How much did that cost?

 

Well here is our kaput light cluster. In the picture on the right you can see the burnout bit. Don't know the technical name for it and Paul is asleep so I cant ask him. Paul picked up the new one this morning and when I asked him how much it was he wouldn't tell me. Well I know how much was in his wallet so I will just have to have a peak and check.

We caught the bus to Rugby just for something to do and ended up getting Pauls old glasses sorted out. The bridge had busted and as he wears these glasses for working in we popped into Spec savers to see if they could be fixed or the lenses put into another pair of frames. As luck would have it they had exactly the same frames in stock and Paul got them for half price so that was handy. He also splashed the cash and bought a new pair of trainers, I managed to drag him into Argos where I got a collapsible step. I find it a real struggle to hang the washing out on the rotary line in fact I normally stand on the big mud weight but this has been proving a bit on the precarious side so I can now peg my washing out without the danger of me falling in the canal, also I can see into the cupboard above the cooker. I did even say I would use it when I take the helm, mind you I am beginning to regret that comment as I have been told by Paul that he will take me up on me steering the boat idea. Cant understand what his problem is we have only been on the boat 3 years having said that there is even less likely hood of me steering when there is another 2 meters in front of me.  

Okay who did it?

Have left Rugby now and we are back at Hillmorton. We had to turn round and then get water, but as we came back to the water point BW were moored there, now there's a surprise. As we tried to pull in front of them one of the operatives came back and they moved off. By this time we were across the canal with boats coming both ways so I am afraid we caused a bit of chaos while reversing to allow BW to leave and then getting onto the water mooring. While we were filling up I noticed that our nice new bucket which is placed upside down on the back button (and secured tightly) was to coin a phrase "buggered". It was split from top to bottom all we can assume is that someone hit the button and the bucket gave up the ghost. Stupid place to keep it I suppose but it was out of the way.
Paul has just come back from Dave's and our light cluster isn't in yet but it is going to cost £90, all this for a couple more months use, once we have the new engine in the current panel will become redundant, oh well we have to have it.
Travelling to day I had two layers on bit different to a few days ago. I may have to resort to putting the duvets back on the beds which is a bit of a pain but there is nothing worse than being cold in bed. (could always dig out the hot water bottle I suppose).
I am off to Kent on Friday will take advantage of being close to the station and once I come back on Tuesday we can set off for a couple of months cruising.

Another problem?

 

Well the fire has been cleaned out, the pots on the roof have been replanted, the duvets taken off the beds (this may be a bit premature) and the double glazing has been removed. So, it had better stay warm. We have had a bit of a crisis though, every now and again a faint smell of burning has been wafting from the back of the boat with nothing apparent, so it was put down to being something in the air where ever we were moored at the time. Yesterday,  Paul started the engine to give the batteries a charge but the starter battery ignition light wouldn't  go out and the alarm beeper kept on sounding. He turned the engine off and the smell of burning was apparent Paul removed the back cover of the control panel but could not find any thing obvious. In case it was a dry joint he removed the multi pin sockets and sprayed with cleaning solvent, tried it again and it was okay but the smell persisted, this morning Paul carried on his investigation and found that 3 of the 4 screws holding the front panel onto the bulk head had stripped threads hence the panel had dropped down causing the ignition light cluster to short out on the bulk head, this was only a matter of less than a 16th of an inch in other words the hole in the bulk head was insufficiently big enough and some pratt hadn't taken enough care in tightening up the fixing screws. The system is now up and running but where the cluster shorted out it has blown a couple of components. Paul has been in touch with Granthams Bridge  and Dave is sourcing a new board for us. Lets hope we have nothing else to contend with.

Finished.

Excuse the washing up but this is how the kitchen looks now with the doors on the cupboards. Paul has been busy for most of the day finally stopping for a well earned beer around 3.30.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not only is the kitchen done but the pipe work in the shower is connected and Paul has tested it out. So he smells a lot sweeter than he did at 3.30. Holes where the taps were originally have been covered with tape for now, when the bathroom is done and I have chosen new wall tiles you won’t know that they are there.

So, tomorrow Paul is going to be doing absolutely nothing, I may have a wander to Homebase to get some new plants for the planters but we will see.

Getting there!

