Friday 20th March to Friday 10th April
Sunday 22nd March
The big day is here at last; the Kennett Family Bash!! The day has
started out rather cool, with a northerly wind, but the pub will be warm
inside. We’ll be at the same venue as last year; The Fox at Matching Tye, just
outside Harlow. Last year we had 19 around the tables; this year will see 222
of us. I don’t think they can cram many more into their function room.
We’re hoping to leave by about 8.30 am so as to drop Alex off at
Peter’s boat and be on our way by 9 am. When we arrive in Harlow our first stop
will be at Dave and Les’s place for a short visit, then off to pick up Alan and
Val by midday.
Monday 23rd March
What a great get-together yesterday; with 22 attendees there was
certainly plenty to talk about. Also, with the Kennett family being spread far
and wide throughout the UK, it’s the only real opportunity to catch up with
each other.
We finally managed to get away; after all the hugs and kisses; just
before 5 pm, then dropped Alan and Val off and headed for home. Unfortunately
our hopes of getting home before dark were quashed by a long tailback a couple
of miles before Milton Keynes, so we arrived at Pete’s boat well after 7 pm.
All in all though a very enjoyable day!!
Wednesday 25th March
Slowly, but surely, those boats that have wintered over at Crick, are
leaving for their summer cruising. We, as you all know, are staying put for the
most part, and we’ll be carrying out some much needed paint repairs. We also
need an engine service and a new starter battery, both of which we’ll do some time
in April.
On Saturday 4th April I’ll be driving down to Harlow to have
a birthday drink with Alan. When I get back we’ll probably go for a short
cruise down to Market Harborough, if only to get our new companion used to
being out on the cut. At present Alex is not too sure about this boating lark
and tends to tremble a bit when the engine starts up. So, a couple of weeks on
the cut should sort that out. Rusty was much the same at first, but she soon
became used to the noise and swaying of the boat.
After that short trip we’ll knuckle down to doing the paintwork. Of
course, this depends upon the weather, but we have loads of time during the
summer months.
Friday 27th March
I’m gradually making headway with this Gimp programme, but it’s slow
going because there are so many different features of the programme that come
into play when designing a cartoon. However, I do have a photo of Emma; who
lives in New Zealand; and I’ll be working on that soon.
Emma taught me how to work with pastels, in exchange for me ‘proof
reading’ her tutorials. I’m no expert in proof reading, but Emma recognised
that some aspects of her prose were slightly off. Anyway, since she gave me the
tutorials for free and helped me when I encountered problems, I have decided to
make a cartoon of her, utilising some of her interests, in return for her
generosity.
I’ve told Emma that I’m working on a new project and asked for a photo
of her, but she has no idea what I’ll be doing with it. All I have to do now is
follow the cartoon method using Gimp, a free design programme that can be
downloaded via the net.
Today is shopping day, but first I need to feed Alex and do our
breakfast.
Thursday 2nd April
What a lousy day yesterday, all wind and rain and very unpleasant.
Still, lots of boaters turned up; loaded with boxes of goodies; some of whom
chose to take their boats out. A few of them will now be enjoying their summer
cruses, others just for the Easter weekend. We should, of course, be joining
them. Alas, we have work to do, and besides, I’m going down to Harlow to visit
my brother. We then have to get the engine serviced and a new starter battery
installed. After which we’re going to go out for a couple of weeks, and then
set to work on the paint damage.
We don’t expect to do the whole boat this year, maybe just the stern
deck and the rest of the green and cream. That will probably be enough to be
getting on with.
This morning we’ll be driving over to Daventry for shopping at Waitrose
and filling the car up with petrol.
Tuesday 7th April
I paid a visit to Alan in Harlow on Saturday, which just so happened to
be my birthday, and met up with some of the family later at the Admiral. Prior
to this we called in on Sheila’s cousin Ian and sampled a very small taste of
his many and various single malts. Now, I’m no lover of spirits; not even rum,
which both Alan and I used to enjoy a shot or two of at Christmas, but the
couple of tasters we had at Ian’s, were quite something. At around 62 proof
they would make a pretty good start on blowing one’s socks off.
So, after a most enjoyable session at the Admiral, Alan persuaded me to
drive over to Wickes’s to buy an angle grinder, which is something we need if
we are to make any progress on our poor paintwork. This was a most welcome
birthday present, for which I say, “ta very much Bruv”.
Yesterday was the warmest day of the year so far, and it prompted me to
suggest a long walk along the towpath and across the fields. I rather fear I
overdid it and suffered for it in the evening and during the night. Still, we
have to do our utmost to keep fit, don’t we?
Today we’ll take the bus into Rugby.
Friday 10th April
We’ve had a very good week here weather-wise, but it looks like it’s
all about to come to an end according to the latest from West Midlands Today.
Still, Wifey did make a start on de-rusting the stern deck.
While we were cruising around last year she rubbed the deck down and
applied a grey primer cum rust preventative. However, during the interim
period, loads of small patches have shown through. So, having bought some rust
killer – supposedly! – she took to the deck with a wire brush and sprayed this
stuff on.
According to the instructions, the deck needs to be sprayed with water
and then sprayed with the magic potion, which Wifey did with gay abandon. It’s
then necessary to wait until this coating has dried, when it has to be sprayed
with water again. It must then be left for 24 hours and then the dust that accumulates
has to be swept away.
Shortly after she had sprayed on the second layer of water, along came
our engineer asking if he could carry out our service on the engine. But, when
he saw what had been done to the deck, he decided to leave it for tomorrow.
Hopefully he’ll come along sometime today, after the deck has been swept clear,
otherwise we’ll have to wait until next week for the service.
Such is life on the canals.
I’m still struggling with this cartoon stuff; I just can’t seem to get
the hair right. Emma, my artist friend in New Zealand, has very fine, fair hair,
which is not easy to emulate. I’ve already asked Alan Taylor how best to
achieve the correct style and shade of black and white, and he’s suggested a
couple of ways, but neither of them seem to work as well as I would like.
Perhaps I’m being a wee bit too finicky.
We brought our shopping day forward a day this week, and did it all
yesterday. Now that the summer season has arrived, quite a few boaters have
taken to the water and cluttered up the car park. So, rather than risk losing
our spot in the car park; Friday is the usual day for folks to arrive; we paid
a visit to Sainsbury’s yesterday morning.
Sadly, mostly due to my fixation with this Gimp stuff, I have neglected
this blog, for which you have my sincere apologies. It’s now two weeks since I
last posted, which kind of proves my point.
So, without further ado – even if it does make breakfast a wee bit late
– I’ll post this one now and promise to try to do better with the next one.
Cheers one and all
Dave, Sheila and Alex
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