Friday 27th June
to Saturday 7th July
Friday 27th June
When we took that walk into
Whitchurch on Wednesday, we shopped at Tesco, where we found a nice, new
Logitech Wireless Mouse, which has now replaced that other piece of vermin.
This one only takes one battery; which is easier to replace; and which is
supposed to last a year, guaranteed.
Saturday 28th June
Wifey’s birthday and our 34th
wedding anniversary today and to celebrate we’re taking the bus into
Shrewsbury.
Yesterday morning at about
9.30 we left our moorings at bridge 50 and made our way to Ellesmere, fully
expecting to find plenty of spaces but, once again, we were lucky to get in and
almost at the back of the line. However, once we had had our cup of coffee, and
just as we set out to walk into town, we noticed a space nearer to the marina,
so we turned back, untied the boat and moved it forward.
You see, at Ellesmere some
idiot thought it perfectly o.k. to spread thin, grey gravel – more like dust –
along the towpath. This stuff is bad enough when it’s dry, but it tracks all
over the place when wet, which it was by the time we arrived. So, the less
walking we have to do over this stuff, the better.
After walking into town we
stopped off at the marina on the way back and bought two more tins of green
paint. Not the same as before, but a different make. This is because the two
tins we used on the roof didn’t match up. With the two new tins, mixed together
in a paint bucket, even if they are from different batches; as we suspect the
previous ones were; we shouldn’t have a problem.
With the heavy rain we had
yesterday it’s doubtful if we’ll get any painting done today. Besides, it’s the
weekend and we see no reason to work. I don’t suppose we’ll get much done on
Monday either, not even if the weather is fine, because we’ll be taking the bus
into Oswestry.
Sunday 29th June
Well, that’s our anniversary
over for another year; the next will be the 35th. Imagine that,
Wifey and I have been together for 35 years. For some reason or other; best
known to the powers that be; we managed our trip to Shrewsbury without getting
wet. On the way there we ran through quite a bit of rain, and so too on the way
back, but stayed dry in between. We had rain during the rest of the day,
Wimbledon was rained off and it’s raining again this morning. I suppose it’s
being on the border with Wales that’s doing it; they do seem to enjoy lots of
rain around here!!
I bought something online a
few days ago and, as you all know, our mail is sent direct to Alan in Harlow.
Sometimes, if we want something sent on to us, Alan will post it under the Post
Office’s Poste Restante system and we collect at the nearest branch. Alan tried
his best to post this item yesterday; zipping around all over town; but was
thwarted every step of the way by long queues and he eventually texted me to
let me know the problems he was having. Well, since we’re staying here until
Tuesday anyway, I told him to leave it until Monday morning.
Thanks Bruv, your efforts are
always much appreciated. Who luvs ya baby??
Monday 30th June
This morning, unlike
yesterday and Saturday, I’m having problems with Internet connection. Outlook
is still at Work Offline mode and I’m unable to switch back to normal mode. But
I should still be able to send messages by clicking on Send/Receive All, then
Send All but, for some reason that I can’t fathom, my messages won’t go out.
Then, after all the fussing and fighting, my Internet connection has dropped
out altogether.
We’re here until Wednesday
morning but, since I really don’t need to worry about emails for another couple
of days, I’ll just have to do without. I’ll try again later, maybe!!
Yesterday we tried a
different pub and called into The Ellesmere Hotel, where I was pleasantly
surprised at the £2.80 they charged for Carling. That’s about 40p less than The
White Admiral on a Monday evening.
Today we’re off to Oswestry,
where I’ll be taking our WiFi unit to the ‘Three’ shop to see what it will cost
to upgrade to 4G. I’m also due an upgrade of my mobile with O2, so I might just
kill two birds etc.
Tuesday 1st July
Well, summer is marching on
and we’re already into July, with weather to suit, which is more than can be
said for Wimbledon yesterday.
We took the bus into Oswestry
as planned yesterday morning, but there were no Three or O2 shops about and,
since we didn’t have much to buy whilst there, we only stayed an hour.
Today we’ll be walking into Ellesmere
again, this time to collect mail from the post office and I also want to call
into the local computer shop. The battery on our laptop only seems good for
about 1 ½ hours, which is not much good for first thing in the morning. I can’t
plug in to the 240 volt outlet for too long, because the Inverter/Charger tends
to drain our batteries too much, so I usually have to switch off the laptop
sooner than I want to. What I really need is a solar panel charger, just for
the laptop, but they aren’t cheap. So, advice as to the need for a new battery
would be useful.
