The reality tunnel [510]
Greetings from Scotland...
I’m Christian Payne and this weekly dispatch comes to you from the Scottish Borders where the family is on a flying visit to check out the local school.
I’m doing this on only four and a bit hours sleep. (Scroll to the bottom for evidence.)
Thanks for joining in.
#TheAction
If you read my post last week you’ll be up to speed in regards to the nightmare trip back from Wales in my new van. One of the audio files didn’t load at first but I re-recorded it so check back if you missed it.
All I wanted for my birthday was for my van to make it home. I’d been following the tracker with my phone for a few days and it had last been spotted in a Birmingham canal. I’ve a feeling the AirTag had been pinged by a passing boater, but actually finding it in a canal would not have surprised me at that point.
I then followed it as it passed my neck of the woods on its way to London and then back up again to the garage where i’d asked them to take it.
It nearly made it. Around lunchtime I got a text message saying that the driver had got lost, and then a little while afterwards this photo.
The truck sent to rescue my van from the storage place was now waiting for a tractor to rescue it from a field. 🙄
It would be two days later when i’d finally get my van back. The reason it stalled 30 something times before deciding it was un-drivable?
Diesel sludge. The image on the left shows a viscous buildup of mucky contaminants, that might be dirt, water, and perhaps even microbial growth. In my case it accumulated in the fuel tank, blocked the in-tank fuel pump and caused fuel starvation and repeated stalls.
I now have the van back in my possession and the image on the right is what I plan to do now the tank and filters have been cleaned.
Next week I will put some miles in and test the van properly before I head back to Wales. And yes I have renewed my breakdown cover. It’s worth its weight in gold.
In other news, those of you that heard the audio recording of the ridiculous car rental terms and conditions might not be surprised to hear that Enterprise got in touch with me. Here is a tiny clip from it…
Despite me being very tired having been messed about for hours… and a little belligerent as I did not understand how a puncture and then writing a car off would cost me 2 x £700… they apologised saying the late night sales person should not have said what she said and had inflated the excess to pressure me into paying for the waver.
In addition the guy on the phone offered me free car rental in Wrexham, a 50% off voucher for car rental anywhere, and some beer. I asked him to email the voucher as i’m not sure I’ll be in Wrexham any time soon.
I’ll be re-kitting the van out over the weekend. Right now it’s been mission accomplished here on the borders and I’m now compiling all the things I’ve bookmarked over the week as I had a feeling this post might be a little rushed. So shortly before I get piles from this harbour wall I hope to be hitting send on this post and driving back south to England,
#ThePictures
No cinema this week but I did start watching Yellowstone. A few episodes in and so far so good.
If you are peeved that Light Room is upping it’s subscription price then take a look at Photomator. Lots of people are making the switch.
#TheWords
I’ll save you my thoughts in regards to the shitshow over in the states at the moment. You have probably read enough this week and to be honest I’d struggle to know where to start. But if you are keen for more, here is a long read analysis of Musk et al.
How a journalist navigates this slop infested world.
#TheSound
For my birthday I got Mogwai’s new album ‘The Bad Fire’ on both LP and Cassette.
It’s their 11th album in their 30 year career and I love it. Dark melodic fat tunes and pulsating guitar. It’s been called John Carpenter-esque and I very much enjoyed it as my soundtrack during some late night driving. Here is a taste of it.
#TheConsumed
Tonight I’ll dip into one of these four bottles of St Bernardus I got gifted this week.
I’ve previously had the Abt 12 and the Tripel (logged to Untappd).
I do like a Trappist beer or in this case a Belgian Abbey beer, which is brewed by the Brouwerij St. Bernardus and is close enough to a Trappist for me. Technically a Trappist beer has to be made inside the walls of a monastery but this brewery has a historical connection with the Trappist monks of the St. Sixtus Abbey and have used some of their recipes.
There’s a great video here showing how the hops are harvested.
This is different. Not just in name.
It’s a non alcoholic live ferment so has all the benefits of improved gut health and a boosted immune system. I’ve been sent four bottles by a friend who is working with a brand new company. I’ve not been paid. They just wanted my opinion and I asked them if I can share it here.
The Treacle Leaf tasted like a cloudy cider and the Sacred Sprig just like a fizzy wine. I'll report back on the other two when I have tasted them.
I’m told you can pair them well with food just like wine and the company is planning to aim these at restaurants. This isn’t to be confused with your off-the-shelf kombucha as many of the mass produced kombuchas are pasteurised and have all the goodness processed out of them.
This though is a proper live ferment and so has all the health benefits of kimchi, live yoghurts and sauerkraut etc. I’m really enjoying trying these out and think they will have a great future. I’d link you to the company but they don’t have a website yet.
#TheThings
One screwdriver to rule them all?
I bought this from Amazon after seeing my friend Gavin using one. It’s a formidable tool. Compact, well made, hard wearing with fantastic reviews.
#TheThanks
As you might know, friends and supporters of this dispatch get a shout out and although he hasn’t asked for one, a friend of mine Andy Taylor is looking for work and I thought you might be able to help. As well as one of the kindest, generous people I know, professionally he’s a Windows virtualisation and cloud infrastructure analyst. If you know of anyone hiring in his field please let him know or perhaps pass on his LinkedIn profile. He’s a top guy and I can’t recommend him enough.
Also… if you value these words, ideas and curation, please consider an upgrade to become a supporting subscriber…
Or if you prefer a random hat tip you can do that via PayPal
or Monzo …Either way… Thank you for reading, sharing, liking and supporting a human doing manual work with their brain.
#TheWeb
The luxury of imaginary cricket.
Why the North of England is Poor.
I’ll be driving past loads of you on the Documentally community map as I head back south down the A1 later. If you have the app Zello add me on there as Documentally or G5DOC.
The list of Trump’s banned words.
Some of my other places include Letterboxd, Discogs, Flickr, Strava, Untappd, my audio RSS feed, Swarm, Vivino, LinkedIn, YouTube, Mastodon, a ham radio newsletter or search ‘Documentally’ on Wire, Bluesky or Zello.
How to read a 2000 year old burnt scroll.
There could be a new aluminium battery on the way.
This is a real gift… www.public.work is a search engine offering you thousands of copyright images and free to use publicly available work.
#TheEnd
Thanks for reading. And for ignoring all the human made errors. If you are hankering for more, supporting subscribers have the Discord. Email, message, write or radio me and I’ll send you the signup link.
Right now we’re going to head back to England. Next week I’ll be putting stickers on the van, going to see the Ukulele Orchestra and who knows what else.
If you are able, hone your reality tunnel, turn off the firehose and focus on what you can control.
“You are under no obligation to remain the same person you were a year ago, a month ago, or even a day ago. You are here to create yourself, continuously.” – Richard Feynman
Fear not.
See you out there.
Over…
