Actually, here. I've been here just doing and doing. Since my last post we did get the van - It's the auto version of The Money Pit. The guy we bought it from had told us that a few things needed to be fixed, so we had those planned. But then, we go to the garage so they can give us the MOT and repair the few things and they gave us a little call saying that there is an ABS light that won't go off in the brake system. Big money fix apparently. To make a long story short- we took it to a few places who couldn't diagnose it because the wire wasn't connected. Whether it was on purpose or not is still out but.... the place who finally diagnosed it was the very same place that the previous owner (here on out called Mr. Asswipe) had taken it to be diagnosed for the same thing. And Mr. Asswipe was told that he wouldn't be able to get MOT with it like that and that it was a high dollar fix. Nice huh? They knew the van the minute it rolled on in .... So far our list...
Brakes pads and discs on rear
Rear tires
Repair on the home fix on the exhaust
We
got really damn lucky and got the thing MOT'd because the light was off
for a while, on a fluke. The garage that we take our cars to is full
of some awesome dudes. Not shiesty, straight talking, and not greedy.
Wow, unlike Mr. Asswipe. The part still needs to be fixed- but it
bought us some time. That's another approx. $500 that will have to be
fixed in the future because we can't sell it to anyone else because
they won't be able to MOT it. So, Mr. Asswipe has screwed us from both
sides.
Then..... the in-laws come to visit... and we traipsed everywhere. First, London -
We
drove down to Lakenheath, got a room there, drove to the tube station
and tubed in - so much easier and cheaper than driving in. Besides,
the tube is kinda fun.
I love that one, I mean WAS it a Woolworths? Or what is it?
I do love this clock.... it's rather gorgeous!
We did go to the National Gallery and the National Museum - so those were long walks... and a busy day.
Had a great lunch at Miso, a Japanese noodle bar - it was yummy.
We
had a great BBQ on Sunday - Father's Day conveniently enough. It was
us, the Smiths, The Andersons and The Johnsons. It was yummy food, the
usual family dramas and fun. It was nice to see Denise though, she'll
be heading back to the US before us... a fairly drunken Chris has
promised her that we'll be in Ft. Meade - the closest to her that we
can be.
Did some driving around and
sightseeing. Dad wanted to see some castles and architecture. We went
over to Fountains Abbey which is a beautiful ruin of a Cistercian
monastery.
I could have spent all day there taking pictures, but it was raining... no surprise, right? It's England after all!
We
took them to the Pub Quiz too while they were here, because seriously,
what trip would be complete without it? Dad has some good video of that
night... but we won't share that..
