Grandson the Younger, plus Grandson the elder and we do our last bits on the Oxford this year

 We have spent so much time moored at Rugby and near the golf course between Rugby and Hillmorton that I have lost track of the days! And I've lost track of how many times we traversed that section. Suffice it to say, we have been both active and blobby - not much boating done for a few days except to get ourselves into position to receive the lovely grandson, Karol.

Quiddler with a score I am pleased to show...

One of the tasks David undertook while we were moored near the golf course was to remove the oil and anti-freeze that had been dumped under the engine by the previous tenant. We think at least two oil changes had been done by just opening the sump plug and letting the oil drain out, and given the anti-freeze in there too, we think that the heating system had been drained that way as well.

When I write it like that, it doesn't sound like a big job, but all up it took about 5 or 6 hours bent over down beside the engine, over 2 mornings. 

That inky blackness is the oil under the engine. The steel that the engine sits on is all covered in oil too.

About 17 litres of waste oil and anti-freeze removed - not good that the task was required.

David had previously removed detritus (solid, inc a full dog poo bag!) from the space, including an oil filter; but because there were still bits of solid stuff in the oily/af mixture, the old pela pump quickly got clogged. So he had to use a takeaway container to scoop it out and pour it into empty oil containers, a 2 litre milk container and a 5 litre water bottle. To obtain a water container, we had to walk to Tescos and buy water - we bought 2 x 5 litres just in case. We hate buying water!

Once he'd scooped as much as possible out, it was then on to using a sponge - filling it and wringing it out. 

My only contributions were to fetch and carry items he needed, and to clean the deck down after he'd finished each day. And to send him back to the bathroom to wash all the way up to his elbows, not just his hands ...😘😜 - both days...

And I did make sure he was fed well afterwards.

One day, I washed and cleaned one side of the boat with Demon Shine - not a fabulous wax finish, but far less effort! No photos of that though - David was down in the engine bay!

Dinner one night. Rather nice.

I know I am short, but the overgrown nature of the towpath plants is more than a bit ridiculous, I think. Much of the Oxford Canal is like this - I gather CRT isn't getting any strimming done on this canal. Bugger! It makes walking it a bit problematic as the nettle has free rein, and that is not pleasant on your arms or legs - hence the jeans and jersey...

 On one of the days moored near the golf course, I needed to get some exercise to lift my mood (I think it may have been about the time I wrote the previous post when I was so down in the dumps I couldn't have posted without sounding suicidal ... 😡😩😢). So I walked to Hillmorton Locks and back. It was lovely to stride out - as much as I can with short legs... I rewarded myself with a magnum icecream (mint flavour) at the little cafe/bar, sought the advice of the volunteer lockies about a plant I had seen growing in great clumps (was it the dreaded poisonous-to-touch hog weed? Turned out, when they walked along to investigate that it was hog rhubarb, so not the bad stuff but very similar in looks, I understand). I also stopped on the way back to chat to a boater who was new to his old (and cheap) boat and having to do a fair bit of remediation and renovation. He'd removed his shower fitting and so I asked about the size of the tap - 25mm or 38mm (inch or inch and a half in old money). I like the style of the new kitchen tap Tim fitted, but it's got a vegetable spray faucet which is not very effective in a low pressure system like the boat. I have seen a tap in the Screwfix catalogue that I'd like to replace it with, but I have no idea whether it's 25mm or a 38mm. My intuition (based on empirical evidence and memory of the tap that was there previously) is that it's 25mm, but purchasing the wrong one is a bit of a problem when on the move - makes returning it problematic. Note to self: wait for Irene's man who can - he will know, and I bet he has a tap wrench too - ours has disappeared and it wasn't found in the oil bath under the engine either! Although a spanner and a pair of grips were 👍

Wildflowers growing on the towpath. Very cheering!

So I returned to the boat in a much better frame of mind, wrote the previous blogpost and got most of the grump out of my system.

David had also researched how long a walk it was to and from Rugby station and I messed up the calculation of that trip by including a walk along the towpath to Tescos - last minute food shopping for the grandson, as a Grammy does!

So it was a big walking day - David walked on to the station directly we arrived at Tescos in case we were late getting there to meet Karol. I did a rapid shop and walked very very briskly to said station.

We were both early and Karol's train was delayed, so plenty of time to recover my breath from the four ramps up to cross the overhead bridge and not look too exhausted when Karol arrived.

Karol getting on the train at Dumfries - one change at Carlisle.

Marta sent us these photos so we would know he was on his way.

