Seb Palmer

8 June 20228 February 2024

CARS: MX5 Cam-belt & Gasket, Day 4

Today I hardly took any photos of the work I did. Most remiss of me! Maybe it was because today was mainly re-assembly? But frankly I really should’ve taken lots of pics!

The above screen capture was taken to help me work out how much oil I needed to refill the engine with. Most of the helpful videos are American – the call their Mazda MX5s Miatas! – and everything needs to be changed from foot pounds and quarts to NM and litres.

I walked into town – not far! – and had a slice of pepperoni pizza from Dreggs. I also checked out some larger wrenches, in Boyes and what used to be Thing-a-me-bobs. I can’t recall what the latter is called now!?

I wound up buying two 300 mm x 36 mm – one foot long with an inch and a half ‘mouth’ (in old money) – Rolson adjustable spanners. At £6.99 they were a wee bit dearer than the Boyes ones; it’s the latter pictured above. But they looked and felt both bigger and better quality.

Actually, whilst they look decent enough, they’re not great. Are any adjustable spanners any good? The adjustment is always fiddly, and very prone to slipping or working loose!

I left off all three of the cam-belt guard plastic bits, as they were pretty mangled to start with. And removing them had further damaged them. I think this metal plate screwed into one of them. There are two metal bits n this line that are not fixed back in place.

Took two shots of this bit, which now seems poss’ redundant. Ended up removing it altogether. in total there are three plastic cambelt guard sections I’ve left off, and two metal brackets, this larger one, and a much smaller one.

A chunk of today – two hours, poss’ more? – was given over to a trip to Halfords. After buying the two spanners and a bit of pizza, I caught a bus to the big roundabout on Wisbech Road, which is pretty close to Halfords.

I bought a new oil filter. I was expecting it to have a ‘crush ring’. But it didn’t. Rather tragically and annoyingly I failed to install it, as I was unable to remove the damned old one!

I wanted to catch a bus home, but didn’t want to walk to Tesco. I would up walking all the way home, with a rucksack full of heavy tool, engine oil, and even a little ‘dolly’ trolley (the latter in lieu of a larger and more expensive inspection trolley).

I stopped at The Hippodrome en-route, for a refreshing lager shandy, and to rest my poor aching feet! I’m not fit any more. The walk home was horrible!

As I said at the top of this post, I totally failed to document the re-build. I replaced the cam-cover, inc adding sealant gasket gloop where indicated.

One of the only bits of documenting I did arose out of the balls up I made of the radiator re-install. For starters I totally wasted a whole bottle of coolant/antifreeze, by failing tore-attach one of the radiators’ lower pipes.

Pouring the whole litre in, it simply drained right out, via the lower and still disconnected tube. It was a mother to re-connect that particular pipe, as the clip on it, and the end of the pipe itself, we’re not in tip too condition.

Then, when refilling the coolant mix into the re-installed radiator, I discovered further leaks due, once again, to missed connections. This was a thinner pipe-work segment, and it only haemorrhaged coolant when the radiator got pretty full.

But even after connecting all the errant lines, and tightening up all tubing and fastenings, there remained a terrifically annoying leak. This turned out to be the thermostat housing, the gasket inside of which had fallen apart.

I tried to bodge it, with gasket sealant. But I put it back together wrong; a whole 180° out of its proper alignment. So when I’d reversed it, or corrected it, the ‘temporary fix’ suggested by a BOFIracing dude, didn’t come out as planned.

So I wound up ordering a new thermostat housing gasket today, plus four new undertray fasteners, all from MX5parts.co.uk I hope they get to me ASAP!.

What was most g-g-gutting and g-g-galling, was getting everything back together only for the engine to not work, still. I have to be honest. This necessitated a bit of a lie down! I was, frankly, utterly crushed.

After about an hour of rest, I decided to go out and look at the car again. A friendly neighbour then took me to Halfords, for my second visit o’ the day – at 7.50pm, ten minutes before they shut! – where I bought some coolant.

Still from my video that WP won’t upload!

Topping up the coolant revealed several leaks. the easiest to repair was a small hose I’d missed. Next I tweaked a few of the clipped hose connectors. But, alas, coolant continued to leak. And a video under the area revealed that the thermostat gasket bodge hadn’t worked.

I tried to add that video to this post. I had to shorten it to even upload it. And then, once added in WP, the post no longer updates… gaaargh!!! So I’ve taken a still image from said vid’. Not great, but better’n nowt!

