Winter 2016: Crick 2

6^th November to Saturday 28^th November

 Monday 9^th November

 Yesterday went as normal; read paper, worked on puzzles, paid a visit to the club at lunchtime, etc, etc.

 This morning is somewhat colder, although not yet frosty. Shopping at Sainsbury’s later.

 Tuesday 10^th November

 Well, did the shopping, but the weather has not been good. It seems that we are now naming storms, as well as hurricanes. I think this first one is called Abigail and it’s supposed to hit us hard, here in the U.K. But all we have is strong winds at present, nothing to be worried about just yet.

 Saturday 15^th November

 Nothing much out of the ordinary has happened during the past week, hence the lack of entries. Although there is one thing troubling me, I am unable to email my RAF pal Alan. All attempts at sending or replying result in my emails bouncing back as being unable to deliver.

 As a last resort I tried emailing from my Yahoo account yesterday morning and, as yet, that one hasn’t been answered or returned, so I’m hopeful that it was received. This morning I emailed his son Ellis, to see if he could help.

 Yesterday I had an appointment at St. Cross Hospital, where the nurse there checked my legs and feet for problems associated with diabetes. Although I do suffer normal aches and pains, she found nothing untoward and has signed me off A-OK.

 Monday 17^th November

 Since upgrading our WiFi we have enjoyed faster email downloads, but this has come at a price. We now find that, when booting up the laptop and attaching the WiFi cable, the ‘Three’ home screen pops up. Not only that but, when we’re online this screen still pops up and we have to shut it down before we can continue with whatever else we’re doing.

So, as you would expect, I emailed ‘Three’ about this problem and have had a reply, telling me to shut down my laptop, take the back off the WiFi unit and stick something sharp into the Reset Button. This I will do later today. Meanwhile, my emails to Alan Oxley are still bouncing back. I wonder if that is also caused by the new WiFi unit!!

 The nurse who attended me at Outpatients at St. Cross Hospital on Saturday afternoon, told me to rub cream into my feet on a daily basis, because my skin is very hard. So, off we go to Rugby this morning for that and to have a new zip put into a pair of my trousers.

 Wednesday 18^th November

 Yesterday morning, after paying a visit to the nurse for a medication assessment, we drove over to South Kilworth to redeem our £10.00 meat voucher that we won at the club. After that we chose to have a lazy day.

 I had intended to visit the ukulele club the same evening, but with Barney about to rear its ugly head, I decided to leave it until next week.

 I am still unable to send emails to Alan using Outlook and am having to use Yahoo instead. I’ll try again in a few minutes, but first I have to make some tea.

 Thursday 19^th November

 After much deliberation I finally committed to buying a new laptop. I should be collecting an Acer Aspire from Argos in Rugby on Monday. I could have had it delivered to the marina, but the office is shut on Mondays and would not have been delivered.

 All I have to do when I collect it is to install any other programmes I need and get used to Windows 8.1, which I will upgrade to Windows 10. I’ll also upgrade Office if it has been installed. If not then I’ll have to install my Office 7 Home and student and then upgrade. Simples!!!

 Saturday 21^st November

 Winter has finally arrived, in the form of overnight snow, added to which is a very cold wind.

 I have just received notification of the despatch of my laptop, which was sent out yesterday, so it should have arrived by Monday morning.

 I’m still having problems with sending emails to Alan in Germany. This appears to be a permanent error; that’s according to Mailer-Daemon. I’m going to forward this message to my server, Absolute Email and see if they can solve the issue.

 Monday 23^rd November

 Our weekend went just about the same as usual, including an hour at the club Sunday lunchtime.

 This morning we took the bus into Rugby, hoping to collect our new laptop from Argos. This has been arranged as a ‘Click and Collect’ from eBay. We were advised by Parcel Force that the laptop had been despatched on Friday. But it hadn’t arrived yet so we spent an hour wandering around Rugby until the next bus back to Crick.

 I have just accessed my emails and have a message from eBay telling me the laptop is now ready for collection. I do hope the rest of this week doesn’t run according to some nefarious plan!!

 Tuesday 24^th November

 I’m not entirely sure what we’re doing today; we could go into Rugby again and do our shopping, and then collect the laptop. Or we could drive over to Daventry and do our shopping at Waitrose and collect the laptop tomorrow.

 I have decided to place and ad on the club notice board and, to this end I’m doing a cartoon portrait of Sarah and her son Tyler. Sarah works at the club and I’m working on a good, hand drawn cartoon portrait first, from which I’ll create the ad. Hopefully this will attract some queries from club members and earn me a few quid. Hope springs eternal………… etc.

