Tomorrow is Make or Break Time for Myrtle.

As many of you will know Myrtle is my beloved little 1965 VW Beetle. I have had her going on 3 years now and in that time only been out in her a handful of times. This has been due to a number of things. When I bought her I couldn't drive her due to my amputation, and Myrtle being an old school 4 speed manual gearbox. Plus upon buying Myrtle and getting her home she struggled to get over our large speed bumps, as she was on static suspension. Upon checking her suspension set up, well let's just say it was horrendous. Im then spent a fortune getting an Airlift Air Ride set up installed and for around 2 years, we were on constantly taking apart her suspension, measuring and then rebuilding back up. Myrtle just never drove right. It wasn't until the Airlift manifold stopped working that we discovered it had actually been broken from brand new.

 

Myrtle sitting pretty

Anyhoo long story short I got a new manifold and eventually got a semi auto clutch adaption fitted and I was able to take Myrtle out for a few drives. I love driving the wee car, I mean she is very underpowered, as she only has a 1200 cc engine, so I constantly felt like I was thrashing her, but the driving experience was great.

Semi Auto Clutch Motor Hides under the Back Seat

Recently Myrtle began having problems starting and ticking over. I stopped driving her, as every time I went to pull away her engine would bog down and stall. It takes a bit getting used to the semi auto clutch. 

I had the wee car for a service at LVH Engine and Resto's, the great guys who had fitted my Air Ride. When I went to pick her up, Paul the mechanic informed me that Myrtle had very low compression. Following Ern home as he drove Myrtle I could see every time he changed gear, puffs of blue smoke coming out of her exhausts, Not Good.

Oh and whilst Myrtle was sitting in our yard Ern came up with the bright idea of re-routing the brand new wiring harness and airlines inside of the heater channels so that they were hidden from inside of the car. This was okay as the heater channels are no longer used due to the Airbags being fitted and I couldn't run heater exchanges. So Ern began doing this job when I was at work. He had been on a couple of days re-routing the lines and wiring, then I came in from work one day to discover he had been hacking bits off Myrtle. He had gone and literally hacked off the end of the heater pipes where they come out from the inner sills. I can tell you I wasn't best pleased and we are still having heated arguments over it. I mean come on the car has survived 57 years, only for someone to come along with... well not sure what he used a chisel, electric saw or a grinder and starts butchering my wee car. It's a total mess. Ern's way of thinking "Don't worry no one will see it, it's under the back seat". If ever I wanted to put heat back into the car, it's now impossible, without major reconstruction.

  

Myrtle and her hacked heater channels

Poor Myrtle's been attacked

That is not the end of my woes with Myrtle. During the Summer I was on giving her a polish and the plastic vinyl body strips that someone had put over her roof guttering came away.The glue keeping them on had heated up under the sun and the sticky residue was melting all over. As the passenger side strip came off I discovered a huge split between the guttering and roof. Awwww man! It now has me totally stressed. I mean my plan was always to have Myrtle restored, but this looks like a major repair job.

Awww Man!!! 

Drivers side starting to crack Too!

With Myrtle standing out during winter other areas have started to appear, that need attention. She desperately needs a Resto job. I have so many new parts for her in the house. New Front Windscreen and deluxe seals, pop out rears. A new deck lid, rear wings and exhaust apron. New headlight surrounds, Chrome blade bumpers, under my bed, rear light surrounds and a new VW logo Badge whose price was extortionate. 

 

Rear wing rust

More rust coming through

Poor Myrtle

At the rear, deckled been catching this built up area.

I actually did a quick paint over on this bit, but its come back through

Tomorrow I am off to a place to see if they can sort Myrtle and at what price. Hence the title of my Blog "Make or Break Time for Myrtle".  

This little slot was where the custom quarter bumpers fitted.

Seat Belt mounts welded in

Doors Been Catching

You see it is not just bodywork and paint, after that I need to also save for a new engine and interior. So Mega Bucks. If it's good news tomorrow of Course I don't mind investing in the wee car. I always had my eye on a bigger engine, and I also had an idea for a custom interior.

