Finally some snow that is useable/usable (depending which way you face the Atlantic) … Thick enough & icy enough for a sled, and at a weekend so that I can go out with the family & enjoy said snow!
A cracking time was had – and don’t be fooled by the movie… That hill was way faster than it looks…
Okay… boiler is dying. Downstairs radiators have given up the ghost.
Some dope cracked my Audi headlamp by wheel spinning in gritted snow.
I’ve been off work for the past week with a bad case of flu, topped off with a chest infection – I’ve been boiling, freezing, shaking, sweating, creaking… blah blah…. fed up of the whole thing, and now finding it very hard to breathe, A bit like having a weight on my chest and trying to breathe through a folded up towel… probably (I’ve not tried).
Then stroking our big black cat I find a lump between his shoulder blades… so a trip to the vet is due….
2010 is being a git.
Anyway, it wasn’t a totally bad start – We had snow, and Alex loved it.
Before I became ill I had a good week of snow fun with Alex. It was tainted by idiot chav types knocking the snowman’s head off – but I fixed it with a metal pole in the end. I had to use the pole because the snow had turned to ice crystals and wasn’t sticking together!
Eventually the chav idiots twisted the head around – but a bit more snow and warmer weather meant he could be rebuilt again…
Eventually the weather turned even warmer… and the snowman took his last gasp….
So… for a bit of fun, rather than focusing on the current bad hand 2010 has dealt us, here are some pictures of the snowman… as he morphed through attacks by chavs and weather…
BOB
Was beheaded.
BILL
Beheaded… then re-headed with a pole… then head twisted around
Mr. Iced T
Too tough for the Chavs…
Things got too warm though….
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
No, really. Ha ha.
Remember this?
How about this?
Well… here we go again! After my eventful trip out on Monday in the snow and idiots, I had to call the car lease company up.
It is a company car, so everything has to be done through MASTERLEASE – and once more they failed to not let me down (read it again, it does make sense).
I went out to the car to pump the front tyres up after my Monday trip where I had reduced the tyre pressure. Before pumping them up I turned on the ignition to warm the car up and start de-icing. As the engine started alarms started ringing. My ABS (anti-skid) was showing a fault and my brake pads were showing to be low – “WARNING – CONTACT GARAGE”.
So I thought I’d pump my tyres up and go to work, then do the necessary calls from there. The ABS was an intermittent fault and I can drive with or without it, so I wasn’t worried. The brake pad alarm was a little more concerning, but I know that they have an error margin – and a 20 mile drive wasn’t going to cause a problem.
I pump my tyres up… then as I walk around to the back of the car I see the rear tyre is flat. Totally. Not again…..
So I decide to call work and tell them I’d be late, as after changing the tyre for a space saver I wasn’t going out on icy roads!
I then call Masterlease and give them all my details. They tell me the warnings and the tyre are separate issues that need to go through different contacts. They then took my details to book the garage (I asked for Mill Lane Fiat in Aldershot, as they are close by and very good) and went to put me through to their breakdown service to get the car to a garage. They said even with a tyre change I wasn’t allowed to drive it due to the warning lights. Fair enough.
I asked if I should arrange with the Mill Lane garage for a loan car, but Masterlease said no – that would be dealt with by the breakdown service and not the garage. Apparently the driver of the recovery vehicle would take me to pick up a spare car whilst mine was fixed.
So… Masterlease put me through to the breakdown service who take all of my details again… after a few minutes they then tell me that the recovery contract has expired and I should call Masterlease….. Oh for *^%*&^%( sake.
I call Masterlease and they apologise… take all of my details and pass me onto another recovery agent whom I pass on all my details etc, etc, etc……
So… the breakdown guy turns up – sees the tyre and says he can’t tow it like that and he wasn’t told he’d have to change a tyre. Man oh man – I was happy enough to offer to do it, but I was told by Masterlease to leave it for him to do. Idiots.
So as the breakdown guy changes the tyre he asks where we are taking the car. I tell him Mill Lane Fiat…then explain to him where it is. I then asked if we would pick up my replacement vehicle on route….
