Bought an adaptor from E Bay for a bit under a fiver to enable the "van" to be connected to the mains at home, desirable if only to maintain charging. On connection the "Reverse Polarity" warning light came on the van's electrical system.
Bought a new one for £7.00 in a camping shop which worked perfectly. Post Mortem on the other adaptor, showed a loose earth wire (screw missing) and a loose neutral wire (screw not tightened).....opened up the connector that connected to the van and the neutral wire and live wire ha been wired the wrong way round. Heap of Chinese crap, no doubt with fake CE and BSI markings....lesson learnt.
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I see the words "camping" and "van" in the OP, self propelled shed?
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We sold him our caravan, didn't I remember to mention it?:)
Pat
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>> Camper van....:-)...
Wasn't 'campervan' the name of a trailer tent manufacturer?
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>> We sold him our caravan, didn't I remember to mention it?:)
>>
>> Pat
>
Why did you get rid of the van?
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Thu 12 May 16 at 18:56
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>> >> >
>> Why did you get rid of the van?
>>
More to the point, why did they get one in the first place?
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We've had nine very enjoyable years of caravan ownership and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.
We would like to go to Ireland next year and priced up the cost of the trip taking the van and it just didn't add up. Compared to a flight, a rental cottage and car hire it was out of the question, We've also wanted to discover Scotland for some time.
We've both driven lorries around Scotland enough and not particularly liked it, but that's unfair to make a decision on the basis of Elgin in a wet carrot season or Glasgow back streets where it isn't safe to park.
So we decided to do a bit of a trek up the east coast, around the top and down the west coast which again, we would struggle to cover 1460 mile round trip on those roads towing a van in the time we have, so sadly we decided to sell it and use the upkeep costs to fund some hotels where smoking is allowed on balconies......which means we get some great views!
We both have itchy feet and love discovering places in the UK others don't seem to go with the aid of an OS map, and to be able to grab a bag and go when the fancy takes is appealing.
Life is too short to waste it and we've been there, done that and now it's time to move on to other things:)
Pat
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As you come down the west coast try to go from Fort William to Mallaig and back and also through Glen Coe with a diversion along Glen Etive and back (Skyfall location). You may also like to visit Neptune's staircase, the locks on the Caledonian canal near Fort William. And of course you will drive past this. :-)
www.nevisrange.co.uk/gondola-info.asp
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Pat, if you are in Mallaig might I suggest you catch the ferry across to Inverie...Knoydart, the last real wilderness in the UK. Even stay a night, or two, there. I have started a few C2C backpacks from there and when the weather is good its a very special place.
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The drive across the top (Thurso to Tongue/Durness) and then south towards Kyle of Lochalsh is epic - I certainly wouldn't want to do it towing a caravan though.
Skye is worth a detour (even more so as the bridge is toll-free) and Plockton is nice (few miles from Kyle of Lochalsh) - always fun to see palm trees growing in Scotland.
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We've got two nights on Skye at the very top in a remote cottage near Duntulm Lygonos, and we're both looking forward to the drive from Thurso across the top.
As you say, not having the caravan makes that possible.
Legacy Lad, I think you have found our own little bit of heaven in Scotland! Knoydart and Inverie are just the sort of places we seek out and I've just checked out the ferry website to see how we can fit it in.....but we will somehow. Thanks for that:)
We have 2 days I Fort William after Sky so as I imagine that will be busy and touristy (not us at all), so we could probably use one of those days to visit Inverie.
ON, I'm not going on that...it's too high for me!
Pat
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Just had a look at Plockton on Google maps....another must do!
Now, I really must go to work, you're making me late.
Pat
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Pat, another road you might enjoy near Kyle of Lochalsh and Plocton is the A890 from the A87 at Auchtertyre to Strathcarron, it is quite spectacular alongside Loch Carton runs alongside the railway line for a bit with a rail station at Strathcarron (Ian) and you would pass the gardens at Attadale.
www.attadalegardens.com
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sat 14 May 16 at 07:58
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>> it is quite spectacular alongside Loch Carton
>>
Nobbled by the predictive spell check crap gadget, and my proof reading. Loch Carron! You stupid machine.
