Almost forgot!

Yesterday was a good, positive day and I was pleased with how things moved forward a little bit more with the satellite dish and stuff. But that wasn’t all. There was something else that also brought a smile to my face that I forgot to mention in last night’s long post. I sent Rand-Kar a list of items that I needed prices for for the X-Air several days ago and ordered what I need just now earlier in the week. I was on the phone in the morning when there was a knock on my back door. It was ‘la Facteuse’ with a parcel, so I’ve now got what I need to start putting the X-Air back together again. It doesn’t look like much as you can see in the pic below but now I can really start to move forward again on the microlight front. This is more like it 🙂

The package contained the new wing tensioning cables, new brake and trim cables and new bearings for the front wheel. And although I could have made do with the original, I also ordered a new panel front. The current instrument layout is a bit of a mess and although the new front has cost just over £70, not only will it give me great pleasure to make a new panel but I think it will also greatly improve the appearance and ‘feel’ of the aircraft. Anyway, we’ll have to wait and see. And now I must get back up my ladder to see if I can align my satellite dish and pick up a signal 😉

Update at 5.30pm local time – I’m back and typing this while enjoying a refreshing glass of Pelforth Brune, a brown beer that’s quite similar to a British brown ale but which develops a head in the glass that’s a bit like a Guinness but not quite as thick. Well, I didn’t get the satellite dish installation finished off. I got very little done on it at all actually, although I did line it up according to the web site pic in the previous post by standing at the corner of my neighbour’s out-house and adjusting it until I was looking straight down the LNB boom. But that’s all, and I’ve just put the ladder, which has been standing up against the wall all day, back in my cave. The reason was that I have a satellite signal detector that takes 10 AA batteries and although I started charging the first batch of 4 yesterday evening, I had to finish the second and third batches today. Unbelievably, the third batch is still not fully charged and as a result I’ve been unable to use the meter!

But the day has been far from a dead loss! When I run the satellite cable, it’ll need to go through the floor of my attic, or ‘grenier’ into my lounge above where I wish to have my television. That’s fine as far as it goes, but my grenier is not only filthy and containing loads of junk that the previous occupant of the house left behind, but there was also no light up there so you could see what you were doing. I planned to use a cable that was formerly used for an outside light near my kitchen door as I mentioned in a previous post, for a light in the grenier worked from a switch in my kitchen, so I decided that today was as good a day as any to get the job done. And the job turned out well, as you can see below.

Having a light up there will be great anyway, for when whoever I get in does the work on the roof. But now I’ll also be able to think about getting the place cleared out, which will be an excellent thing in itself. And as an aside, what a great space it is, isn’t it. One day I hope to be able to afford to have a couple of extra rooms up there including a new bedroom with an en-suite for myself. After all, after all the work I’ll have done on the place, I’ll deserve a little bit of luxury I reckon … 😉