Yup, he had no idea about a replacement car… “Sorry mate, nothing to do with me“…
Great… He wasn’t told about the tyre or the replacement car.
I phone Masterlease and explain that the recovery guy has no idea about the replacement car. Masterlease replied “He should do…..” My they are clever aren’t they?
I said that as I know the people at Mill Lane Fiat, would it be okay to get a courtesy car through them and book it to Masterlease…. they replied “Oh yes, that would be okay…“.. &*^^&# If you recall, I had asked that IN THE FIRST PLACE AND THEY SAID NO!!!! Calm…. calm….. calm….
So I ask the recovery guy to hold fire once he had loaded my car on his truck. I then called Mill Lane Fiat… who funnily enough had no idea that my car was going in to be fixed, or that I would need a courtesy car. Good old Masterlease. Unfortunately they had no courtesy cars available, but after I chatted to them they were happy to look over my car to see if it was a quick “there and then” type fix. Bloody good people at Mill Lane (You can tell by the way I keep saying their name!).
Simple solution then. As I had been told I HAD to go with the recovery guy I ask him to drop the car at the garage and I would catch up in my wife’s Berlingo. Once at the garage I would wait for an answer and then drive home to pick Chris up so we could go back to Mill Lane to then collect my car….
Now it would have been better if I could have just left the recovery guy to drop my car off. Mill Lane could then look at it AND THEN I could go with Chris to pick it up – saving a lot of time and driving hassle… but no – I had to be there to sign the recovery guys paperwork.
Before we left to go to Mill Lane Fiat (they are very, very good) I said to the recovery guy if he could wait at Mill Lane for me, as I would need to de-ice Chris’s car before I could drive it… He said he couldn’t really wait, so in case I didn’t get there in time I signed the paperwork before he left……
YES…. What he had pretty much said was that he could drop the car off at Mill Lane without needing me there… although by now I just wasn’t going to argue. Jeeez.
Eventually the car was delivered to Mill Lane. They measured my pads and carried out fault diagnosis and found everything to be okay. Probably ice and snow causing an electrical fault. Fair enough, these things happen and you can’t find out where the intermittent fault was after the event -I know that form my engineering work.
So cars went back and forth and eventually both Chris and myself are back home. I call Masterlease who then send out the tyre guy (I should have him on speed dial by now after the amount of call outs he has had from me…).
By the time everything is done it is 4pm. Work closes in 1 hour, and I really need to see my boss (as I had hinted in this blog entry). I hadn’t been able to do it the day before due to the snow. I got there with 20 minutes to spare, and then had a meeting with my boss so I could hand my resignation in…. Yes – finally you hear the good news! (not for him, mind you). A resignation should be given face to face – it is a personal thing.
Due to various events last year (including, but not purely THIS ONE) I had to get a new job. One came through with a lot more cash and a better prospect. My current company are putting people on part time and have made a few people redundant due to the credit crunch… SO… more money in a company that is hiring, or less money in a company that is making redundancies (even though I wasn’t going to be one of them). It was a no brainer.
So, as from March I shall be starting work as a Sales Executive within an aircraft interior component manufacturing company – Happy days!
I’ll end with this: The warning fault is back even though I the brake pads are fine. Unfortunately it is now beeping a high pitched beep as well, and it is a pain to drive!!! It isn’t Mill Lanes fault, as I said intermittent faults are a real pain… but the real trouble is I had to call Masterlease again. That was at 8am this morning…. They said they would get back to me…. it’s 1.15pm now and I haven’t heard a thing. Idiots.
If I lease a car in future, I’ll go with LING.
Finally!!! Snow that is PROPER snow!!! Not the few inches that people rant about! This is the best snow for close to 20 years! This is old fashioned snow! This is snow that eats unprepared drivers – and there were plenty of them today.
Read on for a few driving tips – and the mess that was my attempted drive to work!
