Garage - Day 3

Garage - Day 2

Garage - Day 1

The workers arrived today to start the garage. I expect it'll not take them long to put it up, at least they're getting great weather for starting.

Moving shed

In preparation for the garage getting built we had to clear out the accumulated rubbish from the foundations. For the most part this meant lifting wood and other rubbish, but the biggest item was the garden shed, which was a quite substantial task.

After preparing the path we got the heavy lifting machinary in and got it delicately balanced on the forks. Matthew kindly drove it all the way around to its new resting position, where it will stay until the real garage gets done.

Now we just have to wait for the builders to turn up :)

Up!

On day 4 out on the water I'm finally riding, only short distances, but still up. Once I made it over several waves, and couldn't believe how I got over each one! Looking forward to getting out again...

On the water again

The wind was just right again tonight, so I was back at Benone to pick up where I left off. This time I was able to go short distances before falling. I'm not ready for any competitions yet, but at least a little progress is encouraging! No pics or vids tonight, the multimedia crew let me down!

On the water - just about!

After months of waiting for wind that was the correct strength and the correct direction I saw the forecast for tonight, and left work as early as possible. On arrival at the beach at Benone I was pleased (although a little intimidated) to see three kiters already out on the water.

I headed over and parked up, introduced myself, and began to get set up.

After my first few disastrous attempts on the water one of the fellows came over and offered some advice, so I tried that for a while, until the handle came off at one side! Fortunately it was just a loose screw and I was quickly back in action.

Hours, and lots of attempts later, with more advice I was making some progress, "riding" for short distances before either sinking or being pulled over on my face.

I definitely am absolutely no good at this sport, but it definitely is the most fun I've had!

Unfortunately there are no pictures of me up on the board, one person suggested that it was because there wasn't a fast enough setting on the camera!

Garage?

Last night we had the contractor who built our house back to give us a price for building a garage. Hopefully it'll come in at something reasonable, but we'll wait and see.

It is quite a coincidence today 6 years ago we had his quantity surveyor here pricing up the build of the main house. Link here: http://www.ccso.co.uk/sb/13Aug2003.html

Ozone Imp Quattro 1.5

New kite for the kids arrived today, its an Ozone Imp which is designed to be an introductory kite, and its perfect for learners. It flys really nicely, right around the window, but never has too hard a pull, exactly what I wanted. Good fun for me too!

Google car

Today on my way home I spotted the google car here. So when the streetview goes live check for a bule impreza in the middle of Greysteel, that'll be me!

Rust in my gas!

Today I finally got a change to return to Automotive Gas Systems in Portadown to see what was wrong with my autoGas conversion on the impreza.

After spending a while looking at it they discovered rust residue in two of the solenoids. They asked where I got my gas, as they said this can happen when people fill it from home gas tanks. I assured them that all the gas I got came from the two local Texaco garages in Coleraine.

Well, anyway, they replaced the two valves, and reset the ECU so we were on our way.

The ECU reset means we need another trip back, as the automatic learning program has to start again. Let's hope it goes better this time!

Rocker cover gasket

About three weeks after I fixed the last oil leak from the crankshaft a new oil leak appeared in my car. This time it was the rocker cover gasket.

The rocker cover gasket in something like a nova, which is probably the last one I have replaced, is a simple job, as the camshaft is at the top of the engine, and it takes about 10 minutes.

The impreza is not so simple, as with a box engine the camshafts are down at the side. So I stripped back the airbox, and the boost solenoid assembly to give me space and eventually managed to get the six bolts and cover off. It took ages to clean the seal as the old rubber gasket had disintegrated and stuck itself all over the place.

Placing the new gasket, and getting the cover back on was a breeze, and I then screwed everything back together, and as always was pleased when I turned the key and heard the engine start. Now all that remains to be seen is if the oil leak has actually gone, and if that is the last one!

First Day

Today I began my employment with Sita in Letterkenny. Quiet day, lots of reading and getting settled in. Seems like a nice place, good people, looking forward into getting settled in properly.

