Englishman in Bandung

By Vodkaman

Give us a kiss then

When the rain stopped, I finally got a chance to go out looking for a blip. I headed to a field that I blipped a long time ago, as I wanted to have a look at the dragons for a project that I am doing. Unfortunately, there was some building work going on and the access was closed. The sky was heavy and threatening, so I headed back for home.

Half way up the hill, the bike started sputtering again, which it has been doing since the last repair a few days ago. It usually recovered itself, but not today, it totally died on me. I noticed that the plastic plug housing on the end of the spark plug cable was missing and the cable was held on with a nut. I never did this botch repair, so it had to be from the garage. It needed repairing anyway. Also the electric starter wasn’t kicking in, this had to be the battery terminals not tight enough.

Fortunately, the repair shop that I use was downhill and I only had to push the last ten meters.

I told the mechanic what I thought it was, but still he insisted on removing the plug. He tested the spark, it looked fine to me, but he said that it was not good enough. He was about to screw in a new one, but I asked him to show me the spark of a new plug. The old plug had a stronger spark and he agreed and put the new one back in the box. He fitted a new plastic cap to keep me happy, also tightened the battery terminals, which fixed the starter problem, I was at least right about that.

With a good spark and no firing, the answer was obviously fuel related. To my indignation, he lifted the petrol cap, to see if I had run out. To my severe embarrassment, the problem was found. We all had a good laugh at my expense and he took my money and went to buy some fuel for me. Another pack of cigarettes and $1.50 for the repairs and I was mobile again.

A took a few images of the mechanic, but he was not comfortable, so I let him go after half a dozen. One of them was to be my blip, but when I got home, a bunch of kids came around to see me. They have warmed to me a lot faster than the last place.

After editing, I had three useable mechanic shots and six kid shots, but I kept coming back to this one.

Dave

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