A wonderful new home

After a nana nap at lunchtime last Saturday on our return to Molly’s from the wedding festivities and after match function, the three of us went to visit two of Molly’s sons, Vince and Gordon, Gordon’s wife Sharon and one of their sons, David. Plus the lovely dogs who would make ideal boating dogs, we decided …

Gordon and Sharon’s property outside of Abinger Hammer was probably once a farm, but is now a business park with lots of large barns that people rent from G&S for various purposes. Some years ago Gordon and Sharon had their old wooden house torn down and commenced building a new home. For a variety of reasons, the construction has taken longer than they expected, so due to recalcitrant behaviour at the planning department in the local council and partly due to pressure of other work. But they are now within a couple of months of moving in. So for the last 7 or so years, they have lived in a 3 bedroomed chalet-type place which is very lovely, but nowhere near big enough for them.

The new house is stunning and is beautifully crafted. At one point when we visited a few years ago, Vince, who lives in one of their barns along with his motorbikes, was spending his days whittling oak ‘nails’ (about 8 – 10 inches long to go through the solid oak beams) to be used instead of the metal variety. Then Gordon discovered that he could buy them for a quid each so Vince moved on to other more cost effective work on the house.

The finishing touches are being done and Sharon’s kitchen is beautiful – I say Sharon’s kitchen because there is a clear demarcation not only of duties, but spaces. Gordon has a section of the room that the kitchen occupies, for the wine – bench, wine coolers, glasses racks, wine racks … He has even claimed (but not with much success, I bet) the use of the large fridge that sits within ‘his’ area. While the kitchen is Sharon’s, he was very happy to show us the gadgetry and I was most impressed with the extractor – it rises up at the touch of a button from within the bench behind the hob. If I had seen that in NZ when we were doing the Café Rata kitchen, I may well have been tempted! And Sharon has not one but two cooking towers in her kitchen – a double oven, plus a tower containing a microwave and a steam oven. I do hope she is going to make use of them or I will have to relocate them to Café Rata …

The twin towers and behind the hob is the extractor. There is an under-bench fridge, the cupboard in the far corner is one of those nifty designs that, when the door is opened, pulls out two racks, one directly behind the door and one from back in the corner. I am not sure if the piece of timber under the bench is a design feature or a piece of timber waiting to move to its proper home ... I love the T&G surrounds. Gordon's wine kitchen is off to the right of the photo.

I was most impressed with the bathrooms as well – in particular the ensuite for G&S’s room. It is as big as our bedroom and I think the whole inside square footage of the boat would fit within it!  

Sharon's bath with the waterfall tap - all taps in their bathroom are of this style

Mmm, two shower heads in Gordon's shower - maybe he is quite grubby ...

And the shower drain that I really like - similar to Bruce's, and I am keen to have that in Cafe Rata

 

A basin each as well as a towel rail each! Yay!!

The landscaping is taking shape and the brick and stone work is beautifully designed and constructed. G&S’s son Nick works with Gordon and Vince and another couple of chaps.

There are a number of terraces (decks we would call them), and each one has something special about it – positioned for the sunset, positioned for the view down the hill, positioned to make the best use of the conservatory and the lounge.

The dining room opens on to this terrace that leads down to the pond and part of the garden.

Sharon and Gordon standing on the deck outside their bedroom - a lovely place to sit in the evening.

Outside the front door. There is a large atrium with a curved staircase against the internal wall. The large windows above the front door allow a view from the large landing where a couple of armchairs will be positioned.

This room is Gordon's office - he says a desk, a TV and his motorbike will live in there ... But so he can keep an eye on what is happening in the lounge (in case he is missing out on any fun) he has a full length, soft close, glass sliding door. Lovely.

The end room is the conservatory with the hot tub ready to be installed outside. It is obvious that the grandchildren come to visit - the trike with wheelbarrow-type trailer is a give-away.

In the main, the design of the whole place – house and grounds – is Gordon’s. He has an excellent eye for the end game as well as keeping a close eye on the detail as he progresses. It has the feel of a labour of love, not that he would do anything but scoff at that girlie notion, I am sure!

We are really pleased that it is coming together – it’ll be lovely to stay with them when we are over next year. The guest room is pretty special …

We have asked them to come and spend some time on the boat with us next year and they have been requested to bring the dogs. It won’t be quite so luxurious, but the food will be good and I’ll make sure there is plenty of NZ wine to give them a special treat!

