Atherstone is Ace, the NHS is Nifty ...

Yesterday we went into Atherstone to do a bit of shopping, and found one of our favourite stores – a DIY shop that sells everything. We managed to buy spanners, a brad, fuses, sandpaper and sandpaper blocks, a re-chargeable torch, screwdrivers, plumbing tape, doorstop. I am sure there were more things that left the shop with us and more that we left wthout by a factor of about 6000 stocklines. Then it was on to the Co-op for a few groceries, and by then I was tired, so back to the boat for a sleep as I was feeling a bit poorly.

While I slept David spent a fair amount of time trying to sort out a leak within the bathroom basin waste piping. He has been 95% successful, and the 5% failure is probably mine – I didn’t put enough plumbing tape around the downpipe thread. On second thoughts and further discussion

, we have come to the conclusion that there was a reason the former owner had put silicone around the waste fitting at the basin … We need to find some to replace it.

Overnight I was still feeling poorly and at about 4am decided that I needed to get some medical attention this morning. The NHS has this amazing service called NHS 111 which is for use if you have an urgent medical issue that is not life threatening (ie doesn’t need the 999 service). I found the service by googling ‘nurse health line’. After an initial triage session with the call centre, I was transferred to a paramedic who did further assessment and made an appointment for me at the George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton with the Out of Hours GP team. The only cost I incurred was the taxi fare there and back – the consultation and prescription were free. So, once again, I am a big fan of the NHS – another thing that impressed me was that even without an address, the call centre could find my NHS number from my name and DOB – how cool is that? I do like joined up systems!

The taxi driver and I had a good chat there and back – he was pretty easily distracted from his complaint about immigration, and we got on famously as he told me about his after school job as a teenager at a boatyard. Hopefully he and his wife will hire a boat to try it out – he loves boats, she hates them without having been on one …

He dropped me at the pharmacist (and had commented that the only one open on Sundays in Atherstone was run by an Indian – the conversation took the line of who was prepared to do the hard yards), and then gave me instructions on how to get back to the canal on foot. A very friendly and helpful man who provided excellent service – so Atherstone and its people are tops with me!

When I got back to the boat I took my first dose of antibiotics, and we got underway - we are meeting Ed at Ansty in the morning and he will sort out our heating by connecting the radiators to the Webasto – I mentioned a few weeks ago that we had decided to get it done, as the diesel stove is a pain (more particularly its water pump is a pain with a noise that is at just the right frequency to drive us nuts … - not a long trip, mind you, but not one we are keen to take just yet!)

Today we have boated in beautiful sunshine and are now moored up close to the junction of the Coventry and Oxford canals. We have really enjoyed being on the Coventry over the last week, apart from the small section down from Fradley which was reedy, narrow and shallow. It is a lovely canal with a mix of beautiful countryside and pleasant towns. And lots of Armco for mooring.

It looks like I am heading for that bank, but fear not ...

I am turning - it takes a bit to get a 62 ft boat around corners as they are not bendy like the London buses

Someone has found a lovely mooring

 David is preparing tuna mousse for dinner and I have just checked to see (both in the paper accompanying the antibiotics and online) if I can/cannot take a dose of chardonnay with my dinner. Alcohol is not mentioned anywhere, so I am assuming that silence gives consent. It does mention birth control being rendered possibly ineffective, so I must take steps to avoid getting pregnant!

I was going to get the table and chairs out so we could sit in the sun but the boat is shading he towpath now. It is lovely at the dinette, so we’ll sit here – I was delighted when the taxi driver told me that the UK has three more months of good weather forecast – excellent news for CCers and the general public! I hope the weather at home in NZ is as good when we arrive next month.

By the way, the snakes on two of the totems in Atherstone are probably meant to be eels – not that I have ever seen eels with zigzag stripes on their bodies, but artistic licence is fine with me in Atherstone – but not anywhere else!

No more leaks from the shower at Atherstone

Yesterday’s blog and marital discussions after it meant we didn’t move off for water until about 12.30. The tap was just around the corner, so a very short trip, fill and then move on. David made cheese on toast for my lunch, and just as it was ready we arrived at the Glascote locks. There was a reasonably long wait there, as a singlehander we had let pass us on one of the straights was waiting for a boat coming down, and while I was eating my lunch, another three boats lined up behind me. David came back to tell me the bottom lock was quite slow filling.

