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Early Risers.


Mr.S.corn78
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Morning, dry and grey and very still outside.

Hillman Avenger my second car, was my Dads originally, first car Singer Gazelle, a real tank bought for £100 thought front reclining seats a good feature considering I was  as Ian puts it a yoof.

 

Enjoy your day

 

Alan

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Woke very early this morning and, after cogitating for a while ,decided to get up and do something useful. Consequently, the factory building progressed a little before I took the dogs out for their morning exercise. It's looking like a beautiful day here at the moment, let's hope it stays that way. 

 

There is talk of a cross border shopping expedition this morning. This could be dependant on the telephone conversation Steph is having at this very moment. Ah, she's off the phone now, shopping postponed until tomorrow. Whoopee!

 

If you can, have a fun weekend, if not, condolences.

 

John

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Morning all

 

A dull but dry morning, quite mild, too. Not the best of nights with a bit of tooth/gum ache about 1 a.m. - but, hey, it's the weekend. Oh, just remembered I don't work any more...

 

XHV849T was the Beckenham Divisional Office Hillman Avenger, the one that went for some years with a bulldog clip holding the rear of the exhaust in place. Regular maintenance visits to the Road Motor Engineer at Croydon had failed to get this put right. A shower of what, did you say? We had two Montegos from new, so we must have liked the first one. It did lose its clutch at 12k miles, but that was under warranty, so no expense. Deb had an ex-Electricity Board Maestro van in the mid-90s, with the Perkins engine. For some reason it had larger wheels than when new, 15" instead of 14", I think. Noisy, but it got her around. She sold it to the garage who maintained it for her, who then used it as an everyday vehicle, so they must have seen the potential life left in it. Deb had moved up (?) to a new Daewoo Matiz, with a 3-cylinder engine that needed some revving.

 

Sheena here for coffee at 11, MiL to be phoned at 12. Assuming she's not succumbed to the chest infection, as can easily occur at 92!

 

Hope your weekend is behaving - and Phil's plumber can get the boiler up and running soonest.

Edited by Oldddudders
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Morning all,   

 

ah yes the much (loved) 1974 Hillman Avenger - I had the estate version . There were four of us in the local model Railway club with Avengers all age wise with in 12 months off the production line and every single one was different, brakes, bulbs you-name-it!  The fuel inlet in the carb had a little filter that would block on afairly regular basis -  quick job  with the right spanner even taught the wife how to remove &  clean it! 

 

OK enough nostalgia for this morning, suns trying to shine so guess I'll be puppy walking again. 

 

Lets hope our day goes to plan, 

 

Trev.

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Agree that Children in Need led to us being moved.

One would have to be made of stone otherwise.

 

On a brighter note, we're laying on a visit from Santa, a well lit large conifer, presents for every child, choir and carols with the scent of hot punch and mince pies on the Sunday before Christmas.

It's only a small village - which makes it possible.

Makes us feel good.

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Morning all,

 

Ah, railway road vehicles -we had an Avenger at one place where I was based, terrible thing, I seemed to more often then not borrow one of the minibuses for whatever required a bit of road mileage.  I did however take the Avenger (by then the spare car) to Kensington Palace when I was in a different job a couple of years later in order to return a Royal picnic breakfast and fortunately it seemed to have improved.  Alas the same could not be said for one of the RHQ pool cars which was an Austin 1800 and which gradually got worse and worse - the replacement Peugeot was a lot better (and a bit smaller).  All a step up from the vehicle in which I took my BR test, a Viva HA van (and yes, once upon a time you had to be tested in order to be given a BR domestic Driving Licence - in even earlier years if you passed a BR test you automatically qualified for a 'normal' Driving Licence if you didn't happen to have one - different world back then).

 

Herself's off to get her hair done and I shall collect her later after she has circulated Waitrose - what an exciting life we lead.

 

Havea  good day one & all.

Edited by The Stationmaster
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Imminent trip to Ikea to stock up on a load of storage boxes, then putting stuff into the said storage boxes in the back bedroom, then moving stuff round to see if it still fits. Chances are it won't.

 

If we can stand the excitement, that is.

Edited by Coombe Barton
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Re boilers; if it's low water pressure you may be able to fix it yourself, depending on the boiler. For mine I downloaded the installation instructions from the web and printed it. The pressure drops about 4 times a year, including the Xmas period. The boiler is aged and needs replacing however so I must organise that. I have an old mate who's a plumber/CH engineer which is handy. Not for mate's rates but it's nicer to have somebody you know do the job.

 

The morning started sunny but there are clouds about. I must get the laundry done. 

 

I will pop over to the Millbrook show later.

 

More coffee is required. Have a good day.

 

Pete

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Imminent trip to Ikea to stock up on a load of storage boxes, then putting stuff into the said storage boxes in the back bedroom, then moving stuff round to see if it still fits. Chances are it won't.

 

If we can stand the excitement, that is.

 

Question for you. I have an empty room. I put a large wardrobe in to the room. Have I increased the storage space in the room?

 

Ed

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Well, it's nearly 2 hours since my last post. All the leaves raked up till the next lot! 5 barrow loads of wet leaves today and that's non one of your fancy garden wheel barrows, this is the big builders' model that we bought when we built the house fourteen years ago. I think it's the concrete lining that keeps it going! Household chores completed and Steph has gone off to a friends to 'sew things for the Christmas markets'. So it's time for coffee before heading back to the workshop, then lunch and after that the rugby.

