It's been a while so update time...

OK, so I havent been the most dilligent in the updates for a little while, but I've had a lot on so tough.  More donations = more updates people.

So what's happened I hear you cry? 

Well, most importantly and most recently, we know what leg 1 of the run consists of.  We are not leaving via Harwich or Newcastle which is a brilliant piece of news for us on a couple of counts.  Firstly if we left from Newcastle, that would have added an extra 700 or so miles onto the trip and at least a days travel to and from departure / finish.  If we left from Harwich, slightly better, but either of these 2 ports would have meant a ferry to exposed cold places with the only real route heading North to even colder and more exposed places.

It's not that Gruff and I are afraid of the cold normally, but as previously mentioned, the car has a heater with the similar heating power of an old man sucking a fishermans friend (Probably trademarked and opening myself to legal action) and blowing at you.  Also the car has a canvas roof, with no heat retaining powers at all, so that is a down side of a Spring rally through snow.

However, we are not going through the wilds of Scandanavia, we are departing from that much loved southern port of Dover.  Yup, thats right, we're off to Calais for leg 1 of the journey.  Thats all the route information that we are going to receive until Day 1 of the actual rally.  My best guess would be through France, towards Germany, quick play on the Nurburgring, on down towards Italy and back.  But that is pure speculation on my part so I could be very very wrong.

I received the email with contact details for P&O and an account number to confirm our booking so I did the obvious thing and used the phone number provided, got through to P&O, gave the lady the account number and said I would like to give her some money.  I would like to say right now that although a call center monkey, this female had a remarkably pleasant voice, you know, slightly posh with a hint of educated.  The sort of person you expect to have representing a large company that can handle complex corporate and individual queries.  No.  Posh but Thicky McThick.  Having given her a summary of travel times, booking reservation details, and an account number she ummed and advised no such arrangements were in place and she would transfer me to a colleague. 

After listening very pleasantly to hold music (on the premium rate phone line, using a mobile) for a few minutes, her supervisor came on the phone trying to help ME book a journey for over 100 cars.  OK, so I've patiently explained what the rally is, that it's being run by Scumrun Limited, all booked and arranged by Mr White, and I just want to pay for 1 car and 2 people.  This is a bit confusing to operator 2 (theoretically higher up the P&O food chain than operator 1), who has again very politely told me that no such arrangements are in place and if I was organising such a large group without an account I would need to pay for the entire entrants.  I have patience.  I have an understanding that people without hope, dreams aspirations or imagination work in call centers and adhere strictly to their script and any deviation sends them off work for several weeks with a case of stress.  I also have a mobile phone on a premium rate line trying to convince dumb & dumber that they can take my payment if they look in the right bit of the computer.  Then, with a flash of genius, number 2 has a fantastic idea...  Why don't I speak to Lisa in the department that arranges this sort of thing?

Brilliant.  Why dont they transfer me to the person who actually might know something, in the department that specialises in exactly what I'm trying to do?  Why has it taken this long for the cloud of stupidity to pass and give a bit of clarity?  Grrrrrrr.  On hold, listening to a bit of Swing Jazz, pleasant piece involving the word "sea" quite often, then a voice...  Erm, she's not available. 

They took my number and said someone would call back.  Normally I'm quite happy that number taken, query made, I'm going to get a call back.  This time, pretty sure Hamster brains over there would have eaten my number, looked at the sky and forgotten she was in a call center and I would hear no more so I mailed Ed @ Scumrun with a concise, polite summary.  He mailed straight back (copying in the P&O organiser) said should all be ok.  Within 2 minutes, Lisa phoned me back, apologised on behalf of the DENSA candidates that answered and took my booking advising cheerfully that there was no debit card booking fee.  If I had paid by credit card, I would have been charged £4.  If the halfwits had been able to take my booking then I wouldnt be looking at £12 worth of phone bill!!!!

Anyway, booked.  Dover - Calais at stupid O'Clock on the morning of the new royal wedding.  Groovy.

That's the most recent bit covered and I'm now trying to recall anything else of note over the last couple of weeks. 

