Saturday, November 04, 2006

The Fireworks are cancelled. At a time when the government are pushing for safety on bonfire night and that, rather than let fireworks off yourself , you should go to an organised display. What do Hounslow council do, they cancel the well established firework display in Lampton park. Why? Due to lack of funds apparently, the council now feel that bonfire night is not cost effective. I hope residents of Hounslow remember this on election day.


Meanwhile diy continues apace, spent Thursday stripping all the wallpaper from walls and ceiling, Friday cutting out all the live plaster and refilling with bonding. Saturday continued with finish plastering. I am not the worlds fastest plasterer but I'm starting to be pleased with the results. I must be getting better at it. Downside of the plastering is the tennis elbow has flared up bigtime, I've still got three walls and maybe the ceiling to do!!



All this work is making me look forward to my next visit to Swanage.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

The sudden cold snap is making me panic. Last night it went down to about 3 degrees and tonight it is already 2 degree and falling. After all this warm weather i took a chance and didn't drain the water systems on the boat. I just hope that there is no damage. The engine should be OK as it has antifreeze but the various pumps and the water heater are a different matter, it could be a costly mistake on my part.

Back here in London, Reg went for his cataract operation today and seems to have fared quite well, Nicky is staying in with him tonight. His follow up appointment is next friday week. Nicky says she will ask if he wants to come to Swanage for a few days to rest.



Refurbishments coming along. Framework to hide cylinder now in place, started stripping the walls and ceiling, there will be quite a lot of plastering to do soon as the old stuff is pretty naff.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Never was much good at writing diaries, as you will note I have now missed 3 days on the trot, mainly cos I've been too busy. Swanage on friday via chandlery to order new part for the windlass. Evening busy making lists and familiarising myself with the stuff I want to do on the boat on Saturday.

Sat

Get various bits together for working on the boat, then off to Watanga.
The leak that has been manifesting itself as pools of water under the bed mattress and mould on the cupboard door I have traced to the baby forestay mount. Had to cut the headlining to get to the nuts of the deck fitting. Only a minimal amount of sealant found and lots of water, and the backing plate going rusty. The complete headlining is soaked. Reseal with large helping of sikaflex ( may never be able to remove backing plate now) Set up heater in forward cabin to try and drive water out from headlining.

Serviced the windlass ready for new part when it comes in. Removed several gallons of water from rear lazerettes. Think this is rainwater entering through rudder lift mechanisms( there has been a lot of rain).

The racing season ends tommorrow, so spent the evening at the sailing club, the last race party. Bangers and mash, Jim Etherington singing and too much beer. A good night.

Sun

Take part in the last race, not much wind, excellent start first over line at start, but fell foul of the avarage lap curse. I was far enough ahead to have to do an extra lap, then wind died. So go from possibly first to last in one foul swoop. (This will only make sense to you if you understand how average lap racing works.)

Lousy journey back to London, very heavy traffic, I guess it's the half termers going home.

Today

The clocks going back have messed with the body time as usual, Woke quite refreshed at 7:30 today. I don't normally see much before 9:00 as a rule.

Made some good progress with the jobs list. Mended reg's taps, fitted some isolators, and fixed the outside security light. Put up the false wall in back bedroom to hide the fireplace.