Yesterday morning I went to have the Bike serviced, 8am he said, I was seriously getting a bit p*ssed by the time he finally arrived to open at 8.45am, I was on the verge of leaving.
It was 9.30am, by the time he had cleaned up, and was ready to start work! I asked how long it would take, and he said an hour to an hour and a half, so I went off for my breakfast, and then sat in the park, until the hour and a half was up, and went back to find the bike with both wheels off!
It turned out that the previous owner would appear to have done no maintenance at all, the brakes were metal to metal, there was no grease in the wheels, they were bone dry, having been annoyed with the workshop initially, I went to being overly impressed, nothing was left unturned, they greased everything that needed greasing, tightened every bolt that needed it, and where there was any sign of rust, they sanded and spray painted it, they even sorted out my steering lock, which was not working.
I don\’t think I ever remember having such a thorough service on a bike or car, they eventually finished at 12.30pm, and the whole thing including parts cost me less than £50. I am definitely a regular there now, and they made me so welcome. I was told that would be fine now for six months, unless something unforeseen happens, which I hope is not the case.
I then raced home to have a bite of lunch, and let the dogs know they hadn\’t been abandoned, then raced back to Copacabana to meet up with Marcela, as we had an appointment to sign some papers.
Next week it is the turn of the car for a complete overhaul, despite the independent inspection, the car is bellowing out some black smoke when accelerating, we need to find out the cause, it might just need the Turbo cleaning, or it might be something more serious, whatever it is, we have to have it done.
After all the complaints, the Council have started major repairs on our road, the last two days they have been removing the top surface down by about 2\”, and allowing traffic through at the same time, that really wasn\’t going to work, and they are only removing the surface where it is at it\’s worst, so despite their best efforts it is a patch and repair.
Last night we received word that today, the road would be totally closed form 8am until 4pm, the problem with that is that there is no other way out, so if people didn\’t get the message, they were stuck. As it turned out, they didn\’t close the road until 9.30am, by which time Marcela was well gone, but that may mean they are late re-opening it, which wont please Marcela.
Thank goodness I didn\’t need to go out today, how many days we will be effected is anyone\’s guess, once they are further down the road, it won\’t be so bad, because it joins up with two other roads we can skirt the roadworks on.
Today, I have been servicing the alarm system, and pottering, just had lunch, and it will soon be time for a siesta!
An Englishman in Colombia 