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....yeah, the road along Loch Carton isn't particularly good. If there's slow moving traffic, it's easy to get boxed in......
Last edited by: tyrednemotional on Sat 14 May 16 at 17:57
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Re Mallaig- Inverie (Knoydart)
There are two ferry services both operating about 4 trips a day. Knoydart Sea Bridge 01687 462916 & Western Isles Cruises 01687 462233. The former operates smaller boats ( up to 12 passengers) but often their website does not work! Costs for both are similar. The latter has the main sailing of the day at 10:15. ( weekdays) when it operates its largest boat with 80 pass capacity.
The Old Forge at Inverie is the most remote pub in the UK, but worth popping in for a pint
I must return there sooner rather than later...my USA backpacking friends would love it.
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Shoes.
Maybe one for Runfer? I've been too busy to get to Leeds for a days retail therapy ( beer and a decent pair of shoes) but was recently given a full page ad in The Week for 'handmade leather shoes' @ £35. Handmade by Samuel Windsor craftsmen using Goodyear Welted construction and the finest premium grade leather uppers and soles.
Sounds too good to be true with 30 day returns guarantee.
Worth a punt?
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Are you trying to shock Runfer into falling off his bike, he has an LEC to justify. 😉
Last edited by: Old Navy on Tue 17 May 16 at 11:05
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ON, it's only a 220 model mind.
I've got more cylinders on the mowers in my garage.....
Tee hee
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...handmade leather shoes' @ £35.
If you had to guess, LL...? I've seen the same name advertising 'buy one, get one free', for not much more - might have been £50 - so you can gauge the true value from that. The brand - whoever invented it; pretty sure there never was a Samuel Windsor - has been in trouble with the ASA for misrepresenting prices too.
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Made to sound traditional and a long standing firm. But I suppose if you pay £35 you get what you paid for. That's £35 shoes made in India that probably won't last long.
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A company called Samuel Windsor was setup 5 years ago in Powys (company 4120295).
There's also a 4 year old company called Samuel Windsor & Clifford James Retail Shop (4312261).
One or both probably related to the shoe selling business.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Tue 17 May 16 at 16:29
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I didn't think there was any connection with the Royal Family. Probably go to Leeds one day next week when it's wet and treat myself to some proper shoes and support the UK economy.
Before buying another German car....
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Just don't be silly LL, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...it might well be a turkey...
;-)
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Excellent
Never heard that before, and no I was never tempted to even chance a pair
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They are utterly dreadful shoes. Even the laces are made of polyester and slip undone. Uncomfortable and fall to pieces.
However... they do look reasonably OK, for very little money, if that's what you need. For a one-off wedding for somebody who is skint and wouldn't otherwise wear decent shoes, perhaps.
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Probably better quality stuff, and cheaper, in local Age UK.
Especially if you drive over to Harrogate or Ilkley
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The thought of wearing someone else's old shoes strikes me as pretty horrible. I don't think I could do that.
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>> The thought of wearing someone else's old shoes strikes me as pretty horrible. I don't think I could do that.
Never been 10 pin bowling then, where they lend you a pair of shoes that all and sundry have been wearing.
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No, I haven't.,
Sounds awful
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Sitting in a high back chair with no freshly laundered antimacassar is surely potentially worse?
Can be found in W'spoons I believe :)
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And taxis imagine how many people have sat on the car seats?
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>> imagine how many people have sat on the car seats?
And don't let's imagine public lavatory seats. I don't see any sign of the practice I noted in Geneva in 1957, of dispensers for free full-size disposable paper seat covers.
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>> >> imagine how many people have sat on the car seats?
>>
>> And don't let's imagine public lavatory seats. I don't see any sign of the practice
>> I noted in Geneva in 1957, of dispensers for free full-size disposable paper seat covers.
>>
>>
Sounds like a death trap.
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Army bloke in the Med Centre " I caught it off a toilet seat, Doctor" YEAH - right :-)
When I was in Cyprus out on patrol one of my Marines reported "crabs, Sir", to me - YUK!