 At this point I apologise for the lack of postings. Whilst moored here at Crick, the days kind of run into each other and don’t throw up much of interest. I work on the assumption that what counts as a normal day for us, will count as a normal day for you and won’t be of much interest.

 Wednesday 25^th November

 We took the bus into Rugby and collected our new laptop. It’s an Acer Aspire with Windows 8.1 installed. Oh Boy!!! What fun trying to set this thing up. Perhaps I’m just not very patient, but it didn’t take long for me to put it aside. I’ll have another go tomorrow, but I’ll make sure Wifey is sitting beside me when I do.

 Watch this space.

 Saturday 28^th November

 So, we sat together, side by side and had another go at setting up the new Acer. The first thing we had to do was update files, which took several hours. So, we really didn’t get much done.

 Today I’m working on a Cartoon Portrait for one of the bar staff at the club. This has taken the best part of a week so far, because I’ve had to search for some clipart that I didn’t have. I’m hoping to finish this one and copy it to an A4 sheet of Watercolour or Pastel paper. I’ll then be able to deliver it to Sarah tomorrow lunchtime.

 Now, as the weekend is already upon us, I’ll wish you all a great weekend.

 Dave

 

 

 

 

Winter 2016: Crick

Saturday 24^th October to Saturday 6^th November

 Saturday 24^th October

 Well, we are now back at Crick marina and the first thing we did upon arrival; even before enjoying a cuppa; was to pop across to the office to collect our mail and car keys.

 The very next thing was to move the car down to our nearest car park. Only one thing stood in our way and that was that the key fob wouldn’t work to disable the alarm, which suggested to me that the car battery was flat.

 Ordinarily, in such circumstances I would ask Noel, the site manager, to give us a jump-lead start. Unfortunately he wasn’t around at the time, so I gave Malcolm at the local garage a ring. He came about 45 minutes later and got me started. He also suggested I give the car a run, up past his garage and on to the next couple of roundabouts. So, off I poodled for what turned out to be about 20 minutes run.

 Having returned to the car park I switched off the engine and then tried to re-start it, but the battery still hadn’t topped up enough. Well, to cut a long story short, I finally found Noel and he loaned me a battery and jump leads and I finally got the car started. This time I went for a drive to Daventry and back, turned off the engine and re-started. Et voila!!

 Hopefully we’ll be able to start it again this morning.

 Now, we didn’t leave here for our regular summer cruise around the system until almost the end of July, due to finishing our painting of the stern deck. Several weeks prior to that, I spotted an ad in the Mail for a FREE model of a Mark II Jaguar, which turned up a short time later.

 Of course I looked for the catch! I’m always wary of freebies. There was no paperwork with this particular freeby, so I tucked the model away in a safe place and thought no more of it.

 You know what’s coming, don’t you?

 Yep, in amongst the mail were two demands for payment of £18.99p. These didn’t come from the company, Atlas Editions though. Oh no! Said company had automatically put the matter in the hands of a collection agency.

 I have now Googled Atlas Editions for their address, which is, of course, a Box Number and will be returning the car and demands to them this morning. It wouldn’t be so bad had Atlas sent me further models, but there was nothing of that kind at the office.

I suppose my name has now gone onto a black list of debtors. Tut, tut, at my age who gives damn?

 Tuesday 27^th October

 Since upgrading our WiFi last February, we’ve tried adding an external aerial, which was as much use as a chocolate teapot. Since that time I’ve tried attaching the WiFi unit to a pole on the roof, but that meant having to go outside to switch the thing on. Not an ideal situation from my point of view.

 Signal strength only seems to be a problem in this marina; out there on the canals we have no problems at all and the unit sits there, hanging on the window with no need to move it while we’re travelling.

 This morning I decided to take the unit with us and called in to ‘3’ and had a chat with the sales person. What I would have liked, was a new unit that I could mount on a pole, but one that automatically came on when it was plugged into the laptop. But he couldn’t help me with that. Instead he suggested an updated version of the WiFi we already have, but on a monthly renewable contract. Going with his suggestion meant stumping up almost £40.00, but it meant that I was simply purchasing the new WiFi unit and then all I have to do is phone ‘3’ tomorrow and cancel this new contract.

 In effect I’ve simply been sold a new unit and all I have to do is insert my old SIM card and carry on as normal.

 Now, since arriving home we’ve tried the new unit and it certainly seems to go online easier and, when Wifey used it she thought it was somewhat faster. Hopefully I won’t have to resort to using the external aerial. Only time will tell.

