Living and Learning

 The day started with Mike making a trip to the nearby Household Waste Centre, principally to dispose - eventually - of the small tyre that wrapped itself around our prop on the Slough Arm back last year. he was also persuaded to part with the remains of the shower control bar that we replaced a few weeks back.

Although only a short trip it brought up another problem - the tyre pressure alarm that gave us trouble last week. Just over a fortnight earlier we had to replace a tyre that had completely deflated whist we were at the market. A week later the car lit up a warning. Mike now went straight into Droitwich to Malvern Tyres - we sort of recall using them several years back with good service. They certainly lived up to such a reputation on this occasion. They thoroughly investigate but could not find any problem with the tyre, except to conform that it had lost some pressure. They even said that tyre checks were part of the free offer - we guess that the smiles and friendly service are also thrown in for good measure. Recommended!

Meanwhile, Christine had been cleaning through the boat - we thought that we had left it reasonably clean at the end of the season but after three months lay up it really did need some TLC.

Steve came to let us know that he had sourced a replacement for the part he believes is the problem with the Webasto which it is hoped will arrive some time tomorrow. To get a head start he opted to take out the pump ready for the replacement so that it should be a quicker turn around when putting it back.

After lunch we went into town to do the 'big shop' and, at the same time, charge up the car. There are only a couple of fast chargers in Droitwich that we know about and the more convenient is at Lidl. Alas, when we arrived another car was already using the connector we need. By the time we had picked up a small bag of solid fuel and a few other items from B & M the brought up another problem - the charge point was almost ready. Christine made a start on shopping in Lidl. Only a few minutes later we were hooked up and charging. It was not quite fully charged by the time we returned so we had a short wait in the car. Overall it had taken 58 minutes, from almost half 'empty'

We also need a trip to Morrisons for the remainder of our shopping list. It was just after four by the time we set off back to the marina - followed by a long stint of unloading the goodies and then stowing into various 'secret' hiding places.

Dinner was prepared in good time - fish pie - but just before it was time to serve up, Mike discovered that the gas bottle had run out, probably just after Mike had put the pie in the oven - and needed changing. Service was unusually late tonight!