A giant effort

We have arrived at Alvechurch with supreme efforts expended since Thursday.

Elapsed duration: 6 days,
Actual Boating time: 3.5 days.

Pretty impressive, eh? and we had great help/leadership from Team Granger.

Team Granger ready to do the business on the Buckby Flight

Thursday morning:  Gayton Marina to Norton Junction, 12.5 miles, 7 locks

• After a car shuffle with pick up at Norton Junction at 7am and a drive back to Gayton Marina).  
• Mick and Julia drove me back to Gayton to collect my rental car and they went home
• late that afternoon/early evening, Tony and Helen came onboard Waka Huia for a drink and lots of nibbles which were all David and I had for dinner; not sure if they ate a meal back on their boat. However, as they had consumed two bottles of sauvignon, I wouldn't have thought they would need food ...
•  

  

  It's not often I see the boat from this angle. Mick is at the helm.

And smoothly into the lock

David getting a ride between locks on the Buckby Flight, I think.

Friday morning:  Norton Junction to Braunston, 4.25 miles, 7 locks.

• Started at 7am
• Julia and I both drove to Braunston to leave one car at Dale's yard, and one outside the Admiral Nelson carpark, while David and Mick came through the tunnel and met us at the top of the locks.
• and all done and moored up next to Dale's boat by 10.30am.
• Mick and Julia went home and David and I drove to Birmingham for an appointment that evening with Pete Shah and Imran Masood, the surgeon.

 Saturday 11.30am - 5pm:  Braunston to Wood Lock, 11.75 miles, 19 locks

• David and I drove back from Birmingham in appalling weather, Mick and Julia were dropped off by Mick's brother early in the morning, but the weather was so pants that they stayed put on the boat.
• We started off with my steering in the rain and wind because it is only water and air, after all. Mick didn't last staying inside out of the rain - he said it didn't feel right sitting down inside ...
• The weather cleared as we came to the Calcutt locks and we were away on a mission. 
• We shared with a hirer who had her 89 and 86 year old parents on board who were celebrating their 65th anniversary. She was a very good steerer.
• David, Julia and I did the locks while Mick steered.
• Then on we went to the 8 Stockton Locks and the 2 Itchington Locks and the 4 Bascote Locks and Welsh Road Lock and Wood Lock.
• Moored up and had roast pork and crackling, roast potatoes, broccoli, carrots and peas with yummy gravy for dinner.
• Played 5 Crowns, Mick won the practice hand, Julia won the game
• Early to bed

• 

  Not sure where this is, but the rain had started and it was very chilly.

   

  

  The roast pork with yummy crackling - cooked in the Barbie doll camp oven (as designated by Jaq Biggs) ...

Dinner is served and about to be devoured!

 

Sunset in the cratch after Wood Lock

Sunday 6.50am - 5.50pm (with a one hour stop for lunch after the Hatton Flight): below Wood Lock on the GU to Hockley Heath on the Stratford on Avon Canal, 18 miles 46 locks (I think - I may well have miscounted - correction required, Mick? Corrected since Mick and Julia have read it.)

• Mick and I shared the steering on the Hatton Flight and assisted Julia and David on the locks
• I was delighted to see that the other gate comes open for Mick as he steers into a double lock too ... I'd thought it was something I was doing wrong!
• Julia was working ahead and keeping the boats ahead of us on track and moving more swiftly than they had been - we caught them up with the Efficiency Team techniques, so Julia was on coaching and helping those not yet inculcated into the Granger methodology ...
• Mick steered on the Lapworth Flight and I was on locks
• I did have a bit of a grump about an owner who was filling a lock that was our way - esp when she said 'Oh, I didn't see you' - mainly because she didn't move forward of the top paddles, dammit!!
• And then two locks further up, a bunch of Aussie hirers were doing the same thing - gggrrr!!! They HAD been told by some walkers that the boat in front of them was going down, so they were sort of excused ... and I did apologise for being grumpy, OK?
• Julia was working ahead again as there was a boat ahead of us with only one guy operating the locks - they dubbed Julia the Sergeant Major, but really appreciated her help and training. She got their life story while coaching and assisting, and coming back to help us as well - she is a star!
• dinner was panfried marinated salmon (sweet thai chilli sauce, soy sauce, lemon juice, chopped coriander), salad from the rooftop allotment, new potatoes, followed by Gu puddings - salted caramel (2) and millionaire shortbread cheesecakes (2). Yum
• plus lots of chardonnay for me (and for Julia but without effect apparently)
• I was sent to bed and fell asleep within a couple of minutes - shades of Sawley last year and my being locked in at the Lockkeeper's Rest ...
• Mission accomplished - all locks on the way to Alvechurch were completed so Mick and Julia were to be released in the morning.

