to the summer term. So only four weeks more of the groundhog of remote teaching: coupled with the improving weather, a sense of hope is beginning to permeate my world. (Although the 7 week first half of the summer term will be long!)

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Micra Alternator

Pic of the week 14/2/21

The Micra has had a tough few months. At the start of December the brake master servo sprang a leak and the brakes stopped working (fixed that.) Then, just before Christmas, the exhaust tail box dropped off. I got National Tyres (at the bottom of the hill) to do that, but the couldn’t get the parts until the new year, so it was early January before that was fixed. Driving it the short way home, the car was making a hell of a noise, and both Becky and Sam commented on how the car didn’t sound right when they used it.

Some (pro-longed) fault diagnosis led me to conclude that it was the alternator – confirmed by removing the fan belt and firing up the car – no noise. Spinning the various pulleys, it quickly became clear it was the alternator (I think the bearings on the drive clutch had “gone”).

Anyway, was just taking it on the occasional short, round the block trip to keep things ticking over whilst I researched how to change the alternator, hoping to make it to half term, when I’d have a little more time. But about 10 days before half term, on one short such spin one lunch time, the alternator seized completely, belt disintegrated, and I made it home on what was left in the battery.

I’d already bought a “new” 2nd hand alternator and last weekend began the job of removing it.  In theory, simple: remove belt (already off as broke whilst driving), two electrical connections and two bolts.

But life is not that simple.

The alternator was buried behind heaps of “gubbins.”

Car up on sticks, remove driver side wheel & wheel arch, to access belt – easy enough. But then I realised I would have to remove a headlight, tensioner puller, much of the front bumper, a few air pipes just to get access.

And eventually I got access, and I eventually undid the two bolts.

But …

The lower bolt could be removed as there wasn’t clearance between it and the chassis. Now we came to the most nervous bit.  Jack under the engine (plank of wood on the sump) and tentively loosen the three engine mount bolts. Carefully, bit by bit, lower the jack. Eventually there is enough clearance and the bolt slides out.

Now just jack the engine back up … but (I think) my trolley jack had settled into the ground and I couldn’t get the engine back up.  Beginning to get a little concerned at this point. Then, have a brainwave. Get a concrete block and the tyre changing jack and use this to raise the engine back up. Still some fiddling and faddling to realign the engine mount, but loosening it “car side” gave me the necessary play. Phew!!

Now just whip out the alternator and put in the new one …

But no, the old alternator took some crow barring to get it out, and then some dexterous manhandling to get it out of the car, but eventually I emerged triumphant, dead alternator in hand.

Thought I’d pop the new alternator in and secure with top bolt and call it quits for the day, but I just couldn’t get it to fit.

Long story short, when you tighten the alternator in place, it draws through two bushings to provide a tight fit – so tight you can’t get an old one back on, YouTube & the internet told me to hammer the bushings back through, but they weren’t going to budge.

So I bough a new alternator (£120 compared to £20 for the 2nd hand one) and this weekend I fitted it. Went in like a glove, top bolt in securing it in place. Now for the difficult bit – lowering the engine to allow the bottom bolt to go in. I took my time, was cautious and no dramas, engine dropped (say 1cm?) bolt inserted, engine re-lifted, mounting bolts tightened.

Put everything back together – fitting the belt was difficult, v tight. Hopped in car ready to start her up to check all OK, turn the key: nothing.

Battery dead. Tried jumping her, but still nothing. Left the car on trickle charge and at 10pm, before going to bed, she turned over, but didn’t start, then battery died.

Left her on charge overnight.

In the morning, got expectantly in. Nothing, nada, zilch. Took the battery negative cable off, left for a minute, put it back on. Dashboard lights up -promising – turn key, turns over, sparks into life. Fantastic!

But then I noticed the wheels turning when not in gear. Odd. Feared I might have completely screwed something, but a quick internet search suggested that this is normal with both wheels of the ground.

Spent an hour or so rebuilding the front of the car (headlights, bumper, under tray, wheel arch) wheel back on, drop it off sticks, fire her up, voltage check – alternator kicking out a healthy 14Volts +, and take her for a test drive. All good, and I’m one happy hector. Frustration at times, but on the whole I’ve enjoyed myself, and a great deal of satisfaction derived from a job well done!

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10K

Pic of the week 7/2/21

Its been strange week, Tuesday was (actually) Groundhog Day and it certainly lived up to its name. A low point in lockdown – weather was cold and damp, everything was just “bluhh” and everyone in the house was just fed up. But this is the key – recognising when you reached the nadir, so you do something to lift you from the gloom and despondency. I ran on Wednesday lunchtime, only 5K but everything was better after that. Music is my other route out of the doldrums, but running is better; I think I am addicted to endorphins.

On Saturday morning I went for a lovely long walk with Becky, walking to essentially the corner of Ham Wall.  Although cold, the sun shone and the spirits lifted. A lockdown bonus is that I would never have known some of the places that exist on our doorstep.

And today I went for my Sunday morning run. I was planning on doing my 7K, with a possible 1K extension, but for the first time since my back injury, running was becoming easy again, so I did my full 10K. Not swift, but managed a sub 50 and, despite the last two Ks being a little difficult,  it was a bit more like the cruise of old. Looked back at my stats for last year and I first ran 10K on 23rd Feb, in a time (slightly) slower than today’s so that’s encouraging – I perhaps haven’t regressed as much as I feared.

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Winter is here

Pic of the week 31/1/21

We are in the grips of winter. The pic above was from a week ago, when we awoke on Sunday to a lovely snowy scene that then soon turned grey, cold and damp. Today we’ve had more snow – a lot has fallen, big, wet flakes, but its not settled, and has now stopped, but it did enough to dampen any opportunity to do much outdoors today.

