Anymore for Anymore?

Saturday, I spent nearly seven hours under the car, I decided to start the process of rewiring for my trailer lights, and because I have always installed a European 7 pin system here, and had made the decision to change to the US 4 pin system, it meant some work, firstly to the car. I had bought all the parts needed, including an adapter to convert from seven to four, however like all these fiddly jobs, that I am not that confident with, it took a lot longer than it probably should have. At least now the car wiring is done, and it all works.

I have stripped the lights and cabling off the trailer, now I have to do a complete re-install, hopefully it won’t take me seven hours…will it? Maybe tromorrow, I’ll have to see what the weather is like.

The other day, I was walking Nala, when a Mayordomo (Caretaker) down the road, started a conversation, and asked if I wanted any eucalyptus wood, as he was clearing his Bosses land ready to plant crops, I had seen it piled on his drive, it looked good, but I have never worked with it, other than for fence posts, so told him I would research it, and get back to him.

There were some contradictory reviews on the internet, some for, some against, but seeing some of the furniture, I decided to risk it. This morning, I saw him again, and put in my order for twenty 4″x4″ by 2m, I don’t need it longer for my work, and that size allows me to easily cut them down to sizes I will work with. In the mean time 2m lengths can easily be stored undercover to dry out. They should be ready next week, I’ll take the trailer, lights or no lights to collect it.

Nala had her surgery yesterday, the Vet removed twelve lesions, which have now been sent off the the Laboratory to turn into an antibodies, which will be administered weekly for four weeks, along with immunotherapy, the combination which will hopefully stop her having a re-occurrence.

We were able to bring Nala home three hours after the surgery

She was dopey and off her feet, but still had her appetite, and slowly came back to her old self.

Now we just hope that Tito doesn’t decided to go down with anything, just to make a threesome!

Whilst on route to take Nala for the Surgery, driving along the main road through Marinilla, a motorcyclist blew his horn at us from behind, I thought he had been trying to overtake us down the inside, but then he drew up alongside, and Marcela shouted to him.

Fortunately I had the dashcam working, he told us that a bolt had dropped from the wheel, Marcela was immediately suspicious because he was Venezuelan, not that she is racist, it’s just that many don’t have a good reputation, and most of the crimes are committed by them in town, which is a shame, because we also know some really nice ones.

The motorcyclist sped off, and we looked for somewhere to stop and check the wheels, it took a while as the road was busy, but I pulled over, and out of habit, turned off the engine, which turned off the dashcam, I was looking at the wheels, when a man in his fifties came over, and asked what the problem was, he then put his hand behind the wheel and came out with a spring and broken rubber washer. Let’s get this straight, I can change the oil, and do some basic work, but cars are not my thing, and I readily admit to knowing nothing more!

The man said I needed to have the wheel checked immediately, and if I wanted, he had a workshop nearby, this made the hairs on my neck stand up, how convenient! Anyway, we had to get Nala to surgery, and we have our own Mechanic in the town, so thanked the man, and drove off, at which Marcela said the man had something in his hand when he approached, i.e. the spring and washer, so it appeared to be a set up, either to get us into a back street and rob us, or to discover that there was more immaginary, serious damage to the wheel and charge us a fortune for work not needed.

After dropping Nala off at the Vet, we went to see our Mechanic, Erick, who is Venezuelan and so far, a great bloke, he checked both front wheels, and found nothing wrong with either, confirming that it was a Scam.

Marcela was 100% right, and I was just suspicious, I couldn’t work out how they knew where we would stop, however she said there would be a gang of them, near to all stopping points down the road, waiting. Had we not stopped, they would have just written us off, and looked for another pansy, starting again.

Would I have fallen for it, had I been alone? no, I wouldn’t have taken the man up on his offer of the ‘workshop´, I am safety conscience all the time here, had we not had Erick to go to, I would have gone to one of the wheel/tyre businesses nearby.

Never a dull moment!