I really need to change the title of my blog.... Precious, Peculiar, Purposeful?... who am I kidding??? I have no sense of purpose whatsoever. I guess God has one for me. Just don't ask me what it is!
I am also dreading the school holidays. I am looking after Catherine and her cousin for 4 weeks probably. I'm totally freaking out! But I remembered the other day that God only gives us grace for one day at a time... not 4 weeks in advance, so I'll just take it as it comes.

Here's what I got up to today.

This is the table Mum bought when she moved in and got married. She wanted a nice big dressmaking table and this is what she bought.

In the last couple of years the legs have become wobbly. I did a rough job about 3 times, quickly unscrewing the legs and using whatever screws I had to move, and put them back in.

The legs became seriously wobbly again, and everything almost tipped off the table, so I decided it was time to finally do a proper job. A few screws and some scrap wood, and hopefully I've saved a sentimental piece of furniture.

Well, almost saved. The glue takes 3 days to harden. I will be putting the legs back on on Friday.

And here's my Datsun as you know it....

Soon to be wearing these lovely new bumpers I just bought today! I think I'll be waiting a while before I spend any more money on her... my savings are seriously deminished now, what with this car and my teeth!

Death isn't funny. Unless you're Irish. Then it kinda is. My last post was sposed to be kinda funny... in it's own lame way.

Oh well, onwards and upwards. Here's how my Datsun's going...

And then I look down...

Sometimes I have conversations in my head about God. And the thing about that is, I know He's listening to everything I say... AS I think them. Sometimes they are bad things too. Sometimes I think what's the point? Things are never going to be good because God want's us to grow spiritually so He's gonna be bringing bad things into our lives for the rest of our lives! so there's no point planning or dreaming for better days because things will always be bad... till we die... so I want to DIE.

 Then I realise I may not have things in quite the right perspective, because I look down at my plate and I realise I'm eating a toasted cheese and ham sandwhich with feta and spinach dip made from Baker's Delight bread. And I look up a bit and there's fresh flowers on the table and a cake tin with intricately painted scene that someone hand painted. Not to mention if I shut off my mind to my own thoughts I can hear birds outside and it would actually be quite a pleasant day if I just decided to enjoy it!

And then I say sorry, and ask God to help me get a better perspective on life.

And hey! my Datsun. She's all legal now. Got the Warrant and Regestration yesterday and 3rd party insurance. I am spending the rest of the day cleaning her up so I can get her evaluated for full insurance. It's a good day really...

What a day!

 Well, I went to get my Datsun's Warrant of Fitness the other day... it failed on a MULTITUDE of things, and I was travelling by train to the mechanics to get there and back.... well, I had to pick it up today. I was supposed to be babysitting Catherine and her cousin today, so I caught a taxi  instead so I wouldn't be leaving them with Nana too long...

NEK MINUTE

I go to pick it up... my mechanic tells me I need a new battery, so he gives me a jump, I decide to leave straight away (instead of warming it up first), drive down the road and STALL... at the LIGHTS! so there I am stranded. "Need a push?" ... a couple of guys come out of there house, and two other guys jump out of their van and push me through the lights to the opposite road. There I am parked thinking, lucky I joined the AA for such an occassion... try my phone and it's not working anymore for some reason.

Well, my mechanic had told me to go to pick a part and get a second hand battery... so I decide to walk there even though its raining... so 25 minutes later I get there, and they tell me that they have no new ones at the moment! At that piont I'm thinking I should have called my mechanic... I've known him for years and I think I can trust him (still getting over my trust issues )...and also thinking, why is it I have no one else in my life I can call on at times like this??? Something I think I need to work on.

So I walk to the train station...20 minutes away and train home. "Are you girls alright?" "YEEESSSS" Ok good. Set up lunch and feed the girls. 

Set out in my van to go to the Datsun, thinking 'I didn't realise how comforting my van is'. Pick up the battery, take it to Auto One who tests my battery and sells me a new one. Go home and girls want to come along, so I get there, put in the new battery, start it straight away to move it closer to the footpath and flood the engine. NOTE TO SELF: Warm up the engine 10 minutes before doing ANYTHING.

Go back to my mechanic (He did emphasise to me "tell me what's going on!!", so maybe I should?)...go to him "what do I DO? should I call the AA?" "Nope... I'll be there in 15 minutes".. go there...wait... starts the engine and it starts straight away.... "how much for that?"... "don't worry about it" he says. My mechanic ROCKS.

Drive home and drop off the girls. Train back to Middlemore... 20 minute walk to my car, not raining this time.. 

NOW.... start the engine GINGERLY. 

WARM UP THE CAR A FULL 10 MINUTES.

GET A FULL TANK OF PETROL.

Go to the testing station to see if I can get my Warrant.

