Oh no...

…not the chairs again! We put in a claim for repayment with PayPal this morning, but then at lunchtime Elanor phoned to say she had been carded by TNT for a delivery from Drive Medical, who are the importers of the chairs in question.

So they'd only tried to deliver them on the wrong day to the wrong address. At least they are with a reputable carrier now; I've asked for a redelivery to the marina on Friday, and am just waiting for confirmation of that. This is the longest drawn out debacle we've ever encountered for an order.

Now, as promised, how to be happy:

1. Do your best – and then accept that your best is always good enough. Don't beat yourself up if things don't turn out perfectly – it's an imperfect world and the universe doesn't owe you a living, so try to take things as they come.
2. Be prepared – if there's something to worry about, some outcome that you are dreading, decide now how you'll cope with it, make a note of that somewhere, so you can say to yourself that you have a plan even if the worst happens.
3. Look wide – there really is research that shows that happier and more optimistic people take in lots more from the world around them. Don't focus down too much, take time to stop and stare; this is not the dress rehearsal, remember, we're none of us coming this way again, so make the most of it.
4. Service – using whatever talents and personal strengths you've got to help others, either on an individual basis or especially as part of a larger group is the most satisfying and self esteem building thing you can do. If you don't think you've got any special strengths, you're not giving yourself credit for what you've got. Try following this link to take a signature strengths questionnaire (you'll need to do a free registration to do it, but don't worry, Penn State University is a reputable organisation!)

And that's it, really. None of us can be happy all the time, of course, but folk who report greater life satisfaction really do show the characteristics above.

Oh, and if those headings seem a bit familiar to my older, male readers, yes, I was a Scout before all this Advance Party malarkey started!

Guess what...

...the chairs didn't come, after we'd sat around waiting all day, yet again. I'm sadly unsurprised, but doesn't it get on your bits when suppliers just plain lie to you?

/XD

We've had Sally with us all day, but after her exhausting weekend, she was very happy to loaf around and kip. After Elanor left us on Sunday, they'd gone to the Chase and had about four hours run around there with her friends.

I'm going to do a post on "how to be happy" soon, but not today! Instead, in order to lighten the mood, I've tracked down the tale of Samuel Foote and The Grand Panjandrum. Foote was an actor, playwright, satirist and impresario in the middle of the 19th century, and he had a bit of a theatrical feud with the then famous actor Charles Macklin. Macklin claimed to be able to recite any text from memory after just one reading, so Foote challenged him to do that with this:

So she went into the garden to cut a cabbage leaf, to make an apple pie; and at the same time a great she-bear coming up the street, pops its head into the shop. 'What ! no soap ?' So he died, and she very imprudently married the barber; and there were present the Picninnies, and the Joblillies, and the Garyulies, and the grand Panjandrum himself, with the little round button at top; and they all fell to playing the game of catch as catch can, till the gunpowder ran out at the heels of their boots.

Gosh, that's better. History does not relate if Macklin managed it, though he's said to have dined out on the story for many years.

Hopefully, I'll be in a better mood tomorrow.

/bye

A productive day

After the jollifications and merry making of yesterday, we've buckled down and got on with stuff today, taking advantage of very pleasant though chilly conditions. First off was a trip to Midland Chandlers to get some engine oil; not the cheapest on the system, but helped firstly by an offer of a free 500g tin of stern tube grease with each 5 litre can of oil, and second by the 7.5% discount we get as Mercia moorers. 10 litres of oil and two tins of grease came to £40.

Indeed, we nearly got the stuff even cheaper, as when we approached the cash desk, the guy looked at our Braidbar fleeces and asked if it was to go onto the Braidbar account. I was tempted for just a moment, but I'm just too moral for that sort of dodge.

Back at the boat, it was still a bit early to run the engine (in order to warm up the oil), so I filled in by changing the Seagull IV water filter. It's been running slower and slower recently, a sign that the cartridge was clogging up. By the time I'd done this, it was nearly ten o'clock, so I made an early coffee for us, and drank it whilst reading the i, the full scale Independent not having been available today.

Once the coffee was gone, the engine had been on for around 25 minutes. I lifted the engine boards, and explored the strategically placed nappies. This identified two more weeping joints in the coolant circuits, in addition to one Peter had found and nipped up the other day. I tweaked them both, and hopefully have sorted the problem; if not, they can have a look at it at Braidbar when we go up in the spring, as it will probably mean remaking the joints with extra jubilee clips.

After that, it was  case of running through the familiar routine of pumping out the oil, changing the filter, refilling with clean oil, a quick further pump to bring the last of the dirty stuff out of the pipework, and start the engine. There's always a tense moment while you wait for the new filter to fill and the oil pressure to come back, but it did, as always, and all was well.

I took a few minutes to tighten up the stern gland a fraction, then dipped the oil. It was halfway between the high and low marks on the dipstick, so I popped another half litre in, which should bring it up to full. I'll check it again before we next run the engine.

It took a little while to clear everything up, but the whole job had taken just over an hour.

After lunch, we took a stroll into the village to get some bread and tomatoes for tomorrow, as we'll be tied to the marina waiting for the chairs to come…

/hmm

Busy Sunday

I wasn't going to do a proper blog today, 'cos it's a bit late, but I don't want to disappoint Chris…

/wahaha

We had a reasonably relaxed start, as the first scheduled event was Elanor and Sally coming over at eleven. I got the paper and some bread, and at coffee time we had toasted sandwiches, as lunch was going to be late. I checked out the stern bilges, changing one or two of the nappies that had soaked up condensation.

