I am stuck in the house that Jack built! No, I mustn't undermine Jack, it's worse than that. We are camping in premises, (belonging to a cousin who is away for many weeks of the year) that has no hot water and a central heating boiler waiting to be be a breakdown for at least five years. That's when all regular boiler servicing stopped, about five years ago.

The heating technician was called out last weekend but could not resolve the problem because a dresser unit, of sizeable proportions, was built over and around the boiler. We were lucky in getting assistance from a tradesman at the beginning of the week to dismantle the fixture. The first thing we saw when the work surface was able to be removed, was a big red sign on top of the boiler warning that no work surface should obstruct the boiler and MUST BE REMOVABLE! Whoever built the '@xxxxx@' thing must have seen that warning. the owner of the property also knew the problem was one in the making and guess who got landed with it...

With winter approaching, we cannot leave the job undone, so we have had to re-organise our arrangements so that the technician can return to complete the job and get the boiler fired up again.

Meantime, we are boiling kettles and washing down to the impossible and up to the impossible; anything that can't be reached, remains impossible!!

From the desktop of a Monty Python original:

http://dingo.care-mail.com/cards/flash/5409/galaxy.swf">

My next blog contribution will be in early October; travelling to England again, then a short stop in Edinburgh and The Kingdom of Fife.

We were out for a leisurely sail yesterday, (Sunday 10th September 06). There was a slight under swell, what was left of the high tides, the conditions were good and the sun and sky were glorious. We're used to seeing buoys of all sizes and bright colours bobbing around the sea but we weren't quite expecting what we saw next. A large bright large orange blob was seen on the horizon. Very quickly, a lifeboat came into view. We knew it was a lifeboat, as it had bright orange upper deck housing and a very distinctive outline.

As it drew nearer we could see it was the local lifeboat and there was a boat in tow behind it. The boat, one that we knew, was regularly hired out for sea angling and had got into trouble with 'paying guests' on board. It's engine had suddenly belched smoke, was considered unsafe and the skipper had radioed for assistance. The guests and non-essential crew were transferred to the lifeboat where we saw them as they sped past.

We followed at a respectful distance watching the remainder of the rescue process, and as the boat was brought alongside the lifeboat to be brought safely into port. At the harbourside, there were coastguards and two fire tenders in case of need. Fortunately, no-one was hurt, any problems on board the stricken vessel had been brought under control and the additional emergency services were able to stand down.

It's sod's law! I have been trying to work out how to backup 'My Documents' for sometime,  using Microsofts' own Backup utility.  It worked fine when I first set up my computer but, as time progressed so my filing increased. 

My eureka moment came tonight after sorting out another computer in the household, when I discovered that naming an external drive (e.g.IBM) for placing  backups, as well as giving labels for the backup to go to, such as, A drive, B drive or C drive, etc., overcame the the problem I had of transferring  a backup folder from the PC.  The other computer, a laptop, is doing nicely and the backup is going where it should.

The answer is simple; my system is formatted with a file allocation  table 32, (FAT for short), later systems probably have FAT 64.  It is meant to be a more efficient system for storing information. The relevant section of the message from the bowels of the computer tells me "...If the disk is formatted with FAT 32, the maximum possible size for the backup file is limited to 4GB."  Now isn't that just so useful to know, especially when my disk space is more than ample and my data amounts to something rather larger, not a lot, but sufficiently larger to sabotage all my efforts to do a backup! 

We are constantly exhorted to backup; I do it regularly by various means I admit, but only because I have never succeeded since the early days, (when there was little on my system) , in doing a system back up which would save all my settings etc with the utility provided. 

How useless in this day and age with video editing, gaming, and digital pictures is this silly limit. I can't back 'My Documents' folders and there's no chance I could ever backup my programmes, it's just as well I don't want to. 

We have two opticians in the county.  There is a wait of several weeks for appointments, whichever optician you use.The one closest to home is very up-to-date with optical testing equipment.  An eye test is like a session in a fairground, playing eyeball games while peering into machines. I have had computer pictures of the rear of my eyeballs.  They are surprising to see.  My eyeballs are convex fiery setting suns with veins going through them; I am walking around with my own solar system in situ, they are amazing!

I do hope the replacement optician will be  someone I can get to know and feel  at ease with.

The sea is always there in many guises, the colour changes with the light and with its activity; it can be noisy, demanding of being seen. It is always moving.

From my windows I can view the daily work of the farmer and his wife. They work from dawn till dusk and even then some. They check their well-cared for stock, move others, either on foot or a selected few, by road to go to pastures further afield. Crops are rotated for food for the animals and for sale where it is needed.

At the same time the farmer and his wife are running and managing an agricultural machinery sales and repair business. Oh yes, the farmer is a qualified, time-served technician, as is his son. As if that wasn't enough, the farmer and his wife run an agency for supplying and erecting specialised farm buildings. They really graft in so many directions to earn a living.

Here, where I live, is no idyllic soft rural scene; if the weather is cold, windy and cruel, as it can be, making a living from the land can be tough. During the light nights, farm workers dig, plough and seed, taking advantage of any suitable weather conditions. Once winter sets in, as it inevitably will with short days and long nights, work on the land and with the stock goes on, but is constrained and often curtailed by the prevailing dark and again, the weather conditions.

In the background, the sea is heaving, swaying, always moving, reminding us that it is there.

Okay folks, I have a blog missing, the last one I posted.  The blog has disappeared.  It was called 'No Holds Barred' and was a brief review of writing composed by a lively, sometimes acerbic octogenarian with a sparkling wit, who at her time of life, felt she had the freedoms of expression that someone of that age group deserves to have and can  feel free to express with a considerable amount of experience of life. See; http://www.lulu.com/content/252587 also http://supercrone.gather.com

Why the blog has disappeared I do not know; I shall wait and see if this one goes the same way.  What I do know is, that within a short time of posting the sadly demised blog,(about 30 minutes or so,) there were 28 people who had looked at it.  

To SCUDDLE: verb

SCUDDLE: adj.

SCUDDLING Gerund

DEFINITION: A merger of a cuddle and a squeeze.  An affectionate request from mother/father to child,  betweeen siblings, family members; a form of endearment.

YOU KILL 'EM
WE'LL CHILL 'EM

Source: Paramedic (now retired )
              - Outback of Australia.

A Plan to Save the Country
by Garrison Keillor