We now have all 4 wheels the same colour (would have been 5 but I ran out of paint).  After quite a large amount of time trying, I managed to get the fourth wheel off.  This mystery shaped additional locking wheel nut was nothing of the sort.  Having smacked it, whacked it tried to wrench it, desperation sank in and I tried pitifully to reach in with some long nosed pliers in the last ditch hope of desperation that these pliers had a touch of Harry Potteresque magic charged inside of them.  Guess what.  It worked.  I have spent countless hours trying to get this strange sized fitment to release and it came off with a little "pop".  Turns out it was just a silver cap on there to make it look pretty.  Grumpy about it, but it's off, painted, inflated and ready to go back on. 

Other news, got an email from HSP and they're playing with the first run of graphics now, with full sponsor livery going on end December / start Jan.  This leads me neatly to my next subject, to those who have paid for advertising, I have contacted you all seperately advising receipts going out some days ago, I promise that these will be with you by the end of the week.

Think thats pretty much it for now, but if you need to get in touch with us about anything, please do so by:

emailing:  floppythrottle@live.co.uk

donate:  www.justgiving.com/floppythrottle

This updates blog hero:

No-one. 

Throw £2 or more in the just giving fund and you (or your company) might get the Blog Hero for next time round.  Or go for £20 and get your name on the car.  This blog is now getting between 600-700 hits per update so thats quite a bit of advertising simply by being mentioned guys and gals.

Catch you later.

Savage.

This is now properly international...

This is a completely out of the blue update, I was just scrolling through the stats of this blog, and I am honestly amazed.

The blog is being read on a regular basis in the following countries:

United Kingdom

United States

Netherlands

Russia

Canada

Ukraine

Luxembourg

France

Singapore

Germany.

Just thought I would share that & thanks for reading guys.

Once again, worth mentioning, if this is your first time reading the blog, then start at the August tab on the right and work your way forward or a lot won't make sense.  A summary is 1 very cheap, high mileage 16 year old car, transformed to a road rallying beast covering 3,000 miles over 4 days across Europe setting off in April 2011.  Raising money for charity through donations and sponsorship of the vehicle.  2 Drivers, Savage & Gruff, neither of whom have any experience at this kind of thing,and a satnav that will only converse in symbols and isn't sure of which way to go.  The event is usually televised by Sky TV and we have Fast Car as an official event sponsor so expect a magazine feature on the ScumRun in the next few months.

Feel free to throw a couple of pounds into the kitty at www.justgiving.com/floppythrottle - The donations go to Dreams come True, a charity that makes the lives of terminally ill children a little brighter.  If you don't want to donate, and just want to read, then thats tickety boo with us, but please share the blog with friends, family, co-workers, facebook buddies (via a status update?) so that they can enjoy and possibly sponsor also.

On the other hand, if you're still umming and ahhing about sponsoring the car, then this is the size market that your advertising will reach - where else for £20 will you get that sort of coverage?

Any questions, please mail us at floppythrottle@live.co.uk

Once again, many thanks for taking the time to read and support us.  If you know of any other teams competing in the ScumRun, tell them they smell of weewee :) 

Savage

This updates Blog Heroes: YOU

The estate is filled with the sound of...

The estate is filled with the sound of boomboomboomtchtchtch lakkalakka boomboomboom.  Yes, thats right my happy little reading peeps.  The car went to say hello to Sextons Portsmouth.  I will come back to this, but need to explain why I felt a bit of a tit on the way to get the sounds sorted.

You may recall from the last blog that I had 1 gorgeous shiny white alloy looking like new and one similar with a few nicks and chips out of it that I dropped whilst the lacquer was still wet.  You'd think that would be the end of the bad luck for the wheels aspect.  You'd be wrong.  Yet another dog eared fate dealt card came to my hand.  The third wheel (rear passenger side) was a dream to rub down, paint and lacquer (I learnt to leave it til dry) and went back on like a shiny shiny white disc of satisfaction.  If you're keeping up, you'll have realised I now have 3, yes three, white wheels and 1 silver one at this point of the tale.  I use the phrase at this point, what this extends to: is I have 1 odd sodding wheel that won't come off.

