Complete toe-rags!

Well, my father phoned this morning to tell me that at about 11.00pm last night his camper van was stolen. It is an extremely distinct vehicle as seen in the picture above having been custom designed and built by him to the exact specifications necessary to accommodate my disabled mother when she was still alive.

The latest news is that a neighbour saw 3 gentlemen standing in the driveway looking at it at about 10.30 that evening. They were described as being of ‘Eastern European’ appearance. We are now hoping that a Polish immigrant family have found themselves a nice home to live in and are too stupid to know just how distinct the vehicle is – that is the only way we are likely to ever see it again. Bang goes our walking holidays in May now!

The wind had calmed down all day but I’m now sitting here being rocked about yet again with the wind banging and flapping my cratch covers. Martin Plant from the Ashby Canal Centre, came and fitted my new alternator today and serviced the engine for me. It’s now good to push out 30 amps on tickover and up to 69 amps at 1400 RPM. I think I should be able to charge the batteries now each night in under an hour which will save me a fortune in diesel. I had to put the 30litre emergency supply of diesel in the tank this evening and just as well too, as the level only came up to about an inch on the dipstick. I will need to make a few car trips to Rose Narrowboats tomorrow to fill her up again and get some coal given that the next weeks forecast is getting a lot colder.

Any ideas – my laptop has now slowed down to such a rate that every sentence I type takes about 10 seconds before it all appears. All the scans and anti-virus tells me there is nothing wrong and yet programmes keep crashing left right and centre as they simply can’t cope with the most simple of requests!