Shiralee: Winter 2012/13 # 14

Tuesday 19^th February

 I arose from the pit at about 5.15 this morning and, by 5.30 I had the Toshiba set up and running CCleaner, using the Wipe Free Space facility. It is now 6.45 and, according to the displayed info, almost 1½ hours to go. So, it’s just as well I’m only wiping free space, goodness knows what would happen if I had chosen to wipe the whole drive. As it is, I’ll have to do it again because I neglected to include Saved Passwords in the wipe. Of course I would, this being the most important part of the operation. Duh!

 From what I have read online about this programme, it is pretty thorough and, with the much bigger hard drives on some computers today, it can take hours to complete this operation. Still, when passing on or selling a computer, it’s best to be safe than sorry.

 We took Rusty to the vet for her boosters, alter in the morning; she wasn’t too enamoured at having her temperature taken; we then returned to the shop and collected a couple of bags of coal, by which time it was almost time for lunch.

 After lunch we took a walk around the marina, what with it being another gorgeous day and followed that with a well-earned cuppa. This walk has now become a regular activity and is probably contributing to our weight loss.

 But we weren’t finished yet, oh no, because, with it being a lovely, calm day, it seemed only fitting to take advantage and go get some diesel.

 Now, we have been led to believe that our fuel tank holds 169 litres of diesel, but we’ve had our suspicions about that figure for quite some time now. So, a few weeks ago, with the simple expedient of wrapping an elastic band around a stick and dipping it into the tank, we ascertained how deep a full tank would be. It was then a simple matter of dipping the tank again and wrapping another elastic band at the ‘wet’ point on the stick.

 So, the tank is 24 inches deep and we had 7 inches of fuel when we went to fill her up. Having topped up with 163 litres in the top 17 inches and carried out a simple sum, we now believe that our tank holds around 230 litres. So, next time we return to Mercia at the end of our cruise, we can sit back and relax, because we won’t have to top up again until we leave for our 2014 cruise.

 My efforts at ‘wiping’ the hard drive on the Toshiba have temporarily stalled. This is because, even though I downloaded a programme with which to do this, and also realising that I could do the job with C Cleaner, I then discovered that C Cleaner won’t allow for the ‘wiping’ of just one of the partitions on the drive. So, I then tried with the other programme, ‘Wipe Drive’ but, no sooner had I entered my Activation Code, than I was presented with another problem. When I was asked which drive I wished to wipe I was given the choice of 0 or 1. Huh? Most computers, if they are partitioned, have a ‘C’ and ‘D’ drive, not a 0 and 1. I am now awaiting a reply from the makers of this programme. Maybe this is standard in the industry, eh?

 Tomorrow we are taking our neighbours, Chris and Josie, out for lunch, to show our appreciation for them looking after the car while we’re away. We’re paying a visit to The Bubble at Stenson, where they do a rather good carvery.

 Thursday 21^st February

 Our trip to The Bubble at Stenson yesterday went very well. For the princely sum of £40 we all dined well, with plenty of meat on our plates, drinks and coffees, with the ladies both indulging in a sweet too.

 This morning, after a quick run to Morrison’s, we called into B&Q for some enamel paint for the boat horn, which deteriorated so badly during the few months we had it, that there was simply no way of cleaning the brass effect coating. Now that could be called a con job, if ever there was one. So, instead of buying a new one; not of the same useless quality; I have decided to paint it a bright red.

 Friday 22^nd February

 This ‘wipe drive’ lark is driving me to distraction. I downloaded a programme called “Wipe Drive” from White Canyon and loaded it onto a memory stick. I also went through the initial process of running it on the Toshiba, which then asked for the Activation Code. But, wishing to make sure I wasn’t going to ruin the laptops hard drive, I then went online to check I was doing it right.

 This is where I prove the inadvisability of looking for more information than you need. I suddenly discovered that, according to White Canyon, the programme should be run from a CD. OK. So, how do I burn the programme to a DC? Well, apparently, with ISO files, whatever they are, they can’t simply be ‘dragged and dropped’ to the CD, they have to be burnt in a particular way. Do you think I can find that way?

 I have now submitted a question to the Help Desk but, since running the programme from the memory stick actually threw up the request for the Activation Code, I rather suspect a CD isn’t really necessary and that the info in the manual is old.

