Friday 15 May 2015

Summer 2015: Crick 1


Friday 24th April to Saturday 16th May

 Tuesday 28th April

 Upon our return to Crick last Thursday, I immediately contacted Dave, our engineer, to let him know we were home. After that it was simply a case of tracking him down and arranging for him to check our batteries out, which he did on Friday morning.

 It was then arranged for him to come by on Monday morning, so as to decide when to change to change the batteries over. As it happened, I tracked him down elsewhere in the marina, and he suggested I go along to Midland Chandlers at Braunston and buy the batteries, which we did later in the morning.

 I’m now expecting him to come along this morning and do the necessary.

 Wednesday 29th April

 Dave came along yesterday and changed our batteries. So far, so good. However, when it came to checking everything was OK, it wasn’t. We had no indication of the state of the starter battery on our Distribution Panel. It took a goodly amount of time before he found a loose connection, which happens sometimes when playing with electrics. Eventually all was well and life returns to normal.

 In a couple of weeks he’ll be along again to connect up our immersion heater, which will save considerably on diesel.

 Saturday 2nd May

 Took the bus into Rugby on Thursday morning then, in the afternoon, we had a good sort out of clothes. It’s surprising how old bit of clothing is replaced by new, but the old lies around for ages before it’s parcelled up and recycled. In this instance we have a black sack full to take over to the recycling bin in Daventry, which we’ll do sometime next week, on a day when we can take the car out and have some chance of getting back in the carpark.

 Yesterday we made a start on the cupboards and managed to throw out some useless items and fill a shopping bag with stuff for the charity shop. All in all a pretty successful couple of days.

Today, after lunch, we’ll make a start on our bookshelves, which are also overloaded with useless tat, all of which needs to be sitting on a charity shop shelf. We could be pretty busy next week.

 Sunday 3rd May

 Yesterday was a pretty good day weather-wise, which is more than can be said for last night and this morning, when it’s been raining for most of the time. It has stopped now, but it looks like there’s more to come.

 We have a multi-shelf book case that sits behind our armchairs, and these are what we sorted out yesterday, after our coffee and biscuits of course. After completing this necessary chore, I was amazed at the pile of books we were throwing out. I was even more amazed when I compared that pile to the spaces left over. Somehow I didn’t believe all those books could have been in there!!

 Anyway, we took some of them over to the site wash room, which has book shelves and works on the basis of, take a book and replace it with another one.

 Now, as if that wasn’t enough exercise for one day, we decided to take a walk before lunch. The initial aim was to walk along the towpath to Crick Tunnel and then turn around and make our way back. However, being the adventurous couple that we are, we took a pathway leading up to some fields and followed the Public Footpath signs.

 This all looked innocent enough but, by the time we had completed the walk; which finished at our local Post Office; we had crossed five fields and six stiles. With my dodgy legs that was no mean feat, I can tell you. Still, we all need exercise, but I think I’ll give that particular walk a miss in future.

 Tuesday 5th May

 Yesterday morning, after our usual walk to the shops for the paper, we set to and sorted out all the gumph under my side of the dinette, and what a load of gumph there was too.

 After re-packaging the books and such from yesterday’s effort, we now had a load more books to sort out. We also had quite a bit of junk too, which went into the skip.

 Today we plan on driving over to Daventry to dispose of the old clothing, along with books and such to the local charity shops.

 I’m not sure when we’ll be tackling Wifey’s side of the dinette, but I don’t suppose we’ll be in the mood for it after our trip to Daventry.

 Thursday 7th May

 We’ve had two days of horrid weather but, at last it seems to have settled down now. We had a clear out of Wifey’s side of the dinette yesterday, and now we have to take it the stuff we don’t want into Rugby this morning.

 Dave Hull should be along on Monday to wire up our Immersion Heater.

 Saturday 9th May

 Yesterday, with not much planned regarding clearing out the boat, we took Alex over to Daventry Country Park and then settled down for a lazy day.

