Everything’s cancelled. Even a gig that had been rescheduled for September has now been pushed back to next May. Not even the mighty Rammstein could get the better of this bloody virus. After 11 weeks of being home alone, my sanity is just about hanging on in there. Just about. I even got so bored of working from my bedroom that I tethered my laptop to my phone and worked out of the bus! There does appear to be some light at the end of the tunnel in that I’ve got a trip to Coniston and Langdale booked in for mid-August. Admittedly there has been no official word that campsites will have reopened by then, so we can only hope that doesn’t get cancelled too……
In VW news, Clarence is back from having his clutch cable replaced at the Herbie Hospital. Naturally he wasn’t driveable with a buggered clutch so he had to tootle over there on the back of a recovery truck – something he’s not done for a good few years – and in a twist of irony he was collected on the same day that we had to be recovered on the A14 on the way down to Type 2 Detectives back in the mists of 2012!
It felt so good to be back behind the wheel after not having driven for a couple of months and it was great to have a bit of a catch up with Johnnie. Although I did have to laugh because firstly I had ordered the wrong clutch cable; no problem, I told him, there’s a spare under the rock n roll bed that came with the bus. Anyway, turns out that my feelings of reassurance of having that spare cable for the last 8 years were based in fiction, because that was also the wrong cable! So another order was placed with Just Kampers and the following day the correct replacement cable (J10571) landed with Johnnie (along with a suitable spare cable!).
Polishing and Procrastination
With having a bit of extra time on my hands I’ve also gotten around to painting the inside of the bug’s bumpers and giving them a real good polish. I’m very happy with how they have turned out too, in that it doesn’t look too obviously like a brushed on Hammerite job. That may have been a job I’ve been meaning to do since I bought the bug 10 years ago. Nothing like some good old fashioned procrastination!!
Talking of polishing and procrastination, I’ve made a start on polishing the jalousie windows on the bus. Super tedious job, but is getting there any they’re starting to look much better. I’ve also had the hubcaps off the bus and given them a polish. Don’t think they have had a proper buff since I bought Clarence!
The lockdown period has been something of a busy time from a brewing perspective. So far I’ve knocked out a Hereford pale ale (Lockdown HPA), a Mad Goose clone (Right in the Nutkins), a very nice golden ale(La Marmotte d’Or), some oatmeal stout (Break Stuff – ready next weekend) and I’ll be brewing the Bluebird clone (Mach 1.1) this weekend.