 

Julia and David

David is on his way to the next lock, Mick is clearing the one I am in - must have got warm as the jerseys are off!

 

In the Lapworth Flight. See our lovely new cratch cover? And my rooftop allotment?

Monday 1.30pm - 4pm. Hockley Heath to the Shirley Drawbridge at Solihull - in the pouring rain and wind

Julia's alarm was set for 5am and David's was set for 5.30am, so he wasn't getting out of bed till then. Mick and Julia stacked their bedding and created a wall. A somnolent person determined it was trapping him in situ ...

• we all left the boat at 6.30am and headed by cab to Alvechurch Railway Station, 
• David and I were heading to University stop near Edgbaston for an appointment with Prof Shah
• Mick and Julia were going to New Street, to catch a train back to Kettering - as their mission with us was done.
• After the appointment, where David had his eyelashes carefully cleaned with iodine to reduce the chances of inflammation and infection post surgery, we headed back to Alvechurch by train and then a cab to Hockley Heath
  

  

  Apostrofix.com has been at work - there is no such word as childrens ... I just had to fix it while waiting for the cab back to the boat in the early afternoon.

• It was raining, but I decided to get cruising as there were at least 5.5 hours (turns out it was closer to 6.5, but that is the speedy Granger team - they move much more quickly than we do) to do to get to Alvechurch Marina (15 minutes in a cab ...), so off we went with David inside making tea for me at regular intervals
• I only lasted 2.25 hours, until we got to the drawbridge at Shirley which David had to come out and open. I took advantage of the stop to go and have a wee, and realised how cold I was (wet coat tails on the tummy will do that to you ... AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
• So I told David I wanted to stop for the day. Mooring was nice and quiet.
• I fell asleep on the sofa and was told to go to bed, so I did. No dinner required!

Tuesday 5.50am - 11am Shirley Drawbridge on the Stratford on Avon Canal to Alvechurch Marina on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, with a stop for water

• The rain had come down most of the night I think, but was quite light at 5am and, according to the forecast, it was due to stay that way for a few hours before becoming heavier
• so off we went at 5.50am.
• I wore more clothes than yesterday (the major additions were a T shirt, and my dad's woollen jersey - so I had 5 layers on top, plus a scarf and rain jacket and my bushman's hat.) I still got  cold ...
• David made brekkie while I steered and when we stopped for water, I ate and put a load of washing (towels) on
• then back out into the cold and wet (I am a hero)
  

  

  Trying to keep my legs dry by using a modified plastic bag. The white above my right ear is one of the tissues that I had put under my hat to keep dry ... (My nose always runs when I am cold.) And my cost is extremely wet on the outside! The hat got a trifle damp too. and the gloves - I wrung them out afterwards. Note to self: buy waterproof tramping gloves at an outdoor shop very soon!!

  
  

  
  

• by the time we arrived I was bloody cold and my hands would barely function when I was trying to attach the sides of the pram cover - did you know that cold fingers don't do domes and poking turny things through holes and turning them to secure said turny things? Well, now you do!
• It was inside for a shower to warm up, then David warmed up the leftover roast pork and gravy for me to eat with buttered vogel bread - and there's a thing: Waitrose sells Vogel's bread!!! Yay!!! The soy and linseed is very yummy indeed!
• After lunch, I beat David again at 5 Crowns so now the score is 7-1 to me in our tournament, but I only beat him by 3 points this time -  think that made it worse for him ...

