Thursday 10th January
It is perishing cold this morning, so we can safely say that winter has returned. In fact the frost settled last night, so I suppose I’ll have to be careful this morning when I take Rusty out. Talking of which, almost an hour ago she awoke and raised her head to look around. That’s good, I thought, let’s get her out. So saying, I put my shoes on and, by the time I had done so, she’s gone back to sleep. And she’s still asleep! If she deigns to surface at 7 o/clock, that will be 9 hours without a pee. I should be so lucky!
O.K. I have now downloaded Apache Open Office and the far bigger Ubuntu. The latter because the disc was making an awful noise and I don’t want to chance it. I might just install one on the Toshiba later today, just to see what they’re all about.
Sunday 13th January
Firstly, Open Office and Ubuntu, neither of which I have installed as yet. But there’s no rush for either as I’m still sorting out the Sony. And, along with that task, I’ve been trying the new WiFi unit but, as with my past problems with Outlook, this thing is not a lot of good either, so I’m still using the dongle. Thanks goodness I didn’t chuck it.
Anyway, the WiFi unit does work but, with it being surrounded by metal, and not just that of Shiralee, but our neighbours two boats as well, the signal is no better than the dongle. In order to see if it’s faster than the dongle, as the staff at the ‘Three’ shop claim, I will have to mount it on a stick and stand it outside, on the roof. This also means it will have to be plugged into the laptop, because it does need to be charged up, unlike the dongle.
Today winter has arrived with a vengeance. We have a really heavy frost and it is darned cold out there. Still, better late than never.
As of Thursday morning we had both lost 3lb in weight. This is pretty good for the first week I think. But we made a huge mistake yesterday and bought a new set of scales. These are electronic and also measure body fat and water. Don’t ask, I have no idea how they do it. It’s something to do with an electronic pulse that the scales send through the bare feet. The scales have to be set with height and age and they show me as being about 5lb heavier than the old scales. But that’s no surprise as the old ones belong in a museum.
So, all is going well with the Hairy Dieters book. Yesterday we had roast chicken with roasted vegetables, a most enjoyable meal. For anybody reading this, who needs to lose weight, I can’t think of a more enjoyable way of doing it. A truly inspired book. What surprises us most is that we don’t feel hungry between meals.
Tuesday 15th January
The good news is, I’m getting there with the transfer of info from the Toshiba to the Sony. The bad news is, although the Transfer Cable info suggests it is possible to transfer emails, I can’t see how and, what makes it worse, there’s no Help File with the programme. So, I am still in the process of copying my emails into Word for safe keeping.
You may remember me telling about my recent experiences when ordering a book from Amazon? Well, this morning the same thing happened with eBay. I tried purchasing a book on Archaeology for my sister Carole but, as I was filling in the delivery address, the page disappeared. I immediately assumed that the sale had gone through and, sure enough, when I checked on my Purchase History, that was indeed the case. But that’s not all, it seems I had purchased two of the same item.
Of course, I checked my PayPal account and found there were no new transactions, so I haven’t actually paid for them. My next step was to contact the vendor because, with the apparent sale of both his books, the listing had, to all intents and purposes, ended, so the book was not now available.
Today has started very cold, colder than we have seen so far. Luckily for us we only had a smidgeon of snow yesterday, but we are assured that more is on the way.
I have, as you all know, upgraded my dongle to a WiFi unit and, I have to say that, within the confines of the boat, it’s no better than the dongle. The only way I can get a signal is if I tie it to a stick and stand it by the window. It seems then, that I have once again been lied to. When I was told that it will overcome the confines of a boat, they lied because it does no such thing. Well, not for me anyway, because I’ve tried at several points within the boat, and can’t get a signal at all, except on the end of the stick.
Obviously being surrounded by boats here, the WiFi is struggling but, since I can pick up the local marina WiFi signal, and that’s outside the boat and I’m picking it up even though my unit is surrounded by metal, why can’t I pick my own signal up?
Anyway, in order to solve this problem, at least while we’re still at the marina, I’m making a box in which to house it and, by attaching a magnet to the bottom, I should be able to stand the box on the roof and receive a decent signal. I’m nothing if not versatile.
In November 2011 I purchased a pair of varifocal and a pair of reading glasses from Boot’s. I was not completely happy with them, simply because the reading part of the varifocal glasses was not as efficient as the reading pair. So, when it came to having them adjusted, I mentioned this, in two separate occasions but, on both occasions my concerns were ignored.
Just recently I received a letter inviting me for an appointment for a sight test. But, instead of attending said appointment, I wrote to Boot’s telling them I would not be doing so, and why. I received a telephone call from the manageress of the Burton store, asking me to pay them a visit, at which time she will attempt to sort out my problem. Who knows, I may get satisfaction, but I’m not holding my breath.
Thursday 17th January
Hoorah! I have finally got the new WiFi unit to work in the boat, without having to hoist on a stick on the roof. Actually, it’s under the cratch cover, the other side of the front door. It’s pretty fast too, although, I have yet to test it with a download of any size. It’s a pity we didn’t try that spot before I made a box in which to house it and put on the roof. Still, I may yet need it when we’re cruising.
I have also managed to get Typeitin and eBook Starter set up in their Professional mode. But, in each case I have had to contact the programme makers before I could do so. What a palaver these people put you through. You’d think they would try to make these things easy for existing customers, but the reverse seems to be true. This especially in the case of Typeitin, or Wavget, as the parent company is called. At least eBook have a page dedicated to this problem and it’s easily fixed.
This morning doesn’t seem quite as cold as yesterday, and that can only mean one thing, snow! This might seem an odd thing to say, but experience shows that, in really cold weather – sort of hovering around freezing – when clouds build up and the edge goes off the frost, snow is on the way. Of course, I have the added advantage of the weather report from yesterday evening, which told us to expect snow by Friday morning. But, I wouldn’t mind betting it’s here before today is done.
Our water pump is now really misbehaving itself and, yesterday afternoon I counted 12 seconds before the water came through. Andy has promised to replace it within the next couple of days, but I’ve warned him that, should it stop completely, I’ll be chasing him up for an immediate solution.
Today we’re driving into Burton for Sainsbury’s shopping. Normally we would do so at Morrison’s but, since Wifey need a particular spice, that Morrison’s didn’t have, it’s Sainsbury’s. While we’re there of course, I’ll call in at Boot’s Opticians and see if I can get any satisfaction regarding these glasses.
Sunday 20th January
It’s been pretty darn cold here these past few days, with about 3 inches of snow on Friday, a few measly flakes yesterday, but no more overnight. As a result of that settled snow, along with the lack of gritting on our perimeter road, that road is now like a skating rink, a sheet of rutted ice, where the snow has been churned up by cars and has now frozen solid.
Our diet is going very well and, since purchasing our new electronic scales last Saturday, we’ve both lost another 3 pounds. The recipes are pretty good too, with very little fat and few carbs, so my blood glucose readings have stabilised quite well, apart from the occasional hiccup, caused by those lack of carbs. Anyway, we’re really doing quite well.
Our new WiFi unit is pretty good, now that we’ve found a suitable location in the boat. However, it’s still no faster in downloading stuff than the dongle. But at least I don’t have to stand it on the roof. Although, once this cold snap is over, I’ll be putting the unit in its little box and standing it on the roof, but only to see if it improves the download speed.
There’s an odd thing about this WiFi unit, and it’s all to do with the Security Code. Included with unit is a Keepsake Card, and on that card is the WiFi Key, which is needed in order to set the thing up and, if used on a different computer, that code would have to be entered, but only once. This card also tell me that, if I press the little ‘key’ icon on the side of the unit, I will be able to see the code on the screen. So much for security then! This means that, should somebody steal the WiFi unit, they will be able to set it up on their computer, simply by pressing the ‘key’ to obtain my security code. Isn’t that great?
I’ll be starting on a new pastel painting soon, this time it’s a Still Life, the subject of which is a pink flower with two Faberge Eggs sitting beside it. The detail on the eggs will certainly be tricky, but I’m looking forward to starting it tomorrow morning.
Monday 21st January
We had loads of snow yesterday, about 3 inches or so, and even more overnight. We were planning on taking the bus into Derby this morning, but I don’t fancy traipsing through the snow to the bus stop.
Well, I was going to do a bit more to this blog entry, but Wifey has just surfaced, so it’s time to do breakfast.
Tuesday 22nd January
My apologies for the shortness of entry yesterday, but Wifey must have her breakfast, this is of paramount importance. Although, if she were that desperate she would get up earlier. LOL
Anyway, after transferring all my emails from Outlook 2003 on the Toshiba, to Outlook 2010 on the Sony, I carried on with other things, thinking all would now be well. Noooooo! Oh no!
This morning, when I tried opening Outlook 2010, the darn thing would not obey me. Instead it complained that it was unable to find a certain .pst file. Now, I do know what these files are and, believe it or not, I also know what they do. (Just because I’m a mere man does not mean I am completely and utterly useless).
So, I have no doubt whatsoever that I did something wrong when I transferred my files from one machine to the other. I have now enlisted the aid of the very nice man who sold me the Sony. Incidentally, Dave, that’s the aforementioned nice man, telephoned me a couple of days ago, in response to my earlier email. Had I known I had made such an almighty cock-up, I would have asked for a few more details. I now await his reply but, in the meantime, I’ll have another crack at the problem.
Happy days from Dave Sheila and Rusty, from a very cold Mercia Marina.
Monday, 21 January 2013
Wednesday, 9 January 2013
Shiralee: Winter 2012/13 # 9
Saturday 5th January
As I reported in the previous blog, I was unable to upload a copy of my painting of Shiralee. Now, having checked on the blogger forum and found somebody else with a similar problem, it seems the fault lies with IE9. I have a problem with this excuse, as I am still using IE8 and have had no problems up until now. The engineers are working on the problem, or so it seems but, meanwhile, in the top right hand corner of the forum page we are invited to try Google Chrome, as if we don’t have enough browsers to contend with already.
So, what to do about this? Well, if, by the time I come to post this blog I am still having problems, I will have to make a decision. Do I change to a different blog supplier, or do I start hosting pictures on a free hosting site, such as Photo Bucket?
Do I need this at my time of life?
O.K., back to normal living.
We are the proud owners of the Hairy Bikers book in which they both go on a serious diet and lose umpteen pounds each. Last night we tried their Lasagne, in which they use the skins of a leek in place of the pasta. This is to cut down on the fat in the recipe, and quite delicious it was too. The fact that my evening was thoroughly spoiled afterwards with a dodgy tummy, does not detract from its deliciousness. And besides, this could have been brought on by the mini pork pies I had for lunch, or even the glass or three of red wine that we had with the meal.
This morning, just for a change, and if she actually deigns to get up at all, Wifey is doing breakfast. This will be another of the HB’s recipes and involves a couple of crumpets laced with berries and Greek yoghourt. Hopefully my tummy will behave itself afterwards.
Sunday 6th January
Well, I’m pleased to say, no tummy trouble with that excellent meal. So far we have tried four of these recipes and found them all pretty darned good and tasty. Hopefully, following their advice and only eating at proper meal times, with no silly snacks in between, we will keep to a calorie controlled diet and lose weight.
As far as Wifey’s BMI reading goes, she’s at a healthy weight and, although she is a wee bit podgy – or mumsy - now, she says she feels uncomfortable. For myself, I know I need to shed at least 20lb and will endeavour to do so before we set sail in March.
At the start of this diet I weighed in at 14st. 8lb. (204lb), and that’s on our old scales. I’m at least half a stone heavier on nurse’s scales at the surgery. My comfortable weight is about 13 stone (182lb), but my ideal weight, and a target I would not expect to reach at my age, is about 12½ stone (175lb). It would be nice to think I could do so, but I’m only human, and a man at that, so I don’t expect miracles.
Rusty took a bit of a tumble yesterday and seemed to twist a leg underneath her, so we’ve had to lift her out of the boat to take her walkies. It’s now almost 7 am and, after 9 hours on her bed, she still seems reluctant to move, although she is wide awake. I don’t know how they do it! During the day she pesters us to go out at two hour intervals.