 Sunday 10th May

 We met Pauline as we were walking through the village and asked if she and Chris would like to join us at the club today. She said she would have words with Chris, but that it would mean staying longer than they had planned. Sadly they decided to get moving along. However, they will be back for the Boat Show, so we might see them again.

 Monday 11th May

 Dave Hull should be coming around to connect up our Immersion Heater this morning. Although, having said that, there’s really no telling when that will be. He’s so busy and so popular that there’s no telling what else he has on today.

 Yesterday we ran into a bit of good luck; which makes a nice change when you consider the amount of money we’ve had to shell out of late. As usual, it being a Sunday, we strolled up to the club for a couple of drinks and some snacks. We had just sat down when, out of the blue, our barmaid came over and told us we’d won the meat raffle. This is drawn every week and I usually put in a couple of quid.

 So, we waited until we were about to leave and then called Wendy over and asked her to get our prize out of the freezer. Well, the last time we won anything there was a £10 voucher for the butchers shop in a village some distance away. This time however, we had won a 3.0Kg tray of huge pork chops.

 When we got them back to the boat and waited for them to defrost, we found we had eight of them. So, we now have a pork dinner for almost every day this week. Can’t be bad, can it??

 Today, after Dave has sorted out the Immersion Heater, we’ll probably take a run over to Daventry and dispose of the rest of our rubbish.

 With the Crick Boat Show looming we’ve all been told to remove our cars from our car park to the main one. It seems that the people setting up the displays need our car park for their trucks and things. Later on and prior to the show starting, everybody will have to move their cars to one of the outlying fields. Actually, we’re quite looking forward to the show. The last time we attended was when we found the boat we now live on.

 Tuesday 12th May

 Dave turned up to wire in our Immersion Heater yesterday which, due to its awkward location, took him about two hours. We let it run for a further hour +, but still no hot water came through.

 At that point we switched it off and took Alex for a walk and, just as we were heading towards the gate, along came Dave and he wasn’t happy with the news. Mind you, that Immersion had been there since 2009, so perhaps it’s no good now.

 Later in the evening, just as we were climbing into bed, Sheila imparted some pearls of wisdom; which I have since emailed to Dave. She tells me that this Immersion Heater MUST be wired into the landline mains and CAN’T be used whilst cruising.

 Now, we know that he actually took a spur off the washing machine switch; assuming, no doubt, that this was also wired to landline mains, when in fact it is wired to the Inverter/Charger.

 These pearls of wisdom I have also imparted to Dave, who probably won’t be happy. It may well be that this makes no difference, but I have a sneaky suspicion that………….!!!

 Anyway, we’ll see what he has to say when he gets here this morning.

 Thursday 14th May

 Dave arrived on Tuesday morning and discovered that the reset button on the immersion heater had popped out. This meant that, just for a change, the boating gods were smiling upon us, because we didn’t have to pay for a new one. Hallelujah brother!!!

 Yesterday we drove over to Daventry, topped up with petrol, disposed of a trolley load and a bag full of books, then popped into Tesco for a wee bit of shopping and the latest Eric Clapton disc.

 Today we’ll be taking the bus into Rugby to top up with books from charity shops.

 Already the people are arriving to set up for the forthcoming Boat Show. Our small car park has been taken over and we’ll all be moving our cars to nearby fields. We all hope it will be dry on the weekend of the show.

 Later…… Well, we popped into town, visited a few charity shops, did a wee bit of shopping, had a coffee and tea cake at our favourite coffee shop, and managed to catch the next bus back.

 It’s now 3 pm and raining quite hard, but we really do need to walk the dog and visit the office, so wet weather gear on and off we go.

 But first I’ll post this blog and wish you a very pleasant Friday and weekend.

