Idling away the time at Alrewas

25th & 26th November

It took us a while to settle to sleep the night before last, and then just as we were dozing off, a high pitched beep rang out through the boat. We each lay there, wondering if the other had heard it, and then off it went again. The smoke alarm battery wanted us to know it was tired too.

I got up and staggered through to the study where the alarm is, took it off its mounting plate on the ceiling and began to wrestle the battery out of its compartment. As I did so, it beeped again, my hand jerked in surprise and pushed the test button.

This demonstrated that the battery wasn't in fact that dead. I eventually managed to get the old one out, a new one in and the unit back on the ceiling before crawling back into bed.

After which we lay there some more, trying to calm down.

It was another very cold but dry morning yesterday, just right for the Village Walk. We went up the towpath to Fradley Junction (where the car had been removed from the cut) along the Coventry to Fradley village and back across the fields to Alrewas and lunch at The George and Dragon.

The food and ambience there was if anything better than last week, a good sign for the future.

A quiet afternoon on the boat followed, as may be imagined. One piece of good news arrived in the midst of all the economic gloom – BW have decided against the extra £150 on the licence for continuous cruisers, and have reduced the planned increase overall, so that, taken with the effect of the VAT reduction, the increase will be 6.2% for us next year.

Elanor called in on her way home from post-work archery, bringing our mail, which included the BW reminder about this year's licence renewal. We needed to post them our Boat Safety Certificate this time, so I did that this morning, Recorded Delivery just in case there's any dispute about whether we sent it.

Failure to get it all done before New Year would mean that we lost our prompt payment discount, and we wouldn't want that.

It was a milder but much damper day today. The internet connection decided to be really difficult, but I don't think the two facts were connected; it's hard to be sure with a mobile internet service, there are so many possible pinch points on the route the data takes to get onto the Info Superhighway.

Will Chapman had indicated he needed to go into Burton sometime this week if we wanted a lift, and Sheila had found out from the council that she could apply in advance for her bus pass, so we took him up on it and had a ride in.

It turned out to be very straightforward. We went to the Customer Services Centre next to the old fishmarket, Sheila produced her passport and driving licence as proof of age and address, and was taken off into a little room to have her photo taken.

It was all over in ten minutes; the pass will be posted to her in around three weeks, at about the same time as our licence will turn up, probably, which will be handy for Elanor.

After lunch we took a short walk down to the lock and river section. There's a load more site huts and stuff on the new lock landing, and they are starting work on refurbishing the boom that protects the weir where the river leaves the canal.

Back at the boat, the internet connection had improved, though it may have been helped by the fact that I've replaced the USB cable between the modem and the laptop with a shorter but thicker one, so as to reduce loss of signal in these marginal locations.

Tomorrow first thing I have my hopefully final GP appointment for a bit, then we'll probably go and water and wind below Wychnor Lock, before tying on the moorings just above the lock for the weekend.