Shiralee: Winter 2012/13 # 4

Wednesday 14th November


We took the bus into Derby this morning with the express intention of purchasing new jeans for me and jeans plus a top for Wifey. Having spent two hours there, a half hour of which was sitting and waiting for the bus back, all we had to show for our time was a pair of jeans for me. And I thought I was the difficult!

Having failed to find what she needed in Derby, upon our return to the boat Wifey dug out the laptop and had a look online, which was when she had one of her good, senior moments. Whilst looking up Cotton Traders Store Location she discovered that they have an outlet at the garden centre in Findern, which is a five minute drive from the marina. Guess where we’re headed tomorrow?

Thursday 15th November

Something I forgot to mention yesterday has just come to mind. We were obliged to sit across the aisle from each other on the bus to town because it was so full, most unusual for midweek. Anyway, I sat next to an elderly lady, who soon started up a conversation with me, talking about family and such. (I’ve never been chatted up on a bus before!)

One of the amusing anecdotes she related was about her granddaughter, who is at pre-school and who asked her mum if teachers were very clever. When her mum suggested that perhaps they were and why she had asked, her reply was, “Well, they don’t seem to know much, because they’re always asking us if we know the answers” How cute is that then?

This same lady has also given us the names of another five good watering holes, let’s see if I can remember them all. There’s The Bull and the Mount Pleasant in Repton, The Unicorn in Eton Solney and The Sump, which is just as you’re entering Burton. There’s also one in Willington which used to be a Scout Hut, or some such, but has now been turned into a pub. However, we both agreed that The Boot, in Repton, was a pub best avoided.

Our first port of call today; even before we visit Cotton Traders; will be the shop on site to see if our TV has arrived. In fact, it should have been at the Post Office yesterday.

Friday 16th November

Everything went well yesterday, a most unusual event for us, because there’s always something that doesn’t quite meet expectations.

Firstly, Wifey popped across to the shop for the Mail and returned with our new TV which, we thought we would have to collect from the Post Office. We then decided to see if the new cartridge was going to cure our problematic printer and, lo and behold, that also worked well.

Later in the day we took a trip into Findern Garden Centre and Cotton Traders where Wifey managed to find a pair of jeans and a top for less than the £40 our neighbour paid her for her guitar. All in all a successful day.

One of the first things we did after buying Shiralee, was to purchase some rubber matting with which to cover the back and front steps, but this is now wearing through so we’re taking a run into The Range today for some new stuff. I’ll also be looking for a suitable sized piece of carpet to lay under my car mat, which slides about somewhat, because the original backing carpet is missing.

I finally downloaded a few video guitar courses yesterday and practised the first lesson of the Fingerstyle set. This one, I’m pleased to say, came quite easy to me, and the next one doesn’t look too difficult either. I also have videos for Folk and Rock ‘n’ Roll, so I’m not lacking in variation. Sadly it’s a bit late for me to become a rock star, but I will be able to keep busy, especially when I add the pastel painting to the ‘free time’ pot.

Saturday 17th November

After Andy lubricated the gear cable and linkages and returned the car, I can’t say I was impressed with the result. The gears certainly didn’t seem to be any easier to slip into. But, as Andy said, the ball ends of the cables were well and truly seized, so it could take some time for the lubrication to work its magic. By yesterday morning the gears were a little better, so I’m hopeful that more improvement is on the way.

Today we have rain; in fact we had rain all night long; so I don’t suppose we’ll be going anywhere this morning, which gives me some time for guitar practice. I’m concentrating on the Fingerstyle at present but, with all the freebies Mike sends, which I find it difficult to ignore, my ‘music’ folder is becoming rather full. There’s no point jumping from one style to another if I’m going to get anywhere, so I’m staying with finger style. I can always check the other stuff out if and when I become more proficient at the one style of playing.

Sunday 18th November

Now, what do you think the following photo can be? Is it really a loaf of bread?

Purchased from Morrison's Hmmm!
Not very good for toasting either

The last loaf we had, which was a split tin wholemeal from Sainsbury’s, fell apart when I cut it. Well, the side under the top crust fell away, which amounts to the same thing. Do these stores actually employ professional bakers, I wonder?