Our walk back to the boat was the third side of the triangle so shorter than the walk to the supermarket and then the station. And Karol took over towing the shopping trolley - he saw his Grandad was struggling to keep it upright at the kerbs! We had decided that we were going to boat assiduously for as much time as we could while we had Karol onboard - keeping him busy and active and off his device were the aims. Might as well start by having his assistance right from the get go.

So within about half an hour of getting on board, he was helping to fill the water tank once we got to the tap below Hillmorton Locks and then 20 minutes later he was working the locks with David.

Refresher course on lock working with Grandad. Bottom lock, Hillmorton pairs.

I had planned to have him learn to steer the boat that arvo too; however it was quite windy and steering in the wind isn't easy with the long horizontal sail that the boat side becomes. And it rained a bit, so once we were almost through the Barby Straight I sent him and David inside - no sense in 3 of us getting wet!

We moored up not far from Bridge 87, not exactly where I had wanted to stop, but Karol and I went round the corner to see if 'our' space was clear (I walked, Karol ran at top speed) and it wasn't. Didn't matter; where we stopped was fine and it was only for overnight.

Dinner was pizza and salad - Karol isn't that keen on lettuce so the salad was a deconstructed one, but he had to eat at least one lettuce leaf. So he ate 3 - I think he likes romaine.

Look away now if you are of a sensitive disposition - I had declared that the boys should do the dishes. Karol and David tried to pass the job off to Mel, and he was appendaged (is that a word?) to qualify him.

Karol added further proof of Mel's masculinity... However I still ended up washing the dishes and left David and Karol to dry and put away - after all, the task did need to be done before Cinderella had to be home!

 

Karol was in bed by 8.15 and asleep by 8.30 - he'd had a long day: up at 5am to get ready to catch the train from Dumfries, then a good walk, 3 locks and a game of Quiddler. I was glad he was out to it early for him, as I was pretty knackered too!

8.30pm and out to it!

We set off early the next morning - the sun was shining as we pulled away but pretty soon it turned very grey. 

I implemented my plan of getting Karol to steer the boat from the get go that morning and he was a very quick learner and did extremely well - moored boats to pass at tickover, bridges to negotiate.

Excellent skills!

And through the bridge - success!!

 

The weather was still a bit inclement and I debated** whether to keep going to our planned turnaround point at Norton Junction. 

Working, Grammy! Closing lock gates that are pretty damn heavy.

Getting his back into it.

Carry on we did - up the 6 Braunston Locks which we did with an experienced hiring couple, and then off we went speedily through the tunnel. Didn't meet anyone coming towards us - it was still rather early! 

After the tunnel, a few hundred yards short of Norton Junction, we pulled over to let our lock partners pass - they were heading for Crick and needed to turn into the Leicester Arm at Norton. Sure as eggs are eggs, if I'd tried to turn around while they were waiting to turn left, I'd have mucked it up. And I've already had one disastrous winding experience so far recently and I didn't want another!

Turn accomplished and back we headed - the couple of miles to the tunnel. 

Fruity sustenance provided by Grandad

 

This time in the tunnel, we passed 6 boats making their way towards Norton. Two youth trip boats, a stag party boat (my assumption - lots of young men, raucous singing and the smell of marijuana as circumstantial evidence) and 3 others - Karol and David had kept count. I was too busy focusing on not hitting the boats or the sides. I've noticed that many approaching boats slow down to almost stationary - makes the passing extremely drawn out. And it is really hard to judge how far away the boat is by its lights - must be the concentration of the light that isn't diffused in the confines of the tunnel, or some-such. Elucidation, anyone?

** David's view was it was my call as I was the one who'd be steering it and getting the most wet.

We were following a boat through the tunnel - and realising they had no rear facing lights made me aware that we don't either - and they were hard to see while other boats were approaching. So we need to get rear lights or at least big red  reflectors fitted.

And as we came out of the tunnel, the rain started in earnest. We had already decided we would moor up for a lunch stop at the Admiral Nelson, and both David and Karol declared they didn't need their coats. But we were all soaked (I did have a coat on) by the time we had done the first 4 locks. I was really chilled as I'd been steering, so I had a hot shower before we headed off to lunch. 

Part of the reason I was so cold was probably to do with wearing shorts and sandals - no socks though because I am an NZer!

Karol's burger - he decided he liked onion nests - essentially onion rings but more like a bhaji, I think. He devoured that burger in less than 6 minutes, I am sure - he didn't put it down once. A good thing really as it would have deconstructed itself into tattered remains of bits if he had let go of it, I reckon.

 

Karol and I each had this chocolate truffle (very yummy), David had a cheesecake, and part of my dessert that I couldn't finish - EBBs, as my mum and dad would say: Eyes Bigger than Belly...

