The Flying Stitchman: Wheel nut again, don't know where...

Wednesday, 26 October 2011

Wheel nut again, don't know where...

Good morning Caerdydd!

Well might as well try at least one word of Welsh...

semi-rama from my room at 07:30

Columns still a'glowing

Downstairs for a full Welsh breakfast

Bacon thick; mushrooms nicely done;

even tried a bite of black pudding

Outside at 08:10 for a better view of the 'hub'

(Millennium Centre)

strolling on the 'dock of the bay'

statues cool in silhouette

but obviously more detail when lit

I found Morrissons to buy lunch and the training location without much fuss, mostly due to visualising from googlemaps the night before. I did manage to enter the back car-park rather than the front, and hence entered (tail-gaited) the rear entrance to the building. I soon realised this and got round to the proper entrance.

Everything was set up quickly in the room and it all worked. Today's delegates did a fabulous job of a) avoiding most of our little traps in the simulation, and b) managing to communicate well even though everyone seemed to be talking at once. They did really well against the key targets and mostly enjoyed it, as did I. I feared a 'scrum' on a few occasions trying to prevent me from triggering the game's incidents, but all was well.

Following the session I returned to the hotel (after a minor detour) and realised my front right tyre was flat just as I turned into the hotel's road - so that could have been a lot worse.

It was worse - I couldn't remove the wheel as one of the wheel nuts wasn't a simple nut. To be honest I thought this was a problem and called Green Flag for assistance (thank you NatWest Advantage Gold account) and the guy said it was probably a lockable nut. No idea why that hadn't occurred to me before, especially as the Vectra has those too - except I've never changed a wheel myself that had them, so didn't recognise it. Of course I couldn't find the special attachment at first, but a few minutes later (while waiting for the rescue team) checked again and found it down the back of the driver's seat. Hurrah! I then removed the wheel, and put on the spare. The spare is not a permanent spare, and anyway I need two new front tyres shortly anyway due to wear, so I'll sort those pronto (probably at CostCo).

That done, (and Green Flag had been cancelled but thanked for their telephone assistance) I set off to get some nice pictures...