Monday 7th January
Well, the Sony arrived on Saturday and, true to his word, the seller had installed MS Office 2010. Whoopee, I thought, but then realised there was no Installation disc with it. Obviously, should the laptop crash sometime in the future, I won’t be able to re-install Office and, even if I were to install 2003, I won’t be able to open documents made in 2010. Great! I have emailed the seller and asked about this, but I’m afraid, if the disc is not forthcoming, I’ll have grin and bear it. After all, should the worst happen I do still have 2007 Home and Student, along with 2007 Outlook.
Any computer seller worth his salt would have a licence from Microsoft whereby he can install programmes and provide the necessary discs. If they don’t have that licence, they have no right to install the programmes. Simple!
Tuesday 8th January
Well, here we go again. I just knew I would have problems setting up Outlook 2010 and, as usual, I was right. At first, after following all the settings I had written down from 2003, all seemed to go well and I downloaded my messages. Then, for some odd reason the programme refused to run. It would not send a Test Message either.
Now, I have always had a problem with Outlook. I have no idea why but, whichever computer I have had, setting this up, be it 2003, 2007 or the latest 2010, nothing goes right. Until I set this up to run properly, how the heck can I expect my new WiFi unit to work? After all, this too will rely upon the correct settings. All I want to do is download my messages from my server Absolute eMail, to Outlook. Nothing could be simpler, could it? Sickening, absolutely sickening, and I have spent over an hour on this so far this morning.
I also have Typeitin to set up. This is a web and email storage programme that allows one click writing of web addresses and emails into their relevant boxes. This is another programme I always have problems setting up. It entails going online and downloading the programme and then registering it, which is where the problem always comes.
Another programme which requires a similar registration process is eBook Starter, which I used when compiling my recipe book. Thankfully, since I have nothing on the back burner, I’m in no hurry to set this one up.
Ah well, such are trials and tribulations of owning a computer. I’ll be glad when I’m too old to bother.
On a lighter note, we’re off to Derby by bus where, I hope, I’ll be able to buy a transfer lead, so that I can copy stuff from the Toshiba to the Sony.
Wednesday 9th January
Whoopee! It’s Wednesday and it’s Wifey’s turn to do breakfast. Why? Well, we always have crumpets on Wednesdays, normally with lashings of butter, yummee! But, as we’re on a diet and cutting down on fats of all kinds, we are now enjoying our crumpets with fruit and plain yoghurt. And that’s where Wifey comes into the operation. In truth I don’t think she trusts me to do it right. It’s a shame she doesn’t adopt the same attitude when it comes to washing up!
I am still having problems setting up Outlook 2010 and have gone through the procedure several times, always with the same result. I just cannot send and receive messages. I have no idea why this should be, but I had exactly the same problem when setting up the 2007 version on the Toshiba. Why it should be a problem with the Sony and 2010 I simply can’t figure out.
As for the disc for 2010, well, I have been assured by a friend of mine, that the installation of Office 2010 should not have been carried out and is probably hookey, so I’m in a bit of a quandary. Do I keep it? Do I delete it and install 2007 Home and Student; which would probably leave me with the same Outlook problem? Or do I delete it and install Office 2003, which I know is OK?
Alternatively I could install Ubuntu’s Open Office Suite, alongside Windows and run their equivalent programme. But I also have a problem with the Ubuntu disc, it’s making an awful noise when it’s running. This problem crops up sometimes with old or dirty discs, neither of which description fits this Ubuntu disc.
Oh boy, how do I come up against these silly problems?
Now, having typed all that in and despite the noisy disc, I’m going to try installing Open Office later today. I might give it a try out on the Toshiba first though.
Thursday 10th January
The good news is that, after several painstaking hours on the Sony, I finally managed to get Outlook to send a Test message. The bad news is that, when I clicked on Send/Receive Outlook did send my message to Sandra but, despite telling me my emails had been downloaded, they had not. At least I couldn’t see anything in the Inbox.
I suspect that I may have a problem with Windows Firewall settings because, it was only after ‘playing around’ with those settings that the Test message went out. I am now sitting at the Toshiba and have checked the Firewall settings on that. My next stop, later this morning, will be to compare settings.
Now, when I bumped into my friend Chris yesterday, he’s the all-knowing one with computers, he suggested I install Open Office. As it happens and as I have already mentioned, I do have the Ubuntu disc, but that’s faulty and, to make matters worse, Ubuntu is not the only Open Office suite available. There is another one called Apache, but that is considerably smaller. Suck it and See is a phrase that springs to mind, or find Chris and see what he thinks.
Meanwhile, back to those Firewall settings, I suppose. I have nothing else to do today, so it looks like more work on the Sony. I’ll crack it eventually. However, if anybody out there can offer advice, please do so by email.
And now we will post this blog. Well, it will give you all something to read, if you have the time.
Still unable to upload picture from laptop!!
Have a great weekend.
Dave, Sheila and Rusty.
As I reported in the previous blog, I was unable to upload a copy of my painting of Shiralee. Now, having checked on the blogger forum and found somebody else with a similar problem, it seems the fault lies with IE9. I have a problem with this excuse, as I am still using IE8 and have had no problems up until now. The engineers are working on the problem, or so it seems but, meanwhile, in the top right hand corner of the forum page we are invited to try Google Chrome, as if we don’t have enough browsers to contend with already.
So, what to do about this? Well, if, by the time I come to post this blog I am still having problems, I will have to make a decision. Do I change to a different blog supplier, or do I start hosting pictures on a free hosting site, such as Photo Bucket?
Do I need this at my time of life?
O.K., back to normal living.
We are the proud owners of the Hairy Bikers book in which they both go on a serious diet and lose umpteen pounds each. Last night we tried their Lasagne, in which they use the skins of a leek in place of the pasta. This is to cut down on the fat in the recipe, and quite delicious it was too. The fact that my evening was thoroughly spoiled afterwards with a dodgy tummy, does not detract from its deliciousness. And besides, this could have been brought on by the mini pork pies I had for lunch, or even the glass or three of red wine that we had with the meal.
This morning, just for a change, and if she actually deigns to get up at all, Wifey is doing breakfast. This will be another of the HB’s recipes and involves a couple of crumpets laced with berries and Greek yoghourt. Hopefully my tummy will behave itself afterwards.
Sunday 6th January
Well, I’m pleased to say, no tummy trouble with that excellent meal. So far we have tried four of these recipes and found them all pretty darned good and tasty. Hopefully, following their advice and only eating at proper meal times, with no silly snacks in between, we will keep to a calorie controlled diet and lose weight.
As far as Wifey’s BMI reading goes, she’s at a healthy weight and, although she is a wee bit podgy – or mumsy - now, she says she feels uncomfortable. For myself, I know I need to shed at least 20lb and will endeavour to do so before we set sail in March.
At the start of this diet I weighed in at 14st. 8lb. (204lb), and that’s on our old scales. I’m at least half a stone heavier on nurse’s scales at the surgery. My comfortable weight is about 13 stone (182lb), but my ideal weight, and a target I would not expect to reach at my age, is about 12½ stone (175lb). It would be nice to think I could do so, but I’m only human, and a man at that, so I don’t expect miracles.
Rusty took a bit of a tumble yesterday and seemed to twist a leg underneath her, so we’ve had to lift her out of the boat to take her walkies. It’s now almost 7 am and, after 9 hours on her bed, she still seems reluctant to move, although she is wide awake. I don’t know how they do it! During the day she pesters us to go out at two hour intervals.
Monday 7th January
Well, the Sony arrived on Saturday and, true to his word, the seller had installed MS Office 2010. Whoopee, I thought, but then realised there was no Installation disc with it. Obviously, should the laptop crash sometime in the future, I won’t be able to re-install Office and, even if I were to install 2003, I won’t be able to open documents made in 2010. Great! I have emailed the seller and asked about this, but I’m afraid, if the disc is not forthcoming, I’ll have grin and bear it. After all, should the worst happen I do still have 2007 Home and Student, along with 2007 Outlook.
Any computer seller worth his salt would have a licence from Microsoft whereby he can install programmes and provide the necessary discs. If they don’t have that licence, they have no right to install the programmes. Simple!
Tuesday 8th January
Well, here we go again. I just knew I would have problems setting up Outlook 2010 and, as usual, I was right. At first, after following all the settings I had written down from 2003, all seemed to go well and I downloaded my messages. Then, for some odd reason the programme refused to run. It would not send a Test Message either.
Now, I have always had a problem with Outlook. I have no idea why but, whichever computer I have had, setting this up, be it 2003, 2007 or the latest 2010, nothing goes right. Until I set this up to run properly, how the heck can I expect my new WiFi unit to work? After all, this too will rely upon the correct settings. All I want to do is download my messages from my server Absolute eMail, to Outlook. Nothing could be simpler, could it? Sickening, absolutely sickening, and I have spent over an hour on this so far this morning.
I also have Typeitin to set up. This is a web and email storage programme that allows one click writing of web addresses and emails into their relevant boxes. This is another programme I always have problems setting up. It entails going online and downloading the programme and then registering it, which is where the problem always comes.
Another programme which requires a similar registration process is eBook Starter, which I used when compiling my recipe book. Thankfully, since I have nothing on the back burner, I’m in no hurry to set this one up.
Ah well, such are trials and tribulations of owning a computer. I’ll be glad when I’m too old to bother.
On a lighter note, we’re off to Derby by bus where, I hope, I’ll be able to buy a transfer lead, so that I can copy stuff from the Toshiba to the Sony.
Wednesday 9th January
Whoopee! It’s Wednesday and it’s Wifey’s turn to do breakfast. Why? Well, we always have crumpets on Wednesdays, normally with lashings of butter, yummee! But, as we’re on a diet and cutting down on fats of all kinds, we are now enjoying our crumpets with fruit and plain yoghurt. And that’s where Wifey comes into the operation. In truth I don’t think she trusts me to do it right. It’s a shame she doesn’t adopt the same attitude when it comes to washing up!
I am still having problems setting up Outlook 2010 and have gone through the procedure several times, always with the same result. I just cannot send and receive messages. I have no idea why this should be, but I had exactly the same problem when setting up the 2007 version on the Toshiba. Why it should be a problem with the Sony and 2010 I simply can’t figure out.
As for the disc for 2010, well, I have been assured by a friend of mine, that the installation of Office 2010 should not have been carried out and is probably hookey, so I’m in a bit of a quandary. Do I keep it? Do I delete it and install 2007 Home and Student; which would probably leave me with the same Outlook problem? Or do I delete it and install Office 2003, which I know is OK?
Alternatively I could install Ubuntu’s Open Office Suite, alongside Windows and run their equivalent programme. But I also have a problem with the Ubuntu disc, it’s making an awful noise when it’s running. This problem crops up sometimes with old or dirty discs, neither of which description fits this Ubuntu disc.
Oh boy, how do I come up against these silly problems?
Now, having typed all that in and despite the noisy disc, I’m going to try installing Open Office later today. I might give it a try out on the Toshiba first though.
Thursday 10th January
The good news is that, after several painstaking hours on the Sony, I finally managed to get Outlook to send a Test message. The bad news is that, when I clicked on Send/Receive Outlook did send my message to Sandra but, despite telling me my emails had been downloaded, they had not. At least I couldn’t see anything in the Inbox.
I suspect that I may have a problem with Windows Firewall settings because, it was only after ‘playing around’ with those settings that the Test message went out. I am now sitting at the Toshiba and have checked the Firewall settings on that. My next stop, later this morning, will be to compare settings.
Now, when I bumped into my friend Chris yesterday, he’s the all-knowing one with computers, he suggested I install Open Office. As it happens and as I have already mentioned, I do have the Ubuntu disc, but that’s faulty and, to make matters worse, Ubuntu is not the only Open Office suite available. There is another one called Apache, but that is considerably smaller. Suck it and See is a phrase that springs to mind, or find Chris and see what he thinks.
Meanwhile, back to those Firewall settings, I suppose. I have nothing else to do today, so it looks like more work on the Sony. I’ll crack it eventually. However, if anybody out there can offer advice, please do so by email.
And now we will post this blog. Well, it will give you all something to read, if you have the time.