It fails.

I need a clamp for my battery, and my brakes still need realigning. 

Go to SuperCheap Auto. Get clamp.

One more visit to my mechanic and I should be all legal.

Maybe after our trip to my Uncle's bach next week. :)

The Datsun's back!

The Datsun's back from the paint shop! yipee! I had to go in there almost every day for the last 3 weeks damn them. But it's back now, so I don't have to worry about them any more. Tomorrow I'll be looking to get it's warrant and start looking for a place to get the bumpers done. I'll be getting a written quote this time, with a time frame written on it! Watch this space!

Flip, the learning curve continues. My uncle got me to type out a contract and get the panelbeater to sign it. (Refer to last post, he's had my Datsun for a year now....). Anyhow, he did. It says to have the car ready by Friday. But he's so manipulative, he crossed it out and wrote "approx 18th". (which is Monday.... approximately). Well, my uncle's coaching me. He's told me to go visit every day untill then and keep asking questions... "what's been done? How come that cars been done and not mine?" "What are you doing on it today?" "I thought you told me yesterday that such and such w ould be done". In short, get them to the point where they think "what a horrible woman! lets just get this car out of here!" and then I've won, apparently. I guess that was my problem. I'm looking for friends in all the wrong places. I didn't want them to think I'm horrible! But I can't tell you the number of times I've been taken advantage of because I don't want to be horrible. But since I saw how he reacted when I pulled out the form, I can see he's not as docile as he seems... he seems to know the ins and outs. He kind of cajoles you into accepting his terms and makes you feel stink if you stick up for yourself.... well, not if your a massive Polynesian man. There cars are done straight away... only if your a lone woman turning up by yourself.

Slowly but surely (hopefully).

Well, my Uncle's been helping me out.... again. "You're good at this Janet" he says.(As in, good at getting myself into trouble) "You need to go and study small contract law at a nightclass somewhere". What did I get myself into? Well, I've had this Datsun of mine in the panelbeaters for a year now.

I thought I would have it back in a week.

Every few weeks I've been going in. 'It'll be ready in 2-3 weeks" they tell me. I leave it a while. Nothing done to it and they tell me the same thing again. And I can't take it out because I've already paid $2200 for it.

Now, it's been winter, so I actually haven't minded having it in a nice dry workshop. But a few weeks ago I decided I wanted it for the summer. So off I went to Citizens Advice Bureau... a service we have to get free advice on things like this. She told me to tell him to have it ready in 2 weeks or I'll be off to the small claims court. Well, I told her I had an uncle who could ring him up, and she said, yes, try that first.

So my Uncle rings him up and he tells him it'll be ready in a week.

Well, it wasn't. He told me some line that it would be painted on Friday and it would take the weekend to harden. Well, the photos show how much was done this morning. Only partly painted, and my uncle said hes treating me like an imbecile because I told him I'm painting my van at the moment so I know the paint is touch dry in 5 minutes, and ready to sand in 80mins. My uncle says I need to speak up about stuff like that and let him know I'm not an idiot.

Anyhow. My uncles advice is to visit him every day and apply a bit of pressure. So even though its a bit embarrassing , that's what I'll be doing. And I'm going to have to be strong, because hes asking me for about $500 more, even though I've already paid him $400 more than he quoted.

Time to stop being the world's biggest doormat I think.

Skills!

I was awake till 1 in the morning thinking about painting my Datsun last night. I just get like that with my projects sometime. I am just in the process of touching up the paint on my van... and kinda honing my skills for the real thing, my Datsun. As you can see, I wasn't making a good impression as a signwriter with the manky look of my van... so take alook what I did.
I wanted to be a panelbeater when I was at school. And even now I actually find it REALLY fun!
I'm doing the other side today. Actually I'm just waiting for the rust remover to kick in as I write this.

oh yeah, and I just found out that my local paint specialist can fill a custom colour and put it in a spray can for you!! I can't tell you how cool I find that...

Interior

Well, here's a sneak peak of all I did on my Datsun this week. The doors are not actually in yet, I just placed it there for the photo.

I wanted to see what it was going to end up looking like.
So pretty much all the interiour is sprayed black, I just need to put it all in. But first I will get the engine done, and then think about painting the body.

Datsun

These pictures are not too exiting I suppose. But to me they kind of are!! As you can see I sprayed the rest of the interiour black. Tomorrow I hope to put it all together. The trim, the carpet and the seats. I wonder how much I have increased the value? I will need the money eventually to buy myself a new van. I'm driving a 1992 toyota townace at the moment and it's not gonna last forever...

datsun

Today I sprayed alot of the interior black. Hope to do the rest tomorrow. Didn't get to do as much as i'd hoped because I woke up and found that I'd forgotten to empty the rubbish bin and maggots were crawling out and wiggling all over the floor. What that movie... Creepers?

