Friday, 7 November 2014

Winter 2014/15: Crick


Wednesday 29/10/14 Saturday 8/11/14

 This is our first day at Crick, our new and permanent moorings. I shall endeavour to post this once per week, but only if something out of the ordinary occurs. Nothing extraordinary has happened today thus far, therefore I won’t be reporting on it. Tomorrow may be different.

 Thursday 30/10/14

 I told a lie, something worth reporting did happen yesterday, our car wouldn’t start. This was not unexpected; even so it was a nuisance. Noel, the manager of Crick Marina had been giving it a run on a monthly basis, but he had found it necessary to jump-start it every time. Now, I could have asked him to do the same again, and then driven over to Halford’s at Daventry, where they fit such things for free, but we decided to ask the local garage to come and fit a new battery. It cost us quite a bit more than Halford’s would have, but at least I know it’s been fitted by professionals. We can now go shopping this morning.

 Friday 31/10/14

 We had planned to go shopping yesterday morning, and then wait until Saturday to visit the Dog’s Trust site at Kenilworth on Saturday morning. However, impatience got the better of us, and we went – almost – straight to Kenilworth after shopping. I say ‘almost, because we ran into road works outside Coventry and found ourselves, well, lost. However, we eventually found the place and discovered they didn’t open until midday. So, off we went to the hotel next door and bought a coffee and plate of biscuits.

 Alex is a 2/3 year old JRT and, after meeting him we decided to reserve him. We are obliged to pay at least three visits to the kennels; and that includes a pep talk; before we are able to bring him home. Meanwhile, having disposed of all of Rusty’s stuff – we didn’t think we would be getting another dog – we now have to go out and but it all again.

 Alex is a lovely little chap and we’re really looking forward to taking him out on the boat some time next spring. And this is what he looks like.

 


 
Saturday 1/11/14

 Having experienced problems with my WiFi unit since we returned to Crick, we took the bus into town and paid a visit to the ‘3’ shop where, after much discussion, I decide to upgrade our 3G unit for a 4G unit. Checking it when we got back to the boat, there didn’t seem to be much difference in signal strength. But, the proof of the pudding, and all that!!!

 This morning I don’t seem to be having any such problems, but that doesn’t mean anything either. In order to check if it’s really doing its job I’ll have to go online later in the day; it’s Saturday and the cyber airways are always busiest at weekends. However, if it comes to the crunch, I can always buy an external aerial.

 Sunday 2/11/14

 Well, so much for me being undecided about keeping the blog going.

 A couple of things have happened since arriving at Crick, not least of which has been contact with Alan’s son Ellis, who has promised to help speed up my laptop, which can be rather sluggish, to say the least. He has sent me a Registry Cleaner and has promised to talk me through the process. How he’s going to do this will be interesting to see; since we have to take our mobiles outside the boat if we want to talk to people.

  Having upgraded from 3g to 4g and finding our Internet signal to be still somewhat erratic, I’ve invested in an external aerial. This should arrive by Thursday and, hopefully, will improve matters.

 In addition to those two items, I’ve raised our new TV aerial onto a pole and reception is much improved there too. So, all’s well with the world and tickety-boo!!

 Monday 3/11/14

 Apart from paying a visit to the club yesterday, we didn’t do anything of any importance. Hey, it was Sunday!!

 However, having copied a few Google maps for our trip to Hilmorton this morning, we set the printer up and, guess what, the darn thing wouldn’t print. This is an Epson Wireless printer, but it wouldn’t work when connected by cable either. The only thing different that might affect the Wireless side is the new WiFi unit we upgraded to. Even so, it should still have worked when physically connected to the laptop. So, we’re stuck with no printer and, as is usual with such things, I’m pretty sure it’s past its warranty time.

 So, it looks like we’ll have to be extra careful on our trip to Hilmorton and the Dog’s Trust; our second visit to our new pooch.

 Tuesday 4/11/14

 Our second visit to our new four legged friend yesterday, went off very well. After scrounging a few tid- bits from another visitor, Alex certainly showed more interest in us. Typical pooch, always looking to satisfy his baser instincts.

 Of course, we also managed to deviate from our planned course, both on the way there and on the way back. However, we’re hopeful that our next visit will see us arriving without missing a turn and will return home in likewise fashion.

 Wednesday 5/11/14

 I hadn’t realised just how inefficient our windscreen wipers were, until we first drove over to the kennels to see Alex. So, since we had already planned to drive over to Pets at Home in Daventry yesterday, to buy all the stuff needed for our new companion, we called into Halford’s at the same time. These new wipers from Bosch are really great and I’m hoping they will stay that way for some time to come.

 Saturday 8/11/14

 Where has this week gone? More to the point, what happened to Thursday and Friday?

 Let’s see, Thursday we drove over to see Alex again and Friday we went shopping at Sainsbury’s. That’s it, in a nutshell.

 On Thursday also, the new WiFi aerial arrived, but I really didn’t have enough time to fit it. Yesterday was pouring with rain for most of the day, so it didn’t get done then either. Today is, at present, cold but dry, so there’s a good chance I’ll fit it today. However, we first have to drive over to Daventry, initially to buy food for new pooch. But I also need a sturdy piece of wood, on which to mount the aerial.

Now, this aerial is, supposedly, for outdoor use. But, if that is the case, why does it have a suction pad? This pad fits either at one corner, or at the back and at one corner. The pad screws into a female thread and, in order to make the unit secure, I need to find a long enough screw of the same thread, so that I can secure it through my piece of wood.

 Hopefully, that will then give me a strong enough signal for Alan’s son Ellis to help me with speeding up this laptop.

 And, on that note I’ll attempt to post this blog.

 Have a good weekend folks.

 Dave and Sheila. (With Alex to follow in the next post.)

 

 

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