Blog of Leonid Mamchenkov

Via Google News I came across this article in Cyprus Mail, which talks about the new regulation from Limassol municipality for removing abandoned vehicles.  Interestingly, I thought about it a few times already.  There are many abandoned cars in the city, and they often add to the parking problem that is getting worse and worse by the day.

The picture above shows the abandoned car near my house.  It stays there, with garbage bins, for a couple of years now.  Previously, it was occupying space on our guest parking for at least three more years.  I know there were a few complaints by my neighbors to get rid of it, but somehow it is still standing there.  People cannot remove it by themselves, since it has valid number plates.  And authorities were a tiny bit too slow on it.  Maybe now it will get some attention.

Also, it’s nice to see that Limassol’s municipality takes action on this one, howeve, I believe that the problem is wider than just our area.  I’ve seen quite a few abandoned cars in Agia Napa, Nicosia, and Pafos.  I’m sure there are a few in Larnaca as well, but my routes there are rather limited and short.

I’ve mentioned this many times before and, I guess, I’ll need to mention this ever more - the technological progress of the recent years (the digital world, yes) has left many systems of our society behind.  Educational and legal are the most noticeable.   Here are a few words in the insightful and funny video (originally from the Ted.com - a place of many more insightful videos).  Here is a quote from a recent Boing Boing post showing the state of the legal system:

… pictures of Ford cars cannot be printed. Not just Ford logos, not just Mustang logos, the car -as a whole- is a Ford trademark and its image can’t be reproduced without permission.

I was just walking by this one, but sun came out from behind the cloud and made the whole day better…

Album location: /photos/2006/2006-02-06_POTD

Today was the second (third?) time in my life when I ran out of fuel. I am trying not to push my luck and so I usually drive around with enough petrol to take me at least across the country.

Doesn’t always work it turned out. Since my car is in the repairs, I am driving someone else’s Mazda. This car’s fuel meter is not working at all. It always points to empty. The trick is to put 10 CYP and drive less than 220 km.

Last time I was at petrol station I had 180 km done only. And today, when the car stopped, I had only 140 km since last dinner. Either all the meters are working bad, or the car changed its appetite for unleaded.

The worst thing was that I couldn’t troubleshoot the problem down to the fuel myself. The owner of the car had to come and try to start and check it. He then suggested that it might be out of petrol, despite the indicators and meters. So, we put some fuel in, and it worked.

From now on, I’ll be having full tank as often, as possible…

My car was making a whole bunch of sounds that it shouldn’t normally make. After my last service, my left rear wheel was making sounds whenever I was breaking. One of the engine shields under the car got disconnected from all holders/screws, except for one. It was touching the ground when I was driving slow and making a sound that made every pedestrian look my way. Not that I mind that a lot, but I felt that I had to fix it. And I also had a suspecion that one of my shock absorbers was getting old and cranky on bigger bumps.

I didn’t want to leave the car in this state for a long time, and considering the upcoming Christmas holidays I realized that I’ll be probably broke for a month or two. I thought now was the proper time to fix everything.

The good news - I got the car back within a day. My shock absorbers are just fine. The engine shield is easy to fix. And the sound from the left rear wheel wasn’t from the breaks, like I thought. It was because of some lower arm control handle or something like that. It got old and wasn’t holding the wheel properly. So every time I was breaking, the wheel was moving. The new part is pretty expensive - at about 180 CYP with labour. But since they rarely have this problem, I’d have to order one of this from Japan. Instead, mine was replaced with the second hand part in good condition - 40 CYP with labour.

The mechanics also took the liberty of servicing the car, although it wasn’t time yet. Usually, I do a service every 10,000 km. And I change oil every 5,000km. Since last service I had only about 4,300km and they decided it was time for service. Oh, well. I told them that they should consult me next time. On the other hand, I was glad that I won’t have to think about the car service when Christmas will be all over the place.

93 CYP altogether and I was done. The car looks and feels like brand new now. It’s clean, fast, and makes no extra sounds. I’m happy.