Eventually we were in and had a wait in the bottom lock while the top lock emptied to release its inhabitants, a crossover in the short pound, and into the top lock. The people waiting above the lock did the wheeling for David and when we came out their boat was still happily on the waterpoint. I gently noted that the now four boats behind us would appreciate their getting through in reasonably short order, but they stayed on the waterpoint as we moved off to moor after the Galscote Dock entrance. However a boat came down the cut towards the lock, so they hastily stowed the hose and went in … Did make me giggle, esp as I wasn’t on the receiving end of their slowness.

We moored up as the weather looked a bit threatening and we have to make the decision re where to moor today for the shower glass fitting. The better options looked a bit far for us to get to and still have a chance of a nice mooring, so we quit while we were ahead.

As the starboard side of the boat is still on the towpath side, I got out the primer and painted the pieces I had treated with Firtan the other day. We now have a boat with a case of acne. I am not sure what disease it will be suffering from when I undercoat in mid-blue, but I will research it. I also need the towpath to change sides before too long so I can apply the equal opportunity principle and acne up the port side of the boat. See, I am nothing if not fair!

Acne!!!

I was a bit concerned that this mooring may be unsavoury at night given the large amount of foot and cycle traffic in the evening, but my prejudice has proved to be just that.

This morning we wanted to move on to Polesworth as people on one boat in the locks yesterday told David it was a lovely place. If we get there early, have a look round and then move on, we should be able to get to somewhere pleasant, rural and near a road this arvo. So once again, it’s up and at ‘em, Atom Ant!

The bridge on the far side of Polesworth

 

Plans changed yet again this morning:

From the first communication with the shower glass guys from Profile Glass saying they’d be with us after 2.30pm, they phoned at 1pm to say they were on their way.

Given the 2.30pm arrival, we had moved on from Polesworth without exploring it, thinking we’d get to the top of the Atherstone locks before the guys arrived. The trip through the locks was lovely and they are far more quiet and rural than I thought they’d be apart from a few that are very close to the railway and, more noisily, the A5 Watling Street.

The fields and trees are changing colour

Ducks on the weir after Polesworth

On the hill in the distance outside of Polesworth

Sauce for the goose comes to mind

Sylvan glade

On the same property as the geese and the sylvan glade

This photo shows why the ass was made to be significant for christians

In one of the Atherstone Locks - I am off the boat and David is on - what is happening to the natural order?

A peaceful boatyard

I think that's the A5 above

This pheasant was on the lockside with a friend - first time I have seen one of them near the canal.

 

Once the Profile Glass guys phoned to say they were on their way, I scurried to find a good place to rendezvous. Given I was on my own at the time, as David was at the next lock, it was a bit frantic especially as it is harder to nail down intersections between the canal and the roads in urban areas than in the countryside.

After we’d moored almost under the A5 and I’d walked up to a nursery school to ask their postcode, we found each other and the guys did a brilliant job fitting the channel and the glass. Their reward was a cup of tea and a couple of gingernuts (don't worry, Lesley, your gingernuts are safe, for the moment ...) before they and we were on our respective ways.

The shower curtain will nestle behind the glass, so water on the floor and in the bilge will be a thing of the past - yay!!

  We headed up the rest of the locks, got water (while waiting, I scraped, sanded and rust treated a couple more areas on the roof) and decided to moor up on the 48hr moorings just through the next bridge. The next 4 photos are totems of Atherstone above the top lock ...

Totem 1: tomorrow I will investigate what this is about

Totem 2: I will also check the provenance on this tomorrow

Totem 3: This one I know about - at last I have seen a Maffi totem in the flesh, so to speak!

Totem 4: I gather that this derelict factory has been in this state for a number of years. They need a leaf out of NY's book of No Broken Windows, I think.

One of my pet rants - gaps between boats ...

 

I walked along the moorings after we’d tied up and realised there were two much nicer spots, neither of them near the derelict factory with at least 100 200ish broken windows, so we untied and moved up to just before the next bridge. Where we are now is much quieter and with nice houses on each side of the cut.

The baking potatoes are par-boiled and in the oven to finish off cooking, the tuna and veges and mayo are mixed and ready, the chardonnay and cider are already being consumed and we are sort of watching the news. Time to relax after a very busy day!

