Another step forward

Yesterday, Mother\’s Day in Colombia, and we had two Mothers present, Maria Elena, and Sandra, we were fortunate, the weather held, and we even had some sun in the afternoon.

Marcela and Maria Elena, had prepared a lovely lunch, and Marcela had baked a very tasty banana cake, which had not only banana, but orange and coconut in it, I have to admit to having had more than my fair share of that cake, which probably wasn\’t very wise, considering I have to see the Doc on Wednesday!

This morning, I took Pépe out for his walk in the drizzle, and then did some work on the computer, whilst waiting for Marcela to surface. Once she was ready, we headed off for San Juan, and the Chery Garage, we wanted to look again at the Chery Tiggo, it is a Chinese copy of the Grand Vitara, and has some good reviews.

On arrival, they had a crimson Tiggo in the Showroom, it was a lovely colour, however we found out almost immediately that they don\’t do Part-Ex, which put a dampener on things, but continue we did, and went out on a test drive, it drives much like my old Grand Vitara in Spain, updated, but not as luxurious as the Tucson, saying that, it is much cheaper, and it has gadgets I will never use or need, such as an altimeter, barometer and compass built into the rear view mirror, fun to play with.

The Saleswoman, then told us she could help us sell ours, as they had a Client looking for a white Tucson, and the fact that ours is diesel and has a tow bar, would help.

Whether we continue with this or not, remains to be seen, the Saleswoman said she would get back to us before the week-end, if not we will still go to the Renault Feria on Saturday, at Casa Britanica in Medellin, which reminds me, I must remember to punch the Salesman, Gustavo, on the nose, he is getting too familiar, he keeps addressing Marcela as \’Marce\’, so much for Client respect.

It was then back to Bello, first for lunch, at the little restaurant we used to use up the road from the apartment, as we were leaving I was hailed by John Nariño, it turns out he doesn\’t have as much work on as he would have us believe, in fact he hasn\’t got any, I think he was hoping we would put some more his way. However he did come up with one brainy idea, and that was for the septic tank covers. He suggested we went to one of the companies that made concrete benches, and ask them to fabricate the tops for us, hadn\’t thought of that, so off we went.

The first location, we had been given by John had closed down, so we went out on the Medellin to Bogota Motorway, and the first place we stopped at, also made their products, and yes he would fabricate ours, thicker than the bench seats. He showed us, what reinforcement would be used, which was slightly thinner than I would have used, but more of it, and he said we would have no problem with strength, he would build the big cover in four sections, and incorporate lifting access to the two outside panels, the second grease trap, he would mould, in one piece, I now know why it is a good idea to go to those that know, he told us that he would fabricate them tomorrow, but they would not be ready for twenty days, as they need that long to dry out, I was going to leave mine for four, before placing them. I think they would have ended up at the bottom of the tank, and one of us with them, not exactly smelling of roses!

From there, we made our way home, stopping at the Carpenters, to pick up some matching woodstain for the door he had planed.

Back home, I changed into my work clothes, and stripped the covers off the septic tanks, to confirm the measurements, and Marcela rang the company to verify the measurements I had given, they will now be made.

That\’s us more or less up to date, so I will sign off for now.