The wedding of the decade

David’s niece, Sarah, got married a week ago today. The wedding was at Polesden Lacey and the reception was held at the RAC in Epsom. From beginning to end it was a fabulous affair. The weather was lovely, everyone looked very well scrubbed up, Sarah and Alex looked great and, to make it even better, they looked like they were having a very good time. 

The ceremony was in a marquee open to the front so the audience sat facing the beautiful Polesden Lacey manor. (I guess a side was available if the weather turned nasty.) A large number of guests arrived in a double decker bus, but some of us drove ourselves. As I entered the gates of the parking area, I did try to knock over a few English guests, on the basis that some of them may be English cricketers, but sadly they weren’t and anyway I missed …

This blog is all about me, me, me; so it's important that you know I have lost weight since I last wore this dress on our 40th anniversary back in December. Now back to the wedding - this is one entrance to Polesden Lacey. Good thing it wasn't raining as this walk down a lovely tree-lined drive would not have been so charming.

Graham, Ginny and their son Trent. Across the aisle are Alex's parents, Geoff and Carolyn.

Signing a document - the civil ceremony had taken place at a previous occasion, so this was a celebration and renewal of recent vows.

The arbor was roses and peonies

 

With Polesden Lacey in the background. One of my aunts used to come camping here in the extensive grounds with her family many years ago. I think public camping is now not allowed.

After the ceremony there were drinks on the lawn - options were Pimms and elderflower cordial before everyone made their way on to the RAC. I didn’t see Sarah and Alex leave in the fancy old car (a Rolls Royce with a roof whose front section came off - it looked pretty special) as I was off buying an icecream from the Mr Whippy van that was sited close by for the walkers and other visitors to PL. My icecream had a flake in it … Both the icecream and the chocolate were welcome in the warmth and to keep my strength up. I did share with David tho, cos I am kind and a very good wife. I was setting Sarah a good example, although she wasn't watching.

At the RAC we checked in as we were staying the night – a sharp contrast to the £8 a night room at Montgomery House, mark you, both in price (£175 – gulp!) and quality of accommodation and fit out. We had a lovely, very large room with king sized bed and a luxurious bathroom. Staying on site mercifully meant that I didn’t have to stint myself on the lovely burgundy being served – it was almost as good as an NZ chardonnay, and I could happily dance until 5 minutes of wanting to go to sleep …

But I am getting ahead of myself. At first there were drinks on one of the RAC terraces with a two piece band (does a two piece group constitute a band?) and then it was inside for a lovely meal. Food was interspersed with speeches with a few too many jokes referencing the Aussie cricketers, but given Sarah is Australian (Kiwi parents though) and a number of guests were over from Oz, it wasn’t surprising really. However if Australia wasn’t being convincingly trounced as festivities continued, I am sure there would not have been quite so much glee expressed by the English guests!

Apart from the cricketing references all the speeches were very good. And as most of Sarah’s cousins, uncles and aunts and a number of her friends who live in Oz had not been able to make it, Alex had prepared a great surprise for her. Ginny and Graham (Sarah’s mum and dad - David’s sister and b-i-l) had hosted an afternoon at their place back in Brisbane and one of Graham’s brothers who is a cameraman, had filmed people partying and had also set up a camera for people to record their own messages to Sarah and Alex. He had edited it wonderfully and I hadn’t realised quite how nuts Graham’s family is! And a number of her friends are a bit on the nutty side as well.

Food was great, music was great – mostly songs that the older people recognised, dancing was fun, David’s poorly foot was pretty good and able to take its share of the dancing load (not me standing on it, natch) and we went to bed significantly earlier than many others. Our room was mercifully well away from the music, and we slept well.

There was a breakfast the next morning as a post match function, and everyone looked surprisingly well considering. David did have to wear the trousers he’d worn at the wedding as the no denim rule applies in the dining room at the RAC. I was OK – I had my bright pink trousers!

Then it was goodbye from me and goodbye from him and back to Molly’s place we went – a midday nap was in order as we MAY have looked surprisingly well, but appearances can be deceiving, and we had my cousins to catch up with in the afternoon. More of that later!

