New stove

Adrian left home slightly before me this morning as I had a village task to do, and then I set off a few minutes behind.  En route, Adrian stopped at Tesco at Bicester for some food for the weekend — and miraculously when we phoned each other just as I was approaching the marina, it turned out he was two cars behind me.  We left one car there, and drove up to Heyford Fields.  As expected, the old stove had fallen apart when moved, so it’s been replaced by a new Morso Squirrel.  We went like for like, as going for a cheaper option would undoubtedly have meant that the flue no longer fitted.  The old stove had some extra sloping metal pieces inside, to reduce the size of the fire box, and I’d kept them and re-installed them in the new one.

The BLS guys have also taken off the roof collar of the flue and reseated and resealed it, so hopefully we’ll no longer have a leak.  A speaking of leaks, we’ve also had the shower room towel rail swapped back to a radiator.  The towel rail was put in a few years ago when the original radiator developed a hole, but hasn’t been the improvement we expected, as it was small and took only one towel.  I’ve re-installed a rail above the rad, which can take two towels.

As might be expected, the bill was substantial. The boat had been put on a mooring near the diesel point, and getting out from there turned out to be a lot easier than the space by the slipway.  It was about 1pm when we left, having grabbed some lunch, and it was grey and chilly — although at least we could now light the stove.  We went to Blisworth, to a mooring just through Bridge 49 where we slotted into a space on the piling, rather than having to continue to the bit where pins are needed.

5 miles, 0 locks.