9th August 2026年8月9日

🔧 In my post on the 28th June I wrote about the awful experience of being stranded on the A5 motorway just north of Mannheim on one of the hottest days of the year. The engine of my car had literally blown apart.

It’s not often you get to see close up what actually happened, but I did, and it looked like this:

🔧 The rather battered shiny thing in the middle of the photo is one of the pistons. You would think that that was it for the car. Oh no, said the mechanic. You have one of the big three: BMW, Mercedes and Audi. He didn’t want to scrap it, even though it was 20 years old. He suggested replacing the engine with another one – fallen off the back of a lorry – as the saying goes. So he gleefully hauled out the motor and showed me what had happened. When I looked at the damage I understood why there had been such a dreadful cracking up noise under the bonnet.

🔧 Now, in case you don’t take car engines apart every other day, you may like to know that a piston is connected to the crankshaft by a rod……here it is…not a pretty sight….

That’s a picture of a diesel motor.

🔧 Now you find odd things in Offenbach. And one of these is Autohaus Michel Weber. No ordinary car workshop this. Whilst I was there I was shown around by the boss. He told me about his two wolves and his donkey, which he kept in a field at home. Yes. And perhaps I would fancy a Silver Spirit instead of the Audi? – a mere 30 years old…..It had right-hand drive, and whilst in Germany had been driven into a wall by mistake…….. by a Jehovah’s Witness. Heaven knows what the driver was witnessing at the time.

OK, let’s take the Roller. But what will the neighbours in Langen say….?

And where would I park it …..?

……..somebody would be bound to nick the silver spirit……

…or strip the walnut veneer……

Better not. Perhaps a mini would be more suitable? But sooner or later, the days of fossil fuel-driven cars has to come to an end….

🔧 After showing me his yellow E type Jaguar (which boasted 12 cylinders), his Mini and his Roller, The boss invited me to admire the Bechstein. The Bechstein? Yes. With Beethoven frowning down at me I reached for the keys…🎹…only to discover that the instrument was well beyond repair……pity really, I could image a genteel piano trio performing amongst the vintage British cars…..with the audience (personally selected by me of course) clinking cool glasses of Spät Burgunder…….🥂

🔧 Not to be. I wonder why he even had a piano stool. A black one of course. It was then that I thought of all the pianists who had played on my Kawai, They were all too polite to complain about the seat. Well, surely a violin workshop can legitimately aquire a piano stool? Go for it Nigel, and whilst you’re there, get a white one…..

I have to state that this is not from Ikea…even though I had to assemble it….

….but unlike Schmusi, who sometimes has to listen to my ‘cello playing in Sprendlingen, my cat 🐈‍⬛ would have to be black wouldn’t it 😅?

🔧 Older than the pianos, and older than the cars, the main tower on my house, built in 1904, still stands. Of course it is not built with the dowels that would allow a Japanese temple to move with an earthquake, but there again, earthquakes are not a big issue here.

I’m actually looking for somewhere to put the exterior part of a split system air conditioning unit. You know, that box with the fan inside it. The timbers are massive – true German Handwerk .

The hard, brutal summer sun grills the street down below, but up here a breeze wafts through the wooden slats…..

The woodwork is robust and practical, now studded with the evidence of the 20thc……..

They even left the pulley and rope socket behind, stained with grey graphite for smooth functioning…..

🔧 Handwerk. I now remember taking this photo last year in Kamakura. This is the start of a new house…..such clean wooden joints…….

And when Japanese woodwork takes off, well……..can you make out the claws of the dragon? This is on the side of a temple in Kita Kamakura….

Back to Langen. A view at the Towers, not from the Towers…..

From up there I can see other towers. To the south, the Hochzeitsturm in Darmstadt. And looking north, the Main Tower in Frankfurt……..

🔧 But I deal principally in small-scale Handwerk. The sort that doesn’t need fossil fuels to run on, or big nails to hold it together. The sort that you can only play with blood, sweat and tears, and which you can hang up in the window…..🎵

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As always, thank you for your interest, and if you know anyone who might be interested in this blog then do forward it on.

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Wie immer vielen Dank für euer Interesse. Wenn ihr jemanden kennt, der an diesem Blog interessiert sein könnte, schickt ihn gerne weiter.

読んでくれてありがとう

See you…….. matane!

Nigel 

nigelwruddock@gmail.com.

THE END 🙋🏼‍♂️

終わり

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Hmmmm…..maybe I should have taken that Roller…..

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