July 2024 – Part 2 (16th to 31st)
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It was soon time for Nicki to jet back to the UK, primarily for Isabella’s very first birthday on 20th July, but also to take part in Steve and Steph’s wedding day just a few days after, and visit Lesley and Mike, staying with Stuart and Sara, Lesley and Mike, and finally Lucy in London on her last evening.
Arriving in Worcester on 17th, she was very happy to have all the family (although not me, obviously) together on her first weekend, together spending a day out to celebrate Isabella becoming one year old.
Now on my own (along with Casper and Pip) I had intended to tackle some jobs that had been hanging around for a while – last year I repainted the bollards with an epoxy paint but at the time thought I’d use a different second part to the mix. Sadly that proved to be a mistake as the paint did not set well and was easily messed up by the ropes. So, my first chore was to repaint the offending bollards …. and obviously I wouldn’t make that same mistake again!
This time round, when Nicki found out that we had some red paint left over from when the red stripe was added to the hull, she thought it would be nice to repaint the bollards red. No problem, I thought. However, I didn’t have any original second part available, so I used some from another supplier ….. so there I was again, with the not-quite-right mix, which meant that five days later the paint was still tacky. In fact, testing with a bit of white spirit showed that the new paintwork would easily rub off. Aaaaaargh. I was left with no choice but to clean it all off using a horrible process that took me a whole day.
On the plus side, I had applied a good quality epoxy undercoat, such that after removing all the red paint, I could repaint with the correct epoxy topcoat, only this time in the original blue colour.
Having taken so much time and effort over this particular job, and with some blisteringly hot days as well, I only managed to tick off a few more jobs from the list – to be fair, it was so unbearably hot most of the time that over and above these jobs, and some very early/late dog walks (due to the heat) plus a few cycle rides to the local supermarket, I hunkered down as much as possible in our beautifully air-conditioned salon.
At last, the day arrived when Nicki, along with Amy, was due back, so after some general cleaning and tidying up, I caught the bus to the airport to meet and greet them and get them safely back on board. Their plane had been delayed leaving Heathrow, but they arrived not much later than expected and we were soon on our way back to the marina. The dogs were overjoyed to see their mum, with Amy as a huge bonus, particularly for Pip who was crying in excitement.