A heavy frost this morning, which makes it kinda difficult when taking Rusty for a walk, because the wooden pontoons can be pretty lethal when they have a coating of frost on them.

Monday 19th November

We decided to pay a visit to The Bull at Repton yesterday lunchtime, until we saw the amount of cars in the car park that is. At 12.10 pm it was chock-a-block, so we went to The Red Lion instead. Next week perhaps we’ll take a run into Newton Solney and The Unicorn.

After the heavy frost yesterday, followed by a bright, sunny day, we’ve had rain for most of the night and this morning, although the rain has stopped, we do have a strong wind. What a shame, I was going to wash the car today!

Wednesday 21st November

Piddling down, absolutely piddling! More flood warnings on the way, I have no doubt

Yesterday we finally got rid of our two broken televisions. I also bought a new set of strings for the Eko guitar. This thing has been with me for quite some time. My sister Carole had it at her place for several years while I ‘borrowed’ her jumbo, also an Eko, but the jumbo size is far too big for sitting at our dinette, which is where I practice, so we swapped back a couple of years ago.

The one I have has now had a good clean up and the machine heads have been greased, so it should be good for another few years yet. They were very sturdily built were those Ekos, I think I had mine from my RAF days and, if it is then it only cost me 10/, that’s 50 pence in new money. My classical guitar is going to get the same treatment soon.

Friday 23rd November

Well now, as I’m going into Harlow tomorrow for the weekend, I thought I would post this blog, but first I needed to download that photo from Wifey’s camera. This is normally kept in her handbag, and that’s the first place I looked. But, it didn’t seem to be there.

OK, so, it’s time to take her a cuppa, so I asked where she’d hidden it. “It’s in my bag!” she said, as if it could possibly be anywhere else. “Nope!”, said I. “Well then, if it’s not there, I haven’t a clue”.

So, I turned out here nick-nack box, but no sign of camera. I then took another look in her hand bag, but still no deal, until I pulled out her notebook, and there it was. Now, I know I’m always having problems finding things that I’ve put away in a safe place. Don’t we all? But I have to ask myself, how do you hide a camera in a small handbag? This secret is only known to women with small handbags.

Anyway, you will already have seen the photo on an earlier page, but this did give me a problem, albeit a small one.

Have a good weekend folks.

Dave, Sheila and Pooch.

Shiralee: Winter 2012/13 # 3

Monday 5th November


I now have two full instruction books from Emma, one of which is her portrait, the other being the caravan. If, or when, I finish this sunset scene, I have no doubt Emma will send me her full book of this one. What I am really looking forward to, once I have finished this and the next exercise, is knuckling down to a painting of my own, which will give me plenty to occupy myself during the rest of our winter stay at Mercia and throughout our cruise in 2013.

Later……

Our trip into Burton this morning included a visit to Ryman’s to check prices of HP Inkjet cartridges for the machine Chris gave us. Having checked the printer out yesterday and found all cartridges empty or dried up, we have to buy some new ones just to run a test. However, the pack of genuine cartridges would have cost about £80 in total; there are six cartridges altogether. No way, Jose!

So, after lunch I decided to take a look at what’s on offer at eBay and, surprise, surprise, there were several dealers offering a variety of different selections. We eventually settled on ‘compatible’ cartridges, of triple capacity, for just £6.99 with free p&p. It seems pointless buying the genuine article just in order to test the printer out.

Watch this space for further details.

Tuesday 6th November

Our car is going in to the workshop today to have the gearbox checked out. So, I’ve just sent a query for the part we may need and await quotes for same. Andy probably has his own suppliers, but I don’t want to pay through the nose for them.

Wednesday 7th November

Quotes for gearbox linkage came back yesterday afternoon and ranged from £40 to £170. However, since Andy is unable to replace the parts until next week and, since I would prefer him to phone the traders concerned, just to ensure they are offering the correct parts, I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.

We decided to put Rusty back on the medication that we were given earlier in the year by a vet on our travels. She now seems to have a new lease of life and, in fact she’s driving us potty with her fidgets. She can’t seem to keep still and wants to be going out every five minutes. But she still sleeps through the night, so, how does that work? How come she wants to pee a thousand times a day, yet she can hold it in for 10 hours during the night? Do dogs semi-hibernate at night time? Can they shut off all feelings of discomfiture when it suits them and, if that’s the case, why can’t they do so during the day?

