The wild rumpus

 Marta, Trevor, Darby and Karol arrived on the Friday afternoon, after a speedy electrically powered trip in the Tesla from the south west of Scotland. Well, Karol was picked up from Barrow in Furness where he'd been on a week long international basketball camp. He said his legs were dead because he'd been running for several hours a day. And he was so tired he ate barely any dinner (no dessert!) and was in bed asleep almost as early as he was when he arrived down to stay with us a few weeks ago - that time was after a midnight bed time then a 5am start.

We stayed overnight in Festival Park Marina. Darby met the bald cat (Garibaldi ...) in the next door boat (not the one David clutched at the bargepole of on our entry to the mooring place). I think Darby had been keen to get one of these cats, but the info the woman passed on regarding the cat getting spots and rashes, and getting dirty rather put her off. I do find the appearance of those cats rather offputting ...

I had planned pikelets for breakfast for the kids - it is obligatory that when the grandsons are onboard, I make pikelets for brekkie - and scrambled egss for the adults. Marta suggested pikelets for all. So no scrabled eggs but an additional measure of ingredients was added and consumed.

We had decided that we would take the Wild Rumpus team down the Stoke on Trent Locks to Trentham, stay overnight and then head back towards the locks on Sunday prior to meeting Olek and Olivia off the train from Banbury. Then Olek could do the locks, either steering through them or lockwheeling. 

But of course, it hosed down on the Saturday, for much of the day. And of course, none of them had brought rainjackets, had they? Previously when we've had the grandsons onboard without coats, I've created ponchos from bin bags. For some reason, no one was keen...

I could have, with a bit more research, have discovered that within a 6 minute walk of the marina there were the following entertainment options:

• a cinema
• 10 pin bowling
• laser strike
• pool and billiards
• a swimming pool complex with hydroslides
• Pizza Hut
• McDonald's
• Frankie and Benny's

Entertainment AND food!  Doh!!

Instead we boated, in the rain that either spat, drizzled, pelted or gently showered down the 5 locks and along a couple of miles of the cut to Trentham where we moored up on the first bit of armco that we found. And as I put up the pramcover, down came the rain in sheets!

Some of those locks are deep, man...

Darby is a delight! Here she is, wearing my dad's jersey. She had been so cold that I said she could go inside as long as she finished off the dishes that David had been going to do. She was thrilled to have a warm task to do indoors!

Marta, Trevor and Karol on lock duty. Trev is obviously Scottish because he seemed imprev ious to the cold - until I noticed goosebumps on his goosebumps.

He's a natural at steering, this Trevor. Once the doubledecker goosebumps were in evidence, he was forced (by me) to wear David's zip up cardigan. The kids were a bit insulting so I had to tell them that the former First Gentleman of NZ politics (Clarke Gayford) wears cardigans and he is super cool!

 

Marta the Intrepid, wearing my spare coat, heading for the next lock.

Leaving a lock. You can see the leaking top gate through the bottom gate - a lot of water wastage...

Karol the younger grandson and his Grandad. Both great lockwheelers! Efficient, considerate. Julia would be proud!

 

I called Darby away from dishes duty to have a look at something. Wearing my dad's jersey she was happy to be on deck for a bit.

I, of course, am at all times the sartorial lead for nb Waka Huia - leather boots purchased in Castle Douglas some years ago, possum and merino socks purchased in Lambton Quay, Wellington, shorts purchased from Postie + in Paraparaumu, I think, rain jacket purchased in Kathmandu, Paraparaumu, topped with my leather Outback hat that I bought somewhere I cannot remember - it's the business: waterproof, stops rain going down my neck, can store tissues in its crown. Totally elegantly outfitted, don't you think?

Photo by Trevor of Crossmichael - arty shot, entering the lock...

Karol waiting for us to leave the top lock so he can close the gates. Love that boy!

 

Karol and Marta on lock duty - filling the lock.

She's not nuts, I swear... Beautiful though.

Working, working, working. He was on duty all the time we boated.

Darby had a go at steering  - she will be good with practice!

David and I have always had the rule that kids can only use their devices (or the TV when we had one) before breakfast and after dinner. So that meant part of the afternoon was spent playing games. And Karol became quiz master for the teams men against women. He is a great quizmaster, but doesn't tolerate much in the way of discussion and debate. And we weren't allowed to phone a friend, dammit!

David and Trevor narrowly won; also dammit. In part our defeat was my fault because I gave a couple of wrong answers without consulting with my team ... My bad. In part it was because some of the questions were naff, e.g. what is the pH value of bleach? of lemon juice? which planet is closest to/furthest away from whatever ...

After that defeat, Marta and Trev, David and I left the two teenagers on board and we walked back to the Barge Inn Booze boat which was moored near the bridge over to the stadium - there was a football match on Stoke vs some other team. I had met Geoff, the owner of Barge Inn Booze a few days before when he was moored at Etruria, so it was nice to catch up with him and his partner, Wayne. They couldn't take EFTPOS that day because the football club had arranged for internet blocking so no one could live stream the game. Fortunately Trev could do Paypal or some such. I broke my no alcohol rule and had a lovely gin (Stokie something with vanilla after tones ...) and tonic. It was beaut but I wasn't tempted to buy a bottle.

David had hot chocolate. A good choice because he could warm his hands!

We wandered back to the boat and had dinner - construct your own burgers and sausage sandwiches with plenty of salad veg to make it all healthy.

David and I were sleeping in the dinette so everyone had to go to bed early-ish. There weren't many complaints though.

And on Sunday morning, we headed down to the winding hole a few hundred metres past our mooring, turned around and then headed back. Darby, Karol and I were on the stern - interesting conversations ...

We arrived at the bottom of the locks early, so we let the arriving boats queue jump - well, not really, because we weren't actually queuing - we were waiting under the bridge out of the rain and away from the noise of traffic for the train from Banbury...

Marta and I had determined that Darby and Olivia (Marta's 13 year old half sister being escorted to SoT by Olek) would be on lock duty. However that appeared not to be possible because of the false nails ... Note to self: do not have false nails fitted; indeed, keep on with your pattern of cutting your nails very short while on board, Marilyn.

The no devices rule caused consternation for the new entrant, but hey ho, such is life.

It was a pleasure having Olek visit even though it was fleeting. And there were no photos of his time onboard! How did that happen?

He and Karol are great on all the boat stuff - during Covid they spent a fair bit of time with their dad on board, and Olek has been boating with us since he was about 7 or so, and Karol even younger.

Lunch at Etruria when we moored up - I think the steak and cheese pie and the cheese tart were well received. And I'd made cheese scones for Olek to take back to Chipping Norton.

They had all left by about 5.30pm - Marta, Trevor, Karol, Darby and Olivia were heading towards Stansted for a flight the following day for 12 days in Poland. 

It was so lovely to have them all to stay.

The only one left was Yogi, the teacup miniature yorkshire terrier. He is temporary boat dog. 

I think I was in bed by about 6.30pm ... And we let Yogi sleep on the bed that night - easier than possibly having to cope with him mewling in distress at being left with the wicked grandmother ...

He is very cute - Yogi, I mean...