The car got us all the way home from Tutukaka. Then Bronwyn took Rachael in to school. While driving through Swanson, the car suddenly disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Bronwyn and Rachael leap out and run away. Five blokes leap out of the truck behind with fire extinguishers. Bronwyn phones the fire brigade. But it was only steam. One of the pipes on the radiator had perished and blown, and the pressurised system had dropped several gallons of very hot water on the road.

Fortunately nothing else had been damaged, so our mechanic fitted a new pipe. Same thing happened on Tuesday. A different pipe. So this time the car stayed at the mechanics overnight while they checked all the other pipes and replaced a few more. All good now, touch wood (or maybe rubber?)

Finally got round to incorporating Nick's trombone illuminations into my table. That may seem an odd sentence to some. Nick has a history of decorating trombones for carnival parades. It started with a few simple flashes. Now it's micro controllers and multi colour LEDs. He sent me an old version to play with. Some years ago, I took an old server from work, removed all the covers and then built it into a table with a glass top. It now has three 12 watt green LEDs underneath, plus my own lights on top and Nick's lights as well. Seems to draw a lot of power, but quite impressive. Just don't leave it on too long or it might start smoking...

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