On the metaphorical (rather than metrological) front we have entered a big freeze – I’ve been told that my AHoY role is to be scrapped. On the one hand, I’m not completely surprised, but on the other hand I am rather miffed. In part because of the “process” – I don’t think it is being done properly, in part due to the significant finacial hit I will have to take, and partly it means going back to square one, and one has to question what is the point of being a “good teacher” and doing all that one does. Given the stage of life that it is happening, it is a significant event and could well be pivotal in my relationship with my career and Millfield School for years to come – perhaps it will now just be a job, my relationship with the school purely mercenary and I prostitute myself for money, and nothing else.  Time will tell.

Running: January draws to a close with me struggling to average 5mins a km. The good news is that I am now running again – its tough, certainly not the cruise around town it was before I hurt my back, but I did manage an 8Km run today which is progress. I’ve run 46 Km this month – not bad, I now need to look to increase that significantly next month. My weight is stubburnly sticking at around the 13 stone 4 pound mark: with lockdown, it may just be a case of accepting this post-Christmas/bad back weight for longer, until lockdown eases and general movement increases. But I must guard against any move northwards.

Some good news: this last week saw Dad, David & Anne, and Granny W all get vaccinated, looking forward to the day that I join their ranks.

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Haircut

Pic of the week 24/1/21

So we are three weeks into the latest lockdown, and its been five weeks since we had our haircut, so on Saturday the clippers came out.

All was going well until:

Oops!

(or, more truthfully, something a little stronger).

Admiring her handiwork, Becky felt the front needed a little more off so she took up the clippers and applied them to the top of my head, having forgotten that she had taken off the guard to tidy up my neck and ear hairs.

So just behind my fringe I have a barren patch.

My fringe/quiff acts as a barrier, and front on, the calamity can’t been seen. But look from above, and there it is – a patch of pink scalp in amongst a see of grey hair.

The good news is is that lock-down looks like its going to last for quite some time so I’m sure it will have grown back before I’m allowed back out in public.

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Birds

Pic of the week 17/1/21

(I was going to call this post “Nice Tits” but figured that might get me into trouble)

So lockdown continues, remote teaching continues, and one needs to seek out alternative hobbies and interests in these alternate times. Becky has taken to feeding birds in the back garden, with her feeding stations set up to provide good photo opportunities.  I must admit, I too enjoy looking at the birds and have put a couple of feeders outside my window in the hope of attracting some feathered friends to watch whilst I teach.

One of my “new” hobbies is tinkering with the cars – well, more than just tinkering, fault finding and rectifying. The Micra has begun to make the most dreadful noise – a rattling shriek. Anyway, after some fault diagnosis today, my suspicions were confirmed and the problem is the alternator bearings. I think it will need a new alternator ( I don’t think it will be possible to replace the bearings). Not a difficult job in terms of complexity, but access will make it blummin’ difficult. More research needed.

Hummed and hah-ed about running today, but glad I did. Still slow – I can only manage 7K, and average about 5mins a K, but did feel so, so much better for it afterwards. And my back feels a lot better, to. I think that maybe now the aches and pains I am still getting in my back are from sitting at my computer for most of the day.

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Cars, Computers, cold and lockdown

Pic of the week 10/1/21

Well, its been an eventful week.

We’re now in lockdown 3, and schools are closed so I’ve begun remote teaching again. Looking at the positives, I’m not as tired as I would have been as I can get up a little later, no duties, no Wednesday or Saturday games; I’ve got a bit more time to crack on with a few projects, and I’ve learnt lessons from lockdown 1 (mainly don’t be too rigid with a daily timetable. Teach when you have to teach, but other than that work at times that suit). But it (teaching remotely) is not as good as being in school. I reckon we could be in for the long haul, all the way to the summer term …

Its been cold, bitterly cold, this week. Indeed, that was a definite silver lining on Wednesday when I walked home at lunchtime (I taught from school for the first day, but at home from then on) – I figured we would have otherwise have been at Kingweston and it would have been perishing. Temperatures have been at or around freezing all week. Today, I thought the sun was going to burn through to give us a beautiful January day, but no, the freezing fog never lifted.

Perhaps because of the cold, the birds have been flocking to our feeding table in the back garden. On Saturday morning, whilst teaching, I was distracted by a long tail tit in the bush outside my window, so I have put a couple of feeders out there in the hope of attracted more feathered friends to break up the monotony of the teaching day.

Because of teaching from home, I felt that the time was right to furnish myself with a Windows 10 computer, in the main so that I can use OneNote for Windows 10 – much quicker than using the browser based version I relied on in lockdown 1. So I found and bought a refurbished ‘pooter on Amazon (£125, 256 SSD Hard Drive 8 GB RAM) which duly arrived, but wouldn’t start. I phoned the helpline for help, but they weren’t any good. In the end, after much intial frustration, scratching of heads by Sam and I, and swapping parts in and out, I figured the problem was one of the four 2GB Ram cards. Long story short, I now have it up and running, albeit with only 6 GB instead of 8.

Today I had another crack at the top mount on the Corsa. Using penetrating spray and a long extension pole, I manged to crack the nut holding it on. So now having loosened a number of bolts that probably haven’t been loosened fro over ten years, I reckon I’m in a position were I can remove the strut next week (Saturday?) and replace the top mount. I am enjoying tinkering with the cars.

Ran today – once again felt slow and difficult, averaging about 5 mins per K (ran 7K) but did the run in nearly 30 secs less than last week, so that is progress. Although annoyingly, I tweaked my right calf, I hope that’s not going to put me out of action for too long – with my weight spiraling upwards I really do need to establish an exercise regime to help control it.