Friends and relations

When I last wrote we were expecting Mairi and Alex to call in for lunch on their way back to Scotland on Tuesday. They did, we fed them on cassoulet and Tesco’s gluten free Victoria sponge (very yummy, both) and there were many laughs and great conversation. We are hoping that they and Mairi’s sister, Issie and her partner Gavin will come and join us on the boat.

And late Wednesday morning it was off to Surrey, via Banbury to shop for a shirt and pair of trousers for David. It was lovely seeing the canal there from a pedestrian’s viewpoint – the juxtaposition of the shopping area and quay has been beautifully executed, and the visitor moorings there are excellent. The drive down to Leatherhead was quick and always make me realise how slowly life goes past on the canal – travelling at 70mph on the motorway felt like the speed of light! And there to meet us was my lovely Auntie Molly – 87 (and a half, she declares) and hardly changed since I first met her with my mum back in 1988.

When we go to see Molly we stay in the guest room at Montgomery House – it costs us the princely sum of £8 per night, lower than its sister place (Silvercourt) across the way where the cost is £10 because our room doesn’t have an en suite bathroom …

On Thursday we had dinner in Dorking with my cousin Tonya and my cousin Tony. Tonya’s dad was my mum’s (and Molly’s) brother Ron, and Tony’s mum is mum’s (and Molly’s) sister Joyce. Joyce is 94 and quite poorly at the moment and has been in hospital since May. Tony is over from Tasmania sorting out nursing home care for her. He comes to visit his mum twice a year and thinks this may be the last time.

Tony and Tonya hadn’t seen each other for many years so it was good to get them together. We met at the restaurant and had told Tonya that Tony would be carrying a bag of books, so she was able to identify him and when we saw them they were hugging – how very un-British! Every time we get together with Tonya or with any cousins we learn more about Mum’s family – as we emigrated to NZ back in 1953 (my mum and dad had to take me, they weren’t allowed to leave me behind) we never knew the aunts and cousins. And seeing them regularly and getting to know them since 1988 when mum and I came over to visit has been really lovely.

We have arranged for Tony to come and join us on the boat for a few days – he could do with some time off mother-care and sorting out his mum’s bedsit. He’s an exemplary son.

We had a call from Kirsty early one morning at Molly's - she is in Bali for a holiday with her friend Katie, and was due to head back to Sydney last Thursday. However an ash cloud (from the volcano that erupted back in July in Java) is hovering over Denpasar airport and she was trapped in paradise, as David described it. She thought an injection of cash prior to refunds from the airline, may be in order. That has been arranged and when I last spoke to her she and Katie were drinking bloody marys at the bar waiting to check in to a cheaper hotel - as she said 'what's not to like?' Always the healthy choice, our Kirsty - a drink that is almost all (!) tomato juice ...

I've done it twice, I don't need to do it again!

Yesterday I changed the engine oil and got it all done, but dripped old oil all over the auction, used up half a roll of kitchen paper and several plastic bags, dripped oil on my boots, wiped it on my jeans and shirt and got some in my hair.

It took me ages to do it and at the end as we were clearing up - I find it is a two person job getting oil-saturated paper towels into a supermarket shopping bag without dripping oil all over the jetty or back deck - David asked me wasn't it worth it to pay someone else to do it in future.

Short answer: YES!! So now that I've done it twice, proved to myself (and our son) that I can do it, I no longer need to, unless we are a distance from someone professional that I can pay to do it. So from now on, I am only descending to the engine bay to do the requisite checks.

And a note re Vodafone: the email through the web portal to the Customer Operations Director worked!! We have had our email service restored (although they hadn't restored the imap aspect), a helpful email from the Complaint Lead and she called last night wanting to talk through the issues. She will call back tonight at a better time and there is a bullet point feedback list being prepared. Helpful suggestions to improve the 'customer experience'. No point in suggesting they put on more call centre staff, but having music better suited to the customer demographic would help and a loop of an hour given that is how long the wait can be when on hold. 

More later!

A company to avoid dealing with

Well, just one really ...

I may have blogged about this before but am not sure and have lost the will to live over looking up whether I have given this particular company any airtime previously.

But the saga with this useless company continues. And no, it's not here in the UK, although it is a multi-national.

