Trouble comes in threes

I had a hunch things would go wrong in the last week...

1) I replaced the seals on the brake master cylinder, and tried to bleed the brakes with my vacuum pump. Could I hell. 4 hours and many litres of brake fluid later, I've taken it down to Humphreys who are going to have a go. At the moment I have no brakes, which could become an irritation.

2) Whilst bleeding the brakes, I noticed that the diff filler on the centre axle has been ripped out, and the casing is bent. It looks like the threaded filler has worked its way in to the diff, been ripped out by the rotating diff, and mashed up the thread in the casing in the process. I've had to order a new axle casing, fortunately not too expensive, but you can bet something will go wrong in fitting.

I'm hoping the diff itself won't have been damaged, otherwise I'd probably have noticed before now.

3) At the time of writing it's uncertain whether Nicki will be able to come with me. So potentially 2 months of the 3 month trip are in question. At this stage, the less said about this the better.

If anybody who knows me is free in May, June or both, and would like a mostly-paid-for trip to West Africa, let me know, and this is a serious suggestion.