 

First car was a Moggy Minor convertible. A very early model, split windscreen, headlamps in the grille and a tiny 803cc side valve lump that looked lost in the engine bay. Cost me all of £50 in 1965, what would it be worth now. I blew the big ends trying to race a 'Frog eye' Sprite round Bristol city centre. What a joke. I stored it in the office garage for a couple of years then sold it (still with broken engine) for £50! Next up was a Ford Thames 15cwt van that I converted in a camper. Wasn't very good for pulling the right sort of girl, so next up was a nice little Sunbeam Alpine complete with wire wheels, overdrive, etc. It was five years old, had less than 40,000 on the clock and only cost me £325. Those were the days, 4 gallons of petrol for a quid! 

 

Weather is still great here, I hope it's heading your way.

 

John

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Imminent trip to Ikea to stock up on a load of storage boxes, then putting stuff into the said storage boxes in the back bedroom, then moving stuff round to see if it still fits. Chances are it won't.

 

If we can stand the excitement, that is.

The word "imminent" used in the quoted post obviously has different meanings. We're still at home.

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Morning All,

Nice fine day here so far, so have been sorting out wood for the woodburner.  While doing that, a train consisting of 4 DRS Class 37s trundled by going south.  Double headers are normal, but 4 together is unusual!  While outside, I had left the old cassette player & PC digitising my old Procul Harum collection.  I did it before some time ago and seem to have lost the CDs I created, and hadn't saved the files as MP3 which wasn't clever!  Wont make the same mistake again.

 

I could also do with a Tardis cupboard, as I am a good hoarder, but SWMBO is world class at hoarding!  We have sworn to start a serious clearout when I retire next year, but I suspect that this means me clearing out my stuff while hers will remain in the house!

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The wardrobe will reduce the total usable space available by the volume of the wood/MDF/etc + any space underneath + any space taken up by feet or base. It does however increase the clothes storage space from 0 to xm3 , assuming you don't treat the floor as clothes storage space. A recessed top is difficult to stack stuff on but makes an excellent cat hide.

 

Pete

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Morning all. It's my birthday today so I was hoping to put my feet up. Not a chance. My wife went out to the tumble dryer and came back with its door in her hand! One of the hinge pins has broken so we have to wangle the door back in place well enough for the machine to dry this week's washing. Fortunately the repair is straightforward and parts readily available. Any competent home handyman can do it and there are no electrics involved. My usual source of spares is Espares and their site has handy video demonstrations for doing jobs like this. Other suppliers are available. Now to order the parts and get back to putting my feet up. Have a great day all.

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Morning all. It's my birthday today so I was hoping to put my feet up. Not a chance. My wife went out to the tumble dryer and came back with its door in her hand! One of the hinge pins has broken so we have to wangle the door back in place well enough for the machine to dry this week's washing. Fortunately the repair is straightforward and parts readily available. Any competent home handyman can do it and there are no electrics involved. My usual source of spares is Espares and their site has handy video demonstrations for doing jobs like this. Other suppliers are available. Now to order the parts and get back to putting my feet up. Have a great day all.

Happy birthday. If you lived near here you would almost certainly be fixing the tumble dryer today as there is an appliance repair business with a very comprehensive spares counter.
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Morning all. It's my birthday today so I was hoping to put my feet up. Not a chance. My wife went out to the tumble dryer and came back with its door in her hand! One of the hinge pins has broken so we have to wangle the door back in place well enough for the machine to dry this week's washing. Fortunately the repair is straightforward and parts readily available. Any competent home handyman can do it and there are no electrics involved. My usual source of spares is Espares and their site has handy video demonstrations for doing jobs like this. Other suppliers are available. Now to order the parts and get back to putting my feet up. Have a great day all.

Geoff - you might just get the part in Hartley's next to the old market. Oh and happy birthday if I don't see you.

 

Afternoon All

 

One of these doesn't quite know what to do days here - and the wind has a chilly edge to it.  Already been out to town, but due to go out again soon, as soon as 30747 is ready.  Once we've done that, we can light the fire and put our feet up with a beer for me, and a cuppa for her, so I might not pop in later. 

 

Jock - your post moved me greatly, and your approach to cancer is really quite incredible.  Hope that you are continuing to post here, having found this little community to your liking, for a long time to come.  For a cyber-group, the support and cameraderie is, I think, unique on the net. 

 

Meantime, appears that we are going out a little later, but I'll get going now, while the going is good.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

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I’ve never owned an Avenger or indeed even driven one. I’ve owned some dodgy cars in my life but never a Hillman.

 

Well done Jock! Personally I’m certain that your whole outlook on life is as good as the medicine!

 

Best, Pete.

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 Next up was a Ford Thames 15cwt van that I converted in a camper. Wasn't very good for pulling the right sort of girl, so next up was a nice little Sunbeam Alpine complete with wire wheels, overdrive, etc.

The eternal conundrum. The sort of car that pulls the totty is precisely the sort of car in which it is damned difficult, or at least jolly uncomfortable, if you wish to - er - complete the transaction!

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Back again,  today I have manage to wear the puppy out -  4k today!  - for the time being.  Lots  of wet mud on the lanes though.  

 

Back to motor vehicles,  I was working  for the Perkins agent when the Maestro van came out - claimed to be the first high speed diesel that would do the three tons .  100mph (Mine did early one morning on the A30 West of Exeter)  100 Horse Power - only on the testbed!  and 100mpg - never managed that.  But the first ones had the air inlet low down at the front -  South West Water found that out the hard way . Hit a deep puddle at  high speed  = air inlet works like water scope  = knackered engine = no warranty = lots of work for my workshop!  Oh happy days!

 

Nice smells  coming from the kitchen - beef stew & dumplings  I understand, 

 

Be good 

 

Trev.

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