Wednesday 27th February
At last, the weather has changed. We now have clear skies
and bright sunshine. We walked around the marina after breakfast and around the
lake after lunch.
’m still unsure about this wiping of the Toshiba hard
drive. But, having re-read all the gumph regarding such a move, I am now of the
opinion that it’s the wrong way to go. Every programme I look at; barring the
really simple ones; tell me that I must first burn it to a cd and boot the
computer up from there. C Cleaner can’t, or won’t wipe the ‘C’ drive, only the
‘D’ drive, which is a partition and has nothing on it. The golden rule seems to
be that, the hard drive cannot be wiped from within Windows.
So, I plan on doing this in reverse. I’m first going to use
the System Recovery disc and return the laptop to its original factory
settings. I will then use C Cleaner to wipe the free space on the ‘C’ drive.
Hopefully that will eliminate any sensitive data still sitting there.
For obvious reasons I will not be able to install any of the
MS Office programmes, simply because I am unable to legally provide any
installation discs when I sell the laptop. So, instead I’ll install a set of
Open Source programmes and also pile a load of useful programmes onto a DVD. I
suppose I could get away with installing Office 2003, since it is now so old
and include a copy of the installation disc. Hmmm! What to do!!
Our boat horn has now been painted and, once completely dry,
ready to be returned to its rightful place on the roof. Tomorrow we’ll go into
Burton, firstly to get the car valeted and also to buy a pot of a beigey
coloured paint as a background colour for the back door panels. We’ve hemmed
and hawed over this for some time now, but have now agreed on this neutral colour.
I don’t expect to get them done before we leave here, but that means I’ll have
something to do while we’re cruising. That’s on top of my latest pastel, guitar
practice and Ukulele practice.
Sunday 3rd March
That’s it we’re now in the final month of our winter
moorings and will soon be away. But first we have the Kennett family bash today
and doggie has to go into kennels for a night. The bash is being held at Harlow
Mill and we’re supposed to be there for 12 noon. However, since we can’t take
Rusty until 9 am, and it’s a 2½ hour drive to Harlow, we could be cutting it a
wee bit fine. I think I may be a wee bit cream-crackered by the time we get
back.
Yesterday we found a pot of pale, brown paint with which I
covered our back panels. Sadly, even though it is claimed to be one-coat paint
it is no such thing, so another coat will be required.
Tomorrow, if the weather is in my favour, I refit the horn
to its bracket on the roof.
Monday 4th March
What a great day we had yesterday at the family bash. The
only bugbear was being unable to all sit around the same table. So, which moron
decided it was OK to sit a family of 13 around three separate tables in an
alcove. Were we supposed to play musical chairs if we wanted to talk to
somebody on another table? Still, the food was good, as was the weather and,
unlike our usual meeting place, The Churchgate Hotel, we had to vacate the
tables before 3 o/clock, which meant an early start homeward. At the Churchgate
they waited until about 5 o/clock before politely asking us to leave, so that
they could clear away and lay tables for the evening session.
Sheila and I have decided it’s our turn to foot the bill for
2014. No ifs, buts or maybes! As to the venue, all suggestions considered,
which covers somewhere outside Harlow. Motorway Services and Macdonald’s
excluded, of course. We too will look into possible venues nearer the time.
Wednesday 6th March
Yesterday was boat engine service day, with the addition of
an Alternator to Battery Charger Unit which, as you would expect, didn’t quite
work as it should have. Oh, it did the job it was intended to do, but the
Remote Unit didn’t. This is probably because, unlike the main box of
electronics, which is housed in the engine bay and is manufactured by the company
whose name is on the box, the Remote Unit, which tells me whether or not it’s
working correctly, is manufactured in Taiwan. Nuff said!! The most common cause
of this failure is the lead that runs from the main unit to the remote. So,
Andy will now send for a replacement.
For those electronics buffs reading this, this new piece of
gubbins is designed to encourage the alternator to work more efficiently. This
is achieved by fooling the alternator into ‘thinking’ the batteries are very
low, thus making it work harder to keep them topped up. We reckon that this
should pay for itself over the next eight months, simply by reducing the amount
of diesel we use per day running the engine to charge the batteries. In past
years of cruising we’ve had to run the engine for at least two hours every
evening, just to ensure we had sufficient power next morning. This new unit
should reduce those hours quite considerably.