For the answer to these and other questions, don’t ask me!!

Friday 9th November

We received our cartridges for the HP printer this morning. After installing all six we received an error message on the printer screen telling us that the yellow cartridge was missing, or damaged. We tried fitting the old one, but the message then said the cartridge was old, or some such. Anyway, since we don’t know if this is a problem with the printer or cartridge, I asked Chris if he had experienced similar problems, but he hadn’t. So, I rushed off a message to the seller, asking if he would send another yellow, for which I would be happy to pay. As yet I have had no reply, but these things can take time.

After dashing off my message, we removed all the cartridges and compared the connections, and found that the yellow was not of the same configuration as the others, so we rather suspect the seller has sent the wrong one here. When I get a reply from him I will explain this to him. Meanwhile, we wait and see.

Saturday 10th November

Once again we popped into Burton yesterday and, on the way there, called into our favourite butcher’s in Repton for a pork pie, because theirs is just about the best I have tasted. We left that shop about £17 lighter! Gotta stay away from that place!

This year we are being treated to a regular Friday evening visit of a fish and chip van. Yesterday evening we enjoyed the best ever fish and chips that we had tasted, even better than Whitby, if you can believe that. I asked for, and received, two pieces of fish and one large portion of chips. The fish hung over the sides of our plates and half the portion of chips had to be put in a bowl, because we couldn’t get them on the plates. Wifey suggests I order one piece of fish and a small portion of chips next time. Yummeee!!

Sunday 11th November

We are now awaiting the replacement yellow cartridge for the HP printer. I have also received a reply to my request for the replacement, in which the seller has suggested a few things to try in order to get the printer to accept them. However, having swapped a different colour for the failed yellow and seeing that fail too, we are of the opinion that the printer is at fault, not the cartridge. It could just be clogged up at that point due to lack of use, which would mean trying to clear said blockage. We may yet have the thing sorted, but it’s looking less and less likely at this point.

Now, over all the years that I’ve owned a guitar, I’ve never succeeded is really playing it. Of course I can strum and follow the music in a classical tutorial, but I’ve always arrived at a spot where my ability is less than adequate to complete the piece.

Hopefully this situation is about to change for the better, because my next door neighbour has loaned me a DVD that he bought from a guitarist named Mike Herberts and, I have to say, I am very impressed. But, although this is an excellent DVD, it is aimed at strumming along to popular songs, whereas I would prefer a finger-picking style of playing, as per classical guitar.

Now, having visited Mike’s site, I have discovered several DVDs that fit the bill but, the ones I want are all download files, which, for me and my dongle, would take forever. The alternative to downloading them myself, is to do so through Alan’s Ethernet connection when I next visit heim

Later…….

Privet hedges cause of Ash Dieback??

Oh really??

This was an article in the Mail on Sunday this morning. Well now, just how long have privet hedges been a part of the British landscape? I remember them well from my youth, because virtually every garden; front and back; had them as separators between gardens, long before the wooden, or chain-link fence were ever used.

All of which obviously begs the question, why have these hedges not caused problems with Ash trees in the past? Has it really taken hundreds of years for Ash trees to suddenly be prone to attack by Privet spoors?

Birmingham City Council has been in the news recently. Apparently they have not been paying their female workers the same as their male workers for similar jobs. In fact, what they have been guilty of is not paying their females the same for jobs within the same pay scale. From what I have seen, this stupid Council allowed care workers to be classified as equal to refuse collectors. How daft was that?

BCC are now threatened with having to pay out around £750 million in com-pen-say-shun to these female workers. The inevitable result of these payouts will be more job losses. Do these women care? I very much doubt it, just so long as they can lay their greasy hands on some unearned dosh.

G4

Ah! that new Internet thingy, which supposedly has all the bells and whistles and, quite probably will download files before you actually double click on them. Unfortunately there’s a fly in this ointment. Well, there would be, wouldn’t there?

