Diesel magic

The Ford Focus has has a hard life, and recently after 108k miles I had to replace the clucth and flywheel. ouch! the best part of £900 moved from my account to the local garage who did a fine jobe for £300 less than the Ford dealer.

The car drives like new again, but the spiraling cost of diesel forced (£1.39 per litre) encouraged me me to examine how savings could be made.

The car is supposed to deliver up to 65mpg, but in real driving conditions, the best average I get is around 42, even with the lavish amounts of motorway driving I have to do. I once saw 52 mpg, by sticking at a 70mph for a few hundred miles, but that was very hard work.

I've read about remapping the ignition system, and heard that major gains could be had, but laziness prevented me from traking further. With the added incentive of high prices at the pumps I decided to re-visit, and rather than a re-map located a CR Tech box from Bluespark Automotive.

This is a piece of electronics that plugs into the Fuel inject circuit and re-interprets the signal to make the engine more efficient. The claim was 30% more power, which translates into economy because you don't need tyo feed the engine as much because it's performing more efficiently. I had my doubts but decided to give it a try.

It works. straight out of the box, The engine behaves as before, but there is definitely more oooomph when you put you foot down. My first trip down to Milton Keynes saw an average mpg of 62mpg at 70 - 80, and on Saturady I re-set the average figure on a 20 mile trip on the motorway and saw 70mpg! The average soon drops once short journeys and colds starts are indulged in, but the average around town is now 52mpg.

I wish I'd installed a long time ago.

This week I finally found a restaurant in Northampton that serves good food. It's in the centre of the town on the ring road, and was a church some time ago. In fact it was one of the oldest churches in Northampton before being defrocked, and the town has grown up around it.

It was quiet when I arrived, and after been shown to my table I looked up and saw this ghostly figure perched in a window, high above the dining area.

Great food - I had soup followed by fish pie. I enjoyed it so much , I returned the following evening!

Removing the cold barrier.

Today the sky was blue, and the temprature crept up to 6 degrees centigrade (where is that pesky degree symbol when you need it?). Previously it would have been too cold for riding, but today I broke with tradition and donned my christmas present from Ali, a set of Keis electrically heated vest, gloves and boot insoles.

At first I wasn't sure how effective the gloves and soles were - I could feel the heat on my back but everything else seemed just OK rather than hot. I changed the setting from medium to high, and set off up the M55. I cold still feel the heat from the vest but everything just seemed comfortable. This is some acheivement when you take into account the windchill factor that motorway speed brings, driving through the digits until they hurt.

After 50 miles I thought I need to see what it would be like without the heating, and after a couple of miles at 30mph, my fingers were hurtingto the point of being dangerous, so the experiment has been a success. I made my way home, and after 80 miles my legs began to complain, my hips seemed to freeze and discomfort penetrated my knees. Next time thermals will be worn.

After 95 miles, I returned home, sharing the last part of the journey on the M6 and M55 with a guy on a Triumph Rocket. As we pulled up at the last set of light I could see the wires leading into his gloves. Electric heating - it's the way to maximise the bright winter days and cure the blues.

I washed the bike down to get rid of any residual salt, and by the time I finished the cold was making me shiver - I wa no longer protected by the Keis gear!

Where did the last three months go?

The last post was my Daughter leaving for Uni, and now she's back home, and my son is out at work, and the year is about to end, and 2011 is waiting to make it's debut.

Snow surprised December, and delivered a white Christmas, and after overstaying it's welcome, has almost disappeared. The seasonal colds and flu visited the house just as Grandad and Grandma arrived for the holiday, but it didn't prevent us having a great time. The enforced house arrest made the old folks restless, but it was far too slippery underfoot for them to walk out. We did have a stroll around the well- salted retail park on Boxing Day and Dad seemed very impressed with the iPad. If it had a camera built in, I think he'd go for it. Despite the press building up the day as the busiest retail event of the year, Blackpool was very, very, quiet.

Two more days left, then in to the New Year!

She's gone

On Saturday we packed the car with most of what we thought Charlie would need. Defining "would need" proved to be emotive, but tempers were kept in check and we eventually set off on the 220 mile trip to Cambridge. The journey was uneventful, and we stopped for lunch at a branch of Nando's in Kettering.

Cambridge was busy, and we reached the entrance to the old part of town which is pedestrianised, and a traffic warden checked our document then lowered the bollards to allow us to drive up to Trinity College.

Charlie's digs were located on the 5th floor of a nearby building, but fortunately there was a lift. The only snag was the Uni didn't have enough Ethernet cables until Monday, so after dropping the belongings, we set off to park the car, then find her a cable to connect to the internet. This was purely selfish, as I didn't want to wait until Monday to skype. All the shops had sold out, so I left Charlie and Ali and went further afield, eventually finding a Maplins and the right length cable.

On our way back to Charlie's room, she nudged me as I passed someone, who turned out to be Jimmy Carr. It's a shame I didn't notice him, we could have had a conversation to determin we were not related..........



We left Charlie with a guy from the year above who had been assigned to look after her. She had lots to do, and we were holding things up. It wasn't a sad parting, the accommodation was good, the town is beautiful and she is very well placed, so we know she'll have a great time.

Wow!!!!!

Charlies' A level results were revealed just after 6 am this morning. The school asked her to go in early because it was the only time they could get the local press there.

A * in Biology, Chemistry and Mathematics, and an A in Physics. She has secured her place at Cambridge!

The Nowhere Boy

We watched The Nowhere Boy, the biopic about the young John Lennon last night. I warned Ali that she would probably cry, and the film did indeed leave her a wreck.

It was very well put together, and the feel of 1958 was pretty accurate (even though I wasn't around at the time, I spotted the strange fences that were common when I was young, oddly shaped lengths of wood bound together with wire, and buses and bus shelters that rang true. I don't recall ever seeing anyone hitch a ride on the top of double deckers though, but I was on the east, and who knows what those scousers got up to!

The tale of loss and betrayal John felt is well documented, but this film brought the relationship with John, his mother and Mimi into sharp focus.

Well worth watching.