Still unable to upload picture from laptop!!
Have a great weekend.
Dave, Sheila and Rusty.
Friday, 4 January 2013
Shiralee: Winter 2012/13 # 8
Monday 31st December
Yet again we have high winds this morning but, thank goodness, no rain as yet.
This morning we will take a run out to the local Range store. Having finished my pastel painting of Shiralee and, I might add, at Wifey’s insistence, I’m going to mount and frame it. I’m not convinced that it’s good enough for displaying on the wall of the boat but, quite possibly I am my own worse critic. Emma thinks it’s very good, but she’s only seen a photo of it.
Anyway, I’ll need a backing board and double sided tape and I’ll also need an A3 mount and, eventually, a frame. But this will come after I’ve mounted it because, until I’ve done that I won’t really know what type or colour frame to use. Maybe, when it is finally framed and, assuming I am happy with it, I’ll post it here.
My next pastel project; perhaps a still life, which Emma insists I would be good at; I will do in pastel pencils. Soft pastels are just a wee bit too messy for my liking, whereas pencils have a nice, wooden barrier twixt pastel and fingers, although they do still have to be blended in. Unfortunately I only have about 15 pencils, so I’ll have to order some more before I start on anew painting.
Emma, my mentor in New Zealand, I have recently discovered, has two daughters and a son. One daughter lives in Oz and the other lives in the USA. The son, I assume, although I don’t have confirmation of this, also lives in New Zealand. On top of that nicely rounded family, Emma is still on good terms with her ex and she lives in the same house as her best friend from her schooldays. Emma will be taking a trip to the South Island, possibly around March and has promised to send postcards from her trip. Which reminds me, I still haven’t received the postcard Alan Oxley sent from China; no doubt some lousy Post Office worker has kept it for his collection.
Tuesday 1st January 2013.
How about that folks, we’ve successfully completed another year? Hopefully it will be somewhat drier than 2012.
Before anybody asks, no, we didn’t stay up to see the New Year in. Short of being struck by a wandering comet, or some such disaster, it was going to turn up anyway, and besides, at our age we need our beauty sleep. However, for those of you who did welcome it in, I do hope you had a good time.
Today, having purchased some mounting card yesterday, I will have a go at mounting my painting of Shiralee. The Range has lots of frames of varying sizes, but none that actually fit the bill in this instance, so I will probably have to take it to a framing shop. Had I given the matter due consideration before painting the picture, I could have painted it to fit a standard frame. Ah well, I know for next time.
Thursday 3rd January
We’re on a diet. We have come to the conclusion that we are both too darned fat. The realisation finally hit us whilst watching The Hairy Dieters. Not only that, we have finally realised what we are doing wrong. It’s not that we don’t get any exercise because, on most dry days we’ll walk around the marina with Rusty, and that is a mile. Not a lot I know, but at the age of 70 I am not contemplating jogging or throwing weights around.
So, having decided to lose the weight, we then went on to buy Si and Dave’s book from the series. Wow, you have got to see some of the delicious recipes in this book.
We made a start yesterday and the first thing that went was our evening snack. I should say late evening, because this usually takes the form of a scone, teacake or handful of biscuits. We’ve also bough a variety of cereals, including porridge, All Bran and Shredded Wheat, so we won’t have toast every morning for breakfast.
Wifey hasn’t weighed herself yet, but I am now sitting at 14st. 8lbs, with a BMI of just above 30, which is just inside the obese range. Unfortunately, all the charts telling you how to calculate your BMI are in metric, and I’m damn well British. So, with a bit of jiggery pokery with a calculator, I reckon that to calculate BMI in English measurements, you need to take your weight in pounds, divide that by your height in inches and multiply the result by 10.2. Well, it worked for me at my current weight and height.
Watch this space because, in order for us to achieve our goals – and I’m not sure what they are yet – I think we should have a bunch of independent observers; your good selves; monitoring our progress. To this end I will be posting my own results over the coming weeks. If Sheila agrees I will also post her results.
Today we are going nowhere, except perhaps a walk around the marina, so I’ll be attempting to mount my painting of Shiralee and framing it. I’m also hoping that my new laptop will turn up today or tomorrow, so that I can spend part of the weekend setting it up.
Yesterday we drove into Burton and, whilst we were there we called into the Three shop and upgraded the dongle, but this time for a WiFi unit. Apparently these things are far more reliable than the dongle, and they give faster download speeds. The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating. I’m still not sure if I have WiFi enabled on this Toshiba, but I have been assured that the Sony VAIO is enabled. So I’ll wait until that arrives before setting the WiFi unit up.
Friday 4th January
For some time now, as I think I may have mentioned previously, our water pump has been running on when we turn off a tap. This warned me of course, that there could be something seriously wrong, such as a leak somewhere, and I was right.
So, after Wifey emptied the cupboard under the galley sink, I invited our local engineer along to take a look. He soon spotted the problem, much the same as we had and said, “Oh yes, you have a very nice puddle under here”, and promised to return with a new pump later in the afternoon.
Having replaced the pump and before putting everything back in the cupboard, Sheila looked further along from the pump, towards the stern and under the actual sink, where she saw even more water.
The next step was to check the cupboard in the bathroom where, sure enough, under the floor panel was an even deeper collection of water. Fortunately we have a battery operated hand pump that we bought some time ago for just such an occasion. However, even this gave us trouble very soon after starting to suck up the offending puddle.
At first it was just the batteries running down, so we popped off to the local Co-op and bought some more, no big deal he? But, when I put the batteries in the pump simply would not work. Obviously the on/off switch was causing problems and, no matter what I did I couldn’t get it to work. In the event I had to sit there on my little stool with the pump immersed in the water and a kitchen knife shorting out the battery terminal and, by about 10pm I had taken up as much water as I could reach. There’s still a lot there, but it’s inaccessible, short of cutting holes in the floor in order to reach it, which I will probably have to do. Still, with this water just sitting there, no doubt trapped between bulkheads or some such, at least we don’t have a hole in the bottom of the boat.
We think the problem was with the outflow from the shower unit, but we’re not sure about that either. I think it was probably the leaky pump and the water has just built up over time. If you think about how many times per day that you run water, and the fact that the gasket around the middle of the pump was leaking, it’s no wonder there was such a lot of water there.
After all that today will be a day of rest, unless Andy advises us to cut a few holes in the floor, at which time we’ll probably be working on this problem for a couple of days.
Saturday 5th January
Some time ago I made an attempt at cutting a hole in the wardrobe floor, so as to enable us to pump water out from the bilge should the need arise. This was necessary because our washing machine sits atop the one provided by the boat builders. The problem with that idea was, when I came to cut through the timber floor the cutter met up with a lump of ballast in the shape of a breeze block. So much for that idea, I thought.
So, after Andy left yesterday morning; he’d stopped by due to our concerns about the pumps operation; we popped along to the chandlery and bought an Oil Extraction Pump. This comes in the shape of a 6 litre bowl and comes with a pressure pump and thin tube, which is usually inserted where the dipstick goes in the engine.
That hole would now come in useful because, even though there is a breeze block underneath it, the pump tube is thin enough to reach between these blocks. When you count the water we extracted with our other battery operated pump on Thursday evening, we have probably removed 8 or 9 gallons of water, and all because of a leaky water pump.
We now have yet another piece of useful equipment, which will probably spend the next few years under the bed, just waiting to be pressed into service.
Will you look at this, six pages already. Time to post methinks.
So, all the best to you and yours from:
Dave, Sheila and Rusty.
PS I had intended to add a copy of my framed painting of Shiralee, but that facility has been denied me. Instead, all pictures have to be uploaded from an online storage facility. I may have to change my blog address and will advise in the next one.
Dave
Yet again we have high winds this morning but, thank goodness, no rain as yet.
This morning we will take a run out to the local Range store. Having finished my pastel painting of Shiralee and, I might add, at Wifey’s insistence, I’m going to mount and frame it. I’m not convinced that it’s good enough for displaying on the wall of the boat but, quite possibly I am my own worse critic. Emma thinks it’s very good, but she’s only seen a photo of it.
Anyway, I’ll need a backing board and double sided tape and I’ll also need an A3 mount and, eventually, a frame. But this will come after I’ve mounted it because, until I’ve done that I won’t really know what type or colour frame to use. Maybe, when it is finally framed and, assuming I am happy with it, I’ll post it here.
My next pastel project; perhaps a still life, which Emma insists I would be good at; I will do in pastel pencils. Soft pastels are just a wee bit too messy for my liking, whereas pencils have a nice, wooden barrier twixt pastel and fingers, although they do still have to be blended in. Unfortunately I only have about 15 pencils, so I’ll have to order some more before I start on anew painting.
Emma, my mentor in New Zealand, I have recently discovered, has two daughters and a son. One daughter lives in Oz and the other lives in the USA. The son, I assume, although I don’t have confirmation of this, also lives in New Zealand. On top of that nicely rounded family, Emma is still on good terms with her ex and she lives in the same house as her best friend from her schooldays. Emma will be taking a trip to the South Island, possibly around March and has promised to send postcards from her trip. Which reminds me, I still haven’t received the postcard Alan Oxley sent from China; no doubt some lousy Post Office worker has kept it for his collection.
Tuesday 1st January 2013.
How about that folks, we’ve successfully completed another year? Hopefully it will be somewhat drier than 2012.
Before anybody asks, no, we didn’t stay up to see the New Year in. Short of being struck by a wandering comet, or some such disaster, it was going to turn up anyway, and besides, at our age we need our beauty sleep. However, for those of you who did welcome it in, I do hope you had a good time.
Today, having purchased some mounting card yesterday, I will have a go at mounting my painting of Shiralee. The Range has lots of frames of varying sizes, but none that actually fit the bill in this instance, so I will probably have to take it to a framing shop. Had I given the matter due consideration before painting the picture, I could have painted it to fit a standard frame. Ah well, I know for next time.
Thursday 3rd January
We’re on a diet. We have come to the conclusion that we are both too darned fat. The realisation finally hit us whilst watching The Hairy Dieters. Not only that, we have finally realised what we are doing wrong. It’s not that we don’t get any exercise because, on most dry days we’ll walk around the marina with Rusty, and that is a mile. Not a lot I know, but at the age of 70 I am not contemplating jogging or throwing weights around.
So, having decided to lose the weight, we then went on to buy Si and Dave’s book from the series. Wow, you have got to see some of the delicious recipes in this book.
We made a start yesterday and the first thing that went was our evening snack. I should say late evening, because this usually takes the form of a scone, teacake or handful of biscuits. We’ve also bough a variety of cereals, including porridge, All Bran and Shredded Wheat, so we won’t have toast every morning for breakfast.
Wifey hasn’t weighed herself yet, but I am now sitting at 14st. 8lbs, with a BMI of just above 30, which is just inside the obese range. Unfortunately, all the charts telling you how to calculate your BMI are in metric, and I’m damn well British. So, with a bit of jiggery pokery with a calculator, I reckon that to calculate BMI in English measurements, you need to take your weight in pounds, divide that by your height in inches and multiply the result by 10.2. Well, it worked for me at my current weight and height.
Watch this space because, in order for us to achieve our goals – and I’m not sure what they are yet – I think we should have a bunch of independent observers; your good selves; monitoring our progress. To this end I will be posting my own results over the coming weeks. If Sheila agrees I will also post her results.
Today we are going nowhere, except perhaps a walk around the marina, so I’ll be attempting to mount my painting of Shiralee and framing it. I’m also hoping that my new laptop will turn up today or tomorrow, so that I can spend part of the weekend setting it up.
Yesterday we drove into Burton and, whilst we were there we called into the Three shop and upgraded the dongle, but this time for a WiFi unit. Apparently these things are far more reliable than the dongle, and they give faster download speeds. The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating. I’m still not sure if I have WiFi enabled on this Toshiba, but I have been assured that the Sony VAIO is enabled. So I’ll wait until that arrives before setting the WiFi unit up.
Friday 4th January
For some time now, as I think I may have mentioned previously, our water pump has been running on when we turn off a tap. This warned me of course, that there could be something seriously wrong, such as a leak somewhere, and I was right.