Newly shorn and on to Fazeley

I had my haircut – it is not as cool as the cuts I get from Michelle at home, so she has no need to worry that I will desert her. She does need to know that the water in the spray bottle and its tube was WARM, and the cut cost £9 plus a tip of £1. However the woman did not put a towel around my neck before she put the cape over me, so I got water down my neck, and when I came to be de-caped, there was hair all over the place. The woman tried to brush it off but it wasn’t happening on a knit top. So, needs must, I took the top off and shook it. So disrobing is becoming a habit. I did it a few years ago in the garden of the Bell Inn at Lower Heyford when a wasp went down my shirt – well, would you stay clothed for the sake of modesty and let the little b*stard sting you?

We cruised on yesterday to Fazeley Junction even though we would have loved to stop longer at Whittington and go to explore it and Lichfield – Whittington is lovely from the canal. Next time! We needed water for showers and laundry.

The canal is quite varied on the stretch between Whittington and Fazeley– some of it is shallow and reedy, and other parts are quite wide and deep. We can tell the difference in the engine noise – that doesn’t mean we travel with our eyes closed, mind ….

We came through Hopwas Wood which has signs saying ‘Danger. Do not enter these woods. Military Firing Range’. Even so we saw a couple waiting in the woods, admittedly close to the edge, while their dog frolicked in the canal.

I thought Hopwas looked lovely, but there was very little visitor mooring and signs on the south side of the village for No Mooring, so it didn’t appear very welcoming.

As we approached Fazeley I saw two boats that raised my interest, one was called Melita (we have a dear friend called Melita) and the other was called Chardonnay and it had an NZ flag on it. I remember when that boat was built I saw it featured in Waterways World magazine, and I was grumpy that the name had been used up – I thought that, by rights, it should have been reserved for any boat I had… However it was neat to see it yesterday complete with an NZ association. Unfortunately it was locked up, so no one around to call out to in passing. I couldn’t get a photo either as David was in the shower in preparation for taking on as much water as poss before he needed more abluting, and the camera wasn’t on deck.

When we had got water (while I showered, started a load of laundry and then rinsed the lime off the boat roof and side) we moved across to a mooring here just before the junction. It is across from a place that has refrigerated lorries, so it is occasionally a bit noisy with their compressors going off, but that is fine. More disturbing was that we seemed to be moored in a line of BCF (Boaters Christian Fellowship) boats with the boat nearest us being a Canal Ministries boat. So many christians in one area close to me brings me out in hives … However the ministries boat moved off about 6pm – maybe the service had been had and it was time for new congregants. I am considering getting a sticker made that declares our atheism, just to keep a bit of balance on the cut. I shall set David on to finding a suitable name for the organisation and an appropriate acronym and symbol.

After we’d moored up we set off to Ankerside Shopping Centre to find the Holland and Barrett store (more yoghurt sachets required … and some gf biscuits as my stock was out). I was feeling tired and grumpy (result of too much gluten over the last few days, not the proximity of christians, really!) and had considered not going. However I am really pleased I did. The walk of nearly 2 miles was well worth it as Ankerside is approached on foot through a beautiful park. I’ll let the photos tell the story.

Now, shouldn't every shopping centre be approached past a Norman castle?

And shouldn't it have a band rotunda by its entrance?

And a large grass area to sit on?

And lovely terraced gardens beautifully kept?

Speaks for itself, eh?

I have made this photo larger so you can see that I am there, tiptoeing on the edge of the bridge side so I can see over ... Most of the benches along the riverside, facing the park and castle, are dedicated to soldiers lost in various conflicts.

Our shopping expedition also produced puppy training pads (thanks for the tip, Jerry and Cheryl) which are 60cm x 54cm, and 40 for £5. They will be excellent for placing under the engine to collect oil drips etc. David also got a bright pink container to go under the stern gland greaser to catch any blobs of that, however he tells me it cannot be pulled out with fluid in it, so he will have to scoop it out when the time comes.

We were chugged (mugged by a charity fundraiser) who even though we said we were on a mission to get to the shop before it shut still insisted on asking the question he intended all along, but I harshly turned down his offer to partake in his charity drive. There was a full scale assault on the high street – there were about 8 of these people within 100 yards.

Back to the boat and I prepared dinner – Jamie Oliver’s beef kofta curry with rice and raita. Then a blob for a bit until we phoned Kirsty to say happy birthday. She is in NZ at the moment, so her dual hemisphere birthday lasts 37 hours or thereabouts. Would be longer if she was home in Sydney though.