Back in NZ we have our internet and home phone delivered through Vodafone's cable. For a long time we were TelstraClear customers, but they were bought out by Vodafone. And once that happened, the hassles started. As with many companies who take over another, the systems don't get integrated, so former TCL customers are on separate billing and service systems from Vodafone customers. And of course, the so called 'service' teams are downsized. They are all willing but hamstrung by extremely clumsy process. And by the time you get to talk to them after being on hold for anything up to and over an hour, it's amazing that anyone can articulate without expletives the issue they want resolved. I honestly don't know how David can stay on the line that long, esp with the bloody hip hop music that cycles through multiple times - if it was me I would have given up after no more than 15 minutes.

But once the call is answered, then the rigmarole starts. After a concise explanation of the issue the response invariably is 'Ah no, sir, I am afraid that I am in the Red team, and you need to speak to someone in the Blue team. Let me put you through ...' So then it's on hold for another 40 minutes or so. A further explanation - a bit like going to A&E and explaining the same thing to every doctor, nurse, admitting staff member, cleaner and phlebotomist. AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

When we moved out of Cherswud back in November, we stayed for a month with Bruce and Gary, and our TCL/Vodafone account was suspended. Vodafone of course in their efficient way, kept deducting money from our bank account. Accordingly, having asked them to stop and being ignored, and given we were unsure how long it would be until we found and moved into a house of our own (we were tempted to stay on with B&G indefinitely ...) David cancelled the direct debit arrangement.

Fast forward a couple of months and in we move in to Cafe Rata. After much to-ing and fro-ing David managed, with the patience of a non-existent saint (I am an atheist after all), to get the cable installed to the house - that was done by Downers who are contracted by Vodafone, and David eventually worked directly with Downers to make it happen.

The next thing was sorting out our home phone number when the cable was activated. The Downers guy was all set to activate it but had been told by Vodafone that our old Johnsonville number was the one to be activated. Given Vodafone had already given us a Waikanae number while we waited and waited and waited for the cable installation, reverting to the Johnsonville number was stupid. Not only had we notified everyone of our new number, but Waikanae is not a free call from Wellington, so if people were to call us on the Johnsonville number they would unknowingly be charged. Doh!

After a time of wonder, we eventually managed to keep our new Waikanae number and have it activated on our cable connection.

Was that the end of the matter? Not on your life!

Next came the direct debit debacle. In March David sent in to Vodafone a new direct debit form. Did they activate it? No, of course not. So having received a threatening letter about not paying the bill, David paid it manually and then sent another direct debit form. And thinking (obviously a foolish move) that that would be that, didn't monitor to see if money was coming out of our account regularly to pay them.

Yesterday an email pops up saying we are $423-ish in arrears and we had to pay the arrears immediately. So over the internet goes the payment. Then half an hour later, all our email accounts are disabled. WTF!!!

So this morning, David phones the number listed for help requests from overseas, for assistance in getting the email service resumed given the account has been paid. He is on hold for 25 minutes, then told he has called the wrong number. 'No I haven't' he says 'This is the number I called. Is it the right one?' 'Yes' is the reply. 'But you need to phone the Red team. ' So he calls another number and is on hold for an hour (the message when he phones is that there is a delay of at least 30 minutes ... Tell me, if you can, of any shop-front business that would countenance having customers wait in line for upwards of 30 minutes to be served?)

He eventually gets through and is immediately told he has called the wrong number. For the first time, David's good temper slightly frays. 'Now hang on a minute' he says, 'Just listen.' And so the young person does. But can he help? No. It appears that the internet payment hasn't been processed yet, so he cannot get anyone to activate the email accounts. Can David pay (again) by credit card? Well yes he could but not to anyone in this team. He'd need to speak to someone in the Blue team. That will involve another wait of at least 40 minutes, so he declines the offer to put him through.

David does ask to speak to a supervisor. Not possible. He asks if there are any of the retention team in the same building. Not known. Can they call him on his UK mobile to talk with him? No, because they can only call NZ Vodafone numbers, and if overseas we would have to be on roaming to allow them to call us.

FFS!! We thought this is a telecommunications company, but clearly the communications part is a misnomer.

AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

So we don't have email access currently.

When the cable debacle occurred back at home in Waikanae, I was all for escalating it to one of the company's executive to sort out. But David, who is almost endlessly patient in these situations, denied me that opportunity.

This morning though I was undeterred. Via their website, I have emailed the Customer Operations Director, one Kelly Moore, asking for her help. I have suggested that she look up the logs of our calls since moving to Waikanae so she has the history, but am only asking her to sort the email situation at the moment.