Bizarrely, the coolant, which was streaming out initially, but only dripping by the time I got my iPhone camera on it, seems to be dripping not from where the two parts meet, but just behind that. Weird!?

Anyway, that’s that for this post. I guess tomorrow I just keep on keepin’ on…

8 June 20228 February 2024

CARS: MX5 Cam-belt & Gasket, Day 3

Today, Tuesday (actually yesterday, as it’s past midnight now!), was a real mofo! Certain steps in this job that seasoned mechanics might do in seconds, took me ages!

I didn’t take so many pictures today. I hope I won’t wind up regretting that? Pictured above is how things looked after a good five or six hours of work. Everything off, ready for new cambelt, and pulleys.

Getting the harmonic damper and the main cam shafts nut off was very tricky and time consuming. Rust had turned the several pieces into a single monolithic block. Much WD40, hammering, and swearing, was required!

Panning out somewhat, so as to see all the gubbins.

Lining up stuff on the windowsill. Some of those plastic bits, that shield the cambelt, etc, need replacing, as they broke (due to bolts that wouldn’t come out!)

A before and after shot; cleaning up fixtures and fittings, prior to gradual re-assembly. And below, the old idler wheel and the new one. Shiny!

And, also below, the other idler, this time avec spring arrangement. For the left (alternator?) side. New pulley and spring; old bolt and spring cover, the latter both cleaned up.

And now three pics zooming in on the new idler/pulley wheels.

And lastly, the two of ‘em, shiny and lovely.

I didn’t photograph loads of this stuff. For example, my three hour plus struggle with the hideous bolt holding the alternator at its junction with the engine block.

Today was a day of much anger, swearing and frustration! it wasn’t just the aforementioned nut that was driving me nuts. The harmonic damper was a real mother to remove. And the camshaft itself?

I thought I was going to lose it! But eventually I prevailed. And in the end the job progressed, albeit much more slowly than hoped for, to past the halfway point, as new parts were added.

The light was starting to fail, after 12 hours more or less solid work. So Teresa held a torch for some of the following photos. Above, the cambelt goes on.

With help from Teresa, we got the damned cambelt installed. I also set the harmonic ding-dong to its intended position.

Teresa snapped me working under the car.

Some of the wiring labelling is visible here.

So, that’s it for this post. A few more pics. But not much to say. A frustrating and very tiring day. Working slowly. Oh so slowly! But getting a bit of DIY style atisfaction

Last of all, in my working duds! And beaming in a grimy way…

7 June 20228 February 2024

CARS: MX5 Cam-belt & Gasket, Day 2

How I looked/felt at day’s end, last night.

Last night, after emailing Greg Peters at ‘carpassionchannel’ (thanks, bro’!), and much – mostly fruitless – googling and watching of YouTube, I finally found out what the thing circled in the image below is.

Turns out this is a power steering pressure sensor.

Having established what it is, I was able to find a YouTuber removing it, and thereby learn how to do so myself. I did that late last night, sporting a head-band style torch, as it turned dark.

In the YouTuber’s video, as so often, it looked super easy. In real life, for me, it was very, very, very tricky. I used needle-nosed pliers to simultaneously grab the whole thing whilst depressing a tiny little lever, all the while also pulling upwards.

After lots of worrying (about breaking it whilst manhandling it so roughly!) and a fair bit of swearing, the ficker funally came orff…

The pic at the top of this post is how I looked and felt at day’s end. Note the new mechanic’s style overalls! £20 from the local Boyes.

Yesterday it was raining in the morning. And it remained damp, drizzly, and cloudy all day. But the afternoon was workable. Today the sun is out, the sky is blue. It’s beautiful, and so … wahoo!

6 June 20228 February 2024

CARS: MX5 Cam-belt & Gasket, Day 1

Ok, so I figured I’d better document the MX5 maintenance. In the hope it’d help me put things back together again. So here goes…

This is one of the clips (top left) that keep the radiator in place. 10mm nuts, which seem to be the most common on this engine.

Radiator bracket, right. WD40 helps loosen rusted nuts!

The radiator overflow, disconnected. Main top cap off. Then I drained the coolant, using the plug at the bottom. Did’nae photograph that though.

Disconnecting the main radiator pipe. Turned the radiator clips through 180°.

Ditto the right radiator clip.

Removing the main hose in the front engine area. What’s this one called/for?

Popped this thinner tube out of a plastic clip.