What a day… a good 5 to 7 inches fell over night. I made a comment on Twitter to Robert “Kryton” Llewelyn (@bobbyllew on Twitter) saying “It’s cold outside, there’s snow kind of atmosphere….”. He replied saying that he was now singing that all the time… Sorry Robert!! (Red Dwarf fans will understand…)
I’ve driven in harsh snow before, so I was confident of getting to work – my only worry was the other road users…
I cleared all of the snow from the car – unlike those idiots that just do a window. Getting hit by chunks of snow and ice off of the roof of the car in front is stupidly dangerous. In some places it is a legal requirement to clear all that snow off – and I think it should be made a law in the UK all the time there are people lacking this common sense and common courtesy to other road users.
Rant over – I digress… I get into my car (the engine and heaters were already running) and notice a warning lamp on the dash… the ABS lamp! Great… I had no anti skid brakes. Never mind, I didn’t have them in previous cars and I am a pretty good driver (experienced in many conditions), so I wasn’t worried…. until I tested the road conditions and the brakes. I was going about 5mph with nothing around and I eased the brakes on…. hardly any pressure and the car slid. The roads were going to be bad.
I cautiously pulled away again in second gear. A rule of thumb for ice and snow driving is to use a gear higher then the one you would normally use and keep the revs low. This really helps reduce wheel spin when you pull away.
Within minutes I was stuck in traffic. Worst of the drivers were people in their fancy 4×4’s who automatically think they know how to drive in bad weather!!! I’m sorry, but just because you own one of these vehicles doesn’t mean you have a clue how to drive them properly… but more on that later!
It took an hour to get the first 2 miles… I would have stayed home but I had an important document to deliver (more on that in a later blog!). I carried on – amazed at some peoples pure lack of driving skills.
The snow kept coming down and the temperature dropped again. I noticed an icicle slowly growing on my wing mirror it was that cold! I actually watched it grow as I was stuck in traffic!
I drove onwards! I reached a roundabout where I saw a 4×4 driver wheel spinning and not going anywhere – this was on a flat road with a hill up ahead! If they couldn’t do level ground, then they didn’t have a chance….. SO I called out with some friendly advice “Try a higher gear and less gas“… to which they responded “I can’t…it’s an auto…“. Holy Cow! I know that type of car and they ALL have a manual mode you can use… A perfect example of an idiot behind the wheel…
I hit the bottom of the hill and just kept up the momentum. There are two schools of thought on keeping going on ice – Low revs and crawl, or high revs and just keep going. I used an bit of both and passed an Audi 4×4 estate as it slid back down the road…. Jeez! I was in a Fiat Multipla!!! What was going on with these people!!! I passed a tree blocking half a lane of the road – the weight of snow had caused it to collapse. That would be a pain for people going the other way!
I finally made it another mile…. I drove down a hill and came to a stop behind more traffic…. this was now 2 hours into my trip… I saw some people spinning in circles up ahead. The traffic was stopped solid so I put the car into neutral, hand brake on and heater running. No one was moving anywhere.
Whilst we were all stationary I noticed this Twitter message from Downing Street. What a bunch of idiots – It’s all very well that they can work from home, but a majority of people can’t work from home – so this message was pure stupidity. Well done Downing Street – Once more showing you are in touch with the people of the land. Numpties – isn’t it about time you let someone else run the country? My sons nappy content could probably do a less damaging job.
As one car came in the opposite direction they called out to the traffic row I was in…. “The Junction is a mess – cars just hitting cars…. It’s all blocked“. The junction was fed by a hill in all directions… it was an ice trap. Well, I wasn’t giving up, so I carried out a three point turn and headed back the way I had come. On the hill I saw a 4×4 off roader slow, shuffle on the spot and stop. They had come to a slippery stop and couldn’t move away again. I had to stop behind them… there goes my momentum!
They sat for a while and finally figured out how to use the gear box and pulled away. That left me (and a few cars behind me) stationary. I tried to pull away in second gear and all I got was wheel spin. Damn.
I tried again… but no luck. The key in situations like this is to not try too hard. If you can’t move, stop that method and try another, or else you’ll just get in even more trouble!
I tried to pull away again, this time spinning my steering wheel from left to right. This moved the front of my one way and the other…although not moving forward I was fighting for traction instead of just spinning in one place. Slowly I inched forwards…and stopped again. Hmmm… New idea needed.