 Saturday 16th May

 Ooops! Our Internet signal wasn’t up to much on Thursday and I was unable to post this blog. I have since re-erected the antenna that goes with the WiFi Unit and it is now much stronger. I suppose that being surrounded by so much metal the signal gets bounced around. At present we don’t have a boat next to us on the antenna side, although that will probably change if many more boats are moved from the main marina.

So, without further ado I’ll wish you a great weekend and try again.

 All the best from Dave, Sheila and Alex.

 

 

Thursday 14 May 2015

Winter 2014/15: Crick 15


Friday 24th April to Thursday 14th May

 Tuesday 28th April

 Upon our return to Crick last Thursday, I immediately contacted Dave, our engineer, to let him know we were home. After that it was simply a case of tracking him down and arranging for him to check our batteries out, which he did on Friday morning.

 It was then arranged for him to come by on Monday morning, so as to decide when to change to change the batteries over. As it happened, I tracked him down elsewhere in the marina, and he suggested I go along to Midland Chandlers at Braunston and buy the batteries, which we did later in the morning.

 I’m now expecting him to come along this morning and do the necessary.

 Wednesday 29th April

 Dave came along yesterday and changed our batteries. So far, so good. However, when it came to checking everything was OK, it wasn’t. We had no indication of the state of the starter battery on our Distribution Panel. It took a goodly amount of time before he found a loose connection, which happens sometimes when playing with electrics. Eventually all was well and life returns to normal.

 In a couple of weeks he’ll be along again to connect up our immersion heater, which will save considerably on diesel.

 Saturday 2nd May

 Took the bus into Rugby on Thursday morning then, in the afternoon, we had a good sort out of clothes. It’s surprising how old bit of clothing is replaced by new, but the old lies around for ages before it’s parcelled up and recycled. In this instance we have a black sack full to take over to the recycling bin in Daventry, which we’ll do sometime next week, on a day when we can take the car out and have some chance of getting back in the carpark.

 Yesterday we made a start on the cupboards and managed to throw out some useless items and fill a shopping bag with stuff for the charity shop. All in all a pretty successful couple of days.

Today, after lunch, we’ll make a start on our bookshelves, which are also overloaded with useless tat, all of which needs to be sitting on a charity shop shelf. We could be pretty busy next week.

 Sunday 3rd May

 Yesterday was a pretty good day weather-wise, which is more than can be said for last night and this morning, when it’s been raining for most of the time. It has stopped now, but it looks like there’s more to come.

 We have a multi-shelf book case that sits behind our armchairs, and these are what we sorted out yesterday, after our coffee and biscuits of course. After completing this necessary chore, I was amazed at the pile of books we were throwing out. I was even more amazed when I compared that pile to the spaces left over. Somehow I didn’t believe all those books could have been in there!!

 Anyway, we took some of them over to the site wash room, which has book shelves and works on the basis of, take a book and replace it with another one.

 Now, as if that wasn’t enough exercise for one day, we decided to take a walk before lunch. The initial aim was to walk along the towpath to Crick Tunnel and then turn around and make our way back. However, being the adventurous couple that we are, we took a pathway leading up to some fields and followed the Public Footpath signs.

 This all looked innocent enough but, by the time we had completed the walk; which finished at our local Post Office; we had crossed five fields and six stiles. With my dodgy legs that was no mean feat, I can tell you. Still, we all need exercise, but I think I’ll give that particular walk a miss in future.

 Tuesday 5th May

 Yesterday morning, after our usual walk to the shops for the paper, we set to and sorted out all the gumph under my side of the dinette, and what a load of gumph there was too.

 After re-packaging the books and such from yesterday’s effort, we now had a load more books to sort out. We also had quite a bit of junk too, which went into the skip.

 Today we plan on driving over to Daventry to dispose of the old clothing, along with books and such to the local charity shops.

 I’m not sure when we’ll be tackling Wifey’s side of the dinette, but I don’t suppose we’ll be in the mood for it after our trip to Daventry.

