The days blend into each other...

 ...especially when there is sun, rain, sometimes thunder and lightning and then strong wind each day. Yesterday was distinguishable by the strong wind - not easy or relaxing steering. In part because you have to pass moored boats at a bit more than tickover and that feels wrong!

The day before, we left the middle of nowhere, by Grendon, after an afternoon of sun, rain (and thunder, I think), a night of rain (the pramcover was wet when I took it down. Once again we left early - it is the nicest time to boat, even though Irene and Ian almost never do (is there a causal link there, I ask?).

We were planning on mooring up beside the nature reserve just before Fazeley Jct, Ian and Irene's preferred place. However, like the rebel I am and because the offside is not so pleasant there by the nature reserve, I wanted to go on to the moorings just past the junction. I am not sure why, except that we had enjoyed being there the last time (2019, I think, with Marta and the boys arriving by train late at night). And I thought it was closer to the shopping centre - wrong ...

The light rain started a few minutes before we got to Fazeley, stopped and then restarted as we finished putting up the pramcover. David was keen to head to the bank, but when I showed him the app said it would start raining in 10 minutes and cease in 38 minutes, his boffin's need for observation and proof kicked in; so we checked the time and played cards in the dry while the rain fell outside and wet boaters came past...

My first hand in that game of 5 Crowns

And David's.

Final score after 13 hands: Marilyn 31 and David 62. Poor guy got a massive rockcrusher of 48 unwanted points on round 12, and even though I got 21 on the 13th hand, he lost convincingly! Yay!!

Rain stopped on time - how do these meteorologists predict this so accurately, dammit? And we got ready to head away. It was to be a half hour walk, and while I trust the meteorologists, I am also aware that the rain doesn't always accept their view. So coats went in the shopping trolleys too.

The HSBC is near Ankerside, a 1970s (?) shopping centre that is built behind the most amazing brick castle with wonderful colourful gardens.

Isn't that cool?

I really like the close order planting and the colour combinations.

And right across from the HSBC is one of those amazing and mostly British little hardware shops that have thousands of stocklines which the proprietors know - where they are located in store and whether they have them. Heaven for people like David and me.

So we bought:

• a small bucket
• a brass door lock for the stern doors
• some M6 bolts to stand in for the bolt for the pramcover that I dropped overboard the afternoon before (cold hands can't hold well)
• a multibox (trailing socket to the English)
• some cable ties - cable ties to boaters are a bit like flour to a cook, or pens and pencils to a teacher - you can never have too many

Just outside the hardware shop and in front of the Exchange building (these can be seen in may English towns) is a statue of Sir Robert Peel.He was the MP for this area and also the man who started the original police force in England - hence they were known as peelers. Read your Georgette Heyer, if you don't believe me...

David wanted to get a couple of spare keys cut - the day before he's spent a pleasurable (to him) couple of hours sorting the various keys on the boat - he has history in this pursuit: back before we shifted out of Rata St he spent AGES (and I mean hours and hours) sorting out keys when there was packing to be done. The man has no concept of critical path, even though I have tried many times to explain it and its importance . His critical path is the one his brain meanders along and gets caught exploring its byways and dead ends and rabbit holes. Good thing he's not a conspiracy theorist, eh!?

So we found where Timson's used to be and found the notice that said they had shifted to outside Asda. I am not an Asda fan at all - they are part of the Walmart brand, and  Walmart has hideous employment practices, is owned by 5 billionaires and rorts its staff in terms of zero hours contracts, low pay, and increasing the number of self checkouts to lower staff numbers. The same seemed to be true in Asda in Tamworth - about 10 self checkouts with one staff member and only a couple of staff-operated checkouts. We only went in so David could use the toilet ...

But on our way there, we had walked through the lovely park beside Ankerside, and over the road to Ventura shopping centre where all the big brands were.

A young couple hailed us to ask if we were locals. Nope, but why did they ask. 

Well, the 20 minutes or so that followed were hugely interesting: Rebel and Kol run a company that specialises in producing interactive historical experiences for people. Not the Warwick Castle dungeon kind of thing where the operators are dressed up and you are entertained by them, albeit with some interaction.

Omenstar experiences are completely experiential - participants are all involved in the role play rather than observing from the outside, or reading. One that they have done recently (or are they about to create it?) is the Blitz in London during WWII. I that that was a 4 or 5 hour experience - I am not sure I could have coped, tbh  - I struggle with my overactive imagination enough when reading about it, or when watching Foyle's War episodes. But amazing stuff.

What they were looking for on Tuesday were people who were local and old enough to remember Tamworth in the 1950s. We qualified on age grounds but not on the residence condition. They noted that where the Ventura shopping centre is now was empty land. Our guess was flood plain as there are two intersecting rivers and quite high stop banks... Now, there's a shopping centre, roads, houses. 

Meeting Kol and Rebel was a highlight of the day! We are so lucky to be living this life and meeting such interesting people.

Rebel and Kol in the Ventura Shopping Centre - which once was flood plain...

If you want to see more about them, check this link out. They describe it much more clearly than I have. And their profile photos are much more dramatic!

We had tarried a bit long though - the black clouds were approaching and they were very huge and very black, and in the distance I could see that they were letting the rain out... So we hurried back up the road towards the towpath, but we did get caught in the rain! I wasn't worried about getting wet, but I did not want to be outside during thunder and lightning - I am so tall, I would be the obvious choice for the lightning strike ...