It seems that rather than set the transmitters up with sensible frequencies, you know those that won’t interfere with any other wireless frequencies, what do they do? Why, they use frequencies that are not only very close to those already being used to transmit TV programmes, they will actually block them out for thousands of viewers. Not only that, it’s going to cost millions of pounds to compensate those people who lose their reception. Aren’t they great?

Andy took the car away yesterday and applied lubrication to the gear change cables. I was hoping that this would make a big difference, because, apparently this is a common problem. It seems that when the gear linkages are assembled lubricant is applied and, over time, that lubricant dries out.

Huh! So far, after a ride out to Swadlingcote for my eye test, the difference is minimal, if at all. Perhaps the lubrication needs time to work its magic, so I’ll give it more time before asking Andy to have another look.

Meanwhile, I awoke at about 4.45 this morning and, realising I still had another half hour of kip, turned over and dozed off. As I expected, I re-awake at 5.15, had a wash and got dressed and, since Rusty was awake, took her for a walk. I saw a couple of people that I wouldn’t normally bump into at that time of morning, and thought nothing of it.

Even the fact that it was now getting lighter didn’t register in my newly awoken brain. However, on arriving back at the boat, I gave Rusty a treat and sat down at the laptop to enjoy my first cuppa of the day and then, taking a quick glance at my watch, I saw that it was now 7 o/clock. Ooops! Wifey should have had her cup of tea half an hour ago. I have never, ever overslept by an hour before. Shame on me!

I have successfully, albeit slowly, now downloaded all those guitar lessons I mentioned earlier. All I have to do now is get stuck in and rally LEARN. First stop is the course called Progressive Fingerpicking, my preferred method. I also have Folk and Rock ‘n’ Roll stuff, but they will come later.

My next door neighbour, Steve, offered his ‘3’ Wi Fi gadget which, he tells me, is so much faster than the dongle. So, why have I not been offered this before when I’ve upgraded?

Anyway, for some odd reason, despite having Wi Fi on this laptop, I couldn’t connect to this unit. So, that’s another problem to sort out.

And that’s that for this one but, just to show you what we expect later in the year, here are a couple of winter photos at Mercia Marina.

All the best from:

Dave, Sheila and Rusty.

Shiralee: Winter 2012/13 #2

Wednesday 31st October


Yesterday we drove into Burton where I managed to find a decent pair of shoes at Clarke’s. Now, I’m not one for spending huge amounts of money on footwear, but I do like to own at least one pair of comfortable, waterproof shoes. This pair set me back £50 but, had they been at the ‘correct’ price of £99, I certainly wouldn’t have bought them.

I already have a stout pair of waterproof boots that I wear when cruising, and I have several other pairs of shoes, none of which I can say for a fact are waterproof. Surely even the cheapest of ordinary walking shoes should be waterproof, but that’s not always the case unfortunately.

The Sunday supplements run an ad for two pairs of shoes for the price of one, usually at a total cost of £30 or so. But I haven’t seen that ad lately, and that’s a great pity because, having bought them in the past and found them to be comfortable and waterproof and, what’s more, lasting for a good 12 month, I would dearly like to get some more. So, where are they?

Today I’m going into Burton again, this time to have a couple of pictures enlarged to A3. Why I didn’t think of it earlier I don’t know, but Ryman’s have a photocopy service and are able to enlarge from A4 to A3, which is very useful for my current ‘sunset’ project and for the next one, a picture of ‘Shiralee’ when we were moored at Luddington, on the River Avon, back in 2008.

The following is the pastel I’m working on now, and the one below is the Luddington one.

Sunset at Giffard Park on the Grand Union

Shiralle at Luddington 2008

Yet another iconic British institution is being sold off, this time it’s Branston Pickle. When will this decimation of British businesses stop? Foreign companies already own a huge chunk of British companies, with Cadbury’s sold to America’s Kraft Foods only a short while ago, with the promise of no job losses, only for them to close down a factory here only two years later.

When is a British government going to put a stop to this disgrace? We’ve already lost all our heavy industry: cars and shipbuilding to name just two; now it seems nothing is sacred and anything is fair game for foreign companies to snap up.

