A sort of quick catch up

Please excuse the random formatting of this post - I wrote most of it in Word and then copied it over into the blog. Then edited - the same formatting does not apply, so it looks a bit scattered and messy - sorry, Sarah, in particular ...

Since coming back from Shardlow, we’ve had a blobby but sometimes busy time:

·      Irene and Ian (Free Spirit) moored behind us at Sawley for a couple of nights, and came for dinner the second night (first night they were doing some beer festival thing at the Harrington Arms but had dinner at The Nag’s Head first.

·      Waka Huia and Unknown No 3 overstayed at Sawley moorings as David and I were waiting for Ed to come and sort the screeching noise we had on start up – the engine, not us … (Turned out to need a new pulley - problem solved.) And for him to fit the additional solar panel – it’s on but not connected up yet; (he sorted that today, as well as fitting a new water pump - much quiter quieter [edited thanks to the eagle-eyed Mick] and faster - and re-connected the immersion heater wiring which we got him to disconnect when we first met him – too many options for heating water and too many conditions to remember re when we could use each one.

·      We also overstayed because the CRT elsan point at the locks was out of order, as was the one at Trent Lock, and at Loughborough, and we had reports of the one at Beeston being out of order too; so no elsan emptying between Kilby Bridge and Willington – CRT’s bad! Julia was monitoring the situation at the Sawley Locks each day and phoning CRT to remind them. It was a bugger really as it was out of order before, during and after Bank Holiday weekend, and there were lots of boats out. Rest assured, it had been sorted come Friday morning when we departed.

·      Mick, Julia and I did a trip into Long Eaton on the bus for some shopping (the Skybus that goes from outside Sawley Marina is excellent and, for those without a bus pass, the return trip is £5.60.

·      Then another day Julia and I went on our own (unaccompanied by any chaps) to Long Eaton and then decided a bus trip (Skybus again) to Nottingham was called for. We decided once we arrived that the purpose of the trip had to be Thai food, as we didn’t want to shop – we found Zaap Thai on google and then asked a couple of friendly community constables where to find Bromley Place. Yummy food, lovely NZ sauv blanc, and then caught the bus back. David and Mick had to fend for themselves dinner-wise that evening as the ladies who lunched didn’t need anything else …

 

Part of the kitchen at Zaap Thai

Part of our yummy starter platter to share - I forgot to take a photo before we started eating the pork and prawn dumplings and the fish cakes

·      Then we discovered The Lock-keeper’s Rest at Sawley Locks on Bank Holiday Monday – what a fabulous little micro-pub. If you haven’t been there, do go. They shut on the BH Monday at 4pm, but I was locked in and didn’t get home till 6pm. Well, the chardonnay was Australian and oaky (a Hardy’s), the company was hilarious and very kind. David and Julia came looking for me but I was being walked home by Lyndon and Nigel who made sure not to let me walk close to the water … And I went to bed straight after dinner, and while Mick, Julia and David thought they were punishing me by not responding to my questions from the bed, I was actually asleep almost instantly.

Nigel and his partner in the Lock-keeper's Rest

 

Lyndon and Kevin (I think), with Dave, the landlord, seated behind Kevin

Nigel and partner

·      We had to overstay until at least Friday morning, so we could go to the Lock-keeper’s Rest again on Thursday … I left money on the bar for Nigel's and Lyndon's next visit.

·      We have painted the roof cream and I have put some grey primer over the parts that got white undercoat on that need to be the Great Eastern Blue; Mick has done a sterling job scumbling the piece of metal he attached to the duck hatch doors and he’s masked and painted the lid cream so it doesn’t get too hot and have the glue dry out. He also used some proper painting masking tape instead of the one I used that was extremely sticky and very messy/difficult to remove, with a follow-up of white spirits to remove the adhesive – of course, that was because we didn’t take it off as soon as we’d painted as hinted at by Mike Coates back at Mercia … Doh!!

The second coat of cream went on at Sawley - after two primers and two undercoats

I think this was taken shortly after we left Sawley - taken at about 9am, after we'd done a pump out and descended the locks

The view as we left Cranfleet Lock area - that is a little side area that is probably very shallow as there are notices warning boats away from it.

Similar view but with the lock in the background

Icky photo of me - I am sure I wasn't that tight lipped through the photography experience ...

·      We had 2 days at Beeston with an early dinner one day at the Victoria Hotel, and a bus trip in to Nottingham to introduce the chaps to Zaap Thai – a successful outing.

   Mick came over with some latex gloves in a handy toilet roll-innie to keep them safe, and looked puzzled when I asked where my poem was. I had to remind him of our first boating trip together when we went down the Llangollen, and I managed to slide (scrape is more accurate) along the side of a boat (called Windflower) in the strong wind - then yelled for Mick to come and sort it. He swears to this day that I disappeared inside away from the wrath of the boater. I swear I didn't, but Mick couldn't see me through the red haze of his own blushes and the red mist of Windflower's skipper's canal rage ... Anyway, while at the pub, we wrote the man a song, and delivered it on to his foredeck in a toilet roll-innie. There, now you are all caught up on the history - I am safe telling this story as I bet the boater is dead of apoplexy or old age or something similar... 

  So back to the boat Mick went (keep up - we are now in Beeston and this took place yesterday morning) and wrote me a poem:

"  Here are some gloves

    I think there's eight pairs

    I've left them at

   The top of your stairs.

   Remember when painting 

   To observe their proper use,

   Because covers for wet rollers is just plain abuse!"

 

Mick looking pensive - not often we get a view of his eyes. But he had to see clearly to compose poetry ...

And the roof is cream!! I think David is removing masking tape - it took some time

·      We are now moored up in Nottingham, having realised that David’s estimate of 48 hours from Sawley to Debdale was based on flawed mathematics (well, he DID fail Stage 3 Maths 3 times …) and the actual figure (calculated by me on Thursday arvo in the Lock-keeper’s Rest, after one chardonnay) is closer to 22 hours …

David and I have had an alcohol free weekend. I know - shocking and unexpected, eh? I realised I had had too many chardonnays in too few days, so called a halt for myself. Soda and lime is an adequate substitute, at least for a few days!

·      We’ve had Ed back today to finish off the solar panel stuff, fit the new waterpump and re-connect the immersion heater. Morning tea was crunchy lemon muffins and lunch was French Onion Soup, with cheese on toasted homemade bread.

·      Mick and Julia are currently out on a mission of their own – collecting a few more ticks in their Wetherspoon book. We are on dinner, but I am not sure how much they will feel like food by the time they get back. We shall see, folks.

·      If dinner is desired, it is going to be beef stroganoff with mashed potatoes and carrot salad. I did save some muffins too.

And today is our lovely daughter's birthday. We left a message on her phone this morning in which we sang to her. When she phoned back she hadn't listened to the message so we asked if she wanted us to sing again - she declined! Strange ...