Music Maestro

"Pantone One Hundred and Eighty!"

Well, I went to Fairport Convention this weekend just because I have always done it. I went the "pretty way" via Braunston to pick up some zinc phosphate primer. Some good music on, but mostly it seems to be the only time in the year I have any time off work. Note to Self. Must get a life sometime.


Once the tent was up at Cropredy, it was time for a pint, so a quick walk down the canal to the Red Lion. I noticed Saddleworth on the side of a boat, and after a chat with the owner, learned that the Huddersfield canal goes all the way up to Saddleworth. The number of times I have driven through there and never realised that there was a canal there.


Friday morning got a coffee & sat by the canal waiting for the pub to open for breakfast (You can get a bad name for yourself sitting outside a pub at 7.00 am waiting for it to open). Saw a tug & butty coming down the canal carrying roofing materials. Interesting to watch it going through the locks.

I went into Banbury, first time I had been into the town for several years, and was very impressed by the Quay area redevelopment. I had a wander and looked at all the boats to get some idea of a colour scheme. I liked the blue and maroon, then again I like the Green. The Green and Red looks good. So does the Red. Ditto the red & gold. The green and blue looks good. So does the very dark green.


Sod it, I'm going to put all the pictures on a dartboard and pick the colour scheme the Eric Bristow Method.



Saturday Left the pub as it was getting a bit manic and sat by the lock drinking beer (it's a hobby i suppose). Saw a hire boat with a very direct means of opening lock gates. You just ram them!

Back to Work

"Get back on your horse and get the hell outa town!"

Start of August - definitely working on the boat. Friday night went out for a meal with Lady P & co. Well, I have to keep my strength up for the job in hand you know. Awful meal. Why do people think that Microwaving a wholesalers pie constitutes a good restaurant meal just because you cut the carrots chunky.

Had a strange dream. Don't get me wrong, I often get strange dreams, but this one seemed to be a happy dream. Normally I just get nightmares. Good portent possibly ?

Got myself a notebook and made a list of the snags that need sorting out on the shell. Getting organised at last. So now when the welder has some time free I have two full pages of snags for him to have a go at. Simple things like Welding the rubbing strakes on, rather than just tacking them and filling the gaps with silicon. Perhaps Mr Stilton doing a runner has been a good thing, as now I can get a professional job done.

In the meantime, I have spent the weekend shifting bricks about in the boat. By Saturday evening I have Eight "bays" bitumined ready for the bricks to go in their final resting place.

Sunday morning. Had breakfast with Lady P at a new farm shop we discovered. Good field mushrooms and nice sausages, but the usual mistake of using cheap sliced bread, and not cooking the tomatoes enough. We should start work on the definitive guide to where not to breakfast. Breakfast Nightmares ? No I don't think I could swear that much, besides I'm a better cook than Ramsey.

Put the bricks on the newly painted (or should that be bitumined ?) floor, and cleared the next few bays ready for the bitumin. Tried different patterns of laying the bricks but ended up with them on edge as the easiest way to fit them all in. This means that the bricks are resting on the floor, not on spacers, but I havent the clearance for the spacers. Never mind.

Bridge over the River Kwai time again as there have been sunflakes belting down on the shell all afternoon. Cleaned the new floor area, but I have had too much time in the sweat box, so I am legging it and leaving the bitumin until next weekend.

Interesting Times

"Jeez, I thought you guys were going to follow some kinda footpath...".

Well, I have finally got back to adding something to this blog, after an 'interesting' couple of months. A few years ago my life turned upside down. I called this interesting times after the Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times". Well, I suppose the last month or two has been interesting as well.

June:

Started putting the battens on the floor. This was then interrupted by a weekend at a medieval fayre. We're the beer tent, not the medievals. They are the sane ones.

Following a long weekend of drinking beer, setting up a bar, drinking beer, selling beer, drinking beer, taking down the bar, and drinking beer, I had a week off, then boat. Over the next week I managed to get some of the battening done in the evenings after work. This got a bit much, working 7:30 to 18:00, 40 mins driving, two hours working on the boat, then 40 mins driving to bed ready for the next day at work.

I decided to spend a full weekend working on the boat and booked into the Travellodge at Stilton for the weekend. Finished off most of the battening, just the back half of the ceiling to do, but I ran out of wood. It is amazing how much wood it takes! Anyway, retire to the Bell at Stilton for an amazing meal and one or two pints of superb Fools Nook Ale from Digfield Brewery. If you are ever in Stilton, just off What used to be the Norman Cross roundabout on the A1, the Bell at Stilton cannot be recommended highly enough.

I have decided to use Engineering bricks for the ballast as they are easy to adjust, plus at £60 per tonne they are a bargain. Measured up the wood I needed to finish off the battening, and counted up 1200 bricks for the ballast.

July:

Well, I arrived at the boat to find that the remaining battens had been delivered together with three pallets of bricks, so far so good, and also the news that the Bailiffs had been around taking stock of what shells were there because the shell builder had "done a runner".

Wonderful.

It was Lady P's Birthday, so I had to go up North for a couple of days, calming down, but also wondering whether the shell would be there when I got back. Never mind - have a good couple of days at this barbeque/birthday party and leave sorting this out the following week because i am well and truly p****d off.

Monday. Back into work and loads of pointless hassle at work stops me doing anything for a few days. Probably as well because dealing with the mind-numbing tedium gets me riled into a solution.

Tuesday. Following various phone calls, I have found only one person I know with a trombone trailer needed to shift the shell. The wagon isn't the problem, but 58'6" needs a special 'extendable' trailer. Finally got in touch with him, and found he had sold it. Bugger. Rang Botony Bay, they had DIY bays available, and put me in touch with a narrowboat transport firm.

Wednesday Evening. Persuaded three blokes from work to come up to Stilton for a small amount of excercise. I removed one of the windows for easy access, and with two of us inside and two outside, one hour later there are three tons of bricks are inside the shell. Just time for a quick trip to treat these guys to a pint at the Bell at Stilton. the Fools Nook was even better than I remember, or is that just because of the brick shifting ? Anyway a fantastic meal and a few pints later, we returned home.

Thursday. £250 poorer a crane is booked.

Friday. A huge crane arrived at Stilton, and, during a thunderstorm no less, lifted the shell onto the waiting trailer. £450 poorer the trailer disapears with the shell on board, due to arrive at Botony bay on Monday.

Monday. Shell is craned off at Botony bay. I am now another £250 poorer for the crane off, making a total of £950.

Sod it I am off to the pub.

Following weekend I thought I might go to the lakes. Waited all Morning, but Luke had Flu & decided not to go. Set off late, but the roads were terrible. Turns out there was a 15 mile queue on the M6. Thought it was much easier popping up to the Lakes when I used to have a motorbike. Might consider getting another.

I went to the boat instead, but just outside the boatyard a Range Rover and a motorbike collided. Stuck for ages while the police & ambulance arrived, closed the road. the motorcylist didn't make it.

I hate days like this, I'm going to the Pub.

Last weekend in July I went up to the lakes with Luke. His sister is engaged to a great bloke from New York, so we decided to show him the Lake District the Hard Way. After we dragged him up Ravens Crag, Pavey Ark, Mill Gyll and part of the Dungeon Ghyll (I have never heard so much swearing from him), followed by the obligatory one or two pints in the 'Old', he slept for a week.

Maybe get back to the boat in August.