Rick's b.log - entry 2021/05/07

Caoimhe trolling me?

Why?

Because this is what the pump said when telling me I could take SP98 for the mower.

I can take €149 worth of petrol!

The way this works is that a "debit" for €149 is made on your card, and at some later time (which is not today, and tomorrow is a public holiday...) this will be corrected so that one is debited the correct amount for the fuel actually taken.

I've never in my life taken that much fuel. I can imagine perhaps a camper van running on fumes might take a fair amount of fuel, but that's hardly an everyday case. Talking to some people at work, it seems that 50-60 is about the typical price of a full fill.
So why are we all being screwed for unrealistic amounts of fuel? Is it perhaps that the fuel companies (already plenty rich) can claim interest on the brief time that they have our money?

Why is this important? Now I have a "CDI" (full time job), the limit on my bank card is €3000 in a 30 day period (subject to the money being in my account, of course!).
Before when I was a "CDD" (fixed time contract), the limit was €300 in a 7 day period. After work, at around 4.30am, mom pulled in to the station and I got ready to fill up the C1.
Only, the pump was defective. It didn't want to start.
So we went to a different pump, which rejected my card because having gone shopping earlier in the week, and having a hundred and something cleared at the defective pump, there wasn't enough on my card to clear a hudred and something again.

All for about €25 worth...

But I know this will never change, for the fuel companies are criminals. Next time you see the pump roll over from 9,99 to 10,01 when you're aiming to get exactly ten, ask yourself how this is possible when petrol is supposedly priced to a tenth of a cent/penny.

Afterwards I stopped by Alison for a chat. Along the way she took a look at the engine, as I was explaining how the two pulleys work. But I felt that it would be better that instead of trying to tell her, it would be much simpler just to run the engine and then accelerate (with the car in neutral) and she could see what happens.

Along the way she noticed that I was very low on brake fluid. This was odd because I had checked the lights and levels about two weeks ago. Was there a leak? So after leaving her, I went back to town, right past where I work, and to the supermarket to get some brake fluid.
The owner's handbook was no use at all. It said "brake fluid 0,3l". A quick look online said some people use DOT4 and some use DOT5. As 4 is an unlucky number in Japan, I picked DOT5 (actually I think it might have been 5.1). I noticed there was a DOT3 as well. What does this mean, anyway?

When I got home, I checked the brake fluid reservoir to see if I would need to find some sort of funnel, or if I could just pour it in.

It was full!

Alison didn't imagine things, she pointed it out to me, and there was a clear line of a darker yellow just below the MIN marker. I saw that.
Upon removing the cap, and seeing a little float attached to the cap, it turns out that the fluid is only slightly amber but mostly colourless.
I took a look at all sorts of different angles, and I can't work out what we had seen, except to say that we had both seen it.

So I put the brake fluid in the shed. I'd rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.

As I had the bonnet up and was out front, I checked all of the levels (all okay, topped up the wiper solution), and all the lights (all okay), as well as the distance beeper around back (just walk towards the car: beep beep bi-bi-bi-bi beeeeeep!).

YOU TWAT!

Like this:

Lermite Combustibles

Then there was this:

TPS Roullin Fret

Then, there's this idiot:

BJ-553-LO

Leclerc, what the hell?

Well, today broke my possibly-autistic brain. It wasn't that everything was somewhere else, again, it was the utter total randomness of how it was being done. Aisles which had chocolates on the left and motor oil on the right.
Or how about beer facing pre-packaged fish?
Or duvets and pillows beside screwdrivers?

It made my head hurt. Literally. I didn't go to Jardiland like I had planned because walking around the completely un-thematic supermarket gave me a headache. Not to mention numerous articles scanned into the hand-held scanner, and then removed, because the special offer Pringles (a good offer) was about six aisles away from the Pingles and crisps. Rinse and repeat for all the other stuff placed randomly, which was damn near everything that wasn't fruit/veg, the bakery, or the chilled goods (those parts have been put in place).

Interestingly, the Cultural Space has been merged into the main part of the store, while the clothing has been taken out. I don't know if this is temporary to make space or if it'll always be like that. It looks like the gardening goods are a separate little place. I don't like it like that, as it means splitting up shopping into separate transactions, which is annoying. When mom was alive, it might have been possible to leave somebody with the trolley while the other looked around if they wanted something. But me on my own? I considered looking at the garden stuff to see if they had basil. But I wasn't going to leave a trolley with stuff in it unattended. So I took my stuff out to the car. By which time I really couldn't be bothered going back.

Soon, soon...

Burger King, soon

The building now exists, they're recruiting (that's what the billboard says).

☺

Mowing

The grass was full of buttercups. Many were decapitated, but I have left a strip to the right of the drainage channel (the right of the photo below) where there was a higher concentration of buttercups...because... well... they're pretty.

Mown grass and buttercups.

Potatoes

Burial mounds?

Your comments:

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David Pilling, 8th May 2021, 02:25

Brake fluid ages, and replacing it after a time is the done thing.

Rick, 8th May 2021, 13:18

Yes, it absorbs moisture from the air.    I would imagine this sort of thing would be part of the 10,000km major service?

David Pilling, 10th May 2021, 18:36

Brake fluid - in my experience not a standard thing with services. But they offer it and recommend it, and one wonders if they are profiteering. Not cheap because the old fluid has to be disposed of. I meant that being in possession of a quantity you could change it yourself, and then nonchalantly drop into conversation "I was bleeding my brakes yesterday". Possibly when being recovered from the bocage.

Rick, 11th May 2021, 20:37

Mom told be that there are two parts of the car that one should never fiddle with - the brakes and the brakes.    I once asked why she said the same thing twice. She said it's because my father was a twat who didn't get it the first time (and ended up denting a tree in Hartley Wintney). Less than he dented the car, mind you... 😂

Pieter, 14th May 2021, 04:20

Here in Japan they like to relocate products, too. I have even seen bookstores relocate categories every couple of years. Must be a lot of work ... for an unhappy customer!

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