Ice Ice Baby

It was rather chilly this morning!  It got down to -5 last night, this morning the water had turned to ice in the marina and on the canal.

We took the dogs for a walk at noon, it was still -3 !


We had a quick chat with fellow Aussie Toni!

We went for a walk along the towpath, but headed away from Stone into the sticks.

Everything was frozen ... don't know where the spiders hide!

The dogs are well disguised ...

Bombo having a quick shake to warm up!

That's better.

Elaine all wrapped out to keep out the cold.  We bought some really good cold weather gear before we left Oz ... it was well worth it, so far the cold hasn't penetrated our Kathmandu coats.

 

Frosty leaves ...

It was a lovely walk - no one about, just us and the dogs.

 

Sammy having a break!  (If he gets a twig or a piece of grass on his back legs he sits down and won't budge !)

Poor Sammy had 2 coats on and he still shivered ...

Back past the Aston Church ...

When we got back to the boat Sam was straight in front of the fire to thaw out, unfortunately fat- arsed Jaffa had other ideas and sat on him!


It's good getting out and about in the icy conditions.  It's good practice for Klosters next week, they are down to -15 daytime temps!  

Kindle Suprise

As Elaine's birthday is coming up she has been going on and on about getting a bloody Kindle!

So ... whilst enjoying being dragged around Tescos doing the normal boring shopping I was also dragged over to the Kindle viewing area!  As per usual we started looking at the bog standard kindle but ended up buying the GT version called the 'Kindle Fire' ... although you can go one further and buy the Kindle Fire HD.  She is setting it up at the moment so we will have a full report later.

Whilst there I bought a book ... just a book, a good old book.  When you have finished a book it comes in handy for all sorts of things ... it evens out wonky tables, you can make a table leg out of a pile of books, you can hit people with a book and it doesn't leave too much of a bruise, you can shoot people through a book to prevent splatter - plus the added bonus of acting as a  silencer, you can squash large bugs with a book, you can use them for emergency toilet roll and on a narrow boat they are very good for balancing the boat by distributing the books throughout the boat.  Now you can't do any of  that with a bloody kindle, especially the toilet roll! 

 

Lovely Weekend

Friday was a chillaxing day ... so much so that we cannot think what we got up to, until evening time that is when we went to the pub!   Our first stop was the Three Crowns, which is the closest pub to the marina.  Unfortunately there was a rugrats convention going on - there were heaps of the little buggers everywhere - really young ones about 5-7 age group.  There is a Kindergarten next door to the pub, so I reckon Friday is the meeting day of their parents.  I've got nothing against kids - but I just hate kids in pubs!

We didn't stop for a drink, so moved on to The Swan - great pub, no airs and graces, just a pub ... the problem was that most of Stone think the same, so we couldn't get in the door let alone get to the bar it was so crowded!   Next stop was the canal bar in The Star - perfect, nice fire going, few boaty types in there with their dogs, so we had a good chat and a pint in there.

On Saturday we drove over to Elaine's dad's place in Macclesfield, the reason being - apart from paying him a visit  - was to pick up my ski gear that is stored there, not for the UK snow that is forecast but because next Sunday we are off to Klosters for a week...woo bloody hoo!!  Elaine has an Aussie girlfriend that lives there so she is going to have a week catching up with her whilst I ski away on the slopes with Prince Charles and his mates!  I have never skied outside of Australia so am really looking forward to the experience.

Which brings us to today - Sunday.  We were up at second light - 10am!   Elaine cleaned up the boat whilst I washed the car ... first wash since we had it (3 months)!   It's fun cleaning the car when the temp is 0 degrees!

The temp hovered around the 0 mark all day so this afternoon we rugged up and took the dogs up the downs!

It was even colder up there which was good as the mud had frozen!

It is such a lovely walking area used by walkers, dogs, pushbike riders and horses, something that would never happen in a National park in Oz, because they are all banned except the walkers of course!

The white bits are frost

Nearly at the top

Having a rest with her boys.

 

The pics don't do it justice, it is just magic.

Bombo looking for his stick, he doesn't get the "bring it back" bit tho!

 

Bugger the stick.

 

I will wee on it instead!

