On Schedule !

Week 128

Sunday

As mentioned in the previous week's utterings, the fitter was involved with an amateur radio event on Sunday. The alarm was set for 6.30am and the fitter was out of the house within forty five minutes having got everything ready to sling into the car on Saturday evening.

The fitter was back home by 4.30pm and had a drink of tea before unpacking the things that he'd taken with him earlier. He then adjourned to the laptop, wrote up the previous Friday's notes, proof read them and uploaded them. It was then time for the evening meal and the weekly calls to family.

We turned the tv on as we sometimes do and discovered Countryfile has a new slot at 7pm on Sunday evenings. We watched this for a change before turning to other things, like filling in forms and ironing and, finally, the bed time drink and bed.

Monday

The first day back to London (by train) since we'd left there by boat early the previous week. There was industrial action on the trains which meant a slightly later start and a corresponding slightly earlier finish! Back home and most of the remainder of the day was spent on the laptop initially tending to mails but then working on a large spreadsheet that will be used in London. There wasn't even time to write up the day's single paragraph in these notes.

Tuesday

The second day in London. The trains were back to normal - i.e. late! Again, having returned home, the fitter spent most of his time on the laptop with the spreadsheet, which he was able to send to London just before he turned in for the night. That would be processed by a colleague in the fitter's absence on Wednesday.

Wednesday

For the third night in a row the fitter managed to sleep through the night - we remember when we said that about our baby daughter (as she was then)! Mrs. Fitter made a drink at 6am and we started to get up around 7.15am because we were expecting the post person to call with a letter that had to be signed for - they called, but didn't bring the letter.

We'd not long finished breakfast before daughter called to take her Mum shopping. This wasn't food or clothes shopping but a trip to B & Q where daughter could take advantage of Mum's 10% off (on Wednesday's) card. Both got back just after 10.15am and there was time to grab a quick cup of tea before we had to head out for a visit to the hospital.

The fitter had been in the garage whilst the women folk had been out. He'd done a bit of tidying up and sorting out, putting some tools away and gathering up a few things to take to the boat over the (Easter) weekend. He also made some room to work, for his main task for the day was to repair the shelf units for the airing cupboard. These comprise 2"x1" softwood strips that have been screwed and pinned together. There's a centre strip that runs from front to back of each shelf and eight cross slats screwed from underneath but mounted on top. They'd originally been cut fairly tight but the single screw soon proved insufficient to hold them in position when their tightness caused them to jam when the shelves were removed. One of more pins were then added but they didn't really solve anything.

The need for repair came when we tried to remove one of the shelves to get to the calorifier. One of the slats came loose and fell to the floor at the back of the airing cupboard and the calorifier, possibly never to be seen again. With that slat missing there was a risk that small items of clothing might end up on the floor as well, so the repairs became urgent.

The fitter unscrewed the slats and removed the pins. He trimmed the slats, removing a couple of millimetres off each one to make them a less tight fit. He then refitted them, using two screws, but no nails/pins. He'd just finished the first when the women folk came back and he had to break off.

We were back from the hospital just after midday, so the fitter headed for the laptop to check his mail and do some research into tv antenna - we want to replace the omni direction antenna with something that is a bit more receptive out in the country. Research over (without any conclusions) and it was lunch time.

It was back to the garage after lunch to finish the work on the second shelf. The fitter also decided that our quest to find a couple of small shelves for toiletries in the bathroom was doomed to failure, so he'd modify the ones that we'd bought before we went on holiday. The sucker and associated fittings were discarded to be replaced with a small block of wood. This would have a horizontal hole drilled through it, from end to end. The top front corner was then removed on the bandsaw, such that the top of the drilled hole was also just removed, leaving a trough, into which the metal edge of the shelf could rest. The block of wood would be screwed to the wall of the bathroom. The design allowed the shelf to be easily removed for cleaning but will hopefully prevent the shelf from falling down if any lock sides decide to hit us!

With the two blocks prepared - the fitter discarded the first attempt, so actually made three, the fitter was able to return to the second airing cupboard shelf, which was soon completed.

