Tuesday 20th November 2012
Hopefully a successful day. I say hopefully because we've spent a lot of time trying to re-do our shrink film double glazing.
Some may remember that this is something we apply every winter to try to stop the rivers of condensation from our metal window frames, and also it helps with heat retention.
This year's first effort wasn't a success. The first  attempt went slack very quickly, and trying to re-tighten it didn't work for long.
We tried several times with different methods, and the one which seems to work best is with double strips of the stick tape, spaced apart.
With one window now looking as if it might be ok we decided to have a go at the rest. All seems fine at the moment, but time will tell. The picture shows one window finished, but despite both of us saying "don't forget to put the sun catcher back up before applying the film, guess what, there it is on the back of my chair!
I'm also having trouble with my 3 broadband, so after several complaints to the aforesaid company they have agreed  to give me a rebate on this month's bill because of the maintenance issue with a local mast. Result! but I'd rather have the speed. 

Wednesday November 7th 2012
On Monday we hired a car and drove down to Bristol to sort out a problem with our house. 
Paul and Jacqui came up trumps yet again, and even though they were off on holiday to Malta they insisted that we use their house as a base while we were there.
Over the weekend before setting off we both caught cold and over the next few days they have developed into real streamers, and we're both suffering like babies.
All went well with our problem, so this morning we set off back to Leeds. The roads were quite clear, and apart from some roadworks we moved along quite smoothly.
We're now back at the boat and are wrapping ourselves up warmly to try and shake these colds.

Sunday November 4th 2012
Sunday morning, and it's darn cold out there. 2.5 degrees C
Yesterday we were due to go to Saltaire for a look around the art gallery. both Cath and Damon are interested in art.
Damon rang in the morning to tell us that Daniel had been poorly in the night, so it wasn't a good idea to take a long car trip. We decided to go round to their house instead, and maybe go to Roundhay Park if Dan perked up.
He duly appeared to bounce back through the morning, so we set off to feed the ducks in the lake and then have a spot of lunch in The Lakeside, a fine cafe on the lake edge.
In the afternoon we settled back at the house. Dan had a long afternoon nap to get over the exertion of running around in the park.
Later we had dinner and then returned to the boat.
This morning I dived onto the engine compartment to finally clear up some of the accumulated detritus in the bottom. I've been putting it off for years!
It looks a lot better now, certainly not pristine, but a big improvement.
Tomorrow we will pick up a hire car and travel down to Bristol to visit friends and try to sort out a glitch with the house.

Thursday November 1st. 2012
Home at last. After nearly 3 weeks away Lyra is once again tucked up snugly on a pontoon in Clarence Dock.
Last night, after waiting a long time for the completion of our modification to the central heating circuit, Dave finally got around to cutting the hole and re-routing the central heating pipes so that the flow is through a header tank now. This allows any air to escape naturally, which it would not do before.
This morning I was finally presented with the bill and I went into town to get the money from the bank as I'd told the guys I would pay in cash.
Once back at the boat we prepared for departure and I tried to start the engine. No go! A quick look at the instrument panel showed that it was getting no power.
I dived into the engine compartment to see if I could see anything obvious. I traced the power feed and found no troubles in the main supply. The only thing I could think of was that during the work yesterday some damage had occurred in the wiring loom so I called Dave over for help.
The problem was soon found to be damage to one of the main feed cables to the instrument panel. When he had drilled through the bulkhead Dave had nicked the cable. He soon made repairs, but then we had to find the fuse that had been taken out by the grounding. it took a while, but finally he located it, and we were back in business.
By now the time was pushing on, and just as we started to leave the yard one of the sand barges came past, taking the lock.
We plodded around to the lock mooring to wait our turn. Unfortunately, after that one had gone through, there was another on its way from the other direction, so we had to wait even longer. By the time we got through Castleford Lock we had been waiting an hour and it was now 12.00 o'clock. 
Pulling out onto the river I gave Lyra some welly and off we went. The good news is that the modifications made to quieten her down have worked very well, the high efficiency silencer and soundproofing have made a great deal of difference . We can now talk easily on the back deck, even at high power settings,also the mods to our rudder appear to improve the drive and the steering
When we reached Lemonroyd Lock, once again the fates were against us, the gates refused to open and after waiting a long time, and trying many times to get the gates to open we gave up and called C&RT to report a fault. Just after that Cath tried the gates again and, wonder of wonders, they opened. I called C&RT to cancel the help and we continued on our way.
There were no more hold ups, and we finally arrived in the dock at about 3.45, not bad considering the holdups.