The problem with locking wheel nuts is you need a specific attachment to your tyre iron to get them off.  This, I have.  For the other 3.  For some obscure reason which I cannot fathom, I have 1 wheel which has a completely different head on the locking nut than the other 3.  Effectively, if you look at the car from the drivers side, the car is looking good.  If you look at it from the passenger side, it looks absolute toss.  Short of taking it to a garage and having them drill it through (expensive and damaging), or hoping for a miracle, theres really only one way forward with this and that is to get a socket which would fit snuggly over said nut, and hammer it into the nut destroying both but leaving me with hopefully enough depth to simply prise the nut off.  This is the technique I'm planning to use.  When I get the time.

I was hoping to have the wheels all sorted before driving down to Sextons this morning, but it didn't happen so I looked like a small child with odd socks on when I turned up with the scumrunner and it's wheels.  However, before I arrived at the boombangabang shop, I had to drive 7 miles to get there.  No biggy.  It is a biggy if it is hammering down with rain and your roof doesnt close properly.  I'm not sure yet where the seal is gone, but I was soaked by the time I arrived.  Proper damp as if I had sat with my right leg under the cold tap for 15 minutes.  This less than enjoyable drive was given the extra edge of driving with near on zero visibility.  Not just because of the extent of the rain, but because I haven't driven the car since I used a machine rotating polisher on the bonnet.  This rotating polisher has polish on it and spins very quick.  When something with liquid on spins, there is a spray effect.  This spray effect had hit windscreen and with the aid of rain, run down the glass and settled on my wipers.  As soon as I turned the wipers on, translucent goo was spread across the windscreen.  Bugger.

The car was booked in for 10:00 am with an hour slot.  The plan was get them to run power to the amp, ground it, and if they had time, hook the CB up as well.  The hours labour was going to be £40.  The wifey ran me back down there at 11 and we drove past the fitting bay to see it with various cables and wires hanging out.  So we figured we'd leave them to it.  Half hour passed by, so we drove past again to see (albeit different coloured) wires hanging out.  By 12:00 I was starting to get a little worried as this is an hour over the anticipated timings.  Wifey dropped me at the shop and went home. 

Anyway, a rambling story short, at about quarter past it was ready.  Apparantly there was more work needed than first anticipated as presumably "some complete tool" had installed the stereo and not followed the colour coding of the wires.  I used my best shrug and wasn't me face.  The amp is running as it should be and powering the sub nicely and the CB is also installed but I havent had a play with it yet.  I assume it works.  Anyway, after over 2 hours with 2 guys doing it, I was a little curious about what the bill was going to end up as.  The original quote was £40, one man, one hour.  Over 2 hours, with 2 guys I figured would be a tad on the painful side.  Nope.  Sextons, you are todays Blog hero's (might make that a regular thing, BH's).  £40 total inclusive of all additional cabling and labour.  Very happy with that.

I have spoken to a chap at HSP who reckons that our grovel graphics should be ready real soon.  I'm hoping so as the boot and bonnet are looking a tad naked.  As soon as they're ready, thats a small thing off my mind.

I'm looking at my notes on the phone (woohoo - got my iCrap back) and think the only bit left to say is the Ferry is booked by Scumrun Ltd, just waiting for the confirmation details.  All I can tell you is that we're not going from either Newcastle or Harwich so thats a bit of relief.

Thats about it for the last few days, but as and when stuff happens, will keep you posted.

This is how it's looking at the moment, still work needed, but looking ok.

Arty shot of Juliette looking good

Sextons Portsmouth - This update's "BLOG HEROES"

Been a while but not a lot done.

How to start a short and uninteresting blog entry?  Well, this seems to be started so that's one thing less to consider.

Owing to the broken hand bone a little while back, not a great deal has succesfully been achieved on the actual manual doing things front.  Having said that, I have been down to Sextons to book the car in for a little musical assistance and they're as good as their word and sorting out the amp for me on Tuesday.  I still haven't had a response back from Dragon car audio so I'm assuming he is either incredibly busy, a lottery winner no longer in need of work or advertising, or dead.  I like to think of his demise as that would explain the complete lack of communication and common courtesy if he simply changed his mind about doing the work.