Today I need to find a chandlers to get some boat wash stuff, some black paint for the section under the gunwales that I have removed rust from, and some rollers.

Tomorrow we have the glass and channel for the side of the shower (1200 by 300) being delivered and fitted so we have to decide where best to be. Here is good as there is road access with parking less than 50m away, but not sure if we want to be in Fazeley on Friday night. Will check it out with other boaters today. This piece of glass is required as the shower curtain is valiant in its effots to prevent water getting on to the floor, but cannot do so easily at the showerhead end. The glass will protect that end and then the curtain can happily keep the water off the floor past the galss. It couldn’t be longer than 300mm as I wouldn’t be able to reach the taps …

OK, lovely sunny day so up and at ‘em …

Whittington and new friends

Our mooring at Whittington was lovely – we were on the 14 day mooring at the end of a line of boats with the railway within sight but very little sound and no roads nearby.

We had decided we would have a maintenance day and managed very successfully to avoid doing anything about it all day – that takes some skill, mind … It was a good decision really as the farmer across the cut had lime spread by a truck and because of the wind, much of it ended up on the boats. Instead we walked into Whittington (my boots and jeans were coated in white lime powder) and did a bit of grocery shopping at the Co-op and posted Kirsty’s birthday card (late – her birthday was yesterday.) I made an appointment for yesterday to have my haircut, so we stayed on at the mooring and are very glad we did.

On Tuesday we did get on to maintenance stuff, and unfortunately I have no photographic evidence of it, dammit! David emptied water from the various segments of the engine bilge using various methods – squeegee mop, hand pump, disposable nappies. In between being called to assist him with holding/fetching (what IS that about – being required to assist with their tasks???) I wirebrushed, wet-sanded* and treated a number of small rust patches along the port side of the boat. I also suffered severe nettle attack through my jeans – I had to take them off on the towpath – fear not, no sensitive souls were traumatised by the sight of me in my knickers and T-shirt. There was no dock to be found, so I resorted to anthisan – it worked but took some time as nettle is particularly good at getting into your skin when knelt on, even in jeans.

*When in Kidsgrove (the site of our doing a runner) I found 5 sanding blocks for a quid – they were great value and I wish I’d bought more!

The beast is clean

Then he brought the giant 24v 150amp alternator up from the swim where it currently lives, cleaned it up with white spirits (he did have a bowl of soapy water ready, but I thought my dad’s ashes would perform a whirling dervish at the thought of something that probably shouldn’t get wet being washed …) and photographed it and its associated wiring bits and controller thingy.

The rear of the beast

While he was lying on the towpath (I sense a pattern, I did the lying on the towpath thing back at the junction of the T&M and the Caldon, trying to remove a branch from the water) well back from our boat so the alternator was in the sunshine, a boat pulled up to moor. I did notice they looked at David a bit strangely so I went over and said to them that he would be moving shortly so they needn’t be afraid. We chatted for a bit and discussed boats, and we played with their lovely 16 week old pup, Ted. 

A very cute Ted

The following day we chatted again, and introduced ourselves to Cheryl and Jerry; David was very interested in their solar panels and controller or somesuch for them, so on to their boat we went. It is lovely and in beautifully kept condition – their external paintwork is stunning and they haven’t yet had a repaint done (note to self: David must be put to work with washcloths and polishing cloths immediately). They were heading off to the shops in Lichfield on their bikes that arvo so we invited them for a viewing of our boat and wine and nibbles on their return. There followed a frantic bout of boat cleaning and tidying! I made a decision while washing the floor that I am going to replace the vinyl on the floor early next season – there is a distinct ‘grain’ to it that goes across-ways and is therefore very hard to keep clean (frustrating not to be able to do big powerful swipes with the squeegee across a 50cm space with walls restricting movement of the mop handle).

Out came the table and chairs on to the towpath – it was lovely and warm – and out came the tray of nibbles and the chardonnay (Oz) and sauv blanc (Chile). After 2.5 bottles of wine among the four of us, it seemed natural to go in and cook dinner making sure there was enough for all (chicken, capsicum and peas with lime and tarragon, potatoes and salad with Adair’s lime, honey and ginger dressing). Jerry was on dessert - pancakes with blackberry couli – beaut! They had mentioned they played cards for sweets, so we suggested Up and Down the River which they didn’t know (yay!), but no sweets were wagered (boo!), and a very entertaining evening was had. David and I came first equal in cards, their cat came to visit, their pup had been taken home to bed before dinner – he was tired after much playing with David.

