Have not posted for a while as been poorly, a bit of my background, please feel free to skip this bit, lol,

Married in 1980, went back to Sea, (P&O) apprentice Marine Engineer since leaving school in 1977, had three Kids wife got fed up with me being away so came ashore in 1886, fell for Twins, not me personally but the wife, I took an advisory office job and hated it, so took a pay cut and joined a firm looking after heavy trucks and Coaches, money tight so took a part time evening job, wife left me with the kids in 1998, she said she was bored, later found she was sleeping with half the town, I went off the rails a tad so my eldest girl 16 stepped in to look after the kids, couple of years went by as if in a dream, struggled for money as the wife had wiped out the bank accounts before leaving, there is always two sides to a story, ive yet to hear a convincing one from the ex, met a wonderful lady in 2000, inherited her Devil Child, things were difficult as you can imagine, we were married in 2001, late 2001 I felt tired couldn't be bothered and generally knackered. turned out the ex wife had left me with a little gift, a virus that caused me to develop Auto immune hepatitis, which meant my immune system was eating my liver, not good, we shouldered on me at the hospital for test's more meds than the local pharmacy etc etc, then in 2011 I was told I would need a liver transplant, because of my age 50!!!! I was unlightly to get one, at this time my wife was offered a relocation with her employers to the South of France, we took it, basically we wanted to enjoy the last years of my life, well the French Health service got hold of me said if the UK Health service hadnt killed me, then the meds I was on would have, I spent 2 years being assessed, meds sorted out and put on the transplant list from day one, in March 2014 I received the gift of a new Liver, for which I will always be grateful. My new wife has stood by me along with my children all through the illness again I am eternally grateful, now to get on with life. Due to massive over prescription of Steroids I have Osteoporosis in my Hipps and Back, two operations later for Cementoplasty to the Back and I can walk and do moderate exersize, when Visiting the UK in March this year the old Citroen Picasso died (No point in having a good bodied car in France as everyone adds dents to it) With little time avaliable we bought a Chrysler Voyager 2.5TD (More about that elsewhere here) my son fixed it up so we hoped it would make the 1200km journey back to France which it did extremely well, now I have done a few jobs to it, and yes I like it LOL.

Jobs tackled by myself and my long suffering wife.

Change engine oil and filter although my son did it 2000mies previously, good flush LOL

Replace O/S window mechanism and motor

Replace O/S Door speaker

Lubricate N/S window track

Fix heater air blowers by forcing the plastic lever back into its track

Replace all wires in O/S Sliding Door runner (Door still wont open or shut electrically)

Look for O/S and N/S rear brake hoses on the net and find they were way expensive, solution buy two 15inch flexi hoses and make up Metal Brake pipes to fit.

Replace front engine mount only to find the metal bracket on engine severely cracked, remove MIG Refit.

Replace O/S drop link to stop knocking (Still have knock) Hey Ho

Change Gearbox lube, think it had a mixture of auto and ep, not good

Remove rear discs replace hand brake shoes.

Remove all brake pads clean off over enthusiastically applied copper slip file back plates so they move in sliders and refit, now we have brakes!!

Replace Air con compressor with second hand unit, get re gassed.

Take to French Control Technique Station (M O T) and receive a two year pass.

There are other problems to be tackled but so far I am enjoying it.

Clutch is juddering, and noisy when in neutral previous lady owner with all town driving for its 83k mileage, so complete clutch kit is on the list, I wont be doing that unfortunately, (unless I visit the UK and my son can lift it out) and the timing belt with water pump is due, that I will possibly give a go, as no heavy lifting just spannering

So far so good

 

No matter how bad things seem, somewhere in the future there is nearly always a corner to be turned, you just don't know when -- it could always be tomorrow. You just have to soldier on until you get to that corner.

Leedsman.