Friday 2nd November

Another early morning wake-up call from our Rusty, this time at 04.30. This is becoming more and more regular now, which means we’re going to have to get her to the vet again. I can’t imaging what he’ll come up with this time, but the antibiotics only worked for a short while earlier this year. We’ve tried changing her diet, but that’s had no effect at all.

We can almost tell, the day before it happens, because unlike a normal evening, where she will hover around looking for scraps from our evening meal, if she’s heading for a tummy upset she’ll stay in her bed and ignore the smell of food.

Savile

So now Freddie Starr has now been arrested as a result of the police investigation into Savile’s behaviour. Sorry, alleged behaviour. Who’s next I wonder? Even the bankers holding JS’s millions have frozen them pending the outcome. So, the £3M earmarked for charities will not now go to them. Instead a whole bunch of money grabbers are lining up for their share of com-pen-sa-shun!

There’s one certain way of discovering the truth. All we need is just one woman to step up and PROVE, with DNA testing, that the child she bore is a result of being raped by JS. Otherwise I see no actual proof of any misdeeds by this man ever emerging. It’s a bit like a person being charged with murder, when there is no body. All circumstantial!

Only one bunch of people will come out of this any the richer, lawyers. Anyone who actually wins in a court case will come away with a pittance once the legal people take their cut, and the charities will go without. Well, I mean to say, all these claimants want is JUSTICE! Don’t they?

Saturday 3rd November

What a great start to the day, no service on the dongle and horrible, icy rain to boot. This is probably down to the icy weather, as the dongle is on the roof of the boat. Yesterday evening it worked just fine, this morning, useless.

Later…..

I gave it a few hours and tried again and we now have full service. However, there is still one fly in the ointment, Emma seems unable to send pdf documents to me. She is receiving a message telling her my mailbox is full. Of course, it is not, as I emptied all mailboxes when she first had this problem. Absolute email have been informed and will, no doubt, offer a reason and, I hope, a solution, otherwise it’s over to Yahoo.

The weather has now brightened up and we have full sunshine, although it is still a bit chilly.

Sunday 4th November

Another frosty start to the morning and heavy clouds overhead, which could mean snow.

Yesterday, after a conversation about computing with our neighbour Chris, he popped along later and asked if I would like his printer. We already have a cheap Epson, which is sufficient for our needs but, since his one is an HP and has six colour cartridges, as opposed to the Epson’s four, I popped along to his boat and had a look.

Well, I was very surprised to note that, although the HP is older than our Epson, it has far more features and cost him over £100. What could I do but accept his kind offer? All I have to do is purchase the cartridges; he tells me they are probably dry, because he has rarely used it; and away we go.

I’ve had a few problems with receiving lessons from Emma of late. Even though I have my incoming mail set to delete after five days on my server, it seems my Inbox was filling up too fast for a couple of her lessons to get through. Also, the finished ‘Caravan’ instruction book was too big to be accepted; my message limit is 20 Mb and the book was just short of that. Not to worry though, I still have a Yahoo account and have asked Emma to send it there.

Monday 5th November

My Aunt Mabel’s 90 something birthday today and, finally, after many requests by her family, she has moved back to Harlow, bringing her closer to them. Of course, nobody thought we other relatives needed to know she had moved, so all birthday greetings are now sitting on the doormat in her bungalow in Jaywick.

Now, back to that elusive book from Emma. This is the earlier one of the caravan, which my server would not accept because of its almost 20Mb size. There’s a lot to be said for Yahoo then, because she sent it to my address there where it was accepted without fuss or bother.

As for my ‘Sunset’ effort, well, up until I tried to add a second boat to the scene, it wasn’t looking too bad. However, my attempt at drawing a narrow boat looks more like a nursery school kid’s crayon job!! So, back to Emma for more advice, although, I’m seriously considering omitting that second boat and carrying on without it.

Meanwhile, Andy and Sandy are back from their run up the Coventry and Ashby canals, so Andy will collect the car on Tuesday and see what needs to be done regarding the gearbox. This means I will have to go and pick up a set of cartridges today for the printer Chris gave us. We do try to make Mondays our ‘big’ shop day, so it will be killing two birds with one stone today.

Meanwhile, all the best to you all.

Dave, Sheila and, a still poorly, Rusty.