Yesterday morning before we left, we gave them our hand poo pumpout kit (that is an unfortunate order of words, but I’m not sure how else to place them) as they may need it being liveaboard through winters and we have an emergency bucket. David is pleased with the additional space in the gas locker! We did consider kidpupnapping Ted, but decided he wouldn’t cope on our boat alone over the winter and Mel would not be happy (or safe …).

We are being sent to Coventry - it's a self drive trip though

We came down from Great Haywood to the moorings above Shadehouse Lock yesterday, with a stop south of Rugeley for water and another at Kings Bromley Marina for a pumpout and diesel – successfully in and reversed on to the pontoon, which was cheering, although I was helped by the wind being in my favour! David set off, with directions on where the rubbish bins were but went about 500m further than required. He phoned and then he walked back – on the return journey the bins were clearly visible, about 50m from where we were moored. Note to self: it is disrespectful to take advantage of or be insensitive to his disability.

Prior to that, at Bridge 58 we encountered a chap who had clearly been to one of the pubs nearby for a (mainly) liquid lunch and was just setting off across my bows as I came through the bridge on a corner. I had to take avoidance action, in one of those situations where you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. As he was spread out more than halfway across the cut and not holding his boat back, and there was no room for me to stop, I decided to go to the right of him. So then he reversed … I think it is the first time I have sworn at a boater so that they could hear me.

When we got to Shadehouse Lock moorings, they were full apart from the inevitable gaps between boats. However, as three boaters were sitting out on the towpath, I asked if they’d be able to budge up so we could fit in. They happily did so and helped us get the boat in and tied up with about 2mm to spare front and back – I would not have thought the boat would fit, but they judged it to a nicety. Well done, them, I thought – most impressive. And very kind of them as well.

We decided to go to the Swan for dinner as it is described in Nicholson’s as ‘justly famous’. The pub is about 200 years old I gather, the building is impressive and the beer might be good – we don’t know as we aren’t beer drinkers. However I didn’t try their wine either as it was on tap, and that wasn’t a good sign.

The major thing was though, and no fault of the Swan, I broke a large chunk off a tooth when eating my rather yummy pizza. It is a tooth I had seen the dentist in Johnsonville about before we came away but xrays showed no fissures. For some time it had been hurting and feeling wobbly when I bit hard, and last night was its downfall. So I need to find a dentist locally, but the tooth only hurts now when I eat/drink something cold, something hot or breathe in cold air. So it’s all fine obviously!

Today, by the time we were ready to leave it was after 10am, so it was down two locks and round the corner on to the Coventry Canal. But, stop the presses – an exclusive!! This morning David steered the boat into, down and out of Shadehouse Lock to the next lock mooring!!! And very successfully too, I must say. He did everything slowly and carefully, and I was so pleased it worked well – trauma on the first lock would not be encouraging, eh? I am not sure who was most nervous though – I got so hot with nerves, I had to take my fleecy off and it wasn’t that warm! My nervousness may explain why there are no photos of the event, but I will get some next time.

We’d talked about it last night (and a little bit on previous days) and I reminded him that he had promised that he would learn to steer this year so I didn’t have to do it all the time. Last week, I had suggested that he steer through the Harecastle Tunnel as you can only go straight ahead there, and being partially sighted probably wasn’t a disadvantage in the tunnel. I mean – what can you see when you’re in there? Not a hell of a lot - and I am almost always keeping an eye on the walls right beside me (looking for the distance markers if the truth be told …) and an ear on the sound of the water – does it sound like I am close to the wall or not? He didn’t buy that argument for some reason, and frankly I’m glad. I wouldn’t like him to steer through a tunnel with such variations in its height.

Anyway, he has decided he’ll steer through one lock each day – it’s a good start! Maybe I’ll be able to get him up to a few more each day before we finish for this year in a month …

I did the swing bridge on my own at the turn on to the Coventry, but it hardly counts as an achievement as I stopped the boat in the long narrow channel up to the bridge, moved it one handed, and David arrived to close it, just after a guy came along and said he’d shut it for me.

We are now moored in the sunshine not terribly far from Whittington. The Coventry is another shallow and reed-filled canal. On our Nicholson’s (2003 edition, so we probably bought and used it in 2004) I had recorded last time we were on it that we moored north of Bridge 90A. Well, there is no mooring possible anywhere near there now – there is about a metre and a half of reeds out from the bank.