Disconnected the right end of the large tube. Popped it in the passenger seat. This clip was a real mother! I might want to replace it with a different sort, when it comes time to reassemble things.

Popping off another of the simpler smaller tubes.

A lead that runs to the fan clips in place behind said fan. There are one or two plastic doodads that clip into a plate at the front.

And, lastly, removing a larger pipe from the bottom of the radiator, and draining more coolant! This pipe isn’t in the best condition. And the clip holding it in place is even worse. If the car can be brought back to life, these parts are prime candidates for upgrading.

Just a general shot, trying to keep track of engine layout. The bar along the bottom of this shot is called a ‘sway bar’, and keeps the front wheels in proper torsion and alignment. The silvery doodad in the centre is the thermostat housing. Two thin pipes go into this, one to the right, the other directly below.

With the radiator out, and the biggest of the pipes removed, it starts looking a bit more spacious up front. This extra space should be great for working at the the front of the engine. Which I’ll be getting to later, hopefully.

Zooming in a bit. Look at all the electrical leads/cabling (and adaptors/connectors!), and the several sundry pipes. Lots to keep track of!

Clips and leads on the air filter.

I wanted to capture a general view of the engine as seen from below, under the car. Cool! As can be seen, the sway bar will be in the way of loosening the bottom wheel.

Right side of the air filter. Or is that the left side?

Umm… getting confused. Where is this!? Is this the left or right of the air filter, and adjoining wiring.

A broken clip, and a tricky one. The second being the off white one, to the right of the broken black plastic ring. Can’t recall how I got that one out!?

The same as the above, with the tricky clip out, and the broken one more clearly visible.

Numerous electrical connections had these weird sprung clips. They’re tricky to pop out. I used pliers to squeeze them together, which helped.

Some of the hoses and hose clips were pretty stubborn. BTW, the red jack stand, visible under the ‘sway bar’, supports the latter, which I needed to loosen up, so it wouldn’t be in my way.

Thought it’d be easier to remove the above wiring, as pictured, i.e. still attached to the clip.

More photos of parts of the wiring loom.

Removing another chunky coolant pipe. Note that there are markings on the pipe which align with little nodules on the metal piping.

Can’t recall why I photographed this nut? Possibly this is the lower and harder to see/access nut, for the plate that’s on the front of the engine cover, which holds many parts of the wiring loom.

This tubular plastic lead junction has caused me some grief. I can’t work out how to disconnect it. And until I do, it’s not possible to finish getting the wiring loom out of the way.

Her you can see I’ve put the radiator clips inside the engine bay. Just so as not lose them!

And the other one!

So that’s it for tonight. A few other things I did, but didn’t photograph, include numbering all the wired connections in pairs.

Tomorrow I’ll drain the oil out of the engine. And disconnect the negative pole of the car battery. Then there’s more disassembling before doing the gasket and cambelt.

4 June 20228 February 2024

CARS: MX5 Engine Failure

After our car died last Thursday, the AA got us home. At a not inconsiderable cost. So… with no money for repairs, what to do? I decided to get her up somehow, for inspection. I tried using a trolley jack I have, and some ordinary jacks. But no dice.

It was time to buy some ramps. Halfords in March did’nae have any. But the Wisbech branch had some, for £45 a pair. But without wheels, how was I to get ‘em? Fortunately our pal Ken was kind enough to give me a lift to Wisbech, so I could collect them. Cheers, buddy!

The ramps will be very useful if I need to access the underside of the vehicle/engine bay. And I imagine I will need to. But I didn’t need to today. Thanks are also due to our neighbour, Sean, for helping me get the car up on the ramps.

Step one in getting the rocker cover off.

I decided to photograph each step. And, starting with the picture above, that’s what this series of photos depict. All I was doing today was removing the ‘rocker cover’. So I could see if the cam-belt was indeed, as the AA engineer believed, broken.

The first thing I discovered on starting this job is that YouTubers routinely make things look very easy. Usually they’ll be doing stuff they’ve done many times before. But if you’re not used to whatever it is? As an example, disconnecting some of the wiring junctions proved much harder than expected. It’s amazing how discouraging that can be!

Gradually things got easier. Which was encouraging. The hoses all came off very nicely and cleanly. This was a relief, as old tubing can be brittle and perish, etc.

Front end of the spark plug wiring loom.

There were a couple of points like this.

The above photo shows a point where a male peg goes into a female hole. But it wasn’t actually connected. This one was at the back. There was another, pictured below, on the left side of the engine.

