Much better power washer and shorty pressure washer gun - Ooh it's pretty too.

 

Finally got Lola washed

Lola (Loud.Obnoxious.Little.Abarth)

Well, I'm still off work, not feeling great as I am gradually reducing the steroids each week. 

Hopefully, once I start this new treatment, which is next week, in a few months, it will kick in, and I can get back to some normality.

Anyhoo, I have been keeping myself busy with little jobs here and there, and of course, doing stuff I enjoy: reading, writing, and messing with my guitar.

It must have been a good few weeks ago when I went to wash my car, my wee Abarth 124 Spider, 'Lola.' I got all the gear out: a bucket, a wash mitt, and the snow foam bottles. I have four of them—one for the pre-wash, another for the snow foam, one for the ceramic coating, and the final one for the alloy wheel cleaner.

I unwound the long hose attached to a reel on the side of our house and brought out the small Karcher, which my dad had very kindly bought me about 5 or 6 months ago. Plugged the Karcher in, turned on the water and..."Yer've got to be joking," the Karcher was dead, nada— nowt.

Little shitty yellow box

So I went indoors whining, like I do when things aren't going to plan, swearing my head off about the Karcher and a woe is me, "All a want ta dee is wesh me car." Anyway, Ern comes out, checks out the little yellow shitty box of trouble, and he can't get it to work either.

Long story short, Amazon, who always seem to be good at accepting stuff back, just told my dad to pack up the Karcher, not to worry about its original box, and send it back. So Ern did as instructed, and within a couple of days, he was reimbursed—nice one.

Anyway, moving on, as you all know, the weather has been a bit naff lately, with rain and really strong winds, so my car has been sitting in the backyard, all covered in muck and leaves.

I got on to my dad saying, "Look, I've been online and read a few reviews about this jet wash, it sounds canny, but I think the bigger one is even better, as it has a wind-up reel on the machine and it stands up."

Ern and I had a look online and saw that we could get one at Toolstation. It was a Hawksmoor 160bar model. 

Ern headed off to see if he could check out one or, if not, get one in stock. I agreed to put the extra £80 or so towards the machine, alongside the £50 he had got back from Amazon.

Oh, and I had also seen an ad on Facebook for a stumpy power wash gun. Top tip: I wouldn't buy from sellers on Facebook. If you see something you like, you can generally get it cheaper on Amazon. So I was off searching on Amazon and came across this funky-looking gun with various ends and fittings.

When Ern returned, he had a look, thought it looked canny, so bought it to fit on the new power washer when it arrived.

Adaptor from Amazon

Gun to pipe adaptor

Canny bit of kit this funky stubby pressure gun

The Hawksmoor High Pressure Washer 160bar, by the way, is a 100% improvement over the Karcher K 2 Horizontal, which I grew to despise.  I just used it this morning to wash my car, and it makes the job much easier to get the thing out, use it, and then put it away.

Hawksmoor Pressure Washer 160bar

My dad had fitted a longer hose on the Karcher, which was so stiff it was a nightmare to loop back up for storage. The hose pipe fitting to the machine always leaked, and even though I took great care of it—emptying it after use, putting it away carefully, etc.—the bloody thing broke way before its time.

The hawksmoor: Yeah, like everything else is made from plastic; however, it does appear durable, it's easy to move on its wheels, the hose is a lot more supple, so easy to move when you are going around a car, plus a lot quicker and easier to wind up and put away on the in-built reel. 

The hose is flexible, and the reel makes it easier to put away

The pressure is about right for what I wanted, and it's working well with my cars. I can't say what the original lance/gun is like because my dad fitted the new stubby gun, which is much better to use. It makes it easier to get under wheel arches, and I didn't have to fight with a long lance or worry about the hose scraping across the paintwork as I was washing.

Cool looking and works great

Stubby Gun

Stubby gun you can change the nozzles easily

I know not much of an in-depth review of each item, but hey, if you are interested in any of this gear, you can do what I did and find loads of info online.

  

Wor Nev supervising

Here is a link to the Stubby gun, which we got from Amazon. It comes with various ends that click in place to adjust the water stream for different jobs. Just click on images...

You can pop different nozzles in, really quickly and easily

Oh, and I had to buy another electric snow foam bottle. When I went to get one of mine, I hunted high and low in our shed and thought I was going mad since I couldn't find it. 

If you are going to get yourself an electric snow foam bottle, shop around as they are all at different prices; sometimes you can hit on a bargain. I think I only paid £8 for this one, but looking, they have gone up in price.

I have a couple of these; they work really well

Ern revealed, "Oh, I borrowed it for one of my friends' dogs." If Wor Nev were that clever and would wash my car for me, I would even give him a bit of pocket money.

I am very excited to announce... Well you will have to read further to see!

Lost2bFound - My self published book

Duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh duh!   That sound doesn't come across quite as well when typed as it did in my head Lol Maybe I should just stick with a "Ta Da".

Anyhoo I am very excited to announce the long-awaited release of the book I have been working on. It is called "Lost2bFound" and came about from an idea I had long ago when certain people said to me "Glenn you should write a book".

Now when they said that I am not sure if it was a polite way of just saying "Glenn you do waffle on a lot" and therefore mocking me, or did these people genuinely think I had an interesting tale or two to tell.

I would like to think the latter, so after visiting BBC Radio Tees for an interview in September of 2024 and mentioning my idea, with the host Gary Phillipson and Gary saying "You should do it", well I decided to start putting pen to paper, well really fingers to keyboard.

BBC Tees Gary Phillipson & me

 

 Now I am not a real writer or storyteller, the extent of my experience has been in doing my blog for the last 13 years. I have had various spells where I would attempt to write poetry, and quite recently write songs, which are quite secretive and I only practice to myself, needless to say not in the bath or shower as I would get my guitar all wet or worse still electrocute myself. To be fair I can't for the life of me multitask then go on to strum and attempt to sing at the same time.

Lost2bFound

So where to start? I found it difficult to try and tell my story, so that the reader could keep track. You see so much had gone on from way back, yet it had affected me moving forward right up to the present day. Another thing that was important to me was to be completely honest, so certain thoughts and getting them down were difficult and brought up quite a few home truths, where I had to stop and take a break to ask myself questions about my feelings. I had to also go back in time and try to recall certain events, some of which were very painful, and some which were possibly painful and embarrassing at the time, however, now I can see the funny side.

I am hoping my book will be received well and those people who do read it can take something from it. I am looking forward to the feedback I receive, both positive and believe it or not negative, as I think this is how we learn and can improve ourselves.

 

My book is available for pre-order from all good book stores or you can find it by doing a search for "Lost2bFound" on Amazon or follow this link.

Amazon - Lost2bFound 

Oh and the book will be available in ebook and hardback formats upon its release.
 

Thanks for your support

Glenn