We had a ‘mare at Bridge 89 where rather than one boat coming through (at the speed of a snail that was so slow you could go and mine, refine, package, shop and have Mr Tesco deliver the salt before putting it on the snail’s tail …), the woman was closely followed by another. I ended up stuck on the off-side and for the first time this trip, David had to pole the boat off. Being stuck also meant I was splayed across the cut and blocking the 2^nd boat’s egress from the bridgehole. AAARRRGGGHHH!!! When he could get out, he tried to come out without turning, so started pushing me back on to the off-side. I am not sure how much room he needed but it was more than I was prepared to provide. He then informed me there was another boat about to come through, but I’d had enough by that stage and tooted for the other boat to hold back. They did so and with a bit of manoeuvring we got through. It was not my finest hour and I did apologise to the people on the 3^rd boat. They apologised too, so all was fine.

We stopped on a tiny piece of Armco to feed me with pumpkin soup (made this morning before we headed off from Fradley), top me up with magnesium and to decide where to aim for today. A mooring away from the noisy A38 was the edict. There was plenty of Armco within earshot of that dual carriageway, but no one was on it. So here we are near the Huddlesford Junction, enjoying the sunshine at last – there’s been little sitting outside throughout August which has been quite cool and damp at times.

For dinner tonight we are going to have chicken with lime and tarragon which is a recipe our daughter Kirsty taught me a few years ago. I modified it ages ago and we use yoghurt instead of cream. And today a further modification is being tried – instead of adding the garlic, the lime juice and the tarragon after browning the chicken, I made them into a marinade – it’ll make it quicker to cook when we are ready.

It seems to me it is now chardonnay o’clock – hope it doesn’t hurt my tooth though. I’ll be brave …

David getting stuck in while I was getting my proper chair and taking his photo

Update: Dinner has been postponed till tomorrow night – drinks and extensive nibbles outside on the sunny towpath replaced it. 

The woman on the boat next to us has a large Welsh flag

so here is our little NZ flag valiantly flying. Well, we are better than them at rugby ...

And now we have been for a walk towards Whittington, we have found the Plough Inn which looks as tho it may be a starter for a meal at some stage. 

Boats in the evening sun with The Plough in the background - we can find our way back here I think ...

The Lichfield Cruising Club is on the old arm a few hundred metres away, Their rates for annual mooring are very reasonable even adding in the one off membership fee. But not good for people who are away 6 months, as there is no power. to the moorings. I liked the look of this wooden boat - clinker built perhaps, although that usually refers to the hull, I think.

This place is looking very attractive in the evening sun, so we are considering staying on for a few days and exploring the area (Lichfield cathedral is about 1000 years old so must be checked out) as well as doing some boat maintenance (inc changing the oil – my job, gulp … I sense a multiple reading of the manual coming up). Also we can post Kirsty’s birthday card, David’s dvd for the Weaving Memories client, and my application for the UK OAP if I get it done sharpish. Not very motivated though as, even though I would have qualified at 60 if we lived here, it now goes to the NZ government to top up David’s NZ Super until I qualify for that at the end of next year. Not quite sure how that works, but hey ho. Every little bit helps, I guess.

Lovely Stone, passing a blogger and stardom (Wednesday to Friday last week)

There was very poor wifi over the last few days in Great Haywood and above Shadehouse Lock, hence no posting since the middle of last week.

On Wednesday we walked into Stone with one granny trolley as we’d made a conscious decision not to empty their stores into our boat. We knew we didn’t need much, but as Joe can attest, put a shopping trolley in front of me and it is amazing what I find that we absolutely must have. (That is why, when Joe and I shop together in Johnsonville, he is in charge of the trolley and he keeps moving, dammit!)

It was a mission in Morrison’s trying and not succeeding in finding such basics as salt, and squeegee mops – a refill sponge for a squeegee but no actual squeegee mops … And trying to find wine (well, chardonnay) was difficult. The wine section is divided into wines above £8 and wines below £5, and a small section of wines between £5 and £8. I prefer the placement where the expensive stuff is up on the top shelf (out of my reach, both physically and financially), and the cheap crap is on the bottom – that way I can focus at eye level and just below and know that I will find what I am looking for.

