Author: Buck

I’ve been practicing my typing and I’m getting better at it. The quick brown fox does indeed jump over the lazy dog. Still have to remember to use the wrong hand for the B. As a result I may have to buy a yacht so I don’t have to keep typing “boat”. I don’t make the rules. I’ve not been able to go to the boat club for two weeks because it’s been blowing a gale, today it was 2mph, supposedly. It doesn’t even feel like that. No point in going. I’ve had a busy day doing other stuff. Wendy’s offside rear tyre keeps going down.Slowly, but it’s every few weeks. It was doing it before we got the new tyres so I assume there’s something slightly wrong with the wheel. A slight leak somewhere. I ordered a second hand wheel and tyre off eBay, it arrived yesterday so I went to swap it over this morning. I got the old wheel off, went to fit the new one, but in daylight there are lots of little cracks in the rubber. The tyre has lots of tread, but it’s a bit old and probably perished. There’s no point in risking it seeing as the existing tyre probably hasn’t done 100 miles. I put the old wheel back on. I’ll take it to the tyre place tomorrow and get them to swap it over and fit a new valve and balance the wheel. I’ve been thinking about getting rid of that project bike to clear out some space in my shed. It’s not just the frame, which takes up a big space down one side of the shed, but the engine on the workbench, the big box of spare engine parts, and all the other bike bits (exhaust system, seat, radiator, etc) filling up my shelves. I wanted it gone but I was putting off getting rid because I was anticipating hassle. I listed it (free to a good home as long as they take it all) and a few hours later someone said they would definitely have it. They are coming to get it later. That was easy. I don’t know what I was worried about. I’ve dragged everything around to the front, ready for them to collect. That was hard work, but I’ll be glad to see the back of it. (Later: they’ve been. It’s gone. Excellent.) I’ve brushed out the shed and moved Wendy’s, and my old pushbike into it. I’ll get around to moving my turbo trainer and other bike out as well. I need to set up the light and an electrical supply first. I’ve lifted my dahlias in preparation of following the American dahlia woman’s instructions. This could be the year I get it right! One (of the many) things I wasn’t doing right is to clean them thoroughly, getting all the dirt off, then leave them to dry for a week before putting them away in dry compost (or vermiculite) for the winter. I’ll […]

I find myself back in the same old rut, obsessing over buying stuff, even in the light of self knowledge. Somewhere down the line I’m going to need a car with a towing hook. And I find I’m loathe to use my “toy” motorbike. It’s a sunny day, fun machine. I don’t want to take it out in nasty weather and ruin it. Which is being owned by possessions, and a different subject. So that leaves me here. Going into winter without a workhorse bike, or car. So, if I need a car, I might as well get one. Then I’d have wheels to get to my boat club, and room to carry my kit, and towing capability down the road when I want to move my boat. I’m just writing this out to try and clarify what I should do. I have several options and I keep flicking from one to the other. 1, Sell my bike, use the money to buy a car, and a cheap motorbike that I’m not loathe to use. 2, Sell my bike, and just buy the car. 3, Buy the car, see if I actually use the bike/ would use a bike if it was a workhorse, then decide if I sell or keep. Hmmm, 3 clearly looks the winner. I’m going to be pushbiking to work for as long as I’ve got this job, and I don’t ever intend to leave it, so a motorised vehicle is just for going to the boat club and towing said boat for the foreseeable. I really can’t see when I’m going to use a motorbike. I don’t like to ride just for the sake of riding, I need to be going somewhere. But I’m losing nowt by waiting and seeing. If I sell now it’s gone. And going into winter is the worst time to sell a motorbike anyway. OK. Settled. Later, Buck. PS, I had several avenues of enquiry open on the car front. Ideally I want an estate (so I can throw pushbikes in the back) with a towing hook, and a big enough engine to not struggle. The boat isn’t particulary heavy, but I remember the Mighty Micra struggled to get up steep hills without any load. You had to drop gears to get up Windy Hill. Poor beast. The trouble is the estates tend to be bigger engines. Good for my needs, bad for my insurance. I kept circling back to the Peugeot 207 sw, (Station Wagon! *sigh*). The reviews said the best of the bunch was the 2 litre engine model,the insurance quotes said not. My best bet was the 1.4, which the reviews said was woefully pedestrian. I was going to compromise on the 1.6 model. A left field option has just popped up. A supposedly immaculate 2003 Volvo V70. It’s a 2.4 litre automatic estate with a towing hook. I did a mock insurance quote, £370. Way cheaper than the Pug! Weird. And it’s in Stockton Heath. It […]

I’ve been reworking my story lately. I’ve decided to do it as a short story. I’m not happy with consistency of it, in keeping with what I now know to be the rationale to it, but I have a beginning, middle and end. I will be pleased just to actually finish one of my stories. This means I’ve been doing lots of typing. I’ve been using the laptop quite a bit and I realised I actually prefer the layout of the keyboard. It’s not something I’ve ever considered. I just muddle through with the touch typing, losing my place on the home keys every now and then. The laptop set up had a big red button in the middle of the keyboard so you stay centered. Once the idea took hold that you can get a better keyboard I had a look. Look at this beast I’m trialing as we speak. A clear division of hands, curved to fit the shape of your hands, and built-in wrist rests. When I get the hang of this I’m going to be way better. The one problem I’ve noted, being self taught, is that I use the wrong hand for the B. I keep trying to reach my right hand over and I’m hitting the N. It will probably be a good thing when I correct it. It only arrived this afternoon so it’s still a bit weird. I seem to have got back into reading again, which is a good. Sadly some of the books have been less than great. So, so, less than great. Which is a damn shame because they have had great concepts. Another new and exciting development is I seem to finally over my latest bout of plague weakness. It was getting me down, to be honest, it had been nearly 3 weeks. So, yay!Over that. Now I’ve just got a common or garden sore throat and cold. So that’s lovely. Variety is the spice of life. I had two days without shifts allocated so I said I was unavailable and took the time off to be poorly. I’ve only got a 7 and a bit hours shift tomorrow, so I should be ok for that. Wow. You don’t realise how many B’s you use until you type every one wrong. The weekend before last it was well windy, and I’d finished setting up all my new lines and sail on my boat, so I took it for a spin. Ha! It’s much the same as learning to drive anything else, you have to know what you are doing, and feel in control, before you can start enjoying the thrilling stuff. As it was I was just getting blown from tack to tack, without any clear idea what I was doing, while fighting the fierce gusts just to stay upright. One of them caught me. First outing of my full size, new sail (which is to say, powerful). No matter how I heeled out of the boat, turned […]

