Pillings Lock Marina 2010#3

Pillings Lock Marina 2010#3

It is now Monday morning on the 1st of February and, as you would expect for this time of year, it’s darn cold and the marina has a sheet of ice over it.

Believe it or not I am still beavering away at my recipe book. Unfortunately the programme I’m using, which is called ‘EBook Starter’, does tend to have its own quirks and foibles, which I shall soon be complaining about to the powers that be.

I was sitting here pondering whether or not to continue with the four volume version and decided, NO! This book, if it is to be worth anything at all, and if it is going to have anything like a professional appearance, should be in a single volume or, at worst, two volumes of equal size. After all, with over 340 recipes, two volumes would, I feel, be acceptable to most folks.

Anyway, I started a new project and, being the clever chappie that I am, and not wanting to re-do all the alterations to the fonts and such, I thought I would open the earlier and completed volumes, one at a time, and simply copy and paste into the new one.

This seemed to be going well, that is until I tried to save my work. In saving the old volumes first the damned programme shut down both versions, and I lost all the info I had entered into my new project. That’s about two hours totally wasted.

So, as a result of that bug in the programme, I’ve had to start from scratch. Needless to say this budding author is not a happy bunny. There was another thing bugging me about the programme but, for the life of me, my feeble memory refuses to tell me what it was and until I remember it, I won’t be able to email my contact and complain.
Hopefully Andy from Redhill will be along sometime today to fit our expansion bottle on the hot water tank, that’s the calorifier to us seafaring folks! He’s also going to price up the replacement of our radiators with new double sided ones, which should give us considerably more heat.

All in all this coming month or so is going to be a bit expensive. On top of the work Andy is doing the BW Licence is due soon, as is the Safety Certificate and the engine service and the car service. If it wasn’t for the fact that I need to get to Harlow from time to time, which is a 240 mile round trip, I would cancel the car service for a later date.

Ah well, such are the trials and tribulations of being a boater. It’s not all beer and skittles, nor is it as cheap as some folks would have you believe.

Finally, for today, we’ve got to make a trip to Loughborough and B&Q because we need some poles with which to raise our TV aerial. Some of the programmes are breaking up whilst we’re watching them, and that is probably because the aerial is too low.

Monday 8th February and, yet again, we have snow, but only light flurries, I’m happy to say.

Well now, it seems that, since not very much of interest is going on around us, this blog is turning into something of a weekly affair. So, unless something happens to really pique my interest, you can take it as read that all is normal here.

With reference to my recipe book, I’m still working flat out on it. This is because, as you already know, I’ve decided not to issue it in four volumes, but in two, which has resulted in my having to start again with a different template.
About a week ago I sent off to eBay for a DVD of food images that I intended to use in the book. After all, almost every recipe book around contains images of the dishes as you would expect them to look. Unfortunately, since I’m not about to go through them one by one, cook them all and then take photos of each and every one, I do not have the luxury of actual images of these recipes, some of which are several hundred years old. So I thought I would include photographs of dishes that might bear some similarity to the recipes.

Anyway, the disc duly arrived but, when I ran it on the laptop, one of the folders did not produce the images I expected to see. In fact, the images were not even readable. This particular folder contained other folders and none of the images inside them were actually available to view, just a small square in the middle of the page. I tried reading them in several programmes, but with absolutely no success.

So, I sent a message to the seller via eBay telling him about the problem and he immediately sent me another disc. Surprise, surprise, that one was exactly the same. I sent him another message but, instead of trying to sort the problem out, he opted to cancel the transaction.

Alright, I thought, he can’t be bothered with problems, so be it. But then I got to thinking. Suppose he simply wanted to safeguard his feedback and didn’t want to risk any adverse comments? By cancelling the transaction; and any others he may have that give him grief; he avoids any problems and keeps his 100% feedback record.

This attitude is like a red rag to a bull to me, so I have now enlisted the aid of other boaters and am now asking them to check the discs out on their computers. So far, after asking one person, we find the same is happening to them. I am now waiting for Brian to check the one I gave him, then I’ll check them on Alan’s PC and Laptop, all of which will give me some ammunition for when I have a moan at eBay. With luck the seller will get an ear-wigging, with a lot of luck he’ll be shut down.