I am finding as we travel around that my strategy in a familiar supermarket of aiming only for the aisles I need (or have the items that will throw themselves into the trolley almost unaided) does not work in an unfamiliar store. And some product placement is frankly weird and the aisle identification systems are occasionally minimalist, to say the least (as you would for something minimalist, I guess). So I end up traversing the place several times. And they have these double aisles, i.e. the shop is two sets of aisles deep, if you get my drift. Makes for some interesting intersections and trolley jams … What should have been a quick scoot through became a bit of a mission.

So after Morrison’s, with David wheeling the granny trolley, we decided to walk the high street. It is still a lovely street, but clearly business is not hugely booming in Stone. There were at least 6 charity shops. There were also a number of long standing businesses though, one of which was the kind of shops we love – the kind that sells everything! We found squeegee mops, got extra refills, and bought a sturdy bucket (we have two collapsible buckets but they do tend to collapse at the most awkward times if not on a stable base). If we were in the market for saloon furniture, I would have bought one of their armchairs too – it was perfectly suited to me, as I could reach the floor and it supported my back and had sides at the head height so I could fall asleep in it … But the much cheaper option was that I found a present for David: a pack of little envelope things called poachies, for (obviously) poaching eggs in. We tried them when back in the boat and they do work (egg into the envelope, envelope into the simmering water, leave for 6 minutes, take out with tongs, tip egg on to toast, biff poachie in the bin), but I think salt in the water is more economic.

The next morning, David headed back into Stone to sort out some admin, and I decided that I would reverse back to the waterpoint to fill the tank. David arrived back as I was starting off and I had hoped to be at the waterpoint by the time he got back. I am NOT saying it was his fault I got flustered. Anyway, I gave up after 2 attempts as I could not get the bow to come round (in forward, mind) so I could go backwards in the centre of the cut. AAARRRGGGHHH!!! I felt like an idiot. David tells me it was breezy and the water was shallow, but I am sure it was my fault really.

So on we came and passed by nb Tentatrice. I called out to them that they have a blog, and instead of saying the obvious ‘Yes we know, cos we write it’, they were much more polite! So hello, Jennie and Chris on Tentatrice from David and Marilyn on Waka Huia.

These women had a novel way of taking the dogs for a walk. The prince and princess (note the tiara) in rear carriage seemed reasonably content. They turned back at Aston Lock as the towpath then gets a bit rough and narrow.

I had wanted to fill with water so we could confidently do a load of washing (guest laundry from the weekend). We decided to put it on anyway and hoped/trusted there would be enough in the tank to cope. It was a close run thing …, and we eventually filled the tank at one of the slowest taps on the cut at Great Haywood. Had a lovely chat there with a couple who’ve been boating for 25 years. Their boat is Anne Louise I think. Then down the lock we came after being momentarily confused by two boats almost on the lock mooring (but not quite) – one moored and the other about to. I moored within view of Shugborough Hall very close to where we moored up on our way up back in June. I say that I moored, because as David cleared the lock, he got captured by a guy who told him about the training ground for the Anzacs in WWI about a mile away. He’d been going to go ahead of me and scout out a suitable place, but that plan evaporated and I pulled in and when David arrived I had the middle rope tied and holding while I was getting the back rope done.

Yesterday David did some film editing as part of his Weaving Memories business – a film off a reel he’d copied on to the Mac Book Pro (MY laptop) before leaving NZ. Using Final Cut Pro he got started on the job. It did mean that I had to remove all barriers and then time how long it took him to get started on it, as he is the world’s best procrastinator and will look for all the small or big tasks that absolutely must be done before the main event can be undertaken – putting away socks, washing dishes, reading emails, charging the phone – you get the picture. So I set him a challenge of being ready to start in 20 minutes and, with a reminder of the countdown, and his brekkie made for him, he made it with about 10 seconds to spare.

Once he was underway, I went back to bed (I’m not stupid …) and watched a movie on the iPad (David’s iPad) – A Dry White Season, released in 1989, with Donald Sutherland, Susan Saradon, Marlon Brando. Harrowing movie (based on the book by Andre Brink – haven’t read it, but will check if it’s on kindle) about deaths in police/Special Branch custody in South Africa before apartheid was abolished and how one white man’s attitude changed when it happened to people he knew.