 Thursday 7th May

 We’ve had two days of horrid weather but, at last it seems to have settled down now. We had a clear out of Wifey’s side of the dinette yesterday, and now we have to take it the stuff we don’t want into Rugby this morning.

 Dave Hull should be along on Monday to wire up our Immersion Heater.

 Saturday 9th May

 

Yesterday, with not much planned regarding clearing out the boat, we took Alex over to Daventry Country Park and then settled down for a lazy day.

 Sunday 10th May

 We met Pauline as we were walking through the village and asked if she and Chris would like to join us at the club today. She said she would have words with Chris, but that it would mean staying longer than they had planned. Sadly they decided to get moving along. However, they will be back for the Boat Show, so we might see them again.

 Monday 11th May

 Dave Hull should be coming around to connect up our Immersion Heater this morning. Although, having said that, there’s really no telling when that will be. He’s so busy and so popular that there’s no telling what else he has on today.

 Yesterday we ran into a bit of good luck; which makes a nice change when you consider the amount of money we’ve had to shell out of late. As usual, it being a Sunday, we strolled up to the club for a couple of drinks and some snacks. We had just sat down when, out of the blue, our barmaid came over and told us we’d won the meat raffle. This is drawn every week and I usually put in a couple of quid.

 So, we waited until we were about to leave and then called Wendy over and asked her to get our prize out of the freezer. Well, the last time we won anything there was a £10 voucher for the butchers shop in a village some distance away. This time however, we had won a 3.0Kg tray of huge pork chops.

 When we got them back to the boat and waited for them to defrost, we found we had eight of them. So, we now have a pork dinner for almost every day this week. Can’t be bad, can it??

 Today, after Dave has sorted out the Immersion Heater, we’ll probably take a run over to Daventry and dispose of the rest of our rubbish.

 With the Crick Boat Show looming we’ve all been told to remove our cars from our car park to the main one. It seems that the people setting up the displays need our car park for their trucks and things. Later on and prior to the show starting, everybody will have to move their cars to one of the outlying fields. Actually, we’re quite looking forward to the show. The last time we attended was when we found the boat we now live on.

 Tuesday 12th May

 Dave turned up to wire in our Immersion Heater yesterday which, due to its awkward location, took him about two hours. We let it run for a further hour +, but still no hot water came through.

 At that point we switched it off and took Alex for a walk and, just as we were heading towards the gate, along came Dave and he wasn’t happy with the news. Mind you, that Immersion had been there since 2009, so perhaps it’s no good now.

 Later in the evening, just as we were climbing into bed, Sheila imparted some pearls of wisdom; which I have since emailed to Dave. She tells me that this Immersion Heater MUST be wired into the landline mains and CAN’T be used whilst cruising.

 Now, we know that he actually took a spur off the washing machine switch; assuming, no doubt, that this was also wired to landline mains, when in fact it is wired to the Inverter/Charger.

 These pearls of wisdom I have also imparted to Dave, who probably won’t be happy. It may well be that this makes no difference, but I have a sneaky suspicion that………….!!!

 Anyway, we’ll see what he has to say when he gets here this morning.

 Thursday 14th May

 Dave arrived on Tuesday morning and discovered that the reset button on the immersion heater had popped out. This meant that, just for a change, the boating gods were smiling upon us, because we didn’t have to pay for a new one. Hallelujah brother!!!

 Yesterday we drove over to Daventry, topped up with petrol, disposed of a trolley load and a bag full of books, then popped into Tesco for a wee bit of shopping and the latest Eric Clapton disc.

 Today we’ll be taking the bus into Rugby to top up with books from charity shops.

 Already the people are arriving to set up for the forthcoming Boat Show. Our small car park has been taken over and we’ll all be moving our cars to nearby fields. We all hope it will be dry on the weekend of the show.

 Later…… Well, we popped into town, visited a few charity shops, did a wee bit of shopping, had a coffee and tea cake at our favourite coffee shop, and managed to catch the next bus back.

