Fishing boat

Here are some pix's I took yesterday at the lake, John took the one's on his blog, I also took a couple of video's but taking my camera to his house for dinner to-day so he can edit them himself, you will see them when you check out his blog later to-day.

It was nice on the balcony at the cafe, but bitterly cold on the landing stage, I even went and got my tranny mitt out of the car, never used it before!.  I met Colin H and his wife Pam there and after a buttie in the cafe, 

( nice to see they had changed the tables and chairs, from the old wrought iron ones than I'm sure weren't very hygienic)  we had a sail, he with his Warship and me with my Micro Magic Yacht, but he had to go when his wife  got too cold, and I waited for John who was running late due to waiting in for the Sky people. He had brought his fishing boat as you can see and also his birthday present from me last month, his jet ski which is also on video, both ran very well and though we didn't stay too long with the cold it was a good afternoon's sailing.

Check out John's blog later in the day for the video's of  yesterday's sailing

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So the great Frank Carson has died, One of his jokes here for you!.

Waiter!! "there is a fly swimming in my soup"

"You must have too much soup then" the waiter replied "its only supposed to be paddling"

That's all folks.

Re-modelling.

As it was overcast and raining here to-day, on John's recommend I phoned up "3 Ways DIY" store in Denton to see if they were open, ( I seemed to remember they didn't open on Monday's) and asked if they had any off-cuts of work tops, they said they had offcuts and full sized 3 metre ones, so it was off there and found a nice piece at 2 metres which they cut to size for me!, those work tops are very heavy for one to manage.

Then after dinner I took out the old top and fitted the new one across the top of the new freezer.

I fitted a plinth at the back from a piece of mahogany strip, 50p from the same place (I believe they are for the edge of fire doors) and left the top an inch away from the wall to let out the heat from the radiator and the heat from the back of the freezer, and accommodate the electric plugs and cables. Then there was a metal leg to fit in the middle to strengthen the whole thing!.

The result was as follows

As you can see from the next picture it gives me quite a bit more room to model, as the old top is there in white, so neat init!,

The shop also had 8ft X 4ft sheets of 3.6mm ply at £8.37 if any scratch builders out here are interested, as I don't scratch build I don't know if this is too thick?.

They are new owners since last May at 3Ways and they are talking about opening on Sunday's as well as Monday's, if the queues at B&Q are anything to go by at weekend's they could by very busy, as B&Q are not the cheapest place for DIY stuff are they.

Well that's all folks.

Perhaps the weather will improve for to-morrow and Pepe and I can get to the lake. 

Can anything else go wrong?

Friday had to go and get a new freezer as the old one had packed up!, perhaps it wasn't used to being over worked trying to keep a half empty space cold, it was a large upright one.

So it was off to Curry's/Pc World as it was the best price in my area and I could take it away with me, that's the beauty of a Berlingo car, the boot is large!, plenty of Model Boat space and fits fridges and freezers no problem, oops perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned fridges, tempting fate that isn't it!!

As you can see the new freezer is a lot smaller, for one! 

I am now waiting for an off cut at B&Q to fit across from the wall to rest on the top counter on the right which will double my modelling area, so it's not all been bad.

John came round and helped me to get the old big freezer down from the box room and just as we had loaded it into his car to take to the tip along came a beat up old tranny collecting scrap metal, John quickly collared him and asked if he wanted an old freezer and he said Yes! I've never seen a freezer come out of a car quicker, so that was a bit of good luck, not all bad luck then hey.

On the fish tank front I've added a few more fish and the plants are doing well and have reached the top, it must be the under gravel compost I was advised to get.

Panda Cory's

Male and female guppy's

Male guppy and can you spot the 3 panda Cory's?

Panda Cory

Sunset Wagtail Platy and Sucking loach

And last but not least a video of them all, not usually as frantic as this but just been fed to bring them out 

Went to Etherow yesterday as well, but on arrival it was overcast and raining, so turned round and came home and then the sun came out, so it was over to Debdale Park with Pepe.

