Diary of an Ordinary Van

[Vee4]

Transit with Pylon - Number 4 in a Series

Here's one I made earlier. Much earlier ...



An L2 deviation tower (D30) with lots of sizzling early-morning corona discharge.

Hazards encountered by photographer: none really, apart from getting out of bed at 0330.

"When your rooster crows at the break of dawn*
Look out your window and I’ll be gone
You’re the reason I’m trav’lin’ on
Don’t think twice, it’s all right ..."

*When Dylan was living in Greenwich Village in 1962, there was a store nearby that still sold live chickens ... more on that story later.

[Vee4]

Intelligent Design and Evolution



NASA Space Shuttle 1981-2011

The final mission ends today as Atlantis lands at Kennedy Space Center. A wonderful (awesome, the cousins would probably say) piece of intelligent design, born of the Cold War and the Space Race, it found the Apollo Program a tough act to follow. How could it compete with "The Eagle has landed ...", "That's one small step ..." and "Houston, we've had a problem ..."? Nice pylon, though.

Ford Transit 1965-????

The Shuttle was frozen in time but the Transit continues to evolve and goes from strength to strength. I don't know if any 'sound bites' survive from the Transit launch, but enamel badges as featured in the Vee4 avatar were given to journalists - no expense spared!

[Vee4]

Chips with everything

Chip off the old block,
Chip on your shoulder,
Chip and pin,
Chip in the paintwork:

Just below the plastic vent in the bonnet (or hood, for the Cousins), slightly to stage right:



I'm not sure when it happened - it may even have been something that was dropped or thrown while the van was stationary. The chip is about 7mm (or 5/16") wide. Interesting to me was the way the paint had cleanly separated from the steel, implying a total lack of adhesion - not reassuring. Anxious to forestall the rusting, I set off to Halfords for a 'touch up' kit. They had the previous Dark True Blue kit but not the Blazer Blue so I bought a generic dark blue.



Using the miniature brush, I filled the crater with paint while the bonnet was propped with the surface horizontal. The repair was not easily noticed, or so I thought, and certainly less obvious than the seasonal squashed bugs.

When the Ordinary Van was in for its routine service, the chip was marked on the "Corrosion Perforation Warranty" check list. That will probably give Ford an excuse to invalidate the whole warranty. I had to request that the check be done, by the way, because the dealer would not otherwise have done it - that is the policy, apparently.

If you thought the Ordinary Van was on holiday, no such luck, but while schlepping round the UK, we have been checking out some more pylon photo-opportunities so as they say, watch this space.

[Vee4]

Transit with Pylon - Number 5 in a Series

A stormy summer sky (or brooding sky as it is often known) always provides interesting lighting (and lightning). I've used a larger than normal version of the image to show it to best effect:



An L6 suspension tower, strung with 400kV quads.

Hazards encountered by photographer: none really, didn't even have to get up early.

The crop in the field is barley, just about ready for combining.

[Vee4]

Transit with Pylon - Number 6 in a Series

The Ordinary Van has been busy, so no time for write-ups, but in true journalistic 'silly season' tradition, I'll shamelessly pad out the Diary with some library footage:



An L6 deviation tower (but in a straight line!), strung with 400kV quads.

Hazards encountered by photographer: imminent "Get orf moy laand" threat, so no time to hang about.



Caution: rude jokes, strong language and danger of laughter-induced death from the start!

[Altransit]

Caution: rude jokes, strong language and danger of laughter-induced death from the start!

[transitandy]

Still got some them mags in the loft

[Vee4]

Still got some of them mags in the loft.

They could be valuable: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/478097.stm

It's a old article, but it gives a price of GBP485 for a first edition!

[Vee4]

Dear Dairy ...



Two pints of pas and a sterra, please.



Who'd have thought it? A website for milk bottle enthusiasts! They'll soon be doing pylons, and possibly someone will do one for different types of van. Then there's the milk bottle as art:



I just realised that I'm in the wrong anagram - that should have been:

Dear Diary ...

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible (and that's nothing to do with digital switchover).

Exit stage right, singing "Ten Green Bottles ..."

[transitandy]

loads more interesting stuff again to read

[ake]

[Vee4]

It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

Bleeding the brakes, that is. There's a Dylanesque theme developing here, in the Bard of Hibbing's 70th birthday year ...



As the Ordinary Van approached the end of its second year, I decided to take it in for the recommended 2-year brake fluid renewal. This point was reached mid-way between routine services, so I thought it best to do it before winter set in. Regular renewal of the brake fluid worked well with the Mk5, which required no major brake system component replacement during its 12-year life, so I'm hoping it will be the same with the OV, as everything is so much more complicated (i.e. expensive).

The dealer gave a price of GBP35.00 plus VAT, which I thought was eminently reasonable and I did ask the bookings department to confirm with the 'shop that full replacement and bleeding would be carried out. This has been a matter of controversy!



After collecting the OV, I did have to do some cleaning of spillages in the engine compartment and on the plastic scuttle (which left a mark). Warm soapy water was used for cleaning. I also checked the bleed nipples for evidence of disturbance. I'm not sure if anything happened to the clutch slave cylinder.

After a week slaving over a hot ledger, it's great to be back to some real work. There's such a backlog of Diary entries to come, including the Second Anniversary and the 25,000 Diary Hits combined celebration. Hopefully, it will be up-to-date before 17 September 2011.

[transitandy]

great as usual

[Vee4]

What we did on our holidays



Fairport Convention's seminal album, not their first but the first on Island Records and the first with the late, great Sandy Denny in the band. Nice sketch of a pylon there, by the way, bringing in the power for the massive 'backline'.

It wasn't a holiday, of course, but it certainly was a 'silly season'. In order to bring the Diary up to date, I'll just throw in a couple of the Ordinary Van's exploits during the summer, both of which would merit their own feature if time allowed.

An aerial view of the OV backstage at a summer festival (appropriately enough featuring the current line-up of Fairport Convention):



Also found time to drop in at a wedding (as always, better just stay in the background):



Exit, pursued by a bear (one of the best-known stage directions in the history of theatre), and singing Marie's Wedding. The bear in this case was the need to complete the VAT Return and annual accounts for HMRC.

[Vee4]

Great excitement at Transit Towers!

RIBA announced the shortlist of six designs from their design competition. I like the P12 design:



Here's how it will look with a Transit in the foreground (with apologies to RIBA):



There are better images of the shortlisted designs on The Guardian's site and The Sun's site. You can choose according to your chip wrapper preference but be prepared for some dodgy puns in the Sun's version - we would expect nothing less!