Yesterday was a day fraught with bad temper and an awful lot of swearing. It was an  early start as Paul had to be at the doctors for 2. What needed doing, well the oven housing had to be sorted, the oven returned to its rightful place and the fridge freezer had to be put back but not before some of the floor tiles had been chipped away. Shelves had to be cut, now the shelves that went above the oven have stainless steel on as a heat protector so these proved difficult to cut one jigsaw blade later they were done. The oven was a real pain as the gas pipe fitting wouldn't tighten this was where the swearing really came into play. After about an hour oven was in the housing checks were made to make sure there were no leaks. Time for the shelving to go back in this was where the real problems started because it was taken out when the oven had been removed so consequently it wouldn't go back in while the oven was in situ, so once again the oven was taken out for about the tenth time. I made Paul stop in plenty of time to allow his blood pressure to return to normal. Off to the docs all okay then back again  all in the space of an hour.

Shelving was remade for my crockery cupboard tiles were chipped away and the fridge freezer slotted back in. There is so much more space now I keep thinking what I can find to fill this gap.

This morning it was the turn of the shower, the taps had to be re-sited from their original place as that bulk head is now exposed in the kitchen. As I mentioned the taps had originally been held in place by silicone virtually hanging in the breeze with no back nutting. In their new position Paul has made up copper pipes to the taps held in place by brackets, in Pauls words “ the best he can do in such a restricted space”. Shower door has been turned round, towel radiator removed (any one want one its going begging?) to be replaced by the radiator from the bedroom when the CUT has been done. Then the new walk through bathroom will have 2 radiators, one run off the central heating and one off the engine. Doors are in the process of going back on the cupboards.

Oh yes last evening we walked to Tesco a) to get much needed beers and b) to return the awful steak, I thought Paul had a cheek to take it back considering it was cooked but no, he had to make a point. Well we got some funny looks but we also got our money back.  I hid behind a pillar while he was complaining. It was so funny Paul was chatting to the lady like you do and off course had to drop into the conversation that he used to work for Tesco, “oh yes” says the lady “where abouts in the warehouse” a very indignant Paul says “no at head office I was a regional engineer” she wasn't impressed probably thought that by the look of him he did work in the warehouse. When did that suited and booted man that I first knew change into the man that is always in jeans and riggers boots? Mind you I have no room to talk I cant remember the last time I wore a skirt and a decent pair of heeled shoes. Not that these are conducive with walking the locks.

At least the boat is back to some semblance of normality, the china is back in the cupboard the sawdust has been hoovered up and the dogs have a bit more space to lie in. Thank goodness we don’t have to live on the boat while it is being stretched I would  go crazy.

That's the worse over (I hope)

 

This is what we have been up to today. First the doors came off the fridge housing, oven and fridge freezer were removed.

 

   Small cupboard was dismantled along with the oven housing by this time there had been a lot of swearing about the over use of glue and screws.

Trusty saw came into its own when the hammer failed to shift this piece of wood any way after plenty of brute force this is the result.

  This was the state of my lounge poor dogs had to squeeze in where there was a bit of floor space. Here is Paul refitting the oven housing framework after a few minor adjustments.

 

Here is the end result just the doors to put back on and the oven to slot in.

 

This is what we found behind the housing, the lower hole was for the switch for the shower pump but Paul changed this to a pull switch ages ago. The three holes, well the two on the left were where the shower tap was and all that was holding the tap in position was a tube of silicone in each hole where as they should have been back nutted on. The third hole? Well obviously is was drilled in the wrong place. At least they are all level.

 

On the floor under the cupboard was the boat builders signature and the date now there is the addition of a very rude remark.

Tomorrow will see the re-installation of the shower pump and the floor and shelves in the cupboard. I had to nip to Tesco to get our tea bought some steak as the oven was in the cratch. Well it must have been the toughest bit of steak ever so Paul is going to take it back and complain. It was a shame to be inside on such a lovely day but these things had to be done.

I was only shouted at a few times when I wasn't quick enough handing over tools, what does he expect I have to think what are pliers and what are snips. Then there is the club hammer or the pin hammer. Of course it was me doing the clearing up as we went that kitchen floor has never been swept so much.

Still quiet here although there has been a lot of through traffic, no one has moored close by, perhaps the swearing and banging put them off.

It’s oh so quiet!!!!!!

We are moored at Rugby now on the 14 dayers by the water point and there is no one here just us and one other boat never have we known it so quiet. On our way here we stopped at Clifton Cruisers for gas had a quick chat and we were on our way again in the lovely sunshine.