On went the coats and we continued to scurry. Once on the towpath, I did stop to rap on the window of a boat whose occupants were unaware their back doors were open and letting the outside in. Back to Waka Huia, coats and shoes off in the pramcover, and inside to the warm and dry. Lovely! Having a pramcover and cratch cover makes such a difference in the poor weather!

At Tamworth - blue sky and black clouds ...

Yesterday, we needed some shopping that I had eschewed purchasing at Asda (principles, you know), and also not got at M&S Food next door (I was hungry and had been distracted by the mushroom pies and the cauliflower, broccoli cheese pies and the desserts...). So I headed off to the Tesco Express, having first walked to Fazeley Mill Marina to see if they had the oil filter we needed. I had tried to call them but the line was engaged so I walked there. No joy. Nice walk though.

The Tesco Express was more of a corner shop (dairy in NZ), so not all things stocked. But no worries - toilet paper was available ... On my way back to the boat, I called Streethay Boat Yard to ask if they stocked the oil filters but no. So I called David and asked him to get the boat ready for the off. This critical path work, and parallel processing - these are not concepts David recognises...

We are aware we are a bit overdue for an oil change - on this Lister Petter it's meant to be done every 100 hours, and the last one was done by Debdale before we got back to the UK and I know we have had the engine running a fair bit longer than that - not only when we are moving but when we've been heating water. I am noticing the engine is running rough, and I remember that that disappears when the engine oil is changed.

So I took Streethay's advice to contact Primrose Engineering who are the Lister specialists. Yes, they did have the oil filter I required. So there followed a series of calls as I was steering the boat from just out of Tamworth:

• getting the oil filters delivered (we ordered 6 so we have enough for this season and at least one spare for next year) requires a delivery address, so we had to find a place we could use.
  
• a marina is the easiest to arrange when we don't know what's around. So I called Kings Orchard Marina - the person had to check the marina map that they had room for us (we think it's a bit cheeky to ask them to be our delivery address and not pay to stay) and call me back: she would do it immediately.
• She didn't call in my definition of an "immediately" timeframe (15 minutes), so I called her again - yes, they had a space and she gave me instructions on which jetty and how to find it. So I had to get their address and postcode - not easy to hold the phone, the tiller and a pen and write on a piece of cardboard that needed to be held down too ... So we pulled over after Hopwas and before Hopwas Woods (nice moorings), David tied the middle rope and I could make the arrangements without putting us, the boat, moored boats, passing boats or the canal sides (onside and offside) at further risk. 
• then I called Primrose Engineering back and arranged the payment, the delivery address and the delivery timeframe (next day, please).

Phew! That's a relief to have that sorted - I don't remember FRAM oil filters being so scarce in the past.

So onwards to Kings Orchard Marina, through Hopwas Woods, during which part of the trip I called and spoke to Ian and Irene and updated them, gave Irene a hard time (well, she loves it, it cracks Ian up, made their daughter laugh, and I consider it my civic and friend duty to oblige on all those counts).

It was a beautiful cruise through the woods - no wind, the canal is deep so there's no debris knocking on the hull.

Then out the other side through farm land with very high weeds on the towpath and reeds extending almost right across the canal in a couple of places. Two very large farms there with three and two bridges respectively (Tamhorn and Hademore - I don't think they wanted boaters mooring nearby ...)

And the rain came down and the wind blew. As we approached the marina entrance (narrow as a narrow lock), I suddenly felt very hot (stress) and the rain had stopped so my coat came off in a hurry. Into the marina (I did manage it without hitting the sides), and then it's always a trick to find the numbers for the jetties. The people who tell you have the marina in front of them and have the local knowledge - and as is often the case, the numbers are small, on the electricity stands at the wharf end of the jetties - good thing David had the binoculars deployed! I shouted to a boater asking where 12 was and he pointed a few jetties down, then came running along the wharf and on to the right one, signalling which side I needed to be on, ready to take a rope if needed.

It was hilarious even at the time - the wind was really strong, and turned the boat sideways with the bow pointing where we needed to go - my job was to go hard in forward at the right moment to get in the gap. And then stop before destroying the wharf ...

Sometimes the wind is your friend... But I would not have been saying so, if I'd missed the opening, that's for sure!

One advantage of staying here is we can get all the washing done with no worries about where the next water is (at the end of the jetty) and not worrying about the batteries because we are on power.

And last night I had a call from our friend Judy in NZ. So lovely to talk with her.

At 10pm there was no wind and it was still twilight.

The ducks were still up ...

 And this morning:

When he got up to put washing on and to make a cup of tea (my first of 5 so far today and it's 11.30am), David was struck by the early morning light on the marina. I think the ducks were still asleep though!

 

Lovely

This morning, David put washing on before 6am and he'd done another load since. A pretty blobby day while we wait for the oil filters to arrive - due between 2.51 and 3.51pm - howzat for precision!

However, blobby is as blobby does - I am going to send David out to wash the roof shortly because he's said he would do it and hasn't yet. It needs to be done before we meet up with Ian and Irene and that is likely to be tomorrow! His procrastination has reached its outer limits...

As I edited this post prior to uploading it, David is out washing the roof. He left one mushroom vent too open - I was standing under it when he hosed. And he hosed viciously at the pigeon box, knowing from the heavy rainfall the other day that it is not fully sealed - and where was I? Sitting under it ... I am sure it's deliberate, dammit!!

I sent this to Olek last night - he was travelling on the National Express bus from Luton to Oxford after a flight back from Bulgaria, visiting his dad. I thought he might need cheering up. A weak joke, but funny all the same.