It’s getting harder

A static day in Rugeley with a few jobs to be completed.  It seems strange to be entering Rugeley from the towpath.  We were last here two years ago when wandering around England living in cheap Travelodge rooms whilst attempting to resolve our boat building problem.  When we arrived yesterday there were no vacant 48 hour moorings and we managed to squeeze ourselves onto a stretch of towpath just beyond the 7 day moorings.  By 10.00am this morning we could take our pick of 48 hour moorings.  But we’re settled here.

It was a late start to the day rising at 8.00am and then I sat down to read the 35 pages of the UK visa application.  Why do they need to know my inside trouser leg measurement and my mother’s bra cup size!  No… I’ve never been a member of a terrorist organisation.  No… Jan and I are only related by marriage!  I’d better make a start on filling out all the boxes.

Another outstanding task was the fitting of the 4th chrome cleat on the roof handrail.  The one on the starboard side wasn’t that hard to fit and I wasn’t anticipating any problems with the last cleat.  The location of the cleat was marked with a short length of duct tape and the cleat placed on top so the position of the holes could be marked on the tape.  A small pilot hole was then started with a 2mm HSS bit to create a centre point for the main hole.  Unfortunately the steel in the handrail at this point appears to be unusually hard and I can’t get any of the bits to make much of a dent in the steel.  Oh well… another job that needs to be deferred.

Back in the boat I started experimenting with the Mio Digiwalker PDA we are using to plan and track our cruising route using Paul Balmer’s canal maps.  The PDA has very limited storage capacity (100MB) which doesn’t allow much information (ie, maps) to be loaded.  The Mio has the capacity to take an SD memory card so I’ve installed the maps onto the card (a 4Gb card) but the Mio and Memory-Map didn’t recognise the card!  More thinking required.  I’m finding the canal maps very useful.  They are also more current than our Pearsons Guides.

In the afternoon Jan and I took our daypacks and went to the local Aldi which is only a short walk from the mooring.  We staggered back with full packs on our backs along with both hands full of bags.  The shopping hasn’t been completed and we now need to make a trip to Morrisons, which is fortunately closer.  Back at Waiouru Jan stripped all the packaging from the frozens and re-bagged them.  I then repacked the freezer managing to somehow squeeze everything in.  The freezer actually works far more efficiently when it’s full.  I’ve also been watching the solar panels which are generating sufficient power to maintain the batteries at 100%.  There’s no dot in the sky or terrestrial signal so Jan has settled down to watch the NMT.

YES…. I’ve solved the problem with the Mio PDA not recognising the memory card and I should have realised what the problem was much earlier.  The Mio is OLD technology (what do you expect for £20) and the maximum size memory card it can recognise is 2Gb SD.  The spare card I installed as 4Gb SDHC.  When I fitted the 256Mb SD card from our old digital camera the MIO instantly recognised it and I could install maps to the card.  After some online searching I’ve found the local Argos has 2Gb SD cards at £4 each.  Looks like we have a solution.

Whilst typing this on the laptop I’ve had one eye on the TV.  Are you like me……. starting to get truly annoyed with the use of the word ‘Truly’.  Bloody politicians…..  everything it truly awful, or truly appalling; or truly outstanding.  All of this implies there are some things that are falsely awful, appalling, or outstanding.  At the funeral of the soldier murdered in Woolwich his commanding officer was reported as stating “he was a true regimental character”.  Where are all the false regimental characters! <grump over…….. until the next time>