Thursday 31st May (cont)
Let’s start with another plaque from that shop window in Audlem!
Well, we’re off to Maesbury this morning, come rain or shine, and it certainly looks like rain. We should be on the Monty until next Tuesday, when we’ll be returning to Ellesmere to collect stuff from the chandlery, after which we’ll continue on to Llangollen.
Tomorrow we will be moored up with the port side – left to you landlubbers – against the towpath so as to get to grips with more paint repairs.
Friday morning, if we can find a bus timetable, we’ll take a ride into Oswestry, which is only a very short ride away.
On Saturday, well, that’s too far ahead to worry about!
Friday 1st June.
Summer is supposed to be here but, having made our way to Maesbury, where it immediately started to rain, we put off the painting and instead sought out a bus timetable from the local Tourist Info Centre, which doubles as a café cum shop. Sadly they no longer supply bread. So, just as well we had decided to pop into Oswestry.
We did manage to at least rub down the offending rust patches and cover them with rust preventative paint. If it is still dry when we get back from town we’ll cover the white patches with green.
In truth the whole boat needs a new coat of paint, but this will require a steady hand around the wording and picture. Can I do it? Well, so long as I can find a really good, soft brush and don’t drink too much beforehand, all should be well. I can always make one of those sticks that artists use to rest the brush-hand on.
Finding a timetable was a doddle compared to locating the bus stop, but I think we finally have it. Hopefully we’ll find other people at the stop and can ask them. The bus goes at 10.04 and takes only about 10 minutes to reach town, but it doesn’t return until well after midday. Looks like we’ll be spending some time drinking coffee and wandering around a bit.
Saturday 2nd June
Yesterday we managed to get quite a lot done. The bus to Oswestry only took about 15 minutes, leaving us over two hours to kill.
Oswestry is something of an urban sprawl in itself, with shops and pubs in just about every side street. The bus route actually runs through a big trading estate, with some of the big national, such as Homebase and Halfords, represented there.
The Market Square is quite small, less than half the size of that in Harlow, yet it still boasts three pubs, none of which we sampled yesterday, I might add.
After a coffee and muffin, we took a wander around the indoor market and then visited a couple of other shops, including a jewellers and an Orange outlet, where we explained about being unable to use Sheila’s SIM in any of our phones.
“When did you last make a call on it?”, asked the nice man.
“Oh, it must be well over a year ago”, says Wifey.
“Well then”, replied the nice man, “that’s why. If you don’t make a call for more than six months, the account is
automatically suspended, just in case you lost the phone, or had it stolen.”
That SIM had about £15 on it and it has now been lost. This begs the question as to why the account is suspended, but only after six months. If somebody found it after it was lost, and if it wasn’t protected by a password, how would Orange know to suspend it? Doesn’t make sense!
Anyway, we then invested in another mobile for Wifey, because there are some areas on the cut where O2 has very poor, or non-existent service, but, as in the case of the Shroppie and Llangollen, the Orange signal is quite good.
Twenty five quid and half an hour later, Wifey walks out with yet another new mobile. She now has two Pay as You Go mobiles, one with Orange and one with O2.
But the story doesn’t end there because, after we’d had a break at home and did some more painting on the boat, Wifey sits down to figure out how to use the new mobile and how to set things up. The nice man in the shop had, supposedly, set her PIN for her, very much the same as the nice lady at the O2 shop when I upgraded mine. And, just as happened to me there, so the same happened to Wifey. After about an hour of messing with the blessed thing, it suddenly asked for a Code. But, it wasn’t asking for her SIM, it was asking for a PUK Code, whatever that is. Of course, when she tried entering her PIN, it wasn’t recognised and, eventually, after much fiddling, the damned thing blocked the SIM, so we now have to return to the Orange shop to get it sorted. Great, more time wasted!
But that’s for later today. First we have to get ourselves to The Queen’s Head, which is half way back towards the Llangollen, where we’ll take the bus back into Oswestry. This time it shouldn’t take as long, because the service from the is much more frequent.
We would also like to finish off one side of the boat but, as it is looking like even more rain for today, I have my doubts about that. We will, however, enjoy lunch at the local pub, which is called, unsurprisingly, The Queen’s Head.
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| Our Rusty in a quiet mood |
Sunday 3rd June
Another barrel of laughs yesterday. Yet again we took the bus into Oswestry, but not before we moved the boat, and ourselves of course, to the moorings at The Queens Head. With just two spaces left we were fortunate in being able to do so.
Anyway, having just missed the 11.44, we waited a further 30 minutes for the 12.14. Fortunately the nice Orange man had nobody else in the shop and could sort our problem out straight away. Although, with the amount of time he spent on the phone to the office, straight away didn’t quite fit the bill.
So, how were we to know that all their phone PINs are set to 1111? No booklet accompanied the phone, and he certainly hadn’t told us before we left him on Friday. The sole reason for the SIM being ruined, was not knowing that one simple fact.
Eventually, after waiting an age for head office to transfer the previous number to the new SIM, we were on our way.