He was dead! In a frozen, frantic, second he took it all in. His own face reflected in Kasabian’s mirror sunglasses. (How was that his face? He’d never seen it before.) The pistol in Kasabian’s hand. (Who was Kasabian? Why had he shot him?) The realisation he was a second from death. (Who was he?) His lifeless fingers falling away from the pistol in it’s shoulder holster (Why did he have a pistol? Human life is sacrosanct, he could never kill someone.) The deck of the boat rising to meet him as his body fell limp. A frenzy of information assailed his mind while a mania of questions threatened his sanity. He was in a car. WHAT? He threw the wheel over, brakes locking, bumped up the pavement and slid to a stop. There was a long and frightening horn blast as a lorry slewed around him. What? What? What? He looked around frantically. In a car. Where was Kasabian? Where was he? He was on the pavement of a dual carriageway, not on a boat deck. He looked down, his suit was unmarked. He patted himself, not trusting his eyes, no bullet wounds. What? He took a few deep breaths, trying to calm the mind-numbing panic. First things first. Not dead. That was good. Try to be logical. OK. Not dead. Still good. In an old fashioned sports car. Could be worse. He adjusted the rear view mirror and looked at himself. The same face he’d seen reflected in Kasabian’s sunglasses. A white, thirty something man. Clean shaven, slicked, black hair, blue eyes, ruggedly handsome. It was consistent, but still not his face. Who was he? He couldn’t even remember his own name, or one single fact before dying. Oh no. Dying. Dying! He felt the rise of panic. Stop it! Work it out! Clues. He did a quick search of his pockets. In the right hand suit jacket inside pocket he found a long slim wallet. He snatched it out and opened it. A driver’s licence! Bingo! He looked at the face on the card, it was the one in the mirror, then the name. Charles Whyte. He was Charles Whyte. Charles. Charlie. Char. Whytey. He said them all a few times, testing for any sort of response from his memory. Nothing. A stranger’s face with a stranger’s name. He shuffled in his seat and felt in his trouser pockets. A few pound coins. He patted down his suit, only then noticing the bulge under his arm. He was so accustomed to it he hadn’t even noticed it. As his hand struck it he became suddenly, horribly, aware of it. Fearing, but knowing, what he was going to find, he pulled his jacket open. The butt of a pistol met his gaze, projecting temptingly from a shoulder holster. Oh no. Why? Why did he have a gun? To kill a human would be… his thoughts dissolved into incomprehensible panic. He started again. He couldn’t… his thoughts skittered away […]

It’s taken me 5 weeks, and so much more trouble than I ever anticipated, but yesterday I finally got my boat on the water. It took me ages to work out how to rig it. The ones at the club already have all the lines (ropes), blocks, and fittings attached, it’s just a matter of putting it all together. I got mine out from under it’s boat cover and it was a bare mast, boom, and a bag of different lines. I finally got it together (not quite right, it turns out, but enough to work.) When it’s all at rest it looks fine, it’s not until you examine every inch of it closely, by assembling it, that you notice the flaws. The sail is shot. It’s old, old, old, (which I knew, and was OK with, it’s only for learning) but when I put it on the mast I saw the sleeve that fits over the mast is ripped. Two 3″ rips, quite close together, so it’s only a matter of time before the middle bit rips and then it’s a huge tear. That’s annoying. I’d previously read that because they are a one design boat, if you get a seaworthy Laser of any age and put a new sail on it you will have a boat that’s at least 95% as good as any top of the range new one. So, it was on my to-do list, if I liked the boat and stuck with it. The state of the sail has forced my hand a little early. Some of the lines are a state. One is the wrong size, most are tired, some fraying at the ends, or in the case of the bungee type line (shockcord) that holds the daggerboard (the small keel thing that you can raise or lower to suit) the outer has totally separated and it only has the internal strands of elastic holding it together. Less than ideal. Also the tiller has a wooden handle (I think it’s from a different boat) which is too long, so the tiller extension fouls the mainsheet. Then for the real test. Is the hull any good? I asked if I was OK to sail as they were having a race of some fancy boats. I said I just wanted to pootle about to test my ratty old Laser to check it wasn’t going to sink. It was a joke, they are literally unsinkable because they have that much buoyancy built in, but the guy took me seriously and said all new boats should do a buoyancy test. So before I could start I had to wade out then tip my boat on its side for ten minutes, then turn it over and try to sink the other side. It didn’t sink. Yay! I took it out for a spin. The sail wasn’t acting right (old, and I hadn’t fitted the rigging right) and the mast seemed to be bending (turns out the mast sections have […]