Skodas, Car Batteries, Sleet and Hot Chocolate

My Skoda Octavia has been bombproof for over 10 years – with the exception of being hit by third parties the only issues have been with door-windows dropping out of their raising-mechanism seats.

However a fault with the central locking this week drained the battery – or so I thought. This morning a neighbour and I tried jumpstarting it but he MX-5 – albeit equipped with a new battery – was not able to turn over the hefty 1.9L VAG TDi.  I considered stripping the battery out until I found the battery clip’s retainer bolt corroded in place, with which I did not want to mess while it was raining.

So I called the AA – who after taking £130 of my earth pounds upgraded me to “Home Start” and sent an engineer who arrived within 20 minutes.  Colour me impressed.

Diagnosis: there is a fault with the central locking, yes, but the battery itself is naturally shot. We jumped it, tested it, and basically it’s a replacement job; thus I drove to Aldershot, left the car with my favourite Skoda service team with a ticklist of issues, and Brompton’d a mile or two to Aldershot station there to catch a bus home.

Then it started sleeting. Wet, nasty stuff.

The trains were/are up the duff due to a broken-down engine somewhere, so I was doubly happy to be taking the bus. Stayed in the station for 30 mins watching the wet flakes go plop, got my bus, and one hour later, via a roundabout route, I’m home. And freezing.

Hence:

  • a walnut-sized chunk of bitter cooking chocolate
  • 3x teaspoons of dark raw muscovado sugar
  • 1x teaspoon spanish cocoa mix (ie: cocoa and a touch of cornflour)
  • mug of milk
  • into saucepan, whisk while bringing to just below simmer, allow the cornflour to thicken slightly.
  • Serve in mug.

…which is what I am sipping now. The world is a nicer place. It may involve a duvet a bit later on.

Self-assessment tax forms can wait for tomorrow.
{"cc_re__cc_re__cc_by_sa_3_0": ["text-4\" class=\"widget widget_text\"><h3 class=\"widget-title\">About</h3>\t\t\t<div class=\"textwidget\"><p>Dropsafe is the personal blog of <a href=\"/aboutalecm\">Alec Muffett</a> with occasional contributions from <a href=\"/aboutbartb\">friends</a> &amp; occasional guest bloggers; it is therefore a blog populated entirely by the personal opinions of the author/s.<br />\nAll original content hosted on crypticide.com - except where <del>plagiarised from elsewhere</del> quoted or reused - is licensed under <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/\">CC BY-SA</a> terms.</p>\n</div>\n\t\t</aside><aside id=\"recent-comments-2\" class=\"widget widget_recent_comments\"><h3 class=\"widget-title\">Recent Comments</h3><ul id=\"recentcomments\"><li class=\"recentcomments\"><a href='http://salvokat.wordpress.com/' rel='external nofollow' class='url'>salvokat</a> on <a href=\"http://dropsafe.crypticide.com/article/10831/comment-page-1#comment-51356\">Getting Keyboard Focus on Password Entry for OSX Login without a Mouse</a></li><li class=\"recentcomments\"><a href='htt"]}