A Grand Day Out

Sunday we went for a walk

This Countryside Is An Industrial Landscape With Turf On It.

Part 59 in the continuing thesis.

I was going to tell you where we went but as you have a plot of about every 10m of the walk I'll just do the "on your left you can see" bit.

The Derwent Valley is a wonderful conduit of communication.

• We parked on the A6,
• Crossed one of Britains earliest railways and
• Up the Cromford Canal.

This is the waterway built to connect Arkwrights original mill with the Erewash Canal and on to the River Trent. Cromford has a claim to the birthplace of the industrial revolution but so does Telford. One thing this place has is the oldest continuously operating manufactory in the world.

I'm impressed!

http://www.johnsmedley.com/

Lovely jumpers.

We turned off the canal towpath and headed into the hills, cut all over with quarrys and lumpy with rakes of mines. Rakes doesn't means lots like in Lancastrian but is the line of a seam worked by a series of bell pits. Once you get your eye in all of the peak is crisscrossed with these and railway lines (usually disused).

Around the back of the ridge cut by the River Derwent and a glacier or two, then drop back to the canal. The picnic lunch in Alderwadsley Park was lovely, not to cold for once as the sun kept us cozy.

Back up the Derwent and home.

CCCCCCCamper Time

(I Demand that you watch all 9:21 of these stiffs painting)

Could be a cutnpaste from last week but that's inaccurate and lazy.

The weekend had all the same elements but this time I feel satisfied

Saturday camper work

Finally the surface was dry at a time when I was there and had time to paint it.

Saturday morning off to Johnson/Leyland to pick up ral 2009 traffic orange rustoleum paint.

Super paint made out of fish to resist sea water.

Shopping in shops rocks especially specialist trade suppliers with staff who know their stuff.

I've been buying this paint online and it's no where near as much fun.

Last time it took longer to get to me.

They have real colour swatches in the shop.

Think of the complexity if you want to match colours off the WWW.

And you will fail.

They even offered to match the paint for me.

Which was nice but unnecessary as I have my colour.

Well very nearly

• 80 ral 6110 crap brown
• 20 ral????? Green green
• 4 ral 2009 traffic orange
• 50 White spirit

Near the original or at least.

A colour I like.

As is the tradition with vw campers, all panels are bent and different colours.

Well this one will have flat panels and consistent colour.

Probably take me about 4 years.

Yet again I'm playing a long game where I do everything with low technology.

The painting is being done with rollers, brushes and lots of fine abrasives.

About 12 coats should do it.

So far 1 coat looks flatter than the PO managed with a spray gun compressor.

He claimed to do it for a living.

Probably lies like "no rust on this camper"

Pepper Pepper And More Pepper

And would you like pepper with that?

Another V Black Pepper + Black Pepper

+1 for being Wholewheat

3/10

Stir Fry for Shit Drinkers

Pad = Stir

Kee = Shit

Mao = Drinking

Or Drunkards Noodles

Not Bad

Not Soup

6/10

Holy Basil

A Day Out On The White Peak

(photograph courtesy of Flagg)

Not a very exciting title; there again not a very exciting day.

Don't get me wrong I enjoyed myself and the weather held off.

Or at least my clothing kept me warm and dry.

But the was nothing really new and the route was very familiar.

Geeks amongst you might be interested in "my" new way of hosting these walk files.

But I doubt it!

It's just the same as before but I don't have to ftp anything.

Well I do but it doesn't have ftp written on it.

Sunday night

Bath time

Tin 'o' beer

The Freak Zone

He's playing Peter Hammil - Re-awakening from Fools Mate.

Can't have heard it in a Williamson's age - sounds just as good.

(1971 - Blimey)

Battery Woes

This blog was and is for my benefit and is a diary.

Here's a really boring entry.

Put a new starter battery in the camper.

Neglect had killed the last one and I need to regularly discharge and charge both batteries.

Charged the leisure battery.

6 weeks from now I need to do it again.

If I keep to this I won't have to keep buying batteries.

I've spent hundreds in the last 5 years.

Well at £70 a kick it's not difficult.

Having the Merc means I have to be careful to use the camper.

Next week it will be the first time used since Sept 09

I did warn you about the boredom quotient

Congee Magic

I know this is supposed to be about noodles but ...

Here's a discovery from hanging out in SE Asian grocers.

Instant rice porridge/congee/jook/jok.

I wanted to try it in Hong Kong but was too wary of the idea of savoury rice gruel and the establishments purveying it.

Bit too ethnic on both counts.

Idiot.

This stuff is terrific.

Not really in the survey so 15/10.

The winner so far, but 89p.