Home again

 It was a short trip. Drive up on 23rd, drive back on Christmas day.  

We were worried about Meg travelling but, once again, she amazed us.  She had been drooling on short trips over less than a nile, so a round trip of 720 miles was a bit worrying. But after a little nursing from Linda, she then found here own space in a little area behind the passenger seat - and she slept. As the trip progressed she moved out and finally was happy to sleep in her bed, on the floor, or on a sofa.  No drooling, and full of beans when we stopped.  She is an amazing dog.

Once in Ribchester we paid no attention to social distancing within the family but avoided other people like the plague (rather apt?).  We had filled up in Cornwall (tier 1)  at a card only pump, before we left. We can do the 360 miles on 3/4 of a tank so we  had to fill up again in Lancashire (Tier 3), in order to get home again but this involved going into the garage to pay.  Mask was worn, hands were washed and cards disinfected. 

We let the family know we had arrived and, lo and behold, beer was delivered by Linda's grandson. Then we all sat in the van eating pizza and drinking coffee, beer and some weird Aloe vera drink.

It was cold on the first night. Outside temperature below zero and there was ice on the puddles in the morning.  We were a bit cold in bed because we were to lazy to get up and sort out the extra bed coverings. 

On Christmas Eve morning we skyped with my son who lives in Melbourne, but was spending time with his in-laws (wonderful folk) in Batemans Bay NSW.  We compared the difference of how Australia has dealt with Covid and the UK shambles.

We spend a great Christmas Eve with the Linda's daughter and the grand kids. And our dog Meg met Rhona for the first time.  Meg is a 5 month old Border  Collie, Rhona is a three year old Spaniel and quite assertive. Although Meg never backed down, a hierarchy was established with Rhona higher up than Meg.  Then they got on well and played and ran about together on a walk, so that at the end of the day they were both knackered.  The next time they meet, Meg will be fully grown so it will be interesting to see if the relationship changes.

We put extra covers on the bed at night and left the heater on low, so we we nice and warm that night.

On Christmas day morning we went to the house to open Christmas presents and we stayed till around 12:30 then we headed back to the van, got it ready and set off on the 360 miles back home. An easy drive. The roads were very quiet, and there was no rain. We stopped twice on the way for an hour each time making coffee and having snacks in the van each time.  On the first stop we talked with my daughter in Scotland by phone.  We wanted to visit but Scotland is in lockdown and the boarder is closed. 

The journey took 8.5 hours including stops.

The Frozen North and technology

So we drove from Wadebridge in Cornwall to Ribchester in Lancashire yesterday.  This was a journey covering about 360 miles, and a temperature drop of around twelve degrees.  We had a little light rain, but most of the journey was in torrential rain.  However taking it easy at 60mph max and stopping for an hour every two hours made it quite easy. 

Today’s technology is amazing.
I have a fairly cheap phone - a Moto G5.  Before the journey I used the packing list stored on the phone to check off all items for packing.
On the journey I used it to navigate using Google Maps, and also listen to the radio via the GPS signal which is far more reliable than either DAB or FM or any other signals. We listen via the vans sound system by coupling via Bluetooth.   Also we could listen to radio Cornwall anywhere we like. Indeed I have listened to Radio Cornwall while driving over a mountain range in the Andes in Peru.  We also listened to a selection of DJ Linda's music from her iphone via Bluetooth.

On the stops on the way and after arrival I used the hotspot on the phone to connect my old Lenovo Thinkpad to the internet to catch up on what a dog's breakfast Boris is making of the Covid situation (744 deaths today and still rising), and Brexit (about to sell the fisherman short after pretending he was never going to do it all along). I also read my emails.

When we arrived I used it as a torch to read the instructions on the parking meter.

Then this morning I Skyped for an hour and a half with my son in Australia.

All of this on a phone that cost me around £150. (Although my phone and wifi bills for the lifetime of the phone will completely swamp this amount). We take this all for granted.  If I could go back in time and try to tell my Dad about this he would not have believed me.  This has all came about in the last thirty years or so. I wonder what the next thirty has in store.

 

Outlaws

 We are getting ready to take the van (actually its a small motorhome) up North to see family.  The journey is a one strongly advised against by the government.

