I now have two full instruction books from Emma, one of which is her portrait, the other being the caravan. If, or when, I finish this sunset scene, I have no doubt Emma will send me her full book of this one. What I am really looking forward to, once I have finished this and the next exercise, is knuckling down to a painting of my own, which will give me plenty to occupy myself during the rest of our winter stay at Mercia and throughout our cruise in 2013.
Later……
Our trip into Burton this morning included a visit to Ryman’s to check prices of HP Inkjet cartridges for the machine Chris gave us. Having checked the printer out yesterday and found all cartridges empty or dried up, we have to buy some new ones just to run a test. However, the pack of genuine cartridges would have cost about £80 in total; there are six cartridges altogether. No way, Jose!
So, after lunch I decided to take a look at what’s on offer at eBay and, surprise, surprise, there were several dealers offering a variety of different selections. We eventually settled on ‘compatible’ cartridges, of triple capacity, for just £6.99 with free p&p. It seems pointless buying the genuine article just in order to test the printer out.
Watch this space for further details.
Tuesday 6th November
Our car is going in to the workshop today to have the gearbox checked out. So, I’ve just sent a query for the part we may need and await quotes for same. Andy probably has his own suppliers, but I don’t want to pay through the nose for them.
Wednesday 7th November
Quotes for gearbox linkage came back yesterday afternoon and ranged from £40 to £170. However, since Andy is unable to replace the parts until next week and, since I would prefer him to phone the traders concerned, just to ensure they are offering the correct parts, I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.
We decided to put Rusty back on the medication that we were given earlier in the year by a vet on our travels. She now seems to have a new lease of life and, in fact she’s driving us potty with her fidgets. She can’t seem to keep still and wants to be going out every five minutes. But she still sleeps through the night, so, how does that work? How come she wants to pee a thousand times a day, yet she can hold it in for 10 hours during the night? Do dogs semi-hibernate at night time? Can they shut off all feelings of discomfiture when it suits them and, if that’s the case, why can’t they do so during the day?
For the answer to these and other questions, don’t ask me!!
Friday 9th November
We received our cartridges for the HP printer this morning. After installing all six we received an error message on the printer screen telling us that the yellow cartridge was missing, or damaged. We tried fitting the old one, but the message then said the cartridge was old, or some such. Anyway, since we don’t know if this is a problem with the printer or cartridge, I asked Chris if he had experienced similar problems, but he hadn’t. So, I rushed off a message to the seller, asking if he would send another yellow, for which I would be happy to pay. As yet I have had no reply, but these things can take time.
After dashing off my message, we removed all the cartridges and compared the connections, and found that the yellow was not of the same configuration as the others, so we rather suspect the seller has sent the wrong one here. When I get a reply from him I will explain this to him. Meanwhile, we wait and see.
Saturday 10th November
Once again we popped into Burton yesterday and, on the way there, called into our favourite butcher’s in Repton for a pork pie, because theirs is just about the best I have tasted. We left that shop about £17 lighter! Gotta stay away from that place!
This year we are being treated to a regular Friday evening visit of a fish and chip van. Yesterday evening we enjoyed the best ever fish and chips that we had tasted, even better than Whitby, if you can believe that. I asked for, and received, two pieces of fish and one large portion of chips. The fish hung over the sides of our plates and half the portion of chips had to be put in a bowl, because we couldn’t get them on the plates. Wifey suggests I order one piece of fish and a small portion of chips next time. Yummeee!!
Sunday 11th November
We are now awaiting the replacement yellow cartridge for the HP printer. I have also received a reply to my request for the replacement, in which the seller has suggested a few things to try in order to get the printer to accept them. However, having swapped a different colour for the failed yellow and seeing that fail too, we are of the opinion that the printer is at fault, not the cartridge. It could just be clogged up at that point due to lack of use, which would mean trying to clear said blockage. We may yet have the thing sorted, but it’s looking less and less likely at this point.
Now, over all the years that I’ve owned a guitar, I’ve never succeeded is really playing it. Of course I can strum and follow the music in a classical tutorial, but I’ve always arrived at a spot where my ability is less than adequate to complete the piece.
