Pillings Lock Marina 2010 #5

Pillings Lock Marina 2010#5

Friday 5th March and another frosty but sunny morning.

Yesterday, whilst attempting to get rid of as much superfluous material on the laptop prior to a full recovery, I inadvertently deleted the necessary Key Info for my eBook programme. I therefore had to contact the company, yet again, with yet another problem. It’s just as well that I’ve already sweetened them with a copy of my recipe book. This morning, I’m very pleased to say, that info arrived in an email and I can now use the programme again.

The trouble is that, if the Key Info is not present, the programme will only run in Demo mode, which limits what can be done with it in terms of chapters and pages. All is now well and I must now save this blog to my external HDD for future use, because later today, hopefully, I will be able to carry out the System Recovery and reinstall all the other programmes I need.

4.25 pm and I have spent the last 3 hours faffing about with the laptop, again! The plan was to recover the HDD back to when we bought the wretched thing. This was not a very good idea because, despite having made a Recovery Disc on the day of purchase, this infernal machine does not recognise it as such. After going through all the proper moves to achieve a complete recovery and, having inserted the correct DVD, the screen just stays blank. I swear I can see a slight lifting of the corners in a sneer. I am not amused.

Anyway, whilst deciding what to do next, with the additional brainpower of my better half, it suddenly occurred to said better half, that perhaps the machine refuses to allow me to carry out a recovery, because there’s nothing wrong with the system!!. Well, would you Adam and Eve it?

So, after about 3 hours we then decided to simply uninstall Outlook 2007 and reinstall the 2003 Office suite. This too was not a very good idea, because Outlook 2003 would not work. It seems there is still a .dll file missing or corrupt.

Not to be put off by such trivia, we then went back to the help screen of the 2003 DVD and clicked on the button that asks if you would like to alter the settings and, lo and behold I discover, much to my amazement, that individual programmes can be eliminated from the set up. Out went Outlook.

We are now cooking with gas and do not seem to have any obvious conflicts between programmes. Even this darling little cursor is actually keeping pace with my typing. Whooppee!!!!

Saturday 6th March and it is a much milder morning, but I’m sure that the silly weather people told us to expect sharp frost. Ah well, they got the ‘bar-b-q-summer’ wrong and they certainly got the winter forecast wrong too.

Yesterday evening, at about 6.30, we joined a few other boaters for a fish supper at the restaurant. Well, that’s what they like to call it! It’s more like a lounge come staff canteen, but you know what I mean. I’m told that the manager and part-owner of the place wants it to resemble a Brighton gay bar, but that’s only hearsay.

Anyway, I have to say that the meal was very good and, coming with a bottle of Mexican lager called Corona, at £4.95 was very good value for money. It even included a good portion of Mushy Peas.

Unfortunately, after returning to the boat and watching a bit of telly, I forgot my pre-bedtime jab. I’m on a new Insulin regime now, which includes 3 jabs during the day of 1 type and another at night of another. The pre-bedtime one is, of course, the most important one, because it is designed to bring down my first reading of the day, and it can’t do that if I don’t take it. Goodness knows what this mornings reading will be; probably off the scale!

Monday 8th March and we’ve had a really cold night. This morning though has dawned bright and sunny. Indeed, the weather man tells us to expect a few dry days, and so with that info to hand, we plan on turning the boat around so as to plug the leaks in our windows.

We have a tube of Capt. Tolley’s Creeping Crack Cure, which has to be applied at 30 minute intervals, and this is easiest carried out with the recalcitrant side of the boat against the decking. The leaks have been there for some time now, so it’s best we fill them asap and before the next downpour. Without the leaks we can leave the windows closed during heavy rain and high winds. If we leave them as they are, we have to leave the windows open and allow the rain to drip down the outside, instead of on the carpet.

Shopping day today, at Morrison’s in Loughborough first though, must get some of their lovely meat pies.

Tuesday 9th March and, if I’m not mistaken, the 70th birthday of an old friend called Brian Willis. How strange to remember him when I don’t think I’ve set eyes on him for at least 10 years, and probably more. He it was who befriended me on our very first day in Harlow, far away from the stink and mess of East London. I shudder to even think of those dreadful days. But that’s a story for another time.

This morning we trotted off to Melton Mowbray, as is our wont every couple of weeks or so. This time though, after may attempts we finally found the socks I’ve been looking for. Such a mundane subject, as I’m sure you’ll agree, but these are lovely, warm socks without elasticated tops. Being diabetic my circulation is not as good as it was, so loose fitting socks are best if I’m to avoid further problems of that nature. Much to my dismay I fear I am growing old, and I’m not doing so with very much grace.

The recipe book is finished and safely tucked away inside the laptop. The question I now have to find an answer to, is how best to sell it. I’ve already sent a copy to Kim who’s the nice lady that’s been advising me with regards to compiling it. Her remarks about the book, including the fact that it’s the best eBook she’s seen using their programme, gave me some encouragement. As did the remarks fro my good friend Glo, who was most impressed with the ease with which the recipes can be followed.

My first thought was to sell it on eBay, especially on eBay.com, because there are many folks in the States who are simply crying out for information about the ‘old country’. But I’m wondering if I shouldn’t go the whole hog and set up a small website, which I could promote through Yahoo Groups and other such places. Equally, I could send the files to a print-on- demand company, who would turn the files into a physical book and sell it for me. Whilst I think about it some more, why don’t you lot also give it some thought?

Wednesday 10th March and except for a trip out for a few bags of coal, we really don’t have much to do today.

Yesterday our trip to Melton Mowbray produced a copy of Terry Wogan’s biography for the princely sum of £3, along with another cheapo paperback for £1.50. These charity shops can be really useful at times.

