Lyra's Travels

Saturday 22nd June 2013
Yesterday we had fine time, walked into town and then caught a tram out to the Victoria Centre. We could have taken a bus, but Cath likes trams, so we had to try it. They don't accept wrinkly passes on the tram, so I had to fork out money, oh how sad. The best deal was to get an all day rider, at £3.50 each. The tram lines only go from the rail station to two places as yet, but the line is in the process of being extended.
The reason for choosing the Victoria Centre was that there is a John Lewis there, and Cath needed here fix. At least we did find something she wanted, a cooking thermometer to help with her marmalade making.
We had planned to set off again this morning, but disaster has struck. I went to start the engine and it failed. All the symptoms seem to point to a flat battery, but the voltage is still ok at 12.7. Of course this drops dramatically when you try the starter, but I would expect that. I then tried jump leads from my leisure bank, but that made no difference so I'm starting to suspect the starter motor.
This caused a bit of panic this morning because we've had two days from the batteries and expected to charge today, and do a wash load.
With no quick fix on the horizon I decided to bite the bullet and buy a generator to tide us over. A trip to Machine Mart and I've bought a 2 Kw Clarke inverter gen. Not renown for their quality and longevity, but affordable. It's now chugging away on the back deck feeding our greedy batteries.
The problem of the non starting engine still has to be addressed.