9.03.2026 My kingdom for a mattress!

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  Monday 9th 39F/4C [7.30] A bright start once the sun rises. All day sunshine forecast. 67F/19.4C in the room. 47F/8.3C in the greenhouse. The stove lifted the room to 72F/22C last night.

 Up at 7am after a quiet night. No obvious ill effects from yesterday's rides. 

 8.15 time for a walk. I should have just missed the worst of the local rush hour. Most of which will be electric vehicles these days. Denmark has a very high take-up of EVs. I wish they would solve the tyre roar problem. Both electric motors and modern IC engines are so quiet that tyre noise totally dominates. Particularly in the larger vehicles. The larger tire volumes produce a wider noise spectrum. A deeper and louder roar! 

 8.50 43F/ 6C. Back again. Slightly too cold on my bare hands. There were several Greenfinches wheezing within 50 meters of Chez Hovel. A solitary starling performed at the top of a neighbour's tree. The traffic wasn't too bad.  

 After morning coffee I went out in the car in search of camping mattresses. I needed some resistant padding for items in a parcel. Three charity shops later I still hadn't found any. 

 Back for lunch and then I drove into Assens. Still no mattresses at the charity shops. Then I found some at a big shed DIY outlet for small change. 

 Back home to complete the packing of my parcels. At 18.00 I took all three to the local parcel office in the village. I have sold my most valuable, favourite and heaviest clock to a fellow enthusiast in Germany. For a very modest sum. Though a huge relief to have parted with it before I popped my clogs.

 The parcels weighed 6, 12 and 20 kg! I used tons of polystyrene and sponge to protect the contents. The clock was heavy but equally fragile. The pendulum was 11kg all concentrated at one end. Which was a very difficult wrapping job. Hence the sponge mattress. Double layers and wrapped tightly to death with gaffatape. I reinforced the fixed rod with battens. Similarly taped to the whole and each other.

 Home for dinner. A chop, mushrooms and egg on toast fry-up. Followed by a wholemeal roll and apple juice.

 

  

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