Benone with kite...

Nice and windy today, so we headed to Benone. We went off up the beach where no-one would bother us, and I practiced my one-handed flying, required when in the water with board in one hand and kite in the other. Kate took some pics one of which is above.

No 747

While moving jobs this summer I had decided to take two weeks off in between employments. As always a list is compiled of things that should be done in the 'holiday'. This year that list had one item - slabs. We had left an area at the side of the house that needed to be laid with patio slabs, so the time had come to do it.

Just today, after 10 days work at the area I laid slab no 747 of 875 - that was the entire interior area completed; now only the cutting remains to be completed.

This is the result of the labour.

Thanks to all who helped, without whose help this could have not been completed in this time!

Another kitesurfing lesson

I waited patiently for today. I had booked a lesson on Friday afternoon, and took off work a bit early, but there was no wind. Then yesterday I waited patiently at Belmont Shore beach, but again, all day, there was no wind. I got up this morning really not expecting anything, but by the time I got to Belmont it was picking up nicely, a 10-12 mph wind was blowing.

I called Nudge, and he met up with me, and we took to the water.

I knew this would be difficult, but after spending almost 3 hours on the water I only made it sort of up, maybe twice. In my mind there were several factors in this:

1) I still can't fly the kite well enough (this is the main one)

2) Everytime I was ready to get up there were huge waves washing over me. I think I swallowed enough sea to avoid eating salt for 4 years.

3) Sting rays [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingray] - apparently there are normally some lurking in the sand below the shallow water. They were on my mind.

4) Apparently it takes everyone a few attempts to learn :)

Having said all of that it was valuable time; having someone standing on the shore shouting encouragement, re-launching the crashed kite, and telling me where I was going wrong was all worthwhile. I will be much more confident at trying it at home now.

Back to CA again

With only 3 weeks of employment left I find myself sitting in an airport waiting on a flight to California, where I will spend the next 2 weeks. That'll be a total of 7 weeks spent in CA this year.

2800bhp, what a drag

This what 2800 bhp looks like. Quarter mile in about 6 seconds at 220mph, and in that distance using around 6 gallons of fuel.

This is the brawn behind the operation - a V8 engine, no cooling, only runs for a few minutes, then rebuilt after every meet.

Of course, cars that go fast need good brakes. This car has no foot brake (the driver only has two feet, one for the clutch and one for the throttle) so there is a hand brake. More importantly there are two parachutes deployed at the back. These do most of the braking.

Earthquake!

Last time I was in California the dinnertime conversation revealed that small earthquakes are not uncommon here, and being here for three weeks I thought I stood a good chance of experiencing one, but it didn't happen.

Tonight at work (I know, I was in the office at 6:11pm on a Friday) things started to shake, not a lot, but enough to notice things moving; I could see the monitors on the desks moving and feel the shaking for a few seconds.

I had a quick google, and came up with a site that listed earthquakes, and their magnitudes. It turns out that it was a 4.4 quake centered near Malibu, about 50 miles away.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/shakemap/sc/shake/10403777/

Kitesurf lesson

Once again I find myself in the US on travel with work. This time I decided to see if I could get some lessons on kitesurfing, so I headed to the coast looking for kitesurfers. I eventually found a guy in a kite shop who pointed me to Belmont Shore, just north of Sunset Beach (sharing its name with the best TV show ever). 

Upon arrival I met Hank, who owns a kitesurfing shop. He told me to be wary of instructors who had no qualifications or insurance and pointed me to Nudge, who had a cancellation was able to take me for a lesson later that day.

We spent three hours on the beach setting up, taking down, launching and landing focusing a lot on safety. Nudge was able to give me a lot of good tips, and it seemed clear that the new kites make flying very safe and easy. The large amount of depower from the 8m Naish Code we were using made flying very easy, although there was almost not enough wind to fly properly - good for learning though.

What a great afternoon, I learned a lot and had lots of fun. Now I'm looking forward to the next lesson, where I'll get to do some bodydragging in the water....