'Summer's lease.....

so soon is run.....'

Never a truer word spoken, Bard.

Summer's lease has well and truly expired, with a welter of lashing rainstorms to mark what seems to be much more like a foreclosure, with the bailiffs of approaching winter bundling summer unceremoniously out the door.

So I type this with the wood-burner lit and some warming cheese on toast and a bottle of Guinness close to hand.

Comfort, I feel, is essential.

Ah. The phone just rang, (it was Jackie), and while my back was turned, (literally, leaning out of the window into the precipitation to maintain some sort of mobile signal), a certain Ginger & White Menace scoffed most of the cheese off one slice!

I have decided to forgive him instantly on the grounds that he was a bit poorly over the weekend.

This attempt to purloin the cheesy comestibles is clearly a sign of a return to rude good health.


Actually, my own health has not been the Joe Guest of late. I've been feeling run-down and haven't been sleeping well. I saw the Doc on Wednesday regarding, among other fairly neurotic middle-aged-male type ailments, a mole on my back which has decided to do all the things that moles aren't supposed to do, and have, as a result, been given a fast-track appointment at The Addenbrookes Hospital Nasty-Looking-Mole Clinic.

At least, I would have one if the buggers ever picked up the phone.........

Sigh....

Not to worry, though. Jackie is going to sort it all out for me in the morning.

Meanwhile, I'm not sure whether to put my affairs in order, cancel my Centenary of The Titanic Disaster lecture in 2012, or just not put on any long-playing records.

'Summer's lease', eh.........

A Pause......

In blogging at least. Everything else has been happening at ninety million miles an hour......

Work has been busy and very tiring. Today I coined a new acronym (The National Hole Making Service is positively awash with them....).

Adj: a "SOFA" day.

Stands for 'S*d Of A day.

I had one of these today.

Trouble is, their frequency is increasing alarmingly.

If it gets to the crucial 'SOFA week' stage, we may be paying more than cursory attention to the Jobs page in The Cambridge News......

Anyway, never mind all that load of bollards. (Go on, forgive me, this IS a boating blog after all....)...To business.

Since my last riveting piece about work benches (please at least TRY to stay awake) loads has happened.

We went to The Cambridge Folk Festival. We saw our favourite band, Pink Martini, live, AND met them afterwards at a signing.

If you don't know the band or their music, treat yourself to one of their albums, relax, listen, and have your ears bathed, your soul renewed and even the most jaded of musical palates refreshed.

They are fab!

And their singer, China Forbes, is second only in grace, beauty and roll-around-beat-out-the-flames gorgeousness to the non-singer I married......

The one thing Pink Martini aren't is a folk act.

What they were doing at the Cambridge Festival is anyone's guess. They looked somewhat bewildered themselves at the signing.....

But they weren't half good!

Also, we rescued the crew of a broken down plastic cruiser.

They were walking the two miles or so from the GOBA moorings near us to Waterbeach village when I happened upon them. It was raining and dark. They were very lost, so I gave them a lift to the village's only half decent pub in the car. There were three adults and two children, so it was a squeeze, but they were very grateful.

The following day we were heading into Ely to pump out, so arranged with the owner to meet him in the morning and tow his boat back to his mooring at The Five Miles, which we duly did.

Yes, I know it goes against the grain to encourage the use of fibreglass, but I am a firm believer in never leaving another boater up the proverbial creek, no matter what their craft, regardless of rants past.

Although now I come to think of it there are some exceptions to this rule.......

Good Grief, I'll probably be fishing newbie rowing crews out of the river next.....

In other news, Jackie and I have started a re-paint job on nb Caboodle, a little 38ft narrowboat that moors at Tracey Island with us.

Needless to say, this has brought the summer to a swift conclusion: we are now enduring one of the wettest Augusts on record.

If the National Hole-Making Service painted boats, then doubtless the conditions would be defined as 'SAW'.

S*d Awful Weather.......

A new benchmark

Well, a new bench, at any rate.

Yes, a man must have his shed, and within his shed, he should have a stout, sturdy, proper-job bench on which to tinker.

My shed has been sadly lacking in the bench department.

Up, that is, until today...

I had a day off from the Hole Making Shop today,(just as well: after a fortnight's annual leave, I was properly snookered after two late shifts), so after dropping off the re-cycling I took in Emmaus.....

I came away with £35's worth of someone's attempt at bench-making. It featured lots of nails and wobbled horribly.

So why buy it then?

Well, it came attached to a rather decent woodworking vice, and the bench itself, while ill-conceived and poorly executed, was made of some decent lengths of wood.

I demolished the bench at Emmaus to get it into the car and spent some of the afternoon and most of the evening rebuilding it to John standard (lots of screws, careful alignment, no wobble.)

All I need now is a bench top, as all the wood that was forming this part was re-used in other guises (i.e. removing the wobble factor.)

A trip to Mackays in Cambridge is due: they were selling large off-cuts of chipboard for £4.00 when I was up there last weekend........

Photos to follow!

New cars, old cars, and cars so old it's really rather silly

Today, Jackie bought us a new (to us....) car.

It is a Volkswagen Polo, 2004/5 model, mileage, 17,775. It comes through a friend of Jackie's mum's, is totally straight and honest, and is frankly a bit of a bargain.

Well done Jackie!

