Shiralee at Willington #14

Wednesday 15th March

Had a really great visit with John and Colin and Sue Yesterday and Monday, when we paid a visit to John in the Nursing Home.

According to Sue, John was much more lucid than of late, he’s just not happy there. He did have a friend there in the early days, about three years ago, but he sadly died, and now he has nobody to hold a sensible conversation with. When I asked him to tell me truly how he was doing, he almost broke down. This is a very sad situation for a, previously, very active man, to find himself in and I find it hard to believe he’s actually still suffering it after all this time.

There but for the grace, etc.

We were fortunate with the weather too, it was fine all the way there on Monday and, although it started out the same yesterday morning, it soon clouded over and cooled down. Pooch was very pleased to see us when we picked her up at the kennels. I’m a bit miffed though at the two day charge when we were only a few hours late in collecting her. We are already booked in again for the family do, but for next time we’ll find another kennels.

Wednesday 23rd March

Had a great afternoon with Alan and Chris Oxley, who took us to a place called ‘Taybarn’s’, which, as Alan suggested, is an up market ‘Macdonald’s’. Although I have to say, the quality of food was of a much higher standard.

This is a self-service licensed restaurant, with just one set price. For the over 60’s it is £4.15p for all you can eat. Soft drinks from the machine are free but, over the counter beer and mixers are charged at normal rate. Except that, in comparison with normal pub prices, the Stella was cheaper by 30p per pint. What a great deal and, being next door to a Premier Inn, the food quality has to be good. I can’t remember when I last enjoyed a pub lunch as much as this one.

The place was pretty busy when we arrived at about midday, or a little after but, even though there were quite a few families there, the noise level was not unacceptable. Sheila amazed me by eating a salad, followed by another plate of cooked food, followed by a pudding. I pretty much amazed myself by gobbling down a good plateful of chicken, chips, gammon and roast spuds, followed by a goodly portion of apple tart and custard. Wow! Did my blood sugar level know about that!!

Anyway, a thoroughly good afternoon out, enhanced by the most excellent company. Must do it again next time our visiting times coincide, but perhaps a little later, when the crowd has thinned out.

Today we are planning to take Shiralee on a shake-down cruise to check everything is running smoothly, with special attention on the gear box. Linden adjusted the linkages when he carried out the service, but I feel he’s tightened them up a little too much.

As you all know, our mooring time is up at the end of this month, so it will soon be time for you to get the maps out again. Hopefully the weather will be fine when we do leave, if not we’ll simply moor up in Willington until it improves.

Saturday 26th March

Today we are off to Harlow and staying with Alan, ready for the family bash tomorrow. First we are calling in on my colleague from my school bus days, that’s Les and her family, then we’re off to the town centre for a bit of shopping.

Now, I must tell you about our ‘shake-down’ cruise on Wednesday. We set out at about nine o/clock, intending to head for Stenson Lock, which is about a mile and a half away, where we would turn around and head back. After all, we only wanted to ensure the gearbox was OK.

Just past the marina and immediately before the lock, is a winding hole, well, it’s supposed to be a winding hole but, because it was so badly silted up below the towpath, we were unable to turn around.

We now had to go through the lock and head for the next possible turning point at Swarkestone Lock, another three miles away. This was turning into a rather long day, even longer than we would normally attempt on any given day whilst cruising.

On arrival at Swarkestone and just opposite the BW office, is a sign telling boaters, that they must not use the entrance to the moorings as a turning point. According to our book, there is a winding hole by this lock but, as we found out, there isn’t.

So, be dammed if I’m taking Shiralee through another lock, which would have made a full day of it, I girded my loins and used the entrance to the moorings. Fortunately nobody gave us any grief and so we headed back to the marina.

Now, on the way down to Swarkestone, we encountered a BW dredging team going the other way. Guess what? Yes, we found them again on the way back, only this time they were straddling the canal and we had to hover in place whilst they finished their bit of work, after which we carried on to Stenson.

We went through this lock on our way here from Pilling’s Lock Marina but, at that time, we were with Brian and Marian, so we went through the lock together. However, we had forgotten just how strong the incoming water was at this one and, when Sheila opened the first paddle, the water came gushing in with such force, that the boat swung across the lock to the other side. This is not good and can be most embarrassing when there are loads of people watching, as they were at this time, it being a nice, sunny day.

Eventually we passed through the lock and, with no further mishaps, arrived back at our moorings at two pm. What should have taken us a couple of hours had taken five. Phew!!

We now have just six days before we will be obliged to leave here and set out on our cruise and two of those days will be spent in Harlow. With my brother Alan accompanying us back to the marina and staying until Tuesday, it is unlikely that I will be able to find the time for further entries to this blog. So, I will sign off now and post this, our final blog at Mercia Marina.

