Thursday 10 March 2011

Success

There is not a single cloud in the sky which is the exact opposite of my head right now after yet another full capacity audience at the gig last night. Bouyed by our success I had an extra beer or two at the unofficial after show party- great idea considering all the stuff I should be doing today. So seeing as how its still technically the morning it's probably not such a great idea to fire up a burro (von francos word for a stogie) this early and to be honest I'm struggling with it a bit. I should be firing up a bike and heading out somewhere but instead I decide to press on with a variation of my original plan... today I'd walk up to the van by the back way through fields, under the motorway and finally to the college and the see if she'll fire up to get to the garage for an mot. Early indications are that she should pass even in the ramshackle state she is in.
The van said "yes" immediately when in fact she meant "no". She started on the button and sounded really healthy but two feet forwards in first gear made me aware the brakes were bound almost solid. The first thing I did on getting to the mot garage was head straight off. I thought a little back road blast would shake a rock loose and sure enough by a couple of miles she was rolling free as a stone and got up to a mighty 60mph. I got back home to try fix the indicator warning lamp only to find, after a stogie induced whitey forced me to lie down for 10 minutes, she had no electrics at all. 20 minutes later I found and fixed the fuse. By now I was running out of time and still hadn't fixed the indicator lamp so I thought I'd throw myself at the mercy of the fellas at the garage and dump the van there as is. Just as I set off I ran out of petrol. I nipped to see the guys, explained my predicament, borrowed a gas can, filled the van and then flattened the battery trying to start. I was about to have a sense of humour failure when I remembered the crank handle... Old shit always seems to work best and I got there just as the shutters were coming down. The lads at my local garage are now my heroes not least because they gave me an mot