Great news....rain, rain, rain and plenty of it......and the front windscreen seals are holding tight. I suffered from trench foot during the winter from standing water in the footwell. About 4 weeks ago I stripped out the all mastick from the lower corners of the windscreen (not a quick task) and reapplied. Not only did it look a lot better but finally I have the answer to whether my efforts were in vain.

Nothing else to report, car is behaving itself, starting and stopping in the required places. I still need to fix the water pump and exhaust, but for the moment at least I can compete on the decibel front with the "souped up" 1.1L vauxhall nova's cruising the streets of St Neots on a Friday night.

too sunny, too much to do in the garden, too many barbeques to cook.....didn't touch the car at the weekend, I'll have to sort the water pump and exhaust out next weekend!

Mileage now 175,353, the commute this week has been unremarkable. The noise from the suspected water pump has settled down, likely the calm before the storm.

It is 4 weeks since I fitted copper exhaust gaskets with great success (although the saga of fitting them is worthy of a whole new blog!), no longer does the car sound like a tractor and the sweet burble of the V8 is prominent. I did get a hint of exhaust noise at speed today, but suspect it is further down the exhausts and therefore easier to fix, add to the list for the weekend.

So the UK flight ban has been lifted to a huge sigh of relief to most people (apart from those forced to stay on holiday!). But the fallout from the volcanic eruption is far greater, the commercial choas of getting the delayed people and goods back to where they need to be, the long suffering flower growers in Africa with rotting petunias, and worst of all the number of people that have a little piece of Iceland deposited on their cars.

The biggest dilemma is what to do with the ash? We are told that it is abrasive enough to bring down a fully loaded Jumbo Jets, is it safe to continue driving?

Do we expect government guidelines to advise us on how to deal with this national disaster....the first political party to publish such guidelines gets my vote!

Another trip up to Derbyshire successfully completed yesterday, about 160 miles round trip. No recurrance of the water pump(?) noise.

Started the car up this morning and had a high pitched squeal, at first suspected the fan belt, but soon realised it was a derivation of the suspected water pump noise...my only conclusion is that the car is in someway trying to communicate with me. 5 minutes warm up and it disappeared....I'll look at it over the weekend.

Got a huge result on the insurance, went to change it from 3000 limited mileage to unlimited. Because the car is over 45 years old, the cost is the same: £101!!! Thanks AON, Footman James or whoever you are now. Cheap motoring, no road tax and £101 for the insurance.... if only I could get more that 12 mpg and reduce the oil consumption!

A successful week, a top up of oil, couple of tanks of petrol, another trip up to Derbyshire.

Started up today and got a grinding noise from the front of the engine, it is in time with the enging revs so suspect either the water pump or the alternator. My money is on the water pump. Ran it for a few miles and it disappeared.

Uneventful day, work and back and a trip to Belper, about 250 miles. The car never missed a beat but was a bit oil hungry with the motorway driving, had to add about 1.5 pints. Who needs an oil low warning light when you can just wait for a left hand corner and watch to see the oil pressure needle drop.