Fiona's Letters TAFE Motor Mechanic Training Course for Girls Week Seven Hi to All & Sundry, I hope everyone had a great Easter break and stayed away from the roads this time. As much as reasonably possible, anyway. It was a short week this round - only 3 days - and more tests so the lesson time was cut short considerably. After being introduced to manual gear boxes last week, we did venture into the world of the automatic transmission, albeit a very rushed introduction. It did include a practical session, though - dismantling and reassembling some 'pre-loved' transmissions so we could get a better idea of what it all looks like and how all the components relate to one another. Amazing to think that it's all basically controlled by fluid pressure. Even more amazing to think that such a complicated system was invented to avoid the simple exercise of manually changing gears. All that mental anguish to avoid a little physical labour! Up until now, I have tried to avoid writing too much about my classmates in detail but I've come to the conclusion that at least two of them must rate a mention. To protect the innocent, I'll refer to them as Itchy and Scratchy. Itchy and Scratchy represent the youngest and the oldest members of the class and get on famously with one another, despite the age difference of about 40 years. However, they have the rest of us in stitches when it comes to how they choose to conduct themselves at TAFE. Neither of them are regular attendees and are always well equipped with various stories as to why they didn't show up when they were expected. A quick list of reasons used includes: • A broken finger which transformed into an ingrown fingernail and "those bloody doctors who wouldn't know a flamin' thing". • Menopause - self explanatory but it was two or three days away for that. • House was broken into by an on-again, off-again boyfriend who "stole all me beer, me shampoo & conditioner, half me food and me shovel from out the back yard. Called the cops but they won't do anything - the bludgers!" Oh, and he took all the fly-screens off the house as well at some point (huh??). • Several run-ins with CentreLink regarding study payments. Again, everyone there seems to be a "flamin' idiot". • People knocking on the door either wanting to collect money for unpaid bills or to issue summons for court appearances for unpaid fines. "I don't care if Jesus himself comes down here to collect the money, I ain't payin' it!" All these stories, and more, are delivered at 110bd and repeated for every new arrival each morning. After a while, you start to clench your butt-cheeks waiting for the next rendition and eagerly looking for the teacher to arrive. (Although, once inside the classroom, the whole story is repeated for the teacher as well). Strangely enough, a simple, 'I was unwell' rarely eventuates. Both of them smoke like chimneys and seemingly live on a diet of potato scollops and/or chips and coke. One teacher had to assure one of our heroes about 5 times that she had already completed a particular assessment and she wasn't required to do it again. The other, however, does everything she can to avoid taking a test to the point of claiming there was a bee in the room and running around hysterically. The youngest stated early on that her ambition was to be a race car driver, however, she jumps six feet in the air whenever an engine is revved nearby or there is a loud noise and is very wary of being asked to help out with practical demonstrations with running motors. As you can guess, whenever Itchy & Scratchy are in class, there is never a dull moment and they definitely get my vote for class characters. We are coming up to work experience time but none of us will get to witness what happens during that period. Needless to say, we will hear ALL about it when TAFE resumes again. The Easter weekend saw a gathering of the clans to celebrate 100 years of Cadillac, held in Canberra. Dad stopped by on his way south in his gold limo - the kids across the road thought the mafia had arrived. I took the time to take a quick look under the hood and discovered he'd driven for the last 10 hours with a flashlight sitting happily in behind the grill. Mind you, you could pretty much fit your luggage in there as well so perhaps he should consider keeping an entire tool box there, just in case! He pointed out a unit in the fuel line that looked a lot like a filter but was actually something that adds tin to the fuel instead of lead. This allows him to fill up the with regular unleaded fuel instead of the lead replacement - something I'll have to quiz the TAFE guys about. OK, time I went and stopped boring you for much longer. Have fun and I'll catch you all next week. Cheers! Fi xx ;) Go to first page - Index - Next page

free books fionas letters motor mechanic course