Yesterday, whilst Andy was working on the engine and such,
we toddled off to the Chiropodist to have my feet checked out. It seems now
that they are not as sensitive as they were this time last year. And it’s all
down to this wretched diabetes. Hey, I’m getting old, aren’t I? But, being a
rough, tough, stoical boater, I won’t let it get me down. Stiff upper lip, and
all that!!
I also managed to trace out all the pictures I’ll be using
for our back door boards. The boards have now had two undercoats of background
‘beige’, so all I have to do now is paint the pictures. I’m quite looking
forward to that.
This morning, once we have heard from Andy, we’ll be off
shopping at Morrison’s. Can’t be bothered driving into Burton and Sainsbury’s!
Thursday 7th March
Rain! After a few pretty pleasant days, here we go with the
rain again. Why doesn’t it stick with the plain in Spain? Still, at least we
don’t have to go anywhere in particular today, which means I can make a start
on our back panels. Well, actually I tried making a start on them yesterday,
but the tracing through graphite paper left smudges on the panel; no doubt due
to my heavy handedness; so I wiped it off and will start again today. This time
I’ll make a surrounding barrier of tracing paper before tracing through.
Friday 8th March
Another blip with Outlook this morning where I couldn’t send
and receive. I had to disconnect and reboot before I could use the programme.
As a result of this I logged into my account at Absolute and, to my dismay, I
discovered a whole bunch of stuff in the Spam Box there, none of which had come
down to my Outlook Inbox. Needless to say, there were several messages there
that I would like to have seen. Looking around the site I can find no info
whatsoever as to how to set up the Spam Filter and so, once again I’ve had to
ask them how to do so.
Following my interest in Art, currently working with
pastels, I ordered a disc online that should contain 113 pictures from the late
1800s. In fact there are only 108, but that’s by the by. All of the pictures
should come in three formats; 1/ black and white, 2/ washed – which means a faint
rendition of the picture to be printed onto artists paper and 3/ a full colour picture, so that the
budding artist can then paint onto the printed paper, thus giving a fair
painting of the picture concerned.
So, what do I actually find on this disc? I found 108
pictures, all in black and white, all with a ‘washed’ version, but only seven,
yes 7 in full colour. What a swindle! I have, of course, contacted the seller
and voiced my disapproval. It will be interesting to see his response.
Tomorrow I’m off to Harlow, sadly for the last time this
winter. However, since we’re heading south later on and after we’ve done the
Llangollen, Alan has offered to meet us at Bulbourne, which is where we moored
up for two winters, earlier in our travels.
Saturday 9th March
A pretty dismal day yesterday, all damp and misty, a bit
like sitting in a low cloud bank. This morning we have heavy, threatening
clouds and I’m driving down to Harlow. Won’t that be fun? When I get there I’ll
scrounge my usual cuppa from Les, my kiddie carer from my days with Charriot’s,
then I’ll pop round to Alan for the rest of the day.
Following my return to the marina I’ll be looking for a fine
day to refit the horn, which has now been painted in the same red as Shiralee.
I also have to copy the castle and flowers to our back panels and, hopefully,
Andy will be along to complete the installation of the Alternator to Battery
Charger.
Next Saturday we’re off for a week in a farm cottage, during
which time ‘Shiralee’ will have her bottom blacked and, while she’s in dry dock
the she’ll have the rudder checked and straightened where necessary.
We return from the cottage on Saturday 23rd and
leave the marina on Tuesday 26th so Monday 25th will be
spent on shopping and preparing for Tuesday, no doubt with Wifey also doing
piles of washing.
Our first port of call on Monday morning will be to see our
doctor, who will make out the necessary prescriptions for the seven months we’ll
be away. He actually phoned us yesterday evening and, being the kind gentleman
that he is, arranged a consultation for 8.30 am on that day, after which we’ll
be set to leave.
Our first port of call on Tuesday will be Branston and, if
it’s a fine day we’ll take a walk around the lake, which will be a first for
me.
Now, with almost seven pages of this blog completed, this
would be an ideal time to post it. Naturally I’ll keep entries going next week
and whilst we’re at the cottage.
Cheers for now and enjoy your weekend, whatever you may be
doing.
Dave, Sheila and our Very Important Pooch. (She has a new
collar to prove it!)
No comments:
Post a Comment