The Clock

My '99 Yaris failed the NCT (emissions and shocks). Not surprising as it has nearly 100,000 on the clock: elderly, as opposed to my own late-middle-and-holding ticker. I bought it to a local mechanic in Blackrock. He suggested that before I get anything else fixed I should put some cleaner in the tank, give it a good run and he'd do another emissions test. I took it out to Gorey and back in 4th, to heat the engine, and drove back to his yard (with the vintage pump). Emissions were still high, and it now looks like I'll need a new air-flow meter, at the very least. I'm getting a full diagnostic test next week. Fixing everything will cost around €370 (if it isn't the catalytic converter!). Probably worth getting it fixed as another decent s/h car would cost at least 2 grand, and the Yaris is normally reliable. Ah, age!

Regarding endings and beginnings, I found an odd little photo today, taken in a German village, Soest, which I've never been to (outside of my mother's womb). I was conceived on an army base for Canadian forces, in 1956. There were a number of bases in the area (Soest, Werl, Fort St. Louis...) and my mother worked at more than one of these, where she met my father, a Private, attached to the RCAMC. It was a brief liaison, as far as I could gather. When she learned she was pregnant she left her job without telling my father, and I was born in The London Maternity in 1957. I have one photo of the two of them together, which I posted on my blog awhile ago to try and learn more (and I did get a few helpful responses). I know the name of the village in the photo because my mother wrote it on the back (she usually noted people and places on the backs of snaps). Perhaps one day I'll travel there, if the clock allows.