Dead Products Society

Am I just to rough with things? That's the question I find myself asking after I look back at the last fortnight. The first thing to break (again) was my car. But this time rather than breaking down at a convenient time (like when I'm at home or at work), it instead decided to strand me on the hard shoulder of the M1.

I'd just got onto the M1 and then took a look at the engine temperature gauge. It was quite quickly heading to the red zone so I had to stop on the hard shoulder. I opened up the bonnet to be greeted with the comedy cloud of steam. Looking at the coolant level and it was just non existent. Somehow it had disappeared somewhere.

One quick call to roadside assistance later. And I'm stood on the M1 awaiting an engineer. Boy was it cold. You're not supposed to sit in the car while it's on the hard shoulder (in case of accidents) so instead I was stood in the freezing wind, with no shelter.

For an hour.

Finally the engineer arrives, and tops the coolant bak up again. But we can't see where, the coolant has gone. So I restart the engine only to find it starts to pump the coolant directly out of the bottom of the car. The pumps cracked. So I then need to be towed to the nearest mazda dealership. That was a new experience for me. I've never been towed before in my life. It was a very tiring experience as I had to concentrate much harder than usual.

It took the dealership a weekend to fix my car (mainly because they had to wait for a new pump), but thankfully they sorted me with a loan car for the weekend and I was able to keep up with my planned rendevous with Simon & Dave, all the way in Sunny Stoke-on-Trent.

Next to break was my PDA. No matter what I try to do it just won't turn on. You never know what you've got till it's gone. I now know how much I've come to rely on my PDA to let me know what my plans are in the coming months. It's all stored on the outlook on my office PC, but I can't take that with me. I'm having to use my brain again at the moment. Hopefully I'll be able to find somone who can fix it for a reasonable price.

The final thing to break was the interent. I have been without a reliable internet connection for the past week. However I discovered this was not due to my ISP. Instead this has been due to my wireless hub. It seems fine now, but I have no idea what caused it to have so many problems last week. I'm suspecting windows has something to do with it. I find that if all else fails, it's windows fault.

All I need is for my central heating to have it's yearly breakdown and then the circle of life will be complete.

Last week was also a very ATC intensive week for me. Tuesday found me escorting cadets as we participated in a door to door collection for the RAF Association. This is the organisation that supports former members of the RAF. We particapate in 2 collection nights a year to help raise funds. It's amazing the characters that you meet on these collections. They range from the generous to those that just peer at you from there living room window.

Thurday found me in my best uniform for the Lord Lieutenant's Cadet presentation. Each year a cadet from each of the services is nominated as the Lord Lieutenant's Cadet for the next year. The Lord Lieutenant is basically the Queens representative in North Yorkshire and the cadets can act as his escorts for various functions throughout the year. This year the award for the ATC went to Flight Sergeant Jade Lawson, one of the cadets from my Squadron. It was an excellent evenign and we are all rightly proud of her.

Friday found me as the adult supervision for a cadet night out. We took the cadets out bowling and also to play laser quest. Although I didn't particiapate it still can be quite a handful looking after 25 cadets. Luckily I was supported by other members of staff.

Finally Saturday found me in a local Morrisons supermarket, packing bags. Yes, we took part in that great fund raising tradition, the bag pack. I have no idea how much we made during the day. All I know is that I didn't have as much change in my bucket by the end of the day as the rest of the cadets.

I blame the fact that I'm not as cute as the cadets! Especially in uniform!!