Ikea!!

Coventry, 0 miles, 0 locks

Bit of a wet morning, but I didn't mind because I had a lie in. Well, until 10am anyway. There was an ominous 'beep' from the engine room, which I thought could only be the Inverter closing down due to lack of power, but when I looked in the inverter was on, but in power save mode. I gave the engine 15 seconds of glowplugs (I've been giving it 10 until now) and then turned the key. Nothing happened. Not even the sound of the engine turning. Given that the engine hadn't run much yesterday and that the batteries were flat to start with, this wasn't so surprising. Fortunately I had the extra leisure battery which I bought yesterday, so I got the jump leads and hooked it up. After 15 seconds of glowplugs the engine turned, but didn't start. So I tried another 15 seconds: nope. Another 15 seconds: no good. Taking a deep breath because I could tell I was starting to panic, I gave it 30 seconds of glowplugs and crossed everything. It was a bit ropey and was having a hard time, but in the end the engine fired up and ran. I really can't tell you how relieved I was. I disconnected the jump leads, but kept them in the engine room for 'next time', then set the engine at 12,000 rpm (which I hoped was enough above tickover to charge the batteries), then shut up the engine room, deciding that I was going to run the engine all day and never mind the diesel!

After the stress of all that, I couldn't face making breakfast so I headed to the Country Crust Tearoom, which is the café I had 'lunch' in yesterday, for their Full English. It was very nice, with sausage, bacon, egg, tomato, mushroom, toast and tea. I tend to put sugar in tea in café's, because they invariably serve whole or semi-skimmed milk, which I don't like the taste of and afterwards I could tell that I was a bit woozy with the sugar rush.

I collected my bag, camera and Ikea mini Blue Bag and headed off to see the Cathedral, leaving the engine running in the meantime. I wasn't entirely sure that this was wise, but on the other hand I wasn't sure what I'd do if something happened anyway. The route to the Cathedral was straightforward from the basin and I didn't really know what to expect. When I was a kid, we'd had a box of matches with Coventry Cathedral on, but I couldn't remember much about it other than it being brick and having a serrated edge. I know that I'm a complete non-believer, but I've been to a surprisingly large number of cathedrals in my time. The majority of them have been old and to me their magnificence reflects not the glory of God, but rather shows that mankind can achieve astonishing things when we put our mind to it. There's the suggestion that space aliens built the pyramids, but they didn't build Amiens cathedral nor Reims and the build precision and centuries of undeviating 'sticking to the plan' that these buildings embody is all our own work. No supernatural or extra-terrestrial agents required. The only 'new' cathedral I think I've seen is La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, but that's so new that it isn't even finished yet and the newer bits do look too clean and streamlined to be something Gaudí would have designed. It's an incredible pity that he died before he could complete the design, especially as he left lots of sketches showing ideas he was considering, but no clear guide as to which were to be used.

The new Coventry Cathedral is built adjoining the old cathedral, which was bombed during the war. To my surprise, there's actually quite a lot of the old one left—the outer walls are all there and a couple of towers, and even the altar area looks servicable. It matches my idea of the size and plan that you expect from a cathedral—in many ways not unlike Ely—but it doesn't have the cruciform shape that crops up a lot in cathedral design. The new one is a complete contrast. It's modern in the way that only the 1950's could produce, with simple shapes and angles, and an elegance that leaves you in no doubt that this building justifies the name 'cathedral'. Instead of monumentality, the inside is light and airy and this is reflected in many of the details, such as the slender pillars that support the roof that end just above floor level, with the connection to the ground via a surprisingly slim metal leg. The ceiling is vaulted in a complex way, but by having the arches at 45° to the main axis, all that sophistication is completely hidden. But what is really spectacular about the building is the use of light. The entrance is a huge glass wall that provides light for the humble congregation and there are stained glass panels along the sides that add a wash of colour, with the huge tapestry behind the altar having its own set of irregular clear windows to illuminate it, but it isn't until you're at the altar looking back along the building that you realise the magnificence. The building glows in a way that you simply do not expect and makes the very most of God's (alleged) original proclamation of 'let there be light'. Even in the side chapels there are little sky-lights that make the rooms glow. It's brilliant and really made me want to visit that other modern take on a church: Le Corbusier's church of Notre Dame du Haut at Ronchamp in France. Outside I was delighted to find the view I remember from the matchbox. It's been spoilt slightly by a strange wall that seems to have been built by Coventry University, which has its campus facing the cathedral, but otherwise I'm sure it's the same, which I found very heartening.

