Pillings Lock Marina 2010 #1

Hi Folks, well, it’s been a while since last I posted. An old year has gone and a new one has begun. So, this is the first of the new year and, I hope, not the last. Here’s to you and yours.
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Well now, how are you all now that another end of year festivities are over? We’re fine too, thanks for asking.

When I posted the last blog of ’09 earlier today I had something of a problem logging in to my Google Account. Goodness knows why because I’ve been using the wretched thing for long enough now.

Anyway, with Wifey looking over my shoulder and me becoming more and more impatient (a sure sign I’m on the mend after the ‘bug’) I went through all the rigmarole and folderole of re-setting my password. The first thing they do at Google is send an email with info on how to reset your password. This, in itself, simply does not work. What they don’t tell you, anywhere at all on either page, is that you have to wait for another email to finish the process. This I duly did, but why can they not send the password once they know you are the right person to send it to, instead of going around the houses to get there?

Tomorrow is shopping day, only three days late but we’ll get there in the end. Sunday will, of course, see us at the Quorndon Fox for lunchtime tipples. Tuesday is Glenfield Hospital in Leicester for a knee inspection. Thursday I’m off to Harlow for the next jam session at The Purple Emperor. Naturally I’ll keep you up to date on happenings as they happen.

Today is Saturday 2nd January 2010 and at last, after four days of discomfort, my tummy has settled down, although I don’t think it is sufficiently settled down for our Sunday lunchtime tipple tomorrow. But that’s no problem really as I’ll be sure to enjoy Thursdays one even more.

Today we awoke to freezing temperatures, by 10 o/clock it had brightened enough to go into Quorn for supplies, by 10.45 it was snowing and around 2 o/clock it had started raining, so don’t let anybody, anywhere in the world, tell you that they have more weather than we Brits.

By the way before I forget, our cousin Pauline, for whom I asked those readers of a praying disposition to say one for her, is now on the mend and home with her family. I’m sure a full recovery will take some time yet, but we all wish her well.

Now, back in about February of last year I purchased a programme called GMX Photopainter, which converts photographs to art in all its many styles, including watercolour, oils and even pen and ink drawings, which is the style I intend to investigate. Unfortunately, despite the fact that I always keep registration details of any programme I purchase, this one seems to have gone missing. Over the Christmas period I emailed the company but, so far have had no reply. Hopefully, now that everybody is back at work, even those living in Brazil, which is where the programme originates, another email should do the trick. And that’s what I’m about to do. Cheers for now.

Tuesday 5th January 2010 and we have snow – not a lot, but it’s a start.

On Sunday, despite the nasty, threatening weather, we did go to the pub as usual. Can’t keep a good man down you know!

Monday we managed to get over to Morrisons for our half weekly shop; half because I really didn’t feel up to it on Saturday, and so we took a short run into Quorn instead.

Today was the occasion of my trip to Glenfield Hospital in Leicester, to have the surgeon take a look at my knees, when he would decide what needs doing. Having studied my X-rays and given them both a good wiggle, he declared them both to be about as bad as each other and that, if I wish for more freedom of movement and mobility, the only thing to do would be to replace them. When I asked if they could both be replaced at the same time, he said he would be happy to do so just so long as the Anaesthetist was happy with my state of health. That’s a big whoopee then!

In order to decide if I was fit enough to go under the knife sometime in March, he sent me off for a blood test. Unfortunately my Haemoglobin is a little low – no doubt as a direct result of my recent tummy bug – so I have to see my GP to have that normalised first. He then gave me a card that effectively gives me a six month open invite to book in again and set a date. I now await an invitation from my GP, where I’m sure the appropriate medication will set my blood on the right track. Meanwhile, assuming the weather is kind to me on Thursday I shall pop off to Harlow and force myself to imbibe a few pints of the Irish Girder, thus ensuring a goodly level of iron in the blood. Hic! Hic! Hooray! I say.

