A sudden chill in the air

A sudden chill in the air

April 2017

Last minute setback are not what one wants at this stage in the game.

Life sometimes feels a bit like a game of snakes and ladders. One moment you are sipping up when good fortune shows you its smiling face and then, as sure as eggs is eggs, a nasty snake comes along and down you go!

In the lead in to our departure we have encountered a couple of snakes:

1. I was investigating a strange mechanical noise when in forward gear and discovered that one of the studs in the flexible coupling had worked itself loose and was trying to cut its way into the back of our gearbox. I had noticed that the stud protruded a bit more than the rest ever since it was fitted 18 months ago, but assumed that the engineers knew what they were doing and left well alone. Big mistake - doubt everything.... 

The good news it that I caught it immediately and before the thread on the stud or the alloy casting was mashed, so I was able to wind it back in and get a good grip with all four nuts.

I guess that's a snake and a ladder really.

2. Our final task was to load the food aboard and part of this process was to fill the fridge. In went the food and I turned it on. But nothing happened, no rumble from the compressor, no gurgle of fluids. This isnt good. I checked that we had power and I wiggled all the connections but like Monty Python's parrot - it was dead, it was no more, its was an ex fridge.

It was 4.30 but a quick call to Midland Chandlers confirmed a 5.30 closing time so off we went. We walked in at 5.01 and walked out at 5.04 with a new Shoreline fridge and £560 less in the account.  Now to my way of thinking that was a snake. Not a humongous one but quite significant. But thats not how Mrs T saw things. She has been chuntering about a new fridge for over three years and with a separate freezer installed we were able to get a unit without an ice box and therefore more room for fridgey stuff.

Well thats it I think - all is set and we set off down the Ganzies tomorrow morning making for an overnight stop at Tividale. 

Hopefully thats all the snakes we will see for a while.