I wandered back past the entrance and up to the slightly tacky Cathedral Walks shopping centre, which seem to mainly consist of Wilkinson's (no relation), but that gave me an opportunity to pop in to buy a long spirit level/straight edge and an astonishing LED light that seems to have 48 LEDs in it for £3.99! Next I walked through the Coventry Indoor Market. This is a remarkable circular building, which has a huge variety of stalls, in the best indoor market tradition. Apparently it is to be demolished as part of a massive redevelopment of the city centre, a development that includes building a Tesco roughly where the market is now. There's a suggestion that some of the stall holders will move 'next door', which is currently Iceland, but for a lot of them, their future is uncertain.

Next to the market is Ikea. I was beginning to think I'd never get here, but here it was and here was I. Ikea's a bit confused at the moment, since they're celebrating both Halloween and Christmas at the same time, but I ignored this and took the lift to the 6th floor restaurant, which was in the throes of being converted for a fashion show to take place later in the evening. No Herring Platter on offer, but they did have the Prawn and Egg open sandwich and of course meatballs with all the trimmings. Wonderful!

Wandering through the Ikea marketplace, as you do to get out, I came across lighting. The light I'd bought in Wilkinson's had me thinking about the lighting on the boat again, because after my mention of LEDs the other day, Dave (of Dave and Pam) e-mailed me with a link to lights he's bought off eBay for their boat, with a consequently large power saving; and I also got a message from Adam Porter on nb Debdale about Bedazzled, who are an LED specialist at the bottom of Whitton locks on the Grand Union. Thinking about it, I'm sure I saw an advert for them when Oothoon was at Whitton Marina weeks ago. Anyway, the problem with both of these is getting the goods delivered. On the other hand, here I was in Ikea and if you had an Ikea Family card, their 'Dioder' white lighting disks were only £22 for four rather than the usual £29! I figured that it was worth blowing £22 on a set just to see what they were like. Famous last words!

Getting home after a brief trawl through the Sweden Shop, I was keen to try my new lights. In the kit that Ikea sell, there's a mains plug with a long lead going into a tiny in-line transformer that converts 240v into 12v, which then leads to a little distribution block that the lights themselves plug in to, on long leads. What I needed were bare wires, so I cheerfully chopped the connector off one of the lights and stripped the insulation to bare the wires. After removing one of the G4 halogen lights from Oothoon's ceiling, I realised that—being DC—I needed to get the polarity right, however the whole point of diodes is that they only let current pass one way, so I figured that if I got it wrong, nothing would happen. Wrong. As you were no-doubt expecting, I got the polarity wrong and when I switched on there was a slight crackling sound and a nasty burning smell, and the light didn't come on. Having learnt my lesson, I assembled the rest of the Dioder kit as per the instructions, having first taken the covers off the distribution box. With power applied and the lights all glowing, I could put a meter on the connectors to find out which way round they are. See the diagram below.

Now I knew the right polarity, fitting the next three was straightforward and without a problem, but my lights are in groups of four and one of these was still a halogen, so I needed to get more lights in order to replace it (I figured that even Ikea's traditionally generous returns policy wouldn't apply to a fried light that had had its plug snipped off). In the end I bought three more packs, figuring that it would allow me to replace almost all Oothoon's lighting. Having now done the original four lights, I have to say that the light is very strange. Not insufficient, exactly, but it's a very harsh bluey-white light and you get very  strong shadows. Still it's good enough for me to be typing this and I guess you do get used to it.

Dinner was, well, nothing really. I was so stuffed with meatballs from lunchtime that all I had was a slice of crispbread with some spready cheese with crayfish and dill, and some crisps. It's only now I'm writing this that I've realised that I had half a lasagne left. Oh dear.