The end of phase clean up begins and mutineers will walk the plank ...

(Am just reading this out to Lesley, and David is eavesdropping - he wants to know who Fay is ... Why do I have to put up with this crew?)

We did stay put today at Hillmorton and a fair amount has been achieved. As we make our way slowly to Debdale, the clean up is successfully getting underway - we are so lucky with the weather again this year as it facilitates painting and stuff.

I spent half an hour this morning cleaning the runnel (right word? Is it a word? Not sure but it sounds like [onomatoepaic] the word I want as it seems to me to describe a channel along which water will run, and more importantly, in which dust and grime will gather and rust will and has formed) along both sides of the roof. I had been along both sides with the scraper and the sanding block and Fertan over the last couple of days. But I decided that I needed to be very thorough, so the cleaning operation was undertaken. Having completed that, I will put on another couple of costs of topcoat to make sure that any paint degradation is obviated.   I then put another coat of undercoat on already undercoated acne, and a first coat on the primered spots.

Then Lesley and I jointly and severally washed down the cratch cover - it is still not 100% clean - not even 50% of the green stuff has come off in my view, but WE know it has been cleaned.

Lesley is now cleaning the roof section

We used diluted Fabsil, but I am not sure of its efficacy. I think white vinegar may have been better but I don't have enough of it in the kitchen cupboard to do the whole job ... Watch this space for the next cleaning episode where white vinegar is purchased in 5 litre lots (as we used to at Cherswud because we used lots of it there - cleaning windows, mirrors etc.) If we ever replace the cratch and pram covers, I think we will go for a non-permeable outer surface that wipes clean. However the people moored in front of us today who have such a pramcover, said that it gets a lot of condensation inside it. Any advice would be welcomed, team!

David, bless his heart, has been cleaning down in the engine bay.

It is a good thing being small enough to fit in the engine bay - eat your heart out, tall people!

He has completed one side in the cleaning and fertanning marathon. He still has under the engine, along the port side and in the weed hatch compartment to do, but he is now stopping for the day and looks decidedly grubby. He is now inside with requisite disagreement about the order of rose serving, and showering. Lesley, the soft hearted one, wants to let him sit down - but he can bite his bum. He is so totally messy and I am NOT going to have to clean furnishings as well. And Lesley, the b*tch, is serving him a SECOND g;ass of rose. She will be punished!!!

Lesley is keen to learn about making toad in the hole - she is the truly English one, you understand, but I am the cook with an English mum (well, I did have an English mum until 1997 and well before that she taught me all sorts of good basic cooking stuff). So earlier today, ODS has been on nb Waka Huia's cooking school and has prepared the batter for toad in the hole, skinned the sausages and divided each of them into three pieces. When completed her batter looked skilly to me, so I asked had she filled the half cup measure totally (I knew the milk had been measured accurately as I had done it, over the bowl so she would know for next time ...). No she said. It's a half cup measure, sez I, so you should fill the bloody thing. So, sez I, add two tablespoons more of flour. Aha, success - it now looks the right consistency - runny cream (thanks, Mum!) Once the batter was right she was on to skinning the sausages. Well, I ask you - how hard can that be? Obviously, she is a brilliant project manager, but skinning sausages, even under instruction, is not her core skill. She had sausage skins, bits of trapped sausage meat and a belly laugh along with a shrieked 'what?' when I asked what the hell she thought she was doing ...

She IS good on dishes though

BTW, as any NZer will know, I have made the ultimate sacrifice and given Lesley my Edmonds Cookbook - now how can she be rude to me after that - quite easily, it seems.  The ungrateful *****  add the most appropriate 5 letters!  However I must say she has been looking at all the cake recipes ...

The rest of dinner I prepared - brown onion and mushroom sauce, potatoes for mashing, sprouts (yuk!) and carrots.

Onion and mushroom sauce

From the bottom: potatoes, carrots and sprouts

Divided sausages and batter

Wine and cider are well underway in the consumption department ... Best I stop now or I may be embarrassing.

I merely note, without upset, that there are NO photos of me at work - is that because I am the photographer as well as the primary worker?