I got out and let my tyres down to half the normal pressure. You shouldn’t do this and then drive at fast speeds – but for me, I wasn’t going to be going more than 20mph on these roads. Partially deflating the tyres is dangerous IF you don’t re-inflate them before going over 20mph, as you could end up losing all the air and some people have even had the tyre come off.
With my lower tyre pressure I went for an off-roading technique I had been shown. Lots of left and right steering and plenty of revs once the car started moving. Add to this some brakes….
I’ll explain:
Most road cars with 2 wheel drive are only one wheel drive on ice. Most 4×4 cars are only 2×4 cars on ice. This is due to the thing called the differential. This allows the wheels to turn at different speeds when cornering. You see as you drive in a curve, the wheel on the outside of the circle has to go further (and faster) than the one in the inside. If the both wheels were joined together by a solid bar this couldn’t happen and you end up scuffing and juddering around corners……
But WHY BRAKES? When a car wheel spins, it normally only spins one wheel and the other doesn’t move at all – all due to the differential. By applying the brakes very slightly as you also put on the throttle, you slow down the spinning wheel and fool the differential into putting power into the wheel that wasn’t spinning. This means you have both wheels turning. This means you get all the powered wheels turning (more traction), and not one side turning and one side stopped. End of lesson!
This worked well! I slewed the wheels back and forth, changed up the gears and kept the wheels grabbing for grip all the way up to and over the peak of the hill. Once it was down hill all the way I stopped and put my hazard lights on.
I stepped out of the car and walked back down the hill to help the others that were stuck. Straight away I was told “No way – I’m stuck…” by a driver. I told him to slew his wheels and pull away in second gear – and to keep going once he was moving. It took several attempts before he got the knack (or listened), but finally he pulled away. There was no such like for the huge lorry further down the hill….. This road was now closed.
I carried on home, as by now I realised that there were worse roads ahead and more snow due. If I did get to work I wouldn’t get back. A phone call to the office showed only 2 people made it in (locals). Game over for most of them then!
I negotiated my way around the fallen tree and past the two 4×4’s I had passed coming the other way earlier (still stuck, still spinning to try and move…. muppets!). A few more snow broken trees and stuck cars later I slowly drove home. Knowing that the road behind be was impassable I powered my window down and let drives heading the other way know the troubles ahead. Luckily they all managed to turn back at the roundabout i had just past.
I got to Farnborough and slipped down a short cut slope by the Police Station. Big mistake.
The road was blocked at one end. I had to turn around and get back up the steep hill on a curve. I realised that the road was stupidly icy here – It was a safe assumption as the guy in front had got stuck on the level ground, slipped sideways and stopped. He got out, slammed his door and the car slipped sideways away from him. Not looking good for me then!
It was then I noticed a lady with a young boy at the bus stop. I knew no buses would get down here so I offered her a lift. Crazy of me to offer – and crazy for her to accept. I guess the child seat in the car and high Police presence made her feel safe. I called Chris on my hands free car phone for two reasons at this stage – To let her know I was almost home and to let the lady see I was a local person. I could have been lying, but the evidence that I was a family guy was enough for her.
Her son was just over 3 years old and autistic. She was trying to get him to Frimley for a specialist group that took ages for her to get an appointment for – she really didn’t want to miss it. I chatted about Alex as we struggled up the hill (more rapid left/right steering and high gears!) and finally got onto the Camberley road. I dropped the lady and her son off and carried on home. I hope she got home alright later – but hey, at least she made the appointment – the trip home wasn’t a race aganist time for her!
I got home and the snow was begging for some Alex action! We don’t have a sled, so I took an old filing cabinet shelf and formed a ramp on the front. I then added some carpet tiles so Alex wouldn’t get too cold a bum, and finished it off with a cord to pull it. He loved it!!
It was Hellish trying to keep his mittens on, but apart from that he thoroughly enjoyed his parent powered sleigh ride!
The lake looked wonderful in the snow – but then don’t you think that most things look so much better with a nice layer of snow?