 It’s now 3 pm and raining quite hard, but we really do need to walk the dog and visit the office, so wet weather gear on and off we go.

 But first I’ll post this blog and wish you a very pleasant Friday and weekend.

 All the best from Dave, Sheila and Alex.

 

 

Winter 2014/15: Crick 15


Friday 24th April to Thursday 14th May

 Tuesday 28th April

 Upon our return to Crick last Thursday, I immediately contacted Dave, our engineer, to let him know we were home. After that it was simply a case of tracking him down and arranging for him to check our batteries out, which he did on Friday morning.

 It was then arranged for him to come by on Monday morning, so as to decide when to change to change the batteries over. As it happened, I tracked him down elsewhere in the marina, and he suggested I go along to Midland Chandlers at Braunston and buy the batteries, which we did later in the morning.

 I’m now expecting him to come along this morning and do the necessary.

 Wednesday 29th April

 Dave came along yesterday and changed our batteries. So far, so good. However, when it came to checking everything was OK, it wasn’t. We had no indication of the state of the starter battery on our Distribution Panel. It took a goodly amount of time before he found a loose connection, which happens sometimes when playing with electrics. Eventually all was well and life returns to normal.

 In a couple of weeks he’ll be along again to connect up our immersion heater, which will save considerably on diesel.

 Saturday 2nd May

 Took the bus into Rugby on Thursday morning then, in the afternoon, we had a good sort out of clothes. It’s surprising how old bit of clothing is replaced by new, but the old lies around for ages before it’s parcelled up and recycled. In this instance we have a black sack full to take over to the recycling bin in Daventry, which we’ll do sometime next week, on a day when we can take the car out and have some chance of getting back in the carpark.

 Yesterday we made a start on the cupboards and managed to throw out some useless items and fill a shopping bag with stuff for the charity shop. All in all a pretty successful couple of days.

Today, after lunch, we’ll make a start on our bookshelves, which are also overloaded with useless tat, all of which needs to be sitting on a charity shop shelf. We could be pretty busy next week.

 Sunday 3rd May

 Yesterday was a pretty good day weather-wise, which is more than can be said for last night and this morning, when it’s been raining for most of the time. It has stopped now, but it looks like there’s more to come.

 We have a multi-shelf book case that sits behind our armchairs, and these are what we sorted out yesterday, after our coffee and biscuits of course. After completing this necessary chore, I was amazed at the pile of books we were throwing out. I was even more amazed when I compared that pile to the spaces left over. Somehow I didn’t believe all those books could have been in there!!

 Anyway, we took some of them over to the site wash room, which has book shelves and works on the basis of, take a book and replace it with another one.

 Now, as if that wasn’t enough exercise for one day, we decided to take a walk before lunch. The initial aim was to walk along the towpath to Crick Tunnel and then turn around and make our way back. However, being the adventurous couple that we are, we took a pathway leading up to some fields and followed the Public Footpath signs.

 This all looked innocent enough but, by the time we had completed the walk; which finished at our local Post Office; we had crossed five fields and six stiles. With my dodgy legs that was no mean feat, I can tell you. Still, we all need exercise, but I think I’ll give that particular walk a miss in future.

 Tuesday 5th May

 Yesterday morning, after our usual walk to the shops for the paper, we set to and sorted out all the gumph under my side of the dinette, and what a load of gumph there was too.

 After re-packaging the books and such from yesterday’s effort, we now had a load more books to sort out. We also had quite a bit of junk too, which went into the skip.

 Today we plan on driving over to Daventry to dispose of the old clothing, along with books and such to the local charity shops.

 I’m not sure when we’ll be tackling Wifey’s side of the dinette, but I don’t suppose we’ll be in the mood for it after our trip to Daventry.

 Thursday 7th May

 We’ve had two days of horrid weather but, at last it seems to have settled down now. We had a clear out of Wifey’s side of the dinette yesterday, and now we have to take it the stuff we don’t want into Rugby this morning.

