Sunday, November 22, 2020

The humming noise.


Our day starts uneventfully. We go for a trip to the waterfall in the month old dog car. Sophie fishes, ineptly. When we try to return to The Rickety Old Farmhouse we discover the car is making a strange high pitched humming noise. Coming back up the hill the  engine starts powering up and powering down which makes for a 'jerky' ride. As we turn into the village the noise and the surge are joined by an alarming metallic clickety-clack. Things get worse. A smell of burning greets us as we arrive back at the house. Angus opens the bonnet . Why he does this is a mystery. The days of tinkering with an engine went many years ago with the advent of electronics. An e-mail is sent to the Volvo garage asking them to come and pick the vehicle up. Having a temperamental car seen to in lockdown is challenging. Angus is now steeling himself for the forthcoming battle with the garage who will reply and claim we are too far in the countryside for them to send a truck to collect it.

9 comments:

Lisa in France said...

I thought that sort of thing is not supposed to happen with Volvos? You never know with cars, though. We have a Jaguar, which had such a terrible reputation, and it's never given us a moment's concern. We've been looking at places we might want to live when we return to the US and Colorado has been on and off the list - I had just read the other day another transplantee's opinion that the food was not so hot, and your burger story would seem to support this. In-N-Out Burger was highly regarded when we lived in Los Angeles, but waiting in line for hours for a burger seems a bit above and beyond. Back to studying Providence, Rhode Island, which featured fried calamari in its appearance at the Democratic National Convention. As a vegetarian, I don't want to even contemplate the possibility the plants are hiding from us. (The calamari would be for the rest of the family.)

Virginia said...

Oh no! That sounds time consuming and vastly inconvenient. We've recently made the mistake of buying a 'nearly new' Nissan Leaf ... imported from Japan. Not only am I having to learn to understand an EV, but the complexities of one that's had its operating systems "translated". I'm hoping it's not going to prove to be a big mistake. I hope your problem is quickly rectified.

WFT Nobby said...

Angus, I am bark-less with annoyance. Well almost. What kind of a useless artist is featured in your link today? How can any person conceive of a series of paintings of dogs and foxes and not include at least one that features a wire-haired fox terrier? Ridiculous!
Oh and Gail says she hopes you get the Volvo fixed quickly, and tells me to calm down and listen to the lovely cello and piano version of Hallelujah...
Toodle pip!
Bertie.

Susan said...

Thanks for the wallaby article. The last I heard the British populations had died out. Interesting to see new ones emerging. These are a Tasmanian species, so British weather is not a problem, btw. There is a small but thriving population of them in the Foret de Rambouillet too.

Susan said...

Thanks also for the fritillary camo article. Very interesting indeed.

Poppy Q said...

What a pain.

Coppa's girl said...

Oh, no - Volvo has always had a such a good reputation for reliability. These days with all cars manufactured automatically, they can't even blame yours for being a "Friday afternoon" job!

Fay said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Fay said...

To echo Gail and Bertie, the Hallelujah version is truly lovely; the humming noise in the Volvo, not so much.