The rain didn't stop over lunch so we decided to stay moored up and get up extra early the next morning, so we could meet the deadline of being back in Rugby before lunchtime.

Some games of Quiddler - Karol is good! and we taught him 5 Crowns - he is also very good at that! Sausages for his dinner, breakfast for dinner for David and me - berries, yoghurt and nut mix.

And earlier to bed for all of us than the night before! 

I was up at about 5am and we decided that Karol could stay in bed for the last two locks. We rugged up warm and pushed off at about 5.40 as quietly as we could given there were other boats moored behind us, and we did the first lock. At 5.58am as I was approaching the second lock, Karol appeared up the steps from the galley, already dressed and ready to work the next one. We were very impressed. I did go and get him one of my jerseys as it was bloody freezing!

Just after 6am, he was emptying the lock.

Like his big brother, he is a great worker!

We pulled over for water before the A426 bridge and determined we needed a new hose - the wiggly hose had failed miserably: somehow water wasn't coming through and the hose wasn't filling as it's meant to - the old blue flat hose came out and we saw that it has a few leaks too - we agreed to buy a proper garden hose on a reel and in a cover.

Karol steered the boat almost to Rugby and then went into the galley to prepare pancakes. We lucked on to a one day mooring (near the water point), tied up, Karol cooked his pancakes (very yummy) and then I prepared some of the dinner. 

After a bit of a blob (having requested of David that he not adjust the solar panels again directly over my head...) our next mission was to go to Chipping Norton to collect Olek, bring him back to the boat for an overnight and then deliver he and Karol to Luton Airport the next day.

While Karol and I drove down to Chipping Norton, David did shopping (a new hose and a refund for the wiggly one, a few groceries - it is hard to keep grandsons suitably well fed!), some dinner prep and some boat clear up stuff - the last items were mainly not accomplished though, as he had only looked at the items relating to food...

Collection of Olek and the 6 items David had ordered on line over the previous week or so was achieved in good time and no delays on the way back, even though it was rush hour in places.

Dinner - toad in the hole: sausages in yorkshire pudding (me), with mashed potatoes, carrots and peas (veges were David's task), home/boat made brown onion sauce (me). And David had made Eton Mess for dessert. Washing up was horrid - it was patently obvious how much fat we had consumed in that meal! Made me determined to be much more rigorous about not eating anything that purports to be meat, and we have decided no more cream!

It was all very yummy though, but NO MORE!!

Apparently he didn't really want to be photographed licking the serving bowl...

David did try to shield him from the paparazzi, but no such luck...

 

But he would not be deterred!

Olek looks a lot like his dad.

Quiddler, 5 Crowns and then bed for 3 of us; Olek stayed up.

Why was I losing? And I went on to lose the game, dammit!

The height difference between Karol and me is less than a centimetre! I reckon by the time we see him again in August, he will be as tall as or taller than me. Olek reckons he has grown each time he sees him now. I told Karol it was good he was sleeping lots here because he grows when he's asleep, not when he's awake! True. I also noted that Olek was 13 when he finally got taller than me, so it's going to happen for Karol.

In the morning, I made a batch of pastry and made a cheese tart - I had promised Olek. 

I decided that we should move off the one day mooring after we had filled with water. So Olek helped David put together his new hose, Olek and I helped Mo (one of the single handers we met and locked down with at Braunston a few weeks ago) move her boat back to a more convenient place to get water, and then when we had watered up after her, Olek moved our boat over to the 7 day moorings.

The seeds have sprouted and soon we should have some lettuce and rocket to pick.

After a second breakfast of cheese tart and another game of 5 Crowns (pairs this time, Karol and Olek against David and me - the boys won, 434 to 413, dammit!) we headed off to Luton. Karol got to ride shotgun - not sure Olek approved though ...

I've not been to Luton before. Its approach is complex, not helped by our not knowing which Luton choice we should enter in the GPS. We chose Luton Parkway - mistake: it's the railway station. So on the approach, Olek had to use his maps app to direct me.

We decided we would see them checked in and then head back. But having followed Olek and Karol walking with purpose into the terminal and not really watching where we were going, we were a bit stumped with how to find our way back to the parking building ... Then the trick was how to exit the bloody building - the Exit signs had us circumnavigating the level we were parked on about 3 times until we saw an unmarked ramp. I was getting very panicky and considering driving down the IN ramp instead ...

We returned the car and got a ride back to the boat; then blobbing and an early night. How unusual!

Apropos of my previous grumpy post

Yep, also apropos of that post...