Well they’ve released me and I have the rest of the weekend to myself.

Oh the work I had to do after then; postponed until another time…

Well, the weather firecast was right, it’s been a long, long time since it last snowed on my birthday…

Little celebration on the way home from the datacentre today; my VW Beetle turned 50,000 miles! I like the car, it has its good days and bad days – but I still love driving it around.

Earlier on I was working at home, one of the perks of my new job – it’s still not 100% perfect but the iMac performs well emulating 2x XP workstations, and if required a further Windows 2003 server. Below is my normal setup;

The iMac is running 2 screens, the one on the right is my "work" XP VMware machine and the main iMac screen is running iTunes, and my "personal" XP VMware machine. The laptop is from work, at home I don’t use it much.

Like this design – was thinking about having a Union Jack (splat) added to the front on my Beetle, is this a little to extreme?

Well the good news is I have my Beetle is back – it wasn’t the o2 sensor (although that mybe still faulty – time will tell), it was one of the four ignition coils. With that replaced the little Beetle is running like a charm again. The cost? only £164 – bargin.

On the way home today my poor little Beetle had the wind taken from its sails – power dropped, the engine choked and the engine management light flashed like a possessed firefly. I drove my poor little car home (about a mile), lurching and spluttering all the way; very poorly indeed. I attached the diagnostic tool to the car and prepared for the worst.

The laptop booted, and the Beetle sung its misery through its attached USB umbilical cord. But there was nothing new; the intermittent Lamba sensor which had begged my attention for the last 12 months still showed – I can only assume the sensor has progressed from intermittent to failed. Reading through the results from a Google search it seems almost a guaranteed cert that it’s the failed item, giving symptoms similar to the recent "bad fuel" problems with Superstore garages. Admittedly I did fill up, but it was at a BP garage yesterday (Friday).

Just need to check in with the garage on Monday to see if they can fit me in; typically Dad has just started to drive again otherwise I could be using his car until it’s fixed. Unbelievably my road tax is also up for renewal at the end of the month – jeez £190 for what?!, answers on a postcard please!

Three wheels on my car…
Originally uploaded by S’mart.

… there was a nail (BIG) in the tyre

… bloody cold this morning, the ice was thick, thick enough to break my ice scraper – best one I ever had (sob)…