Anyhow, spent first half of the day cleaning up filth. Then I got to spend the rest blissfully at work on the dato.

More to come... (I hope)...

the datsun continues...

NOTE: I know the carpet is all bunched up... I'm still putting it in... this is what I've done today.

Well, I spent all day working on my Datsun. Yep, it still exists and I've decided it's time to get as much done before winter as I can.

As usual, I have limited funds, so I'm using up the stuff I have already aquired.

What have I done recently? Well, I'm in the process of painting the cover for the air filter.. and probably the cover of the engine itself.. can't remember what it's actually called... the part that covers the valves.. it's rusty. Gonna splash out and buy some undercoat and light blue spray paint tomorrow.

Also going to buy some vinyl dye too, because I'm going ahead and painting the interior black now and the one can I bought doesn't go that far, but does a great job... check out the cover for the gear stick.. or what ever you call that thing in automatic cars... I'm really in the know aye... I'm such a girl... "gear stick thingy".

I attempted to put the carpet in. Didn't really think long and hard about the process, just went ahead and cut, and now the two pieces of carpet don't meet in the middle. Well, the seats will cover that bit and I have enough to patch it. A bit shoddy, but it'll do. I'm hoping the overall effect will be ok. I'm doing this up with a girl in mind. I know guys are super touchy when it comes to this kind of stuff.

Anywho...hopefully I'll have more to post tomorrow.

Once all the interior is done, I'm gonna start saving to get the engine reconditioned. Then a paint job. Lastly bumpers... and send it off to the mechanic... might need a new radiator too.

the dato...

Playing around with ideas, not sure if they will ever eventuate.

Boxing Day

Well, our church christmas 'experience' went well. I played with my little band for 2 evenings, and my painted figures went up... against a manky old wall! haha... but no-one really cared. Everyone had fun and enjoyed the build up to the big day.

Christmas day was us nice and quiet. Just how I l ike it, and now, on Boxing day I've spent a lazy day in the sun working on my Datsun. Sorry... that should be "working" on my Datsun. Funny how the things that don't come naturally are the things that give you the most pride. Like me and bogging. Any tiny bit of bogging I do just makes me feel so good. Like "Yes! I DID do that thankyou very much".

Janet Dick, the master craftsman. Greasemonkey Janet. Yes thats me... as good as the pro's... don't wake me yet mum.. 5 more minutes....

Money-fast

I've been on a money-fast the last week or so, and I'm really enjoying it. Funny how sometimes having "less" can bring "more". I talk alot about scrimping and saving, but somehow never truely live up to it. Well, after having a look at a budget of a friend of mine, I sat down and did a similar one myself. I have one already, but this time I included every little thing I need/want and splurge on and it turns out after saving up for a flat (which is also less than I thought) I have $30 left at the end of the week to save up for 1. My Van stuff 2. My Datsun 3. A pair of glasses 4. A new overlocker 5. A holiday 6. Art supplies 7. The dentist 8. Clothes.
That's $30 each week total.
So it looks like I won't be painting my Datsun until next Christmas. But that's ok - at least now I'm staring reality right in the face, and it's ok! And a holiday? Why not $12 a night at the Piha camping ground? That would still be cool-as! Maybe my art will pay for itself (if I sell any) and I really have my heart set on a new overlocker so most of my money will probably go towards that.
And to prove I'm living up to my word - I havn't gone out and bought new batteries for my camera, I'm waiting till Teresa brings my last pair over, so, no photo sorry!

Datsun Cover

I finished making a cover for my Datsun today. It's made out of the tarpaulin I bought that was part of a car port. The carport blew down in a month, so I'm glad I've been able to get some more use out of it. It's secured at the bottom with elastic. Not the prettiest, but it should do the trick. The guy who sold me the Datsun (Rob) has been given me automotive lessens, and from the info he gave me I was able to realise my Toyota needed Coolant (the water had gone brown), so I asked around, googled and YouTubed, and then flushed the old water out of the radiator and refilled with coolant. I'm really keen to learn more, but I realise there's so many things I'm trying to learn that in themselves take a lifetime:

Knitting and crochet, pattern drafting, web design, gardening, and now automechanics. In fact, I'm sure there's a few others I've forgotten. It's kind of ridiculous and probably a big waste of time, but I can't help get infatuated with different topics so I can't stop. I'm totally a "Mr Toad of Toad Hall" ie. one infatuation after another.

Lucky for me I've just learnt a valuable lesson which I hope will pay off in the end. Live your daily life, and just offer it up to God for Him to use. Washing the dishes. Doing the vaccuming. Making dinner. And for me... studying some random topic which I'll get bored with tomorrow.