Jan–The Little Aussie Bleeder

The expression “Little Aussie Bleeder” comes from the Australian TV comic persona Norman Gunston who referred to himself as “The Little Aussie Bleeder” which is a play on the expression “Little Aussie Battler”.  Norman was usually seen on his TV show with bits of toilet paper over his face where supposedly he had cut himself shaving.

Having explained the term I must now mention Jan spent the morning cooking the plums we picked late yesterday.

Once cooked all the stones had to be removed by hand

Jan – “The Little Aussie Bleeder”

Of course it is no use having cooked plums if you don’t do anything with them.  The obvious choice is jam but before that could be done Jan needed to empty some of the old jam from a few of the jars.  There is no point in wasting the old jam and she therefore made a steamed pudding in the slow cooker.

What a pity Jan doesn’t like steamed pudding.  Looks like I have it all to myself for the next few days!

Meanwhile Richard arrived today with the front exterior doors.  He had taken them away to a dust free environment where they were given three coats of gloss varnish.  I assisted him to make the window beading and fit the glass panes before he reassembled all the door hardware and hung them for the second time.

The doors fit perfectly and are a tribute to his skill.  The ventilation grills need to be fitted into the lower doors and they still require hooks to hold them open.  Tomorrow I’ll give the doorframe a final light sand and then start applying three coats of gloss varnish.

Richard then went on to fit all the chute bolts on the inside.  My draughty temporary door (last 6 months) is now redundant.  No longer will we shiver in our sleep with the wind whistling through the gaps in the door!

Darren has returned from his weekend painting course which was conducted by Phil Speight.  He is looking at Waiouru with new eyes.  However we have decided not to rub her back to bare metal and start again!   Actually Darren told me he showed Phil some of the photos he had taken of Waiouru and Phil asked him “Why are you here?”

He has reached the stage where there are lots of minor painting tasks.  First it was the stern where the white tunnel band received its first coat of gloss.  Then Darren painted the first red undercoat on the dollies (anchor points for the mooring ropes).

At the bow he gave the lower section its first coat of light grey gloss and then painted the false heads of the rivets on the water hatch hinges.  A first top coat of off-white gloss was applied to the sides of the bow.  We still haven’t decided on the pattern that will go in this area.  Should it be a series of different coloured diamonds or a sole circle?  The final job was to paint red undercoat on the ‘T’ anchor point.

Andy gave me the contact details for the sign writer so we can liaise with him about what we should have on the rear panels.

More painting and joinery tomorrow.