The local main roads cleared up with the gritter lorries spreading their paint chipping loads all over the place. I figured that we may as well get the weekly shopping done as I had the safer car and Chris had no snow driving experience. The roads were pretty clear – but tomorrow will be sheer Hell. It is already below freezing and that slush is going to be like sheet ice in the morning. I shall try to go to work again, but I think it will be worse on the roads tomorrow due to the ice. Today was just snow and pack snow – no real ice problems.
Once we got home it was dark out – but our neighbours were still building a snowman… and called me over to help! It took four of us to roll the middle section up onto the bottom section! It is way taller than me! (I’m 6ft 4in). You get the size idea from the crushed beer can buttons!!
What’s white and sits in our kitchen and keeps the house warm?
If you said “Your boiler” you’d be wrong today….
Bugger it.
Yes, something you don’t want to go wrong at the best of times has gone wrong… right when we are financially razor edged….and the temperature outdoors is sub zero.
Now this can only prove the existence of a higher being, as explaining this as simple coincidence really doesn’t cut the grade….
…it also suggests that the higher being has a malevolent sense of humour….
I would pray for help, but I really don’t want to draw any more attention to myself whilst that higher being is in this frame of mind…
Luckily though, my diagnosis is a faulty thermocouple – and that is a cheap and easy fix. Gas boilers are very simple things – but so is a gun or a knife – so no matter how simple it is, you need to remember that one wrong move could kill you – and the family. As such, I will buy a thermocouple in and get my registered friend to check it over.
Now I have typed that out loud I can almost guarantee that I will need a complete new boiler and central heating system……
I’m talking poles again… and not the dancing type you’d find in a “gentleman’s club” – I’m talking about Nordic Walking.
This is a review of sorts – or at least as much as I can at the moment. Nordic Walking is something that the Physiotherapist and GP have said I should do (See here – earlier Back Injury blog), but with the wet leaves and foot design of my first set of Nordic poles I didn’t want to risk going for a walk. One slip and I would end up in a boat load of pain and putting my rehabilitation back – Nordic walking may be good for repairing my slipped disk, and it gives me some supported freedom and a break from looking at the ceiling – but there are limits when you have a trick back.
My original poles had a foot and spike design that just wasn’t sure footed, but luckily for me LEKI have a foot design that works well on wet leaves, dirt, tarmac and most other surfaces. Ardblair Sports Importers, through “Tortoise and the Hare” running supplies came to the rescue. They supplied me with a new pair of poles with attachments to help keep me walking in all conditions. (See bottom of this report for their details).
Today I took my first trip out (a gentle 6km) with these new poles and feet. The poles are LEKI Speed Pacer Vario Carbons. They are 100% carbon poles with a 10cm adjustment at the very top. This means I can adjust for different types of Nordic walking (fast, slow, soft ground, etc), and this is why an adjustable pole from a reputable supplier and manufacturer is the best buy for the all round walker. These particular poles are each rated to 140kg load and meet the top criteria of pole design – better than many fixed one piece poles.
I’ll start at the bottom, seeing as I have already mentioned the foot design. It is a sloped gripped rubber “boot” that makes the most contact on smoother roads then the flat ended hiking pole type pads. Nordic walking is about “pushing”, and as such, the poles are mostly behind you and at a steep angle to the ground – hence the need for the sloped boot.
The standard boots don’t have the studs as seen in this picture, although they still have the deep cut rubber grooves. These studded boots are LEKI’s new “Silent Spike” design. These studs are much quieter on hard surfaces than just using the spikes, and have the advantage over the stud-less design as they bite through the wet leaves and foliage. This makes them great if you are walking over a wide variety of terrain in one go. Other manufactures smooth bottom boots just don’t cope on a tarmac and scattered foliage surface.
The LEKI Speed Pacer Vario Carbon Pole itself is a very high strength, incredibly light weight 100% carbon pole. The swing is well balanced and for me with my back injury I felt that these poles made walking even more comfortable than my previous aluminium poles. I can see in the areas of lacquered but otherwise naked carbon weave that the manufacture of this pole is very high quality. It is not just some cheaply thrown together pole.
