Never a Dull Moment Here

 Yesterday afternoon, 13th February, I was working on top of the water tower (security cameras) when I sensed something of a traffic situation on the normally peaceful Station Road.  Two of the biggest of big articulated lorries were to-ing and fro-ing as if to enter the narrow station drive.

I looked on in fascination and doubt.  Unlike trains, whose highly paid drivers are presently on strike for more money, these HGV drivers actually have steering wheels and reverse gears to contend with.

Here is one of them REVERSING up the station drive en route to pick up and convey a huge Network Rail machine which had been used at Settle for track work.

Total admiration and respect.

Seafood Pasta on a Plate

 Settle has an excellent Italian restaurant and take-away owned and cheffed by Matteo D'Ali.  My favourites are seafood, either pasta or risotto and Matteo knows that.

Hadn't been there for a while though - or anywhere else to eat-out really.  Matteo was concerned so he rang to see if we were OK.

Reassured by Pat that I was indeed OK but she was slightly out of sorts (better now), on Friday Matteo arrived at the water tower bearing an on-the-house plateful of - seafood pasta.

Settle's that sort of place.

Ready for the Open Road

 After a good deal of argy-bargy the DVLA was eventually persuaded to register our beloved Geest three wheeler auto-truck for the King's Highway.   Huge amount of thanks to Tom Gilvear of the DVLA Swansea-respected Light Industrial Truck Club.

What a performance.  I nearly gave up a couple of times but glad I didn't.  We had to prove that the vehicle was actually a 'vehicle' and a 'historic' one at that.  Date of manufacture (1953) was always going to be hard to determine but that proved to be easier than its PLACE of manufacture.  The engine was of 1953 vintage but engines can be changed of course - though it is less likely that a newer engine would be swapped for an older one.  A Villiers engine number ending in /53 was just part of the case.  Another was that there were indications of age including the fact that the Geest company started making these things in 1953 so not only was it early it could have been among the earliest.  Would we get an age-related number or would we have to settle for a Q plate?

Then came an unexpected wobble and a refusal.   Had import duty been paid?  Had we applied to HMRC for a 'Notification of Vehicle Arrival', or NOVA?  It took a good deal of research and dedication on Tom Gilvear's part to convince the DVLA that despite Geest being a Dutch (banana) company, their UK company made these trucks in Spalding, Lincolnshire.  In went a fresh application but no NOVA, with evidence that Spalding was in England lest the Welsh based DVLA had any doubts.

Days turned into weeks then came one of those dreaded brown envelopes with a form  V5C in it, blandly announcing that number 715 XVX (1953 Essex actually) had been granted, followed a few days later by a much thicker bundle of documents form DVLA (my proof of identity, photographs and so on) telling me what I by then knew.   It also told me I would get my registration document Form V5C, which I already had, 'in the next 4 weeks'.  What a palaver.  It felt like a very British twist to that splendid American film Groundhog Day.

Well here's 715 XVX loaded with rubbish and ready for its first legal outing to Settle tip where I expect I shall be barred from entry as it's a lorry or something!

Just as an aside, readers of a certain generation my remember that transatlantic travel by boat was a sideline of the Geest banana company whose banana boats to'd and fro'd between the UK and the West Indies carrying fare paying passengers in some style I believe.  Here's the banana boat:

Lift Servicing Victim

We have an Aritco lift, installed 2012.  It has been unreliable, despite expensive 'servicing'.  Recently the lift has cost me £3000 + in 'engineer' visits culminating in replacement of the main U5 control board - unnecessary I believe.  The lift packed in again and could not be re-set.  In desperation, I removed the main panel in the lift only to discover the problem for myself - batteries (2).  Both were covered in dust, one more so than the other.  The dustier one's coating of dust matched the 2012 dust elsewhere behind the panel (see pictures below).  Clearly, just one battery had been replaced some years ago.  I now know these lead/acid batteries last for 2 1/2 years or so - not for 11 years!

I shall 'service' the lift myself in future if I know that somebody honest and knowledgeable is at the end of a smartphone as back-up. 

For years now the lift has been 'serviced' by E.A.Foulds Ltd of Colne.  For the past two annual service visits I have told the service man that the lift beeps annoyingly when in use.  "Oh, all Aritco's do that" was the stock reply.  

I now know that the beeping noise is a warning that the batteries need replacing.   If they are not replaced the circuitry eventually slips into another mode and stops the lift working at all.  That is precisely what was happening with our lift.  Below are the old batteries as I removed them from the lift.  The one on the left is heavily coated in dust and was totally dead.  The one on the right is old but obviously newer.  It had life in it.  They are each 12 volt batteries, connected in series = 24 volts if both are good.

Why, you may ask, does a lift require 24v batteries?  They give sufficient power to lower the lift to the floor level immediately below to enable release in the event of a power cut.

Second picture shows the batteries in situ.  The lighting is poor but you can just discern the dust on the left hand battery.  The dust on the horizontal rail below the battery box is clear.

Third picture shows a sample battery, Yuasa make - original 12v, 3.2 Amp hours, battery.  Easily obtainable still.  Two cost me £34.82p online, delivered next day.  The probably unnecessary 'repair' cost around one hundred times as much.

Googling the problem I discovered, too late, that lift servicing is wide open to exploitation, of the elderly especially of course.  Service intervals of six months are the norm - those batteries are good for 2 1/2years remember?  Those six months are a gift to the industry.  Service charges are extortionate.  Repair charges even more so.  Hourly rates for 'lift engineers' would make a solicitor blush.  They must be accompanied by a second person 'for health and safety' - a 'service engineer' on a lesser hourly rate.  Mileage charges must assume the use of Bugattis or similar, including depreciation.