Surgery date

is going to be Sunday 23 June.

Two or three appointments to be had before then, first one on 17 June for pre-op.

Now it's hurry up and wait.

I am making a list of boat jobs to be done in the meantime, including a top to bottom clean of the inside so David is living in as clean an environment as possible - pre-operation, he can help!

Other jobs are leftover bits of DIY. I am not publicising that list or Mick will call me to account of I don't get them done ...

Two tentative dates for surgery

We had a good meeting with Prof Shah and Imran Masood on Friday night and two dates for surgery have been proposed - 16 or 23 June. I cannot remember what the deciding factor would be, but we are going for an appointment tomorrow at 10am and will find out which date it's to be.

In our last appointment with Pete Shah he set David a challenge - to use a patch over his right eye, so he could experience what the effect would be if the proposed operation went catastrophically wrong, or if infection set in after it and the eye had to be removed. So on our way back from that appointment, David purchased a patch in Northampton (next to the Waitrose while I went and did some retail therapy in the food line ...) and then wore it as I drove back to Gayton. Sensibly, he removed it for the walk down the long jetty to the boat - one thing we were both clear on was that if David loses sight in the right eye, boating would be a thing of the past. (He wouldn't be able to do locks safely, and I couldn't steer and do locks as well.) So it went back on once we were in the boat, and his task was to experience no sight in the right eye. He added a black cloth under the patch to ensure no light was getting in and then proceeded to work very effectively with his left eye only. He accomplished eating lunch, washing, drying and putting away dishes, going to the toilet and moving around the boat quite happily.

David was able to articulate to Pete and Imran on Friday that he would feel grief if he lost the eye, but he wouldn't regret having had the operation. And given the chances of success are 99.9% it would be silly not to go ahead.

So, on Friday, one of the things that really excited both Pete and Imran was the fact that David reported how he owed his left eye an apology for all the years of denigrating it as useless. He had even tried it with the monocular, and was stunned at how much he could see. Amazing what the brain adjusts to, in extremis.

Pete and Imran are very keen to sort out the left eye as well before we head home to NZ. We are thinking quite hard about whether to do that or leave it till we get home. They are both of the opinion it should not wait until next year. So lots of thinking going on...

The drought has broken ...

The score is now 6 - 1. No one is gloating; no, of course not! However at the beginning of the game he did declare he'd throw himself out of the window if he lost. I wasn't worried - we are only on the hotel's first floor ...

Who's a happy boy then?

We are back in Birmingham for an 8am appointment with the Prof tomorrow, and then we will head back to Smeaton Westerby to pick up Mick and Julia from their mooring, drive them to their place in Desborough to get sorted for the few days with us, then back to the boat.

If we get back in time, we will have a pump out and move out of the marina a wee way, so we are ready for an early start on Thursday. The plan is to get to Norton Junction for late Thursday arvo. There is probably a big queue at the top of the Braunston flight give the locks are closed for 3 days, so there's no point in going through the tunnel. And if there is space available, the moorings at Norton Junction are lovely. Of course, if there isn't space, the moorings are pants ...

M&J have a plan for the days and the timings to get us up to Alvechurch, so the catering corps will have her work cut out, and David will have to work fast to be up to Julia's exacting standards!

In preparation for lunchtime sandwiches, we went to Waitrose in Northampton today and I purchased all 3 loaves of the Vogel's Soy and Linseed bread that were on the shelf. That is a treat in store for M&J. It is extremely yummy, and I have only seen it in Waitrose Market Harborough and Northampton so far. Not at any other supermarket chain though. It's worth trying, folks.

Lesley has been WhatsApping from hospital today - she went back in yesterday and had an operation to clear out the infection that has taken up tenancy in her gut. She has mechanised pump up stockings to prevent DVT, a suction pump thingie to keep the fluid moving out of her gut, and a cannula for something.