One thing that really spooked me was the long doodad in the image below, below the spark plug wiring. None of the YouTube videos I watched had any such parts, so I was stumped. Nor could I find any diagrams online that explained this mysterious appendage.

A complete overview of the spark plug wiring.

Luckily I stumbled across a video by an American dude that clarified the matter. Turns out it’s a thing called a VVT, or Variable Valve Timing mechanism. Guess I might need to look into that?

Jerry-rigged the variable timing mechanism.

One thing I didn’t photograph, and should’ve, was a 19mm nut at the rear of the engine cover, that was a real mother to loosen. I had to use a mallet to get that loosened off! Once I’d done that I was able to lift the whole thing up and secure it with a bungee cord.

Front end of variable timing thing, note gasket.

As the photo below shows, I tried to arrange my nuts n bolts in such way that they’d be easy to replace in their proper order.

As can be seen below, I got the spark plugs out okay, these were, once again, rather different to anything I’d seenYouTubers dealing with. Fortunately if anything my set up is easier.

And then it was the moment of truth; removing all the bolts holding the rocker cover in place, which I did in a cross-cross fashion, a la drum head tuning, to keep the release of tension/pressure even.

And so it was that, finally, I was able to get the cover off and see… And yea, verily, the cam belt was busted. The AA engineer spook sooth! I was able to gently work it out. And it’s lying there, rather tragically, in the above pic. But is the engine itself okay? I can’t tell, to be honest.

So, I managed to get the engine apart, and find the source of the problem. And the AA guy was right. Busted cam belt. Now what do I do? I guess I have a crack at replacing the timing belt? But that’s an even more complex and challenging job.

3 June 20228 February 2024

CARS: MX5 Breakdown!

It’s late, getting dark… testing the ECU with OBD.

Yesterday Teresa and I packed our picnic basket and headed out for a lovely lunch at Anglesey Abbey.

Sadly, between Fordham and Burwell, on the B1102 Ness Road, an orange engine diagnostic light came on, followed – in seconds – by the engine conking out.

We were relatively lucky inasmuch as a lay-by appeared on our left exactly as this happened. Our forward momentum was enough to get us in and parked, off the main road, and safe.

Several other people were parked in the lay-by. I asked the nearest if he wouldn’t mind helping us try and jump-start our car off his battery. Fortunately I carry jump-leads 90% of the time (due to previous experiences!). He obliged.

But sadly that didn’t work. I thought I ought to try, as I’d had an engine failure about six to eight weeks ago, where I’d just run out of petrol and the battery had also died.

But this time there was still petrol, and the battery appeared to be ok. And the jump-lead start failed. So… time to call the AA!

Got this via Amazon Vine, some time ago.

Not the swankiest of its kind. But useful.

The AA engineer got to us quicker than I’d ever experienced before (20-30 minutes?). And very quickly diagnosed a failed cam-belt. I asked how he could be so sure, without seeing it; the cam-belt is enclosed, at the front of the engine, behind two other external belts (and all sorts of other gubbins) .

He said it’s the sound. There’s no tell-tale compression, apparently. If there were compression you’d have that wheezy but rhythmic ‘turning over but not catching’ sound.

My AA membership didn’t include getting us and our dead car home. So I called a company to see if they – Manchetts – could ‘recover’ us. Yes, for approx £250-ish!

What about the AA? They could do it, for about £180-ish. So I went with the AA, naturally! Chatting with the AA engineer on the way home, about our options, he seemed to feel that it was highly likely the cam-belt going had killed the engine, bending rods, or some such.

However, when I got home, and started researching this issue, it got very confusing. My mum and her husband Malcolm had, on learning what’s happened (we were supposed to go and see them on Sunday, but that’s not happening now!), also looked into it.

They came up with some more encouraging info (thanks!), suggesting that Mazda engines are built in such a way that a cam-belt failure isn’t necessarily fatal. Oh, how I hope this proves to be the case for us!

We simply don’t have the funds for a new car, or even a repair to the current motor. And I really love this car. So I’d prefer to keep her going, if at all possible.

I started watching YouTube videos on cam-belt changes. And I’ve found a good few. One, by MX5parts.co.uk is pretty good. But an even better one is by TheCarPassionChannel. (Watch it here.)

Both videos show the cam-belt being replaced by one guy, working at home, using basic tools. So there’s a bit of hope it’s a job I may be able to do myself.

TheCarPassionChannel’s video is the better of these two, because he moves the camera(s) around much more, such that you get a far better and clearer view of everything he’s doing.