On that sort of subject, there was a queue outside the sick-bay on HMS Theseus a training carrier, (circa 1955) after a trip ashore from Gib to Tangiers, (then a Free Port) and the infamous Black Cat bar aka exibeesh centre and knocking shop!
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Samuel Windsor supply loads of clothing and have an excellent returns service. Some of the goods are of poor quality but I am currently wearing an irreproachable pair of their cords. These have a vertical pocket let into the waistband, only wide enough for a 50p. piece but over 2" deep. Could this be for condoms? I seem to recall that the trousers with my National Service uniform had a similar provision, but let into the fly and lying horizontally.
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All those things are fine. It's just wearing other people's shoes that I find an unpleasant idea. Shoes are such a personal item.
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When I worked in an outdoor gear shop customers would sometimes return boots & trail shoes. Either they didn't fit ( after 3 months!) or they let in water or they had begun to fall apart after a year. Several pairs of these returns fitted me.... The three pairs of £100 Salomon trail shoes have long worn out but I still have a nice pair of fabric boots which I wore only two weeks ago for yomping over the Lakeland fells
These days I have to buy my own, mores the pity. I ain't going to turn down a £100 pair of slightly worn outdoor footwear,thank you very much.
Although I draw the line at pre owned crusties.....
Last edited by: legacylad on Thu 19 May 16 at 13:45
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I guess if needs must. I'd still buy a new pair.
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That's fine CGN
By the time they had been on the hill a few times and got thoroughly soaked, or ankle+ deep in mud I reckon any lurgy had been washed out. I prefer walking in trail shoes unless multiple bogs are anticipated....my method of cleaning is to wipe off loose mud after the walk with a sponge, then put in a pillow case and into washing machine together with other similar footwear. Once dry spray with either Nikwax TX Direct Spray-On or Nikwax Fabric & a Leather Proofer ( both items currently half price at Blacks & Millets stores).
I don't favour goretex membranes. Once a small piece of grit gets in, a hole invariably appears and lets in water. Which then cannot get out. Much better with ordinary lightweight leather boots and make a little effort to clean off the mud after use & nourish. Or use the aforementioned on fabric boots, although invariably they will have some kind of ( short term) waterproof membrane.
I also have lots of pre owned outdoor gear garments... Handed on by journalist friends who reviewed said garments for publication. Even a few ( upper) base layers!
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I bought an old pair of Zamberlans orf eBay a few years ago, which looked unused. I've never worn them, mainly because they aren't Gortex jobbies.
I would have no qualms about wearing them just because someone else's trotters have been in 'em though.
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No qualms then about possibly contracting foot rot et alia?
A propos, I wonder what becomes of returned, package opened underwear?
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If you only had one pair of shoes and the sole was hanging off, they let your foot get wet and cold and you had no money to buy new ones, you wouldn't be so picky or choosy.
You'd just put a polythene bag over your sock and hope someone gave you a new pair.
A long time ago, but spoken with feeling!
Pat
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>>A long time ago, but spoken with feeling!
Ah, now you're talking ... and this isn't some Monty Python gag. A woman (Aggie Mead) who lived in the same sowf lunden block of council (LCC) flats as us, used to wear old football boots. She had 3 children, Gloria (Glory) Lin, and my friend Micky. They were so poor that at one time they took off the internal doors and burnt them on the fire to keep warm ( I kid you not)
Different world today, my ole Cornish neighb reckons kids today don't know they're born :)
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I make them right too:)
I was reflecting wryly yesterday.....I have a bridge of 4 teeth in the front which came out on Sunday night (eating a Milky Bar!). I knew it had been a bit wobbly for ages, so this week has been taken up with trying to find a dentist to replace it.
More to the point I needed to find one who would at least try and stick the old one back in, to allow me to stand in front of a load of drivers tomorrow and over the weekend and project to the back of the room with confidence! (after making sure my shoulders were broad enough to take the inevitable flak I would get!)
I found one yesterday who used industrial amounts of superglue and quoted me for a new one as I don't want dentures.