So, after Wifey emptied the cupboard under the galley sink, I invited our local engineer along to take a look. He soon spotted the problem, much the same as we had and said, “Oh yes, you have a very nice puddle under here”, and promised to return with a new pump later in the afternoon.
Having replaced the pump and before putting everything back in the cupboard, Sheila looked further along from the pump, towards the stern and under the actual sink, where she saw even more water.
The next step was to check the cupboard in the bathroom where, sure enough, under the floor panel was an even deeper collection of water. Fortunately we have a battery operated hand pump that we bought some time ago for just such an occasion. However, even this gave us trouble very soon after starting to suck up the offending puddle.
At first it was just the batteries running down, so we popped off to the local Co-op and bought some more, no big deal he? But, when I put the batteries in the pump simply would not work. Obviously the on/off switch was causing problems and, no matter what I did I couldn’t get it to work. In the event I had to sit there on my little stool with the pump immersed in the water and a kitchen knife shorting out the battery terminal and, by about 10pm I had taken up as much water as I could reach. There’s still a lot there, but it’s inaccessible, short of cutting holes in the floor in order to reach it, which I will probably have to do. Still, with this water just sitting there, no doubt trapped between bulkheads or some such, at least we don’t have a hole in the bottom of the boat.
We think the problem was with the outflow from the shower unit, but we’re not sure about that either. I think it was probably the leaky pump and the water has just built up over time. If you think about how many times per day that you run water, and the fact that the gasket around the middle of the pump was leaking, it’s no wonder there was such a lot of water there.
After all that today will be a day of rest, unless Andy advises us to cut a few holes in the floor, at which time we’ll probably be working on this problem for a couple of days.
Saturday 5th January
Some time ago I made an attempt at cutting a hole in the wardrobe floor, so as to enable us to pump water out from the bilge should the need arise. This was necessary because our washing machine sits atop the one provided by the boat builders. The problem with that idea was, when I came to cut through the timber floor the cutter met up with a lump of ballast in the shape of a breeze block. So much for that idea, I thought.
So, after Andy left yesterday morning; he’d stopped by due to our concerns about the pumps operation; we popped along to the chandlery and bought an Oil Extraction Pump. This comes in the shape of a 6 litre bowl and comes with a pressure pump and thin tube, which is usually inserted where the dipstick goes in the engine.
That hole would now come in useful because, even though there is a breeze block underneath it, the pump tube is thin enough to reach between these blocks. When you count the water we extracted with our other battery operated pump on Thursday evening, we have probably removed 8 or 9 gallons of water, and all because of a leaky water pump.
We now have yet another piece of useful equipment, which will probably spend the next few years under the bed, just waiting to be pressed into service.
Will you look at this, six pages already. Time to post methinks.
So, all the best to you and yours from:
Dave, Sheila and Rusty.
PS I had intended to add a copy of my framed painting of Shiralee, but that facility has been denied me. Instead, all pictures have to be uploaded from an online storage facility. I may have to change my blog address and will advise in the next one.
Dave
Sunday, 30 December 2012
Shiralee: Winter 2012/13 # 7
Sunday 23rd December
I paid a pre-Christmas visit to Harlow on Friday. This included a stop off to visit Les and Colette and the usual scrounged cuppa and a chat. When you read this, I do hope you had a good time at Christmas and enjoy a pleasurable and easy going 2013.
Alan and I were supposed to be meeting his workmates in Old Harlow that lunchtime but, for some reason this was called off, so we popped along to the White Admiral pub, which has been run by the same woman for the past 30 years. Her name is Les and, when her and her husband Dave Roberts took it on, they were pretty successful. Some years ago Dave passed away and Les has a new partner named Ray.
Monday evenings at the Admiral are always pretty busy, probably because the beer is only £2 per pint. Friday and Saturday evenings are also pretty busy, but that’s because it’s such a darn good pub to spend a few hours in. The Admiral has always been a family pub and, I’m pleased to say, it still is. There are very few now that can claim that distinction.
The drive home on Saturday morning, all 135 miles of it, was horrendous, with rain all the way. This was probably the worst driving I have ever experienced, unless you consider a 100 mile trip in the back of a Mercedes, with my life in the hands of an African mine worker back in the late 60s. Now, that was an experience never to be forgotten. The speed that man reached, sometimes on nothing but dirt tracks had to be seen to be believed, scary doesn’t even come near to describing it.
Tuesday 25th December Christmas Day
Quite a few boaters have gone away for the next couple of days and our immediate neighbours have driven up to Blackpool, so we won’t hear anything from them. It’s another quiet Christmas for us this year and, to be honest, we rather prefer it that way.
Wednesday 26th December, Boxing Day
Christmas Day turned out to be most enjoyable, with a sudden urge to visit a pub in Willington. Had we known about the roast spuds and pigs in blankets, we probably wouldn’t have had to cook a proper Christmas dinner. Well, you know what I mean!
Apart from the dinner though, Christmas day was much like any Sunday, except it was Tuesday, which kinda messes things up for the rest of the week. Personally, I think Christmas Day should always come on a weekend, like Easter does. But, of course, that would spoil it for folks who still go to work, because they wouldn’t have all those extra days off. Shame!!
I had intended to back up the laptop this morning but, as usual, I was inundated with emails, all of which need to be replied to or dumped and so, once that’s been sorted, I don’t now have enough time before Wifey gets up.
Dinner today will be cold meat and bubble ’n’ squeak with pickles, our usual Boxing Day fare. No doubt we’ll finish off the bottle of wine from yesterday.
Thursday 27th December
Well, that’s it for another year. Christmas is over and the New Year is almost upon us. As usual, we will not be sitting up to see it in. It’s going to come anyway, now that the End of the World scare has fizzled out, so why wait to welcome it?
We still have loads of turkey left over from the crown Alan bought us and we still have a bacon joint to cook, so we won’t go without food for a while. Yesterday was the usual cold turkey and bubble, along with pickles and pickled onions. Lovely!
Saturday 29th December
Well, we are having fun at the marina. We have gale force winds and it’s been raining for most of the night. There are still loads of flood warnings in place up here in Derbyshire, as there are further south of us.
Yesterday we popped into Burton and whilst walking around the shops I spotted an Acer laptop in the display window of the newest electronics second hand shop. This is very similar to the Cash Converter shops, but laid out in a far more professional manner. Most of the items on sale are games and mobile phones, but the Acer gave us pause for thought.
At £310 it seemed a bit high priced for a second hand unit, and so we decided to check it out online and found a company that sell refurbished laptops with the same item for £270. However, when reading up on this particular model, a V3-531, some of the comments were pretty off-putting and we were not too impressed.
We then looked further down the list of items and found a Sony VAIO for the same price. I have now scanned the Internet for comparison prices between the two and have discovered that the Sony is usually priced at about £200 more than the Acer. Also, the spec on the VAIO is much higher and has Windows 7 Professional installed – we’ve read too many adverse reports about Win 8 to even think about any laptop with it installed. Besides, I don’t like touch screens, any more than I like touch pads, much preferring a mouse. I’m a wee bit old fashioned in that respect.
I had a touch screen phone for a very short while and every time I attempted to scroll to the item I wanted, the damn thing would open up on the first thing I touched. Similarly with the touch pad on the laptop, so I prefer to stick with the mouse. Maybe I’m a bit ham-fisted.
So, later today, rather than re-formatting the Toshiba, I’ll be purchasing the refurbished Sony. At £270 and with Win 7 Pro installed, I think this is a very fair price, and it comes with a 3 month guarantee.
Sunday 30th December
Well, we took the plunge yesterday and ordered the Sony laptop. But, we then had a bit of a scare. You know how it is when shopping online, especially when buying from a new source? You are never really sure if they are Kosher until you receive the goods.
As soon as the order went through I received confirmation along with the order number and destination. To my dismay; and that of my missus; the email suggested that not only was this Order #2, but that the billing address and destination were the same, but it wasn’t our address. Ooops! I really thought we had hit a bummer there and had parted with £270 for nothing.
Now, under normal circumstances I would not have included my mobile number on an online form but, for some reason best known to my brain’s inner workings, I did so on this occasion, which was just as well. Thinking perhaps that this may have been a con job I immediately emailed the site and threatened to cancel the order if they didn’t contact me immediately. This, by the way, had been paid through PayPal, so it’s pretty secure from con artists.
When I took another look at the actual Order Form on their site I realised that the two addresses I mentioned above were actually the address of the company. Anyway, the man did phone me later in the day and apologised for the flap his confirmation email had caused. Naturally he blamed it on a computer glitch and assured me that the item would be posted off that afternoon. So, we should have our new laptop by Wednesday or Thursday of this week.
Hallelujah I say, this Toshiba is really becoming a pain in the ‘you know what’! All it really needs though is a total reformatting and reset to its original factory settings, which I shall do just as soon as the Sony arrives. After which I shall put it up for sale. Also I will then be able to grab the dongle upgrade or, assuming the WiFi is working, perhaps take their WiFi dongle instead.
Monday 31st December
Yesterday we popped along to our usual watering hole in Repton. Sadly, due to the flooded fields around here, there were none of the football lads in, so no chip butties. However, while we were sitting there my dear brother phoned, ostensibly to ask for our Aunt Mabel’s new address in Harlow. He was picking our sister Carole up and dropping her off there.
After telling him the address he then imparted some good news. Over the Christmas period the White Admiral pub ran a Lottery Bonus Ball competition of their own, something they have been doing for several years, probably since the Lottery started. Anyway, Alan bought four tickets, one each for himself, Valerie, Jason, his eldest son, and me. One of those tickets came up trumps and, after deducting the £10 ticket cost, we’re all £112.50p the richer.
So, after refurbishing the Toshiba and selling that on, with the lottery cash I have almost paid for the Sony, which means I can start building up my slush fund again.
Now, as New Years day is almost upon us, I’ll wish you all a very happy 2013. May all that you wish for yourself and loved ones come to pass. If not, well, there’s always 2014 to look forward to!!
All the best for now. See you in the New Year.
Dave, Sheila and Rusty.
I paid a pre-Christmas visit to Harlow on Friday. This included a stop off to visit Les and Colette and the usual scrounged cuppa and a chat. When you read this, I do hope you had a good time at Christmas and enjoy a pleasurable and easy going 2013.
Alan and I were supposed to be meeting his workmates in Old Harlow that lunchtime but, for some reason this was called off, so we popped along to the White Admiral pub, which has been run by the same woman for the past 30 years. Her name is Les and, when her and her husband Dave Roberts took it on, they were pretty successful. Some years ago Dave passed away and Les has a new partner named Ray.
Monday evenings at the Admiral are always pretty busy, probably because the beer is only £2 per pint. Friday and Saturday evenings are also pretty busy, but that’s because it’s such a darn good pub to spend a few hours in. The Admiral has always been a family pub and, I’m pleased to say, it still is. There are very few now that can claim that distinction.
The drive home on Saturday morning, all 135 miles of it, was horrendous, with rain all the way. This was probably the worst driving I have ever experienced, unless you consider a 100 mile trip in the back of a Mercedes, with my life in the hands of an African mine worker back in the late 60s. Now, that was an experience never to be forgotten. The speed that man reached, sometimes on nothing but dirt tracks had to be seen to be believed, scary doesn’t even come near to describing it.
Tuesday 25th December Christmas Day
Quite a few boaters have gone away for the next couple of days and our immediate neighbours have driven up to Blackpool, so we won’t hear anything from them. It’s another quiet Christmas for us this year and, to be honest, we rather prefer it that way.
Wednesday 26th December, Boxing Day
Christmas Day turned out to be most enjoyable, with a sudden urge to visit a pub in Willington. Had we known about the roast spuds and pigs in blankets, we probably wouldn’t have had to cook a proper Christmas dinner. Well, you know what I mean!
Apart from the dinner though, Christmas day was much like any Sunday, except it was Tuesday, which kinda messes things up for the rest of the week. Personally, I think Christmas Day should always come on a weekend, like Easter does. But, of course, that would spoil it for folks who still go to work, because they wouldn’t have all those extra days off. Shame!!