Annoyingly everything’s shut – at least everything I’ve tried, car parts and service/garage wise – for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. So I can’t get quotes on repairs, or pricing for parts, etc.

Anyway, numerous plans have been scuppered. A trip to the seaside today. A Curtis Mayfield tribute gig in London tonight. A visit to mum’s at the weekend. Hey-ho!

Pressing the VIN button didn’t do anything.

So, what to do!? I’m kind of hoping I can install a new timing belt myself. As per the videos I’ve been watching. But it’s not a simple job, by any means. And how am I going to get about to my teaching?

Some time later the same day…

I just remembered Amazon Vine sent me an OBD unit some while back. Ages ago actually! And until now I haven’t used it. With what feels horribly like it might be a terminal fault, I thought the time had come to track it down and use it.

After a bit of stressed searching, I did locate it, and give it a go. It was getting late and pretty dark – about 10pm – by the time I went out to check the car. So I had to do it by torchlight.

Finding the ECU/OBD interface point was the first challenge. You have to plug the OBD in first, then turn the ignition on. I read the manual, which is in mangled Engrish, and far from excellent.

The DTC button is what you press to get the codes. I was hoping for a fully explanatory readout. But all I got was ‘P1345 Manufacturer Control’. This means you have to look the fault code up on ye internet.

And so it is, that now, 11pm, the day after the engine conked out, I’m still not really too much the wiser about what’s gone wrong or what to do. The info I got googling MX5 P1345 is rather diverse and varied!

I hope somewhere that can help me might be open on Saturday. Otherwise it’ll be Monday by the time I can talk to anybody. And it might very well start cutting into my teaching/earnings.

3 June 20228 February 2024

BOOKS: Wahoo! Massive Mr Men Windfall!

Yesterday I bought this handsome set from a Facebook seller locally. We were on our way to Anglesey Abbey, for a lunchtime picnic. That didn’t work out, for reasons I’ll cover in another separate post.

But en route we stopped over at an address in Chatteris, and I bought this delightful set of Mr Men books for a tenner. A tenner!!!

Each individual book is £2.50. Fifty at that price translates to £125 in total. I fully expected that the boxed set would – obviously, surely? – be somewhat cheaper. After all, you want to make the bulk buy attractive, don’t you?

So I was surprised to see that this set has, printed on the reverse of the hard-case, the full £125 asking price! This makes the tenner I paid even sweeter. And the condition of the set is immaculate. Brand new in all but name.

We don’t have kids. But these will not only potentially come in handy as and when kiddies are visiting us. But, truth be told, we adore them ourselves. They’re so sweetly innocent and charming. And most of them are a part of our own childhoods.

After the trauma of yesterday’s vehicular disaster (see this other post), reading a few of these today was a massively uplifting experience. The inner child lives on lustily in both Teresa and myself!

I read Mr Nobody to myself. I find the theme here quite attractive. Almost Zen!? It’s not really intended that way. As Mr Nobody’s ‘nothingness’ – beautifully and so simply conveyed by his being see-through – is a bad thing, to be corrected.

I then read two to Teresa, putting on voices like a parent to a child. And it was wonderful. Not having children of our own, being, simple and childlike ourselves can be a real balm. A release from the unceasing cares of adulthood!

First I read Mr Rude, a later title (as was Mr Nobody), which I hadn’t had or read as a child, as it’s far more recent. Mr Happy forces himself on Mr Rude, as a house-guest, eventually helping Mr Rude find his better self. Lovely!

Teresa wanted me to read Mr Uppity. This is one I did encounter first many, many moons ago. Roger Hargreaves’ delightfully playful works occasionally use what Tolkien called ‘fairey’. And here we find Mr Uppity visiting the Goblin Kingdom, and thereby learning to be politer and nicer.

Utterly charming, and conveying simple homely morality, wonderfully illustrated in such a beguilingly naive and simple manner. Just lovely!

I told myself that, at least in part, I was getting these as illustration work type reference material. And so it is. But in truth I just love these books. And I’m very happy to own this set. Both as possible inspiration for my own work, and as little gems in their own right.

Roger Hargreaves (and son Adam?), we salute you!

1 June 20228 February 2024

HOME/DiY: The New/Old Shed Arrives!

The blue building is my current/old shed. The pile of stuff on the ground is the new one!

Yesterday old school friend Trevor very kindly helped me move Ken’s old shed from his new place on Norwood Road to our home. Cheers, Trev’!

