More impressed.

So, yesterday was spent doing some 'preventative' maintainance on the bike. If you can really call it preventative after riding it a week having left it sitting for 2 and a half months and having not done any maintainance for a while before that...

I adjusted the brakes, which took longer than might be expected due to the unfortunate fact that they were only just off, and only just moving to on; and when I adjusted them so they were only-just-off but could move to fully on they jammed. In fact, I don't recall ever greasing them...

...So I spent some time unsiezing the brakes. They're still 'sticky' but it's a lot better than it was. It was slightly embarassing to go for my test circuit of our roundabout, put my foot on the brake and then not be able to start moving again.

I also spent some time doing the DAF. The rust is over quite a large area, but it's also 'a big flat panel'. Well, actually it's got an L shape to it at the end, but I reckon it shouldn't be too expensive. I need to ring round some welders... I don't suppose anyone knows the actual rules on 'to and from a place of repair' for non-MOT'd cars. Can you take it 'to and from' one for a quote? (I'm assuming not, though I can drive it *to* a place of repair when I've chosen someone).

meh.

Anyhow, the DAF runs - and starts easily - and is quite cute really. It also moves, it's a bit odd to drive after the Viva and the Minor, but it trundled the 2 feet down the drive and back up the drive without too much trauma.

Kathryn spent the day sorting out the back garden. We've modified and simplified plans for the back garden; mostly to cut costs. I don't think there are any shots of the back garden at the height of 'stuff piled everywhereyness'; but she (and I helped a little bit with the bigger chunks of shite) moved all the rubbish into a heap where the dog-hut (which she took down) was. In the process of this, we noticed that when the people-building-a-house behind our house did their de-tree-and-fence work, they have undermined the foundations for the shed. There's now a fracking-huge crackin the back wall, so I'm going to go and demand monies from them for the shed.

Aaanyway, so she cleared the ground, and having been defeated on the DAF brake service (because, well, I don't actually appear to have ramps, jacks or axlestands here, something which I find a little surprising) helped dig it over. Then we went to b&q and spent 26 quid on compost/plants/seeds and a rake.

We were going to plant them this morning before heading to the zine symposium...but the grey sky are likely to make us leave it... that and it's a bit late....

Zines

 

So, today we had a discount London day, heading to the London Zine Symposium. Kathryn and I have discussed (her suggestion, and an awesome one at that) the creation of a zine for a while; and while we were in Brighton I spotted the card advertising it, and so we headed in today...

...and it was cool. There were many zines to be had, and even at the discount zine price of £0.50 - £1 which most zines occupy we managed to spend a fair few quid. Not helped by my picking up a self-published book (I nearly got the Rick Dakan / Geek Mafia book too, but had run out of change) and some of the other more spendy things.

We also had some very nice cake (well, I had cake, Kathryn had muffin); we were very good and took our food with us tho'.

Anyhow, it has reawakened a desire to do a zine, although with my mind working the way it does it'd probably best be called 'off topic' ;) but one of the things I also fancied, and discussed with Kathryn is whether we could get hold of a banda machine to reproduce it. I've always fancied playing with one and did try to convince my parents to let me grab one when the school chucked them (in the end we rescued an ancient photocopier, but ended up stripping it for entertaining bits, like the eye-damagingly-bright light because it was totally knackered) but never ended up with one.

However, finding a spirit duplicator (or gestetner as I call them (I have a feeling roneo-vickers made them too)) has turned out to be harder than I thought. Whilst I knew it was obsolete technology of the most obsolete kind I imagined it'd still lurk on e-bay. But no. Searches for spirit duplicator / ditto (the US name) / banda and roneo-vickers have revealed a marked absence of anything. I tried Slough's freecycle without so much of a whisper... I fear that this may be a plan that fails.

Of course, I think we'd also have to find a dot-matrix printer to produce the original on, too. But I love the idea... So, I know this is hardly a well read journal, but some of my friends work in education, or are at uni, so could ask around. If any of you can find a 24pin dot matrix and a banda (ideally with some of the purple magic paper (I had a whole pack once!) and some copying spirit) then you would rock my little world :)

And that, my dears, is all.