 

We are now back on board a very warm and cosy boat with a stew cooking away on top of the fire.  It has just started to snow outside too - just a little bit!!

Life is good :-)

PS:  Elaine here - just had an email from my brother - who went to see if he could see if he could spot Maffi today at Gurnett (near Macclesfield).  He said he didn't get to say hello, so just took some photographic evidence for us instead !

Check Those Morse Controls Guys (Safety Warning)

Yesterday was a  maintenance day, I decided to replace the shift and throttle cables,as they were just a little bit stiff.




Its a pretty straightforward job, remove the control disconnect the cables from both ends and replace with new cables.

What I didn't anticipate was the wear on the brass trunnions that attaches the cable to the control.
They had both worn badly but as you can see from the pic the gearbox one had nearly worn through completely! Oh and I bite my nails!

 

The local chandlery in Stone had a couple of new ones, as you can see the old one wasn't hanging on by much.

If a cable does snap or the trunnion wear right through it generally is just an inconvenience, but if it snaps whilst approaching a lock or jetty and you are in forward gear, as you go into reverse and increase the revs all that happens is that you go faster forward as the gearbox is still in reverse, your instinct tells you that you are not giving enough revs so you give it more, result being you go even faster forward until you hit something to stop you!xIt could also happen in reverse, or if the throttle cable snaps you will have no throttle control.

Our boat is 4 years old and just clocked up around 3500 hours.

Maybe worth checking your Morse controls guys.

Snow!

Whilst at the National Railway Museum in York yesterday I saw an exhibition on how the railways tried to entice passengers during the winter.

The highlight of the exhibition was the showing of a short film called 'Snow', which was shot during the winter of 1963 ... one of the worst winters on record!  I can remember that winter well as we were living in St Albans at the time and I remember walking across the ice in the Verulamium  park.  I googled the film which showed how the railways carried on whilst the rest of the country ground to a halt.

You dont have to be into trains to enjoy it, it also has a nifty little soundtrack, turn up the volume and enjoy!  

You can either click on the picture above or click here to see this short film. 

I took a few pics of  some of the fantastic  posters at the exhibition also ...

All in all a very enjoyable day yesterday - today I have been enjoying the 'engine room' of the boat ... but that is another blog's worth !!

Once a Trainspotter ...

Always a train-spotter!

I put on my best anorak and away I went ... I was off on a grand outing to the National Railway Museum at York.  Elaine didn't want to accompany me on this adventure - can't think why.

It was up at first light (actually before first light !!) at 6.45am!  Elaine dropped me off at Stone railway station where I caught a train to York, stopping at Stoke, Macclesfield, Stockport. Manchester, Stalybridge, Dewsbury, Huddersfield, Leeds and finally York.

It was a lovely trip across the Pennines on the aptly named 'Trans Pennine Express', the fields were white with frost under a clear blue sky.

The museum is right next door to York railway station.

So a few pics with brief descriptions - can't have you falling asleep can we!

Royal Train

Royal Bed in Royal Train

Milk Tanker - I remember these in the 60s !

Mallard, Fastest Steam Train in the World (126 MPH) 

"Green Arrow" which is awaiting overhaul to enable mainline running

Flying Scotsman Undergoing a Major Overhaul

Ditto

60009 Union of South Africa, Certified for Mainline Use 

Cutaway of a full Size Steam Engine

Mallard again - she will never be in steam again as they would have to take away too much of its originality 

Mallard

Evening Star, last steam locomotive built in the UK...1960, withdrawn 1965!  

Inside Japanese bullet train

Japanese Bullet train

Huge Chinese Loco, built in UK 1935

Inside Mallard

City of Truro, running condition

City of Truro

What I liked about this museum is that apart from the static displays of trains and artefacts they had a running fleet of steam and diesel locos plus rolling stock.  I've just got to get a ticket now to go on a steam special - hundreds of anoraks all together........super!

After spending 7 hours looking around the Museum I had a walk around the City of York - unfortunately I didn't have a great deal of time as I had to catch the train back.

From what I did see, it was a fantastic city - we need to go back at a later date to have a good explore.

Finished the day off with a nice pint of beer at pub on the station (The York Tap), 32 beers on tap!!

\I've run out of space on this blog but will post some more pictures soon !