Emblem again

When I sold Emblem I had some engine spares for the old Gardner 4L3W

For months they had been sitting in my mates stable in Wales and then in the boot of my car waiting for the new owner to arrange collection.

Eventually I got fed up of waiting and managed to lodge them at my daughters hse in Ramsgate thinking i might as well try and sell them on Ebay





Imagine my suprise when i gat a call from Ludwig, the new owner of Emblem asking about the engine bits...It turns out he's been very ill and was unabke to reply to my messages.

At last, I pleased to announced the parts will be going to Emblem to keep her running.

Time is catching up

It seems like everthing on board Lady Elgar is giving up the ghost just about the same time it was fitted aboard.

Last week the Loo cassettes finally had enough, and yesterday the washing machine decided it no longer had the energy to run a spin cycle.

On top of that, the grill on the oven no longer wishes to grill and one ring on the gas hob has decided it no longer wishes to remain lit.


Anything else?....oh yes.....the water pump is playing up.

Not to be down hearted we decided the gas oven and hob can keep us going till next year, the water pump is still just about working so we've ordered a new one as standby incase this one finally sighs its last breath. The washing machine however has had to be replaced.

We went to currys in Slough and chose a rather nice silver dryer model within our budget which had, written on the label......"last one instock...take home today"

The lady who came to our assistance informed us, we could have it delivered tomorrow (thursday) and take advantage of free delivery which also ends tomorrow, so we said....."oh yes me old hearties"

She then handed us over to her assistant who promptly made a complete hash of the whole affair. He told us it couldntbe delivered till next week....not a big problem....but when we asked..."how about if we take it now" he said "there isnt any in stock"....i took him and showed him the label on the machine we wanted and he said" that shouldnt be on there"....yet his collegue said it was in stock and we could take it today if we didnt like the delivery date!

We eventually agreed on a date next week and he swiped our debit card and then told us it needed authorising....after several attempts at getting through to the authorising phone number he then told us our card had been declined!!!!!!
It was our boat account and we had over £1000 in CREDIT!!

He then tried to tempt us to pay with a credit card but we pooh poohed his suggestions and we high tailed it to the bank and told them the story.....the bank clerk informed us there wa nothing wrong with the card and our account was healthy.

We then decided to return home and order our choice on the internet...I typed in our post code and model number and was informed that we could order our selected machine for collection at either the Slough branch or the West Drayton branch.

Not wishing to deal with Slough anymore.....having been told by them it wasnt available......i clicked on the West Drayton branch and the message came up that it would be ready for collection in 1 HOUR!!!!!

I then spent the next hour disconecting the old machine and sure enough...we went to the West Drayton branch and collected the reserved washing machine.....we use the same account card and it cleared without any request for authorisation at all.

7PM saw the new washer installed and going through its first wash with a minimum of fuss....I must admit however, If it hadnt been for a kind chap offering his help at the boatyard to lift the damn thing, It would still be sitting in the car even now...cant expect Laura to do lifting things.

So, what was the final thing to go wrong?
The bathroom light fitting gave in......is it because everything was fitted at the same time?......who knows....is it because Lady Elgar knows peanut is on the way and she want to have everything working prior to his/her arrival?

As you mayve guessed, my work in the back cabin has come to a stop due to all the other things suddenly needing attention, except that is for the Boatmans stove which is now sitting in the shed waiting for our neighbour simon to take possession

Pennies from Heaven

Aint t grand when you suddenly have a crisis, and you have to fork out for something which doesn't fit into your budget. Then, all of a sudden you remember 'Piggy' sitting on the shelf which, for the last few months has swallowed all your £2 coins.

On counting 'Piggies' contents this morning we found we had enough to replace the 'Elsan' porta loo plus spare cassette and a new water pump.

The 'Elsan' cassette's have a large handle at the front which one pulls out in order to dump the deposit into the holding tank.

We had in total 3 of these cassettes on board Lady Elgar which mustve been about 15 years old. well, the last one finally gave up the ghost yesterday when the handle finally sheared off.

Piggy to the rescue and a quick visit to Denham Marina, coz Highline and Uxbridge are closed on mondays, and we are now the proud owners of a Thetford465 plus spare cassette.

The water pump....well....its been getting slower and slower so tomorrow i will pop into Highline and order a new pump, again courtesy of piggy.

I like Piggy Banks :)

Its still winter

Time has just flown by since I last posted.

Below is a pic of the sofa/futon/bed we had in the saloon.




We now have so much more space ready for Peanut and the Stove has once again become a feature of the room rather than just a heat source




I have to confess my time on the PC has been taken up playing an old game of mine that i recently upgraded. Its a WW2 submarine simulation called Silent Hunter 3.....very addictive and time consuming.

So to combat the time spent in front of the PC we took a trip to Reading over the weekend and visited the Hobby supermarket.

I bought some Hessian sheets and a Rag Rugger with the intention of making a Rag Rug or two. I delved into my wardrobe and removed all clothing that I hadnt used for over a year ready for cutting into strips for the rug.


Laura decided she would try her hand at Latch Hook crochet and cross stitching,

Here is her Latch Hook masterpiece so far




After several hours work she has completed half of her picture. She has, thoughout those several hours had a go at me requesting to see how my rug is coming along.....Alas, those several hours have been spent cutting and stripping clothes ready for the big rag rug event....ps...the co-op cloth bags that you have to buy these days instead of plastic carrier bags make ideal rag bags to keep your strips of cloth in.

Rear cabin has now been measured and my plan is forming for converting it into our master bedroom. Work is due to commence at the end of this month.

Peanut's next scan is 23rd Feb. That will be the 20 week scan.

Current size is a small Grapefruit