If Telecom's fibre optic Ultra Fast Broadband was installed in our street, we would toss Vodafone in the bin. But that isn't happening until 2018.

I do however sense there is a strong likelihood of a complaint to Fair Go on our return to NZ.

Hatton Top to Wigrams Turn

Friday was our day off after our sterling flying trip up the Hatton flight the day before, and into Warwick we all went on the train. David and I were shouting Mick and Julia lunch and would have eaten at any decent hostelry or restaurant. But Mick was on a mission to demonstrate Wetherspoons to us. 

We saw this plant on the way and wondered what it is - does anyone know?

Lovely old buildings. We turned right into that street, as down hill was not what we wanted - means coming back up ...

Mick was a traditional slater, so is the man to ask about old building methods. David asked and I was ready to keep walking ...

Does my bum look big in this?

After a fairly long walk we found it in the town square, and ate and drank. (However, if I had seen the Thai restaurant across the square before we ordered food  Wetherspoons would have had to wait for me to venture in.) Prior to that we had passed the bus station and ascertained that we could catch a bus back to the station - that was to save Mick's knees and David's foot and allow an extra beer ...

On Saturday we were on the move before 8am so that we could have a quick trip down the Hatton flight before the expected but non-materialising stampede of boaters. Mick and Julia did the locking to help us down, travelling between locks on their bikes with Julia doing the to and fro-ing (Mick was on one of Julia’s bikes and he informed us that the saddle is not appropriately shaped …); David’s job was to close the gate behind me, and for the first time I used a rope to hold the boat into to the lock side. We opened one gate and paddle at each end, and still got through in 2.5 hours. Not bad going and very likely a record. If not a record, it is a personal best for all four of us. It wasn’t that we were racing, but we** were being efficient – economic with gates and paddles, and the effective use of a cord with hook to hold the other gate closed as I was exiting. **Mick and Julia were very efficient, but David was distracted with his phone and I was scoring between +10 and -5 for my proficiency at entering the locks without nudging the offside gate. I didn’t keep a tally as I was too embarrassed …

Mick holding the gate steady, me steering in as slowly as possible, Julia cycling down to join us having closed the previous lock's gate. She had the cord with hook in her hand ready to tie the offside bottom gate and make sure it doesn't drift open. They are very clever those two!

 

It was really very kind of M&J to help us down the locks – so we rewarded them with a beer at The Cape of Good Hope pub (run by NZers and with the aforementioned Liam, Rachel’s grandson and trainee chef from Russell). Before the pub opened (we were there well in advance) I fed them on cheese tart which I’d cooked on the way down the locks, and gave them a smaller version to take away with them. Then they helped us down the two Cape locks before heading back on their bikes to their boat to move it closer to Hatton Station and thence by train to Wetherspoons in Warwick for an afternoon of, as they describe it, slurping.

At the Cape of Good Hope pub - I had tried to give away to Julia that hanging pot that I have made into a hat but Mick won't have it on their boat - not traditional enough ...

David was taking ages to take photos so Mick started playing silly buggers with a plant pots and I decided to go incognito.

Meanwhile we moved further down and moored on the straight between Leamington Spa and the Radford locks – almost where we moored a few nights previously, but not quite as other boaters had got there before us, dammit! This time though our view of the church and houses wasn’t hampered by the barns … Getting into the side was a trick as we got caught by the wind. Fortunately a boat came past at an opportune moment and his wake pushed us in.

Given we had eaten rather a lot of cheese tart late morning (it’s a no fat diet food – cheese, eggs, onion, milk, pastry – what is fattening about that?), we supped on baked beans on toast – that was also because I was too tired to consider what else to cook. David sent M&J a message asking them to come back as the food had been better when we were travelling together …

Yesterday was a fasting day on our 5/2 diet, so a small brekkie and then water, water, tea, water for the day, until dinner at night. There were ten locks (Radford, Fosse and Bascote) to do yesterday and we were on our own in them. The new-to-me habit of using the rope to hold against the side was in full play – I throw it up to David as I enter the lock and he passes it around a bollard and drops it back to me. I have always been too proud to do it before, thinking that if I was accomplished enough I shouldn’t need it. The efficiency aspect has inspired me to use it – no more faffing in the lock to get on the right side for a one gate exit. Why it took me so long to realise that I don’t know – doh! We have tried all sorts of things to keep me on the side but none of them work all through the filling/emptying of the lock as well as the rope trick. 

