Weekend Plans

I am looking forward to a really quiet weekend, staying at home and doing all my favorite things – sleeping and reading. I might drop by at MMY’s place he has a documentary on Salif Keita I would like to see and also a live Seal performance (Oprah, my wildest dream would be to sing with Seal!). Alas, I will have to go out on Saturday, my car needs attention!

I have always had a thing for BMW’s for as long as I can remember, and I finally got to own one in 2003. Contrary to what a lot of people (who have never owned a BMW) say, its not such a problematic car. I will be the first to admit that it’s a bit expensive to maintain (the fuel pump costs between 14 and 17k, while that for a Toyota is like 8k!) but I have found that the trick is in the parts and the mechanic (how profound!) According to my mecho, the parts dealers don’t stock ‘original original’ BMW parts cos no one will buy them!!! Before I go on, let me point out that there are 4 types of parts available in the market today in Nigeria – ‘Fake Fake’, ‘Original Fake’, ‘Fake Original’, and ‘Original Original’! My boy E found out the hard way; oil filter nearly knocked his engine! Needless to say Type 4 is the way to go. When I can I go the ‘get the parts from the UK’ route, the local parts dealers atimes can be too clever for their own good, make my moto no go knock!

It’s a minor thing really that ails my car, the reverse lights are out, and the indicator lights only work at night. I called my mecho last week and he is suspecting the indicator light stalk assembly. I should actually be able to sort it out the reverse light thing myself (bulbs!), but the indicator lights stump me. I am really praying those will be a minor issue. The other day, the ac guy spent 8 hours un-coupling/re-coupling the dashboard to swap the evaporator. The swap took all of 10 mins! Imagine that!