Shopping in Banbury

We spent the morning shopping in Banbury. Our first stop was B&M as we had heard from another moorer that they were doing large sacks of good logs for a reasonable price. We discovered that they were only £16 each - we paid rather more than this for the sack we brought up from Devizes - we opted for two although stowing them may be a problem! It is highly likely that we will get through most of them before the end of the colder weather. In the summer we rely on the diesel heated radiators to take the edge off a chilly evening.

It is a substantial version of B&M with a much wider range of goods than we have spotted before. As a result we cane away with rather more than just the logs! However, they did not have any dried parsley or sweeteners. We also were on the lookout for milk and bread. More especially, Christine remembered from our last shopping foray here that she had found a good quality shoe shop on the main street. So we parked closer to the town centre and wandered around.

There are plenty of small shops but, alas, it seems that shoe shops, including the remembered one, have fallen alongside Debenhams and Wilko. We only saw a Clarks in the Castle Quay Shopping Centre and a cheap place on its Closing Down Sale! And Clarks do not stock slippers . . . 

In the afternoon, Mike took a short trip to the churchyard in Great Bourton to photograph some more gravestones, whilst Christine sorted out the boxes to go back home tomorrow.

Finding the Serial Number

Our gas hob has been playing up for a while and not staying alight after being lit. Advice seems to agree that it is likely to be the thermocouples that activate the latch that allows the gas to flow after the control knob is released. Sadly this model is no longer produced so tracking down a potential source of new parts took a while. Unfortunately the supplier we did find needed the serial,number in order to select the correct part. We attempted to take photos underneath the hob when we were on board a few weeks ago. This was not easy because a baffle board is fitted just below the hob - required by RCD apparently. It should protect the workings below the hob from damage when taking things in or out of the shelves below.

Sadly when we came to inspect the photos back at home we found that none showed the serial number. We have to remove the baffle sheet to see more of the underside and also to be able to hold the phone camera far enough away to focus properly. The sheet is held by six screws, three either side. Removing these and the sheet can't be that difficult, surely?

Well, nothing on a boat is ever easy, mainly because of the confined spaces. Moreover, it was quickly obvious that these screws had been put in with a power tool as they were reluctant to come out. The two at the front were possible to unscrew but getting enough leverage for the other entailed removing one of the cupboard doors! 

Eventually we had five of them out but the one furthest away n the right just would not come free, However, we did find that with the others out, the sheet could be dropped down far enough for this purpose.

Finally, we did locate the serial number! The arrow on the first photo above shows where it is located. Let's hope that this will suffice to sort out a repair. (The problem with fitting a whole new, but different, hob is that those currently available have square corners whilst the present one has rounded ones) 

Putting everything back was just a little easier - well, we did know what we ere doing by then. nevertheless, this took up almost all morning up to lunch time.

It had been wet overnight and the rain persisted until early afternoon.The sky was overcast and the temperature decidedly on the chilly side of unpleasant! Hence we remained tucked up with the stove stoked up to keep us very comfortable. Only braved the outside (other than retrieving things from the decks) just the once, to empty the elsan.