Bah!

My NeXT sold for £87.01.

That is without a doubt the worst price I've seen one of these things fetch in ages :(

Watching a Volvo V70 Turbo AWD that's a mere 10 miles away. Failing to reach reserve. I'm seriously interested in it, or at least in LOOKING at it to make sure I'm interested in it, but the seller just isn't sorting out a way I can see the damn thing. I guess it's shagged and they want to sell to someone who hasn't seen it.

Lots of bits for my car's PCV system. Joy.

And...

The Volvo Amazon (1965) estate at the garage in Selkirk is FOR SALE. OMG. The owner was actually really nice, not at all grumpy about talking about it - he got it to do up, but doesn't have time to/is sick of working on cars for fun as well as work. Doesn't help me much, but I'd love a Volvo Amazon that wasn't someone's half-finished restoration!

Had Fuji Velvia 50 to test. Weather got shit. My Fujica is selling for more than the BIN price, which is something and makes me feel less crap about the NeXT (well, if someone had offered me an Enterprise as a swap for the NeXT, I'd have bitten their hand off, so I guess I'm happy with the results - I'd expected almost twice that from such a complete system though). Must test film before camera sells!

Local Volvo dealer is looking out for nicer Volvo 850/V70s for me, local Daihatsu dealer checked their trade-in reseller ("Peugeot 406 HDi Estate?" "ARGH! NO. Nothing French!") after I pulled in to check out a 2002 Volvo XC70 they had (far too expensive, I didn't see the plate on it before I'd stopped. They also had... a 1986 Nissan Sunny Estate. For £1995. To say I was surprised would be an understatement, firstly to see such a mediocre car still in existence, and secondly, at that price. The mileage of 5,220 didn't make it any less scabby with rust at the base of the windscreen...

FFS

First, Demon's email has been down since... some time this afternoon. Fucking Demon; there's a reason I didn't stick with them as an ISP. Unfortunately I did keep my account because that email address is all over the place and changing it would take A Long Time.

Speaking of taking a long time...

I grit my teeth, girded my lions, removed the cat from the back of the Volvo where she'd snuck in (presumably getting in the car, due to the previously ungirded lions), and attacked the suspension. Pictures will be coming soon.

My jack is made of fail, as is the bend it put in the subframe when the jack slipped forwards. But the car is now on two gingerly-placed axle stands. Since cars no longer have axles per se, they're subframe stands. They'd be body stands, but the jack couldn't lift the car high enough.

The rusted bolts? I WIN! I DEFEAT THEM.

Well.

Two of them.

One - the ARB droplink - is VERY determined and will not come undone. I have tried cutting it with a dremel, even, though that was a saga in itself. Unfortunately, this means the strut is still very much attached to the car.

I'm fucking irritated by this.

And on the subject of missed emails - the V70 ended for £1500. I have no idea if the seller mailed me back or not, and I'm awarding them mong points for not calling when I sent an email saying "please call, I'm going to be around Selkirk today when you said I could view the car", so I hope the buyer turns out to be from London, and be a total pain in the arse. Tempted to email them saying "er, my budget was more than that and if the car had been good enough...", just because it's bloody stupid to have someone local to you ask to view the car you're selling and NOT arrange to show it to them!

My dinner got cold, I got filthy and irritable, and you've guessed it, the Volvo is still out of action.

Added to this - I replaced the smaller part of the PCV system, and it's still pressurised, so I think the major work has to be done.

Blasted Swedes and their environmental concerns.