The fitter had remembered earlier in the day that he still had a small job to do for the grease monkey. He'd thought about doing it during the afternoon, but the bathroom shelf supports took preference, so the grease monkey's work was postponed until after the weekend.

The laptop called again after the afternoon drink. The fitter tended to his mail, checked the forum and then wrote up these notes both for the day, as far as it had gone, and the previous two days.

Thursday

Another day in London for the fitter and an afternoon out for Mrs. Fitter who had, earlier, had to wander to the local supermarket to get some flour to make some bread for communion at Church on Sunday.

The fitter got home just after 4pm and quickly loaded the bits he wanted into the car. He then settled down to wait for Mrs. Fitter to get home so that she could finish sorting her stuff. This was complete a little after 5pm and we were soon on the road to the boat. However, we first dropped some Easter biscuits off at daughter's, then took the bread to church and, finally, called into the garage to re-charge the car's petrol tank. As a result it was almost 6.30pm before we had managed to unload the car and transfer everything to the boat.

Top priorities were to get the evening meal ready - a job requiring Mrs. Fitter's culinary skills - and to light the boiler and fire so that we'd have hot water and heat when we got back from the pub after the quiz. then, whilst the dinner finished cooking, the fitter mounted the two wire shelves using the supports that he'd made on Wednesday.

We'd managed a bit of reading with our post meal drink and before we headed for the pub. There were four quiz teams of varying sizes. Our answering efforts weren't worthy of merit, with the team coming fourth, some way behind the winners but not too far behind the third placed team.

We walked across the road, clambered over the gate into the boatyard (as this is easier than unlocking it) and were soon back on board our nice warm boat. The fitter had soon had his tablets and we were in bed before midnight, a much more civilised sort of time, compared with when we drive home, especially when we're late escaping from the pub waiting for the answers.

Friday

Thursday night wasn't one of our best efforts for sleeping, at least not as far as the fitter was concerned. We both woke about 2.30am on Friday due to an excess of liquid intake the night before. Although we then both got back to sleep, the fitter woke whilst it was still dark and simply lay in bed listening to the other crew member slumbering on. In the end, having checked the clock around 6.30am, he decided to get up. He was about to tip toe gently out of bed when Mrs. Fitter rolled over and asked if he was awake.

We'd had breakfast by 7.30am and, with the sun shining, even contemplated trying to repair the worst of the battle scars on the outside of the boat following our recent trip. But first, we wanted to tackle the bathroom varnishing. We were going to use a water based product as this dries quicker, doesn't smell and doesn't seem to tint the area being treated. We've tried it out in one or two small areas and found that we only need to (well) brush it over the areas that we've sanded after we'd covered the pins used for fixing the trim in place.

Mrs. Fitter cleared all the ancillary things out of the bathroom whilst the fitter sorted the fire out. At this stage, because it looked a nice day, we decided to let the fire die out and we'd re-light it in the evening. He also spent a while sorting out the collection of magazines and papers that we've recently amassed, trying to discard those that were no longer required to free up some space for the next lot that we get.

It didn't take too long to do the varnishing, just long enough to escape the washing up. The hot water isn't staying any hotter for any longer and we're beginning to wonder what we have to do to solve the problem.

The fitter had escaped the shower before breakfast on the grounds that he had several untidy jobs to do before he needed to get ready to go out on the trip boat. He headed for the trip boat, checked engine, coolant, diesel and gas and topped up the water tank. Then he returned to his own boat with the intention of extracting the empty gas bottle that he knew he had and replacing it with the spare that we'd taken on our trip.

He switched the two bottles and then adjusted the changeover indicator. He was amazed to see that this was indicating a second empty bottle - all this water heating and cooking must be eating away at the gas. Consequently he extracted the second empty gas bottle and set off for the office to buy a replacement.

His next job was to take an old fridge to the tidy trip. One of his boating colleagues had already tried to dispose of it using the boatyard's van but had been stopped when he was recognised after previously discarding several others using the same van. The fridge wasn't recognised this time and the attendant even unloaded the fitter's car for him!