Somehow her cannula was not in her vein, so the fluid was going into her arm. Good thing it was found or she would have closely resembled the Dumpster blimp ... She has to do waving the arm above her head to encourage the fluid to take advantage of gravity. So the arm isn't really waving, it's drowning ... Perhaps she could have it tied above her head for the night?

Last night, this duck and its friend were swimming around the boat. I think it is a mandarin duck and very handsome.

 OK, time for David's eye drops, and then it's bed for me. It's still light but the curtains may take care of that. And I do have my eye-mask with me ...

There is a sense of inevitability ...

We are back on the boat now, but not for long. We are heading back to Birmingham tomorrow for a Wednesday morning appointment.

For future reference through this post and others, be aware that when I say we, I mean David, but I attend every appointment - it MAY be that I am nosy, but it is more likely that I am a concerned and very loving wife who wants to make sure all questions are asked and answered and that my lovely husband hasn't missed anything or forgotten to ask about something that could prove critical ... And I KNOW which interpretation I put on my actions as well as knowing what interpretation I expect the loving ones among you to adhere to!

We had an appointment with Pete Shah (only his mother calls him Peter, we understand, and only when she's cross with him ...) this morning, and during that, Rustom Bativala arrived to hand deliver his retinal scan results and they sat together discussing them - without us  ... A bit spooky.

The aftermath and upshot was that David is now on anti-inflammatory drops for at least two months and more particularly to prepare his eye and reduce inflammation (who knew THAT was there?) prior to surgery - surgery is looking like it is going to happen mid-June. And it is most likely going to be here in the UK.

He had to have a blood test before we left the BMI Priory Hospital to identify if there are any other infections lurking - considering Lesley has been diagnosed with a bacteria in her gut cavity that comes from soil and/or plants, I will not be surprised by anything that shows up!

We are back there on Wednesday morning for another consultation with Pete Shah (the Prof) and on Friday evening we have a consultation with the surgeon and Pete together. The intention is that a date will be set for surgery then. So fingers and toes are crossed!

In the meantime, Pete was keen that we move up to Birmingham for the duration - he says there will be a number of pre and post operative appointments and being close by will be of huge convenience - mainly for us.

So the plan I made to book a mooring spot tentatively at Alvechurch Marina was a good'un, and the booking has now been confirmed.

We will not be able to get the boat there unaided - trying to predict when we will be able to boat is a very imprecise science at the moment, as appointments are being scheduled and filling up the days; and that obviates boating.

So we have called on the trusty Mick and Julia to come and move the boat for us - they are well capable of long days, and the journey to Alvechurch Marina is noted on CanalPlan as being 5 x 7 hour days.

And it means I won't have to steer through the awful Wast Hill Tunnel (awful because we read about a couple being trapped in there for 24 hours when their boat got jammed against a log - AAARRRGGGHHH!!! They had to wait underground for another boat to come towards them and call for help for them - AAARRRGGGHHH!!!)

Before we head off tomorrow, I will need to do some cleaning, and make sure they know that the contents of the fridge and freezer are at their disposal - even the Gu puddings ...

From one city to another

This morning we had a light breakfast early and left the hotel by 7.30am so we would be on our way before the traffic built up.

An easy trip from Edgbaston in Birmingham to Bury in Manchester - by gum, the GPS is a grand invention! David did say that he doesn't know how we would manage driving in the UK now without it, but we used to do so very well with David using the map books. Apart, of course, from getting to Melita's old place in Earley, Reading - that one stumped us every time. Because of that, we were given our first piece of navigation software by Melita, who worked for Microsoft at the time...

Anyway, on arrival I was able to go and wake Olek up - teenagers who are trying to grow taller than their dads need lots of sleep.

Tim and Dana made a fabulous brunch and then we headed out to a park not very far from their place. What an amazing asset it is!

I think I was committing an illegal tackle to allow me to get to the ball.

Player of the day ...

Having removed Karol from contention, I was kicking it to Olek. Of course, it'll only be a year or so before Karol will be able to resist my swinging him around ...

