Wednesday 17 August 2016

Painted the stairs in the house with non slip paint - looks better and feels much safer, the old gloss paint was just a bit too slippy :-( Also painting the handrails to match.

Been hanging some more pictures
OK this was on the car :-) two years of JK my most costly item - well apart from the cars


My friend Joche - Frozenspeed - took these from a helicopter - Karrusell and Hoe Acht



 A friend - Renate - gave me this one -her father had bought it in Cairo many years ago - Nefertiti on papyrus - the bag it came in was good so I framed it as well :-)
Too busy to update this - so about time :-(

BMW 330iTouring went to the UK to have some bodywork and mechanical repairs............... usual Houston life moto applies "if it wasn't for bad luck I would have no luck at all..............."

Basic summary - took three times as expected cost twice as much and not all the work was completed :-(

Litany of problems - parts did not turn up on time, had to reschedule welder, paint reacted, delays meant other jobs then clashed with mine, loan car bust a coolant hose, mechanic's mother sadly died so he could not finish the work, wrong parts - exhaust and lambda sensors!

Also on the way over going through Belguim at 2am in the morning a tyre blew at 180 klm/hour yikes - so 200 miles on a space saver at 50mph............................























Some Pictures of the bodywork restoration :-




















 The paint reacted badly and needed a "base" coat!!!








 The Angel eyes that were fitted broke so I got a set of ebay with a remote which alawys you to change the colour.... ha ha just a bit of fun. I like the mean red eye look.


I have put it up for sale as I want to get a coupe version now. The sale photo











I have had the ST220 TUVed and German registered and it is now on German plates - STMY220 was taken so I went with the bhp instead MYST230 :-) Here are both on the drive :-



AS usual (boring) the ST neede work - new rear shochs, drop links, front drop links, wishbone, tie rods and now ARB bushes......................I got some ST225 Focus front brakes - calipers,carriers, discs and pads for £165! Bolt straight on and about 100% improvement :-) The pads which came with the purchase were crap so I replaced them with standard ATE and they are very good. However, I have bought some higher spec ones Black diamond Predators :-) great name, So when the ATE's are done I will fit these.

Lotus went for it's MOT - was not expecting it to fail.........................5 ball joints, drop link, rear brake imbalance, handbrake and a couple of minor things! nothing wrong with all the ball joints but the rubber boots were perished and split - which is a failure. So much poorer but got an MOT now. However the tracking needs doing and the nut on the near side is "welded" to the steering rack shaft!!!! will need to be cracked off and the threads "cleaned".............................never ends.

Finally got a chimmney sweep (Schornsteinfeger) in and got told off - he is supposed to come three times a year by law - oops - six bucket loads of soot yikes. Tried the Kamine I fitted in the lounge and it generates a lot more heat now..... Also had to by a new plinth for it as the one I had was not legal - so got a glass one - so you can see the parquet floor through it and it is easier to clean. New and old below:-

Monday 11 April 2016

Went to Lille on Sunday to see the train station by Santiago Calatrava Valls a Spanish neofuturistic architect, structural engineer, sculptor and painter. 




At the same time as meeting key railway requirements to position Liege at the heart of the North European high speed network, Euro Liege TGV SA wished to make the station’s aesthetics a central concern. Monumental and expressive, airy and transparent
 
http://www.dezeen.com/2009/12/02/liege-guillemins-station-by-santiago-calatrava/












An added bonus was that there was a fantastic Dali exhibition on in the station. It was the most extensive exhibition I have been to with a number of works that I had not seen before and rare footage of the man and Gala on video.



After spending 3 hours walking around the Dali exhibits - there was so much to see...I went to the Opera House to see Daniel-François-Esprit Auber version of Manon Lescaut.

http://www.operaliege.be/en 

Unfortunately, this was not as good as the Puccini version I seen a couple of weeks ago. However, the second half was better so we ended on an up note (excuse the pun).


It was a beautiful day so I went in the Lotus Elan with the top down - fabulous drive and the car surprised a couple of Audi's an RS5 and an ABT RS3 :-)