Well that's all folk's

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Paddy said that he had once cleaned 500 fish in one day,

"Now that takes guts"

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He went off fishing for a week and didn't catch anything until he got home!.

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Against his wife's wishes he set off for another weekend,"What's that Dad's carrying?"said their young son.

"Its called a fishing rod dear, and its got a worm at both ends".

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Past week

Over the past week I've not been doing much, though I did help John with a fitted kitchen for a couple of days and then it was down to the fish shop on Thursday to get a couple of fish now the tank has settled in a bit.

I was advised to just get a couple of pair of fish at this stage to see how they went on in the new environment, so no hard sell there, which is good as they seem to have the fishes welfare in mind, as well as my money!.

The tank clearing nicely

In front and centre a pair of Tuxedo Platys

And here are a pair of Mickey mouse platys, named after the black markings at the end of their tails

The fish minded of you out there will notice that there is 1 male and 3 females, this is intentional  as it stops the females being chased too much.

I went to the fish shop yesterday again and bought some more plants, bad idea as after I'd put in the new plants, it must have upset the fish as I've not seen much of them since, still they are still there and not buried under the new piece of bogwood 

On the boat building front, this morning I've coated the boat superstructure with sanding sealer and opened the window in the room and shut the door, so hopefully when I get home from John's the smell will have dispersed a bit.

As you can see all the outside holes masked off, ready for the first coat of undercoat.

Then it was on to some more painting, this time it was the new posts for the front gate which has finally given up after being re-glued and screwed over the past few month's, so its a few coats of stainer varnish for the posts and new gate over the next few days and then perhaps John when he is passing one day will help me put it all to-gether with his more powerful drills and drivers, mine are no good for this type of work , in fact I think they are well passed their sell by date.

Not much of interest for you this week but perhaps next week will be better.

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Bumper stickers

I took an IQ test and the results were negative.

Where there's a will, I want to be in it.

My karma ran over your dogma.

This is not an abandoned vehicle!.

The floggings will continue until morale improves.

Rap music is what Paint by numbers is to art.

Boldly going nowhere.

I get enough exercise just pushing my luck.

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That's all folks!.

Return to an old hobby

When John lived at home we used to have lots of fish tanks of tropical fish and over the past week I've decided to start up again, all be it in a smaller way this time, so I got myself to the newish garden centre "Ashton Park", at the Snipe and decided that their fish and equipment were very good. I bought a tank and all the fittings and set it up over the last week, just waiting for the water to settle now before introducing the fish, nothing exotic only guppies and plattys and the odd bottom feeder.

Still a bit cloudy but its getting there.

Whilst out and about with John in Bolton we called in at Dave's Aquarium a big supermarket for pets and fish we used to go to years ago and there in the front entrance were these cute little fellows,

Cute little meerkats, don't think they were for sale, only for show.

Then as we were passing the Ski Centre at Trafford, John decided I might like to see inside there.

Pity I'm a bit too old for that now, but I would have liked a go in my youth, I was always of the opinion that you should always have a go, you don't know if you like it or not if you don't try do you, but the mind is willing but the flesh is weak these days as they say! 

Then yesterday I bought a new bigger TV, a 37" LG, at first I was concerned that I would have trouble setting it up as in the past I've got the Welsh BBC1 and ITV1 but this TV said there was a conflict and did I want English or Welsh region, how easy was that!

As its snowing here to-day I've glued the top on the superstructure  of the "Narra Boat" and then fillered the gap in-between with modelling filler, the next job is to paint the outside with wood sealer before painting it.

Not as dark as this, but camera playing up.

Well that's it for now, keep warm out there and don't travel unless its necessary, I'm waiting for a call from  Model Slipway to say my order is ready but I won't be going over the tops until this snow has gone!!

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The traffic officer pulled over an elderly driver and asked " Didn't you realise your wife fell out of the car a couple of miles back?" 

"Thanks" the old gent said, "I thought I'd gone deaf"

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Visiting the modern art museum an old lady turned to an attendant standing nearby.

"This", she said "I suppose is one of those hideous representations you call Modern Art?"

"No madam" replied the attendant, "That one is called a mirror".

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That's all folk's