Have been to Wickes and Homebase with THE LIST to check out prices for stuff we will need when Paul attacks the kitchen. That has happened rather sooner than I expected as once back from the shops cupboard doors were removed along with various trims, all this meant I had to empty cupboards and find homes for all the tut that was in them. Tomorrow will see the serious tools emerge like the circular saw, the jig saw and Pauls selection of hammers some of which have come into their own this afternoon. There has been a bit of swearing mainly about the overkill in the construction of cupboards etc. the waste of wood has been criminal. So tomorrow I will be there with my camera snapping the work in progress which includes removal of the oven and its housing, then there will be the cutting of the worktop and the lower cupboards to allow us to resite the fridge freezer and the oven housing. Paul also has to remove the shower pump from its original position and it will have to be re-installed  under the sink. I can see us eating take aways and lacking washing facilities for a few days. If you see us make sure you stand down wind.

Thursday Paul has to go into Rugby to register with a doctor as he is due a blood test, lets hope he can shower before he goes.

Lazy Sunday

Since we have been here Paul has been to see Dave and the 16th August is THE day we go in for the stretch. Accommodation has been sorted so that's one  less worry. Paul was bored yesterday so he started taking the trim work off  in the kitchen just to see how easy it was, is this a good enough reason when we don't need the kitchen to be trashed just yet!

As I write this himself is watching the Grand Prix well that is a bit of a lie as he is asleep. Now I know that the race from Monaco is a bit on the boring side but that boring. I've a good mind to turn the tele off but you know what would happen, his eyes would open and he would say “I was watching that” so I will leave it on and bugger the battery life.

Think we are moving up to Rugby Tuesday so Paul can go to Wickes and Homebase he has got his list ready so I can see it being an expensive few days and while we are here he plans to start re-designing the kitchen, me thinks we will be eating out quite a lot or surviving on soup as the oven is going to be re-sited. I can tell you I am not looking forward to this one little bit but I know the end result will be worth all the up heaval.

Hillmorton.

 

Yesterday saw us heading for Daventry to collect the elusive laptop. Louie had put in a new hard drive for us and although the laptop is a Samsung he opted for putting in and Hitachi hard drive which is 250gb as opposed to 160gb on the old one. Hopefully now we have solved the problem but Louie has said that if we still have a problem he will give us a new laptop, cant say fairer than that can you.

Last evening Paul was sat in the cratch chatting to his mate Graham on the phone when a women walking the towpath with her dog let it cock its leg up against our ropes, Paul promptly shouted “hey don't let your dog p**s up my ropes” and she just turned round and smiled. The dog was on a lead so she could have made an effort to drag it away. This morning Paul was in the cratch yet again having a fag this time and the same woman was walking her dog and she let it have a c**p on the tow path did she stop to pick it up, did she hell, and to make matters worse she got on the boat moored in front of us. As you know we have two dogs and we always clean up after ours and it makes my blood boil when people don't especially boaters who should know better, So after much soul searching I am going to start naming and shaming boaters who don't clean up after their dogs this time the boat was called Avon Trader. Now I may be doing them an injustice but the dog was on the lead and was watched by its owner while it went about its business as we all know there is nothing worse than walking dogs mess through the boat on the bottom of your shoes and believe me we have done it.  That is my gripe for the day.

I am pleased to say we  have at last left Braunston and are now at Hillmorton, we needed to use the sanitary point at Braunston but a BW work boat was on it being unloaded of its rubble which was bridge 100 on the South Oxford, so we had to use the facilities at Hillmorton. It took us over an hour to fill up with water here I am sure you could spit faster than these taps, still I was able to get a load of washing done while waiting and we had lunch as well.

I have just returned from the village where I picked up a repeat prescription that had been sent to me from my doctors. This PO is more than happy to accept Poste Restante letters, although it is a walk from the canal it is handy to know.

Our journey today was in lovely sunshine will it stay with us I doubt it.

Another good idea!!!!!!!

 

While we have been here Paul saw an advert about aerials for dongles.(for those of you who are interested the advert is in March’s Tow path page 33 the web site in question is www.gsm-secure.co.uk or phone 0845 4580229). The information he gathered was that the dongle adaptor lead which cost £25 is just a short fly lead with a plastic insert to which the dongle fits. This fly lead is then, through a connector connected to a 5 db gain antenna this also costs £25. Now you know what Paul is like as far as opening his wallet is concerned, he dived into the depths of a cupboard to fine his old 5db gain half wave cb aerial with mag mount and on realising that the dongle is only a touch contact  proceeded to waterproof the dongle and inserted it within the bottom coil held in place with a tie wrap.  Since we have had this

  on the roof the once awful internet signal at Braunston has turned into 3g+. Now we don't know if Vodaphone have upped their signal or if this increase is due to the new aerial. But it is a great improvement on the broom handle which has kept us warm for about 10 minutes. Will be interesting to see what the results are elsewhere in the country. These cb aerials can be found at Maplins for around £15.

