13th November to 23rd
November
Wednesday 13th
November.
N.B. Any jokes you see in
this and future blogs, will probably come from my good friend Alan.
Well, winter has arrived and
we have a frosty start to the day, part of which we’ll be spending in Daventry.
Our MOT is due in February but, since I know we need two front tyres and will
be travelling down to Harlow on several occasions before then, we’re going to
get them changed sooner, rather than later. We also need a new radio aerial for
the boat, which is something I should have bought whilst I was in Harlow on
Saturday.
The steroids are doing
wonders to Rusty, she’s far more alert and active now, so much so that even our
nearest neighbour has passed comment. It can’t last of course, but at least her
quality of life has improved.
“Since the snow came all the wife has
done is look through the window. If it gets any worse, I'll have to let
her in.”
Friday 15th
November
Our radio has been playing up
of late, on occasion we find the volume goes down and the sound is somewhat
scratchy. We have a wooden box on top of the cratch cover, mounted upon which
is a holding tube for the TV aerial and a separate aerial for the radio.
Unscrewing one side of the box and looking inside, I could see that the wire
from the radio aerial had come off and so, not wanting to take the whole box
apart to fix the problem, off we trotted to Daventry for a new aerial. We also
stopped off at the tyre place and had the back two replaced.
That was on Wednesday
morning, after the ice had cleared, of course.
Yesterday we didn’t do much
of anything so, as you can plainly see, life in a marina is pretty humdrum.
However, it’s not so humdrum
that we’re totally bored. I still have my paintings, guitar and ukulele and
Wifey has her Sudoku books. Rusty has her regular hourly walks, on the hour
most of the time. Last evening she was wandering around, obviously looking for
somewhere to pee, but I nipped that idea in the bud, pretty sharpish I can tell
you.
How very strange that she can
still go all night!!
Sunday 17th
November
Yesterday, as far as the
Internet was concerned, was an out and out disaster. Crick Marina is a real
dead spot where ‘Three’ is concerned but, since they do have the most
transmitting towers, there would be no sense in changing.
Anyway, more in hope than
expectation, I even tried taking the WiFi onto the roof and connecting it up to
the laptop, even so the download speed was only running at a maximum of
150Kb/sec. I then tried using the old dongle, but found that to be even worse.
Then later in the afternoon, with the WiFi still in its little pod, I stood it
on the biscuit tin, on the ‘wrong’ side of the lounge and, lo and behold, I had
a signal, and a strong one at that.
Now, when I say the ‘wrong’
side of the boat I mean that, when I hang the unit in the window on that side,
I get no reception at all. But it seems that, by placing it lower down, it’s
picking up the signal through the opposite window, which is where I would
usually hang the darn thing. Me no understandee!
In addition to the strong
signal, the email I tried sending yesterday; one that had a picture in it,
which can be difficult sometimes; that went out too. So, leave it on the
biscuit tin.
Last night, just about half
an hour after retiring to bed, along came Rusty and spewed up on the carpet.
Then after she had been out again, she then wandered down to our bedroom and
started scratching on the carpet. It was then necessary for Wifey to take her
back to bed, and it was left to yours truly to put the usual barrier up to
prevent further night time wanderings. It’s now almost 6am and she’s sound
asleep.
Would you believe it, I just
tried sending an email and noticed that the signal had dropped then, after a
couple of minutes it came back. What a bummer!!
Monday 18th
November
We took our wee pooch to the
Vet today and, since the pills seem to be doing her good, she’s on them for
another month, with the proviso that, should she take a turn for the worse, we
are to take her back. So far so good and a month’s supply of pills is only
£2.38p. Gotta be the cheapest Vets around.
Tuesday 19th
November
That trip to the Vet totally
exhausted our Rusty, so much so that she spent most of the day sleeping, then
managed to down some food much later. As a consequence of which she needed to
go out during the night. At times she’s really quite chipper and her ‘normal’
self, at others she all morose and quiet, which does worry us.
I took her out again first
thing this morning, but she needed to be carried all the way, so she’s
certainly not enjoying life right now.
Now, the Internet, which is
something of a joke, here at Crick Marina. I’ve been at the laptop since about
6.15 this morning and, in that hour I’ve just managed to download 8 emails and
shopped for some pastel pencils at Turner’s of Stockport. It doesn’t matter
where I put the WiFi unit, everything is very slow and the signal keeps
dropping out. Not good, not good at all!!
If I thought it would be safe
to leave Rusty on her own today, I would accompany Wifey into Rugby and call
into the Three shop, but I think she’ll be going on her own.
Wednesday 20th
November
Yesterday was a very sad day
for us, because we finally had to part with our beloved pet, Rusty. Her
condition had become too serious for us to allow her to go on any longer. We’ll
miss her dreadfully and will have many fond memories of her. The end of a very
happy relationship, with a dog with an attitude problem, never letting us
forget who was boss.
Thursday 21st November
Friday 22nd
November
You know how I’ve been having
trouble accessing the Internet and downloading stuff? Well, as a result of
having to call into the Marina Office to sort out a power failure, I asked Noel
about the strength of their own WiFi signal, with a view to moving closer to
it. The upshot of the conversation was, that their unit has a booster unit
quite close to our small marina, so I should get a good, strong signal here,
which I’m not.
Being something of a
Technophobe where these things are concerned, Noel’s question as to whether I
had a WiFi aerial on the boat, rather took me by surprise, since I wasn’t aware
that I needed one, thinking, in my ignorance, that my WiFi would pick up on the
marina signal.
Oh no it doesn’t! It’s the computer
that picks that signal up and, without an aerial any signal I do receive will
be very weak.
So, I have now ordered an
aerial, which means that, for the duration of our stay here at Crick, I will
not be needing the ‘Three’ WiFi unit at all and I should have no problems with
emails or the Internet. Whoopee!
I made my first attempt at
painting my photo of Rusty this morning and, after filling in the water and
reflections, I made a start on her face. Oooops! I failed miserably, making a
right mess of her eye and, if you can’t get the eye right, there’s little point
in continuing. So, later today I’ll have to prepare another sheet of paper and
start again tomorrow morning.
Saturday 23rd
November
Our neighbour on our port
side, is Martin and his wife on Coriolis and a very nice couple they are too.
When we came back from shopping yesterday, they were in the process of taking
their boat into dry dock for work on the waterline paint. It will only be there
for a few days, which is a pity really because, as I discovered later when I
hung the WiFi in the window, it’s their boat that’s blocking our signal. This
also tells me that, if I want to use ‘Three’ for Internet access, I’ll have to
find a longer lead and put it on the roof, nearer to the front of the boat. Can’t
wait for that aerial!
Now, whilst I still have a
strong signal, I’ll post this blog.
Have a great weekend.
Dave and Sheila
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