Happy Christmas!

...and a peaceful and prosperous New Year to all my readers.

Have a lovely time today and dream of glorious Spring and Summer drives in your Morgan.

Cheers!

Chuckers

Vacancies filled!

After pursuing the two potential recruits residing in Switzerland but realising that it was going to cost at least 32 Euros to have them transferred, I decided to fill my two crew vacancies from the UK.

This momentous decision was made while I was searching the web for alternatives and happened to come across a fellow boatbuilder who made his own.

Not the most handsome helmsman!

The discovery was like a red rag to a bull, so off I went to 'Hobbycraft' in Preston, to buy some 'Fimo' modelling clay and some cheap acrylic paints, accompanied by my lovely wife who would never miss the opportunity of visiting a nearby M & S!

...and as for this beauty!!!!

Mission completed for around a fiver we returned home, whereupon, I found some galvanised wire in the shed and shaped it into the skeletons of the crew I required, ie a helmsman and a glamorous female who would flaunt on the rear seat of the deckhouse!

At the wheel

After kneeding the clay I started to sculp the figures by forming the clay around the wire framework.

She looks absolutely paralytic after consuming her wine!!!!

When the figures were completed to my satisfaction, not quite to Michelangelo's standard, they were placed in the oven at 130 degrees for half an hour, after which the hardened figures were taken out, allowed to cool and then painted.

All set to go.

The results of my labours can be seen in the photographs.

Helmsman required!!!

My new boat is complete except for at least one crew member which I feel will add to the look of the craft when it is on the water. I have sourced a couple of likely candidates who are residing currently in Switzerland, so I will probably wait until after Christmas and New Year to recruit them, when the postal service will be less fraught.

Finished!

The building of this luxury cruiser has taken up most of my time over the last few weeks, when I should have been out there buying Christmas cards, presents and cogitating over the various details, culinary and otherwise that we men have to contend with at this time each year!

It has also meant that I have not been out for a pootle in the Morgan....and oh do I enjoy a good pootle! Anyway yesterday I ventured out on a 15 mile round trip to give the engine a good run and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Now the boat building is over I shall be giving more time to our cars and also to our humble abode and garden.

How this will affect my constitution remains to be seen, because, while building the boat, my wife said that I was a better person to live with, informing most of the village of this dramatic change in Chucker's character, in fact on one occasion she caught me singing or was it whistling? Yours truly was a very happy chappy, absolutely top-ho, so I'm hoping, and so is everyone else, that I do not have a relapse.

The maiden voyage of the 'Lollypop', I haven't chosen a name yet, took place this morning in our bath. In preparation for this I asked my wife to fill it , which she gladly did, carrying jugfuls of water filled from the well at the bottom of the garden. In our part of darkest Lancashire, United Utilities have not got around to laying on modern facilities so we are obliged to retain our ancient bathing facility and take a shovel into the garden as and when necessary.

It was not a very long maiden voyage, as our galvanised bath tub is not very long, in fact we have a dreadful job getting in and out of it, especially as we are both ridden with rheumatic ailments! However, once I had got to grips with the technical aspects of radio control, the boat moved in the direction and at the speed I demanded, which was encouraging, although it was necessary for her indoors to hold on to it to avoid collisions fore and aft in the confined space.

I am looking forward to a calm sunlit winter's day when I can take it to our model boating lake and see it perform to its full capacity.

Only five days now to the shortest day, then we turn the corner and although there is a lot of winter to come, at least the days will get longer and dreams of idyllic Morgan based picnics will once again be filling my mind.

Photos of the build follow:-

ANCHORS AWEIGH!!!!!!!

Boatbuilding!

As you all know, I lead a miserable life in my little terraced cottage in darkest Lancashire, where, during the dark winter months, the only pleasure I usually get is to enjoy a kipper or a black pudding for breakfast.

I then sit huddled over a glowing ember in the fire grate trying to keep warm, with a dewdrop on the end of my nose, listening to the wireless, wearing many layers of clothing, including thermal underwear, fingerless gloves, woolly hat and a jumper that is six sizes too big, knitted for me by a Hebridean lady called Morag, who proudly said at the outset that she always knitted them slightly large for the local fishermen!

Large!.... it's absolutely immense, and could accommodate another person easily. They must be huge those Hebridean fishermen!

It's easy for me in winter to feel morose, when weather conditions mean that on most days the Morgan stays in the garage and yours truly is confined to the house, reading, surfing the web or being instructed in the art of washing-up and general housekeeping, by a wife who has certain of the traits of Attilla the Hun!

When all those various tasks are completed I normally find myself twiddling my thumbs, so this winter I decided that things would be different and as a result went out and purchased a radio controlled model boat kit to keep me occupied. I've always had a yen for one, especially having completed, a few years ago, a plank on frame model of one of Nelson's ships.

The job has given me hours of pleasure and a few moments of concern, when my heart skipped a beat, thinking that I'd ruined the whole project.

 As I write, the winter has hardly started and we've a lot of very grim weather to come, but I'm sure that this rekindled interest in modelmaking, for I did a lot in my youth, will keep boredom at bay.

However, one of the main problems I have is that it is not an easy task to build models of this type wearing fingerless gloves!!!

Room with a View

Following the visit of Her Majesty the Queen in July, my wife and I have just enjoyed a special one night break at the Miller Howe Hotel millerhowe.com ,a small Arts and Crafts hotel, set in 5 acres of grounds, overlooking Windermere in Cumbria.

The Miller Howe Hotel

Arranged by our daughters and their husbands, as a gift to celebrate my 70th birthday, they knew that we would truly appreciate the special quality of this long established restaurant and hotel. It was set up in 1971 by John Tovey, the renowned chef, hotelier and food writer who is now in his eighties.

Possibly one of the first Country House Hotels, it has always enjoyed a first class reputation for food, comfort and service. The Head chef is Andy Beaton who worked for Raymond Blanc in his restaurant,'Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons.

From our bedroom window, with the Langdale Pikes in the distance

The weather when we set off from home was not really condusive to carefree Morgan driving, so we got our trusty 11 year old Volvo V70 out of the garage, a luxury car to match our accommodation!

...and another, I couldn't stop taking shots of this view!

The hotel lived up to its reputation, with a lovely quiet ambience, magnificent food and superbly efficient and friendly service......and we awoke in the morning to that glorious view.

The Blind Piper!

At last, the website of the 'Blind Piper Pub' in Caherdaniel is up and running www.blindpiperpub.com and our Morgan appears in the banner, 12 images in.

My wife and I are delighted, as we have so many happy memories of our holiday in Kerry with the Morgan and it was fortuitous that, on one of our visits to this delightful tavern, we parked outside and Vincent Hyland just happened to be taking shots of the pub for the new website.

The Blind Piper pub

Vincent is a local artist and naturalist, as well as a lovely chap, and I suggest that you have a look at the following websites  www.ayearinkerry.com and www.vincenthylandartist.com  which I think will truly give you a sense of the magic that is the wild coast of Kerry and encourage you to visit.

No caption necessary really!

The full story of our visit to this fabulous area can be read in my blog '4/4 to Kerry'.

Start 'em young!

At last I was able to keep my promise to my eldest grandson....a drive in Grandad's Morgan.

He never stopped talking on our drive and after giving me initial instructions not to drive fast, decided, after 200 yards, that he rather enjoyed travelling fast.

All smiles!

During the whole trip I never exceeded the speed limits, but with the sidescreens off it seems like you are travelling extremely fast, especially to a 4 year old!.....and perhaps to a 70 year old as well!

We both thoroughly enjoyed the experience.