Shiralee at Willington #9

Monday 13th December and it’s my little brother’s birthday today. Of course I’ve sent you a card Bruv, and I’ll try to remember to phone you later today, but you probably won’t receive this blog until next week, by which time it will be gone and you’ll be looking forward to Christmas.

As for me, well, once again I am suffering with my sinuses, so much so that I’m having trouble sleeping because I simply can’t breathe through my nose. The nasal sprays usually work quite well, but I seem to be up against something worse, possibly a viral infection if the stuff I’ve seen written about it on the Internet is anything to go by. I’ll try for an appointment with my GP for this morning and see what she recommends.

Incidentally, I’m currently using a Sudafed nose spray and I’ve tried Olbas Oil, but neither of them is of any use in my present predicament.

Today is Morrison’s day but, aside from that, we have nothing of any import on the agenda. In fact it seems to be a pretty unimportant time for us at present. Thankfully the ice and snow have gone, which allowed us to make the most of a pub visit yesterday.

I’ve been looking around for a disc burning system for labelling direct to the disc surface, rather than making sticky labels, which have a tendency to peel off over time. The best I could find was an external hard drive, with Lightscribe Technology, by a company called Ativa. I can’t find an outlet for it in the UK, but the item goes for $90 in the States, plus delivery charges of course. Temporarily then, until I make my small fortune, I’ll have to use the sticky ones.

Wednesday 15th December and just nine days to go to the big day. Yes, Christmas is almost upon us and, just for a change, if the weather men are to be believed, it will be a white one.

Last week whilst searching for a pressy for Wifey, I came across a section on eBay that sold all things Jack Russell. Amongst them I found a Christmas card with a Jack Russell dressed in a Santa suit, which I thought would be a great card to send to us from Rusty. (Strange how we get such wacky ideas at this time of year.)

Anyway, I sent for the card which arrived a couple of days ago. Well, I reckon a pre-school child could have done as well, if not better. What I got for my money was a piece of card, 10” by 5” folded in half, with a cut out cardboard picture of the head of a Jack Russell, wearing a Santa suit stuck to the front, with Merry Christmas printed underneath. We have decided that our pooch would not lower herself to that level and have dis-carded it!!

Sunday 19th December and, once again, we are in the grip of more icy weather.

With the marina frozen over it’s not possible to take the boat over to the diesel pump. So, if we can’t get to the pump, we have to take a Jerry can to it for a fill up. Fortunately for us we have a can on board. Even more fortunate so do our neighbours, Chris and Josie.

With these icy pontoons I am, once again, stuck on the boat but, when we asked Chris if we could borrow his can, he offered to drive Sheila to get the cans filled and so, since it was getting dark, we decided to top the tank up this morning.

Now that was not the best idea we’ve had this winter because, when I turned on the heater this morning, it refused to start up, which means we are too low on diesel for it to run. This is the first time we have had this problem in the four years since we bought the boat.

Anyway, since I find it difficult to stay in bed past 5.30 am, I am now pounding away at this keyboard, with my cardigan on, the fire topped up, the bedroom door closed and the gas oven on. Actually it’s now getting quite cosy in here, but we must top the tank up and get that heater going at first light.

According to my diary we last topped up on November 10th, which is only five weeks ago, so we really have been hammering the heater. At that time we only had to top up with 70 litres or so, which means that we have used well over 100 litres during the past five weeks. Knowing that the heater burns about ½ a litre per hour and we have only 36 litres in the two cans, we’ll be wanting to fill up again before the marina office shuts for the Christmas break. That’s only 36 litres because, being Jerry cans and having a spout well below the carrying handles, it is not possible to put the full 20 litres in each can.

Boating ain’t that cheap in winter!!

Thursday 23rd December

After a couple of inches of snow yesterday morning and, rather than take the risk of more to come and missing out on Christmas food shopping, we decided to go while the going was good. Luckily for us not too many boaters had driven over that 2 inches of snow, and so we made it there and back without mishap, turkey and all. We are now set for the festivities, even though our neighbours won’t be around.

Today Wifey will be trotting off to Derby by bus, because there are one or two things she still needs to get. You know women, always a last minute shop!!

Having had the heater system completely serviced just three months ago, we were most surprised when it broke down again last week. Fortunately the service people here are not greedy and Linden came along and sorted it out a few days ago.

Yesterday it broke down again and we had to call him in again. It seems that this time all that was wrong was a rather touchy plug and socket. With them closing for a few days and not wanting to be frozen solid on our boat, with just the fire and cooker to keep us warm, Linden pointed out the problem so that, should it stop working again, all we have to do is wiggle a plug about and all will be well – we hope!!

This will probably be my last scribe for this year, so we would like to wish all our family and friends

“A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.”

Dave, Sheila and Rusty