Who you lookin at punk?

Good Evening everyone. Hope your week at work has been an uneventful one. After the last few weeks of my life I have been glad of a week of nothing going on. I was on a late shift this week and it really seemed to drag on. I had to work until 7.30 most nights which means that by the time I get the train home it's gone 8pm and after cooking dinner (as I am no longer allowed microwave food!) it's gone 10pm and time for bed.

My Gran has got better sooner than I thought she would. I have been checking on her throughout the week. She visited the Doctor on Thursday and he checked on her foot. He has referred her to a specialist at the hospital so who knows what he will do? For the time being though she is fine. I went out on Saturday and did all her shopping for her which turned into a bit of a drama. I spoke to her the night before and asked her if she wanted anything and she gave a me a list over the phone. I thought I would be smart and head out early on Saturday morning to beat the rush at the supermarket. So I got all my shopping and hers too and went home. When I got home she had rung and left a message for me telling me that she had a list of things she needed! Ahhh I wanted to pull my hair out. So I had to go all the way back to the supermarket just to get a few extra bits. So that just goes to show if you try and be clever it can blow up in your face.

The traffic in London this week has been horrendous. I'm not sure why but getting anywhere has just been a complete nightmare, with plenty of accidents going on all over the roads. I dread to think what it will be like by 2012 when we have thousands upon thousands of people coming into London for the Olympics. I am not sure the services will be able to cope. I'm sure that the emergency ones won't be able too. I don't think anything will ever dissuade people from using there cars.

Today (Sunday) I went to Bluewater to get some Christmas presents. I know you probably think I'm mad and that it's still a bit too early but trust me their were about 30,000 people with the same idea. The car park was jam packed with cars. I didn't have much to buy really but got a few pressies. It's quite good at Bluewater at the moment because in the M&S car park they have got Auto Glass repairing chips. I have had a bad one in the middle of my windscreen for some time now and it's been bugging me. It would be a definite MOT failure so I needed to get it fixed. I was amazed how easy it was to get it done actually. Normally anything that involves cars is always a hassle, right? But this was easy as making scrambled egg. I think I got the most annoying technician I could though. He seemed to think his job was saving lives or something!

I asked if I could watch the whole thing and see what happened and they were more than happy to let me. Maybe I shouldn't have seemed so interested in it but I thought I would ask for your benefit. He He.
There are several forms of impact damage when it comes to chips on windscreens, these are:-
'Bulls eye' - a circular indentation
'Star break' - small cracks radiating out in all directions
Other combinations of the above with names such as, 'cloverleaf'

What causes these stone chips? I hear you all ask? Well a few things really. Mostly from gritter lorries, loose stones on the road surface oh and idiots chucking bricks off the flyover...lol.

And finally what makes it turn into a crack?
Shock, vibration, extremes of temperature (such as turning the air-conditioning on full on a scorching hot day), driving time or factors such as frost, dirt and moisture getting inside a chip can all contribute. I didn't realise this but Glass doesn't have much strength in it. So no ability to resist outside factors. Once a chip or crack appears, external stresses like heat, vibration or movement cause it to expand

It was amazing to watch the whole thing going on. They attach this tool to the windscreen. This tool is designed to control many of the variables in the repair process. The vacuum is used to remove the air from the break. This is done with the resin held in the capsule, so no resin or liquid is over the damage. Once the air has been removed from the break, the pressure or filling cycle is accomplished in the most efficient manner. There is little need for manipulation of the break to remove entrapped air. It is filled and repaired in about 20 minutes.

So now we are all experts in the art of windscreen repair who wants to come setup a rival franchise with me? If any of you have chips on your cars then send me a picture and maybe we can have a competition to see who has the biggest chip?



I know I always talk about Bobby but I'm not sure if you know that I have Guinea pigs too. I thought about getting a Rabbit aswell but decided to stick with a couple of guinea pigs first to see how I got on with them. I have had them since they were tiny little fluff balls. They are called Orlando and Olivier. They are real characters, they aren't like dogs though that want to be cuddled but they do let you sit and watch them play and occasionally let you stroke them.

The one on the left is Olivier and the big fat brown one on the right is called Orlando.
Unfortunately they only have a normal life of about 3 years but I think after that I may go and get a few more, possibly breed them as they are really nice little creatures and I have plenty of room for them in my garden.

I had a nice surprise at the beginning of the week. A parcel came from Selfridges with my name on it! I thought great someone has got me a little pressie but then I remembered Todd 'Becks4Me' as you might know him had sent my Mum a gift for her birthday.

It was a really nice gift and she really liked it. It was cute. As you can see it was really well presented with a basket and that. Inside was a small bottle of fine wine, fine jam, finest chocolates and some breakfast tea bags. If any of you want a nice gift for someone and you don't know what to buy them go on the Selfridges web site and get them something like this.

Talking of Todd. I thought I would put this picture on here for you as I know you love Marks and Sparks. He He just a little teaser of the big superstore they have a Bluewater shopping centre.

Seeings I have talked about the Guinea pigs in this blog I thought I would leave you with a snap of Bobby. Before you ask where he is right now? Just look at the pic below as you can see he is fast asleep keeping my bed warm for me, he he. Isn't he cute?

I wonder what he's dreaming about? Ok well enough rambling on for this week. I need to be up at 4am tomorrow so I need my beauty sleep. Hope your all well and happy that your back at work for another week? But don't worry it'll soon be Christmas and that means times off. Yipppeeeeee.....Hope you'll be back next week.

Stu.

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