Fixing stuff up etc

This blog is being posted late as last night I was hit by a migraine which kept me in bed all day today (yesterday as you read this) so sorry for the delay... I'm still not 100% but at least I can sit up and see without too much trouble now.

So, part two of the blog about the weekend is about all the odds and sods and bits and pieces which I did all aiming towards the fact that this was my last planned extended period of time in Blackpool with Julian and the trailer and all my kit before I am there on the last weekend.

The old, and very damaged, trailer plug

If you look back a couple of days you'll see the list I put together of tasks I needed to complete for the weekend. The first thing I did was fix the hookup cable from the trailer to Thomas which had become burned out and was causing half the back board to not light up. The only pictures I have for this blog come from this job and the other wiring task (fixing the hookup cable for Julian) so they'll be scattered through the update not carefully placed in the relevant places as normal.

All fingers and thumbs

I am normally really rubbish at fiddly tasks as I have quite fat fingers (as people who I type to regularly will attest to) however I managed to strip off and reattach the new connector without too much problem, something I was very proud of.

The hookup for Julian was less of a success as I was hoping to reuse the connector, and just reseat the wires. This was not possible as the short had caused damage to the joints and as I had not ordered a new plug I was stuck. I have since just ordered a new, and much longer, cable for the hookup in stead of fixing this one however I won't be throwing it away; I can almost certainly make use of it again over there.

Trimming a wire to length

The other bit of electrical work that was needed involved changing the uk style plug off the air conditioning unit and putting an american three pin on, so it would plug into the transformer I had bought. This was done in the dark and cold by Sarah however, when I plugged the unit in the fuses still went, despite the transformer; my feeling is that the unit has been damaged by all the damp from the leaks in Julian's roof and I have decided to not spend any more time or money on it at all.

Talking of leaks, Julian was bone dry when I picked him up on Saturday; I'd gone past to collect him Friday after work but the garage hadn't left the keys out with him so I went early Saturday morning and collected the sizable bill for Thomas at the same time. Ouch. Anyway, I was woken on Sunday morning by the horrendous sound of "drip.... drip..... drip..... drip....." and sure enough water was flooding through the same part of the roof, but additionally in one of the cupboards where there was a blanking plate I'd not seen before (which fell off in my hands) and a bare wire (scarily!).

Proud of my re-wiring

I stuffed a rag into the hole behind the blanking plate, spread towels around to catch the worst of the water, and went back to sleep to think on it; my only resolution was to stop later on Sunday than originally planned and try and find out what had happened on the roof to cause what had obviously been a good fix (it had rained a lot in Blackpool while he was in the garage and he had been outside and no leak had been apparent then at all) to break.

The rags were soaked through very quickly and I had to keep ringing them out and returning them throughout the Sunday as I tried to ensure as little damp as possible got inside.

It wasn't until very late on Sunday that I finally managed to get up to look at the roof and I spotted pretty quickly that there was a section where the sealant I put on appeared to either not have been applied, or fallen off. As I was exhausted I quickly applied the sealant and gave up on the ideas of PVAing a load of plastic right over the top and covering the aircon unit (my biggest suspicion being around that, however there was no water coming through the unit inside so maybe it isn't there) so maybe I'll do that if I get a chance to get back over before the leaving weekend.

The hookup for Julian being worked on

Fingers crossed it doesn't rain on the journey in case I haven't actually fixed the leak; I'll be putting everything that goes in those side cupboards into waterproof containers though for sure. It was only affecting the one side which is a really good thing as the cupboards on the other side contained pictures rolled up in tubes and not all of them inside a tube; they would have been totally ruined if it had come through on the other side.

The final itsy bitsy thing achieved was getting the other bike rack on Thomas which was achieved by comparing and contrasting with the first one, and then finally helped with the instructions which I managed to find as they had fallen through the bottom of the box where it had been stored. I am now fully ready for taking both bikes with me, one of which works the other will be a long project to get back up and running again.

A halogen bulb which went in my lights

Time conspired against me in my wish to put both roof boxes on Julian (partly as I was concerned about the roof again) and doing the removable tray for Sassy with a fixed food bowl however these things won't take long and I will prioritise the Sassy thing for the next time I'm there.

Things which I didn't add to the list and therefore completely forgot about include checking the size of the tires on Julian so I can order the snow chains, and checking the number of passenger seat belts in Pierre as a friend has asked about him (he's still not sold, sadly). I've asked my long suffering business partner to pop out and check these for me so hopefully my forgetfulness won't impact me too much there.

Right, I'm going back to bed now to sleep for another 10 hours in the hope that tomorrow I'll be well enough to get back into the office. I hate migraines.