Es i dosbarth Cymraeg yn Llanharan bore yma. I went to Welsh class in Llanharan this morning, continuing to work on the current set of assessments.
It was too wet today to do any more work on the Passat so I finished some re-coding of my web site
A dry Monday
I gave Paul a lift home from Pontyclun this morning, he’s waiting to find out what’s wrong with his car.
Did some work on the Passat, the heater blower motor packed in a while ago which makes it pretty much undriveable in cold and wet weather. The main dealer charges around £200 for a new blower motor and I believe something over £500 to supply and fit it. 🙁 Managed to source a new unit for under £100 with next day delivery. It’s a bit of a pain to remove and fit the blower motor, it involves removing the glove compartment but the passenger air bag is positioned in such a way as to make it almost impossible to remove the motor without removing the air bag. 🙁 I took the easy way out, disconnected the battery and removed the air bag. 🙂
A mixed Sunday
John & Ida’s in Pontypridd for Sunday lunch, excellent as always. 🙂
Paul’s car has broken down in Durham. 🙁
A damp Saturday
The snow has turned to rain. 🙂
Someone recently emailed us some examples of pavement art, they’re really quite stunning.
A fairly quiet day apart from more shopping at Tesco extra, nice to drive the BMW again now the snow has melted. 🙂
More snow today
Despite the overnight weather forecast being rain it snowed overnight with more snow this morning.
A trip to Tesco again this morning, it was much busier than yesterday.
Some of the side roads are still very slippery although the Nissan Patrol coped very well. I still haven’t needed to switch it into four wheel drive during the current spell of snow. 🙂
A snow covered Thursday
We had about two inches of snow overnight with a little more this morning. It makes me wonder how many drivers of ‘non-permanent four wheel drive’ 4×4 vehicles will get into their trucks and without thinking select four wheel drive as they believe that is the correct thing to do in snow, it’s actually a very wrong thing to do as with the majority of these 4x4s it’s one of the most dangerous and damaging thing you can do. Without a centre differential (as fitted to permanent 4 wheel drive vehicles like Land Rovers) you not only put damaging stresses on the drive train with dangerous and expensive consequences but you suffer from severe under steer. Most dangerously as engine braking is applied evenly to both front and back axles, if you’re going down hill you risk having the rear of the vehicle spinning around to the front. The correct method of driving in snow with most temporary 4 wheel drive vehicles is to leave them in 2 wheel drive and only engage 4 wheel drive if you become stuck and then immediately disengage 4 wheel drive once you’re moving. Some tips on four wheel driving techniques here information on locking differentials here and general information on safe driving in snow here. Remember 4 wheel drive will not stop you skidding and sliding on very slippery surfaces but it helps to keep you moving (in some direction!), when the going is tough you need to be moving slowly to maintain as much control as possible.
I went out in the Nissan Patrol to the local Tesco store this morning to do some shopping, it was really quiet there, I think most people were staying at home due to the snow.
My mum went to the doctor yesterday and she’s on antibiotics and steroids and is feeling a little better today. 🙂
A bright and dry Sunday
At home for lunch today (very unusual!), I cooked roast chicken, roasted winter vegetables, peas, carrots, potatoes, Yorkshire puddings and gravy.
I emailed a brief survey to some of our previous wedding couples today and so far I’ve had a super response.
I’ve finally managed to make Symantec Internet Security 2007 work, a rather tedious process that involved removing all Symantec products, deleting a number of folders, editing the registry, a complete re-installation of all the Symantec products and re-activation. So far LiveUpdate and all the products are now working properly, I’ve created a Ghost image of the drive which will make it easier if we have any further problems.
A cold Saturday
It’s my Mum’s birthday today so popped over with a card and present. She’s suffering with the flu at the moment.
Andrew, who lives across the road and used to be a former work colleague when I worked at Lloyds TSB called in briefly this evening, his corkscrew is in his caravan so he needed a bottle of wine opening. 🙂 He’s also just getting over the flu.
David and Hannah called around this evening, sent David off with a flea in his ear as he hadn’t remembered his Nan’s birthday! He says he’ll call over there tomorrow with a card and grovel.
A sunny Friday
Another response from Symantec requesting that I delete / uninstall all the Symantec files from my computer and then re-install the software. I’ll probably try that when I get a quiet moment.
I’ve been re-writing some of the PHP code and re-structuring the MySQL database that is used on my web site, nearly completed all the changes.
A mainly dry Wednesday
A visit to the hygienist and dentist this morning – well overdue.
I received a further response from Symantec regarding my LiveUpdate problems following the upgrade to Internet Security 2007. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to completely resolve the problem but I an now getting different errors. I’ve responded with details so we’ll have to wait and see what happens next.
Within an hour I’d received a further response from Symantec, requesting that I un-install and re-install the product, I did this but we’re still having a problem with LiveUpdate, there’s a terrible feeling of Deja Vu about this, we’re going down the same route as my previous Symantec problem with LiveUpdate on another pc. 🙁
I’m hoping to avoid getting ‘man flu’, the variant of flu that only men get and is always much worse than the type that women catch, well that’s what men like to think. 🙂