 Wednesday 28^th October

 Well, it’s been raining for most of the night and, apart from when I took Alex out at 6 o’clock, it’s still coming down heavy.

 The good news is that the new WiFi unit seems to be working much better than the old one. What I want to know is, why don’t the Mobile companies offer these new units to existing customers? Even if they charged for them, surely we should be made aware of the new technology coming on the market!

 Thursday 29^th October

 At the suggestion of the nice man at ‘3’, I attempted to phone their office and cancel this new, monthly agreement. I own up to becoming rather frustrated with these ‘for so and so press 1, or 2 etc’ and, after just a few minutes of trying, I gave up and returned to the boat. What really got my dander up was the request to enter the number of the phone I was making the enquiry about. But I don’t have a mobile phone with ‘3’, only a WiFi unit.

 So, what to do now. Well, when I got back to the boat I had a scramble through all the gumph that came with the unit and, after much searching and muttering certain blue stuff, I found it on the card that held the new SIM. Now, since I was not using that SIM, but using my existing one, I consider myself lucky to have found the number. Therefore, later today, after taking the car to the garage for the aforementioned service and repair, I’ll try again.

 Friday 30^th October

 I took the car to the local garage yesterday morning and, after carrying out the service, Chris phoned me to say that the windscreen wiper mechanism has broken and needs replacing. I’ve been looking around for quotes for this and have received just one so far, and that will cost £169.00, including VAT and delivery. Other dealers are still checking their stock; which probably means there’s nobody about just yet; so I’ll have to check back later.

 Meanwhile, we are enjoying lots of rain, and our pooch does not like rain!! So, short walk, quick cock of the leg and back to the boat to await more clement weather.

 Tuesday 3^rd November

 The weekend went very much as usual, although we did suffer quite a lot of fog.

 On Friday morning I ordered the windscreen stuff for the car and that should be arriving today. Meanwhile I collected the car from the garage for use over the weekend and, On Saturday we popped over to Curry/PCWorld and bought a new printer.

 Today I’ll return the car to the garage and hope the parts turn up today and we get the car back later today, or, more likely, tomorrow.

 Thursday 5^th November

 I finally had the windscreen wipers repaired and have the car back. With the new mechanism fitted and the first service for quite some time, we shelled out over £450.00!! The blooming car isn’t worth that!! Ah well, not much point trying to trade it in now, because it’s running so well.

 Over the past few days we’ve noticed a distinct lack of heat coming from our solid fuel burner and the fan on top hasn’t been spinning quite as fast as it should. Our first thought was that the lousy coal we’ve been using wasn’t up to much, until last night, that is.

 Even by having the top and bottom vents wide open, that fan still refused to spin as it should. And then came the smell!! A horrible chemical smell. So, our next thought was that the chimney needed sweeping – again. We only did it a short while before leaving back in June or July.

 The final indicator that the chimney needed sweeping was the Carbon Monoxide alarm sounding off. It’s pretty damned obvious the chimney needs sweeping now, you pair of idiots!!

 It’s been raining quite heavily overnight and, even after emptying most of the coal out of the fire last night, it’s still glowing. So, we’ll just have to damp it down with water – and enjoy a sauna at the same time – after which we’ll get to the chimney; assuming it doesn’t rain in the meantime. Ye gods and little fishes, what else can possibly go wrong?

 At least we have booked our dear, sweet Shiralee in for a bottom blacking. All we need to do now is find a suitable holiday cottage for a few days in March. No problem.

 Friday 6^th November

 Yesterday morning, immediately after walking up to the Post Office for The Mail, we set about cleaning the chimney. We were pleasantly surprised to find that, unlike previous occasions, this time it was pretty easy. So the fire is now lit alight and keeping us warm again.

 Now that we have the bottom blacking booked in, I set about finding a short stay holiday cottage somewhere near Rutland Water. Booking early and for just three days in the middle of March would, I would have thought, be relatively easy. But, nope, not easy at all. In the first place, even though I found a list that included minimum three nights stay, those that were available didn’t allow pets and, those that did allow pets wanted at least £100 a night and a minimum of 1 week booking. The boat is only costing us £550, and that includes the use of the dry dock. At this rate we’ll be looking at over £1000, just to have the bottom blacked.

 I’ve now given up my search and have left it to Wifey carry on searching.

 And, on that happy note, I’ll sign off and post this blog.

 Take care folks and enjoy your weekend.

 Dave, Sheila and Alex.