CitroJim's AX, C3 Picasso, Cycling and Running Tales

[mickthemaverick]

Higher taxes for the wealthy elderly to help pay for the pot hole repairs to help reduce their back injuries, Mick. It's a win-win situation... what's not to like ?

YOU with suggestions like that!!

[bobins]

Someone must be following us on the BBC webshite
An informative little article about the problems and costs of potholes and their repairs....
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3w3y6qp18jo

[Stickyfinger]

while a horse drawn carriage can hold him up for ages in a 5 mile contraflow and not pay a penny!!!

Against that Mick, they keep many blacksmiths and wheelwrights in business... They don't come cheap

The horse pays, well.... they all leave at least a substantial deposit !

[CitroJim]

while a horse drawn carriage can hold him up for ages in a 5 mile contraflow and not pay a penny!!!

Against that Mick, they keep many blacksmiths and wheelwrights in business... They don't come cheap

The horse pays, well.... they all leave at least a substantial deposit !

Allegedly, good for the roses

[mickthemaverick]

Had a lie in this morning Jim?

[CitroJim]

Had a lie in this morning Jim?

Yes In readiness for a busy day with the grandchildren

[CitroJim]

I had an intention of swapping the little cars over yesterday so that I could start on Strawberry's major service (Cambelt, waterpump, coolant, brake fluid and so on).

That plan was somewhat scuppered when I discovered Bluebell's charging system is not happy. I noticed the instrument lamps and interior lamp were flickering. A voltmeter across the battery suggested the voltage was all over the place and nowhere near 14.4V.

I ran Bluebell around to Lidl to get my inspection lamp and upon leaving Aldi charging stopped completely for about a mile and then came good for a while.

You might say the alternator is alternating between charging and non-charging...

I expect it'll just be brushes.

[Zelandeth]

Yep, that does indeed sound like a dead (or sticking) brush to me. How awkward is it to get to on the AX?

[CitroJim]

How awkward is it to get to on the AX?

Not at all, 10 minutes Less than one spanner in BoL-speak...

I have a spare alternator in the stash and spare brushes sitting on the shelf. It'll be the weekend now before I can get to it as yesterday was very enjoyably spent with the little ones and today I'm ferrying my GF to hospital; She has a meeting with someone wielding a knife...

In any case, Bluebell is not urgent as I currently have two other serviceable cars...

[CitroJim]

The trip to Stoke Mandeville went well Between us, GF and I have been there so many times I know both the hospital and the best way to get there from MK perfectly... In fact I know that hospital better than my local one

I seemed to time the journey just right to avoid all the worst of peak-time traffic

I came home and rather than get stuck into Bluebell's alternator I processed a film I largely shot on Thursday when out with my girls. I got some absolutely awesome pictures

One problem I've been wresting with for ages is dusty negatives. Never such a problem with back and white as dust contamination shows up as bright white spots/curly lines and are quite unintrusive but with colour it is an order of magnitude a bigger problem. A tiny speck of dust or a tiny fibre looks huge when the negative is scanned and the result is enlarged. I could see the contaminates on my negs using a loupe and these could not be removed. they appeared to be embedded in the emulsion. Either my chemicals were contaminated, the film was bad - unlikely with Kodak's finest - or it was environmental.

It was the latter. I used to hang my negatives up to dry in my office doorway. The other day I noticed in a shaft of sunlight just how much airborne dust was flying around in the vicinity. The dust was landing on the film and sticking like the old proverbial to the wet emulsion. Nothing, not even iso-alcohol would shift it. The issue had grown worse as the weather warmed up.

The problem was bad enough that most of the photos of trains and show cars I've posted recently have needed a bit of retouching to remove the marks. A tedious job.

Yesterday, I ran the shower to lay any dust and hung the negatives up in the closed shower cubicle to dry.

Success! Here's a shot of Strawberry scanned from that film and with no retouching

[myglaren]

May be worth your while to install a drying cabinet Jim.
All the ones that I have used were fan assisted but the air was filtered and heated gently.
Except the latter years when the film went into the machine dry and came out dry too.

[RichardW]

So, not only a dark room, but now a clean room needed...

[myglaren]

Indeed! As there is no urgency for Jim to dry the film then just a clean cupboard is adequate, no heating, air circulation or filtration necessary.