So I guess I will know tomorrow, where I go from here.

 

A Little Play Out on The Fatty

I have been on holiday this week, pleased I took a bit time off, as after all the filming the other week I had a sore good knee. I must have banged it or something as it was all bruised and when I was walking up the stairs at work, it felt like something was going to pop.

Anyhoo my knee feeling better I asked Ern did he fancy a look down Beamish Woods, so I could show him the trails I had discovered, and possibly get a little riding footage.

My dad although still getting out and about like when he goes shopping and stuff, is not going out as much, due to us loosing our Baxter. My dad used to take him for daily walks and also from time to time to the "Bully" walks, where both Baxter and my dad made some lovely friends.

So when my dad agreed to come along I was chuffed to bits. I really enjoy spending quality time with my dad, he is so supportive of me. Today he was to be my cameraman and in charge of stopping and starting my new GoPro Hero 11, which I had been gifted by the film crew guys a few weeks earlier. Dragos M, Dragos T, Oren and Cosmin.

Rather than take my Specialized Turbo Levo E-bike I decided to take my Silverback Synergy Fat bike out for an outing. I checked in my wardrobe for some mountain bike attire got ready and slipped on my Bartlett Tendon, then sorted out my camera and bike bits and bobs, just in case I needed to tighten or adjust anything or got a puncture. Everything fitting in my Camelbak "fanny pack" bag.

I made sure I had around 50 psi in my Bartlett Tendon Rockshox Monarch RT3 and also checked my fat bikes shockers.

Looking up the Farmers Trail

I told Ern I would ride to Beamish and meet him down at the Forges and we could enter the woods from there. So I set off from home and took the Farmers Trail, which leads to No Place and then I could drop down into Beamish.

Whilst on the Farmers Trail I took a pic at the start with my phone and then decided to grab a little GoPro footage with my new camera. I am so pleased that a few days earlier I had purchased a protective cover, which came with lens protection as just look at the picture. I accidentally must have caught the cameras standout was placed on, or flicked up a stone as the laminated screen protector got cracked. I have checked and the screen underneath is okay, so well pleased with that little investment.

Pleased I bought this screen protector.

Continuing up the trail `I got a little footage of the changing weather the fields and the trail as it rises up the incline.

I dropped into No Place and decided to shoot a little scene of me riding down some steps. This took longer than I expected as I didn't have anything to place my camera on and hold it in position. The video I shot and then edited is not very long and it is a bit fragmented not telling a real story, I just wanted to see what the camera was like in the settings I had placed on it, and basically spend a bit time messing around, hanging with my dad.

I rang Ern to see where he was and he told me he was just going past the Shepard and Shepherdess, so I carried on down past Beamish Hills, around the round about and down the steep bank, down from the pub. Ern was just pulling up as I arrived and we headed up the tight trail in towards the woods. Ern walking and me riding as far as I could before the trail gets a bit tight. There are loads of nettles and Whinny Bushes, horrible bloody things. 

Saw two lads on motorbikes just the other week in here...Scumbags

Once in the woods my dad and I walked along the bottom trail and then we turned up and I pushed my bike up the steep hill whilst Ern followed. My dad does really well, considering he will be 83 in November of this year. A little hike along the top trail and I then pointed to where the trails began, where someone has purpose built bike drops, jumps and berms etc.

Silverback Synergy Fat Bike

Lots of the jumps and drops are way above what I would attempt. I can't afford to break a leg, or my neck for that matter. It's strange as you get older, you tend to become more cautious, where as when you are young you throw caution to the wind.

I can remember back in the day my friend Carl Walker and I organising a petition and presenting it to our local council. It was for a BMX track to be built. We never thought we would get anywhere, however someone must have thought it was a good idea, as within a few weeks diggers showed up and cleared a site. They then built this what we thought at the time was an amazing BMX track. It was actually on the site of roughly where Iceland is now. I bet some old fogies at the time would have thought "Those idiots will kill themselves on those big jumps", yet there we were attempting 360's off table tops and flying around berms, on bikes which had none of this new fangled technology, so no suspension, or carbon frames and well electric bikes hadn't even been thought about or invented.

