I've made further strides ...

... in the garden today.

After another late start and breakfast I carried on with my notes from my recent trip and they are all up-to-date now. Following that I had a huge pile of stuff to pack and prepare for shipping - and it was then that I realised that the UK is closed today.

After lunch I started the repair programme. A few batteries needed recharging and replacing and they were all done. The new fuse is fitted to the overcharge circuit now and I have hot water again at last. But the largest strip fuse that I have seems to be 50-amp and that's not enough but it's all that I have for now, so it will have to do. I'll have to pay a discreet visit to the local car breaker's, or else buy some ... "Buy? Are you feeling alright?" - ed ... when i'm next in the UK. The type that I want actually range from 40 amps to 250 amps so I shouldn't have too many problems getting what I want.

Not so good news in the barn though. It seems that one of the charge controllers, the oldest one, has ceased to function. 10 years old so I can't complain too much but it is rather annoying. It's something internal that has gone wrong with it. I can tell this because the voltmeter is registering the voltage on the battery so that side is fine, and the hourmeter wired to the input side is working too, so that bit is okay. it's all of the bits in the middle where we have a problem. What I've done for now is to connect the two terminals together with an old jump lead - not ideal but at least current is reaching the batteries and so they will charge up. But there's no cut-off when they are fully-charged so I will just have to keep my eye on them, and disconnect them if I have to go out on a sunny day.

That left me an hour in the garden and I weeded one of the beds. It's stil not done but at least I can see what's in there. Tons of brussels sprouts by the looks of things.

Meanwhile in other news, since I graduated from University, the whys and wherefores of OUSA - the Open University Students Association, have been sadly lacking from these pages. I've been doing my best to put it all behind me but it won't go away. The latest is that what should have been a private mail from an elected officer to a member of the Association but which was "inadvertantly" (as if that ever happens) published to a public forum.

The memo reads -  
Hi all. My name is Hazel (http://www.facebook.com/hazel.pegg) and my Alter Ego is VP Comms. For various reasons my official ID needs to be an admin of your FB page. please don't force me to go the heavy route?

What kind of threat is that to make to a member of an organisation of which the writer is an elected member? My own opinion is that it is thoroughly shameful. It reminds me of the Kray Twins or the legendary "Dinsdale" sketch - "he nailed my head to a coffee table. He didn't want to do it - I had to insist"


But whatever you might think - it just goes to show that nothing has changed in OUSA.