Meanwhile I’ll probably include some light hearted clipart in the book instead, which I’ve already done for the front cover.

I don’t know how many of you have been watching The Hairy Bikers of late, but we try not to miss them if we can help it. Anyway, as a result of them mentioning a dish called ’Scouse’, which I did not yet have amongst my recipes, I went looking for it on the net. I found that one, and Jellied Eels, and about 30 more that I didn’t already have. With these additional recipes I now have over 370, and they are all English. No wonder it’s taking so long to finish the book.

Tomorrow morning, after several visits to the surgery, I will be visited by the diabetes expert. This was suggested by the nurse quite a few weeks ago but, having heard nothing from anybody about the proposed ‘home visit’, I had to chase them up. Also, I have still not heard from the hospital regarding my, so-called, haemoglobin problem. At this rate I’ll be lucky if I have my knees sorted out this year, never mind before the end of summer.

Wednesday 10th February and we’ve had snow and rain, and we’re currently enjoying a very pleasant, sunny afternoon.

I had a visit yesterday morning, from a very nice young lady named Kate. She it is who will now be guiding me into the realms of ‘proper’ blood glucose levels. Goodness knows they’ve been pretty erratic of late. It seems that since my current Insulin regime is not doing its job, I now need to adopt a newer and hopefully, better one. This will involve a long lasting shot before I go to bed, along with three, equally spaced shots during the day. Hopefully this will better emulate the way the body works when dealing with blood sugar. Thankfully I am now retired, so such a regime of readings and jabs is not too difficult to maintain. I would hate to have to follow it if I was still working.

Tomorrow is Thursday and, since it is one of those fortnightly Thursdays when the Purple Emperor has its Jam Sessions, I’m off to visit with my brother Alan. When I arrive in Harlow I shall hand the car over to Fred, who will give it a good service, something I’m pretty sure the previous owner hadn’t done for a while. He will not however, be changing the spark plugs – yes, it’s as old as that! – because they are about £10 each. It’s a Twin Spark engine you see, courtesy of Alfa Romeo. However, unlike normal cars that still use plugs, these will run for about 50,000 miles before they need replacing. I am hoping I have a good few thousand miles to go before that becomes necessary.

You’ll be pleased to know that, having found a further 30 or so new recipes, the two volumes are now almost complete. All I need to do now is add the About Page, the Introduction Page, the Foreword page and the Weights and Measures page. Apart from those and a few other fiddly bits, it’s done and dusted. You can’t wait to get your sticky hands on a copy, can you? Go on, admit it, you’re champing at the bit. Have no fear, a free copy will be sent to anybody who wants one, or I might bring them with me to the family yahoo. It’s in two volumes now and will come to you on a CD or DVD, I haven’t decided which just yet.

Sunday 14th February, St. Valentines Day and I do hope you have sent your beloveds some flowers, or have at least been a bit sloppy towards them. For myself I am well content in the fact that my other half gets a cuppa in bed every morning. I’ve got to be knocking up Old Nick before I’m afforded the same treatment. And I wouldn’t have it any other way because it leaves me to play with the laptop every morning.

Thursday went very well by the way, with some pretty good music and singing considering the fact it’s only a jam session. The last singer stood out as rather exceptional and came on stage with dark glasses. Whilst he didn’t sing like The Big O, and didn’t even sound like him, he certainly had a brilliant presence on stage. A bit of a bluesy style of singer.

No doubt our favourite pub will be well booked up for diners today, so we’ll have to get there as soon as they open if we want a seat.

A wee question for you, do you all still have a proper roast dinner on a Sunday? I only ask because, in recent weeks, due simply because we have a liquid lunch on Sundays, we tend to just have a snack in the evening. This could be as simple as an omelette with a baked spud, or a very small fry-up, or it could be just sausages with a couple of slices of toast. We’re more likely to indulge in a roast dinner mid week rather than Sunday.

Shopping at Morrison’s tomorrow and, since we missed it last week, Melton Mowbray on Tuesday.

Thursday 18th February and today we’re off to the chandlery at Shardlow. We are in desperate need of another aerial pole, because our aerial is just a wee bit too low to receive some of the Freeview programmes. We do actually have another pole but, due to a slip up on my part, one end of it has been cut short, and that is the end we need. We are also in need of a sealant for our windows, some of which leak a bit when it rains.

