Shiralee: Winter 2012/13 # 7

Sunday 23rd December


I paid a pre-Christmas visit to Harlow on Friday. This included a stop off to visit Les and Colette and the usual scrounged cuppa and a chat. When you read this, I do hope you had a good time at Christmas and enjoy a pleasurable and easy going 2013.

Alan and I were supposed to be meeting his workmates in Old Harlow that lunchtime but, for some reason this was called off, so we popped along to the White Admiral pub, which has been run by the same woman for the past 30 years. Her name is Les and, when her and her husband Dave Roberts took it on, they were pretty successful. Some years ago Dave passed away and Les has a new partner named Ray.

Monday evenings at the Admiral are always pretty busy, probably because the beer is only £2 per pint. Friday and Saturday evenings are also pretty busy, but that’s because it’s such a darn good pub to spend a few hours in. The Admiral has always been a family pub and, I’m pleased to say, it still is. There are very few now that can claim that distinction.

The drive home on Saturday morning, all 135 miles of it, was horrendous, with rain all the way. This was probably the worst driving I have ever experienced, unless you consider a 100 mile trip in the back of a Mercedes, with my life in the hands of an African mine worker back in the late 60s. Now, that was an experience never to be forgotten. The speed that man reached, sometimes on nothing but dirt tracks had to be seen to be believed, scary doesn’t even come near to describing it.

Tuesday 25th December Christmas Day

Quite a few boaters have gone away for the next couple of days and our immediate neighbours have driven up to Blackpool, so we won’t hear anything from them. It’s another quiet Christmas for us this year and, to be honest, we rather prefer it that way.

Wednesday 26th December, Boxing Day

Christmas Day turned out to be most enjoyable, with a sudden urge to visit a pub in Willington. Had we known about the roast spuds and pigs in blankets, we probably wouldn’t have had to cook a proper Christmas dinner. Well, you know what I mean!

Apart from the dinner though, Christmas day was much like any Sunday, except it was Tuesday, which kinda messes things up for the rest of the week. Personally, I think Christmas Day should always come on a weekend, like Easter does. But, of course, that would spoil it for folks who still go to work, because they wouldn’t have all those extra days off. Shame!!

I had intended to back up the laptop this morning but, as usual, I was inundated with emails, all of which need to be replied to or dumped and so, once that’s been sorted, I don’t now have enough time before Wifey gets up.

Dinner today will be cold meat and bubble ’n’ squeak with pickles, our usual Boxing Day fare. No doubt we’ll finish off the bottle of wine from yesterday.

Thursday 27th December

Well, that’s it for another year. Christmas is over and the New Year is almost upon us. As usual, we will not be sitting up to see it in. It’s going to come anyway, now that the End of the World scare has fizzled out, so why wait to welcome it?

We still have loads of turkey left over from the crown Alan bought us and we still have a bacon joint to cook, so we won’t go without food for a while. Yesterday was the usual cold turkey and bubble, along with pickles and pickled onions. Lovely!

Saturday 29th December

Well, we are having fun at the marina. We have gale force winds and it’s been raining for most of the night. There are still loads of flood warnings in place up here in Derbyshire, as there are further south of us.

Yesterday we popped into Burton and whilst walking around the shops I spotted an Acer laptop in the display window of the newest electronics second hand shop. This is very similar to the Cash Converter shops, but laid out in a far more professional manner. Most of the items on sale are games and mobile phones, but the Acer gave us pause for thought.

At £310 it seemed a bit high priced for a second hand unit, and so we decided to check it out online and found a company that sell refurbished laptops with the same item for £270. However, when reading up on this particular model, a V3-531, some of the comments were pretty off-putting and we were not too impressed.

We then looked further down the list of items and found a Sony VAIO for the same price. I have now scanned the Internet for comparison prices between the two and have discovered that the Sony is usually priced at about £200 more than the Acer. Also, the spec on the VAIO is much higher and has Windows 7 Professional installed – we’ve read too many adverse reports about Win 8 to even think about any laptop with it installed. Besides, I don’t like touch screens, any more than I like touch pads, much preferring a mouse. I’m a wee bit old fashioned in that respect.

I had a touch screen phone for a very short while and every time I attempted to scroll to the item I wanted, the damn thing would open up on the first thing I touched. Similarly with the touch pad on the laptop, so I prefer to stick with the mouse. Maybe I’m a bit ham-fisted.

So, later today, rather than re-formatting the Toshiba, I’ll be purchasing the refurbished Sony. At £270 and with Win 7 Pro installed, I think this is a very fair price, and it comes with a 3 month guarantee.

Sunday 30th December

Well, we took the plunge yesterday and ordered the Sony laptop. But, we then had a bit of a scare. You know how it is when shopping online, especially when buying from a new source? You are never really sure if they are Kosher until you receive the goods.

As soon as the order went through I received confirmation along with the order number and destination. To my dismay; and that of my missus; the email suggested that not only was this Order #2, but that the billing address and destination were the same, but it wasn’t our address. Ooops! I really thought we had hit a bummer there and had parted with £270 for nothing.

Now, under normal circumstances I would not have included my mobile number on an online form but, for some reason best known to my brain’s inner workings, I did so on this occasion, which was just as well. Thinking perhaps that this may have been a con job I immediately emailed the site and threatened to cancel the order if they didn’t contact me immediately. This, by the way, had been paid through PayPal, so it’s pretty secure from con artists.

When I took another look at the actual Order Form on their site I realised that the two addresses I mentioned above were actually the address of the company. Anyway, the man did phone me later in the day and apologised for the flap his confirmation email had caused. Naturally he blamed it on a computer glitch and assured me that the item would be posted off that afternoon. So, we should have our new laptop by Wednesday or Thursday of this week.

Hallelujah I say, this Toshiba is really becoming a pain in the ‘you know what’! All it really needs though is a total reformatting and reset to its original factory settings, which I shall do just as soon as the Sony arrives. After which I shall put it up for sale. Also I will then be able to grab the dongle upgrade or, assuming the WiFi is working, perhaps take their WiFi dongle instead.

Monday 31st December

Yesterday we popped along to our usual watering hole in Repton. Sadly, due to the flooded fields around here, there were none of the football lads in, so no chip butties. However, while we were sitting there my dear brother phoned, ostensibly to ask for our Aunt Mabel’s new address in Harlow. He was picking our sister Carole up and dropping her off there.

After telling him the address he then imparted some good news. Over the Christmas period the White Admiral pub ran a Lottery Bonus Ball competition of their own, something they have been doing for several years, probably since the Lottery started. Anyway, Alan bought four tickets, one each for himself, Valerie, Jason, his eldest son, and me. One of those tickets came up trumps and, after deducting the £10 ticket cost, we’re all £112.50p the richer.

So, after refurbishing the Toshiba and selling that on, with the lottery cash I have almost paid for the Sony, which means I can start building up my slush fund again.

Now, as New Years day is almost upon us, I’ll wish you all a very happy 2013. May all that you wish for yourself and loved ones come to pass. If not, well, there’s always 2014 to look forward to!!

All the best for now. See you in the New Year.

Dave, Sheila and Rusty.