29th January 2014 - Welcome back to the Bothy

A day sorting through family heirlooms and medals. Also a day in which I read the life story of Arnold, written down in about 1990 and covering all his recollections up to that time - a fascinating story. Equally fascinating, though to be expected I suppose as a printer, compositor and proof reader, I only found one grammatical mistake in the full manuscript - a use of the word "their" instead of "there". This equally may have been subject of a spellcheck error - for I have not found the original file anywhere - only the neatly printed story.

It is a fascinating story, though brief in many of its details. A story that I will have to scan and find some optical character reader software to restore, and print where grandchildren and great grandchildren can read.

But medals and various gongs from the British Legion, Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes ( 50 years a member), masonic and war service make up a very impressive set.

From Left: 1939-45 Star, Africa Star (1st Army), Italy Star,
Defense Medal, and Service medal 1939-45

But as the day drew to a close, the word came finally that the Bothy had finished its heart operation. The Engine was back in. The Radiator replaced. Lots of other necessary stuff. Engineering of the head £200, plus skimming the head £40. Extra labour (Don't ask!!)  but all back together with lots of new oil. All flushed through with lost of nice antifreeze ready for the cold spell that we are bound to have. Engine should be good for another 100,000 miles and will not need a full service now in the spring which will account for about £400 of the bill..

But the £1,500 bill is still a bit painful - unless we consider how many hotels it may save us over the year, and how many trips in this country we might afford rather than going abroad - which we can't really because of the chickens - and I am sure there are other reasons that I can convince myself ......

Ho Hum.....  To be fair, the original van was probably a little cheaper than we could have paid..  so this just tops it up a bit really ....

But - we now have the Bothy back in service - have to get the awning repaired now...  That will be some more !!  

It would be nice if you could just print your own money - or maybe just draw it.. and then I saw this fine example of modern art - so clever and realistic you could pick up the note from the paper..

Maybe I should get my crayons out....