Sunday 22nd June
to Friday 27th June
Monday 23rd June
Well, it’s downhill all the
way to autumn now, since Saturday was the longest day. However, we’re still
enjoying some brilliant weather and, according to Countryfile, we will do so
for the next few days.
Meanwhile I seem to have now
taken on the fight against hay fever. Never suffered from it in the past and it
is now becoming a nuisance. So much so that I’m now looking out for a Holland
and Barratt store so that I can buy the same stuff Alan used to use. He seems
to have grown out of it now, whilst I’m now having to suffer it. Blocked nose
that simply won’t clear, not even with Sudafed spray. Blah and Bah I say!!
Our nearest H&B is in
Shrewsbury and we won’t be able to go there until we reach Ellesmere, by which
time summer will probably be over and I won’t need any pills or potions.
Forever the optimist, that’s me!!
Yesterday we sat in the
garden of the local pub, The Cotton Arms, which also has a campsite behind it.
I say sat in the garden, which we did for a short while, and then transferred
to the front of the pub, which was shadier and away from the little female
thug, who was throwing a rubber bone for her dog, missing us by not a very
great distance.
Walking back to the boat we
first looked ahead of the lift bridge, just to see if there were any spaces. By
the looks of things there was enough space to take about four boats, so we
moved our boat through the first lift bridge; which joins two fields each side
of the canal; then through the electrically operated road bridge. But, during
the 20 minutes or so that this movement took, three other boats had pulled in
and we were just lucky to fit in between two of them.
We moved the boat yesterday
because we didn’t want to cause a hold up with traffic on a Monday morning.
Today we’ll be off to
Grindley Brook and will moor at the bottom of the locks. These moorings are on
our starboard side, so I’ll be able to finish painting the roof.
At last, my driving licence
has turned up and I’m now allowed to drive for another three years. But, in
with the bumff that came with it was a notice telling me I can apply to have
previous categories re-instated. In the past, if a lorry driver or bus driver
has to go on to Insulin in order to control their diabetes, they those
categories were revoked. However, it now seems that this has changed, so, if I
wanted to take up bus driving again (?), I could get that category put back on
my licence. How great is that? I wonder, how would a part-time job driving school
kids about, suit me? Nah! Had enough of those little towrags!!
Monday 24th June
Yesterday we poodled along to
the bottom of Grindley Brook Locks and settled in for the day.
With it being yet another
fine and sunny day, we set to with more painting and varnish stripping. Well, I
finished the roof and found that the paint doesn’t quite match the parts I did
earlier. Whether it needs time to ‘weather’ and blend in, I don’t know, but
it’s quite possible that the unfinished tin I used earlier is from a different
batch. We’ll check it out later today and, if it still looks odd, I’ll go over
the earlier stuff with the newer paint. This means even more work of course.
Even after re-tuning the TV
last night, we still couldn’t get Quest and missed Outback Truckers. Hopefully
we’ll be able to catch up at a later dates; there are always plenty of repeats
around, as everybody knows.
Wednesday 25th
June
From the bottom of Grindley
Brook locks, to the moorings at Whitchurch, is just over a mile, with six locks
in between. We left our moorings at a little before 8 am and, with the locks in
our favour, we saved quite a bit of time going through them.
The facilities here are
better than some places and include four water points, which is just as well
because, as usual, there was a holiday boat moored at one. Goodness knows why
these people do it but, even though they are advised against it by their hire
company, they still flout the rules and moor there overnight. They always have
an excuse ready too, and in this case it was, ‘well, we’ll be topping up soon
and leaving early’. This was at 9 am, and he called it early. What was wrong
with topping up the previous afternoon/evening and moving along to proper
moorings?
This person was moored in
such a way as to make it impossible for boater; who was moored on the other
side of the canal; top up with water, without having to reverse up in order to
do so. And they wonder why holiday boaters have such a bad name!!
Anyway, after disposing of
rubbish and filling our water tank, we made it to Whitchurch by 10 am and,
after the obligatory cup of coffee, we wandered over to the local bus stop and
waited for a bus to turn up. It should have been there by 25 past the hour but,
while we were waiting a local woman advised us that she didn’t think the
service ran every day any more. So, we checked the timetable and found, much to
our dismay that the 205 now only ran on Saturdays. This seemed rather odd
because we know from experience that quite a few people do use the service.
