A WAITING GAME.

 

What can I say! that’s just what the last few days have been about, waiting for Darren to come out and hopefully tell us what’s wrong.

But for me it’s also been quite a stressful time, as my debit card stopped working, and I didn’t know why.

Lets go back to Friday, we didn’t do a lot, but on Saturday we decided to have a walk round the shops in the afternoon, I picked up some lovely lamb shanks from a great butchers called F Pepperdine and Son, only a short walk from the boat.

https://www.cornhillquarter.co.uk/shop/pepperdine-butchers/

I got some money out of a ATM (good thing I did), we walked round the little market before heading up the hill to the Cardinals Hat. I paid for the first round by tapping my card as you do, but when I gave it to the Captain to pay for another, he came back and said it asked for my pin number, and he doesn’t know it so he paid. Then I tried it at Tesco to buy a bottle of wine and it came up with a very strange message ‘unsupported card not accepted’

Very strange. So the Captain paid again.

I wasn’t too worried at this point, just assumed it was a problem with Tesco’s card machine.

Next day and we decided to climb Steep Hill, and visit the castle and cathedral. Steep Hill as the name suggests is very steep, but we seemed to make it to the top with ease. We did stop off at the Captain favourite shop in Lincoln, J Birkett, an electrical equipment supplier, basically a shop full of old aircraft dials and parts. It was open, which I think is a first for us, so we had to have a mooch round.

https://www.visitlincoln.com/listing/j-birkett/96973101/

What it says on the tin

At the top there was a small flea market going on, but we couldn’t get into the castle as there was some sort of an event going on. We did find the oldest Roman arch which traffic can still drive through called Newport Arch.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newport_Arch

Newport Arch

We walked round the cathedral and were able to see the resident peregrine falcons and their chicks. The RSBP had 2 viewing points set up with scopes that you could look through, and very helpful volunteers to answer your questions. We did managed to see the chicks which were exercising their wings in preparation for fledging. The adults were more elusive.

https://lincolncathedral.com/peregrines/

It was an enjoyable walk round, and to make it better we found an Organ Grinder micro pub belonging to Blue Monkey Brewery. The Captain was very happy to find Cinder Toffee Stout, and Chocolate Coconut Mild on. He had a pint of each. And then we walked back down Steep Hill and straight into the Cardinals Hat.

There was a HSBC on the way back to the boat, so I decided to try my card in the ATM, as this is the bank I am with. But it didn’t even let me put my pin in, just came up with ‘card not recognised unable to proceed’. Now I was worried.

So I was up early next morning and headed straight to the bank. They were so helpful, and soon put my mind at ease, there was nothing wrong with my account, but it appeared for some unknown reason my card had stopped working. So they ordered me a new one Now this is one of the drawbacks of living on a boat, all our important post goes to my sisters address back in Derbyshire, and then we pick it up when we see her. So I don’t know when I will actually get my new card. I will just have to use cash for a while. The lady at the bank did say to keep trying my card, but I am pretty sure its a lost cause.

Monday was a wet day so we did nothing.

Tuesday was busy, we desperately needed to do a big shop, so a plan was formed to head to Lidl on Dixon Street, it was a bus ride away, and a Uber back. But we got everything we needed. The second job of the day was to fill with water, get rid of rubbish and pump out the toilet. Doing all this would mean if Darren had to dismantle the engine, we would be ok for water for a week and 2 weeks for the toilet, which gave us peace of mind.

Darren turned up promptly on Wednesday morning, and after testing the engine he could see there was a problem, but was unsure of exactly what it was, so it was decided it had to come apart and be fixed to be completely sure that the issue was solved.

When he took the head off we could see there was a problem with the head gasket, some parts of it had rusted, which meant it wasn’t sealing completely. This allowed exhaust gases to escape into the water, which over pressurised the system. He took everything away, so now we were without an engine.

Thursday was very wet, which was a shame, as there was a parade celebrating RAF Waddington being given the freedom of the city. We would have loved to go, but it was to wet. The Red Arrows were meant to do a flypast, but this was also cancelled due to the weather.

It did eventually dry up and we took a walk to the pub, it was busy. We had just got our second pint when a family of 3 asked if they could sit with us. We got chatting, they were on their way to see the band OMD at the castle, this is what we had seen being set up on Sunday. We had a lovely time talking to them, we even had a third pint. I don’t know if I could go to one of these concerts as it is standing only, your not allowed to take chairs in, drinks or food. Standing for a couple of hours does not sound fun to me. And after all the rain you couldn’t really sit on the ground either. But I bet OMD were great.

The weather seemed to be picking up over the next few days, which was good news, and as we walked back to the boat, we saw a poster advertising free recitals at St Swithins church the following day, so we decided to give it a try. We went to the organ recital, and it was ok, the compositions maybe not really our style of organ music, but it was interesting to hear the stories behind the music and who composed them.

It did take our minds off the fact we had not heard anything from Darren, even though we had been promised an estimate and update before the weekend.

Saturday was very quiet and we didn’t go anywhere, a day off from the pub as well, strange for us I know.

Sunday and I was going stir crazy. As it was a nice day we decided to tackle Steep Hill again and head to the Museum of Lincolnshire life. After a steady walk up the big hill we found yet another concert at the castle, this time McFly, one of my favourite bands. It was about 2.30pm and people were already queuing, even though the concert didn’t start until 6pm.

We found the museum, which is free to get in, and spent a very happy couple of hours looking round. They had 2 traction engines on display among their collection. For those of you that don,t know, I love traction engines. Silvie was a small tractor unit used to run threshing machines on farms until the 1940’s. John was a large Fowler engine used for ploughing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Lincolnshire_Life

Lincolnshire had many companies producing engines, including Clayton and Shuttleworth, and Ruston and Hornsby. We are actually moored opposite the Clayton and Shuttleworth works at Stamp End.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clayton_%26_Shuttleworth

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruston_%26_Hornsby

Sylvie and the Threshing Machine

We called and had a pint in the Organ Grinder, walked down the hill and into the Cardinals Hat, just for one and then home for tea.