However, having picked up a few more odds and sods, we eventually arrived back at the boat and Wifey proceeded to fiddle fart about with the phone, entering contacts and such. Having finished her faffing, we thought it might be a good idea for me to give her a call, just to check the phone was working. It wasn’t!
It ‘appeared’ that she now had a new number, because I received a message telling me the number was unavailable. So, we tried the number that, supposedly, came with the phone. Invalid number!
Great! So, Sheila decided to phone me. Unavailable! This then clicked in our brains and told us that Wifey’s nice new Orange phone was out of range. All she then had to do, was take the phone outside and, hey presto, all OK.
What a palaver!
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| Wifey lounging about |
We calmed down after that, and believe me, after yet another failed mobile – or so we thought – the fur was all set to fly, with me thinking she’s another phone up. Happy days.
Maybe lunch at The Queen’s Head today? Who knows.
Monday 4th June
Oh how exciting some days can be, but yesterday wasn’t one of them. Although, we did enjoy a really good meal at The Queen’s Head, for the rest of the day it simply poured with rain, and there’s nothing less exciting than watching the rain stream down the windows of the boat. It’s akin to sitting in a caravan, on holiday, surrounded by kids moaning about not being able to go out because of bad weather.
Mind you, we did put the telly on to watch Gary Barlow and his Commonwealth tour to find singers for his Jubilee record. We both enjoyed that one and found it very uplifting, somewhat like the Forces Wives programme.
So, yesterday was probably more enjoyable than we expected, despite the rain.
Today, as the weather men have promised a dry one for a change, we’ll be making our way back to the Weston Arm, where we’ll stay overnight. We’ll leave there around midday on Tuesday and move up the Frankton Locks and back onto the Llangollen.
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| Moored up on the Weston Arm |
Tuesday 5th June
Dry, but a wee bit chilly yesterday morning, but we made it to the Weston Arm by about 10.30. Strange to say, even though it was a dry day, neither of us felt like doing much, just touched up a bit of paintwork here and there, and filled in some of the magnolia on the cratch.
We did stay up rather late though, in fact an hour past our normal bedtime, and watched the Jubilee Concert. In parts the sound was pretty awful but, in others, they seemed to get it right for TV audiences. Could have done without some of the earlier ‘stars’ though, and it’s a shame McCartney couldn’t come up with something original. No wonder Her Maj. turned up much later. All in all though, not too bad though.
The Weston Arm has room for about six ‘legally’ moored boats, with room enough for another three on the water points. Since there is only enough room for three boats at the bottom of the locks, we often find that boats also moor on the water points overnight. It’s just as well that the locks don’t open until midday, and that at least one of those ‘illegally’ moored boats makes its way further down the canal before then, otherwise there could be a few altercations between those wanting water and those who wish to stay on the water point.
When we’re finally through the locks today, I’m hoping we can moor up at the top, rather than return to the last place we were moored up on the Llangollen, which will be easier for phone and dongle.
Wednesday 6th June
Well, as I expected, no room up top for us to moor overnight, so we moved on to the first available moorings, which were between bridges 66 and 67. Of course, as I also suspected, not enough signal strength to post this blog, which already runs into seven pages.
By the time we had passed through the four Frankton locks and found the moorings it was already past one pm and, with the overgrowth of grass along here, coupled with the wind and rain, we decided against further paint work.
Ah well, another lazy day of chilling out and reading. Oh, but we did switch the telly on again, this time to watch Rolfy and his art class.
Today is a must for getting to Ellesmere, come rain or shine. We have stuff to collect from the chandlery, shopping to do and I want to see if I can find a TV repair man for our 12 volt job, the power supply of which I blew up a few weeks ago whilst attempting to make up a proper, 12 volt lead. I find it staggering that a company advertise a 12 volt set, for use in caravans, boats and trucks; on ly one of which is possibly fitted with an inverter; and them only supply a 240 volt adaptor. There’s no point in supplying the adaptor if you don’t have a 240 volt supply to plug into! Dumb, I call it.
Thursday 7th June
What a surprise, it’s raining again.
When we finally arrived here at Ellesmere yesterday morning, we immediately collected our coal and other bits from the chandlery and, after lugging all that back on a sack barrow, a cup of coffee and on to the town for shopping.
It was a really lovely day when we left the boat but, after about an hour of wandering and stopping off at the butcher, chemist and baker, we finished our shopping spree at Tesco, which was when the heavens opened up. No coats, no brolly and looking like drowned rats by the time we reached the boat with trolley and two bags. Like I said, a lovely day.
Needless to say no painting got done, just another chill-out day, which suits us retirees just fine.
This morning is looking pretty bleak too, so I’ll just have to knuckle down to designing the panels for our back doors. They will be two panels for each door, with castles at the top and roses at the bottom. I might even slip a cartoon dragon in with the castles. Hopefully that job will start today, but you never know what can come up to stop me, like sunshine perhaps, which would see us both with paint brushes in hand outside the boat.
Enough said for this blog methinks. Time to post.
Best wishes to all you landlubbers.
Dave, Sheila and Rusty.
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