Coupled to this light weight full carbon pole is a tested and certified adjuster right under the hand grip. It is only a 10cm adjustment, but that is spot on for a pole that only one person will be using. Instructor poles have a larger adjustment range which allows the poles to be set up for different height users. In my case, I only wanted something that would adjust for the different walking styles and conditions I will encounter, so a 125cm to 135cm pole is perfect for me. The lock design is all part of that TUV tested 140kg per pole load certification.
Having the adjustment at the very top of the pole also aids balance and strength. Many other adjustable telescopic poles have the adjustment parts lower down, and as such the balance and swing can be affected. By placing the adjustment at the top it leaves a longer (and stronger) one piece lower section with superb balance qualities. It’s also in this adjustment area at the top of the pole that you can see the meticulous manufacturing that has gone into the carbon weave alone! This is a well designed pole – both functional and attractive.
I have a pet hate with my older poles. The hand grip and “glove” are all in one. The “glove” is actually a wrist and hand support that you wrap around your hand and is attached to the top of the pole. It is vital in Nordic walking, as it is through this that the backwards pushing force is applied. On a pole with the glove permanently attached, it means once the poles are strapped to your hands, you can’t easily do anything other than walk. You need to unstrap if you need to do anything else.
These new LEKI poles have a great “Shark” design. It is a strap/glove with a sewn in tough cord loop between the thumb and first finger. The loop slips into the “shark mouth” design jaw and locks in place. By pressing the button in the end of the grip this strap can be removed easily without actually unstrapping the glove from your hand. This is a major plus point, as it means the poles can be quickly released from your hand if you need to answer your mobile phone, grab a water bottle, tie your lace etc. The shark mouth and loop design is very tough, very positive and very quick to operate – Top design work.
The handle itself is a thin cross-country style grip. It is designed to swing between your thumb and fingers during the forward pole swing.
As mentioned earlier, the gloves are designed to push the poles back, and in the poles most rearward position, the walker actually opens their hand, lets go of the pole and all the force is on the glove. As the pole swings forward again it should slip easily back into the users hand. A bulky grip would mean having to hold your hands wide open on forward swings – and it would just get in the way.
Today’s walk was over gravel, tarmac (with dry and wet leaves covering), sand, mud and loose packed forestry roads – add to this the snow and you can see that these poles had a good testing over the 6km.
I felt very stable and secure with these LEKI poles, and the “Silent Spike” boot was fantastic over varying terrain. I did cover some distance without the boot on, and just used the bare spike.
Even the LEKI spike is of a design that holds very well – even on smoother surfaces. If you take a look at the picture, the LEKI spike is on the left, with my old pole on the right. As you can see, the old pole had a metal spike that looked like a 5mm round meat tenderiser – it looked grippy, but really didn’t do much. The LEKI “Hollow point” looks the slippier of the two designs, but actually bites in a lot better.
All in all, the LEKI Speed Pacer Vario is a superb pole. Very well balanced, very strong and incredibly light – and the adjustment system is just enough for a user to be able to set up for all types of Nordic walking. The Silent Spike boot is great – perfect for those walks over varied terrain or slippery tarmac where the walker doesn’t want to keep putting the boot on and off – and it really is quiet.
I can’t wait for my back to be fit enough again so I can go out and really put these poles under pressure. There are some great hills and steep climbs to be had nearby – and some streams that are crying out to be bounded over with the poles – and as these are so highly rated and certified, I have full confidence in their ability to take more than I can throw at them.
If you want to order some Nordic poles or other running equipment and you want good advice from people who know what they are talking about, then contact “Tortoise & the Hare” on 01483 273372 – or visit them at 6 Smithbrook Kilns, Cranleigh, Surrey, GU6 8JJ. Their website is www.tortoiseandthehare.co.uk. Tell them I sent you and there could be a discount waiting for you – I’ll update this blog with more details on that shortly.
If you are are a store owner and you want to sell LEKI poles (among other equipment), then contact Ardblair Sports Importers via their website, or call 01250 873863.
LEKI (America) website: www.leki.com
LEKI (Europe – Main Leki Site) www.leki.de (Note: Language can be selected at the lower right of the screen)
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