I had intended to back up the laptop this morning but, as usual, I was inundated with emails, all of which need to be replied to or dumped and so, once that’s been sorted, I don’t now have enough time before Wifey gets up.
Dinner today will be cold meat and bubble ’n’ squeak with pickles, our usual Boxing Day fare. No doubt we’ll finish off the bottle of wine from yesterday.
Thursday 27th December
Well, that’s it for another year. Christmas is over and the New Year is almost upon us. As usual, we will not be sitting up to see it in. It’s going to come anyway, now that the End of the World scare has fizzled out, so why wait to welcome it?
We still have loads of turkey left over from the crown Alan bought us and we still have a bacon joint to cook, so we won’t go without food for a while. Yesterday was the usual cold turkey and bubble, along with pickles and pickled onions. Lovely!
Saturday 29th December
Well, we are having fun at the marina. We have gale force winds and it’s been raining for most of the night. There are still loads of flood warnings in place up here in Derbyshire, as there are further south of us.
Yesterday we popped into Burton and whilst walking around the shops I spotted an Acer laptop in the display window of the newest electronics second hand shop. This is very similar to the Cash Converter shops, but laid out in a far more professional manner. Most of the items on sale are games and mobile phones, but the Acer gave us pause for thought.
At £310 it seemed a bit high priced for a second hand unit, and so we decided to check it out online and found a company that sell refurbished laptops with the same item for £270. However, when reading up on this particular model, a V3-531, some of the comments were pretty off-putting and we were not too impressed.
We then looked further down the list of items and found a Sony VAIO for the same price. I have now scanned the Internet for comparison prices between the two and have discovered that the Sony is usually priced at about £200 more than the Acer. Also, the spec on the VAIO is much higher and has Windows 7 Professional installed – we’ve read too many adverse reports about Win 8 to even think about any laptop with it installed. Besides, I don’t like touch screens, any more than I like touch pads, much preferring a mouse. I’m a wee bit old fashioned in that respect.
I had a touch screen phone for a very short while and every time I attempted to scroll to the item I wanted, the damn thing would open up on the first thing I touched. Similarly with the touch pad on the laptop, so I prefer to stick with the mouse. Maybe I’m a bit ham-fisted.
So, later today, rather than re-formatting the Toshiba, I’ll be purchasing the refurbished Sony. At £270 and with Win 7 Pro installed, I think this is a very fair price, and it comes with a 3 month guarantee.
Sunday 30th December
Well, we took the plunge yesterday and ordered the Sony laptop. But, we then had a bit of a scare. You know how it is when shopping online, especially when buying from a new source? You are never really sure if they are Kosher until you receive the goods.
As soon as the order went through I received confirmation along with the order number and destination. To my dismay; and that of my missus; the email suggested that not only was this Order #2, but that the billing address and destination were the same, but it wasn’t our address. Ooops! I really thought we had hit a bummer there and had parted with £270 for nothing.
Now, under normal circumstances I would not have included my mobile number on an online form but, for some reason best known to my brain’s inner workings, I did so on this occasion, which was just as well. Thinking perhaps that this may have been a con job I immediately emailed the site and threatened to cancel the order if they didn’t contact me immediately. This, by the way, had been paid through PayPal, so it’s pretty secure from con artists.
When I took another look at the actual Order Form on their site I realised that the two addresses I mentioned above were actually the address of the company. Anyway, the man did phone me later in the day and apologised for the flap his confirmation email had caused. Naturally he blamed it on a computer glitch and assured me that the item would be posted off that afternoon. So, we should have our new laptop by Wednesday or Thursday of this week.
Hallelujah I say, this Toshiba is really becoming a pain in the ‘you know what’! All it really needs though is a total reformatting and reset to its original factory settings, which I shall do just as soon as the Sony arrives. After which I shall put it up for sale. Also I will then be able to grab the dongle upgrade or, assuming the WiFi is working, perhaps take their WiFi dongle instead.
Monday 31st December
Yesterday we popped along to our usual watering hole in Repton. Sadly, due to the flooded fields around here, there were none of the football lads in, so no chip butties. However, while we were sitting there my dear brother phoned, ostensibly to ask for our Aunt Mabel’s new address in Harlow. He was picking our sister Carole up and dropping her off there.
After telling him the address he then imparted some good news. Over the Christmas period the White Admiral pub ran a Lottery Bonus Ball competition of their own, something they have been doing for several years, probably since the Lottery started. Anyway, Alan bought four tickets, one each for himself, Valerie, Jason, his eldest son, and me. One of those tickets came up trumps and, after deducting the £10 ticket cost, we’re all £112.50p the richer.
So, after refurbishing the Toshiba and selling that on, with the lottery cash I have almost paid for the Sony, which means I can start building up my slush fund again.
Now, as New Years day is almost upon us, I’ll wish you all a very happy 2013. May all that you wish for yourself and loved ones come to pass. If not, well, there’s always 2014 to look forward to!!
All the best for now. See you in the New Year.
Dave, Sheila and Rusty.
Thursday, 20 December 2012
Shiralee: Winter 2012/13 # 6
Thursday 6th December
Having posted the most recent blog yesterday morning, we then continued with our day as usual. We drove into Burton, just for something to do and then, later in the evening I opened the laptop and checked my emails. Well, according to Google, somebody at some mining installation in Devon, tried to access my account. I actually followed the IP address in order to find them. But, I then looked at the time of day that they were supposed to have tried this and, lo and behold, it was at about the same time as I posted.
I am pretty sure this is a spoof email trying to get my password details and, since Google themselves believe my password to be very good, I think I’ll ignore this email, but save it for future reference.
Friday 7th December
From an iced up marina, to heavy rain and high winds overnight. What more could we ask for as Brits?
Saturday 8th December
Yesterday I paid a visit to my doctor who, as usual, was pretty blasé about my problems. Initially I simply went along for a review of my medication but, since I am having problems with painful legs and feet, I asked if there was any way of improving my circulation, because that’s what is probably causing the discomfort.
His response was, virtually, ‘heal thyself’. In other words, get rid of some of your excess weight and exercise more. Ah well, so much for the sympathetic ear.
In response to the exercise part, we do walk around the marina every day, just so long as it’s not raining. As for the losing weight part, well, since we don’t over indulge to any appreciable degree and I’, not about to join a sports club and throw weights about, I don’t see that changing any time soon. So I guess I’ll just have to put up with the discomfort.
Monday 10th December
Yesterday we returned a dog harness to The Range. We bought it as a means for lifting Rusty out of the boat but, even at its tightest setting, as we tried lifting her, the harness slipped forward and almost over her head. And that was the smallest one they did, so not a lot of use. We’ll have to find a jacket with a handle on.
We also popped into B&Q for some 12 volt bulbs as we were running low. Now, I’m not against charities raising money through volunteers but, outside both doors of B&Q were three young people, with boxes in hand and wishing all who entered and exited a Merry Christmas. No doubt they thought to ‘pleasantly’ intimidate people into paying up but, since we absolutely detest this smarmy approach, we didn’t even bother to look and see which charity they represented.
Walk through any town centre and you will find them, but they don’t usually stand in groups. Do these charities not realise how irritating they can be? I know they have to raise money somehow, but standing in shop doorways is guaranteed to annoy and probably loses more than it gains.
Tuesday 11th December
It looks like being a very cold week, so we’ll avoid going too far, except perhaps a drive into Burton sometime.
Yesterday we took the bus to Derby but, since we only get a bare hour before the bus back, we couldn’t do much by way of shopping. We called into the art shop for a particular colour pastel pencil, but they don’t sell single items, only sets. We also bought some heavy material so that Wifey can make some draught excluder curtains for the back doors. That’ll keep her busy for a while today.
Wednesday 12th December
We were expecting a very severe frost this morning, but it seems the experts have got it wrong again. They said it could be as low as -7 degrees this morning, but it’s barely hovering around zero.
We bought three items at the garden centre on Monday; two tops for Wifey and a pair of cargo pants for me – I’m changing my image! – but Wifey’s tops were both too long in the sleeve, so they had to go back yesterday. My cargo pants are lightweight and will be great for the milder weather and summer months. What I need now is a pair of lined ones for the colder weather. I’ve been wearing jeans and t-shirts for donkeys years as a matter of course, but I’m in need of a change and something of a more relaxed fit, something loser than jeans, hence the cargo pants.
I am gradually moving stuff from the laptop to my external hard drive prior to re-formatting. I’m trying to avoid buying a new one, at least until next year when we won’t have the expense of the bottom blacking on the boat.
During the course of our summer cruising I like to set money aside as a ‘slush fund’, something I’ve been doing for many years now, especially when I was bus driving for Chariots in Harlow, when any out of hours payment went into a tin. It’s always handy to have some spare cash around, especially when travelling, because you never know when it’s not possible to use a cheque or card.
When we returned to the marina back in October I had quite a bit put aside, some of which I have dived into for one thing or another. But, over the next 10 months, with a bit of luck and a tail wind, I’ll be able to buy a top of the range laptop, which means this Toshiba will have to suffice until then.
Saturday 15th December
We get The Daily Mail. We know that there are a vast amount of people who hate that particular rag, but we’ve become used to it. Yesterday we saw an ad from Staples, those office people, advertising a 32Gb Memory Stick for just £10. Gotta have one.
I have no idea where the nearest store is to us, but I’m sure I could find it if I search online. But, in the meantime I accessed their website and there it wasn’t. I am now thoroughly annoyed, because this smacks of a come-on. Advertise in the national press for a really cheap memory stick and they’ll come flooding into the stores. BUT, whatever you do, DON’T show it on our site.
Obviously, by the time I find their store locally, they will have sold out!
We called into the HMV store in Burton, hoping to pick up the Rod Stewart set of four CDs, which was also going for £10. Naturally, they too had sold out. Fortunately Wifey managed to pick one up when she took the bus into Burton later, all on her own too!!
Tuesday 18th December
We’re going on holiday! Yep, for the first time since buying ‘Shiralee’, we’re actually going somewhere other than by boat.
Next March ‘Shiralee’ goes in to have her bottom blacked. This takes four days, for which period she will be in dry dock and, since we can’t stay on board while this is happening, we’re going off for a week to a cottage in the Derbyshire Peaks. We could have, and probably would have gone much further a field but, since we’ve never holidayed in that area and, because Rusty kicks up such a stink when she’s in a car, we decided that the nearer to home, the better.
The BBC
We listen to Radio 2 and we often watch the BBC channels too. If you do too you would have noticed the increasing use of advertising throughout these radio programmes. O.K. they are advertising their own programmes and, I suppose, if they are to compete with all those other channels out there, they do need to put their own stuff across. But, do they have to spend so much time doing so? Our newspapers and magazines have programme lists, so why advertise them?
I find the radio far more galling than the television, but that’s only because the adverts break into whatever radio programme is on, whereas they only advertise between programmes on television. We particularly like to listen to the evening programmes on Radio 2, but even during an hour long programme; such as Mike Harding on Wednesday and Bob Harris on Thursday; we are subjected to at least three programme plugs. You can at least mute the TV, but have to endure this rubbish on radio.
Thursday 20th December
Well, only five days to go and it will all be over for another year.
We on Shiralee; that’s me, of course, Sheila, my wife of 30 years plus and our 15 year old Jack Russell, Rusty; wish you all a very merry Christmas and a healthy and prosperous 2013.
Having posted the most recent blog yesterday morning, we then continued with our day as usual. We drove into Burton, just for something to do and then, later in the evening I opened the laptop and checked my emails. Well, according to Google, somebody at some mining installation in Devon, tried to access my account. I actually followed the IP address in order to find them. But, I then looked at the time of day that they were supposed to have tried this and, lo and behold, it was at about the same time as I posted.
I am pretty sure this is a spoof email trying to get my password details and, since Google themselves believe my password to be very good, I think I’ll ignore this email, but save it for future reference.
Friday 7th December
From an iced up marina, to heavy rain and high winds overnight. What more could we ask for as Brits?
