Travels in Retirement: Sitting, Waiting, Wishing (Thanks to Jack Johnson)

Well it seems like weeks since I last posted and it really was, as the last posting was Jan 24 and it is now Feb 9th! Bad boy Frederick!
Ok so what's been happening?
I have been trying to sort out all my business, doctors, lawyers, accountants, banks, Land Transport (COF and RUC) and optician while I have been back in civilisation.
There has been a lot going on to start the year and it has been good to pause, get things a bit more organised and then head off again.
The plan is to head towards Taranaki via the Waikato River Trails, Kawhia and Marokopa.
But while I've been “sitting, waiting, wishing” for people to return my emails, phone calls and texts, I have been doing some repair work and some pottery.
For those of you who haven’t heard Jack Johnson, he’s well worth a listen.
I noticed a bit of rust in the side locker and when I started to clean it up…..

So that is what the locker looks like at the moment while I de-rust it. I had to remove a whole section from the base of the locker wall. It appears that whoever did the initial repair didn’t clean much out, just patched over. So I will clean it out and replace with a new section.
Also it has taken me a couple of days to clean out the dust from various areas. It seems that the inside of the bus is not sealed. I discovered this while travelling the lovely metal roads of the Far North. So after a day of dismantling the bed, cleaning up all the dust and filling the holes, I had to vacate the bus for a couple of days while the smell dissipated!
Also there was some lawn moving and hedge trimming for my lovely hosts, in return for their very generous hospitality.
On to the pottery:

I have had a load of bisque fired boxes, spoon holders, platters and herb markers that needed glazing so I decided to get organised an get the first glaze firing done in my kiln. I carefully waxed and glazed and headed off to fire at 1pm yesterday. I thought that I had reached temperature at 9:30pm as I thought that the indicator cones had bent, but this morning when I cracked the kiln, nope there were my three cones still standing upright! So back on again. Its quite amazing how quickly a hot kiln comes up through the temperature ranges. What took about 4 hours yesterday took 1 1/2 hours today. So am hopeful that today I can get the kiln up to temperature and the firing completed.
I am off to get the first Certificate of Fitness for The Fredrock Cafe tomorrow. Roger and I did a grease and oil change on Tuesday. Didn’t make too much of a mess and managed to find all the grease nipples again. Rogers new air compressor grease gun worked well this time. Much easier than the hand grease gun!
It is also fruit season here in Walton, so the plums, peaches, blackberries are being picked, frozen, bottled or jammed. We have also been making sweet chilli sauce, plum sauce, more lemon cordial and as well all the tomatoes and courgettes have to be coped with every second day. So its been busy as at the moment.
I have also been approached to write a guest blog for the website www.retirementandgoodliving.com. I have sent in a post and pictures and will see what happens. Will let you know if and when it is posted.
I will post some pictures of the completed firing as soon as they are available. I think i should start wearing a GoPro cam on my head then I don’t forget to take pictures of the things I am doing!
I will also post a ‘Frederick revised’ pic.