Arrived back at the flat Friday night, my first visit since a brief stay last July when l rode the Bonneville home. My wife hasn't been for two years Happily no floods, all seems OK. Car is in a bit of a two and eight, dead battery, flat tyre and that broken window which l knew about. Neighbour is taking me to Norauto, sort of a Spanish Halfords, in the morning. Wish me luck, l'm hoping to drive that car back to UK!
You may have gathered by now l'm at a bit of a loose end. Just noticed my new black passport has an unfortunate bit of wording in the logo....
Good to see you eventually made the trip Alan. Good luck fixing the car, let us know how your trip home goes.
My sense of humour l think Bob. The shield and arms of the UK is laid over the top of the motto "honi soit qui mal y pense" thing is it just spells the word quim directly underneath the crown. If you don't know the word, Google it can't believe l've never noticed it in all the years l've had a passport!
Anyway, got enough into the battery to work the tyre pump, so no more flat. And just cranked the motor enough to reassure me it's not seized. New battery, injector cleaner and tankful of juice tomorrow, fingers crossed!
Oh yes, I'm familiar with the word, it's one that I've not heard spoken for years! To have it emblazoned on the front of our passports is pure "carry on" stuff, you just can't make this stuff up, I was chuckling all last night! Good spot there Alan, keep up the good work! Going through passport control will never be quite the same again!
Right, it gets better. My trusty Optimate recovered the battery sufficiently to get it charged and the car fired up instantly. Settled into a nice idle, good old clunk from the brakes as l drove off, but l'm happy enough.
Honi soit qui mal y pense" is ancient French language, with a mistake. Correct spelling should be "honni" with 2 n (means "be ashamed"). An heritage of the Normandie knights that came over the channel. But, despite that, let's perpetuate the habit being best enemies forever.
Shurrup froggy!!! Quim was used in one of the Avengers films (directed by Kenneth Branagh) as Loki calls Black Widow a mewling quim… I laughed aloud when I heard it. good luck with the car repatriation. What do you do about a current MOT?
MOT until Jan 22. Insured and taxed yesterday, prob book Oct 28 ferry back, will have the cheaper testing in place too. 23 degrees and sunny today .
OK, car seems nicely settled. Bit of a scare with ferries- one day l had a choice of half a dozen crossings, suddenly they just booked up. Thought l might be driving up through France, but got the last stage out of Dodge City. Well, Bilbao actually on Friday. Had a few hours on the beach, sea still warm, now making a mess of a beer and some patatas bravas PS to add a bit of context, the reason for the slight panic was that ferries direct from Spain to UK stop sailing at the end of October until following Spring.
