Dentistry and domestic stuff

6th & 7th December

I forgot to mention last time that we saw Kisimul’s Galley, Braidbar 30, at Kerridge dry dock as we passed. She’s not long been repainted, so presumably she’s waiting to go in for bottom blacking.

As we boated towards Poynton on a seriously wet morning, I phoned the Poynton dentist and got an appointment for 3.20 that afternoon. No sooner had I done this and gone to the back to tell Sheila, than she told me we’d just passed Sarah Kate, and Mike on board had called across “Hope the tooth is OK”. It’s an odd business, this blogging, but always flattering to discover people are taking an interest. Thanks for your concern, anyway, Mike – we must catch up one of these days.

We moored on the Deeps at Poynton by mid morning, had a coffee and then went round to the yard to see folks. Iain, Luisa and Peter were all there, and handed over a load of stuff for us. In exchange for their service as a PO box, we are going to tow the next shell from Macclesfield for them, next Wednesday.

The booty included the repaired Ecofan, some pillow cases and a mattress protector for the side berth, and the BW licence stuff sent on by Elanor. Must say the service from Calfire is very good – the fan is now spinning away brilliantly once more, and all for about a third of the cost of replacing it.

As far as I can see, the only reason we had to send back the BW licence document, given that we have signed a direct debit to take the money, is so that I have confirmed in writing that we don’t need a Boat Safety Certificate yet, which fact is apparent from the stuff we’ve already sent them.

In the afternoon, I went down to the town centre, stopping on the way to post the BW licence application, and to send two parcels. One was to Jane Howarth, containing her repaired crochet blanket, and the other to Graeme and Cathy. This was a typical grandparents’ parcel I now realise. It comprised a copy of the Terry Pratchett book Where’s My Cow?, for Graeme to read to Daniel, a pack of Bickie-Pegs, as he’s teething (Daniel, not Graeme), and the memory stick we used to transport the photos of Daniel.

The dentist turned out to be very good. She did an excellent job of sorting out my tooth – the only down side is that the Denplan cover is not as convenient as you might wish. I had to pay the fee at the dentist, and will have to get a claim form and reclaim it from Denplan.

I could at least download the form from the website, but guess what, it has to be signed by the dentist, thus requiring another trip downtown.

We had soup for dinner last night – it was scheduled anyway, but I was grateful for it, in view of my slightly battered mouth. World’s three greatest lies:

1) "Of course I’ll still love you in the morning"
2) "The cheque is in the post"
3) "This may be a bit uncomfortable when the anaesthetic wears off."

This morning we’d thought of going on to Marple to pump out with the new kit, but at 7.30 the wind was moving the boat about on the mooring something fierce, so I took an executive decision to stay put (Sheila was still asleep, but I told her I still loved her when she woke up) (I've been telling her this for just on 40 years now, and I think she may be ready to believe me).

I sorted out the Denplan claim form and then checked the weather forecast – it’s going to be windy again tomorrow, but with rain as well. Heigh ho, what can’t be cured...

We walked down into Poynton and dropped the form off with the dentist, and then tried out a different set of shops, a little way along the main road. It’s a case of a Somerfield rather than a Co-op, which store feels rather nicer – more spacious, and a better range of stuff, but further to walk. We got back to the boat by late morning, had coffee and sorted stuff out before lunch.

This afternoon I printed out a photo of Daniel to put in a frame on the shelf in the saloon, and made a start preparing the Christmas cards. This year we’re going to print our own onto WH Smith precreased card stock – we only send cards to the immediate family these days, as there’s no point in people trying to send cards to us – Elanor would get the benefit (?) of them all, and would have to lug them up to us just before the day.

Sheila got set up to cut some wood for lighting the fire – the usual flotsam which we'd collected as we boated along. She’d only got a few bits done before it came on to rain, so she packed up again. No sooner had she done so than it stopped raining of course. Nonetheless, she spent the rest of the afternoon knitting.

My mouth is now fully recovered, so goulash tonight, methinks.