a fairground life(penny wise, pound foolish)

The brake chamber arrived just before 11am. It was a quick job to fit it and adjust the brakes up. Then we nipped up the other axles too. The lorry is booked in for MOT next week and the only real worry is the emissions test. The smoke level has to be 3 or under, the last two years have returned values of 2.9 and 2.85, not much leeway! Typically this showman's Foden is 23 years old, it has had 5 previous owners, it probably was designed to last only a third of this time, but as we only travel about 2500 miles a year the lorry will last me a while yet (as long as I can still get parts). Anyway my wife says she wants to keep it because she "likes the colour and its a good paint job". The lorry is so old that when I took it into to Cummins to have the injectors torqued (the first time it failed on emissions with 3.1) the young mechanic told me he had never seen this engine type before and as there were no old manuals in the office so he "Had to phone a friend" to get information! Hardly a statement to inspire confidence in his services. I did enquire about new injectors for the engine and was quoted £160 plus vat. Just as I was about to order them the sales man finished his sentence with "each". That's 6x£160+VAT=£1128, more than the vehicle is worth. Wait a minute! this vehicle has in the last 12 months had 8 new tyres, a piston and liner, a new clutch, wet tank, distribution valve, compressor pipe and blew off valve. Add all this up with the cummins invoice and its nearly another vehicle. It can only mean one thing- that's the dearest paint job in the business!

It was quiet tonight on the fairground, but I'm not going to complain any more, you get what you get, no more no less. After all it is the second week and people have more entertainment choice, more of the time , compared to twenty years ago.