 Yesterday we bought some enamel paint for our hooter. This stuff dries in an hour and the hooter has now had two coats on the outside. I’ll apply another couple of coats of our own, red boat paint to complete the job. We can’t leave here without a working hooter. Our Tunnel Light is also somewhat tarnished, but it is, at least, solid brass and should only need a good bit of spit and polish.

 Monday 25^th February

 I don’t know why, but we seem to have had a couple of busy days of late, well, that’s the weekend for you. Mostly it’s been about the laptops, but I’ve been busy organising my next pastel project; a set of old fashioned scales, with onions on and around them; and we’ve taken lots of walks around the marina.

 To date, including the 2½ lb I lost last week, I have now lost 16 lb. I am now down to 13 st 13 lb, against the start weight of 15 stone 1 lb. Unfortunately, but probably because she has far less weight to lose, Wifey didn’t lose any last week.

 As for the laptops, well, trouble in plenty! The programme I purchased with which to wipe the drive on the Toshiba, requires another ‘burn’ programme with which to burn it to a CD. Don’t ask me why this is necessary, because I already have CCleaner, which can do the same job and doesn’t need to be burnt to a CD first.

 However, when I downloaded the ‘burn’ programme and tried to set it up, the download had come with a multitude of other programmes, which also tried to set themselves up on the laptop. When I approached the company about this, ‘Oh, you downloaded it from the wrong place’, and gave me another link, which proved to be exactly the same! Now, when I tell them I’m still having a problem, they tell me I probably have a virus. Yeah! Right! What, on both the laptops?

 So, it looks like I’ll be going with CCleaner instead.

 So, what else did we do over the weekend? Well, I’ve undercoated our four back door panels, but we now have to decide what background the pictures need. We have a castle, which has a dragon wrapped around it, a dragon standing erect; these two pictures will go on the two taller panels. We also have two pictures of flowers which will adorn the smaller panels. I’m looking at a possible light blue for the flowers, with the same blue for sky and some green for grass on the other two. I may even paint some hills in the distance. These pictures are from a clipart site, so they are supposed to be comical.

 I’ve also painted a couple of coats of red on our boat hooter, which must be finished before we leave here.

 So, although we haven’t slogged ourselves this past weekend, we haven’t spent the days sitting around either.

 Tuesday 26^th February

 Only a month to go and we’ll be on our way. Yippee!

For about the past six weeks we have been following the Hairy Bikers diet book and, as you know, we have both lost weight. During this period I have had my ups and downs with my blood glucose levels, mainly due to the severe reduction in carbohydrates ingested.

 Anyway, what with the hypos running rampant and the regular walks around the marina, I reached the stage whereby it seemed to make sense to cut out my three injections of the short term Insulin. I had no idea if this was the right thing to do, but it did seem sensible. It also seemed sensible to have a chat with my diabetes nurse, and this I did yesterday. With her blessing I am now only taking my long term jab, just before going to bed, but I have upped the dose slightly.

 It has been said, even in some medical circles, that one of the causes of the pancreas stopping its production of Insulin, is the fat build up around it, of which I probably still have plenty. Could it be that, by losing weight and reducing my fat levels, my pancreas will start up again? Now that would be a result.

 We are cutting it a wee bit fine in having the car MOT’d. Andy is doing it on Friday and we have the family bash on Sunday. However, even if it failed, which is highly doubtful considering the amount of work done on it last year, we will still have a valid certificate, so we will not miss the bash.

 Wednesday 27^th February

 Before we go on our weeks break to the Peak District, Andy will be carrying out our boat service. Whilst he is doing so he will be fitting a new gizmo between the alternator and domestic batteries. This gizmo is designed to make the alternator work harder, thus ensuring that, while we’re cruising at least, the batteries will be fully charged. This will have the added benefit of saving on fuel, since we won’t have to run the engine for so long in the evenings. With a bit of luck it will have paid for itself by the time we return.

 Talking about which, we’re not even sure that we will be returning to Mercia this year. We do like the place but, whenever we leave for our cruise, there’s no guarantee that we’ll be allocated a spot anywhere near the one we vacated. So, while cruising this year, we’ll be keeping a sharp eye out for canal side moorings. These are somewhat scarce but, if we can find one that has water and electricity laid on, even scarcer, we’ll investigate the cost. Mercia Marina costs us over £200 per month and so, if we can find a spot that costs around £1200 per year, we’ll consider it very carefully.

 OK. That’s it for this one. Time to post. See you all on Sunday.

 Dave, Sheila and Rusty.