Wednesday 2nd July
Well, having called into the
local computer shop, I have discovered that our laptops battery capability is
about right and, on top of that, I’m told that these small solar panels are
pretty useless for laptops. Money saved, yippee!!
Thursday 3rd July
Yesterday, after travelling
the four miles to the top of the Montgomery canal, we decided it would be too
hot for working on the boat. Instead we watched tennis, which is looking all
rather interesting this year. We’ve lost two top men’s players and three top
women’s players, so the up and coming, new generation can have a go. It should
be pretty exciting with Murray, Nadal, Sharapova and the William’s sisters all
out.
That tall Australian with the
Greek name; which I’ve forgotten how to spell; knocked out Nadal and then,
yesterday afternoon was knocked out by a Canadian; whose name I can’t remember.
Hey, it’s only slight memory loss, so don’t go casting nastertiuns, OK?
Friday 4th July
Most of the UK was bathed in
sunshine yesterday, not so the north-west and Wales, where drizzly rain and
cold winds were the order of the day. However, we girded our loins and set sail
at 8 am for St. Martin’s Moor, a long stretch of open moorings about four miles
from the top of the Montgomery canal. And, here we sat for the rest of the day,
reading and catching up with the tennis.
On the way out of Ellesmere
we got talking to some Aussies at the water point. Apparently the Aussie tennis
player lives near to them and is quite the show off. He seems to like tearing
around the neighbourhood in his flashy, red Ferrari. Hey, he’s only 19 and
comes from a rich family, what can you expect?
Sadly, since the boat was
wet, it wasn’t possible to do any painting. Instead, and to pacify ourselves
for another wasted day, Wifey set to and made a bread pudding. Bread puddings, as
most people are aware, are made from unused bread and mixed fruit etc. Some
folks add sugar, but we rely on the fruit for sweetness and the added spices
for extra flavour. We also like it nice and soggy. Good old fashioned stodge is
the way to go, at least in this Chamberlain family.
We usually allow ours to go
cold before eating, but, at the veiled suggestion from Alan, we ate some soon
after it came out of the oven. Later in the evening we sampled it cold and I
can state, without reservation, that it tastes just as good either way. Yummee,
is the word that comes to mind.
Saturday 5th July
With the weather looking
pretty yukkee yesterday morning, we hesitated for about half an hour before
finally deciding to move on. We had hoped to be in Llangollen for the weekend,
but we decided it would be too much trouble, so we stopped off just outside
Chirk, at a pub called The Poacher’s Pocket. We’ve stayed here overnight in the
past, but we’ve never used the pub, so today will be a new experience.
The pub itself is just inside
England, but, within about a mile; much of which is uphill, as you would expect
on the Welsh border; you are finally in Wales. So, whilst we waited for the
weather to settle down a bit, we indulged in our usual coffee, after which we
took a stroll along the towpath as far as Chirk Bank, then it was a short downhill
walk and onto a half mile of uphill toil.
It was still drizzling with
rain on this walk but, since much of the uphill walk is sheltered by
overhanging trees, we didn’t get too wet. The village of Chirk has all the
amenities usually found in bigger towns but, when we looked in the usual spot for
the Post Office, there was no sign of it. Unbeknown to us it had been moved to
the local Spar shop, which had been almost doubled in size since last year.
We will take that walk again
this morning but, whilst you folks down south enjoy all the sunshine, we will
have to suffer more rain. Even so, this won’t prevent us from enjoying the
tennis.
Since this is only 48 hour
moorings; and we noticed a CRT man checking licences yesterday; we will have to
move on tomorrow, which will mean going over Chirk Aqueduct and through the
tunnel. In fact we’ll have two tunnels to go through because we want to moor up
at a long stretch of open moorings about three miles from here.
We’ll probably be in
Llangollen for Monday or Tuesday, depending upon the Welsh weather of course.
Meanwhile, since I have a good signal here I’ll post this off.
Enjoy your weekend and
whatever you do during the following week. If it ain’t enjoyable, try something
else.
All the best
Dave and Sheila
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