Friday 5th August 11, 7th Day

Our last full day in Mevagissey.

Another lazy day mostly. I didn't go to Heligan as the children didn't want to go, and although Gill wanted to go, she was very achy and anyway, what would we do with the children if we both went?

I had a potential friend to go with, a gardener friend I know off Facebook, but in the end she didn't come... it was a reasonably long way to drive from Totnes, so I understand why she didn't show up.  Things got a bit 'pressure cookery' in the house, as really the boys need structure and something to do, and it all went mental when I tried to do a little video of the house, to show friends what it looks like, and I eventually decided to clear off out for a few hours to let the teen moment pass.  I spent well over an hour in the Mevagissey Museum, on the harbour, and I really loved this.  I chatted to several people there and enjoyed looking at the big stone apple crusher and stone cider press.  It is a lovely museum, with lots of handwritten notes, many with personal anecdotes, something you don't see in big modern museums.  It was a joy to wander around.  But eventually I'd had my fill of nostalgia and thinking about a low carbon, post peak oil future where hand-powered things will re-emerge as the most appropriate way to do some tasks.  These type of museums, with gadgets, gizmos and tools, could be an inspiration to Transitioneers.  For instance, they had a good collection of irons, for pressing clothes, which were heated on the range, in exactly the same way as the flat irons I got for us to use on our stove, which Gill has occasionally used.

I then went to the little beach where I skimmed some stones and practiced some devilstick moves.  I rang Gill and found out that they'd all gone back to the model railway museum, and things had calmed down a bit.  I went back to the cottage and had some peace and quiet before they came back.  It was good to get an apology, I apologised too, and we had a subdued evening.

We got things together for going tomorrow, and later on in the evening, my 5 days of BT FON net access finished.  I've found it really useful to have.

Sunday 31st July 11, Holiday day two

The sofabed was a bit hard but a reasonable night... woke after 10 and had a lovely lazy morning, watching Country Tracks on the telly and playing with the boys.

They all went out as Gill ran out of money on her mobile phone and needed to top up; I spent some time trying to work out how to use Shotwell to organise/manage my photos on my newish operating system, Ubuntu/Linux.  Shotwell is probably the only bit of Ububtu I don't like.

Later I went to the little shop in the centre square and got two tins of baked beans and a tin of sweetcorn, and half a dozen eggs (total cost £3)... so for tea, Gill made eggy bread with beans and sweetcorn for all of us. 

I also got 6 postcards and stamps, and spent a while writing them.

We didn't go out all together today... after tea I went for a walk with our eldest, headed North and looked at the lovely Valerian and the disgusting Hydrangeas, the plentiful snails and found just 7 blackberries.  We ended up back in the village, and got us both an ice cream.

So a lazy laid-back day really.  Nice to not have to DO anything!

I'd taken my laptop with me, primarily to delete emails from my inbox, but I found that I was in a BT FON 'Hot Spot' so I paid £15 for 5 days internet access, so I could get my emails into my Mozilla Thunderbird, send email replies via Tiscali webmail (Thunderbird never allows me to send emails when I'm away from my own WiFi connection) and go on facebook and other webpages. I was really glad of this, as I do like to stay in touch!

Thursday 26th May 11

Oh, up FAR too early for someone who goes to bed so late!!!  However, Gill couldn't face cycling to school this morning as she'd run out of painkillers and was in great pain.  So she woke me at 8 and asked me if I could cycle in and she'd fetch him back this afternoon when I'm at work.

So I took the opportunity to visit a number of cycle shops with the World Naked Bike Ride flyers.  However, before this I asked the school if they'd like me to shred their decorations from the Fair... a large pile of branches and foliage.  They were happy with this and I said I'd bring my shredder in soon.  I put WNBR flyers on some of the adult bikes parked at the Steiner school.  Then I went to Alligator and left some flyers there, then Cycle Heaven who were also happy to have some, then I cycled across town to Bob Trotters and asked about bike hire for the WNBR weekend, and they took some flyers.  Here I switched on my helmet cam to do another test, and cycled up to Heworth to Cycle Street to give them flyers.  Then I went to buy bread and came home.

I had uneventful rides, so I deleted the videos I made, but I'm not sure my bike helmet is the right place for the camera.  I might try to mount it on the handlebars.  I then had a session of removing videos I've downloaded, to make space on my disc for any future videos....

So, lunch, and tried to get on with some paperwork but mainly failed.

I had my next appointment at 4, down at David's, It was with a chap from Yorkshire Water, who came out to listen for water leaks.  There is a little patch of moisture on one wall of his cellar and it might be a mains water leak.  So I showed him the leak and he had a listen to the wall, and then the RSJ beam with a very simple device, a metal stick with a point at one end and an earpiece on the other.  Water leaks have a telltale sound which is transmitted through pipes and other materials.  He described the tiny amount of water on the wall as a 'seep' rather than a leak!

We went on a wander round to look for 'stopcocks' and water meters. These have taps which the listening device can be placed on, and on one, with a water meter, there was a slow continuous passage of water, indicating a leak.  However, it seemed unlikely that the leak attached to this meter was affecting David's property.  After a good thorough look around, the Yorkshire Water chap concluded that the leak/seep was so small, and the source of it so difficult to find, that nothing further could be done.  He suggested that sorting out the other problem might make a difference.  I went back in to tell David the news and rang Brian at the Council about the full sewer/inspection chamber which I think is causing the other water ingress.  Brian asked if he could send some chaps down immediately?  Well, this sounded good, and within half an hour, they arrived.

I showed them the pool of water in the cellar and they said they'd like to check the inspection chamber... but unfortunately it was past 5.30pm and the shop had closed and locked it's yard door.  I spoke to Brian and he said he'd meet me tomorrow at 10am.

I cycled home and had a race with some racing or touring cyclists.  They were just a bit quicker than me.

When I got back, I had a quick peep at the robin's nest in the woodpile, and the eggs have hatched.  How lovely!

I put on my laptop and asked if the WiFi had been switched off.  There was a loud wail from the front room.  Our eldest had been trying to connect his Nintendo DS to the WiFi and been getting an error code.  He looked on the website for Nintendo DS and it suggested switching the WiFi Router settings.  He thought he's try it for a few minutes, to see if the game he wanted to play became accessible.  Unfortunately, this rendered the WiFi unusable... from my laptop too!

I did a bit of compost heap management but at 7.30, Gill rang me on my mobile(!) and said Sue was here, as she'd asked for more dried fruit and I'd said yes to this evening.  So I came in and washed my hands and got a kilo of mixed dried fruit for her.

After tea, my son and I walked round to Ben's, who wasn't there.  We rang Simon, who was busy.  I really needed to go online so I paid £5 to BT Fon to get 24 hours access to the internet.

I had quite a bit to do, but also kept the stove going to try to dry the banana and orange leather (final tray-full)  and did washing up.