But we will drive the 350 miles, tomorrow, spend the night isolating in the van, see the family for socially distanced walks on Christmas Eve, see them indoors in the bubble on Christmas morning then head off for the 350 miles back home, arriving back in Cornwall late Christmas day.

We had planned to go earlier, travel to see more family in Scotland, then travel back on 27th. But Boris changed the rules in England and Nicola shut the borders in Scotland. 

So, as I see it we are ignoring government advice and guidelines but not breaking and rules.

The new mutant virus (the world sounds like a bad SF film just now) sounds very dangerous.  The official line is that it is more contageous than the original but no more dangerous if you are unfortunate enough to catch it.
I'm not sure I believe this. See here.

Incidences in the postcode where we live are less than 3 cases within three miles. The area we are going to has 8 cases and 136 per 100,000 population. So we need to be careful, but the chances of meeting someone with the virus is only 0.136%. 

A Weighty Issue

 I want to fit a scooter rack to my Autosleeper Nuevo.  I did the calculations based on the details in the manual and decided there would not be a problem with overloading. But most folk advise getting the van weighed at a public weighbridge.

So I went to a public weighbridge - Kernow Grain Services at Lanivet.
They measured the weight of the van with me my wife and the dog in it, and not a lot else as 3380kg.  According to the manual the Mass in Running Order (MRO) is 2780kg. That includes the essential habitation equipment and the driver.  Other bits and pieces, (including the wife) may total arround 100kg so that would be around 2880kg.  The weighbridge disagreed by 500kg!

The rear axle weight was measured as 1860kg. The manual says 1472. Add around 50kg for bits and pieces and that would be 1520 - so disagreement is 338kg.

They did not measure the front - but derived that from total - rear to give 1520kg or a disagreement of 162kg

I find it difficult to believe that the van is 500 kg heavier than the book weight - that is five motor scooters  Three and a half on the back and one and a half on the front. The general opinion on the Autosleepers Owners forum is that the manual is pretty correct.

Time to try another weighbridge.

Obsessions and time wasters

 I have almost always had a motorcycle.  (The "a" singular is relevant here) .There was a gap of about 12 years when I had two motorcycles but both off road. One was a Honda Deauville and the other a BMW R65LS. 

I finally got around getting them operational again.  The BMW fired up with a jump start from a car battery. The Honda didn't.  It took a couple of days to get it started, most of which was removing body work. I decided to sell it and stick with the BMW.

But the BMW was very rusty having stood for a long time in a damp garage. So I decided to restore it.  I estimated it would take me 1-2 years so I decided to get another bike to keep me going in the meantime. I bought a Royal Enfield Bullet.

Finally I got the BMW operational and had TWO working bikes!  For some reason that escapes me I dropped into the mindset that two bikes was normal!

I worried about the reliability of the Bullet and ended up trading it in for a Royal Enfield Himalayan. After a few months I could see that for the type of riding I do, I had two bikes that just did the same thing, and I preferred the old BMW.

I was still in a two bike mindset though so I swapped the 450cc all terrain Himalayan for a 110 Suzuki Address scooter.

The scooter was a revelation.  It is very light with a low seat and so easy to get out of the garage.  Weather protection is much better than a naked bike like the BMW.  In fact the BM has hardly been ridden since I got the Suzuki. But if I need to go on a longer ride with a bit more top speed and hill climbing capability it is still here.

I would prefer just to have one motorcycle but my ideal is simply not made.  It would be a scooter - air cooled for simplicity and easy maintenance, be super-reliable, weigh under 130kg have a seat height of under 770mm and have at least 30bhp.   

Nothing fits the bill, BUT I KEEP LOOKING AND IT'S A WASTE OF TIME. So I am writing this post to help free me from the obsession of scrutinising ebay, gumtree, etc for the ideal bike.

I will see how much I use the BMW over the next year.  I have a touch of arthritis in my right leg so, although it’s OK now, it may become problematic in the future. So:-
if I actually have a need for a more pokey machine over the next year and
if the BM becomes difficult to ride
Then I will look at something like a Suzuki Burgman or Yamaha Majesty. But I will still keep the Address.

Saturday night fever!

