Hottest day of the year!

Hottest day of the year, too hot indoors so we went out - into the sun - and spent the morning at the boot sale at Kassam Stadium. If you’re looking for a boot sale in the Oxford area this one happens every Sunday morning at a sensible time. Setting up from seven but we were told to get there about 10, by which time it’s busy, and all over in time for a latish lunch.

A quick sarnie at home and off the other way to Headington for a couple of hours entertaining the soccerphobes trying to ignore the BIG match. It was hot with a capital H O T - Tarmac melting on the roads, and Rosie suffered too. Nothing serious but the heat proved too much for a glued joint on her drive belt. We tried a repair on the spot but to no avail so we had to call it a day and head for home. Never mind, it was fun while it lasted. It was hard work pumping anyway, the air wasn’t trying very hard, but roll two sounded good. It’s our summer time roll and starts with a medley of “In the summertime” and “Let’s twist again”.

More research is needed in fixing the belt. I reckon a metal clip of some sort as well as the glue like we’ve seen on some of Rosie’s bigger brothers.

The pictures attached are one of Rosie’s young friends, Ben, who came to join us for the afternoon. Apart from Annie, Ben is one of the very few people we can trust to look after her while we go for a cup of tea. The first picture is Ben and Rosie entertaining the bike racks which were full so a few folks were out and about. The second one shows a passenger on the “Brookes” bus showing some interest while stopped at the lights. The few others don’t really seem interested but probably can’t hear anything anyway, you know what there modern hermetically sealed buses are like. The third shows that there were actually a few people about.

Home in time for tea then a work sheet:

• Fix Rosie’s belt

• Tune. Rosie like to keep out of the sun ( a bit like Annie really) and the hot weather has had quite an effect on the tuning.

• Fix spacers to some of the rolls. The weather affects all the ones where the alignment is with the hexagonal pin on the end of the spool but not the ones on home made spools where the hexagon only provides the drive and alignment is by card spacing washers. Confused? Don’t worry, I know what I mean.