Marko’s place isn’t too far from me, over in the beautiful Wye valley, so I thought I could kill two birds with one stone – ride, and collect the car. I planned a nice route around Newport, through Wentwood and up into the hills, 60km ish. Wasn’t raining in Cardiff when I set off.
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Got quite wet on the way though, and I got quite cold.
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But it is a spectacular part of the world. If you drive up past Tintern you only get to see a tiny bit of it.
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Collected the car (Marko declined the photo opportunity)
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...and hit the road.
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Car is pretty decent. Small, basic but somehow direct and quite fun, and you feel the speed you’re going. I hit the motorway and turned on the radio to the only station that it would get at Marko’s house which started belting out great classic rock and suddenly, everything was brilliant. There is something fundamentally and simply awesome about the combination of cars, tunes and open road. I know Gnusmas needs the car for utilitarian reasons but I hope he can get a bit of happiness out of a good drive.
👍
Picked a proper Welsh day to welcome the car to its new Welsh home.
Yay- it's happenning. On Tuesday afternoon Gnusmas is planning to cycle down from carmarten to where I work in Burry Port, near Llanelli. Then we are off to the tip, my Berlingo/bongo is full of leaves and garden stuff needing gotten rid of.
Zipping along the M4 afterwards should get us to Chez Molgrips in time for 5:00PM where the gnusmobile and Gnusmas will get to meet each other at last.
Celebratory pies are in the offing m'thinks 🙂
the gnusmobile and Gnusmas will get to meet each other at last.
Celebratory pies are in the offing m’thinks
If you don't post a photo of Gnusmas and the car finally united, in a local newspaper "two thumbs up" stylee, I'm deleting the account of everyone on this thread.
Yes we definitely need the "first meeting" photo 😀 Again, I have to say what a brilliant job everyone involved has done 😀
I'd better get the DVD players in the post then! lol 😀
Kids back at school this morning after a very long and very stressful half term. Took the opportunity this morning while little one was at nursery to fettle. Tunes loud, bike and tools out and ready to go.
Stiffee all ready to go and meet Ambrose tomorrow. Conti traffics on instead of the vertical pros, flat pedals instead of my spds and after finally finding my chain lube, chain cleaned and lubed.
As long as the weather is OK tomorrow I won't wimp out and catch the train. It will be my first proper ride in over a year. 15 miles apparently, and an extra 4 or 5 stone to carry too. Really looking forward to it though. While it won't be the fastest ride, I hope it will be a really fun bimble. Might leave early and have a mess around at Pembrey too.
There's nothing better than fettling your Stiffee when you're home alone (sorry, wrong thread!).
Enjoy your ride and enjoy your new car.
WHY DON'T WE HAVE A "LIKE" BUTTON!!
I think we might need to get the poor man some new bike tyres too. Vert Pros in this day and age!
Are there enough funds in the pot for the car. I get paid tomorrow so there is the possibility of a couple of quid going spare. (There would have been more but some scumbag broke into the man-cave while we were in Vienna two weeks ago and funds may be tighter than expected).
I think we might need to get the poor man some new bike tyres too
I've got some! I'll get some grapes, ride with them to TJ's house, swap the tyres to his bike, he can cycle to SaxonRider's hospital bed and give him the grapes, pass the tyres to Ambrose... etc! It'll work I tell ya!
So what would this epic journey be called?
Monday night update.
Tomorrow is THE DAY. After weeks of teasing, p155-taking, tom-foolery and banter, pie-based shenanigans and solitary cider drinking, rust proofing and rewiring, insurance, MOTs and child-minding the plan is to unite the gnusmobile with the gnusmeister.
AFAIK all is set, all is planned and nothing can go wrong.
Alan will cycle to meet me at the end of my working day. His bike into the back of my car, in amongst the bags of leaves and other garden recycling. Off to Llanelli recycling center we will go to do our bit for the environment by contributing a load of stuff to the local composting scheme.
The M4 is about 10 mins away- we hope to be in Cardiff before 5:00PM for the main event.
Then a mini-convoy, via Greggs, back to Carmarthenshire. It's going to be a good day 🙂
Embarrassed to say it'll need petrol, as I didn't get round to filling up and forgot.
Probably 1/4 tank tho.
Oh and, there's a loud rattle coming from the passenger door. Marko may be the pro but, due to my obsessive and hypersensitive psychological makeup, if you want a rattle traced and fixed, I'm your man.
The rattle is the plastic insert in the door handle. There's a screw at the bottom that needs tightening. Like the petrol I forgot until now and it's too late to fix, but it'll be easy. I stuffed a bit of paper in it to keep it quiet on the way home.
We'll get it sorted, dim probs.
Thread of the year.
Also I noticed that the steering wheel's not straight, this might mean that the tracking is out. I didn't have time to drop it in either, but if there's enough money left in the kitty it might be worth a check.
TTIUWOP
Probably 1/4 tank tho.
It's tiny, that's about three pints.
Well my cycling idea has been shelved. My friend has an appointment at 1:00 so she will be having the little one from about 2:00 ish. So train it is, but it is still happening. At least my Stiffee is ready to ride another day.
It’s tiny, that’s about three pints.
200 miles with Yaris mpg? 😉
I got 49mpg albeit with a downhill start.
Not bad at all, we were only averaging about 40, but it is quite hilly around here and I think the odd foray into Edinburgh was bringing that down quite a lot.
The Mrs regularly gets 43 - 45 mpg out of the 2003 Yaris. That's around town and on country lanes.
Great little motors.
molgrips - step away from the spanners!
On the train making my way to meet Ambrose 😁 its happening people, it's happening.
Stuck in major traffic jams on the m4 near Swansea. And it's chucking it down. Don't think we will be there by 5:00, but we will be there.
👍
God speed 👏
I reckon we average 50 mpg on our 1.0 2003 yaris. Mixture of town and a bit of motorway. We do a bit of m6 drafting between the hgv s. Never missed a beat in 16 years and no advisories, they only sell for 1k tops, brilliant little cars. Well done finding this one a good home.
😁
There must be a fair few STW'ers sitting at their keyboards chewing their nails awaiting a pic of Gnusmas and his new car - I've got to say, its quite emotional!
Done it!
Any guesses who has just arrived at Greggs, Cardiff West services on the M4?
Needs a facebook livestream!
Woot!
TJ, please PM me your phone number now!
TJ and Al just had a chat. Brilliant.
Made me feel all funny - talking to a real person.
*hides behind keyboard*
Yay!
We want pictures!
Yippee!!!!! Fantastic story, wonder when the film comes out? 😀
Any guesses who has just arrived at Greggs, Cardiff West services on the M4
Binners?