We now had two alternatives,
either walk into town, or stroll around to the local Co-op. We chose the longer
walk into town and, after a walk up and down the high street; we did some
shopping in Tesco. When we were checking out I mentioned the lack of 205
service to Chemistry, but he was sure that it still ran. He suggested we talk
to one of the bus drivers, which we did, and he produced a timetable that
plainly stated that the service still ran, but with a few alterations.
Obviously some idiot, either at their own office, or at the local Council
office, had put the incorrect information at the bus stop, and probably at all
the associated bus stops along that route.
Can nobody be trusted these
days??
We’ll be staying here for
today and, with the weather looking set fair, we’ll probably get some more wood
staining done, Sheila on the back bar and me on the pole. No, not up it!!
Thursday 26th June
Yesterday morning I emailed
the bus company that serves Whitchurch and informed them of the incorrect
timetable at their Chemistry bus stop. Later in the afternoon I booted up the
laptop, for reasons that escape me and I found, much to my surprise that the
bus company had replied to my email and were going to advise the local Council
if this mistake. Obviously there are some companies out there who care about
their passengers.
After breakfast Wifey asked
if I wanted to accompany her to the local Co-op and I agreed to her request
but, by the time we got back from this monumental hike, I sincerely wished I
hadn’t bothered. We might just as well have walked into town again, it was that
long. Still, we both need to keep up the exercise and, to be honest we’re not
able to do so every day, because we’re not always close enough to a town or
shops. We must, most definitely find another dog when we return to Crick.
There was loads of activity
yesterday, here at the Whitchurch moorings, with boats coming and going for
much of the day. Inevitably and irritatingly, we sustained a bump and nudge
here and there, but nothing to really concern us. The final boat of the day
arrived quite late in the evening, but they were fortunate enough to fill the
spot in front of us, because the boat that was there left only a short while
before they arrived. Some folks do their cruising much later than we do, and
that’s for sure.
We’ll be heading towards
Ellesmere later this morning, but the only place we simply must avoid this
time, is the site of the old shop, because there’s no mobile or Internet
reception there.
Friday 27th June
As everybody knows who reads
this blog, we don’t usually travel more than a few miles a day, much less eight
miles. Perish the thought!! But, since we want to be in Ellesmere today and
want to take a bus ride to Shrewsbury and Oswestry this weekend, we made the ultimate
sacrifice, but only after Wifey had walked all that way to the local Co-op for
the paper. She’s a game old bird, don’t you know? With me lagging along beside
her this walk would take about 40 minutes, there and back. On her own she did
the return trip in 20 and we managed to get away by 8.30.
Our aim was for the moorings
just past bridge 50, which we would have made in much less than the 3½ hours it
took us, had it not been for the slow-coach ahead of us. It is sometimes
possible to pass on the cut, but in this instance; despite the long stretch of
straight canal past the Preese Branch; we still couldn’t manage, because there
always seemed to be another boat coming towards us.
Well, upon arrival at said
destination; by now it was already midday; we settled in to read the paper and
enjoy a cup of coffee. Soon afterwards Sheila went off to give another coat of
wood stain to the back bar, but she returned within a couple of minutes after
it started raining. So, there was nowt else to do but settle down and watch
Wimbledon, which took us right up to 9 pm, when we switched channels to watch
Body of Proof.
A day well spent wethinks!
This is the plural of methinks, an old English word, sadly no longer in general
usage, except by a few devotees like me.
The Internet signal is not
very strong here, but I’m going to try posting this blog today, and for a very
good reason. Tomorrow will be a very special day in the Chamberlain calendar, it’s
Wifey’s birthday and our 34th Wedding Anniversary. For those of you; both
friends and family; who wouldn’t normally send email or text greetings; this is
your chance to do something completely unusual.
Go on, go for it, you know
you want to!!
Have a great weekend, we
certainly will.
Dave and Sheila
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