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Snow showers getting heavier and more frequent, with a rising wind, and getting colder, but the snow on the ground still not building up. Loo disposal point frozen first thing, but thawed later. Trip out by car in the morning to stay topped up on necessities, then continued work on the website security project.
A day of light snow showers interspersed with bright sunshine - so far, no sign of the forecast blizzards (although I've no doubt they are on the way). Implementation of the changes for web security completed on the 'holiday' section of my site. Anyone looking for backdated information on our holidays between 1979 and 2013 should now use https://holiday.collins-family.me.uk . More work to be done on the other sections.
More bright sunny days, but getting colder. Couple of small jobs cleared, and a run to the local recycling centre with stuff that can't go in the marina bins. Spent the remainder of the time learning about what was needed to do the conversion to https, then started on the work. Monday afternoon prepared for the arrival of the "Beast from the East" as the news channels are calling the big freeze-up that's forecast for the remainder of the week. Couple of very light flurries of snow.
Shopping (including a run to Lichfield Tesco), then working on the maps. Lovely sunny days although cold. Notified by my domain leasing company that they have installed SSL (security) Certificates for all my domains. This will eventually allow me to use https:// (particularly as some browsers will start marking non-https sites as insecure shortly). Unfortunately, that has given me a large amount of work to convert my own sites to run the https protocol. Oh well, keeps me out of mischief!
Dull start to the day, but it quickly got brighter, although remaining generally cloudy. Spent the day clearing up from the engineering work, and got a small start on the maps - decided that if I were to go down the route I expected, I would do some tidying of the lines while I was at it (it would take considerably longer but would be worth it in the end). Call from the garage to say car ready for 16:30, so walked along there to collect. Confirmed that the 'fault' was something covered by the service so no charge apart from diagnosis. Pocket slightly better off than I expected.
A dull day, but at least it was fair. Early rise to get car to garage for repairs, then walked back from Mile Oak. Continued trying to clear the oil in the bilge. Over lunch received call from Peter who said he had the final part and could come this afternoon. Arrived shortly thereafter and we finished the job. Managed to borrow the Vax the marina has (unavailable until now) so completed that job as well. Call from garage brought news that it was not as big a problem as expected and I could have the car back tomorrow (including the service and MoT originally booked for two weeks time). All-in-all a good day!
Peter arrived as planned, but didn't have one part - it is on order and he'll return Friday. With the correct o-ring, everything went together swimmingly so we took "Paws" across to the services berth for fuel and gas, and to give the gearbox a test - no leaks found. Clearing the spilled oil from the bilge (again) caused problems - he eventually left me the pump and went to do another job. By 17:00, there was still oil in there but I called it a day.
Pleasant weekend, with both days giving scattered cloud and little wind. Spent the weekend tidying up the entries for crematoria in our Family History project and improving the functionality of its map. Rain overnight into Monday, which continued into the morning. Call from the engineer to ask for postponement of work until Tuesday due weather - agreed. Rain cleared by mid-morning, but remained damp until mid-afternoon. After a few trials, think I've worked out how to improve the maps without having to learn the programming language (at least, it will tide me over for a few years). Will be introduced as we set off for this year's cruise.
Happy New Year to our Chinese readers. Woke to a beautiful morning, with scattered cloud and little wind. Stayed that way all day. Didn't 'feel' too cold - ideal for outside work. Unfortunately, the actual engineering work didn't go too well. Firstly, he couldn't easily get at the gear selector lever because of the air filter mountings. Then he found it difficult to get the air filter casing off to facilitate that access. Finally at the gearbox, the o-ring didn't want to come out. Then the new one wouldn't go in. After four hours (and phoning a friend), he decided that the supplier had given him the wrong o-ring, so job halted till Monday by which time he would have obtained a replacement. No trip out this weekend, so very disappointed.
Routine chores/cleaning around the boat. Longer walks to get shopping and more often (since no car). Dull and damp through Tuesday and Wednesday. Torrential rain overnight into Thursday, but lovely day thereafter.
Fortunately, I woke to a beautiful day, although I had to sweep the remains of the snow off the counter to allow access to the engine 'ole. The surveyor and engineer turned up spot on time, but the engineer realised he didn't have the correct tool for the job so that was postponed to Friday. The surveyor was happy with everything except, initially, the bowl on the fuel polisher which he said was plastic and therefore not permitted. Subsequent investigations revealed it complied with ISO 10088 and therefore was OK. With a clean bill of health, I had hoped to get out for a few days, but this will now have to wait until after Friday.
A few lazy small flakes of snow on Tuesday but they never came to anything. Wednesday dawned with wall-to-wall sunshine, but with the marina starting to freeze over (-3°C), although it never got far. E-paperwork for others complete, now planning to have a look at the problem with my maps. Very poor internet signal at the moment. On the way back from shopping on Thursday, the car broke down - will be 21st until garage can look at it! Rain returned for Saturday and overnight, but cleared by Sunday breakfast. Spent Sunday getting ready for BSS survey.
New month, but no new weather! Still cold, with strong winds, sun turning to rain on Saturday. Topped up the coal, kindling, and a few stores. Routine duties around the boat. Trip to chandler for a couple of items. Couple of small jobs completed before the weather turned. Remembered that there was to be a closure at Minworth, so nipped up there in the car to see if I could get some photos .