 We went out for a drink last night to "The Ringers" in St Issy.  A blackboard outside said we had to phone ahead to get in for a drink!! Sod that for a lark.

So we went to the Pickwick inn at Little Petherick.  It was open but we were the only customers in the bar, although the restaurant sounded full. We had one drink each - a mediochre pint of Guinness and a lemonade and two packets of crisps, then came home for Whisky, Baileys's and Chocolates.

It's a shame - lasr week we went to the Gin House, then the Molesworth in Wadebridge, both were welcoming, and few folk in.  The Gin cocktails were great the Guinness in the Molesworth was really good.

Lesson learned - drinks in Wadebridge - maybe go further afield for meals.

A couple of Rants

Warning – Technology Rant

I Skype with my son in Melbourne every other Thursday at 9:30am my time, 8:30pm his time.  This morning I switched on my windows 10 laptop (an old HP Elitebook 2540p) at 08:40.  I always go this process early so that it gives Windows and Skype time to sort them selves out.

The computer was obviously running very slowly but gave no indication as to why. After 25 minutes I decided to restart.  It took around 5 minutes to shut down and on restarting informed me it was reconfiguring my computer.  10 minutes later and it told me it was finished.  Except that the Task manager shows the hard drive still running at 100%.

So finally on hour after initial switch on the hard drive activity went down and my computer was ready to do some work for me instead of Bill Gates.

I am typing this on my Lenovo X200s running Windows 7 with the updates disabled and no anti-virus.  I have run it like this for years with no problems.  I finally updated to the latest version and installed all the updates just before the end on Windows 7 support, then switched off the updates again.  Every month or so I run msert to check, but it has never detected any problems.

I only bought the HP because the banks decided that Windows 7 wasn’t safe for on-line banking and I was worried they’d use this as an excuse if they lose my money. I use the Lenovo for everything except banking and Skyping (it doesn’t have a camera)

If guess if Microsoft ever came out with a bug free operating system, immune from attacks, everyone would buy it, and then never buy another system, and Microsoft engineers would be out of a job.  I’ve “sort of” done this with Windows 7 but quite a few newer programs are incompatible with older versions of Windows.  SO this keeps the whole software industry powering along.

End of Technology Rant

Update - I moved to a MacBook

---

Warning Political Rant

The above reminds me of the SNP leadership!!  If Scotland were to ever get independence then the SNP would no longer be required as an independence party as they would have to fight elections on an equal footing.  This is why Nicola Sturgeon will stall any moves toward independence and ruthlessly put down anyone who may be a threat to her and her husband’s dominance.

End of Political Rant

Update 9/4/2024 - Four years on, Sturgeon gone, but still the SNP will not move to independence - different leader, same reason.

A bit of a gap

My last post was 13 years ago!  In my first post I said

One of two things will happen now. I'll either drop into a habit of writing here or, more probably, my very low boredom threshold will rear it's head (and say stop mixing your metaphores) and I'll make a few entries and forget it.

Time will tell.

Well time has told! 

I really did forget it.  A few days ago I thought I'd have a try at a blog and tried to register the name "Aethelric" on blogger but as told it was not available.  So I checked out the blog - and it was mine!  It took me a while to get back in but here I am.  Quite a lot has happened in the last 13 years.

• My wife Pat died
• I retired
• My daughter got married 
• I took up my old guitar and harmonica, sang in public for the first time in my life and and started performing with my friend Hugh Price as a blues due called "Greyhound 61"
• I moved from Scotland to Cornwall
• My son emigrated to Australia and married his girlfriend
• I got married to Linda.
• We formed an acoustic duo and perform as "Tin Taxi"
• My dog Bruno died.
• I bought a camper van (Mazda Bongo) and traded it in for my current van, an Autosleeper Nuevo.
• We travel around the country visiting and performing at folk festivals.
• I sold my Honda Deauville, restored my BMW R65LS, bought and sold a Royal Enfield Bullet, bought and sold a Royal Enfield Himalayan, bought a Suzuki Address 110 scooter.
• We have been isolating due to Covid 19
• We have a new dog, Meg

Will I be a more consistent blogger now?
Time will tell (anyway at least now I know how to spell metaphors!)