Breath in………….

It was lovely to wake up to sunshine after a very miserable bank Holiday Monday. We left our mooring around 9.30 and joined the queue at Colwich lock. There we were waiting 3rd in line when the day boat from Anglo Welsh whizzes past us all to moor up at the front. They got very short shrift from the lady in front of us so had to reverse behind us by this time there were a further 2 boats in the queue  so there was a bit of chaos. Luckily it worked one up one down so we were soon on our way. We had a pleasant journey in the sunshine.

We had just negotiated the sharp bend as you approach Rugley and making our way where the canal narrows to a boat and a halfs width. Now we were 2ft off the narrow and coming the other way was a Canaltime hire boat by the state of his bow wave he was definitely giving it some hammer. At this point a decision had to be made as there was no sign of the boat slowing down he was obviously determined that he was going to get a 7ft boat through a 4ft gap and the closing speed increased as he throttled up even more. Pauls decision was to avoid a head on collision to throttle up and using our large bow fender rope let him bounce off it this incurred a heavy nudge knocking his bows over to starboard which as he was still going fast pushed him into the bank and drove his bows onto the narrow. As we had passed him he was giving it full wellie in reverse but to no avail. Comment to the helmsman (very politely for Paul I might add) “ you were going too fast and we were already at the narrow bearing in mind you were 50ft off”. By this time the helmsman was throwing his arms up in the air, red faced and muttering something we couldn't quite catch, obviously our comments fell on deaf ears because as he went through the narrow he was back to full throttle again, the wash from the prop was like a water spout.

We are now settled in a decent spot, washings done and drying in the engine room and the sun is still shining.

Well!!!!!

The steak was delicious a) because it was so b****y expensive and b) because I cooked it to perfection. I shall make sure that I keep Paul away from the meat counter in future.

I am sorry to mention this as I know to a lot of you (that means you Eric!) aren't interested in fishing, but last night Paul caught this. He hasn't caught any thing for 3 nights so as there was nothing on the TV (that he wanted to watch) he spent the evening in the cool evening air.

It took nearly half an hour to land and weighed in at a whopping 18 and a half pound. To say he was chuffed would be an understatement.

With the weather being so inclement outside jobs have been in short supply but he was able to repaint the surrounds to the hatch cover as the first attempt was a disaster due to the weather being so damp. The coal locker has been bitumined and is now in a tidy state ready to be filled for the winter.

How Much!!!!!!

Yesterday we caught the bus into town to get a bit of shopping. Now, Paul is not a food shopping person as having worked in Supermarkets for nearly all his working life he  just hates it. Normally when he does condescend to accompany me he spends most of his time with his head in Freezer cabinets or looking up at the ducting systems. Of course you get “in my day we would never have let things get in that state”. Anyway, he decided he would like some steak for his tea so I said “you go get that while I wander up the aisles”. Well back he comes clutching the wrapped steak “how much” says I “£10.35” says he, HOW MUCH I could get 2 bottles of wine for that or 8 beers or even a weeks shopping in 1969. That's the last time I let him buy his own steak, he can make do with beans on toast for the next 3 days.

Today I left Paul busy painting and off I went back into town to wander on my own at my hearts content going into any shop I liked without any huffing and puffing I had a lovely time. Later on I am off to the hairdressers for a trim my fringe is past the top of my glasses and that is after I attacked it with the scissors.

We are having that steak for tea tonight it had better be good!!!!!!

Today!!!!!!!

I went to Shugborough, on my own. I walked from Tixall and had a thoroughly good time. Mondays is half price day for us OAP’s so cost me £6. I left the boat at 11 and got back at 2.30. It is well worth the visit even more so if you go on a Monday (that’s if you are of a certain age).
The sun shone on me which was good as earlier in the morning it had thrown it down.








I was cream crackered by the time I got back, Paul was tired too I found him on the tow path asleep in a chair……….
So that is one thing I have achieved from my wish list.

Disappointed.

When we came through here 4 weeks or so ago I had found out that there was a Summer Prom with a Spitfire display  at Shugborough on the 19th. So we didn't hang about going up to Wheaton and back so that we could see and hear the concert from the “wide”. Yesterday I checked the website to see what time it all kicked off and the thing had been cancelled along with Jools Holland that was supposed to be on tonight. Apparently the promoter has gone into liquidation what a bummer eh. Paul is gutted but there you go serves us right for making plans.

So now we are going to go to Shugborough yes, both of us, when we leave here, we will probably moor up below the lock so Pauls little legs don't have so far to walk. I have also made contact with an old work colleague of mine who lives near to Rugley and have made arrangements to see her when we go through there. Lets hope that goes to plan.

At least the weather has improved and this evening it is lovely hope tomorrow is nice as we need to get a couple of outside jobs done.

Today, the rain rained and the wind did blow…

But were we idle no sireeee.

