While recently in Stamford, we bought a new bird box.
Bird house
Author Archives: garymoore
Barbecue
For some reason, shortly after moving into this house, I built a barbecue in the garden. I think it was used twice.
It’s now a new (third) pile of rocks in the garden.
Which will soon be relocated to the new hole in the garden.
Peterborough beer festival
After being home a few days, I’m catching-up with things. Last Friday, which already feels like a lifetime ago, we visited this year’s beer festival in Peterborough. It’s allegedly the second largest in the country and entry is free for CAMRA members. Fortunately, my beloved and I are members.
Unfortunately, we’d left our membership cards at home. We’d not actually realised that we’d be in Peterborough during the beer festival. I was made aware on my arrival from London, where I bumped into my beloved’s niece (who asked whether we were there for the festival).
Luckily, a very nice man escorted us through the CAMRA members’ entrance at minimal cost. Well, we really are members. It’d been some time since we’d been to this festival and it seemed larger than on that last occasion. There was certainly a huge range of beer and it was great to see many labelled as unfined or hazy. Usually, I find four or five fishless beers at a beer festival, but there were so many on this occasion that I was only able to work my way through a small proportion of fish-free beer. I’d definitely recommend checking this beer festival out.
Newark
Right, a few years ago, I was stuck in Newark because I had a booked train and work stuff ended early.
So, I used my time wisely, after my non-booked train brought me to Newark. I found some nice bars.
My second visit to Newark was a few years later, just a few weeks ago. We stopped off in the van on our way back from Peterborough. When we found the Castle Barge.
And we’ve found ourselves here again today, meeting up with some of my second in command’s family.
We had a drink earlier in the Old Post Office, a nice old post office, although I took no pictures.
We did have a quick drink in the hotel bar beforehand.
There were some other decent bars. For example …
And …
And then …
We had to find food, before a nightcap in the hotel.
Other nice bars may have been involved.
St Alban
I used to spend a lot of time in St Albans, a whole lifetime ago.
We’re staying there tonight and I’ve spent much of today retracing my children’s steps as infants. And one time after a trip to Munich in the early 00s.
While my children have little recollection, other than a crowding geese incident, we often frequented places such as ….
Enough of of that though, we also went to some pubs (some of which my children have visited).
The Ostrich
Strawberry Camden Hells. I said Strawberry Camden Hells.
In the Ostrich. In Peterborough. A truly great bar.
EELS
The Eventim (previously Hammersmith) Apollo was bouncing last night. Eels.
Blackboards
I was recently asked if I could replace the blackboards outside my local (the old ones were suffering from rot).
I’m pretty happy with the end result. 
They’re huge, so my second in command’s help was needed in erecting them.
And so to bed
The van has moved into storage temporarily.
It does somewhat resemble a pig in the second picture.
Cabin floor IV
The van seems to have taken over my life this summer; it’s seriously addictive.
So I’ll now talk about the van again. I had to choose against a fixed or floating cabin floor and was leaning towards the latter, buying insulation to lay before plywood. However, having bought rather rigid floor tiles, I was concerned that a floating floor above insulation might not be rigid enough. So I decided on a fixed floor.
To level the floor, I fitted 6mm ply padding (the edges are raised). 
This was followed by 10mm plywood, which made the floor pretty firm. 
And then the vinyl tiles. 
It obviously needs cleaning, but the adhesive needs to cure first. I’m really pleased with the result.
Next is the cab floor.