It doesn’t look too impressive (pictured above). But then you can’t actually see it, as it’s all under the roofing materials. The wooden crap on top is only there to stop stuff blowing away!

Thanks also to Ken, for the shed itself, and for very patiently storing it in his garden for a good long while! And also to Ruben, our neighbour, who helped us unload when he saw us shifting the panels.

Moving the ‘new’ shed highlighted the dodgy wiring to the current shed, which is overhead, and got in the way a bit! And access to the garden via the communal back passage-way (snigger) was always going to be hard work.

Next up I need to do the concrete base. And then it’ll be time to start restoring and re-assembling the shed itself.

Trevor, on his smallholding, just outside March.

Anyway, we’ve been very lucky. A free shed, and a free move of said shed. That’s really something. And Teresa and I are very grateful. We were also lucky with the weather. Amidst frequent rain showers, some very heavy, we enjoyed a sunny spell for the actual move. The heavens just opening as we finished. Result!

I wish I’d got some photos of the process of actually picking up and moving the shed. I should’ve had Teresa ride shotgun, with some form of camera, recording the happy event! But the activity of doing it all was quite demanding, and chased all thought of documenting it from my mind.

The garden, looking very ‘green and pleasant land’-ish.

The weather has been very changeable, and drowsily muggy, of late. When it’s not cloudy and raining, it’s warm and sunny. And the two states have been alternating rapidly. Just now we got back from a little lunch break in the sunshine, and boom, the rains cameth down.

30 May 20228 February 2024

ARTS & CRAFTS: African Style Mask, Pt 2

I thought I’d posted about this project before, here on my blog. But I can’t find any such entry! (I may have to go back and remedy that?) Anyhoo… here’s a ‘second’ instalment on the subject.

The original project was something I did several years ago, after buying a book in Heffers, Cambridge, on African masks. I bought that book even further back, a number of years earlier, with the intention of trying to replicate some tribal type African artefacts for decorating our home.

How the ‘face’ looked at start of play, with the ‘beard’ tucked away.

As as ever with my artistic projects, I’m not at all happy with my efforts. This is something that has generally stymied me in this department all my life! Indeed, lack of self-belief has grown to such an extent that I just really don’t do any art anymore. Same with the music.

Anyway, whatever. As folk say these days! For what it’s worth (or not?), this is my attempt to do something with this mask to make it such that I do like it. I’d like to say I don’t care. But the truth, as always, is more nuanced and complex than that.

The mask, all ‘masked’ up, and marked up!

This is how it is at present. Or rather how it evolved today. Even in its first stage it went through several separate steps. As I searched for the elusive something. The basic design is a mish-mash of elements from various masks in the reference book.

Today’s stages were first: masking off the ‘beard’/back of the mask; then masking some striped patterns on the front face; painting a black gloss coat over the front; and finally the tape is removed, and… ‘wallah!’, as many folk have it in Franglais.

Looking quite weird. But I quite like the green stripes.

I think it’ll need ‘knocking back’ or ‘weathering’, as it’s poss’ a bit too stark or pristine as is. Anyroad, I definitely do like it better now. I’m still not very happy with it. But an improvement is something. And it’s my first attempt. Maybe I ought to just move on to a second? We shall see…

I’ll let the latest layer dry overnight. And tomorrow I’ll work on weathering it a bit. Sanding, scraping, maybe some brown (strong tea?) washes? Then I need to work up some kind ageing or patina. Hmmm!?

28 May 202218 December 2022

MiSC: Dribbling Idiot!

It’s horrid, being a total wuckfit. I just made a trip, locally, only to get home and panic about losing my iPhone. Teresa called it, I searched the car. No dice. So I drove back to where I’d been earlier. Still no luck. The guy there called my number.

My iPhone wasn’t at his, where I thought it might have been. Lucky for me he called my phone again, as I frantically searched my car for a third time, on his driveway. And so it was I found the confounded thing. Thanks to the vibrate feature rattling the plastic of the dashboard.

Turned out it was in one of the two or three places I normally put it, in my car, all along. Only it had slid deeper and out of sight. This elusiveness was compounded by the fact that it isn’t ringing audibly, regardless of which position I set it to, on the silent/loud toggle switch.

So the £10 I’d bartered off the item I bought has, literally, gone up in smoke. And time and anxiety have been expended entirely pointlessly. ‘They let you out on your own!?’ quipped my Fenny Facebook seller, quite justifiably.