A lovely afternoon out, over at Wylam.

Friday evening and my usual venture up to my good friends Ade and Amanda's. It has become a part of my weekly schedule to go up on a Friday evening and there we have a catch up talking about the weeks events and Amanda makes me several cups of tea and plies me with various cakes, biscuits, bags of crisps and even on occasion ice cream lollies.

Anyhoo on Friday I mentioned to Ade I would really like to try and get some decent photo's of Hagg Bank Bridge as Rachael had mentioned she liked the bridge as it used to be on her daily commute on her way into work each day when she was on the train. So I arranged with Ade that we would have a drive over that way the following day.

After having a bit of a nightmare getting my new car, "Tango" taxed because of this cherished plate transfer. I was over the moon to have been able to sort it all out on Friday morning. So my little Smart car was all road legal and I was looking forward to a blast out in her. The little Smart is so much fun to drive and quite pokey around town, in fact it surprises quite a few drivers just how quick it is. Quite a few people have a habit of pulling out on me as they think "Oh it's only a Smart Car".
 

Tango

Saturday was a beautiful day and the ride up to Newburn and Wylam was  very enjoyable, both Ade and I having a good laugh and listening to my various tunes as we went along. I had managed to pop lots of my favourite songs on my phone and as soon as I turn my cars ignition on it hooks up to the Bluetooth and begins playing them. I have never had a set-up as modern as this so it's quite a novelty.  


A little link to some history of the Bridge

Hagg Bank Bridge

A little further along the trail

Hagg Bank Bridge

Hagg Bank

Black n White

Once at Wylam Ade and I looked for somewhere to park and then headed off in what we thought was the right direction. It wasn't long before we came to Hagg Bank Bridge and started taking shots from on top of the bridge. I mentioned to Ade that I actually wanted to get a shot from over the other side of the river, where the railway lines are, but thought it was inaccessible. It was just then Ade spotted a car and it was right up high above the railway lines. So we planned on our return to my car to have a ride over in that direction and see if we could discover the road we had seen the car on.

Ade and I walked back over the bridge and took a trail to the left and went under the bridge, having to walk down a set of steps then down a tricky bit of bank side. More pics nabbed under at the side of the bridge and then we went completely under it and walked along this trail to get a different view and more photo's.

 

ade.the.tog One of Ade's shots from under and at the side of the bridge

 

Someone was splashing stone in the water

I had to lean out into the water to get this shot

Another of Ade's shots

Following this we headed back to my car and went in search of the road where we had seen the car. It was a rather thin road, with signs saying narrow lane, single file traffic. I managed to find a place to park Tango and we got out and crossed the road heading in the direction of the bridge and the bank side. In order to see the bridge we had to clamber over a wooden fence. I was ok as I'm quite tall so even though I sometimes struggle with my prosthetic leg as it never behaves itself when climbing stuff I managed to get over without incident. Ade on the other hand discovered he was errr slightly stuck  as he is a bit of a short arse and couldn't get his other foot on the ground. It was hilarious for me as Ade sat with this bit of fence stuck between his legs saying "Glenn it's not funny am stuck". Eventually Ade discovered there was a rail just below him hidden in the long grass and was able to cock his leg over and stand safely in the field. We then walked down the bank side and got a much better view of the bridge form up on high.

 

Am sure that bridge wasn't wonky like Ade lol

Ade and me

Me with Hag Bank Bridge in the background

It's really lovely to be able to get Ade in a photo with me, proper good memory saved

My awesome bud Ade

Driving Tango up the back lanes was such fun

Ooh! food time, a walk back to the car and we just headed to MacDonald's just out of Ryton. From here we went along and got on the A1 and along to Amanda's mam and dads at Denton. Amanda was there visiting her mam and dad and Ade wanted to call in to Amanda. I wanted to go along to see Muriel and Jack as I wanted to thank Muriel for helping raise some much appreciated sponsorship for myself and Arctic ONE through the Slimming World group she attends.

Time for home Ade and I headed from Denton back onto the A1 and just before we got on the flyover opposite B&Q doing the speed limit "ahem" there was an almighty bang and what sounded like loads of debris flying out from under the drivers side rear wheel. Not long after this my temp gauge lit up so as we came off the slip road I pulled in to a lay by. Ade and I had a quick look under my car and couldn't see anything apart from a little sensor dangling on a piece of wire. It wasn't until I went to restart my car and there was nothing but a click I knew it was poorly. I opened the rear hatch and lifted the engine cover off, but still couldn't see much. It wasn't until I attempted to turn the car over again that Ade spotted a pulley spinning around and fragments of what appeared to used to have been a belt. I'm learning a lot about these model of cars. It has a badge on the back saying MHD, this stands for Micro Hyper Drive. The car has an eco mode for when you are in traffic and the engine cuts out then is restarted by an electric motor. Well with the belt being snapped there was no input from the starter or alternator hence it wouldn't start.
 
I gave my dad Ern a ring and also the AA. Long story short my car required a tow home.

Ern is a retired mechanic so he had a look at Tango and said it should be an easy fix, just need a couple of new belts and to replace the sensor. I had a look on line and read that this failure is a common problem on these MHD model cars and informed my dad.
 
So this morning (Monday) I still couldn't drive into work in my own little car so Ern dropped me off as he was going to sort the parts I needed to repair my little vehicle. Ern was waiting for me at just after 12 noon when I came out of work and informed me when he visited the Smart dealership there was actually a recall on a number of bits upon my car...Bonus... So Ern arranged to get my car towed through to the Smart dealership, which cost me £50.00, but it's well worth it as Tango will be repaired under the recall procedure and also get a warranty on the parts. Ern discussed the car to the Mercedes Tech guy and he said I should have gone for the turbo model. I got this car at a good price and will run it a while, but think if a Night Orange Turbo comes up I will see about trading this one. The Night Orange are hard to find as there was only 235 of them made in a limited run. So hopefully have my little car back Thursday or Friday. Looking forward to it coming back as I Ern has just installed a neat head unit I bought and I haven't had a chance to play with it yet. It's an Android system complete with sat nav and dvd etc. 

Ooh first day back at work today, it's gone well and I really enjoyed it. Surprising how tired I feel just after 4 hours lol.

Cheers to Ade for all his photo's