Saturday 8th December
Yesterday I paid a visit to my doctor who, as usual, was pretty blasé about my problems. Initially I simply went along for a review of my medication but, since I am having problems with painful legs and feet, I asked if there was any way of improving my circulation, because that’s what is probably causing the discomfort.
His response was, virtually, ‘heal thyself’. In other words, get rid of some of your excess weight and exercise more. Ah well, so much for the sympathetic ear.
In response to the exercise part, we do walk around the marina every day, just so long as it’s not raining. As for the losing weight part, well, since we don’t over indulge to any appreciable degree and I’, not about to join a sports club and throw weights about, I don’t see that changing any time soon. So I guess I’ll just have to put up with the discomfort.
Monday 10th December
Yesterday we returned a dog harness to The Range. We bought it as a means for lifting Rusty out of the boat but, even at its tightest setting, as we tried lifting her, the harness slipped forward and almost over her head. And that was the smallest one they did, so not a lot of use. We’ll have to find a jacket with a handle on.
We also popped into B&Q for some 12 volt bulbs as we were running low. Now, I’m not against charities raising money through volunteers but, outside both doors of B&Q were three young people, with boxes in hand and wishing all who entered and exited a Merry Christmas. No doubt they thought to ‘pleasantly’ intimidate people into paying up but, since we absolutely detest this smarmy approach, we didn’t even bother to look and see which charity they represented.
Walk through any town centre and you will find them, but they don’t usually stand in groups. Do these charities not realise how irritating they can be? I know they have to raise money somehow, but standing in shop doorways is guaranteed to annoy and probably loses more than it gains.
Tuesday 11th December
It looks like being a very cold week, so we’ll avoid going too far, except perhaps a drive into Burton sometime.
Yesterday we took the bus to Derby but, since we only get a bare hour before the bus back, we couldn’t do much by way of shopping. We called into the art shop for a particular colour pastel pencil, but they don’t sell single items, only sets. We also bought some heavy material so that Wifey can make some draught excluder curtains for the back doors. That’ll keep her busy for a while today.
Wednesday 12th December
We were expecting a very severe frost this morning, but it seems the experts have got it wrong again. They said it could be as low as -7 degrees this morning, but it’s barely hovering around zero.
We bought three items at the garden centre on Monday; two tops for Wifey and a pair of cargo pants for me – I’m changing my image! – but Wifey’s tops were both too long in the sleeve, so they had to go back yesterday. My cargo pants are lightweight and will be great for the milder weather and summer months. What I need now is a pair of lined ones for the colder weather. I’ve been wearing jeans and t-shirts for donkeys years as a matter of course, but I’m in need of a change and something of a more relaxed fit, something loser than jeans, hence the cargo pants.
I am gradually moving stuff from the laptop to my external hard drive prior to re-formatting. I’m trying to avoid buying a new one, at least until next year when we won’t have the expense of the bottom blacking on the boat.
During the course of our summer cruising I like to set money aside as a ‘slush fund’, something I’ve been doing for many years now, especially when I was bus driving for Chariots in Harlow, when any out of hours payment went into a tin. It’s always handy to have some spare cash around, especially when travelling, because you never know when it’s not possible to use a cheque or card.
When we returned to the marina back in October I had quite a bit put aside, some of which I have dived into for one thing or another. But, over the next 10 months, with a bit of luck and a tail wind, I’ll be able to buy a top of the range laptop, which means this Toshiba will have to suffice until then.
Saturday 15th December
We get The Daily Mail. We know that there are a vast amount of people who hate that particular rag, but we’ve become used to it. Yesterday we saw an ad from Staples, those office people, advertising a 32Gb Memory Stick for just £10. Gotta have one.
I have no idea where the nearest store is to us, but I’m sure I could find it if I search online. But, in the meantime I accessed their website and there it wasn’t. I am now thoroughly annoyed, because this smacks of a come-on. Advertise in the national press for a really cheap memory stick and they’ll come flooding into the stores. BUT, whatever you do, DON’T show it on our site.
Obviously, by the time I find their store locally, they will have sold out!
We called into the HMV store in Burton, hoping to pick up the Rod Stewart set of four CDs, which was also going for £10. Naturally, they too had sold out. Fortunately Wifey managed to pick one up when she took the bus into Burton later, all on her own too!!
Tuesday 18th December
We’re going on holiday! Yep, for the first time since buying ‘Shiralee’, we’re actually going somewhere other than by boat.
Next March ‘Shiralee’ goes in to have her bottom blacked. This takes four days, for which period she will be in dry dock and, since we can’t stay on board while this is happening, we’re going off for a week to a cottage in the Derbyshire Peaks. We could have, and probably would have gone much further a field but, since we’ve never holidayed in that area and, because Rusty kicks up such a stink when she’s in a car, we decided that the nearer to home, the better.
The BBC
We listen to Radio 2 and we often watch the BBC channels too. If you do too you would have noticed the increasing use of advertising throughout these radio programmes. O.K. they are advertising their own programmes and, I suppose, if they are to compete with all those other channels out there, they do need to put their own stuff across. But, do they have to spend so much time doing so? Our newspapers and magazines have programme lists, so why advertise them?
I find the radio far more galling than the television, but that’s only because the adverts break into whatever radio programme is on, whereas they only advertise between programmes on television. We particularly like to listen to the evening programmes on Radio 2, but even during an hour long programme; such as Mike Harding on Wednesday and Bob Harris on Thursday; we are subjected to at least three programme plugs. You can at least mute the TV, but have to endure this rubbish on radio.
Thursday 20th December
Well, only five days to go and it will all be over for another year.
We on Shiralee; that’s me, of course, Sheila, my wife of 30 years plus and our 15 year old Jack Russell, Rusty; wish you all a very merry Christmas and a healthy and prosperous 2013.
Tuesday, 4 December 2012
Shiralee: Winter 2012/13 # 5
Friday 23rd November
Yesterday afternoon and evening we had a deluge of rain. The results of Wednesday’s rain could be seen when we drove into Burton yesterday morning. We’ve been mooring at Mercia for three winters now and. although we’ve had our fair share of rain, we’ve never seen the river so high before. It was very much like Kegworth in 2007, when we were stuck in the lock for 10 days, only much, much worse. The surrounding fields were totally waterlogged, to the extent that it was difficult to see the line of the river. I have no doubt that, following last nights rain those fields will be even more flooded.
Saturday 24th November
Well, so much for my visit to Harlow this weekend. The weather forecast is for more heavy rain, which is a mere fly in the ointment when living on a boat and snugly ensconced in a marina. But, taking a 200+ mile drive could prove disastrous for me if I want to get back to Mercia on Sunday.
This morning, in complete contrast, has started out with a thick, freezing fog, but we are told the heavy rain will be with us tonight. Global warming? Maybe! Man’s fault? Nah! Just a blip in the way the planet works.
Anyway, instead of enjoying a pint or three with Alan, it’s simply a case of following a normal weekend at home, which means some more painting and guitar practice. Of course, we won’t miss out on our Sunday drinky poohs, but we’ll probably stay local. Even driving towards Burton could be problematic if the rain is as heavy as has been suggested.
Sunday 25th November
Wow! What a night. From quite early yesterday evening we had torrential rain and high winds. This continued throughout the night and, at 6.30 am it’s still raining, although not as hard. Walking Rusty a short while ago, I noticed that the grassy areas nearby are saturated. Even the water level in the marina has risen by at least a couple of inches. When we go out later for a Sunday drink and chat, if there’s no traffic coming from Repton we’ll stay in Willington. We know the road to Stenson is flooded, so The Bubble is out.
Rotherham County Council.
What a bunch of snot-nosed, interfering meanies they are. Here we have a couple who, for the past seven years have successfully fostered a number of children needing some TLC. But, completely out of the blue, this council have removed the latest three from them, just because these loving foster carers belong to UKIP.
As that nice man from the Daily Mail is wont to say, “You couldn’t make it up”.
These kids are, supposedly, Euro migrants and, in their infinite wisdom, this council decided that they should not be influenced by the foster couple’s political beliefs. So, had this council been Conservative and this couple been members of the Labour Party, do you suppose these children would still have been removed? God knows what would have been the case had Screaming Lord Such and the Monster Raving Loony Party been in charge.
I have no doubt that heads will roll, or some pillock will fall on his sword. Of course, he/she will retain their overinflated pension!! Then, in the not too distant future, they’ll be re-engaged at a much higher salary. Such are the ways of our ruling classes.
Monday 26th November
Yesterday was a really disastrous day weather wise, with plenty of overnight rain, causing floods all over the place.
In Exeter a young woman lost her life when a tree fell on her tent. The initial report suggested that she was actually living in it and, had I not seen later newscasts of this event, I would have wondered why she was living that way. As it happens this unfortunate woman was camping and two male companions were injured at that time.
Elsewhere many homes were flooded and, in one area, although I can’t recall exactly where, a flood defence system failed to kick in, with the result that where, in the past, the people living in the area would have moved their property upstairs, they instead relied upon the system to work its magic. The Environment Agency has apologised for the failure, but that’s small comfort to those people whose possessions have been damaged or ruined.
Fortunately, although the water level has risen slightly in our marina, and some of the roads around the area have flooded, we boaters have experienced just the occasional puddle at the marina. At times like these there’s a lot to be said for living on a boat. However, even with their 12 ft mooring poles, I wouldn’t want to be living along the banks of the River Avon right now. In fact I wouldn’t want to be moored on any river these days, because the situation seems to be worsening year on year.
Like I’ve said before – probably ad nauseum – this planet has its own agenda and maybe it is warming up but, if you were watching Countryfile yesterday evening, you would have seen that this is not at all unusual. The sea came rushing in and flooded huge swathes of Somerset, and that was back in 1703. I also remember the Essex floods of 1953, or was it 1958?, when Canvey Island suffered serious damage.
Tuesday 27th November
Well, after even more rain yesterday evening and through the night, I doubt if we’ll be getting to Derby today. From what I have seen and been told, the road to Repton is still closed, as is 18 miles of the A38 and part of the M1. The bus between Burton and Derby may still be running, but it will probably take a detour or two, so we might not see it through here at Willington. Still the Derby trip is not urgent, but I do wonder if I’ll make it to Harlow this coming weekend.
Wednesday 28th November
On the whole, with the exception of a walk around the marina, yesterday was a pretty boring day. Some of it I spent trying to decide how best to approach my painting of Shiralee. Some I spent trying my hand at the dreaded ‘C’, ‘F’ and ‘G’ chords and some I spent reading.
Where the guitar is concerned I have always had problems with those three, very essential chords, and have never managed to master them. The situation is even worse now, what with my arthritic fingers. They’re not painful, but they are somewhat bent in places, making it difficult to place them where I want on the fretboard. So, what to do? Well, at my age I really don’t want to be spending months and months trying to master them, so I’m going to resort to the capo. You’ve probably seen these used by many guitarists, especially the folk and country singers. The capo wraps around the fretboard and can be moved along it to a position where the player can use easier chords for the same key. It’s not laziness that prompts these musicians to use the capo; it’s just easier and enables the player to concentrate on his/her singing, rather than the chords. And, no, I have no plans for singing!!
So, with that in mind I can now concentrate on playing some of the stuff I’ve downloaded from Mike Herberts’ site, using the keys of ‘A’ or ‘D’, where the key of ‘C’ is called for. Simple!!
Today, assuming the A38 is now fully open after the latest floods, we’ll drive to Morrison’s for our weekly shop. Sad to say we have not been able to take the bus to Derby, nor have we been able to drive into Burton. Hopefully today will be fine.
Thursday 29th November
The cold, dry weather is back, so I should be able to make that trip to Harlow tomorrow morning. Friday is a good day to go, because I get to have a drink with Alan and his son Jason.
Alan phoned me yesterday and asked me if I wanted a turkey crown. When I said ‘no way’ to his £20 price tag, he told me it was probably too big and would be happy to cut it in half. That’s better! He’ll keep it in his freezer for me, which gives me an excuse, if any were needed, to pay him another visit before Christmas.
Today, now that the roads to Burton are clear of flood water, we’ll be taking a drive into town. We have some books to unload onto a charity shop and, having bought two bags of dog food at Ellesmere some time ago; a dog food that until that point our wee pooch had been happy to eat, but then decided she hated; we will now be taking those to the PDSA. She really can be so ungrateful at times!