A few Video Snapshots so a bit Blurry

Coming around a bend

Skidding a Bend

Ern and I had a little scout around and I selected a few lines with appropriate wee jumps and drops, made more for the senior citizen. We then set up the GoPro and had a few takes on each section. Man all the pushing up the hills I was bloody knackered. It felt like we had been down the woods hours. I only managed to get enough footage to make a 1 minute video, by the time it was cut and I edited it LoL.

Playing down the woods

Me

The Ern

On the Fatty

Never mind both Ern and I had a laugh, and it was lovely to spend some time with Pa Bear. Back to Stanley in the car and Ern popped to Cooplands for some sandwiches and coffees. I have been on trying to edit my videos using Filmora and getting to grips with the new Mac Studio I bought. It takes a bit of getting used to. 

My old PC just can't hack editing video footage, especially HD stuff. I think one, maybe even two of the Hamsters that power it have died.

Ooh Ern is going to sort my gears out tomorrow as my chain kept slipping over the largest ring.

Meet The Local Hero

About 6 or 7 months ago, I was contacted quite unexpectedly by a gentleman named Dragos Mostenescu. Dragos went on to explain that he was a producer, writer and actor in his native country of Romania, and that upon discovering my Blog, he and a friend of his, also named Dragos, Dragos Teglas, who is a film director, were very interested in my story.

In further conversation, Dragos mentioned that they already had an idea in place, for a short film, something along the lines of "Meet the Local Hero". Dragos provided me with links to his website and also for the other Dragos, so that I could see their past work and accomplishments, that they had each been involved in.

 

From left to right, Cosmin, Dragos M, The Ern, Oren, Me & Dragos T, plus Joy the dog and Kosher the kitten

Grandma been for a service.

Had Grandma for a service down at Pulman VW at Durham. £215.00 for a check over and to get her oil and oil filter changed. Really I was paying for the stamp in her service book.

VW Beetle GSR

Grandma has only done 400 miles or so since her last service and MOT.

Still love this car, she feels awesome to drive, yeah her un-resonated  exhaust can get annoying, however when I put my foot down and give her some gas, that deep burble is sooooo addictive.

VW Beetle GSR

I haven't bought any more mods for her, she has just been hibernating in her garage. I'm trying to save up to get Myrtle my 65 bug sorted. I need some serious money, so any donations welcome lol.

Just been to collect some pop out windows I ordered from Germany for Myrtle. They were at Parcel Force at Birtley, £101.50 import duty, man you get robbed left, right and centre these days. Nevermind the windows look spot on. I was a bit worried they might be naff quality, but on a quick inspection they look good.

VW Beetle GSR 

Just took a few pics before putting Grandma back to bed lol...

VW Beetle GSR 

Just out of interest I checked Parkers to see how much Grandma might be worth... £9000 to £11000, OMG! parkers is sniffing glue....

AI Art

Ooh just a little addendum...

So it appears Redbubble has decided to suspend my account. Apparently they don't have to give a reason, or even reply to any correspondence. No they just let artists spend hours and hours completing their "unique" designs, and then ban them.

 Reading further into the topic, this appears to happen a lot to people. I guess the folk at Redbubble just assume they are so big that one more person doesn't matter. Ah wel, keep moving forward and screw Redbubble... Lol

Whilst having a gander on YouTube, as there was nothing particularly interesting on TV the other evening I came across a video which was entitled, something like "7 ways to make a passive income digitally". Anyhoo  I watched the first part of the video, and I was pretty blown away when this guy got on about a thing called Midjourney. 

The guy went on to explain that in order to use Midjourney, you first have to download a thing called Discord. Discord is like a chat room type thing and once you have this installed you can then click on Midjourney. Obviously, you have to set up accounts for each thing.

