Two days in Alrewas

4th & 5th October

We woke to a bright and sunny morning, but with some concern in our minds about the postal strike in prospect. Sheila had been expecting an appointment for an x-ray for a stiff shoulder, and it hasn’t appeared yet. We trolled round to the surgery, where they admitted that the request had only gone in two days ago, although Sheila saw the GP over a week ago. First time the surgery has let us down.

Back at the boat, Sheila tried to ring the number she’d been given for X-ray appointments, but it was hopeless trying to get through. Furthermore, the auto answer said to leave a number and they would reply “within 48 hours” i.e. probably not before the beginning of next week.

Back she went to the surgery, got an appointment for later in the morning with the trainee, who when he saw her did a good job of examination and discussion. She’s got some anti-inflammatories to take which will hopefully let her get some sleep.

In the afternoon, we took advantage of the weather in different ways. Sheila, who’d had enough walking to-ing and fro-ing to the surgery, sat out on the towpath knitting whilst also running a wash load.

I went for a walk across the fields to Wychnor Park, round to the Wychnor moorings, and so back to the boat. I got a few photos of the route, but nothing spectacular.

The other thing of interest was an email to say that the IWA is consulting again on its governance structure. That makes two things I really must respond to (the other being the HMRC consultation on red diesel taxation). At least as we’re going to be around here for a few days more, I should get the chance to drive myself to do it, if only the weather wasn’t so fine!



This morning was seriously misty first thing. We had indeed had a better night, so we felt generally pretty cheerful. I took a pic of the mist through the side hatches, and we had breakfast.

We’re not planning to go anywhere this weekend, so thought that topping up the water tank while it was quiet would be a good idea. Only thing was, there was a Shakespeare hire boat moored on the water point. While I was looking at this and muttering, Jacqui off Timewarp, moored behind this hire boat, came out and we had a chat. She was preparing to water her own boat, and to run her hoses to the boat behind her. She suggested that we should, by joining a load of hoses together, get water to Sanity without having to move her, so this is what we did.

Having done that, we also ran the hose to Pilot, moored behind us, so that in the end, of five boats on this bit of visitor mooring, four had been watered without moving. Another great example of boater cooperation, which on the cut just comes naturally.

While we doing all this, the Braidbar hire boat, Skye, came past. They must be out for a long trip, as they were heading away from base towards Burton and the River Trent.

We spent the rest of the morning sitting out on the towpath, me reading and Sheila knitting, whilst we ran the engine for battery charging. Later on, I checked email and the uk.rec.waterways newsgroup. The Marine Accident Investigation Board report on the fatal fire on the Lindy Lou at Lyme View marina is out. It makes sobering reading. In particular, it’s not apparent that the boaters concerned had done anything especially foolish, in a newish boat that had passed the mandatory safety exams. Alright, they went to bed having had a lot to drink, but the stove wasn’t left open or anything, and one of them died as a result.

This afternoon, we took a walk, one of our favourites across the fields to Fradley Village and then back via the Coventry and Trent and Mersey canals. It remains amazingly warm, and we saw several buzzards, and a Great Spotted woodpecker flew across the towpath in front of us. It made a great end to the day.