Before I tell you how much the quote was, I have been struggling to get firms to pay this year and finally yesterday I got an invoice for £1800 paid into my bank.
How much was the quote for the bridge? Yes, £1800.
It comes in and it goes out, but I can remember when that would have been out of the question and I would have been toothless...so I'm grateful:)
Pat
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>>I have a bridge of 4 teeth in the front which came out on Sunday night (eating a Milky Bar!).
That's interesting, because I too have a 4 tooth bridge ... on the desk in front of me :o)
I had it fitted decades ago (NHS) in Peckham, by an Indian chap who did an excellent job of it.
It came unstuck from one of what I call the anchor teeth about 16 years ago, but it still did it's job okay and I could still eat on that side, until it fell out last year.
I had it stuck back in by a dentist in Truro, but it soon came unstuck again, so I bought some proper dental cement from Amazon and stuck it back in myself and it lasted longer than when the dentist did it.
I went to see another dentist (NHS) in Fowey about a year ago, but she wanted to cap the remaining anchor toof and refer me to the private bod for some implants, needless to say I didn't go back there [£££££££££££££]
I've got a molar broken orf on the other side now caused by a cherry Genoa cake from Tesco's!!! so eating is becoming a bit of a problem to a certain extent and I'll have to get something done about it sooner or later.
I was thinking along the lines of a Maryland bridge for the broken tooth - I'd rather liquidise my food than have to resort to having a plate fitted, only old people have them.
:o}
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That's exactly how I feel about dentures Dog.
Most wanted to do implants but the cost is prohibitive, so in desperation I rang a small village practice around 20 miles away and got an appointment straight away.
She was brilliant and can do an 8 tooth bridge at the cost of £200 per tooth where everyone else wanted up to £500 per tooth.
The other £200 is for a root filling to clear an infection from the old bridge so I'm well happy with that.
All I have to do now is remember not to eat the pork crackling on Sunday.
Had pork pie for lunch yesterday when I came back from seeing her and ate it with a spoon!
Pat
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>>The other £200 is for a root filling to clear an infection from the old bridge so I'm well happy with that.<<
For root canal treatment, that is remarkably cheap. I paid over three times that much five years ago.
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That's reassuring Clk Sec, now the next question....does it hurt?
It's an hour and a quarter appointment next Friday and I'm scared of the dentist:(
Pat
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My recent root canal work on a molar took three sessions and ten hours in the chair. Does it hurt. No, but it's a bit tedious.
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>> My recent root canal work on a molar took three sessions and ten hours in
>> the chair. Does it hurt. No, but it's a bit tedious.
Tedious?
Tedious!
Tedious on the blasted wallet, old thing!!!
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Just under a £1,000. Still need a crown so add another £300 for that.
No the process is rather tedious. Sitting with my mouth wedged open for up to three hours I almost dozed off a couple of times. I guess it is worth it though to keep the tooth.
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Crikey, I've never heard of an 8 tooth bridge before. My 'problem' is that although I could afford to go private and have the job done properly, I wont do that because I believe the NHS should fix my teeth for me - tis they who fitted the bridge in the first place but since the dentists new con-tract in 2006, they haven't got the money to carry out expensive treatment under the NHS.
I've just put my bridge back in to see if it still lines up okay, which it does, so um gonna buy some more cement and stick the critter back in.
www.amazon.co.uk/Automix-Permanent-Bridges-Implants-Veneers/dp/B009P4Y2AQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1463672688&sr=8-1&keywords=dental+cement
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I use this
www.amazon.co.uk/Dentanurse-First-Teeth-Travellers-Flat/dp/B003GARA1I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1463677581&sr=8-1&keywords=dentanurse
But I know Jenny Lees who developed it and she lets me have some super strong catalyst powder instead of the one in the kit!
Incidentally, she breeds Arabian Horses www.pearlislandarabians.co.uk/ which seems an odd thing for a dental nurse to do!