Friday 30th November
We drove into Burton yesterday and, on the way there called into the butcher’s at Repton. Unfortunately he had no pork pies ready and suggested we call again on our way back from town. So, having disposed of the dog food to the PDSA, picked up a few bits and pieces of shopping, and enjoyed a coffee and scone, we arrived back at Repton a couple of hours later. We were just in time to watch the butcher pour the jelly liquid in to the, still hot pies.
Sheila had to carry the hot pies in a box and, when we got back to the boat Rusty’s nose twitched at the aroma. Funnily enough Clarissa Dixon-Wright was on the One Show last night and said that she considered the pork pies from Melton Mowbray were the best in the country. Obviously she hasn’t sampled those from Repton, which are far superior in flavour. In fact I will try to locate her website and inform her of her mistake.
Sunday 2nd December
I drove down to Harlow on Friday morning and expected to arrive at about 12.30. However, with all the road works finished while we’ve been cruising, I shaved about 30 minutes off my usual time, even though I stopped off at a service area on the way.
So, having nothing better to do with my time while I waited for Alan to get home, I popped in The Admiral for a drop of sherbet, where he joined me later. Of course, we enjoyed a few pints and then went home to his place. We returned to the Admiral in the evening, fully expecting Jason to join us, but he cried off just after we arrived. This was most unfortunate because, had he told us earlier we probably wouldn’t have bothered. I’m not at my best when I’ve just eaten and didn’t really enjoy the extra drinks. I’ll know better next time.
Monday 3rd December
Yesterday we decided to drink at The Bubble at Stenson. We haven’t been there in a few weeks, so we thought it would make a nice change. The last thing on my mind when we left home was having lunch there but, quite out of the blue I said to Wifey, “Of course, we could always have lunch here”. To which she replied, “What a good idea”. So, that’s what we did and enjoyed their carvery. At £8.99 we think it’s a bit expensive, but we do know it is much cheaper during the week. Hey, what the heck, we can indulge ourselves now and again.
Later…
We took the bus into Derby this morning and one of the first things we did was to look in the market for vacuum cleaner bags. This was a good move, because, quite close to that stall was another one selling second hand laptops. The prices look to be pretty reasonable and so, if he has what I want and offers a
decent guarantee, I could save myself some money. I rather like the look of the Acer Aspire he had in the window and if it’s still there next time we go I just might make a few enquiries about it.
Wednesday 5th December
Well, at eight pages long I really should get this blog posted and wish you all well until next time.
All abreast from:
Dave, Sheila and Rusty
Yesterday afternoon and evening we had a deluge of rain. The results of Wednesday’s rain could be seen when we drove into Burton yesterday morning. We’ve been mooring at Mercia for three winters now and. although we’ve had our fair share of rain, we’ve never seen the river so high before. It was very much like Kegworth in 2007, when we were stuck in the lock for 10 days, only much, much worse. The surrounding fields were totally waterlogged, to the extent that it was difficult to see the line of the river. I have no doubt that, following last nights rain those fields will be even more flooded.
Saturday 24th November
Well, so much for my visit to Harlow this weekend. The weather forecast is for more heavy rain, which is a mere fly in the ointment when living on a boat and snugly ensconced in a marina. But, taking a 200+ mile drive could prove disastrous for me if I want to get back to Mercia on Sunday.
This morning, in complete contrast, has started out with a thick, freezing fog, but we are told the heavy rain will be with us tonight. Global warming? Maybe! Man’s fault? Nah! Just a blip in the way the planet works.
Anyway, instead of enjoying a pint or three with Alan, it’s simply a case of following a normal weekend at home, which means some more painting and guitar practice. Of course, we won’t miss out on our Sunday drinky poohs, but we’ll probably stay local. Even driving towards Burton could be problematic if the rain is as heavy as has been suggested.
Sunday 25th November
Wow! What a night. From quite early yesterday evening we had torrential rain and high winds. This continued throughout the night and, at 6.30 am it’s still raining, although not as hard. Walking Rusty a short while ago, I noticed that the grassy areas nearby are saturated. Even the water level in the marina has risen by at least a couple of inches. When we go out later for a Sunday drink and chat, if there’s no traffic coming from Repton we’ll stay in Willington. We know the road to Stenson is flooded, so The Bubble is out.
Rotherham County Council.
What a bunch of snot-nosed, interfering meanies they are. Here we have a couple who, for the past seven years have successfully fostered a number of children needing some TLC. But, completely out of the blue, this council have removed the latest three from them, just because these loving foster carers belong to UKIP.
As that nice man from the Daily Mail is wont to say, “You couldn’t make it up”.
These kids are, supposedly, Euro migrants and, in their infinite wisdom, this council decided that they should not be influenced by the foster couple’s political beliefs. So, had this council been Conservative and this couple been members of the Labour Party, do you suppose these children would still have been removed? God knows what would have been the case had Screaming Lord Such and the Monster Raving Loony Party been in charge.
I have no doubt that heads will roll, or some pillock will fall on his sword. Of course, he/she will retain their overinflated pension!! Then, in the not too distant future, they’ll be re-engaged at a much higher salary. Such are the ways of our ruling classes.
Monday 26th November
Yesterday was a really disastrous day weather wise, with plenty of overnight rain, causing floods all over the place.
In Exeter a young woman lost her life when a tree fell on her tent. The initial report suggested that she was actually living in it and, had I not seen later newscasts of this event, I would have wondered why she was living that way. As it happens this unfortunate woman was camping and two male companions were injured at that time.
Elsewhere many homes were flooded and, in one area, although I can’t recall exactly where, a flood defence system failed to kick in, with the result that where, in the past, the people living in the area would have moved their property upstairs, they instead relied upon the system to work its magic. The Environment Agency has apologised for the failure, but that’s small comfort to those people whose possessions have been damaged or ruined.
Fortunately, although the water level has risen slightly in our marina, and some of the roads around the area have flooded, we boaters have experienced just the occasional puddle at the marina. At times like these there’s a lot to be said for living on a boat. However, even with their 12 ft mooring poles, I wouldn’t want to be living along the banks of the River Avon right now. In fact I wouldn’t want to be moored on any river these days, because the situation seems to be worsening year on year.
Like I’ve said before – probably ad nauseum – this planet has its own agenda and maybe it is warming up but, if you were watching Countryfile yesterday evening, you would have seen that this is not at all unusual. The sea came rushing in and flooded huge swathes of Somerset, and that was back in 1703. I also remember the Essex floods of 1953, or was it 1958?, when Canvey Island suffered serious damage.
Tuesday 27th November
Well, after even more rain yesterday evening and through the night, I doubt if we’ll be getting to Derby today. From what I have seen and been told, the road to Repton is still closed, as is 18 miles of the A38 and part of the M1. The bus between Burton and Derby may still be running, but it will probably take a detour or two, so we might not see it through here at Willington. Still the Derby trip is not urgent, but I do wonder if I’ll make it to Harlow this coming weekend.
Wednesday 28th November
On the whole, with the exception of a walk around the marina, yesterday was a pretty boring day. Some of it I spent trying to decide how best to approach my painting of Shiralee. Some I spent trying my hand at the dreaded ‘C’, ‘F’ and ‘G’ chords and some I spent reading.
Where the guitar is concerned I have always had problems with those three, very essential chords, and have never managed to master them. The situation is even worse now, what with my arthritic fingers. They’re not painful, but they are somewhat bent in places, making it difficult to place them where I want on the fretboard. So, what to do? Well, at my age I really don’t want to be spending months and months trying to master them, so I’m going to resort to the capo. You’ve probably seen these used by many guitarists, especially the folk and country singers. The capo wraps around the fretboard and can be moved along it to a position where the player can use easier chords for the same key. It’s not laziness that prompts these musicians to use the capo; it’s just easier and enables the player to concentrate on his/her singing, rather than the chords. And, no, I have no plans for singing!!
So, with that in mind I can now concentrate on playing some of the stuff I’ve downloaded from Mike Herberts’ site, using the keys of ‘A’ or ‘D’, where the key of ‘C’ is called for. Simple!!
Today, assuming the A38 is now fully open after the latest floods, we’ll drive to Morrison’s for our weekly shop. Sad to say we have not been able to take the bus to Derby, nor have we been able to drive into Burton. Hopefully today will be fine.
Thursday 29th November
The cold, dry weather is back, so I should be able to make that trip to Harlow tomorrow morning. Friday is a good day to go, because I get to have a drink with Alan and his son Jason.
Alan phoned me yesterday and asked me if I wanted a turkey crown. When I said ‘no way’ to his £20 price tag, he told me it was probably too big and would be happy to cut it in half. That’s better! He’ll keep it in his freezer for me, which gives me an excuse, if any were needed, to pay him another visit before Christmas.
Today, now that the roads to Burton are clear of flood water, we’ll be taking a drive into town. We have some books to unload onto a charity shop and, having bought two bags of dog food at Ellesmere some time ago; a dog food that until that point our wee pooch had been happy to eat, but then decided she hated; we will now be taking those to the PDSA. She really can be so ungrateful at times!
Friday 30th November
We drove into Burton yesterday and, on the way there called into the butcher’s at Repton. Unfortunately he had no pork pies ready and suggested we call again on our way back from town. So, having disposed of the dog food to the PDSA, picked up a few bits and pieces of shopping, and enjoyed a coffee and scone, we arrived back at Repton a couple of hours later. We were just in time to watch the butcher pour the jelly liquid in to the, still hot pies.
Sheila had to carry the hot pies in a box and, when we got back to the boat Rusty’s nose twitched at the aroma. Funnily enough Clarissa Dixon-Wright was on the One Show last night and said that she considered the pork pies from Melton Mowbray were the best in the country. Obviously she hasn’t sampled those from Repton, which are far superior in flavour. In fact I will try to locate her website and inform her of her mistake.
Sunday 2nd December
I drove down to Harlow on Friday morning and expected to arrive at about 12.30. However, with all the road works finished while we’ve been cruising, I shaved about 30 minutes off my usual time, even though I stopped off at a service area on the way.
So, having nothing better to do with my time while I waited for Alan to get home, I popped in The Admiral for a drop of sherbet, where he joined me later. Of course, we enjoyed a few pints and then went home to his place. We returned to the Admiral in the evening, fully expecting Jason to join us, but he cried off just after we arrived. This was most unfortunate because, had he told us earlier we probably wouldn’t have bothered. I’m not at my best when I’ve just eaten and didn’t really enjoy the extra drinks. I’ll know better next time.
Monday 3rd December
Yesterday we decided to drink at The Bubble at Stenson. We haven’t been there in a few weeks, so we thought it would make a nice change. The last thing on my mind when we left home was having lunch there but, quite out of the blue I said to Wifey, “Of course, we could always have lunch here”. To which she replied, “What a good idea”. So, that’s what we did and enjoyed their carvery. At £8.99 we think it’s a bit expensive, but we do know it is much cheaper during the week. Hey, what the heck, we can indulge ourselves now and again.
Later…
We took the bus into Derby this morning and one of the first things we did was to look in the market for vacuum cleaner bags. This was a good move, because, quite close to that stall was another one selling second hand laptops. The prices look to be pretty reasonable and so, if he has what I want and offers a
decent guarantee, I could save myself some money. I rather like the look of the Acer Aspire he had in the window and if it’s still there next time we go I just might make a few enquiries about it.
Wednesday 5th December
Well, at eight pages long I really should get this blog posted and wish you all well until next time.
All abreast from:
Dave, Sheila and Rusty
Thursday, 22 November 2012
Shiralee: Winter 2012/13 # 4
Wednesday 14th November
We took the bus into Derby this morning with the express intention of purchasing new jeans for me and jeans plus a top for Wifey. Having spent two hours there, a half hour of which was sitting and waiting for the bus back, all we had to show for our time was a pair of jeans for me. And I thought I was the difficult!