Wednesday 6th January and we’ve had snow, according to my better half, about an inch of the stuff. But that was last night, we don’t know if we’ve had any more whilst we slept. So, it looks like my trip to Harlow is, once again, a no no!

No particular plans for today, except to chase up the GMX Photoart people who still haven’t replied to my first or second emails and, of course, re-working the recipe book and correcting my big mistake.

I don’t believe I’ve explained how this book editor and compiler works, so I’ll give it a go. If and when you ever receive a copy of the finished work you will find that, on your computer screen it actually opens like a book. Each recipe is set in a double sided page and it has an intro and contents page and, well, everything you would expect to see in a physical book. It really is quite cute.

The reason it is taking so long to complete is because, unlike some folks I didn’t read the full instructions pertaining the double sided templates. As a result, whilst I was thinking it had double sided pages upon which to enter two separate recipes, in fact each recipe should take up both pages.

The table of contents will allow you to click on any recipe and go straight to it, or you can follow the arrows at the top and wade through the book that way. All in all there are almost 340 recipes from almost all the English Counties that existed before the 1974 reshuffle of boundaries. All except Middlesex that is, and this is because most of Middlesex was absorbed into the newly created County of London. Although that alone should not mean there are none from Middlesex, it’s just that I have been unable to find any that do exist. Fear not dear friends, I will have another look on the Internet before I finish.

Friday 8th January and, I don’t know about you lot, except perhaps Wee Mac Sis in Scotland, but we still managed to get out for a bit of shopping yesterday.

There are two things that present problems to us boaters during these freezing days, and they are the questions of pumping out our waste tanks and filling up our water tanks. On the Shiralee our water tank, which holds just under 100 gallons, will last us about a week. The waste tank is a little less predictable, especially with my latest tummy upset, but it holds 75 gallons and, under normal circumstances, last about two weeks.
Hopefully, come Monday Paul will have had our pump-out barge repaired and we can empty the waste and top up with diesel, but water is another matter. As marinas go Pillings Lock is quite big and each bay has a stand pipe with which to top water tanks up. In this cold snap though, all the pipework is frozen and it is not possible to use them. Fortunatel, with a little arm twisting, Paul had Steve go off and pick up some extra pipes and fittings so that he could lay it all out and reach most boats from his own water outlet by the office building.

Now, it has to be said, that our Paul has something of an attitude problem towards us boaters. I can’t imagine why because, after all, we are his bread and butter. But it shows itself in small ways, such as his preferring the company of outsiders to the restaurant, where he charges them £3.40 for a pint of, rather inferior, Italian draught lager.

Or, take the example of yesterday when Brian advised him that we were all becoming desperate for water, when he kind of shrugged it off as of no consequence. Eventually he has to do something, that’s if he doesn’t want a riot on his hands. From what we’ve been told, his father, who used to run the place, wanted it for the boaters and leaned over backwards to help. I suppose it all points to the fact that bhe doesn’t actually live on a boat, unlike the staff at many other marinas that we’ve used on our travels. If he were to give it a go, even for just a year, he would appreciate us more, I’m sure.

Anyway the cold snap looks set to continue for at least another week, but at least we are not snowed in up here. The weekend is upon us and I really would like my usual Sunday pint or three.

Saturday 9th January and we have snow.

This morning, at my dearly beloved’s suggestion, we decide to go into Quorn a little earlier than normal; around 8.30 instead of 10 o/clock. This was not a very good idea as it turned out because, despite the fact that Flesh Hovel Lane had been salted by our esteemed marina manager, the road outside it had most decidedly not been gritted by local council. As a result our wee Alfa was not very steady on it’s feet and, after due consideration, the aforementioned dearly beloved suggested I drop her at the roundabout and leave her to do the shopping, whilst I returned to the boat. I have to confess, I was most happy to comply.