At one point for two locks we were three in a lock - a whole new experience in a canal lock! The two smaller boats could fit on one side. It took me a while to realise they were holding the lock gate open for me ... Doh!

At the bottom staircase lock, David had gone to check if there were any boats coming down (having at the previous one changed the lock on a descending pair of boats - nortee smacks and big apologies all round) and so I walked along the gunwales with the rope and bravely climbed the ladder. That’s my first ever go at that. However I could not bring myself to climb on to and walk along the roof and step on to the ladder from there – the 12 inch gap paralyses my legs … Olek had tried to persuade me to do it when he and I were out on our own but I just couldn’t do it.

Talk about thwarted intention and unfulfilled expectation for today – we were ready to leave our mooring near Long Itchington at 5.55am with the notion that no one else would be mad enough to be boating at that time – wrong!!

By contrast with Saturday’s efficiency, this morning we did the ten Stockton Locks in 2.5 hours with a single hander who had a set way of doing things and did not want to deviate from it. And then we did the three Calcutt locks which took well over an hour. We shared with a guy who was all over the cut when we followed them from near Stockton Top where we’d stopped for brekkie. He managed to spread himself all over the lock entrance each time, and I totally messed up getting in to the bottom lock. That was a -5. The others were better though and scored 10 and 7. It was hilarious below the top lock – two boats coming down (one owner, one hirer), two boats up (inc us) and waiting in the pound, one on the pump out (owner), one (owner) in the second lock wanting to go over to get diesel. I would have to say that the hirer got the worst of it – he was being very considerate but his partner in the lock took no account of him, and nor did the boat coming up wanting diesel – just cut across in front without any communication.

We are now moored back in ‘our’ spot at Wigrams Turn. We are hooked up to the national grid, the washing machine is on and we are about to get the boat sparkling clean in preparation for David’s sister and husband coming to visit next week. Well, that’s the intention. It may turn out that the mind is willing but the flesh is weak when it comes to sugar soap and application thereof.

Tomorrow we have friends Mairi and Alex from St John’s Town of Dalry calling in for lunch onboard on their return from a London trip and the following day we are off down to Surrey – David’s niece’s wedding and seeing my rellies – that will be lovey!

Fun and hard work with friends

When I started writing this we were at the top of the Hatton flight of locks, moored up with Mick and Julia in a sort of glade.

It has been a great few days with them. We met up at the top of the Calcutt flight in pouring rain, had lunch on board Waka Huia and then went down those locks and the Stockton flight. David and Julia locked, Mick and I steered. We had intended to moor up across from the Blue Lias pub but there are very few moorings there, so we carried on down the last two locks and moored near the Two Boats pub.

Setting off from Calcutt and heading for the top lock. Mick in front in their boat named for the movie The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. If you know the movie you will get the references in the boat name and canal carrying company. It's not visible in the photo but the boat was registered in Eastwood ...

And in the top lock.

 

Julia locking - David is also on lock duty but had to combine it with camera duty.

Lunches and dinners have been on our boat as we have a permanent table – and Julia has added a lot of stuff to the menu. I had cooked a chicken curry for dinner that first evening, but the extensive nibbles meant the curry got put away for the next evening. Good when that happens as it feels like there is a night off cooking! Other culinary delights have been cassoulet cooked by David, and toad in the hole and brown onion gravy cooked by me. As always seems to happen, toad in the hole is on the menu when the weather is very warm!

Friends reunited - Mick and Julia are favourites with Mel. Visible are the remains of extensive nibbles which obviated the requirement for chicken curry ...

 

After 15 years of losing touch, seeing photos of the kids is in order.

See Lesley, Mel is quite the intellectual with his specs. And people do appreciate his viewpoint.

We had very short days of boating apart from Thursday's Hatton experience, considering our joint past performances! Of course we were much younger then and often only had a week or fortnight on board. However we are extremely efficient at the locks where Mick and I either go in to the locks side by side or with half a boat length between us. Julia is an absolutely ace lock wheeler, she sets the lock opens the gates, heads up to the next one to get it going and comes back to close a gate behind us and open one paddle, let us out and on her bike she gets again. Meanwhile David closes the other gate, opens the other paddle and then clears up after we leave. Julia does a fair distance over the course of a flight – I know I could work it out mathematically but it’s too tiring to contemplate!