Having failed to find what she needed in Derby, upon our return to the boat Wifey dug out the laptop and had a look online, which was when she had one of her good, senior moments. Whilst looking up Cotton Traders Store Location she discovered that they have an outlet at the garden centre in Findern, which is a five minute drive from the marina. Guess where we’re headed tomorrow?
Thursday 15th November
Something I forgot to mention yesterday has just come to mind. We were obliged to sit across the aisle from each other on the bus to town because it was so full, most unusual for midweek. Anyway, I sat next to an elderly lady, who soon started up a conversation with me, talking about family and such. (I’ve never been chatted up on a bus before!)
One of the amusing anecdotes she related was about her granddaughter, who is at pre-school and who asked her mum if teachers were very clever. When her mum suggested that perhaps they were and why she had asked, her reply was, “Well, they don’t seem to know much, because they’re always asking us if we know the answers” How cute is that then?
This same lady has also given us the names of another five good watering holes, let’s see if I can remember them all. There’s The Bull and the Mount Pleasant in Repton, The Unicorn in Eton Solney and The Sump, which is just as you’re entering Burton. There’s also one in Willington which used to be a Scout Hut, or some such, but has now been turned into a pub. However, we both agreed that The Boot, in Repton, was a pub best avoided.
Our first port of call today; even before we visit Cotton Traders; will be the shop on site to see if our TV has arrived. In fact, it should have been at the Post Office yesterday.
Friday 16th November
Everything went well yesterday, a most unusual event for us, because there’s always something that doesn’t quite meet expectations.
Firstly, Wifey popped across to the shop for the Mail and returned with our new TV which, we thought we would have to collect from the Post Office. We then decided to see if the new cartridge was going to cure our problematic printer and, lo and behold, that also worked well.
Later in the day we took a trip into Findern Garden Centre and Cotton Traders where Wifey managed to find a pair of jeans and a top for less than the £40 our neighbour paid her for her guitar. All in all a successful day.
One of the first things we did after buying Shiralee, was to purchase some rubber matting with which to cover the back and front steps, but this is now wearing through so we’re taking a run into The Range today for some new stuff. I’ll also be looking for a suitable sized piece of carpet to lay under my car mat, which slides about somewhat, because the original backing carpet is missing.
I finally downloaded a few video guitar courses yesterday and practised the first lesson of the Fingerstyle set. This one, I’m pleased to say, came quite easy to me, and the next one doesn’t look too difficult either. I also have videos for Folk and Rock ‘n’ Roll, so I’m not lacking in variation. Sadly it’s a bit late for me to become a rock star, but I will be able to keep busy, especially when I add the pastel painting to the ‘free time’ pot.
Saturday 17th November
After Andy lubricated the gear cable and linkages and returned the car, I can’t say I was impressed with the result. The gears certainly didn’t seem to be any easier to slip into. But, as Andy said, the ball ends of the cables were well and truly seized, so it could take some time for the lubrication to work its magic. By yesterday morning the gears were a little better, so I’m hopeful that more improvement is on the way.
Today we have rain; in fact we had rain all night long; so I don’t suppose we’ll be going anywhere this morning, which gives me some time for guitar practice. I’m concentrating on the Fingerstyle at present but, with all the freebies Mike sends, which I find it difficult to ignore, my ‘music’ folder is becoming rather full. There’s no point jumping from one style to another if I’m going to get anywhere, so I’m staying with finger style. I can always check the other stuff out if and when I become more proficient at the one style of playing.
Sunday 18th November
Now, what do you think the following photo can be? Is it really a loaf of bread?
The last loaf we had, which was a split tin wholemeal from Sainsbury’s, fell apart when I cut it. Well, the side under the top crust fell away, which amounts to the same thing. Do these stores actually employ professional bakers, I wonder?
A heavy frost this morning, which makes it kinda difficult when taking Rusty for a walk, because the wooden pontoons can be pretty lethal when they have a coating of frost on them.
Monday 19th November
We decided to pay a visit to The Bull at Repton yesterday lunchtime, until we saw the amount of cars in the car park that is. At 12.10 pm it was chock-a-block, so we went to The Red Lion instead. Next week perhaps we’ll take a run into Newton Solney and The Unicorn.
After the heavy frost yesterday, followed by a bright, sunny day, we’ve had rain for most of the night and this morning, although the rain has stopped, we do have a strong wind. What a shame, I was going to wash the car today!
Wednesday 21st November
Piddling down, absolutely piddling! More flood warnings on the way, I have no doubt
Yesterday we finally got rid of our two broken televisions. I also bought a new set of strings for the Eko guitar. This thing has been with me for quite some time. My sister Carole had it at her place for several years while I ‘borrowed’ her jumbo, also an Eko, but the jumbo size is far too big for sitting at our dinette, which is where I practice, so we swapped back a couple of years ago.
The one I have has now had a good clean up and the machine heads have been greased, so it should be good for another few years yet. They were very sturdily built were those Ekos, I think I had mine from my RAF days and, if it is then it only cost me 10/, that’s 50 pence in new money. My classical guitar is going to get the same treatment soon.
Friday 23rd November
Well now, as I’m going into Harlow tomorrow for the weekend, I thought I would post this blog, but first I needed to download that photo from Wifey’s camera. This is normally kept in her handbag, and that’s the first place I looked. But, it didn’t seem to be there.
OK, so, it’s time to take her a cuppa, so I asked where she’d hidden it. “It’s in my bag!” she said, as if it could possibly be anywhere else. “Nope!”, said I. “Well then, if it’s not there, I haven’t a clue”.
So, I turned out here nick-nack box, but no sign of camera. I then took another look in her hand bag, but still no deal, until I pulled out her notebook, and there it was. Now, I know I’m always having problems finding things that I’ve put away in a safe place. Don’t we all? But I have to ask myself, how do you hide a camera in a small handbag? This secret is only known to women with small handbags.
Anyway, you will already have seen the photo on an earlier page, but this did give me a problem, albeit a small one.
Have a good weekend folks.
Dave, Sheila and Pooch.
We took the bus into Derby this morning with the express intention of purchasing new jeans for me and jeans plus a top for Wifey. Having spent two hours there, a half hour of which was sitting and waiting for the bus back, all we had to show for our time was a pair of jeans for me. And I thought I was the difficult!
Having failed to find what she needed in Derby, upon our return to the boat Wifey dug out the laptop and had a look online, which was when she had one of her good, senior moments. Whilst looking up Cotton Traders Store Location she discovered that they have an outlet at the garden centre in Findern, which is a five minute drive from the marina. Guess where we’re headed tomorrow?
Thursday 15th November
Something I forgot to mention yesterday has just come to mind. We were obliged to sit across the aisle from each other on the bus to town because it was so full, most unusual for midweek. Anyway, I sat next to an elderly lady, who soon started up a conversation with me, talking about family and such. (I’ve never been chatted up on a bus before!)
One of the amusing anecdotes she related was about her granddaughter, who is at pre-school and who asked her mum if teachers were very clever. When her mum suggested that perhaps they were and why she had asked, her reply was, “Well, they don’t seem to know much, because they’re always asking us if we know the answers” How cute is that then?
This same lady has also given us the names of another five good watering holes, let’s see if I can remember them all. There’s The Bull and the Mount Pleasant in Repton, The Unicorn in Eton Solney and The Sump, which is just as you’re entering Burton. There’s also one in Willington which used to be a Scout Hut, or some such, but has now been turned into a pub. However, we both agreed that The Boot, in Repton, was a pub best avoided.
Our first port of call today; even before we visit Cotton Traders; will be the shop on site to see if our TV has arrived. In fact, it should have been at the Post Office yesterday.
Friday 16th November
Everything went well yesterday, a most unusual event for us, because there’s always something that doesn’t quite meet expectations.
Firstly, Wifey popped across to the shop for the Mail and returned with our new TV which, we thought we would have to collect from the Post Office. We then decided to see if the new cartridge was going to cure our problematic printer and, lo and behold, that also worked well.
Later in the day we took a trip into Findern Garden Centre and Cotton Traders where Wifey managed to find a pair of jeans and a top for less than the £40 our neighbour paid her for her guitar. All in all a successful day.
One of the first things we did after buying Shiralee, was to purchase some rubber matting with which to cover the back and front steps, but this is now wearing through so we’re taking a run into The Range today for some new stuff. I’ll also be looking for a suitable sized piece of carpet to lay under my car mat, which slides about somewhat, because the original backing carpet is missing.
I finally downloaded a few video guitar courses yesterday and practised the first lesson of the Fingerstyle set. This one, I’m pleased to say, came quite easy to me, and the next one doesn’t look too difficult either. I also have videos for Folk and Rock ‘n’ Roll, so I’m not lacking in variation. Sadly it’s a bit late for me to become a rock star, but I will be able to keep busy, especially when I add the pastel painting to the ‘free time’ pot.
Saturday 17th November
After Andy lubricated the gear cable and linkages and returned the car, I can’t say I was impressed with the result. The gears certainly didn’t seem to be any easier to slip into. But, as Andy said, the ball ends of the cables were well and truly seized, so it could take some time for the lubrication to work its magic. By yesterday morning the gears were a little better, so I’m hopeful that more improvement is on the way.
Today we have rain; in fact we had rain all night long; so I don’t suppose we’ll be going anywhere this morning, which gives me some time for guitar practice. I’m concentrating on the Fingerstyle at present but, with all the freebies Mike sends, which I find it difficult to ignore, my ‘music’ folder is becoming rather full. There’s no point jumping from one style to another if I’m going to get anywhere, so I’m staying with finger style. I can always check the other stuff out if and when I become more proficient at the one style of playing.
Sunday 18th November
Now, what do you think the following photo can be? Is it really a loaf of bread?
 |
| Purchased from Morrison's Hmmm! Not very good for toasting either |
The last loaf we had, which was a split tin wholemeal from Sainsbury’s, fell apart when I cut it. Well, the side under the top crust fell away, which amounts to the same thing. Do these stores actually employ professional bakers, I wonder?
A heavy frost this morning, which makes it kinda difficult when taking Rusty for a walk, because the wooden pontoons can be pretty lethal when they have a coating of frost on them.
Monday 19th November
We decided to pay a visit to The Bull at Repton yesterday lunchtime, until we saw the amount of cars in the car park that is. At 12.10 pm it was chock-a-block, so we went to The Red Lion instead. Next week perhaps we’ll take a run into Newton Solney and The Unicorn.
After the heavy frost yesterday, followed by a bright, sunny day, we’ve had rain for most of the night and this morning, although the rain has stopped, we do have a strong wind. What a shame, I was going to wash the car today!
Wednesday 21st November
Piddling down, absolutely piddling! More flood warnings on the way, I have no doubt
Yesterday we finally got rid of our two broken televisions. I also bought a new set of strings for the Eko guitar. This thing has been with me for quite some time. My sister Carole had it at her place for several years while I ‘borrowed’ her jumbo, also an Eko, but the jumbo size is far too big for sitting at our dinette, which is where I practice, so we swapped back a couple of years ago.
The one I have has now had a good clean up and the machine heads have been greased, so it should be good for another few years yet. They were very sturdily built were those Ekos, I think I had mine from my RAF days and, if it is then it only cost me 10/, that’s 50 pence in new money. My classical guitar is going to get the same treatment soon.
Friday 23rd November
Well now, as I’m going into Harlow tomorrow for the weekend, I thought I would post this blog, but first I needed to download that photo from Wifey’s camera. This is normally kept in her handbag, and that’s the first place I looked. But, it didn’t seem to be there.
OK, so, it’s time to take her a cuppa, so I asked where she’d hidden it. “It’s in my bag!” she said, as if it could possibly be anywhere else. “Nope!”, said I. “Well then, if it’s not there, I haven’t a clue”.
So, I turned out here nick-nack box, but no sign of camera. I then took another look in her hand bag, but still no deal, until I pulled out her notebook, and there it was. Now, I know I’m always having problems finding things that I’ve put away in a safe place. Don’t we all? But I have to ask myself, how do you hide a camera in a small handbag? This secret is only known to women with small handbags.
Anyway, you will already have seen the photo on an earlier page, but this did give me a problem, albeit a small one.
Have a good weekend folks.
Dave, Sheila and Pooch.
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