Yesterday was the last red day on our Tempo tariff! Yippee! No more will I have to set the alarm clock for 5:55am to leap out of bed and turn off all the electric radiators before the 'Peak Tariff' kicks in at 6am. There is a huge difference in price between the lowest and the highest rate per kWh. On a blue day, off peak is nearly 9 cents a unit whilst a peak unit on a red day is over 51 cents a unit!

My model boat is really taking shape! I have completed the basic hull and I have taken it off the building jig. I have used 3mm ply instead of Balsa as model shops seem a bit few and far between over here plus I had some in the sous-sol. Now I have to fill in all the gaps between the panels to make it watertight. I've used a special hot melt glue from my glue gun to coat all the internal seams and joints between the hull and the bulkheads. It's a black, hard but flexible glue which at the moment looks ugly but I intend to cover it with decorators caulk which in turn will be overpainted with primer before the top coat is applied. All the inside will need painting to waterproof it and I have been researching the materials for the masts. Hollow fibre glass tubes which are used in kites look favourite and I shall pick some up when I go back to the UK in a month or so.

Having snow feature in our lives last week was a novelty! We woke to a white carpet of a couple of centimetres which lasted about half a day! The pets were not pleased and it was the first time our new kitten had experienced it....nasty white stuff! He didn't stay out long! The problem with having a black coat is that snow stands out so much, our black labrador came in looking like a reverse Dalmation! The cold weather is not doing my Arthritis much good and stiff joints are the result. Some French friends of ours have gone to Marocco for 6 weeks to get some sun. One of them suffers like me and she sent us an e-mail saying that it was wall-to-wall sun and her Arthritis had disappeared. Hmmm...was I jealous? I think so but with one dog and two cats you can't just nip off for 6 weeks.

Dick xx