Penkridge to Great Haywood
Monday 24th June
As I said in my last post, we’re off to Acton Trussel this
morning, well, we have been here at Penkridge for 24 hours more than we should
have, so I suppose we ought to move on. Nowadays, what with this new charity
called Canals and Rivers Trust and their imposition of £25 penalty if you
overstay your time limit, it’s a bit risky overstaying. Having said that, this
new ruling is only being applied to the more popular moorings, so we were
probably pretty safe here.
If memory serves, Acton Trussel doesn’t have much going for
it; no shops or pubs as far as I can recall; but the moorings are pretty good.
We’ll only be staying for the one night there and then we’ll move on to Weeping
Cross, wher we’ll take the bus into Stafford. Wifey desperately needs a new
pair of boots and I would like to have the screen repaired on the iPhone that
Steve gave me. I haven’t actually inserted the SIM card from my phone into it
yet, simply because it still has quite a bit of PAYG on it, but it’s useful for
viewing video’s on through our WiFi unit.
Tuesday 25th June
We are now at Acton Trussel on the Staffs and Worc canal and
the sun is shining. It promises to be a warm day and we’ll be off to Weeping
Cross in order to catch the bus into Stafford.
My good friend Steve, at Mercia, gave me his wife Linda’s
old iPhone before we left, so I’m taking it to have the screen repaired. Also,
Wifey need new boots which, having only bought them a year ago, have now split
just above the seam. People she has spoken to also say they have the same
problem, so it must be built in obsolescence, methinks!
Yesterday, as days go, was pretty odd. For a start and just
as I started the engine to leave Penkridge, an indicator light came on telling
me that a fan belt had snapped. Lovely, just what I needed at 7.30 a.m. Had it
been the domestic one it would have been quite straightforward, but, no, it had
to be the starter battery one. This one is the first to go on, so it’s tucked
behind the domestic one, which meant that one had to come off as well.
After changing that; the first time since buying the boat;
we topped up with water and disposed of rubbish and finally started on our way
just after 8, so I suppose we didn’t do too badly.
Fortunately for us the weather stayed dry for our run to
Acton Trussel.
Later in the evening, whilst I was doing the washing up, I
also found a jar of peanut butter that was out of date and so, before cleaning
the jar I decided to empty it out of the hatch and into the canal. Fish will
gobble up just about anything!! So, having stuck the jar out of the hatch, I
suddenly found myself confronted by a bunch of ducklings. Cute little buggers!!
Did you know that ducks also like peanut butter? No, neither
did I. Mind you, they had to be quick in snapping it up because lumps of the
stuff do not float.
Around about 9.30 pm, as it was getting just a wee bit
chilly, I asked Wifey to set and light the fire. (Don’t blame me, she likes
doing these things, and who am I to complain?) As she opened the door to the
fire, she heard a crack. Great, the front glass had cracked, right across the
middle. Now, bearing in mind the dangers of CO poisoning, even though we do
have a gas detector on board, I phoned Andy for advice, the upshot of which was
that I hunted up the sealant I used on the chimney stack and applied a liberal
amount to the crack. The glass now has a big, white streak across the middle,
but it’ll do until we find a replacement.
So, all in all a pretty odd day. Hopefully the sun will keep
shining for our trip into Stafford.
Wednesday 26th June
We had a pleasant surprise yesterday afternoon, when an old
friend from Pillings Lock passed by. This boater’s name is Rob and he lives on
a Dutch Barge. We haven’t seen Rob at all since we left Pillings several years
ago; what was it now, 2009? Well, it was about September in the year I had my
knees replaced.
Anyway, after passing as much time in chinwagging as he
slowly drifted by, he told us that he had been asked to leave Pillings Lock
Marina, well, ‘chucked out’ was the phrase he used. He didn’t have enough time
to tell us why, but he probably fell afoul of Paul Lilley’s erratic moods, or
something of that nature. Perhaps he simply had a falling-out with the man, but
I can think of no more even tempered person than Rob. A very amiable bloke and
always ready to help a fellow boater, which he has done for us on more than one
occasion.