 Dave Hull should be along on Monday to wire up our Immersion Heater.

 Saturday 9th May

 

Yesterday, with not much planned regarding clearing out the boat, we took Alex over to Daventry Country Park and then settled down for a lazy day.

 Sunday 10th May

 We met Pauline as we were walking through the village and asked if she and Chris would like to join us at the club today. She said she would have words with Chris, but that it would mean staying longer than they had planned. Sadly they decided to get moving along. However, they will be back for the Boat Show, so we might see them again.

 Monday 11th May

 Dave Hull should be coming around to connect up our Immersion Heater this morning. Although, having said that, there’s really no telling when that will be. He’s so busy and so popular that there’s no telling what else he has on today.

 Yesterday we ran into a bit of good luck; which makes a nice change when you consider the amount of money we’ve had to shell out of late. As usual, it being a Sunday, we strolled up to the club for a couple of drinks and some snacks. We had just sat down when, out of the blue, our barmaid came over and told us we’d won the meat raffle. This is drawn every week and I usually put in a couple of quid.

 So, we waited until we were about to leave and then called Wendy over and asked her to get our prize out of the freezer. Well, the last time we won anything there was a £10 voucher for the butchers shop in a village some distance away. This time however, we had won a 3.0Kg tray of huge pork chops.

 When we got them back to the boat and waited for them to defrost, we found we had eight of them. So, we now have a pork dinner for almost every day this week. Can’t be bad, can it??

 Today, after Dave has sorted out the Immersion Heater, we’ll probably take a run over to Daventry and dispose of the rest of our rubbish.

 With the Crick Boat Show looming we’ve all been told to remove our cars from our car park to the main one. It seems that the people setting up the displays need our car park for their trucks and things. Later on and prior to the show starting, everybody will have to move their cars to one of the outlying fields. Actually, we’re quite looking forward to the show. The last time we attended was when we found the boat we now live on.

 Tuesday 12th May

 Dave turned up to wire in our Immersion Heater yesterday which, due to its awkward location, took him about two hours. We let it run for a further hour +, but still no hot water came through.

 At that point we switched it off and took Alex for a walk and, just as we were heading towards the gate, along came Dave and he wasn’t happy with the news. Mind you, that Immersion had been there since 2009, so perhaps it’s no good now.

 Later in the evening, just as we were climbing into bed, Sheila imparted some pearls of wisdom; which I have since emailed to Dave. She tells me that this Immersion Heater MUST be wired into the landline mains and CAN’T be used whilst cruising.

 Now, we know that he actually took a spur off the washing machine switch; assuming, no doubt, that this was also wired to landline mains, when in fact it is wired to the Inverter/Charger.

 These pearls of wisdom I have also imparted to Dave, who probably won’t be happy. It may well be that this makes no difference, but I have a sneaky suspicion that………….!!!

 Anyway, we’ll see what he has to say when he gets here this morning.

 Thursday 14th May

 Dave arrived on Tuesday morning and discovered that the reset button on the immersion heater had popped out. This meant that, just for a change, the boating gods were smiling upon us, because we didn’t have to pay for a new one. Hallelujah brother!!!

 Yesterday we drove over to Daventry, topped up with petrol, disposed of a trolley load and a bag full of books, then popped into Tesco for a wee bit of shopping and the latest Eric Clapton disc.

 Today we’ll be taking the bus into Rugby to top up with books from charity shops.

 Already the people are arriving to set up for the forthcoming Boat Show. Our small car park has been taken over and we’ll all be moving our cars to nearby fields. We all hope it will be dry on the weekend of the show.

 Later…… Well, we popped into town, visited a few charity shops, did a wee bit of shopping, had a coffee and tea cake at our favourite coffee shop, and managed to catch the next bus back.

 It’s now 3 pm and raining quite hard, but we really do need to walk the dog and visit the office, so wet weather gear on and off we go.