So, Midjourney, is an Artificial Intelligence kind of affair. Don't ask me how it works, let's just say it's magic.

 

What do you do with it? It's really easy, just type in what sort of an image you are after, and the BOT after say 30 to 60 seconds will create an image. The more details you offer, the better the image.

 

Moto X in Space

Liar Liar Pants on Fire

 

Some of the quality is amazing, like a real photograph in some instances.

After I had used up my 25 free goes I decided to pay for a year's subscription, and I have been having great fun designing art which I pop on Redbubble.

 

Beautiful AI Woman

 

Redbubble allows you to put your designs on their site and then anyone who likes them can order various things, everything from clothing to house ware with your design placed on. You then get a commission after the cost of whatever the person has purchased, and Redbubble send off the stuff.

 

Concept Car

 

It's just a case of uploading your work, then not having to do anything, but hope someone finds your designs worthy of purchasing, so a passive income. Cool

New Takamine Guitar I just had to have

So I've gone and bought another guitar, it's a Takamine PTU441MTB New Yorker. These guitars I believe were a limited run here in the UK. I just missed out on the only other one I had seen for sale online at Guitar Guitar. I kind of spent too much time toing a froing, thinking to myself, "it's a lot of money for someone that can't play all that well just yet".

Takamine PTU441MTB

That said I am learning all the time and I can honestly say in the year I have been learning, there is not a day I haven't picked up one of my guitars and had a bit play around. So my way of thinking this guitar is money well spent, as with this particular guitar if I look after it, it will go up in value.

I purchased the Takamine  after seeing it advertised online at AStrings which is based down in Treforest, Pontypridd, Wales. After a few emails and telephone calls back and forth and speaking with Andrew the owner of the shop, who was very friendly and gave some great advice, I decided to treat myself.

Andrew informed me that the guitar would be all set up before sending it off via courier, also letting me know he would send it Monday, with a delivery of Tuesday as he didn't like any of his stuff potentially be held up and stuck somewhere over the weekend. Andrew also asked what size I was and very kindly sent me an AStrings Tee shirt in with the guitar.

As promised, the guitar landed on Tuesday, my dad told me he wasn't in and that it had been left outside the door, so not best pleased with that, not sure who the courier was, just pleased my package wasn't nicked. I'd have been gutted and think I would have struggled to get a replacement.

I had been to work, and when I got in saw the big box my dad had put at the bottom of our stairs. Carrying it through to the sitting room, I carefully opened the packaging and removed the hard shell guitar case. Even the guitar case looks like a canny bit of kit, with Takamine emblazoned on it.

Takamine Hard Case

Opening the gold latches on the case and lifting the lid I got my first peek at my new guitar, I have to say it looked very impressive, I love the tobacco sunburst look. Upon taking it out of its case and having a close inspection, that's when I noticed all the really cool craftsman ship and was very happy with my purchase, even mores so when I had a little play of the songs and some riffs I now know.
 

Love the colour and overall finish

Amazing detail

Pre-Amp

I even had a go at playing a few songs I have written myself I know they won't be chart toppers or to everyone's taste, but hey I have enjoyed trying to put words together to make lyrics and then to try and get some semblance of a melody or tune. A lot of the stuff I have written is rather melancholy, as it's based on some of my life experience, which let's face it hasn't always gone according to plan.

I'm not a proper musician/guitarist, so rather than try and write a review of how I think this guitar sounds I've popped a link to a few reviews, well if anyone is interested anyhoo.

Music Radar



Guitar World

The Best Christmas presents are the ones you buy for yourself!

This week will be my 48th guitar lesson, Wow! Almost a year in. It has been a tough yet enjoyable journey so far. I tend to pick up my guitar or should I say guitars as I have somewhat been caught by the bug and now own several, nothing Uber expensive, just instruments that I enjoy the aesthetics of and the feel of when I lay my hands on them. I dare say if, or should I say in more positive terms "When" I become more proficient and skilled I wouldn't mind paying a small fortune for a top end bit of kit. I think a guitar and the melodies it allows you to play can become very personal, like a best friend in a way.

