Also decided to give the garage I used to go to a call to see if they could check the timing today - am just off there now to see them. I thought they might be able to help as I remember the owner guy being old school.
I wrote the above on Friday and left it half completed, so am carrying on now on Monday evening....
When Harry and I pulled in to the garage the guy said he sounded very rough, and that it sounded more than just timing! I left him there for an hour or so and wandered in to town to look to see if any fabric caught my eye. DaddyDave called to say he was at the station so I met him and we had a tour of the charity shops. Found a couple of duvet covers, but that's not enough for curtains and cushions but will be nice for patchwork stuff in the future.
We went back to the garage and Harry was sounding much better. Still not right, but considerably less unright. He said to see how we got on after a run and that he really needs taking apart a bit and checking/changing points etc. As I may have mentioned, the seller said the points etc had been done in June, but as he's running so badly and the oil sump plug seems to be leaking, I don't currently have a lot of confidence in that June service. I will call the garage up (didn't get chance at work today) to sort out taking him back in soon.
Anyway, DaddyDave and I spent the afternoon making cushion covers and curtains. Here is a picture of us at work.
Peter Pan decided that DaddyDave needed supervising... you can see the old covers on the floor
Pauly then came home and we packed Harry ready for Warwick. Off we went, nervously on our way. Harry was fine! He spluttered and popped a bit, and wobbled sometimes, but he got us there! We went from Gloucester to Warwick in not much longer than it would normally take us. We avoided the motorway and took the A38 to Tewkesbury, across to Evesham, past Stratford and on to Warwick where we were greeted by our friends and I drank a much needed cider.
It was a fabulous weekend. Everyone enjoyed having a look at Harry and Pauly played with the other boys tinkering with Harry. He got adourned in good old gaffer tape on Friday night (the bit of wood that sits under the pop up roof along one side of him is so rotten it's wet - and our carpenter friend put his finger through it when he had a look!), so Harry feels like a proper folky van now.
Jim, John, Arthur and Pauly investigated the fridge and found the ignition wasn't doing anything. We're not sure if that's connected to the fact that the lights don't work either (the ones inside the living area) so we will have to investigate that further. They looked at the battery and how it was all connected, and Arthur trimmed off the frayed edge of one of the mudflaps.
We had a lovely time at the festival. We only saw two acts - we were enjoying sitting with our friends and Harry too much! We bought some friends for Harry - Billy the Bass who holds a tea light. Anne gave us an S hook to hang him up with from the roof handles and he cast a lovely pattern when lit. We also bought Charlotte the Cow and Dave the Hat gave us some white blue tack to fix her to the dash.
Here's Billy Bass in the dark in Harry
And here's Pauly with Charlotte who went for a tour of the festival before taking residence in Harry
Just before we left the boys started investigating the living area water tank. I was concerned that if there was water in it it should be drained (the pump is broken) and while he was stood on grass rather than our concrete drive it seemed a good time to take a look for a drainage place. I don't think they could find one, and in the end Richard cut the pipe. We were advised not to use the tank, and instead to get an Aquaroll (which DaddyDave said he had a spare one of) and an electric pump in it. Jim had a good idea of fixing hoselock connectors so that the pipes didn't have to hang down at all, so that's something we'll look in to. In the meantime we'll carry on like in the tent and fill our water bottle and use a bowl!
We made it home without incident (if of course you ignore the severe popping fit that Harry had between Warwick and Stratford) and I had a relief filled cider (I blame Harry for driving me to drink).
The seller sent me a link to an auction for some replacement rear door cupboards (one of Harry's is very rotten) and I emailed him. He's replied tonight to say he still has them (the auction ended in June), but the only problem is they're in Norfolk! Perhaps a weekend over to the East may be on the cards....