Hopefully this situation is about to change for the better, because my next door neighbour has loaned me a DVD that he bought from a guitarist named Mike Herberts and, I have to say, I am very impressed. But, although this is an excellent DVD, it is aimed at strumming along to popular songs, whereas I would prefer a finger-picking style of playing, as per classical guitar.
Now, having visited Mike’s site, I have discovered several DVDs that fit the bill but, the ones I want are all download files, which, for me and my dongle, would take forever. The alternative to downloading them myself, is to do so through Alan’s Ethernet connection when I next visit heim
Later…….
Privet hedges cause of Ash Dieback??
Oh really??
This was an article in the Mail on Sunday this morning. Well now, just how long have privet hedges been a part of the British landscape? I remember them well from my youth, because virtually every garden; front and back; had them as separators between gardens, long before the wooden, or chain-link fence were ever used.
All of which obviously begs the question, why have these hedges not caused problems with Ash trees in the past? Has it really taken hundreds of years for Ash trees to suddenly be prone to attack by Privet spoors?
Birmingham City Council has been in the news recently. Apparently they have not been paying their female workers the same as their male workers for similar jobs. In fact, what they have been guilty of is not paying their females the same for jobs within the same pay scale. From what I have seen, this stupid Council allowed care workers to be classified as equal to refuse collectors. How daft was that?
BCC are now threatened with having to pay out around £750 million in com-pen-say-shun to these female workers. The inevitable result of these payouts will be more job losses. Do these women care? I very much doubt it, just so long as they can lay their greasy hands on some unearned dosh.
G4
Ah! that new Internet thingy, which supposedly has all the bells and whistles and, quite probably will download files before you actually double click on them. Unfortunately there’s a fly in this ointment. Well, there would be, wouldn’t there?
It seems that rather than set the transmitters up with sensible frequencies, you know those that won’t interfere with any other wireless frequencies, what do they do? Why, they use frequencies that are not only very close to those already being used to transmit TV programmes, they will actually block them out for thousands of viewers. Not only that, it’s going to cost millions of pounds to compensate those people who lose their reception. Aren’t they great?
Andy took the car away yesterday and applied lubrication to the gear change cables. I was hoping that this would make a big difference, because, apparently this is a common problem. It seems that when the gear linkages are assembled lubricant is applied and, over time, that lubricant dries out.
Huh! So far, after a ride out to Swadlingcote for my eye test, the difference is minimal, if at all. Perhaps the lubrication needs time to work its magic, so I’ll give it more time before asking Andy to have another look.
Meanwhile, I awoke at about 4.45 this morning and, realising I still had another half hour of kip, turned over and dozed off. As I expected, I re-awake at 5.15, had a wash and got dressed and, since Rusty was awake, took her for a walk. I saw a couple of people that I wouldn’t normally bump into at that time of morning, and thought nothing of it.
Even the fact that it was now getting lighter didn’t register in my newly awoken brain. However, on arriving back at the boat, I gave Rusty a treat and sat down at the laptop to enjoy my first cuppa of the day and then, taking a quick glance at my watch, I saw that it was now 7 o/clock. Ooops! Wifey should have had her cup of tea half an hour ago. I have never, ever overslept by an hour before. Shame on me!
I have successfully, albeit slowly, now downloaded all those guitar lessons I mentioned earlier. All I have to do now is get stuck in and rally LEARN. First stop is the course called Progressive Fingerpicking, my preferred method. I also have Folk and Rock ‘n’ Roll stuff, but they will come later.
My next door neighbour, Steve, offered his ‘3’ Wi Fi gadget which, he tells me, is so much faster than the dongle. So, why have I not been offered this before when I’ve upgraded?
Anyway, for some odd reason, despite having Wi Fi on this laptop, I couldn’t connect to this unit. So, that’s another problem to sort out.
And that’s that for this one but, just to show you what we expect later in the year, here are a couple of winter photos at Mercia Marina.
All the best from:
Dave, Sheila and Rusty.
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