Pat
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S'funny - I know a breeder of miniature ponies on Bodmin Moor. Janice Deacon used to be an air hostess 'up country' before fleeing to the hermit kingdom. I remember when she bought this converted barn many decades ago:
www.websouthwest.co.uk/spottedminiaturehorses/
Tis amazing the range of dental equipment that is available on eBay, even the chairs and drills can be had apparently, although that would be taking DIY a bite too far maybe.
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Dentistry is for the professionals.
As in the film Marathon Man
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Almost as bad as having your feet roasted over a brazier (I originally spelt that as brassier)
:)
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>> I have a bridge of 4 teeth in the front which came out on Sunday night (eating a Milky Bar!). I knew it had been a bit wobbly for ages, so this week has been taken up with trying to find a dentist to replace it.
Oh dear, hard luck Pat.
It was a great relief to me when my last tooth fell out, brown to its insensible root with tobacco, and the practical young dentist condemned the others. Naturally you want to hang onto your own gnashers, but all those horrible injections into your jaw and stuff of that sort makes you think it's cheap at the price so to speak. There are limits to a chap's stoicism.
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>> Ah, now you're talking ... and this isn't some Monty Python gag. A woman (Aggie
>> Mead) who lived in the same sowf lunden block of council (LCC) flats as us,
>> used to wear old football boots. She had 3 children, Gloria (Glory) Lin, and my
>> friend Micky. They were so poor that at one time they took off the internal
>> doors and burnt them on the fire to keep warm ( I kid you not)
Not disbelieving you Dog, but what era of council blocks had open fire places? Must be pre-war I expect? Or did some 50s blocks still use coal fires? I've not seen many council blocks with chimblies.
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Well Vić, my ma and pa moved into said council flat before WW2 with their 4 children. I was born in '52 and lived there 'til I was 9 years young. I can remember one of the main rooms having a black cast-iron range, which was eventually removed to be replaced with a common or garden tiled fireplace.
Here's the council flats, built by the then LCC. we lived at number 25 on the top floor:
www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.4968778,-0.0874091,3a,17.1y,290.05h,98.82t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sGtVueLDyReorycwzFk0hng!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
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The penthouse, eh? Hark at Lord Muck. ;-)
Thanks for that, I'd never clocked the chimneys on that era of block before. Must have been an effort lugging the coal up the stairs. Was there some other way of doing it? Chilham House is a good name for the building, given the subject at hand.
I'm on an all day drinking walking tour of London tomorrow, I'll keep an eye out for similar.
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I can well remember the coalman lugging the coal up 4 flights of stairs. Likewise my ole mum with her 4 kids and umpteen bags of shopping - no one had a car in that block back then, 'til my late brother bought an old Vauxhall Wyvern.
That place next door in the streetview image, used to be called the Golden Fleece pub, they had an off-licence where I used to buy my cream soda, smiths crisps, nuttylogs, and Palm toffee bars
When we had an Apartment in Tenerife, I had a ceramic nameplate made for me to put on the wall outside the door with the name 'Chilham'
:o}
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>> If you only had one pair of shoes and the sole was hanging off, they
>> let your foot get wet and cold and you had no money to buy new
>> ones, you wouldn't be so picky or choosy
Well of course I wouldn't
But like you I don't and I have so I am.
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...but I have been, you haven't, and it shows:)
Pat
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Yep, I've never worn plastic bags on my feet I admit it. It doesn't make me a bad person though though does it?
Actually if you look at my original comment it has nothing to do with money or the cost of shoes. I was just saying I could never wear second hand shoes. It makes me shudder to even think about it. Clothes yes, no problem. Second hand anything else fine, shoes no way. Same would apply to someone else's hat come to that.
Incidentally you seem to have a view that I'm some sort of cosseted member of the moneyed classes. Let me assure you that I come from a thoroughly working class background although why that should be a good or a bad thing I'm not sure.
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>> I come from a thoroughly working class background<<
I don't doubt it at all, so don't assume too much, but you've still never had to wear plastic bags in your shoes:)
Now, how about going and getting the cobwebs off that webcam again, it's spoiling my viewing!
Pat
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Buy Cheap Buy Twice... - Manatee