Elanor and Sal duly turned up, still very pleased with themselves; Sally was competing yesterday, and out of three rounds had two eliminations, but then got a clear, her very first, on the helter skelter. Typical Dobie; either zilch or goes clear, none of this "five faults" malarkey.

We took her for a celebratory run in the field, and then had a natter with Elanor before she headed off back home to get some Sunday rest.

At one, we joined up with Chris, Lesley, Stephen and Jayne to go down to the Dragon for Sunday lunch. It was generally pretty good, though we had to ask for extra veg, and Les was promised crackling with her pork that didn't appear. Nonetheless, a jolly time all round, and we fell back on Sanity Again for coffee. By now it was mid afternoon, so the time just flowed by, with a load of gossip and tales.

They've just left; it was great to see Chris looking so well after a serious operation last autumn, and we certainly wish the pair of them well for their future in Eleventh Heaven.

I really am going to have to stop there; it's quite hard to be creative after such a great day!

/bye

A bit more winter

It's turned noticeably colder again; the weather is very pleasant with clear, calm, sunny conditions, but definitely a touch chilly. The wind direction has gone right round into the north east, so we are getting our air from the Urals at the moment. We'll have to keep an eye on the toilet tank, as it seems quite possible that we'll have these conditions for a couple of weeks, in which case we may well see some ice forming on the water.

We took a walk down to the village this morning, buying veg and a piece of pork loin to roast, and had a very pleasant stroll round the marina this afternoon. At Sheila's urging (as in "I'll just fetch the Garmin, shall I?"), I checked the distance, which we had been told was a mile round. Indeed, it proved to be a bit more than that, more like 1.1 miles, so it's a worthwhile stroll.

The rest of the day has been spent indoors, pottering around with this and that, very pleasant. Good news is that Chris and Lesley Herriot, whose boat Eleventh Heaven is just finishing at Braidbar, are coming over for lunch tomorrow, so we'll all end up in The Dragon again, it looks like.

It'll need a bit of co-ordinating with Elanor's plan to bring Sally across for a run in the field, but I'm sure we'll manage.

I turned off the shoreline first thing this morning, to check how the new battery bank copes. The answer is, very well. OK, the solar panel was putting a bit in during the middle of the day, but we're still on 90% charge after eight hours. I'm tempted to leave the shoreline off overnight, so as to get a proper charge cycle in tomorrow.

A quiet day, mostly

After the excitements of yesterday, we made a leisurely start this morning, lying in for a bit as we didn't have to be up and about by eight in case the chairs came. The morning was spent doing bits and bobs online, like closing a bank account (we've finally got clear of the toils of Santander), and I rang BW Leeds to ask if the direct debit mandate we had for paying Sanity's licence could be transferred to Sanity Again.

The short answer was "don't know", which wasn't a great surprise, frankly. The knack to dealing with craft licensing at BW is to expect the worst, so as not to be disappointed. We've cancelled the mandate, and now will have to take out a new one, identical to it in every way, so as to pay this year's licence.

Still, it's not as chaotic as my favourite online trader, Cheap Mobility Online, aka Discount Mobility Direct. Not having seen the promised refund, Sheila went into PayPal and raised a dispute to start getting our money back that way. There was swiftly an email from DMD saying that the chairs had been despatched and would be delivered soon.

Huh?

/XD

They said they weren't available yesterday. Back on the phone I went: "can we call you back?"/ "no, that didn't work last time"/" the directors are in a meeting, I will get one to call you".

Right enough, shortly we had a call to say that they had now sourced the chairs and that they definitely would be delivered on Tuesday.

Time will tell; we've left the dispute running in the PayPal resolution centre, and will close it if the chairs do in fact arrive. It would be Tuesday, of course, the least convenient day, but that's not their fault, I guess.

Meanwhile, having been impressed by the folding sack truck we borrowed from Stephen yesterday, we went into Midland Chandlers and bought one for ourselves. We were served by Graham (at least that what the receipt says) who mentioned as we were chatting that he reads this blog. So, hi, Graham,
/hihi
and I've made a note never to refer to Midland Swindlers here again!

/blush

This afternoon, we managed to get in a walk to Stenson Lock just before the heavens opened with hail, rain, sleet and quite possibly snow. It looks like winter's back.

Bad start to a great day

Let's get the grotty stuff over first, as it happened, indeed. Not having been called back by the guy from Cheap Mobility Online yesterday, I rang them this morning. After being kept on hold for ten minutes, I was told "We've been on to the manufacturer, and they say all the latest batch of those chairs had to be recalled because they were damaged in transit". So much for the previous assurance that they'd been despatched a week ago Tuesday.

If that's the best they could think of in ten minutes, I'm not impressed. I've cancelled the order, and we'll go back to the shop in Derby where we first saw them. It means paying more, but hopefully we'll be dealing with a more honest supplier.

Cheap Mobility Online also trades as http://www.discountmobilitydirect.co.uk/ and http://www.discountmobilitydirect.com/; you have been warned! We now wait to see how long it takes them to refund our £410.

Now on to the good stuff. Peter and Susan turned up at half ten, and we had a great day all round, being joined by Stephen and Jayne for coffee. Peter had brought the new batteries, and by twelve had finished swapping them over. He then went off with Stephen, and did some stuff on Dolce before all six of us retired to the Willow Tree for a leisurely lunch, followed by cups of tea on Dolce.

It was, as you might imagine, a very merry meeting, not long finished, and filled with all kinds of gossip. We're pretty tired now, so I won't do much more tonight. At least, as the chairs are no longer coming, we can have a lie in tomorrow!