There were lovely moorings to be had with plenty of space for us to moor in line – made the journeys back to Unknown No 3 much safer … Between Radford Semele and Leamington Spa there is a lovely straight with Armco and wide open aspect – on the towpath side it is bounded by a nature reserve and on the offside a farm. There’s a small road in the distance so it is pretty quiet. 

This doesn't do justice to the mooring but the light in the evening was lovely.

The day we moored there was particularly short cruising-wise, so Julia and I went off for two hour walk using the OS map on the phone – I mistook the blue dotted lines for paths (actually boundary lines) so a few hundred yards was added as we walked up the road to Offchurch and the beginning of the path. We then followed the map well until we got into the nature reserve where we went off piste and thought we could wing it. Ah, no! The small river that was between us and the canal towpath had no bridges in the direction we were going – we could occasionally see where we were moored (well, Julia could given she’s tall) but we couldn’t get to it. We had to retrace our steps and find the bridge - I should have expanded the view of the map on the phone and I would have seen that 30 minutes earlier! Still and all, it was a lovely walk, and was much better for us than having a nap!

We had left Mick and David doing jobs. Both of them had intended a short nap as we had rather over indulged the night before. But Mick was inspired to complete a number of tasks on our boat – generated by his helpfulness and desire for order, I think. So the multi box (trailing socket) is now fixed horizontally on the wall rather than draped over a convenient screw, the table top no longer needs two G-clamps to stop it tipping up, the gizmo that increases the wi-fi and phone reception is on hooks below the gunwale and the cable is secured discreetly instead of being draped over the radiators to stop it dangling on the floor. One thing he hasn’t yet solved is the oven door, but maybe there will still be time while he waits for the locks to empty as we head down Hatton …

Yesterday we had a rest day. The only boating activity was to turn Waka Huia around for the trip down the locks today and be moored out in the sun for the panels to do their work. We went into Warwick by train, had lunch, a few beers (two chardonnays for me and a cup of tea, shandies for David – we are wimps) and back on the train.

The day before had been a long one: we had cruised from Radford Semele with a short stop at the Cape of Good Hope pub to visit Liam (whose grandmother is our friend Rachel back in Waikanae) and on to the top of the Hatton flight. 

Liam, from Russell NZ, working in the Cape of Good Hope pub. A nice young man.

Because of his poorly foot, it was decreed that David would stay on board the boat, the boats would be breasted up (we tied them together in the first lock and then I got off) with Mick steering Unknown No 3 with Waka Huia going along for the ride, David would cook dinner, do the washing, and generally look like he was assisting with the steering if there were any gongoozlers about. Julia was head lockie on the bike, as noted before, and I was the trailing lockie. Fortunately at about 5^th lock a guy appeared on his bike and wanted to help. Andy was on holiday from Wales and loves doing locks, so he helped me. That was good for me and for Mick who, to assist me had been getting off his boat as they entered the locks, so he could close the gate.Somewhere near there, nb Are and Are arrived - I recognised Barry from photos when he arrived to help at the lock, and then he spoke - I KNEW it was him then... A brief meeting and quick hello with Sandra and then I had to head off to the next lock to fulfil my duties - would have got the sack otherwise!

The breasting up worked a treat and we were on track for a record breaking time of 2.5 hours up the flight. We were thwarted at the lock third from the top which has a gate that won’t fully open and the boats got stuck. David and Andy had to flush them out and Mick and I untied and went in singly. The last lock we cruised in breasted up without being roped together to keep the efficiency level up. So it was 2.75 hours for the flight. Very good going we thought. The breasting up, and the setting of the locks ahead makes it fast as well. Cycling between them is a good move, but for some reason Julia isn't keen to let David do that ...

Look, Mum, no hands on the tiller of Waka Huia

 

And heading for the next lock

If you look carefully I can be seen a long long way from the tiller - a rare shot!

Another rare shot!

David is at the tiller, but only there for decoration ...

 The following morning was calm and peaceful at the top of the locks - a good day to have off. But more about that later. I was only out of bed at that time to make a cup of tea!

Mist on the water early in the morning.