Back at the boatyard the fitter went into the office for the mid morning drink. From there he took the larger trip boat to the pump out point and back (although not just for the trip)! With that boat back on its moorings it was back to the office for the monthly work on the accounts spreadsheet. He couldn't do all of the accounts because some remained undone, but he did sort out that which had been done.

It was fast approaching lunch time by now, so he returned to his boat, had his lunch, had his shower and got into his trip boat clothes. Mrs. Fitter followed on behind.

We were back from the trip and on our own boat again by 4.30pm. We'd intended that we'd try and get some rest over the weekend and so we made a drink and sat and read and dozed for an hour or so, after which the evening meal was both prepared and eaten.

We spent the early part of the evening reading and then the fitter adjourn to the laptop to catch up on the previous 24 hours worth of mail, check the forum, where he's trying to find an answer to the lack of heat retention in the calorifier, and then to write up both Thursday and Friday's notes for website. We made the bed time drink just before 10pm and were in bed not long after.

Saturday

The fitter didn't sleep too well on Friday night. He had to make a call of nature within an hour of going to bed and then woke some time later to hear rain falling on the boat's roof. He didn't know what time it was but did know that it was still dark. He doesn't think he went back to sleep as he seemed to lay there for an endless amount of time until it had been light for some time. Mrs. Fitter woke at one stage, announced that she need to go to the . . . . and promptly went back to sleep without having left the bed!

The fitter finally gave in and looked at the clock (at 7.20am) which, for some reason, disturbed Mrs. Fitter from her slumbers. We got up and had breakfast whereafter we decided that we'd get on with the varnishing in the saloon area. Ideas of doing the lot soon faded when we realised just how much stuff we'd have to re-locate (and remember that we're only varnishing the areas that we'd recently rubbed down after filling the holes made by the fixing pin). We stopped the moving once we'd cleared the rear half of the saloon.

Mrs. Fitter wiped over the areas to be varnished with a wipe impregnated with alcohol, which meant that it didn't take too long for the areas to be dry enough to varnish. The fitter then knuckled down and did the varnishing. This was complete just after 10am, allowing to fitter to wander over to the office and carry on where he left off on Friday with the spreadsheet. We broke off for our mid morning cuppa and eventually returned to our boat just after midday. We put all the furniture back and then had a sandwich for lunch before having showers and disappearing off to the trip boat for the sole trip of the day.

Three boats went past about five minutes before we were due to leave so we guessed that we were probably in for a slow trip. We hadn't bargained for these three boats having to wait for a boat travelling in the opposite direction before they could use the lock. In the meantime, we arrived at our first lock and joined the queue. We eventually got into the lock after waiting nearly thirty minutes. The other boats weren't the fastest through locks so we got delayed even further at the second lock.

Just before we got to the turning point we encountered a boat heading the way we would soon be going. They should have been through the locks by the time we got back. No such luck! More delay. And then, to cap everything, we had to wait for a boat heading the other way to work through our final lock before we could continue. We were almost forty minutes late by the time that we returned from out ninety minute cruise. Exceptional value for the passengers but frustrating for the crew.

We got back to our boat around 5pm. Mrs. Fitter did some baking - we have guests for the next two days - and the fitter checked his mail and the forum for he wanted to reset the pressure on the accumulator tank in the plumbing and he knew there was a post on the forum indicating what that pressure should be. It took longer to find out the correct setting than it did to turn the water pump off, open and drain a tap, move the front steps, check the existing pressure, increase that pressure, put the steps back, shut the tap and turn the water pump back on again.

With that job done and any idea of tackling any more varnishing postponed at least until Sunday, the fitter got on with writing up these notes whilst he waited for his evening meal to be prepared.

We entertained some fellow boaters on Saturday evening. The arrived a little after 8pm and stayed until after 11pm. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn't keep the temperature inside the boat under control and spent most of the evening with the bow doors open, although the cratch cover was down and fastened.

We slept slightly better on Saturday night, although we still woke early, which encouraged Mrs. Fitter to make the tea (for a change). We'd two more days on the boat and had planned short cruises on both subject to not being required for trip boat work on either day. The forecast was good when we went to bed on Saturday so the cruises were not guaranteed.

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