A few days ago the bulb in our fridge decided to blow itself out, which was most probably when I started the engine, without first isolating the mains power. It didn’t like the surge of extra power up it, obviously!

A few days ago whilst walking the dog, Wifey found some old Go-Kart tyres behind the workshop. Now, these are ideal as fenders and are much more robust than the rope ones that we are currently using. So, we asked Steve about them and were told to help ourselves. Now, when we go to Shardlow this morning, we’ll also be looking for a couple of Eye Bolts, which I will drill a hole in the tyre for and attach some rope to.

Tuesday was our day for Melton Mowbray, where we found even more books, even though we had promised ourselves that we would not be buying any this time. We could probably open a small library on the boat. My brother, on the other hand, could probably open a big library at home!

Yesterday Rusty was due for her booster jabs, so off we went to Sileby and the nearest vet. That’ll be another £57 please!

Thus far a pretty busy week but, hopefully, we can chill out tomorrow and the weekend.

Oh! Before I forget. I saw the Doctor on Tuesday regarding my visit to the hospital over six weeks ago, the result of said visit being another blood test. This test I will have to wait until 25th for, after which the good Doctor will decide upon a course of treatment. It seems the problem is not simply anaemia but is something to do with platelets.

It seems that the Surgeon I saw suspects that I have had a “bleed” somewhere in the gut, probably caused by painkillers, so he has told me to lay off the Ibuprofen. The operation cannot be carried out until this is sorted out.

If it looks like taking a long while to cure, then we will try to get in a few weeks cruising. It certainly doesn’t look like my knees will be replaced any time soon.

Friday 19th February and, after a virtual blizzard first thing this morning, we now have bright sunshine. Had it not decided to brighten up we probably not have bothered to go into Quorn. As it is we did so and I’m very happy that we did, because we managed to buy today’s Daily Mail, inside of which is the story of a five year old girl whose mother has received a letter from her child’s school that suggests she is obese.

Now, looking at this young girl’s photograph you would be hard pressed to think anything of the sort and so, as I didn’t have anything better to do, I checked out just what her BMI (Body Mass Index) should be. The formula for this, for those of you who do not know is: Weight in Kilos
(Height in metres)².
This little lady weighs just 23.13 Kilos and stands 1.143 Metres in her bare feet.

Now, when I worked this out as it should be worked out, her BMI is 17.71, which is well within the guidelines which, I believe, gives a figure of 25, at which point you are entering into the realms of obesity. Children, by the way, are assessed in the same way as adults. Go figure!!

However if, as I suspect, the idiots at her school used the formula Weight x height again; though why they should do
Height
so is difficult to comprehend; they would have come up with a figure of 23.13, which is fairly close to the 25 point limit. In any event this young lady is well below the limit and her mother should be complaining most bitterly to the board of governors at the school. Goodness knows how many other children’s parents have been sent such a letter and are now worrying themselves sick.

What’s this, a nine page blog? Goodness me, I’ll just have to post it and give you all something to do at the weekend. However, before I do so, perhaps one of you clever people could help me with a little problem. Naturally it is about this laptop, or rather the MS Word programme.

When we bought this machine I also purchased the 2007 version of Office Home and Student for half price. But when I got the package home, I discovered that the only useful programmes on the disc were Word and Excel, so I didn’t bother installing them. Instead I installed my 2003 version of Office, which has the lot and is completely compatible with Windows 2007.

The problem I have is that MS Word is very slow in opening and equally slow in closing. I should point out here, that I did install the 2007 Office later but, since it was no better than the 2003 version, have since uninstalled it again.

You will appreciate I’m sure that, since I am doing a great deal of work with this recipe book, there are times when I need to refer to Word documents, and it’s really frustrating having to wait an interminable amount of time trying to access information vital to the job at hand.

So, if you can suggest an answer to the problem I would really appreciate the help.

Incidentally, Word 2007 is just as slow.

Now, let’s see if I can get online!!

Bye for now.

Dave, Sheila and Rusty.

Oops! No dice. 3G is not cooperating today, probably because all the little blisters are on half-term and are crowding the ether.

Posted Saturday instead. Cheers!!