Also, whilst checking my recipe book yesterday, I discovered a few recipes that did not appear in the Table of Contents. This is probably because I assumed, quite wrongly as it turned out, that any additions to a chapter would automatically find themselves included. And so dear Glo and Sandra, both of whom already have a copy, you may find more recipes in certain chapters than are actually listed in the TOC. Won’t that be a nice surprise?

You may remember that in the past I have mentioned the Pirates of the Public Domain, a very nice couple who spend their time scouring Public Domain content that they can use to re-package and sell. On the subject of selling A Taste of England it occurred to me that, just maybe, instead of setting up a full website, I might be able to set up a mini-site, which is simply a Sales Page and a Download Page. I will be checking with the Pirates and what they have to say about such things. I know they have a book about it, so it must be on my external hard drive.

Thursday 11th March and, after a very frosty start, the sun is out and it looks set to be a bright day. We have nothing better to do than pop into Quorn to pick up prescriptions, and Loughborough to Tesco so that Wifey can spend a £5 voucher.

Having decided to start out slowly with the selling of the recipe book, I am now in the process of making a .pdf version. This is because the programme I’ve used to make the original does not support Mac computers, whereas .pdf documents can be read on any platform. Even those people with Macs must eat, so I’ve gotta get ‘em, ne c’est pas?, as Poirot would say.

I’ve actually been looking at the possibility of putting up a mini web site, but it seems to me that this will take an awful lot of effort, not to mention money. However, if anybody out there is able and, more to the point willing, to help me achieve this objective, don’t be shy now, please let me know.

Friday 11th March and it’s been a pretty miserable one weather wise, with mostly cloud and some rain. We haven’t done much to write home about, not unless you consider going out to buy some coal and topping up with water to be worthy of consideration.

We have been listening to Radio 2 though because, since we always catch The One Show at 7 pm, we have been following Christine Bleakley’s preparations for crossing the Channel on a pair of water skis. She must be absolutely nuts but, since it was for Sport Relief and, as of yesterday evening she had already raised over £¼ Million, I suppose she can be forgiven her nutty nature. Anyway, if you are not a follower, she fell about eight times during the 22 mile crossing, but she completed the trip in about 1 hour and 40 minutes. Bloody good show I say! I have to wonder though, just how soon will it be before somebody else has a go, just to get into the Guinness Book of Records?

Sunday 14th March and it’s Mother’s Day, NOT as our American cousins would have it, Mothering Sunday. That’s an Americanism which, for some unfathomable reason, everybody and his dog has taken on board. I hate such things! I also hate those people who insist on using metric measurements, especially in food menus, when there is no legal requirement to do so.

Now, The Hairy Bikers have turned out an excellent recipe book called “Mums Know Best”, but all of the recipes are in metric quantities. Why? Don’t these boys like being British? When you receive your copy of my very own recipe book which, as you already know, is called “A Taste of England”, you will not find a single mention of metric quantities. Why? Because it’s an English language book and as such deserves to be completely and utterly English. I have, however, included a conversion page, just for those of you who have been brainwashed into accepting dictats from the Euro Monsters!! Nuff said!

Incidentally, I have also converted it to a .pdf file, which is available for users of Mac machines.

We were supposed to be going to an indoor boot sale yesterday. But, since my lady wife seems to have lost the ability to read, we seem to have missed it by a week. Not to worry though, I will cry in my beer today to pacify myself at the loss.

Thursday 18th March and the week seems to have flown, so much so that I’ve had no time to update the blog until now.

So, what has happened this week? Well, to be honest, not much really. On Tuesday I attended my 11.30 appointment at Glenfield Hospital, where I was told that I might only have one of my knees replaced. I think I showed my sincere displeasure at this, especially when the same surgeon had already explained that, so long as the anaesthetist was happy with my state of health, he would be happy to replace both at the same time. Anyway, having waited for over an hour past our appointment time to be told this, I was then sent for a pinprick; to see if my iron count was O.K.; followed by an X-Ray, so that the surgeon could determine by how much my knees had deteriorated since I last had X-Rays carried out over a year ago. He only had to ask, I could have told him that easily enough.

This afternoon Wifey should have been walking into Loughborough with Marion. She it is who lives in the next boat to us, with her Hubby Brian. Unfortunately, she works on the site and had a little more to do than she expected. If she’s not too busy tomorrow then the trip will be on again.

A couple of days ago I sent a copy of my recipe book to my Pirate friends in the States and received a most encouraging reply from them, to the effect that I should get it out for sale as soon as I can, because they think it will sell well over there. The Pirates are a fellow named Logan and his business partner Debra, who run their business selling material that is in the Public Domain. Hence they call themselves “Pirates of the Public Domain”. I’ve been a member of their site for over a year now, which is why I’ve spent so much time with the book.

Today I had planned to list it on eBay.com but, since I still have to sort out a decent front cover photograph to list with the other details, I now intend to leave it until next week. I have tried editing the material I already have, but have been unable to save it properly. I also tried saving the actual picture of the front of the book as it comes up on the screen. But, for some odd reason, it comes out as a negative.

What I have now done is to download a free Screen capture programme, which seems to work OK, but the file is far too big for eBay to use. So, since another week is not going to make much difference, I’m now going to do the job next Wednesday. Why Wednesday? Well, I want the auction to end on Saturday in the US, and I want it to run for 10 days, so I need to post it on Wednesday afternoon in order to ensure that my American bidders are all out of bed during the final minutes of the auction.

I am now going ne and post this blog because we are coming into Harlow on Saturday and there’s always the chance I shall forget to do it tomorrow.

See you all at the family do on Sunday.

Dave, Sheila and Rusty, who will spending two night in our local kennels.