As I have reported before, there were continueing problems on the white Cooper with the throttle that would get stuck. After having tried really simple stuff like giving the throttle spindle some extra lubrication, the next step was having a look at the throttle cable. I bought a new throttle cable some time ago at a Mini centre and we planned to put it in today. Since today was also the day for the MSCN beginners technical course at Broek Brittcar in Waalwijk, we went there to have a look how everything was going, and did the job there.

Elke keer als ik de Mini was (en dat is ongeveer eens in de twee weken, de laatste tijd), wordt ik er depressief van. De paar laatste keren heb elke keer dat ik zo dicht op de auto zit een nieuw roestplekje (maar een klein bruin stipje in het wit) ontdekt. Daarom heb ik besloten om te proberen niet nog een winter door te rijden met de auto, volgend jaar en hem ergens droog en warm te stallen (en een aantal kleine dingetjes te corrigeren die eerder mis zijn gegaan, voordat het echt te laat is).

Natuurlijk betekent dat twee dingen:

I haven't been using my IEEE email address (e.blok@ieee.org) for some time now, since I have been planning to stop my membership of the IEEE. I have now received notice that they really finally will be stopping all services. If you don't have my new mail-address, use the feedback form on this site. Or, if you're clever, you can probably guess what my current address is.

Every time I wash the Mini (and that's about once every two weeks, lately), it gets me depressed. The last few times I have found a new little peck of rust (just a really small brown dot in the white) every time when being so close to the car. In fact, I have now decided to try and not run the car for another winter next year and keep it stored dry and warm somewhere (and sorting out the few little bits that have gone wrong before it really is too late).

Of course, that means two things:

I am having some trouble with the site. My server at home, which basically hosts the entire picture section, is refusing to load the web server software after I had to reboot the machine last weekend (faulty fan was driving me nuts and I was worried it was the disk). Therefor, the pictures are temporarily unavailable. Hopefully I can fix this soon.

Nou, ik had beloofd om een update te geven over de vorderingen in Amersfoort met betrekking tot de klepspeling en dergelijke. Het blijkt dat er niet veel te mlden is. De kleppen moesten een beetje bijgesteld worden, maar niets om over naar huis te schrijven.

Well, I made a promise to keep you up to date about the findings in Amersfoort with regard to the valve clearance and what not. Turns out, there is not much to update on. The valves needed a little adjusting, but nothing too concerning.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. If I had just taken the trouble to spray some WD40 or some such on the throttle disc pivot of the carburettor (as had shot through my head on a few occasions), it would probably have saved us a trip to Amersfoort. Peter, our mechanic, concluded that was the reason for the fast idling the white Cooper sometimes did lately. On the way back it did it once, but not as often as it used to do. Just a bit more grease?

It's a bit late for merry christmas, but happy newyear is still allowed, so here goes: HAPPY NEWYEAR!!

It's been a while since my last post and I just thought I needed to put in a quick update, basically just to say hi. Not terribly much news. Demelza got me a water proof radio for christmas, which means I can now listen to Giel while I am in the shower. Maybe that helps fighting that horrible morning-lag I get into.

Sorry for the loud title, but I am happy :) This weekend, we came third in the very last puzzle rally of the Mini Seven Club for the year 2004, which meant I secured my first place overall in the club championship!

It was quite exciting (if this is your thing), because the first three positions were still well in the race for the title. If I screwed up (has been known to happen) and the others did good (I won't bore you with all the maths), I'd loose the first place which I had just earned only two weeks ago.