It’s all a bit techy

It’s a funny old year? We’ve still got four months left and you’re not really sure how that’s going to go. There has been so much calamity, so much news, it does make you wonder whether there can be any more surprises.

[image error]the only certainty is that I will continue to run

As an ex-teacher I could go on about the A-level fiasco, but I’m so dreadfully tired of it all. What flattens me about this latest debacle is that Gavin Williamson has had more than enough time to see this coming. And if he did ask for, and have the stats in front of him, what was he thinking? Leaving aside the unfairness of it all, he must have seen the optics weren’t going to go well? Surely? It’s either incompetence or down right bloodimindedness – after the two fingers we got with the Cummings affair, it might well be the latter. Whatever – it tires me out.

We’ve made it to Mary’s, having popped in to see Jen and James and then picking Mary up from her brother’s. We’re here until Thursday, although I am going onto mum’s tomorrow for a couple of nights. When we get back, assuming all is well, we’re thinking of packing up Doris and heading for the north of England for at least a month, with no particular ambition, other than I want to start book seven.

[image error]couldn’t not take a photo

Before we left yesterday, I finished a major electrical upgrade on Doris [warning, techy bit coming]. You may remember that the main 240v ring trips easily (it’s 10 amps, which should give you 2300 watts, but I’m not sure it does). This is a problem because the inverter kicks in seamlessly and whatever has been drawing the 10 amps then gets fed by the inverter, which comes from the batteries. For the old batteries this was a real issue and I’m pretty sure used to cause them all sorts of harm. With the new li-ion ones, they’d have no problem pushing out 10 amps until they ran out, up to 20 hours later.

But, especially as we leave a electric fire on overnight (it is easily the biggest continuous draw), we still don’t want that risk. We could change the inverter (£1000) or … and this I have now done … I split the incoming mains electrics before the fuse box and run a couple of sockets off the split, which we can run our electric fire off. This means that should the main fuse box trip, then the two remote sockets keep delivering power.

You’ll be pleased to hear that the new circuit is professionally fitted including its own fused switch. I have to say that getting the wire fed from the where the electrics come into the van (rear right) to where we wanted the sockets (front left) wasn’t without some Houdini work in the gap between the two floors. But I managed … and kept all my fingers. What was interesting was that much of the non-Hymer wiring which was post-fitted (£10,000 worth of extras were fitted by the previous owner), was poorly done, including some bad/thin wire choices. Anyhow, it’s done now.

[image error]OK. So the fused switch on the left is mine – it feeds two sockets. The fuse box does everything else and is wired through the inverter. The socket on the right was an extra one fitted, which I have sorted again (wire is upgraded and is now neatly stowed).

I think that’s it for Doris improvements. Sure, with the trike gone and the trailer likely to go on Thursday, should we decide to buy a moped I’ll need to do some work in the garage, but other than that she’s never been better.

That’s it from me. I’m still waiting on Boukouture to get back to me on Of Black Bulls and White Horses. If the answer is ‘no’, which I suspect it will be, then I’ll need to decide whether I’m just going to proof and publish, or put it out to a couple of agents. Not sure yet.

Have a good weekend. And keep safe.