Friday 15th November
Tuesday we did indeed walk up to Go Outdoors for the Pink and the collapsible water containers. We also got a new caravan step. We already have a set of caravan steps with a smaller one which folds up under the larger one but they are a bit wide and have large rubber feet to stop them sinking into the ground. They don’t fit exactly on the top of the engine cover and sometimes slip off down the side, usually with me on them!
Ken spotted the smaller steps, single ones and double ones, in Go Outdoors and we decided to buy a single one as a multi-purpose step, with a view to getting a double one as well later on. When we start travelling again we can get a double one for me to stand on instead of the one which keeps throwing me off the top of the engine, because it will fit in the space better.
Ken has been using the one we have just bought in the evenings to put his feet up on, thus meaning we could dispense with the broken plastic folding stool with a cushion bungee’d on the top which he was using already! We have also used it out the back instead of the tool box which we were using as a step but which had seen better days and which we got rid of during the clear out on Monday. And we have used it in the front while the usual steps have been in the cratch getting a new coat of varnish.
Varnishing the front steps is one of the useful things I have done this week. I have done them with yacht varnish which takes an age to dry. Ken very kindly tripped up on his way out of the cratch and put his hand straight on them yesterday! Fortunately it was only the first coat. The second coat (applied this morning) should be dry by tomorrow morning and I will be glad to get them back where they are supposed to be rather than having to creep round them in the cratch!
Ken has checked the batteries and fitted the new inverter. We are really pleased with the new inverter because it will run the Sagem digital tv recorder so we can record tv programmes when we are not on land line electric. It will also run the washing machine but I only use that when we are travelling with the generator on so that was not essential. The old inverter is a Quasi Sine Wave and would not run the Sagem, the new one is a Pure Sine Wave one and will. Ken has removed the old one, cleaned it out with compressed air and as it still works we are keeping it just in case we ever need it.
Apart from all this we have had time to check out a few new pubs (be churlish not to) some were good some not so good. The Empire is a nice old local pub with a very pleasant landlord but it is expensive and the beer wasn’t really what we liked. Pity because they show Sky Sports in there so it could have been an alternative to The New Inn for watching football. The New Inn is ok for football but their beer is sometimes a bit suspect. We also went to The Fountain, this is another nice pub, quite old, up an alley way near the cathedral. They had Old Hooky on which is one of our favourites and we had a look at the menu which seemed ok.
We popped our heads in The Chambers, near the Wetherspoon’s, another Sky Sports pub but they only had one real ale on, which we didn’t know, so we gave it a miss. However, as we were later to find out in The Cross Keys it is a pretty appalling beer! The Cross Keys is another pub up an alley way and looks really big from the outside but when you get inside it is like the Tardis in reverse! The bar is tiny and the only beer they had on was the one we discounted at The Chambers. We decided to give it a try this time and wished we hadn’t! It was a very expensive mistake at £3-30 a pint too. Also, the Ladies loo was impossible to get in to! I shouldered the door but it wouldn’t budge, I have no idea why. The woman behind the bar was on the phone (actually she was on the phone or eating most of the time we were in there) so I couldn’t ask her. I hung on until we got back to the boat!
What else have we done? This morning we walked up to Sainsbury’s for a bit of shopping. Oh, and we had to empty the loo on Wednesday. We have to take the cassette to the elsan disposal on Llanthony pontoon which seemed a long way from the basin to Gloucester Quays and over Llanthony Bridge but we discovered when we did it that it took exactly the same amount of time (15 min total there and back) as it did to take it round to the elsan at Mercia so that’s a bonus.
Tomorrow we have even more excitement planned – a visit to a hardware shop up Bristol Rd!