The roundabout in question is at the bottom of the hill and only a couple of hundred yards from the end of the lane, and that fact was not in my favour, especially as the ABS had frozen up, which limited my control even further. Also, I had a darn great bus bearing down on me from behind – a fact I neglected to advise Wifey about – so the question of where to stop to let Wifey out did give me pause for thought. However, the judicious application of the hazard warning lights must certainly have given the driver of said charabanc cause to ponder his options.

Naturally I came to a stop as soon as I could, which just so happened to be to my left and half way across the immediate left exit road. Did I really see a slight wobble in that bus, or was it my imagination? Whatever, the bus and following cars safely negotiated the roundabout and I went home and left my dear wife to trudge through the snow. Do you know, she even called me from Quorn to ask if I’d arrived back without problems? And me a professional driver as was!!

It is now 2 pm and it has been snowing, on and off, for most of the day. Looking out of the window towards the other boats, I have some difficulty believing I am actually in a marina, because all I can see is a huge expanse of snow, around which there is a half circle of narrow boats. It really is a peculiar sight.

If the weather stays as it is and we get even more snow, it’s very doubtful that we’ll be pubbing it at lunchtime. However, should it stay bright; which it is at the moment; and if it doesn’t drop any more snow, come lunchtime the roads should be safe enough to travel.

Monday 11th January and it is still pretty cold, but nowhere near as cold as the forecasters have predicted. Certainly, in the northern parts of Scotland, they have been experiencing some horrendous conditions, with temperatures down to – 10 or more (or, should that be less?). Yesterday we even saw some more snow, but we also saw the ice starting to thaw, so we do not believe we have another week or more of this big freeze.

This is our first time of living in a marina community, but we are fast discovering just how helpful boaters are towards each other, and that’s more than can be said for the manager of the place, as I have already reported.

Yesterday however, after discovering that the extended pipe-work could not reach all the boats, it was down to the rest of us to offer up our on board hose reels in order to extend the marinas new pipe. They even Shanghaid our one, blooming cheek! And, not surprisingly, the thing returned when finished with. Hooray for common sense.

There’s nothing our wee pooch likes more, than to frolic in new laid snow. Unfortunately, as with most dogs, she also tends to gobble it up and, as a result, finds herself with an upset tummy and unable to eat. But, being our Rusty she won’t be told and, as usual, we had a moaning Minnie of a dog, who wandered around the boat yesterday, in great discomfort and unable to settle. Eventually, just before time for bed, she found her appetite again and settled down for the night. This morning she is her normal, bouncy self, thank goodness.

Now, I’m pretty sure I had something else to report, something of great importance, I’m sure, but I’m hanged if I can remember what it was.

However, here’s something you may be able to help me with, but only if you have Windows 7 and the latest version of MS Word. To my recollection, having had several versions of this programme on past computers and laptops, when writing to MS Word it has always been possible to save the new document to the Desktop. Not so with the new one. Well, it may be possible but, as at this moment, I can’t seem to do so. Perhaps it simply needs setting up correctly, but I am unable to discover how to do so. Your help would be most appreciated.

Actually, as I have just discovered having downloaded a programme from the Internet, I cannot save anything to the Desktop, not even downloads. What the heck is happening here? I was certainly able to do so last time I tried.

Tuesday 12th January and it is still quite cold, although the ice around us seems to be thawing a little. Whether that is a sign that the big freeze is coming to an end, is a different gether altomatter!

Yesterday we did get into Quorn for a little bit of shopping and, when we returned, we bumped into Brian and asked about the computer whiz that he knows. Lo and behold, the very man was approaching us from behind. Anyway, having asked if he knew what the problem could be regarding ‘saving to desktop’, his opinion was that Microsoft had probably made a bit of a boo boo and would, eventually, come up with a patch to put it right. We can only hope. Later today and, with luck and a tail wind, I’ll be able to post this blog. It is now nine pages long, so it will give you all a five minute break from routine.