I cannot help but wonder what the poor old Suzuki will feel about it, though.

I mean, I just did my best to trash the poor thing, then made it up by repairing all the damage done, plus making it a fab new battery tray. It must be VERY confused.....

So now, on to the So-Old-It's-Silly car............







This is my Alvis TA14 dhc.

It's called "Car".

(Well, you are reading the blog of a couple who named their cat 'Thomas'......)

"Car" is old, leaks various fluids, and smells funny.

What to say, then, about me, it's owner?

Ah.

Well, only this:

"Love is a strange, strange, and wonderful thing".......

Is it not, Jackie, darling?.... xx

Recycled Breadbins.....

The Suzuki now has a new battery tray!

My earlier attempts to replace the rotten-to-non-existence original (I actually pulled the remains of it out of the engine bay with my fingers...) resulted in last week's disasterous trip to Bottisham Scrapyard.

This resulted in a broken windscreen, a buckled-beyond-repair bonnet, (I forgot to latch the bonnet properly. On the way back, the inevitable happened....) and £4.00's worth of old Honda bits which might be persuaded to fit.

All very expensive: Secondhand bonnet, £45. New windscreen, fitted today, £98.80.

So, silly me.

But nothing daunted, I reckoned I should have a go at repairing the battery tray area properly.

I soon abandoned the Honda parts. They could be shaped to fit, but it wouldn't be as tidy as a custom made bit of bend and mend.

This is why I bought the stainless steel breadbin at Emmaus.

"Breadbin?" I hear you say. "A BREADBIN????!!!!!"

Well look, learn and admire.

I say this not out of any want of modesty, but in the hope that I'll convince you that I'm not a complete twit.

An incomplete one, perhaps, but that's for you to decide.


Here it is, an Ikea stainless steel breadbin, made in Taiwan, bought from Emmaus in Saturday's Sale for 50p, and about to be transmogrified.......


It's still a breadbin, but some small modifications are clearly underway........

At this point, Paul and Sabrina wandered up to see what I was tinkering with. Paul is restoring a Ford Capri, so shares my interest in mendology. His help in getting to the stage shown in the next picture was invaluable.


Can you see what it is yet?

Much, much later, it's a breadbin, but not as we know it, Captain......

(Hand model, the elegant Sabrina)



(Hand, the filthy dirty, swarf-cut mitt of the author....)


In situ, battery ready to go in...Ah, we haven't got one yet....
Paul! Got a minute?....


We also made a stainless steel strap to go under the tray to which the hooks and bracket from the Honda could be attached.



TA DAH!!!!

A massive "thank you" is due to Paul for taking an interest, being the perfect helpmeet, and running me to Halfords in the evening to buy a new battery!

Nice one Paul!

The Definition of "A Bargain"

According to my cousin Caroline, is:-

"Something you don't need at a price you can't afford to miss....."

So true, oh, so true.....

We had failed to go into Ely on Saturday as planned due to my being in a filthy temper, for no good reason, and the gearbox filler not wanting to undo.

(The two may have been related: remember, our trusty Newage PRM box has taken an absolute hammering what with being slung into reverse from Cruising RPM (Ahead) to Emergency Full Astern to prevent the deaths of idiot rowers on occasions sadly too numerous to mention, and has , as a result, started leaking oil. A lot of oil.......).

Anyway, we eventually topped-up the gear oil. But by then had lost interest in a cruise to Ely to pump out.

Jackie was by now thoroughly bored with me doing my Grizzly Bear With A Hangover impression, so I was packed off to Emmaus to consider my behaviour....

Emmaus had a 50% off sale on!!!!!

Below, some of "The Bargains" bought:-


Possibly Caithness Glass: No problem if not, as it will do jolly nicely for Jackie's favourite Gerbera stems. Cost: 25p


This was sold as a 50p candle holder. It is actually a 1920's/30's Swan Vestas match holder: you put the matches in the middle then strike them down the side of the globe on the glass serrations. Lovely!




Two nice bits of Royal Worcester Evesham pattern oven-to-table ware, bought on behalf of my Mum, who loves this china.


This is a present from us to Mum and Dad for being fab..... Dad has a lot of this pattern of Thomas Webb cut glass.


On a much more utilitarian note, I bought this brand new never-filled diesel can for Pippin for £1.00.....


I also bought this. It's a stainless steel bread-bin. Cost: 50p.

Much, much, much more about this particular purchase in a later post.................

But 'La Piece de Resistance' must be this:




It's a treadle operated wood-turning lathe.

I have, so far, no need for it , or indeed any real interest in turning wood.

But £15.00?

By definition, it's got to be a bargain!

"Southfork Barbecue" or "Texas comes to Cambridge"

Do you remember the 1970's TV soap "Dallas"?

The Ewing family used to breakfast daily on the porch of their Texas mansion in what can only be described as a good gale of wind....

The Butler can be seen in some episodes actually leaning into the breeze to pour the orange juice...

Tonight was the night of Andy Rankin's Midsummer Energy barbecue on the Common in Cambridge.

Having cycled into the aforementioned gale (our wind turbine has been showing a steady 4-6 amps all day...)to get there, I was fully expecting a proper Southfork style barbecue.

Luckily, the wind dropped, the food was excellent, and the company even better.

I have just cycled home, full of sausages and lager, with the wind at my back.

Bliss.