The truck migrated to Hertfordshire today - should have gone yesterday but only a mile from home the alternator/waterpump belt gave up taking the power steering belt with it - I had intended replacing all belts once at Weston. As luck would have it, Abbey Park Motor Factors on the Belgrave Road in Leicester had the needed items - thanks guys!. Repairs were finished within 3 hours of the problem. I'll be buying a stash of spare belts before we set off!
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The sink and hob went in today. Looks good, but making the cutout in the worksurface was not helped by the drawing provided by the manufacturer. How is anyone supposed to cut a curve with a radius of 2258.4mm?!!!! Next job is to build the drawer units under the sink/hob - I sourced some metal drawer sides yesterday and have designed the unit tonight - just got to cut some wood tomorrow but only if the weather's ok as I don't have a workshop here in Leicester (although I have been know to cut small amounts of wood in the shelter "under the truck"!).
The special "folding sink" in the wetroom is in and plumbed - just need some templates to cut the hole in the sidewall for the loo cassette before the front wall/door can be made and fitted. Still not sure about the design of the door, so I went and had a look around a caravan showroom - it's interesting to see how they're built - but they're so flimsy! The air heater is now all but complete, the water heater is still to be fitted - although I got it fired up a few days ago - it heated a large bowl full of water up to steaming in about 5 minutes and used only a tiny amount of diesel. At 5kw the water heater has lots of spare capacity, so I'm linking it to a small radiator with a fan to blow extra warmth into the living area (I've just noted that it can get "quite" cold in Jordan in winter - as in below freezing - and parts of Turkey aren't going to be too warm either). Only problem is that the unit that I've sourced has a VERY noisy fan - luckily I've got a a spare fan from the bedroom ventilation system that will replace the original noisy unit without too much work....... Phew! Managed to get the non-blurry photos on.
I'm very sorry but the Handsome Devil portrait of Malcolm G in his bow tie has mysteriously disappeared from the camera. You'll just have to wear it again some time, Malcolm! It feels as though a lot has happened in the past week. Barney finished work, and the next day lots of lovely friends came for a goodbye picnic at Watermead Country Park, which is very nearby and where we always go for an evening walk. There's always some interesting wildlife to see there and on this occasion some Great West Terns were spotted doing what they do best. Anyway, enough of the in-jokes. A very relaxing and happy afternoon for me and, I hope, everybody who came along. Photos to be posted shortly.
Barney continues to make mysterious banging, crashing and clanking noises from inside the Mog and it seems to be taking shape inside. He likes to occasionally ask my opinion about how something should be done and then persuade me that his original idea was best really. Bribery with flapjacks can sometimes win the day for me and my view, however. I am getting on with running various errands as usual, making sure we eat, sleep etc, and packing up my possessions. The sitting room is nearly done. Tomorrow I turn 49. "Ridiculous!" I hear you cry! Well, I find it quite amazing myself, since I don't seem to have grown up very much. Marrying Barney doesn't seem to have helped on that score either. Here's to a happy trip ungrowing up (with thanks to Milky Bar for the idea) First day "not working" - instead of doing 130 miles return to Stafford, I built a plenum for the air heater outlet, created an "underfloor heating system for the wetroom and started sorting out the mounting of the toilet. Satisfying to see jobs starting to be picked-off more rapidly than in previous weeks/months.
This is it! Ian finished work today - we nominally have 2 months to get everything sorted out before departure - today we agreed to let the house in Leicester, shortly we'll be moving to Hertfordshire to prepare the house there for letting, finish the truck, get the visas, finalise the paperwork and health etc and go. Can we fit it all in in time?
On my last day at Areva I was presented with an envelope - on opening it later I was taken aback by the amaount of money contributed towards us helping local schools on our travels. We've discussed it tonight & have decided that the best use of this money will be to source basic education material locally and supply it directly rather than giving out money to . This will add to the items that we are taking with us - thanks go to Jason for helping out with the stock! The fresh & grey water tanks arrived today - I'm going to have to remove the door to get the main tank into the truck - but I wanted to modify the door hinge anyway - just another job out of many still to do. |
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July 2013
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