The Return of The Prodigal Son

Craig finally managed to blow his car up. It's taken just over a year, but it's finally died. I'm actually quite impressed that something that sounded like a bag of spanners in a spin dryer kept going for quite so long, particularly as it was getting through four litres of oil a fortnight. This episode was accompanied by the misappropriation of a bicycle and an unusually large number of visits, considering the relative immobility, discussing the "options". Apparently it's a rare limited edition model which means that a ready supply of engines is in short supply. Various schemes to install SOHC rather than DOHC engines were hatched, none of which received parental approval (don't expect the exhaust and engine management to fit/work). Staggeringly, a few days later, a local scrap yard acquired an engine from a rear ended write off. $350 secured it. Fitting it took more of a challenge, even with Craig's landlord's engine hoist. A mobile mechanic was required to bolt various bits into place, and the thing coughed into life, but more the sort of life one expects of a 40-a-day asthmatic. Another couple of weeks and several visits to discuss possible reasons for its non/intermittent starting came and went. Eventually I towed it down to Pit Stop in the mount and got them to look at it. They diagnosed a dodgy distributor and a couple of other ignition related parts, and off it went.

By all accounts, the performance was much improved, and tales of derring-do and 200KPH were bandied about. Deciding to quit while ahead, Craig stuck an ad on TradeMe, and managed to offload it for $2000. That's actually more than he originally paid, notwithstanding the $1000 for engine and fitment thereof.

Having sold the car, Craig decided to change jobs, since the place he was working was continually cutting back the hours. He succeeded in landing a new job reasonably quickly, but this necessitated a.....car to get to and from it. Eyes role skyward at the timing of it all. Thus we set out to find another car, despite my advice of using a bicycle for a month or two (it is only 7k there) and saving up fro something decent. We ended up looking at a slightly scruffy Toyota Celica which was acquired for exactly the same money as the old Honda was sold for.

The new job worked out quite well, but the domestic arrangements were becoming rather fraught, and when a fourth resident appeared in the house, but the utility bills continued to be apportioned in thirds, Craig returned home. It took the landlord three days to notice.

It's a good job that the job is working out OK, because Stig Jr managed to clock another brace of speeding fines, and as a result has no money to speak of, and has to drive everywhere like a monk for fear of loosing his licence. No licence means no job so a double whammy if he overdoes it.

Not content with this, someone reversed into him with a fair amount of force while he was queueing for petrol. The driver gave a false name and address and of course wasn't insured but the police in conjunction with the insurance company were able to trace the culprit through the number plate. The garage has CCTV of the incident and thus Craig shouldn't have to pay a penny towards the repairs. Something to be said for fully comp insurance.

Di now has another couple of sales to add to her total, having sold a pair of houses on the same section to a single buyer. The income is more than useful, as I seem to be going backwards. Various invoices remain outstanding which would go a long way to resolving some of this, and steps may need to be taken in that department.

We were given a rather large quantity of grapes by one of our neighbours, and then another large bunch my another. They didn't taste that great, but a little research indicated that they might make decent wine, if I could find a few more. I went back to the neighbour's garden, since he'd disappeared on another two month excursion to the south island, and pinched what was left - another five pounds or so. The sugar content wasn't quite what I'd hoped, and quite a bit of sugar needed to be added to make the original gravity up to 1100. Fermentation went like stink for about a week, and then seemed to stop almost immediately. The potion is currently sitting in a demijohn, and once I've collected a few bottles, I'll bottle it.

Phoebe managed to spill an entire bottle of blue food colouring over the kitchen cupboard, walls and floor while endeavouring to make her custard turn green. She tried to clean it up herself, but made it worse and then just shut the cupboard, which meant that after I'd cleaned it up, opening the cupboard resulted in the remaining contents of the bottle emptying themselves out and the whole cycle starting again. Custard will be yellow from now on.

The kids are back at school again, which is a relief. Freya was a little reluctant to take part in netball this term, because it was on a Saturday morning and it would apparently interfere with her "plans". He former teacher persuaded her by pretending that the team was short of players. Last year, the team, with the exception of a couple of girls one of whom was Freya, were rather girly and not quite with it and they got hammered mercilessly by nearly every team they played. Perhaps the constant substitution of the oversubscribed team and the frequent alternation of playing positions didn't help. This time however, they all game out fighting and showing plenty of aggression, particularly Freya who was instrumental in the 8-3 victory. Playing goal attack, she scored two goals and was frequently running back to defend and making good interceptions. No surprise that she ended up with the player of the day award.