Martin DJR-10E Dreadnought Junior.

 

Anyhoo before I get carried away and getting all deep, I thought I would share my latest buy, a Christmas Prezzie to myself if you like. I have been looking at buying a little more of an up market guitar. Don't get me wrong, I still love my Ibanez TCM 50 Talman, it has and continues to serve me well, hey maybe it was sheer boredom that got me looking at my next purchase, who knows.


As usual the internet has been a great source of information, thing is there is just Sooooo! Much choice. What has been very difficult is identifying things like how big and actual guitar is in the flesh, how it would feel in my hands? Plus there is nothing quite like actually listening with your own ears, live shall we say, compared to listening to a video on the likes of YouTube, where various mics and amps are used. Not only that most of the videos showing a guitar's playability are by people who can actually play a few licks very good, and not just a green horn like myself.


So after a few months of toying with the idea of a new guitar, checking out reviews and deciding just exactly what was going to fit my needs, I made a short list of top prospects.

Things I was looking for were a guitar that I could strum on and also do a spot of finger picking. The aesthetic appeal, I fancied something vintage looking, something with a bit of character and not overstated. I really like the look of the Sunburst guitars, or what are known as tobacco colour. Also, one of the most important things for me was that the guitar was not too big in its body. You see, I struggle with a bigger guitar when I am sitting trying to play. A bigger bodied guitar always slips off my prosthetic socket and I end up holding it more as if the guitar is resting on my lap, Lol.


My short list of guitars included 

Faith Venus Blood Moon.

Eastman AC308CE Ltd

Martin DJR-10E Dreadnought Junior.

Oh! And I love the look of the Takamine PTU441MTB New Yorker, however this was a parlour size guitar and more suited to a finger style, which I am nowhere near being able to achieve so would not to get the best out of the guitar.

With  somewhat of an idea of what I was after, my dad and I popped through to Newcastle yesterday and visited Guitar Guitar. At least being able to have a look around the various electro acoustic guitars, I thought it would help in my decision.

Once at Guitar Guitar a very help sales assistant, named Tommy, was only too happy in my selection. Tommy showed and demonstrated a range of guitars, the first being a Martin DJR-10E Dreadnought Junior, which was on my list. Tommy brought me a stool, so I  was able to have a seat and see how comfortable the guitar felt, and I was then able to have a short strum, opting for a tune I knew off by heart, and then I played a few chords just to get a feel for the guitar.

Next Tommy handed me a Taylor as I recall, I think it was a GS Mini. The guitar felt good in my hands and had a slightly brighter tone, however to the eye, for me just out of personal preference it didn't float my boat.

Tommy also gave me a look at a beautiful Alvarez Yairi. An amazing looking guitar with a slotted headstock. It was a parlour size, so a bit small for strumming, more of a finger picking instrument, plus at £1999 a little over budget at the moment. I mean some of these guitars, it would be like owning a supercar, yet not having a driving licence.

Back for another go on the Martin DJR-10E Dreadnought Junior. I really liked the tones the guitar produced. Although it's smaller than my Ibanez Talman it sounds like it has more depth in the bass. So I opted to go with the Martin.

Martin DJR-10E Dreadnought Junior.

Buying the guitar was simple too, I put a deposit down and got 3 months interest free on the remainder in store using Klarna. The guitar came with a small gig bag just to keep it safe and dust free.

Sapele Wood

Martin DJR-10E Dreadnought Junior.

 

I spent the whole of yesterday evening playing around with the wee Martin and have to say it is a joy to play and sounds great. I haven't tried plugging it in to an amp as yet, the guitar having a Fishman Sono tone with 2 controls that you get to through the sound hole. I love the understated nature of the guitar which looks slightly distressed and worn, with a mother-of-pearl inlay around the soundhole and mother-of-pearl fret inlays.

Now all I need to do is learn to play a lot better...