Table tennis with the football and hands - high level 2 square! The table is concrete, as is the net - clearly designed for rough play!

As we walked along the river path this dog came towards us looking supremely pleased with himself - he even had the good manners to move aside so we could pass, but he was not going to let go of his stick!

We headed back about 4pm and the traffic was much heavier than this morning. We were back by just on 6pm, I think. Dinner in the hotel restaurant and now I'm in bed.

It was a lovely, busy day, and great to see the kids, even if just for a few hours.

An early night now - 😴😴😴

Sit Rep, as they say in the action movies

It has been a busy few days, and seems much longer than it has actually been.

We are in Birmingham again, staying once more at the Edgbaston Park Hotel on the university campus. A very nice place, excellent service, friendly staff and the food is pretty good. Only downside is that their only chardonnay has no oak ...

So, the following have occurred:

• the appointment with Professor Peter Shah early on Friday morning, where he examined David's right eye closely, and informed us of his not so tentative expectation that an operation would be needed to remove the scar tissue, because if it's not, it will keep growing until he has  no sight left in that eye
• the series of ultrasounds on both eyes (very interesting to watch) late on Friday morning, followed by a quick additional consultation with Peter after he had spoken with Dr Good, the ultrasound man about the pictures
• on Friday afternoon the Goldmann Visual Field Test was done by Mr Williams. It is apparently the best VF test for complex eyes and takes almost an hour to do both eyes. It gives great accuracy because the light source is moved by hand and recorded manually, allowing greater granularity and alteration of the speed of the light source movement - important for people with poor sight
• the appointment with Peter again this morning for him to check the drainage holes in both eyes (they have a proper name but I cannot remember it) and to answer questions:
• why won't the scar tissue grow back? There won't be the structure for it to do so.
• what limitations will David have post-operatively and for how long? No heavy lifting for at least a fortnight. No doing locks during that time.
• the appointment for retinal scanning with Mr Rustom Bativala - that was a four hour appointment and fascinating to watch. He was very pleased to get some excellent images, given both he and Peter thought that it was unlikely much of use would be able to be captured. It was a long long appointment for David and required much concentration to keep his eyes as still as possible. Those of you who know him know that the nystagmus (involuntary movement) is rather marked and he did very well. Of course, the right eye now has only 0.75mm of a peephole instead of the whole of the pupil (4 - 5mm), so there was a bit of magic being performed by Rustom ...

We have the follow up appointment with Peter Shah for discussion of the test results and treatment options first thing Monday morning. At each appointment, he has flagged the need for the scar tissue in the anterior capsule to be removed. So that is almost certainly what is going to happen - the only uncertainty is the timing of that, but we keep hearing the words 'in a week or a fortnight'. We are fairly sure it will be done at The Birmingham Eye Hospital, and we also know it will require an overnight stay there.

We had the late afternoon free today, so we came back to the hotel and had a late lunch with G&T and a mojito. Then a nana nap, unsurprisingly.

The hotel bar has a special section for gins - there are over 70 of them. Of course, we just have Gordon's ...

Waiting for our late lunch. I gave most of my G&T to David after the waitress decided she COULD make a mojito for me when I showed her the recipe on my phone ... I am going to have to buy white rum for the boat, and make sure the mint is flourishing!

Yesterday we had walked to the rooms in Edgbaston for the Goldmann VF test, and then walked on into the city to have dinner at Siamais, the Thai restaurant and cocktail bar that we went to a couple of years ago with John Knighton when we boated into the city.

Brindley Place moorings - a surprisingly quiet in the middle of the city

Cocktails at Siamais - my mojito and David's Meditation Inebriation - tequila, infused with chilli, with orange juice - it was definitely tangy!

Tomorrow we have a free day, and rather than go back to the boat, we are going to drive up to Bury early to see Tim, Dana and the grandsons for the day. Yay!!!

By the way, this was the penultimate hand in our 5 Crowns game where I won and raised the game score to 6 - 0. I went out after my second turn ...