seems like all the cleaning didn’t cover the fact that my car was on the verge of breaking. now it broke.
today, i wanted to drive my co-worker to the repair shop, but when i approached my car, the central locking system didn’t work. not that big of a deal one might say. i switched on the lights: nothing. i inserted the key and wanted to start the engine: nothing. everything was black. not a tiny bit of electricity anywhere. and i swapped the battery two months ago. so now i was afraid that the alternator might have died and called the automobile association ÖAMTC to assist me and help figure things out. the mechanic that came was very friendly but that didn’t help. it really was the alternator. which basically means, that i can dump my car because it would be too expensive to repair it considering all the rust. i smell destruction derby.
what does this mean?
a. that i have to take the train in the future, which i was already considering because of fuel prices.
b. that i may need a car, because after all, a car is still necessary.
c. that i get to read more.
d. that i have to adjust work to the timetable of the trains.
e. that i am going to show werner how real men handle the loss of their cars. living and working in klagenfurt? without a car? piece of cake! we’re talking about the big picture here. klagenfurt-villach baby. yeahrrrrrrrrrr.
after the mechanic diagnosed my car he charged the battery a bit but it wouldn’t have been a good idea to drive to klagenfurt. so i just left it in the parking lot of my company where i don’t pay for the parking space until i figure things out.
then i walked to the train station – about a 10 minute walk from my company – only to discover that i missed the train by a few minutes (18:30). next train: 19:54. great.
arrived in klagenfurt at about 20:30 and had to walk to my flat: 18 minutes. by that time i already missed the photography-exhibition of an aspiring newcomer: tine.
now i’m proceeding with one thing at a time. biggest challenge will be to prepare a budget, since my new flat isn’t exactly cheap and i also have to have a new bike. damn you capitalism me.
and just for the fun of it:
4 days of travel behind me, time for a short recap!
thursday. munich.
my trip started not as promising as i wanted it to start. after starting my car in the morning, my GPS device wouldn’t start, but instead, the warning sound indicating that i left my lights on started – only thing was, the engine was running. so i got myself a new fuse for the GPS device and headed to the ÖAMTC (automobile club) to have a short look. he dismantled a relay and told me that now it won’t beep any more, but i still would have to do something about it. good enough for me, 3.5 hours of beeping would have made me go crazy. with all that delay and snow and rain in salzburg, my trip got delayed quite a bit and i couldn’t make it in time to meet up with Kojote aka Nils who i know from back in the tutorials.de days. too bad, but another time, i promise!
instead, i directly teamed up with Nicole who i know from another german community (Supertopic>Spotleid) since a long time. we walked around a bit in the center of munich and visited tollwood where i had a Hot Mojito - with that much rum that i had to drink coke the rest of the night :D
but the main reason why i went to munich was the Athlete concert. the 59:1 was a small location, but perfect for concerts, nice stage, good sound. only thing that really, really sucked was the slow and way-blocking wardrobe, but i’ll forgive them. the concert itself was great, although i constantly think about how awesome The Weakerthans concert in london was and that nothing could come close to that for quite some time. also, because there were so many people smoking and chatting during the concert, which i find especially rude.
photo (c) by Catherine McCann, CC-licence
i took a few photos in the pedestrian but not more than 5 to 10.
friday. innsbruck.
on friday i left for innsbruck to attend the company christmas party. my co-workers from villach have made a business trip out of it and met with some customers in innsbruck, but it was my day off so i headed for the hotel and took a long, hot shower. after a while, the rest of the co-workers from various company locations showed up and we all took a ride with the new Hungerburgbahn and had some mulled wine on top of the mountain with a nice view down to Innsbruck. well, we would have had a nice view, if it wasn’t that foggy. and damn cold. (-14°C, 2200m altitude difference as far as i have been told). after a few glasses we finally went some place warm were the party took place. i had a great time with my co-workers and colleagues from other places that i don’t see that often. it was my third company christmas after about 28 months of working for the company and so far i was always looking forward to that day. hope to get some photos sometime.
saturday. salzburg.
after breakfast on saturday with most of the people from the night before i drove to salzburg to meet an ex-co-worker from my company who became a close friend. unfortunately he is located in salzburg which means i don’t get to see him that often. good thing there’s always ICQ and MSN.
but my first stop was to ikea where i looked around a bit and stumbled upon something very cool. Kopparberg Pear Cider. which is kind of like my favourite drink at the Claddagh in Klagenfurt and the O’Malleys in Salzburg. the only downside is that the version you can buy at ikea is the non-alcoholic one. it still tastes like the real deal. yummy cider without getting drunk. wohoo. plus: no bad conscience if you’re drinking it home alone.
in the evening, we took a walk around salzburg city for another mulled wine – by treml who is famous for his punch as i’ve been told – and to find something where we could eat – my friend was stupid enough not to reserve a seat at Maredo, although i told him to, but we found another nice restaurent.
two “real” (=alcoholic) pear ciders at O’Malleys later we called it a day, because i was still a bit tired and exhausted from the night before.
today, sunday, morning i snuck out of the house, let my friend keep on sleeping and drove home. end of story.
i didn’t really give a damn about how my car looked for the last four years, but now i’m facing the annual check and need to fix the car a bit to make it through the check. i’ve got someone for brakes and stuff, but i had to clean it up myself.
so on saturday i was at home and got me some stuff for my car – sandpaper, rust isolation, undercoat and paint to work with.- the result turned out really nice, i didn’t expect it to be so clean overall. most of the rusty bits came off with normal cleaning tools from my mom’s kitchen. a few bits needed to be treated a bit rougher and required some coloring. see and read the rest in the detail view :)
first i got to change my grey renault to a kind-of-white renault. as you can see, the left part is already cleaned – halfway in the right part i decided to make a picture for better comparison.
see that right picture? this is a tough one, because the rust ate it’s way through the whole part… i’m going to ask the mechanic to do something about the middle part, for now i just cleaned it, isolated the rust and sprayed the color over – just an optical fix for now :) the parts on each side were actually polished and painted.
now the final part included fixing what is left here with paint. i didn’t know the exact color that i need, so i took a few samples in the store, went to my car and took whatever came closest :D
yeah i noticed in time that this was messed up and fixed the duct tape and then put plastic around the tire. had to take a pic with my selfmade don’t-inhale-paint-mask :)
somehow my car almost looks like a reborn version of itself now. i did an OK job for an amateur, but… it’s just an optical fix. the car is almost done and i hope it will last another year so i can get a new one in 2008.
here’s the front with applied paint:
the white color from the paint is a bit brighter, but it fits quite good. after it dried, the paint become a little darker, making an almost perfect match to the existing color :)
the last part was to clean the interior, that was a quick one:
as good as new (on the outside):
and after showing off the improved version, here’s the reminder on how the car looks underneath – a broken, rusty mess :)