All I can say is, ‘no wonder that marina is never full of
happy boaters’, if Paul finds fault and sends them on their way. We’ve met
several other boaters who, for one reason or another, have left that place. Ah
well, you know what they say, ‘you can’t please all the people all the time, so
you have to please yourself’. Hmm, that seems a good line to include in a song.
Ooops, too late, Ricky Nelson already did that in Garden Party.
Now, after a good day here at Weeping Cross yesterday, along
with a bus trip into Stafford where, after shopping around Sheila managed to
save £20 on a pair of boots and I managed to find a pad of light coloured
pastel paper, we’re off to Great Haywood this morning, where we’ll probably
stay for two nights and also where we’ll be lucky if we can watch some tennis –
the signal there is pretty erratic – and we may not have the phone or Internet
either.
Thursday 27th June
Well, tomorrow is our 33rd wedding anniversary,
so we’re going into town again this morning, firstly for the necessary cards,
but we also want to visit a few charity shops for books. We’ve now started
reading Wilbur Smith novels and we want to try reading them in chronological
order. At the last count he had about 13 standalone novels, 5 about The
Courtney’s, 5 about The Courtney’s in Africa, 4 Ballatntyne novels, and I don’t
know how many books set in Egypt. I’m currently reading ‘Hungry as the Sea’,
which is a fast moving story about salvage tugs and such. As you can see, we
have quite a lot of ground to cover.
Yesterday we came down from Acton Trussel to Great Haywood
and, as luck would have it, we found a mooring spot quite close to the junction
and we’re now on the Trent and Mersey canal, with the River Trent running below
us and alongside the canal. In this position we have phone, Internet and TV
access, none of which can be had further down the canal. Even a few yards
further on would have no TV signal at all and we’ve never been able to figure
out why.
The weather has also been kind to us for the past couple of
days, so we have no complaints so far. No doubt it will all change in the
fullness of time. Yesterday we also managed to watch some tennis and were
amazed at how many players retired due to injury. Sharapova complained that the
court was dangerous, having slipped on more than one occasion, whilst Tsonga
retired due to a damaged knee. There we several others who retired, but the
court officials insisted that the courts had been prepared in the same way as
usual. Something is obviously wrong somewhere, but let’s hope we don’t lose any
more players.
I have now returned to one of the first pastel projects I
started but cast aside simply because it was much too difficult at the time.
There was a time when, if I laid a grid upon both the original photo and the
watercolour paper, I was able to sketch in the basic details. This was many
years ago when I had a dabble at scraper-board art. But now, well, having tried
this method I found myself somewhat wanting, but I have found a much easier
method of copying the basic picture to my paper. Once I am happy that it is
effective enough on all types of picture, I may pass it on. So far the picture
I’m painting, which is of the Trip Boat at Llangollen, along with the Shire
Horse and its driver, is coming along quite nicely.
Friday 28th June
Well, Wifey and I have reached another milestone, our 33rd
anniversary and herself is now an official pensioner, that’s assuming you
ignore the changes made by this government.
We’re at Great Haywood and will be off to the pig farm later
this morning, although it may not be possible to moor there, because we think
those religious boaters may be there for their annual meeting. No matter, if
they are taking up all the room, we’ll simply move on to Brindley Bank, which
is just this side of Rugeley, then we’ll go on to Rugeley on Saturday and
Morrison’s shopping, then on to Handsacre for the weekend. This is so that we
can enjoy a pub lunch on Sunday.
Yesterday, as we were walking towards the boat, having
returned from Stafford, along strolled Andy, with his dog Taz. In his puppy
days Taz was a bit of a devil, so they named him after the Tazmanian one. So,
Andy, Sandy and Taz are now out cruising, although Andy has to get back to his
workshop to do some work on Chris’s car. Goodness knows how Chris and Josie
would have managed without our Alfa to fall back on.
Now, as the weekend is almost upon us and I’m not sure where
we’ll get to today; it’s raining quite heavily now; I suppose I’d better post
this.
Take care folks and have a great weekend.
Dave, Sheila and Rusty
No comments:
Post a Comment