A solution for our 'hollow' tiles!

Thursday 9 July.

 

We went out for a walk again this morning before breakfast. It was a bit of a new route today, out Ibis then a right turn at Forin to loop round back to Abington then up again to Ibis and home. It was cool at 7:30 am and nice for walking. Moira was still struggling a little on the hills but she is improving. Our time was slightly longer but only by 5 minutes, it was a good route with some nice challenging hills.

 

I made breakfast while Moira had her shower then after tidying the kitchen I had my shower. We then began to make a list of all the stuff we are sending to Scotland. We have to work out a value for insurance purposes and there a few other forms to complete by Monday. They will be coming next Thursday to pack and take everything away. We didn't go mad and try to record all the stuff in one go but did about a third and will have it finished by the week-end.

 

Next I worked on the hinge on the fold down desk in the bureau. The Pratley putty I filled the hole with over a week ago was now solid. I drilled a hole and tried to fit a rawlplug in for the screw but the drill hole was too small or the plug too big. In the end I was able to screw directly into the epoxy putty and it held firmly. It is looking quite good and firm, it only needs a bit of varnish around the hinge where the putty protrudes.

 

Moira went to the library once the work on the desk was complete. While she was out I checked through Google for information about repairing tiles that were 'hollow' underneath. I found a product 'fix-a-foor' and a video showing how to repair the problem. It was a matter of drilling a hole in the grouting on each side of the tile and injecting the adhesive into the holes. I checked on Amazon for the price of this adhesive, it was £15 for a cylinder, and there were lots of comments saying that it works 'as advertised'. I checked if it was available in SA and it can be bought at Builder's Warehouse for R199 but only in Gauteng. I showed Moira the video when she got back and she sent an email to Alex to ask him to buy some for us and bring it with him when he comes down to Scottburgh. He replied later that he had gone out and got some for me. I will try it on some of the 'hollow' sounding tiles and see if it works. If it is successful I can get more when we come out again next year.

Views of the Alabaster Coast & Etretat

 

At lunch I turned on the TV for the Ashes test. England had done well with the remainder of their innings and finished with 430. Australia were batting and when they went for lunch they had 20 without loss. I then turned over for the cycling. Today it was along the coast and there were fine views of cliffs, the Alabaster Coast, and the rock formations just off the town of Etretat where we stopped in our first motorhome a few years ago.

 

 

 

The stage was from Abbeville to La Harve a distance of 191.5 km. It was a slight uphill finish so not very good for the regular sprinters. There was a big crash just in the last 3 km so they all got the same finishing time. This meant that Tony Martin still held the yellow jersey even though he went down. Unfortunately he broke his collar bone and later he withdrew from the race. The stage was won by one of Martin's teammates, Stybar. He broke away in the last kilometre and won comfortably but we didn't see how it transpired as the TV producer was concentrating on the crash. The other big talking point by the commentators was the polka dot jersey for the 'king of the mountains'. An African rider, Teklehaimanot, on the MTM team won it, the first African to win a leaders jersey but it wasn't much of an achievement, there have only been a couple of minor hills so far and he had just accumulated 4 points.

 

When the cycling finished it was back to the cricket. England were doing quite well and at the close of play they had Australia at 264/5. So the match is evenly poised. We had roast chicken for dinner tonight with potatoes and courgettes while the cricket was on. Later we didn't bother with tennis tonight but watch the comedy 'Open all Hours' then 'Call the Midwife', both on BBC Entertainment. It was off to bed at the usual time.

 

 

 

 

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