More jamming than Bob Marley.

I spent half an hour stuck in Lowestofts jams today,fifteen minutes on the way out and another quarter of an hour on the way back in.They keep on about a third crossing for Lowestoft,all it really needs is for the two we've got to not open every time an empty train or a dinghy want to go through and the traffic might move a bit smoother.

I see no ships.

A number of months back local politicians and the papers got all excited about tankers moored off the east coast waiting untillthe price of crude went up before they ofloaded or transferred their oil to other vessels.Much talk was made of immediate goverment legislation to stop such activites.
Has it worked?.
Well,three or four months back I could see six tankers from the beach at lowestoft.
Now there are only half a dozen.

The sun has got his hat on.

I went to yarmouth with the east coast pirates car club.Lovely day in the sunshine,plenty of old cars to look at,some american saloons,hot rods and motorbikes.The American diner does some nice chips and with a plate of them,a frothy coffee,pleasant company and the cars to look at it can't be bad.

Two stroke oil in a diesel.

I've now tried the engine in this old taxi (its a Nissan 2.7) with and without the two stroke oil added.Its definately quieter with it added and although it might seem to run a bit smoother there's no more (or less) power as a result.No smoke from the exhaust (I'm using a low ash two stoker mix at 100 to 1) but the diesel 'knock' when cold is noticeable less.

Closing down?.

Spotted this shop in Bungay,a town not far from me.Looks like its closed down,maybe it was too specialised.

Chilly,but the car boots are on again.

This morning I had a look at Julies car boot near Yarmouth.It was a bit cold but a fair number of stalls.I bought a load of whitworth and BSF taps and dies and some imperial spanners so not a bad day out.The British Standard Whitworth stuff is getting harder to find,imperial AF stuff is slowly going the same way,I did buy a load of imperial swivel head ratchet spanners a while back but little really interesting stuff since.There's a lot of junk about in the hand tool line,OK for selling at car boots and markets if you wont be going back there for a while but thats about all. Britool,King Dick,Bedford,Williams superslim and Snail brand spanners and sockets are still worth having no matter how old as long as the jaws and ring ends aren't worn out or damaged,Elora,Gedore,Koken and the like are also worth having,they are certainly better made than a lot of the cheap imported stuff.

Only one way to find out...Fight!.

I've been tempted by an old humber Hawk on ebay.its not far from me but I keep thinking i'll have to get rid of the old London taxi or the transit campervan and I quite like them.Its a bit like harry Hill,"I quite like the taxi and I quite like the Humber,but which is best?"."Only one way to find out,FIGHT!"

Who pulled the plug on the EDP forums?

I used to go on the EDP forums.Not widely used but some of the comments were quite clever,some made you laugh and there was always someone to disagree with if you fancied an argument.
Now its vanished.
Did it get too much for Archant,or did some of the posts go over the top?.
Who knows?.

Hooray and up she rises.

Another day on the sun rise coast.Its peeing down with rain and the bascule bridge has gone up to let some old duffer in a dinghy about the size of a coal scuttle splutter and fart his way back to his moorings.The 'intelligent' traffic lights are on red where you can go and green where you can't,tempers are getting frayed and I'm getting cold stood in the doorway taking pictures.
I'm going back in the warm.

Greedbay.

For a good many years I've sold a lot of tools especially the older imperial based one on Ebay but the fees are climbing ever higher and it seems a lot of buyers have gone on to other auction sites.I'm going to try Ebid,the fees make more sense anyway.
Come and have a look,see what you think.
Ebay might still be the place to buy with its huge customer base,especially for the stuff I like to buy,classic car parts,old tools and that sort of thing but selling,as a business,is just too expensive.

Ebay.When's the funeral?.

I tried ebay to see if it will be a quick way to shift some gear.I used it a long while ago for some years but the high fees,crummy feedback rules and insistance on paypal made me move more to my web site.
This latest excursion onto ebay was a disaster.There are hardly any buyers on there and most of those left have deep pockets and long arms.I thought this country was in bother but didn't realise how far it had spread,even stuff at really low prices is hard to shift in any quantity.
Trawling ebay for stuff to buy is a waste of time.It use to be full of quirky stuff and bargains,now its just a glorified Tesco or Amazon.
What a shame.
Meanwhile sales on ebid seem to be fairly stable as more people move from ebay.It will be a long while before it challenges ebays place as No1 though.