 But first I’ll post this blog and wish you a very pleasant Friday and weekend.

 All the best from Dave, Sheila and Alex.

 

 

Winter 2014/15: Crick 15


Friday 24th April to Thursday 14th May

 Tuesday 28th April

 Upon our return to Crick last Thursday, I immediately contacted Dave, our engineer, to let him know we were home. After that it was simply a case of tracking him down and arranging for him to check our batteries out, which he did on Friday morning.

 It was then arranged for him to come by on Monday morning, so as to decide when to change to change the batteries over. As it happened, I tracked him down elsewhere in the marina, and he suggested I go along to Midland Chandlers at Braunston and buy the batteries, which we did later in the morning.

 I’m now expecting him to come along this morning and do the necessary.

 Wednesday 29th April

 Dave came along yesterday and changed our batteries. So far, so good. However, when it came to checking everything was OK, it wasn’t. We had no indication of the state of the starter battery on our Distribution Panel. It took a goodly amount of time before he found a loose connection, which happens sometimes when playing with electrics. Eventually all was well and life returns to normal.

 In a couple of weeks he’ll be along again to connect up our immersion heater, which will save considerably on diesel.

 Saturday 2nd May

 Took the bus into Rugby on Thursday morning then, in the afternoon, we had a good sort out of clothes. It’s surprising how old bit of clothing is replaced by new, but the old lies around for ages before it’s parcelled up and recycled. In this instance we have a black sack full to take over to the recycling bin in Daventry, which we’ll do sometime next week, on a day when we can take the car out and have some chance of getting back in the carpark.

 Yesterday we made a start on the cupboards and managed to throw out some useless items and fill a shopping bag with stuff for the charity shop. All in all a pretty successful couple of days.

Today, after lunch, we’ll make a start on our bookshelves, which are also overloaded with useless tat, all of which needs to be sitting on a charity shop shelf. We could be pretty busy next week.

 Sunday 3rd May

 Yesterday was a pretty good day weather-wise, which is more than can be said for last night and this morning, when it’s been raining for most of the time. It has stopped now, but it looks like there’s more to come.

 We have a multi-shelf book case that sits behind our armchairs, and these are what we sorted out yesterday, after our coffee and biscuits of course. After completing this necessary chore, I was amazed at the pile of books we were throwing out. I was even more amazed when I compared that pile to the spaces left over. Somehow I didn’t believe all those books could have been in there!!

 Anyway, we took some of them over to the site wash room, which has book shelves and works on the basis of, take a book and replace it with another one.

 Now, as if that wasn’t enough exercise for one day, we decided to take a walk before lunch. The initial aim was to walk along the towpath to Crick Tunnel and then turn around and make our way back. However, being the adventurous couple that we are, we took a pathway leading up to some fields and followed the Public Footpath signs.

 This all looked innocent enough but, by the time we had completed the walk; which finished at our local Post Office; we had crossed five fields and six stiles. With my dodgy legs that was no mean feat, I can tell you. Still, we all need exercise, but I think I’ll give that particular walk a miss in future.

 Tuesday 5th May

 Yesterday morning, after our usual walk to the shops for the paper, we set to and sorted out all the gumph under my side of the dinette, and what a load of gumph there was too.

 After re-packaging the books and such from yesterday’s effort, we now had a load more books to sort out. We also had quite a bit of junk too, which went into the skip.

 Today we plan on driving over to Daventry to dispose of the old clothing, along with books and such to the local charity shops.

 I’m not sure when we’ll be tackling Wifey’s side of the dinette, but I don’t suppose we’ll be in the mood for it after our trip to Daventry.

 Thursday 7th May

 We’ve had two days of horrid weather but, at last it seems to have settled down now. We had a clear out of Wifey’s side of the dinette yesterday, and now we have to take it the stuff we don’t want into Rugby this morning.

 Dave Hull should be along on Monday to wire up our Immersion Heater.