We’ve had a great time here and made many friends, not least of all our friendly, neighbourhood engineer, Linden. We know you read this Linden and would like to thanks you for all your hard work and help.

We very much doubt we will find another marina quite like this one, so we have put in a reservation for the same mooring spot for the winter to come.

That’s all folks! Will keep in touch whilst cruising, both by text and blog.

Kind regards and best wishes.

Dave, Sheila and the pooch!!

Shiralee at Willington #13

Thursday 24th February.

Well now, I can’t say much has happened of any interest since Saturday. Sunday, of course, we visited our local hostelry but, for some reason; probably mass hysteria; the place filled up and became somewhat uncomfortable and, with so many people crowding the bar, difficult to get served, so I only imbibed 2/3rds of my usual intake. Still, I can always make up for it at a later date, perhaps when Alan comes to visit prior to us leaving for our cruise.

Ever since replacing the pump-out loo for a cassette we have been promising to remove the waste tank, which would give us a lot more storage space under the bed. On Tuesday afternoon, with nothing better to occupy our minds, we gathered the necessary tools together and headed for the bedroom.

Of course, this is not something that simply requires the removal of bedding and mattress, this also requires moving said items to another part of the boat, the mattress to the loo and the bedding to the lounge.

So far, so good. Next come the boards that cover the tank, which are quite easy to remove and stack up near the back door. The next thing to do would have been to remove any attachments, after which out comes the tank. Yeah! Right!

Have you any idea how much one of these tanks weighs? No, neither do we, but it must be quite a lot because, even by taking hold of one of the pipe outlets, I could barely raise it more than an inch or so and I couldn’t really see how we were going to shift it. Which begs the question, how the heck did the fitters get the wretched thing in there?
So, we are stuck with a tank we don’t want and not as much storage space as we would like. Hmmm! Hmmm!

Yesterday, whilst checking out my mailbox, I noticed an email from eBay thanking me for my donation to “Help for Heroes”. This was a very pleasant surprise since I don’t remember ever having received such a message before.

I should perhaps explain what this is about. As you know, I am selling language courses on eBay and, whilst I’m doing so, I’m also donating 10% of the final selling price to this charity. What a nice man I am. Not any more I’m not.

On taking a second look I noticed that the charity had received £1.00 for the French course alone. This, I thought, was not right. So, I checked back on my listings and, to my horror, discovered that the minimum donation id set at £1.00. Well, since the courses are up for Buy Now at just £2.25, with free post and packing; which alone costs very nearly £1.00, what with the cost of envelope, stamp, blank DVD and plastic sleeve; I’m left with just £0.25p profit.

And so it came to pass, that this silly idiot had to go back to my listings; the fee for which is £0.40p per item, so I’m now £0.15p out of pocket; and remove all 16 languages and re-list them without the charity donation, and I still have to pay the listing fees from my previous listings.

What’s really annoying about this situation is that, unlike those listing fees, which all come out of my Paypal account, the charity donations come from our Debit Card and so I had no idea, until the arrival of that thank-you email, that I was paying out all that cash. “Oh yes”, says Wifey, “I’ve noticed those payments coming out, but I assumed you knew about them”. Go Figure, as those damn Yankees say!!

Thus far, since first listing all 16 languages, I have sold 25 and have made not a penny. However, looking on the bright side, “Help for Heroes” has made £25.

Yesterday, knowing how little time we have before April 1st, which is when we intend to be on our way towards Braunston and Welsh Wales, we paid a visit to the local vet to book our pooch in for her annual jabs. We also asked for a few addresses of kennels because, on 14th March we’re paying a visit to my very dear friend, John Barefoot and his youngest son Colin and wife Sue, down in Somerset.

We’re also meeting for the family do later in that month and will need to kennel her again. What with the price of petrol these days those two trips are going to be a wee bit expensive. But, after all that and the past six months at this marina, we should be able to catch up on our savings, which, due to all the unforeseen expense of late, are looking sadly depleted.

Wow, three pages at one sitting. How’s about that guys and gals??

Sunday 27th February

On Thursday we popped along to one of our local kennels, this one is just before the small town of Mickleover. The place is laid out quite nicely and the dogs are allowed to run free in a compound, but only one at a time. This is just as well because our Rusty would have no trouble making a few enemies. At just £11 per night we found that to be pretty reasonable; we’ve paid £20 per night in some places. So, our wee pooch is now booked in for the two occasions necessary.

During the working week we like to watch the local BBC News at 6 o/clock in the evening. Just recently we’ve been hearing about countless job losses across the region, as I’m sure everybody else has. One of the items has been about one of the big vehicle windscreen replacement companies, the name of which has suddenly ceased to exist in my memory banks.

