Acoustic Toyah

I finally managed to get the last coat of paint in the Gas locker, and now it is niceley dazzling.

Kia and Ian had managed to weld nuts onto the locking wheel nuts, and now I had my car back with four wheels. The low profile tyres cost 70% more, and they handle worse - I still don't like low profile tyres.

  Saturday evening I went down to Crick for the boat show.  It was very muddy when I arrived, so I left the car in the car park (Field really), and headed for the beer tent.  The beer was vaguely drinkable, warm, and terribly flat.  I still don't understand why people think putting a wet cloth on top of a cask of ale will chill it. Ignorance I think.

The beer tent was completely packed out, and the walls came down to allow the crowd to spread outside, because Toyah was playing acoustic.  I had only ever heard her playing her standard music, but this was something else.  Surprisingly Toyahs own music suited acoustic better than the punk style.  What a fantastic evening.

I took a couple of pictures of cratches, as Chippy Paul tells me he will build me one.

The President was there in fine fettle, and blowing off a bit of steam

Once I returned from Crick, I unpacked the two solar panels I had bought, but one of them was trashed.

I started the area where the seats are going for the dinette.

A bookcase seperating the area forms tha back of the seat, with bookshelves facing the lounge, and the back facing the dinette.

Pedestrian again

We spent a few hours in Nottingham, having a pint in the newish Blue Monkey pub.  They have a really nice terrace out the back.

 We then had a visit to the Hand and Heart, and a pint in the Trip just to round off the afternoon.

On the way back from the brewery on Saturday evening, what looked like a line on the motorway was a metal packing strip.  It wrapped itself around my front tyre and completely shredded it.  Good start for my new car!
What I hadn't noticed when I bought the car, was it had locking wheel nuts, and there was no key.

 I called the Recovery services who towed the car back to the boatyard, where I noticed that one front tyre was shredded, and the other front tyre had five cuts in it as well.
Sunday and I called the garage out to remove the locking nuts, at £10 per go.  Unfortunately the nuts were on that tight that the locking wheel nut remover snapped instead!  I had to leave to go to work, by train.

Bang goes the V70

I'm just on my way back to the boat, and I noticed that I was nearly out of diesel.  I diverted towards the petrol station, and BANG, the car stops.  It looks like the cam belt has snapped.  The car had only done 303,000 miles as well.  Never mind at least it died BEFORE I put £100 worth of diesel in the tank.

I made a start on the ceiling, by putting a length of 9x1 down the middle.

 I think this will make a reasonable looking panel that will hold all of the Vents.  Either side of this I have the thin tongue and groove boards. I had ordered 300 feet of this, to do the ceiling in the galley, dinette and lounge.  I managed to get most of it done, but I am still about 4 feet short.  It is amazing how much wood it takes to panel the ceiling.

A quick search of t'interweb and I have found a new car, much newer and only 122,000 miles, low profile tyres (which I don't like), and slightly less power than the old V70, but a nice tidy car.

Robin Who ?

The beer tent at Sherwood was quiet again this year.  I don't know why, maybe people don't have the money anymore, or maybe people aren't interested in re-enactments these days.

Never mind, a few days later I was down to Ludlow castle for the food & drink Festival, and my birthday with my identical twin Dave.

While waiting (and waiting) for the train back, I had a quick look around Ludlow Brewery.

This is what you can do when you have a large budget!

Next it was up to the Old for the mountain rescue folk festival.  Great stuff, and over £3000 raised for Mountain Rescue.  Good Weekend

Craft beer or Crap Beer ?

We went to see Toyah playing at the Grand, Clitheroe, a great venue. A superb night out drinking beer and listening to great music.

I took the train down to Newton Abbot, as I had been invited to Tuckers Maltings for the South West Beer Competition.  I had not been to this part of the country since the seventies.

I got the train at Paddington, as I wanted to see what the sea wall was like at Dawlish.  As I was a little early for the train, I had a wander down the canal at Little Venice.

There was a historic working boat Bilster, looking very impressive, and a great boat selling wonderful fresh coffee!

The sea wall at Dawlish was quite impressive, and it is easy to see why it has taken such a battering

Had a great day at the beer competition, and even went out for a cider at Ye Olde Cider Bar. Then we went for a couple of terrible cloudy sour beers at ridiculous prices at the so-called "Craft beer house" called Teign Cellars.  Terrible beer, and poor bar staff who just dismiss it as "oh, its real ale"
I wont be drinking there again.