Fang doctor and the condensation saga

Jan woke to a dark day (because dawn hadn’t arrived) whilst I continued to examine the inside of my eyelids.  All the sheep were there….. I counted twice!  The major activity planned for today was my second visit to the fang doctor.  These days I tend to select my doctor on the size of their hands.  I’ve discovered that as you get older the more someone wants to shove their digits into one of your orifices! 

My new dentist is a very pleasant young lady with small hands.  Her only failing is a very soft voice so this deaf old bugger has to keep asking her to “SPEAK UP”.  She had informed me after her previous exploratory visit down my throat that I had decay under a rear filling which was very close to the nerve.  The plan was to remove the old filling and decay without hitting the nerve.  If the latter occurred it would be a “root canal” job.  Obviously I told her I was done with canals for 2013!  She then told me she was going to give me something which I thought was rather nice.  My mistake, I was thinking of Christmas whilst she had a series of local anaesthetic injections in mind <ouch>.  Her technique was quite interesting.    The chair was tipped so far back my head was below the level of my toes. This made it rather difficult to climb out of the chair if the needle was observed.  She stood over me and reached forward with her left hand clasping my open mouth whilst her right had was held behind her back holding the syringe.  Then she told me the BIG LIE “You will feel a scratch!”  The right hand came around from behind her back in a blur of movement and into my mouth.  Once the needle had penetrated she shook her left hand (which was holding my jaw) and distributed the anaesthetic around the general area.  There was a pregnant silence before I was asked if the anaesthetic had taken effect.  “I’m not falling for that trick!”  It’s happened to me before where the anaesthetic takes effect after departing the surgery.  So I had the extra pleasure of a second series of injections.  Thereafter the drilling and filling went swiftly and painlessly!  I mumbled through booking my next appointment with the receptionist and then drooled over Jan’s coffee in the ASDA cafe. 

We had walked into Rugby but decided to take the No140 bus back.  This is the same bus that declined to accept our bus pass on our previous attempt.  This time the electronic reader still failed to accept the card but the driver then physically examined both passes and manually printed us tickets.  It appears my query to the bus company has worked.

Jan was walking down the marina footpath to Waiouru when she noticed a couple standing by the stern.  It was the couple we had given our surplus captains swivel recliner chair to.  We didn’t have room for it, and if they hadn’t accepted it, the chair would have gone in the rubbish skip.  They had very kindly brought us a couple of bottles of fermented grape juice!  I mumbled and drooled my thanks!  Jan then had lunch whilst I watched and smelt!  Madam Fang had already warned me not to eat or drink anything until the anaesthetic wore off otherwise I might munch on my tongue or cheek!

I’ve been thinking about the condensation in Waiouru.  I’d already ordered the bit & pieces to solve the condensation in the bedroom cupboard.  We also want to do something about the Houdini hatches.  We recognise the only way to eliminate the condensation is to either somehow vent it to the exterior or capture it with a dehumidifier.  So stopping any condensation forming on the inside of the three Houdini hatches will only prevent the condensation dripping from the hatches.  The condensation will still be inside Waiouru and will form elsewhere.  I’ve seen other boaters fit an exterior cover to their Houdini hatches.  I want to avoid this as it seems an expensive option and probably won’t eliminate all the condensation forming on the inside of the Houdini frame.  The strategy I have adopted is to cut some 50mm dense rubber foam into 500x500mm squares using the bread knife <when Jan wasn’t watching>.

I checked the price of foam online but in the end we found it was actually cheaper to purchase the squares from Dunelm Mill.

Before the foam goes over the Houdini frame it looks like this

The internal dimensions of the frame are 490x490mm so the 500x500mm foam square fits snuggly.  We then pull the blackout screen across concealing the foam.

The foam doesn’t form a 100% effective heat barrier.  If we continue to get condensation on the frame I might try wrapping the foam swab in some aluminium cooking foil to improve the insulation barrier.