However, we have a boater on this site who works for said windscreen company and, whilst I was walking our little tearaway yesterday morning, I spotted him at his company van which, I assumed, he was clearing out in order to return it for the administrators to deal with.

So, being the nosy bugger that I am, I stopped by and asked what he was going to do now that the company had folded. I was amazed to hear that, no sooner had the news of closure been passed on to the workforce, than he received a call from a company who have offered to take over some of the depots and had asked him if he would like to stay on.

It seems that this company, an insurance group I think, have offered up several million pounds for depots up and down the UK, along with the company logo and have cherry-picked the people they want to stay on, including our man on this marina. He is, by his own admittance, rather chuffed with this, having been with them for over 20 years. Not only has he kept his job, but he also has a raise in pay. They are also returning to their old system of working; a five day week with just one night on call.

It’s good to hear some good news for a change. Mind you, there are still several hundred without jobs, but at least some have been saved.

As usual we’ll be off to the pub at lunchtime, but this will be just one of the final three Sundays before we leave for “Cruise 2011”.

Saturday 5th March.

Yesterday evening my good wife was surprised to see frost on the ground when she took the pooch out. Damned stuff is still here this morning, which means she will have to take her out this morning also.

On Thursday, for the first time since the op, I managed the walk around Burton without the use of a stick. This means it has only taken a little over seven months for me to be able to dispose of the stick, which bodes well for our fast approaching cruise.

On Wednesday as promised, Linden came along and replaced our batteries and carried out an engine service. Whilst down in the bowels of the engine bay he also gave the engine a good clean up and cleaned out the bay itself, which was looking somewhat dishevelled, to say the least.

Of course, with the removal of two batteries; we are now down to four domestics instead of six; the boat is somewhat lighter on the starboard side, with the resultant slight list to port. Of course, if we could remove the now defunct waste tank, we would probably return to an even keel, so to speak. Instead I will have to rearrange the ballast, which, hopefully, will even things up a bit.

Since removing the charity aspect of my language sales pages on eBay, we suffered a week of no sales. At first we thought perhaps the charity aspect had contributed to sales volume, but then I realised the schools were on half term, which can have a seriously detrimental effect. Now that the little darlings are back, sales have started to pick up again.

So, apart from rearranging the ballast sometime today, this Saturday is going to go the way of most Saturdays and be a lazy day.

Tuesday 8th March and, believe it or not, we’ve had frost now for two mornings running. Mind you, I remember when we first bought the boat and, after our first winter at Keckys’s Far in Sawbridgeworth, we left in April and about a week later we had snow.

Yesterday Wifey took the bus into Derby, ostensibly to purchase a new top, but came back with dog biscuits. It now falls upon my broad shoulders, to accompany her into Burton to see if she can buy the right thing. We’ll probably do that on Thursday, today we have to buy some more coal and logs and tomorrow I have an appointment with the nurse.

We have only three weeks before we are due to set sail and we are both quite looking forward to being on the move again. Happily, my legs will be able to cope, but I’m still a little concerned about the aching calf muscles, but he knees are fine now and I’m even sleeping much better.

Monday 14th March and we’re off to Weston Super Mare today to stay with my old friend John Barefoot’s son Colin and his wife Sue. The main reason for the visit of course, is to pay a visit to John in the Nursing Home before we set off on this years cruise. I haven’t seen John for well over a year, so I am really looking forward to the visit. Hopefully we’ll get to take Colin and Sue out for a pub meal in the evening. Last time I visited they took me out, so it’s our turn to pay. Rusty will spend the night in the kennels at Mickleover, but she doesn’t seem to mind the short break although, she does come home with a rather hoarse voice.

When we get back from Colin’s our first job is to give our chimney a clean. For this job we have long, black brush on the end of a much longer, heavy duty, spiral bound wire. It is always a bit if a problem removing the brush because, as you push it down the bristles bend backwards, making it very difficult to reverse direction, as the bristles are reluctant to bend in the opposite direction. The brush is a very tight fit as you can imagine.

Anyway, talking to our neighbour Chris, who was cleaning his chimney a few days ago, he reckons that, by pushing the brush right down into the fireplace; keeping the door closed of course; it is really quite easy bringing the brush up again. I’ve always been a bit wary about doing this for fear the darn thing got stuck, but I’ll give it a try this time.

Well, it is a little over two weeks now before we set off again. Having waited 18 months this time, we’re both quite looking forward to going. For the most part we’ll be covering old ground but, with luck and a tail wind we’ll manage the Avon and Severn, at least as far as Stourport. Of course, we may start at Stourport and finish at Stratford on Avon and this all depends on which way Wifey decides to go. She can be a bit fickle at times.

Well, that’s it for this posting.

See you all at the bash.

Dave, Sheila and Rusty