Rule Britannia.(if the rest of the world don't mind)

I have been trying to find suppliers who can guarantee the tools I sell in my shop and on the internet are made in this country.So far I've drawn a blank.
A country that sent engineering products all over the world now seems to be a shipping agent for China.
I found one firm in Sheffield who've made spanners and the like for years but even they are now considering importing stuff from the far east as the price of labour and raw materials climb.No wonder China is the biggest polluter in the world,it makes more stuff than anyone else in the world.How all this pollution in making the stuff and then shipping it sits with all the aims of the 'greens' seems less important than the interests of big business,but its ashame that people are prepared to buy just about anything as long as its cheap,forgetting the real cost is spread far wider.
Sad.

Diesels.The infernal combustion engine.

I've been trying to improve the Nissan diesel in my old taxi.It might be long lasting and reliable but its a bit agricultural and though they clatter on for years its not exactly relaxing to drive.
I tried all sorts of additives and the one thats impressed so far is the Redex 0 to 60 cetane booster.The engine seems to run smoother with it,maybe it improved performance and mpg but I haven't really tested it but the engine is definately quieter.
I'm now going to try some low ash two stroke oil,I've read on some forums that this should achieve the same sort of results and with the sulphur content of diesel fuel being reduced it might help lubricate the pump and injectors.
I'll see how I get on.

Don't feed the birds?.

Most days I put some stuff out for the resident pigeons and seagulls especially in the winter.Two reasons,One I feel sorry for the poor beggars and Two because the council tell you not to.
They're all gods creatures after all and those who moan about the noise of seagulls might like to think how glad my old mate who went stone deaf at the age of twenty would like to hear them again.

Global warming avoids Lowestoft for a day or so.

The fish docks and port were covered by snow overnight but it's slowly thawing.Overnight it was way below zero.At this time of year it's normally a bit warmer right on the coast as the winds warm as they cross the sea.
It's a good job no one relies on the useless wind turbine 'Gulliver' to generate the leccy to run their heating.It spends more time stood there like a gormless statue than during something as radical as generate any leccy,and still the green brigade want to stick these things up all round the coast.I expect the real reason for them is the grants and plenty of palms getting greased.

Phantom jobs but real job losses.

The employment picture in Lowestoft has taken another hard knock (in fact its taken a few).Jeld wen,a major employer who make wooden furniture has gone down the pan and Elizabeth hotels who own a lot of property in lowestoft (some of which was to have been improved) have gone into administration.
The EDP and Lowestoft Journal can drivel on about the phantom 10,000 new jobs all they like but things are pretty bad for the town at the moment and it doesn't look as though in reality things are going to get any better.
Meanwhile,the ludicrous 'Waveney Campus' project has finally vanished without trace.Millions of pounds have been squandered on this monument to its stupidity by our council,the council tax payers of the county will be paying for something that never was,neber should have been and never now will be for years to come.

A huge red barge is moved into Lowestofts harbour getting ready to move one of the modules that have been built at SLP.Even though the firm has gone into administration it still has work to finish and will be a major employer in lowestoft for some months to come.

Phantom firms for phantom employees.

According to our easily conned local paper the EDP,Lowestoft has become the most enterprising town in the UK.So enterprising in fact that it has won a prize for establishing 5000 new firms provisding 10,000 new jobs.
How on earth can this be true?.(It isn't) There are no new shops,no new entries in the phone book or any trade directories,all we see are big firms in trouble like SLP,and more and more boarded up and empty shops and properties.
Its tripe pure and simple,pure invention put about to bloster the image of failed local and national policies and repeated ad infinitum by its tame parrot,the local press.
A shamefull lie hiding the real sorry state this town and so much of the UK has fallen into.

Old pictures revive old memories.

I found one of my old photo albums clearing out my parents house,inside were some pictures of some of the old cars I had a long while back.This one was an old Rover 14 I bought from a Norwich scrapyard.I seem to remember it was a pre war version.I spent ages doing it up then sold it.I fitted it with a Rover 110 engine and it was about as fast as it was lethal.I'm trying to resurrect some of the other pictures to see if I can find the registration number and see if the old thing survived.
These old cars used the whitworth and BSF spanners that I sell now and export all over the world from my shop in lowestoft.

I see no ships.

Another odd boat in the harbour,it's called FINDER.
In front of it are another couple of boats that have engines running all day and all night,seems a bit anti eco,its a wonder greenpeace or someone hasn't been and boarded them.