I have emailed another couple of sponsors to try and get them on board, I reckon one of them should be a go-er.

PM Electrical systems has substantially boosted the funding with a donation of £100 which has secured very prominent placement for him and his company on the car once the graphics get finalised.

We're still waiting on the main grovel graphics (the ones with "sponsor this car from £20", "Raising money for dreams come true" etc...) but there was a little set back a few days ago when I received an email from Ed at scumrun.  In the email, he has broken down where the event sponsors would like to be placed and what we need to leave empty for the general scumrun stuff.  It appears that the doors need to be left alone so thats a tiny inconvenience, but the biggy is that the top of the windscreen will have http://www.scumrun.com/ on it.  for those of you who have been following this blog, you'll note that at present there is a gorgeous Team Floppy Throttle emblazoned there.  Bugger.

Also in the email, we've been advised that the initial ferry route will be disclosed this week.  This could be any port in the UK and if we're leaving from the south coast, thats good for us.  Means that the convertible will be pointing at southern Europe on a 3,000 mile sun tour.  If we're going from Harwich or Newcastle however, then the car with no roof lining and a heater that occasionally sucks a mint and blows at you, will be pointing proper North to start the journey.  I mean snowy / Icy north.  Please let us be leaving from Dover or Portsmouth.  I will update as soon as we know. 

The problem with this rally is we dont know where we are going to end each day until the start of that day.  So we cant even work out routes in advance and the sat nav is a North American one, which has been reprogrammed to cover some of Europe and we got it from a guy in China but instructions are all in funny symbols and it speaks only Cantonese.  The sensible option would be to use a different one, but I think that using the TongTong will just add to the enjoyment.

Another mini issue we had is that Gruff has left the employment of Alan Knight Transport.  This unfortunately means we have probably lost a large sponsor.  On the up-side, it means there is more space for YOU to advertise on the car.

I've still not got my phone back from O2 having taken it in for repair, but they have courteously lent me one at a deposit cost of £25.  This deposit is presumably to go towards either the cost of replacement should I damage it or as a security measure to ensure I return it rather than keep it and leave them with my iPhone.  I'd like to take a moment right now for you to consider this.  Either the loan phone is worth a £25 excess towards the insurance claim of repairing said item, or, it's market value must be equal to or greater than a 3 month old iPhone + £25.  You're wondering why I'm going this much into detail aren't you?  Because I'm not a happy chappy.  I was expecting maybe another iPhone, maybe the Dell Streak, or I would have settled for an HTC as I'm still paying full whack for my contract.

What I actually have as a replacement for my phone was created in 2002.  Retro Chic I believe would be the politically correct term to described this piece of shite:

Gorgeous isn't it?

Anyway, what this means is all my notes etc for the rally, pics etc have gone.  never to return.  I have had to use a thing called a "Cam - eeee - rah" whatever one of them is.  very old school.  doesnt send texts or surf the net or anything apart from pictures.  Bizarre.

Obviously I have been a little slack on doing stuff but I have managed to get 2 of the alloys rubbed down, primed, glossed and lacuered so the drivers side is now looking pretty good:

That's a picture of the firrst alloy, dried and perfect and ready to be de-masked and re-inflated ready to go on the car.  It's perfect.  Unfortunately, the 2nd one didnt quite manage to stay perfect.  Got it prepped, glossed lacquered etc, but my impatience to leave it to dry in the house back fired.  I decided that I would put it in the boot of the other car ready to go to the garage to be inflated once dry (saving valuable seconds I know).  The problem is that as I lifted the boot up, the wheel fell from where it was balancing and landed shiny side down in the filth and gravel I had parked on.  Effectively chipping the bulk of the wheel and now it doesn't look quite as pretty.   Hoping I can fix it easily.

I dont think theres much else left to mention, but once we get a departure route, I'll update.

Laters.