 Saturday 9th May

 

Yesterday, with not much planned regarding clearing out the boat, we took Alex over to Daventry Country Park and then settled down for a lazy day.

 Sunday 10th May

 We met Pauline as we were walking through the village and asked if she and Chris would like to join us at the club today. She said she would have words with Chris, but that it would mean staying longer than they had planned. Sadly they decided to get moving along. However, they will be back for the Boat Show, so we might see them again.

 Monday 11th May

 Dave Hull should be coming around to connect up our Immersion Heater this morning. Although, having said that, there’s really no telling when that will be. He’s so busy and so popular that there’s no telling what else he has on today.

 Yesterday we ran into a bit of good luck; which makes a nice change when you consider the amount of money we’ve had to shell out of late. As usual, it being a Sunday, we strolled up to the club for a couple of drinks and some snacks. We had just sat down when, out of the blue, our barmaid came over and told us we’d won the meat raffle. This is drawn every week and I usually put in a couple of quid.

 So, we waited until we were about to leave and then called Wendy over and asked her to get our prize out of the freezer. Well, the last time we won anything there was a £10 voucher for the butchers shop in a village some distance away. This time however, we had won a 3.0Kg tray of huge pork chops.

 When we got them back to the boat and waited for them to defrost, we found we had eight of them. So, we now have a pork dinner for almost every day this week. Can’t be bad, can it??

 Today, after Dave has sorted out the Immersion Heater, we’ll probably take a run over to Daventry and dispose of the rest of our rubbish.

 With the Crick Boat Show looming we’ve all been told to remove our cars from our car park to the main one. It seems that the people setting up the displays need our car park for their trucks and things. Later on and prior to the show starting, everybody will have to move their cars to one of the outlying fields. Actually, we’re quite looking forward to the show. The last time we attended was when we found the boat we now live on.

 Tuesday 12th May

 Dave turned up to wire in our Immersion Heater yesterday which, due to its awkward location, took him about two hours. We let it run for a further hour +, but still no hot water came through.

 At that point we switched it off and took Alex for a walk and, just as we were heading towards the gate, along came Dave and he wasn’t happy with the news. Mind you, that Immersion had been there since 2009, so perhaps it’s no good now.

 Later in the evening, just as we were climbing into bed, Sheila imparted some pearls of wisdom; which I have since emailed to Dave. She tells me that this Immersion Heater MUST be wired into the landline mains and CAN’T be used whilst cruising.

 Now, we know that he actually took a spur off the washing machine switch; assuming, no doubt, that this was also wired to landline mains, when in fact it is wired to the Inverter/Charger.

 These pearls of wisdom I have also imparted to Dave, who probably won’t be happy. It may well be that this makes no difference, but I have a sneaky suspicion that………….!!!

 Anyway, we’ll see what he has to say when he gets here this morning.

 Thursday 14th May

 Dave arrived on Tuesday morning and discovered that the reset button on the immersion heater had popped out. This meant that, just for a change, the boating gods were smiling upon us, because we didn’t have to pay for a new one. Hallelujah brother!!!

 Yesterday we drove over to Daventry, topped up with petrol, disposed of a trolley load and a bag full of books, then popped into Tesco for a wee bit of shopping and the latest Eric Clapton disc.

 Today we’ll be taking the bus into Rugby to top up with books from charity shops.

 Already the people are arriving to set up for the forthcoming Boat Show. Our small car park has been taken over and we’ll all be moving our cars to nearby fields. We all hope it will be dry on the weekend of the show.

 Later…… Well, we popped into town, visited a few charity shops, did a wee bit of shopping, had a coffee and tea cake at our favourite coffee shop, and managed to catch the next bus back.

 It’s now 3 pm and raining quite hard, but we really do need to walk the dog and visit the office, so wet weather gear on and off we go.

 But first I’ll post this blog and wish you a very pleasant Friday and weekend.

 All the best from Dave, Sheila and Alex.