... on my way to lunch in Norfolk, I spotted a Volkswagen Variant - a chance encounter which amused on at least two levels.

And to continue the spotter theme, I parked next to this little gem in Long Stratton. The DVLA describes it as a 'MOTO Type 1'. It looks like a lot of fun, though it might be wise to avoid pulling up beside a lorry at traffic lights. I should have looked a bit closer, but it's listed with a 998cc powerplant. I would hazard a guess at a classic Mini block and subframe at the back - or a motorcycle engine?

The loom roll trolleys were finished during the week - my local forge doing a fine job bending the spigot hooks. Unusually, I managed to cut the right number of bits to the correct sizes and honed my MIG welding skills to an acceptable standard. Painting them was a bit of a fiddle...

... but not the paint stirring, for which I made up a special fan tool from bits of stainless-steel lurking in the bottom of the come-in-handy drawer.

To address The Great Collector's MG VA manifold downpipe, I popped along to a local scrapyard just a few minutes from me and there, sitting on top of a pile of bits to go to the crusher, was an almost brand-new Ford Ka exhaust - possibly from an Si model. It had the right amount of bends that would make up the 110° I needed to get the horizontal, and the perfect joggle to avoid the vertical component banging into the starter motor.

However, the flexible pipe - now less flexible with age - couldn't be persuaded to mate the downpipe with the rest of the exhaust system, and in the coaxing, I broke the original weld in the manifold plate. As it happened, the break made the pipe an even better fit in the bay, so I carefully preserved its new position in the re-welding. With a bit of heat and manipulation, I also managed to get the two sections to accommodate the (in)flexible section.

At the same time, the system was lifted by about 4" as it looked like it was about to fall off in its original state.

The next job was to construct a seat for the front of a quad bike. This was for the nocturnal activity of lamping. Fortunately, the seat was supplied and all I had to do was attach it to the rack on the bike and create a frame for the lamps. I've still to do the footrest arrangement which will act as a brace for the seat's occupant. It looks a bit precarious, but generally, lamping isn't a full-chat-athwart-the-work-in-the-dark exercise, so it's safe enough.

I was having a cup of tea in Counsel's garden when, alerted by the sound of at least 6 cylinders almost overhead, we looked up to see a smiley appearing in the heavens. Unfortunately, cloud was drifting across the canvass as the aerial artist was completing his work. Amusing on yet another level!