After a quick lunch we headed for Shugborough Hall – it was open this time. This was when we took advantage of the opportunity for stardom! The woman at the gate told us that the Beeb was there preparing to film a segment for a gardening programme, we think, of a number of people holding hands and encircling the largest yew tree in Europe. Once everyone was in place, a camerawoman moved around the tree filming, but everyone was really waiting to see the drone camera take off and do its thing. By the way, holding hands with arms outstretched hurts after a few minutes – not the hands, but the shoulders! 

 

Waiting to play with the drone

It was too far away for David to run off with it, but I know he (and almost every other guy there) wanted to ...

By the time it was all done it took about an hour, and David reckons it’ll be cut down to about 6 or 7 minutes actually makes it into the programme. So watch out for us – the series (not sure what it’s called) is going to be starting on 6 Oct at 3.15pm on BBC1. As it’s the day before we leave for NZ, we will watch that episode and then I think we’ll be putting the iPlayer into service to see if we can watch ourselves if it’s not in the first one. The grey-haired woman who was trotting around in trackpants, boots with secaturs at her waist, was clearly well known, as afterwards people kept having their photograph taken with her. Any clues who she is?

The walk around the servants quarters and working area of the Hall (coach house, stables, kitchen, laundry, dunnies  etc) was excellent. We had a chat with one of the guides in the servants' hall and he was most disparaging about the honesty of the servants, whom, he said, knew they were on to a good thing. He did mention that, back in the 19th century, their life expectancy was many years higher than other people who lived in slum conditions, earned very little and therefore ate little and poorly. 
My mum was a parlourmaid when she first went to work at age 14 back in 1937/38 - when we came over to the UK in 1988 she wasn't at all keen to show me the manor house where she'd worked. So I guess there's two sides to every story, in terms of how well off servants thought they were and how well they were treated.

The toilets were a hole in a wooden bench with a large bucket underneath, and outside - no wonder they used 'gerzunders' at night! The sign on the door says 'Do not disturb' and when I lifted the latch there was a voice complaining that there was no blooming peace even on the toilet, then a loud farting noise, followed by a complaint that no one had left any paper ...

In the coach-house, which was filled with carriages from a collection from Shrewsbury, I think, I was delighted to see a phaeton for the first time - I have read about them lots in Georgette Heyer’s novels. I read her when I need a break from the more serious fiction and non-fiction I seem to get engrossed in. I do enjoy finding myself in places here in England that she wrote about, and seeing the differences now from how she described them. She mostly wrote about the era before the canals and railways, but some of the towns and cities are familiar from wending our way along the cut. Also she raises my consciousness about how greater London was previously a series of villages – with farms and countryside between them that have now disappeared, but that explain a lot of the names of places. History and geographical information come in all guises …

Tuesday 26 Aug - what a long blogging gap!

On Tuesday we moved on to Stone. En route, we stopped in Barlaston briefly and I went over to what had been the Londis shop. It used to be really well stocked but is being changed to a One Stop shop, and the stock lines appear to be being run down at the moment. I managed to get yoghurt**, milk and some totally unnecessary choccy treats, but almost nothing else on my list was available. We had thought we might head to moor up just above the lock at Aston, but by the time we got to Stone I was ready to stop. The thought of Thai takeaways for dinner was too tempting! The mains were pretty ordinary but the starters were fine.

** We have onboard an Easi Yo yoghurt maker and we make our own Greek style yoghurt from the sachets that are available here from Holland and Barrett and the occasional supermarket. David had assiduously shopped for the sachets of Greek Easi Yo when he was back in NZ to save us having to find H&B stores close to the cut. When I say assiduously, I mean he looked for the word Greek on the sachet, found and purchased 8 of them, and carried them back to the boat. When I made raita on Saturday to go with the chicken curry, I added some turmeric and thought that I didn’t think turmeric was sweet, but the raita tasted pretty good anyway. At breakfast in the morning, I wondered what Pauline had added to the fruit salad to make it so sweet – didn’t taste like the manuka honey I use. Then David confessed – the yoghurt was the Greek and Coconut flavour. As were ALL of the sachets he brought back. AAARRRGGGHHH!!! Hence my shopping for plain unsweetened yoghurt.

We decided we would stay in Stone an extra day, explore the town which is where the Trent and Mersey Canal was initiated according the signage, to do some shopping at Morrison’s – we need more meat and chardonnay, and two squeegee mops (one for the floors and one to mop out the water the bilge pump won’t remove). I was keen to take the granny trolleys for an outing ...