Scream and shout

On Saturday we had a remarkable day, and somehow finished work 2 hours early.  I know that sometimes we can save five minutes here or there, but somehow we have saved 2 hours.

Great timing, because then it was the train down into Manchester on a Saturday night for the first time in ages.  The Lass O'Gowrie was empty, and, worse still, only had one beer on.  Apparently the football had been on in the afternoon, and they had sold almost all of their beer.  Bastards!.  Now I have another reason to hate football.

Heading down Oxford Road, we found a bar called Jabez Clegg.  Not the most catchy name I admit, but they did have beer!  The barmaid opened the till, and the drawer fell out, change all over the floor.  I'm not laughing because I've done it myself, but it was amusing.

Next we had a couple of beers in KRO, which looks like somebodys house, probably because it used to be a house.  Great place though, catering for everybody - beer, wine, food, cocktails, everything.

Finally, across the road to the Academy, where we saw Alexa De Strange, which was a strange mix, operatic style vocalist and seventies rock guitarist, but what a fantastic band.

Then the main event of the evening, Toyah.

Looking and sounding fantastic, leaping about the stage I cannot believe she is fifty five.  I wish I had that much energy!









We had to leave early to get the train back.  I don't know which moron is in charge of public transport around here, but the last train back out of Manchester on a Friday night is five past eleven ?  Which idiot came up with that!

Sunday I decided to bite the bullet and build the first door for the boat.  I have been thinking about options for doors for ages, but it comes down to the fact that the doors are going to be odd shapes, so they need building to fit.

I cut the shape out of 12mm marine ply, and made sure this fit well.  I then put a border around each side made up from a 3" by 1/2" moulding I found at JAS timber. It took quite a while to work out the angles for the mitres - not so easy when the corners aren't 90 degrees, but I managed to make some remarkably neat corners.

After fiddling about with a sliding door track I got from ironmongerydirect.co.uk, I have a sliding door of sorts.  The only problem is the metal bulkhead that it slides against is distorted, so the door catches half way open, so I will have to move the door out slightly, but otherwise I am quite chuffed with my first door.

Open

Shut

Clear the decks...

I managed to get most of Sunday on the boat, and decided it was time for a clear out.  Boxes have arrived with "stuff" in, and then been used for rubbish.  I decided that the number of rubbish boxes was getting a bit much, so I have a clear out of  loads of packing and offcuts, and there is a suprising amount of space suddenly!

I finished off connecting the sink, but I have decided I don't like the flexi pipe drain, so I am going to take it out again and do it properly with a solid drain.

I have changed my mind about using a hot air heating system, as that would leave me having to run the engine to get hot water.  So, I have forked out a painfully huge sum on a Eberspacher DS4.

The only problem now is I am going to have to fit new pipework behind the walls I have already fitted.  It will have to wait on the outcome of the battle between how cold it gets, and me squeezing myself under the bed for a bit of plumbing again!

The plastic panels for the bathroom wall are also on order, so I need to sort it out before then.

Old Rope, New Rope

September has arrived, and busy, busy.
First it was the Mountain Rescue Beer festival.  46 beers, all on hand pump, and all good.

 This year we didn't spend any money on musicians, and Chris and Dawn did wonders on getting people to play for free.
Also we didn't spend any money on Glasses, as last year the "souvenir" glasses almost all came back for refunds.  So we used last years glasses. Some people complained, but this is a beer festival to raise money for the Charity, and not buying new glasses means £400 more to the charity!
Sunday teatime and the Beer Festival is over, 14 beers run out completely, and there wer only two beers that had more than a couple of pints at all.
All the money saving has been worthwhile, and it looks like we have raised over £3000 for mountain rescue, with still some sponsor money to come in!


Tuesday, I went to Union chapel to see Judy Collins.  Before the music started I had some Lasagne in the school hall which was absolutely superb.  Washed down with a nice glass of Meantime Ale from their unusual personalised bottle and glass.






Judy Collins was superb, although I found a lot of the "american" name dropping a bit tedious - I don't care how many times you have been invited to the Whitehouse - I bet you've never been invited round to Luke's for his Christmas Feast!









Next thing, I'm down to Burton on Trent for the Barrel Rolling Championships.  I'm not taking part, I do too much barrel rolling at work, but I am serving beer in the beer tent!

The Brewing museum is a great place to wander around, with a good show of all the historic vehicles from the brewerys' history (plus a huge horse!).

Just near the entrance, there is the Burton Union brewing system on display.  Beer is fermented in the wooden casks, and when the yeast forms above the beer, it is forced through pipes to be collected in the large channel above.

This all looks rather complicated to me, and I would hate to have to clean all that lot.

All sold out, I got back up to Rammy in time to see the New Rope String band.  Two Fiddlers and a squeeze box came on stage and it was laughing from the start.  Brilliant timing, and insane comedy, I was getting quite worried about sitting in the middle of the front row, but I managed to escape any major trauma.

Should you see the New Rope Sting Band near you, go and see them. You will laugh until it hurts!