“Too impressive”

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Vranov-Prague

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​Things that are currently wrong with Milo (some new, some old):
 

- Squeaky brakes - they are back after a 10 day hiatus – WD40 unfortunately just masks the noise temporarily
- Handbrake – it ‘helps’, but on any kind of incline/decline, it needs to be parked in gear, or some pretty good clutch control
- Passenger seat belt – takes about 25 tugs to release it from it’s holder, and then proceeds to tighten at various times when driving
- Sticky accelerator – this is a new one, but sometimes if you floor (ish) the accelerator, the pedal will stick to the floor. This is fine up a hill, but not so fine when coming up to a roundabout. A flick under the pedal with the foot and it pops back
- Leaky petrol tank – however, only when filled up it leaks a little. I’ve just learnt not to fill it up fully
- Indicators – they’ve stopped working. Sticking a hand out the window when wanting to turn sometimes works, most of the time not
- Right hand speakers not working – they never have. I’m not going to risk pulling the wrong wires and affecting something more serious. It means when driving, the music is mostly just noise to the driver, whilst the passenger is deafened by said noise
- Windscreen wipers - only have an on & off setting. Plus, when you do turn them off, they freeze in the position they were in at that exact moment. Now there’s skill timing involved.
- A generally leaking car - when it rains it drips cold water onto your left foot and warm water onto your right foot (which feels like a fly, which in turn causes constant reaction-swatting while driving).
 

To be fair, in a 40 year old, British made car that has just done 6,500 kms in 2.5 weeks, this is pretty good. But, the items are starting to pile up a little, so we feel it’s time to get them checked out.

Therefore, as it was a relatively short trip from Brno/Vranov to Prague we thought this could be a good day to take out some time and have Milo looked over. However, as with every day so far, it tends to take longer than expected to get anywhere!

We left at 9’ish, and managed to find our way onto the main road to Prague (which by the way, is not a lot of fun in a car with no suspension and a low roof – even for a short arse like me). A quick stop off for some petrol and more oil (having polished off 2L in the last few days), and a few admiring thumbs up & comments from the Czechs. In need of some coffee we pulled into a McDonalds a short time afterwards, and in the car park on the way out, we met another friendly Czech who commented on our car and in particular it’s leaky’ness. We told him it was all natural, and that we’d get it checked in Prague. He told us he had a brother-in-law who owned a garage only 8km away, and he may be able to help.

Being the trusting (or impatient/lazy) man I am, I thought we should go for it. However, when he said a garage, he literally meant a garage in the garden of the house. Even with a sign on his front door saying ‘auto servis’ I wasn’t entirely convinced this was the best kind of garage for the car. Meg was even less convinced. So, in this important situation, we flipped a coin for it. Thankfully the coin told us to get the hell out of there. We hop tailed it back to McDonalds.

When we did make it into Prague, we were helpfully informed that as it was 2pm on a Friday, mechanics pretty much shut up shop for the weekend, so we were all out of luck. It looks like Milo - like a petulant teenager/middle aged man - avoids going to the Doctors once more.

This was the 4th time I’ve been to Prague, and as all other occasions were mostly for drinking, it was a good chance to actually see some of the city. I completely forgot how big it is, and how many impressive buildings it has. You can’t turn a corner for yet another grandiose church/opera house/museum/castle/station, etc. What did people do in all these buildings all those years ago? Was there really such a need for them all? In all honesty, if it is possible, it is just too grandiose. Give me a couple of churches, a square with a fountain in it, and I am satisfied that it ‘was good in the olden days’. Maybe throw in a castle if you want to make some real tourist dollars.