For about a week now our TV has been playing up when we moored at places where previously we have had a good signal now we had hardly any or the programmes kept breaking up. To say that Paul was spitting feathers would be an understatement.  According to the TV we weren't  receiving a good enough  signal, so after checking that the Ariel was in the right position Paul proceeded to remake all the ends on the TV cable and also checked out the booster box but to no avail. Whilst checking out the TV end we noticed that on the fly lead onto the TV when moved it appeared loose inside and the TV gave a response and Paul came to conclusion that the TV was at fault at the Ariel socket. Now this TV is less than a year old so still under guarantee Paul rang Curry's up to find out the procedure for getting the thing sorted out. Of course the idea is for them to send a little repair man out with his bag of tools to sort out the problem but as you are all well aware this is not an option. The chap on the end of the phone suggested that we took the TV into a Curry's where it would take a week from when it was picked up from the store for the repair to be carried out, the question was asked how long would it take for your workshops to pick it up from the store, answer “don't know could be 2 day could be four days” if it takes as long to return it  that would mean it had taken 2/3 weeks this was not an option for us.

So today Paul took the bull by the horns and decided to carry out the repair himself he started by taking the TV out of the bedroom (we inherited this when we bought the boat) setting it up in the lounge in case his repair went tits up, this was not an easy task (is it ever) as all the wiring had to be re-configured as it is 12v not 240, there fore temporary supplies were run in along the book shelves. On setting it up everything was perfect so it proved that it wasn't the boat Ariel supplies. Himself then decided that it had to be a dry joint on the Ariel socket installation. Believe me teles are not like they used to be it took an hour to find out how to get into it and another hour to take it apart, not a screw in sight all held together with those silly plastic tag and slot fixings. Once everything was disconnected from the frame the motherboard was removed (no valves in this tele) to expose the Ariel socket. All then became clear looking through a magnifying glass ( his eyes aren't what they used to be!!!!)  that the joint on the board supply was at fault.  It was then hunt the soldering iron after a few choice words he was able to re-dress the joint and then try to remember how to put it all back together again. Believe it or not there was no screws left over everything went back as it should. Hey presto it all run on test. We now have all the programmes without any of them pixelating.

So in the space of 4 hours the tele was dismantled repaired and put back together not the 4 weeks we had envisaged from Curry's. Paul did make the comment that it would be a miracle if the tele ever worked again tomorrow he is going to try and walk on water!!!!!!!!

Crystal has finally condescended to sleep on her bed but as you can see she doesn't look to comfortable.

This is Saffie showing her how it should be done.

Yesterday when we got here at Tixall the weather was glorious, we had been passed by Gill and Geoff nb Petroc as we were heading for Tixall lock and they were just leaving it. We found a nice space and we are settled for the weekend.

We had company for a while.

Think he was in competition with Paul to see who could catch the most fish. Guess who won.

John nb Phoebe also popped down to see us he is one of our followers on the blog and him and Paul had plenty to talk about which we wont go into here…

This morning we walked the rubbish to the Sanitary point I had been very good separating the recycling but when I got to the bins the recycling ones were full to over flowing and there was as much on the floor as there was in the bins mine all went in the general rubbish bins which were empty. Anglo Welsh had ordered some new engine belts for us so we picked them up and managed to get back to the boat before the heavens opened.

Long time no write!!!!!!

We have moved a bit, after leaving Betty and Graham we got to Penkridge spent a couple of nights there again so we could pop to the Wednesday market. Only problem with staying at Penkridge is Jaspers the lovely bakers where the bread and cakes are to die for and you never pass the shop without there being a queue out onto the pavement. I braved the queue and bought two lovely chocolate muffins with fresh cream  and 4 boring crusty cobs which were very nice but not as nice as the muffins!!!!!!!!

From Penkridge we got to Radford bank there were a few of us going that way but there wasn't any hold ups at the locks that is until we got to Deptmore lock where there was about 4 of us waiting to go down. We met up with the crew of nb Lola here and had a chat. We had planned to spend the weekend at Radford bank but we did all our shopping in one hit so left there Friday morning we decided we wanted to have a country mooring for the weekend. So we are now moored up above Tixall Lock okay not a country mooring as such but quietish (trains are close by).

Friday evening there was a shout from Paul who was fishing and overhead was this balloon.

lovely blue sky

loosing height give it some gas……

Good job Crystal didn't see this as she has a distinct aversion to hot air balloons after an incident with one in Spain.

The fishing here hasn't been too good, to near the lock I think, saying that Paul spent 12 hours (honestly) on the bank yesterday and caught 3 fish 2 roach and a bream. Its alright there wont be any pictures. There were lots of fry about though but Paul couldn't find a hook small enough.

Today the weather has changed and it is now raining, this hasn't stopped endless boats going up and down the lock. At least we have had a whole 2 weeks of sunshine for the Olympics. Didn’t we do well………