Yesterday Paul was on the phone yet again to the computer shop bending their ear and quoting the sale of goods act. He gave the guy till the afternoon to ring us back with an update. We were duly rung with the answer that Samsung wanted another 2 weeks to fit a new hard drive which we were lead to believe was a 5 minute job so it was agreed that the laptop would be returned to the shop by courier where he would replace the hard drive at his expense. Now this guy Louie has bent over backwards to help us and he has had words with Samsung hence him doing the work himself. We called into the shop this morning and we were told that there was definitely a problem with the hard drive and it was on the verge of self destructing so now we have to return to Daventry yet again tomorrow hopefully this will be the last time but Louie is confident that it is the hard drive that is at fault but should the problem re-occur  he  has agreed that he will replace the laptop with a new one at no cost to us.

Here you are Keith here’s the picture of the 3oz bream 

  Paul spotted this dead fish by the side of the boat unfortunately this large bream had been hit by a prop.

Let there be light!!!!

After Paul had spent ages on the phone Thursday re the LED lighting we put an order in with Bedazzled. I cant thank Richard enough for the help and advice that was given and for bringing the bulbs to Braunston for us, we are now fully lit by LED lighting so hopefully that will save battery power. I disappeared to Daventry while Paul was sorting everything out on the boat thought it best to put as much space between us just in case things didn't go to plan. Plan is now to move from here Tuesday to Hillmorton where we can verify dates for the boat going in.
Oh yes still no laptop they have till Monday then its either replacement or money back!!!! Good job we kept the old one to allow us access to the internet.

It's oh so quiet!!!

We are still sitting here on the puddlebanks, now there is just two boats moored here, the other two of our trio have now left us and are on their way up the Grand Union. So we are all alone. The volume of boats passing by has reduced considerably so peace has reigned once more. Yesterday I went to the hairdressers so now look reasonably respectable again. Still no sign of the laptop so we are beginning to lose patience a bit, we have told the guy we will ring again tomorrow and we want a definite date for us to collect the dam thing. Paul is now on the phone pricing up some LED bulbs, as we need quite a quantity they wont come cheap. Hopefully we will be on the move soon, we have been in this area for nearly 6 months and that is far to long. I want a change of scenery asap.

Loads of boaters!!!!!

Of course the problem with being here at Braunston for a while is 1) the internet signal just does its own thing and 2) when you in one place there isn't an awful lot to talk about. So Eric that is why I haven't written a blog for a few days.
Us three intrepid travellers are spread around the moorings here, us on the puddlebanks Oakfield round near bridge 190 and Tranquility is opposite the pub so not much sitting on the tow path together at the moment. We are weaning ourselves off of one anothers company for when we go our separate ways.
Our new lap top is now back at the shop where it has been sent back to Samsung for a new hard drive to be fitted good job I backed everything up before it left the boat. We have been looking for a new cooker after all Paul is having a new engine room, I would like a new cooker (not much difference in the price of them both) we have found a few that fit the bill so that is one job sorted.
The other day a boat went hacking past us and Paul quite politely asked if they could slow up a bit the reply was "get a life" so nice polite Paul asked the chap to come ashore so that they could discuss it and all he got was a load of abuse this was a red rag to Paul and so he turned into a hurling abuse monster which didn't help the situation at all, don't think the woman on the back of the boat had heard language like it before. I really must get him to calm down and chill out it doesn't do his blood pressure any good and it wont solve the problem of speeding boaters either. Why is it that the hire boaters come past on tick over but some of the private boats are in such a rush?
I suppose now that it is May everyone will be out enjoying the canals and as this stretch is so central it will be mega busy. Think once we have the lap top back we will move on down towards Fradley Junction and beyond calling in at Hillmorton to confirm dates for THE STRETCH.
Paul has managed to catch one fish since being here although I do have photographic evidence there is no way the signal here will let me upload it so you will have to wait for the proof Woozie but he wasnt lying it was thisssssssssssss big!