The Princess, the Pea and the Prince of Darkness

Or - Trucks at dawn, Sitting on parts and Alpine night moves.

A large lorry delivered had the cladding by 8:30 and we loaded it on the engineering trolley to move it all at once.

Then the big shredding lorry turned up a bit later - not sure what the neighbours think.

As the jobs had been done early I went to look for the missing Ferrari part. 70 miles later and nothing in the lay-by.

Nothing at Grimaldi's either although he showed me the burnt out distributor port. He also said their might be enough spare material under the seat to use to make a replacement. Anyway feeling a bit dejected I came home.

After lunch I went back to the jobs and 'wet dusted' the Alpine - although most of the dust from yesterday seemed to have blown away. Then having heated the Talbot up for half an hour I turned it over for the oil pressure to come up and it almost started there and then - second time after a press on the accelerator pedal it roared into life. I put the front battery back on charge.

As it warmed I had yet another look in the Ferrari and reaching under the seat to check for spare leather to make a new one with ... and there it was. Was I really sitting on it all the time ? As Roberto had said it was quite crude.

So in celebration I took the Ferrari around the block - sounding great and driving even better. The only issue today was the traffic already backing up on the Manningtree Road at 4:15. On the way back re-tracing my steps we hit 72k miles.

What next - the Alpine out this evening in the sun ? Indeed - so we went off to the Food Hall for the evening - looking splendid in the dying light. 

On the way the dials went off again - like the other day when I got back from Friston. All power went. On the way home they were back on but I noticed when I turned on the indicators it killed them again - then they might come back a few seconds later. Then off again if I use the indicators !

So here we are in the dark. I'll have to investigate ... Again.