Carousing in Alrewas

4th & 5th January

Oh dear, and I was going to be so well behaved this year – no more excess drinking, no more late nights carousing with disreputable friends, so how come I heard the church clock strike three as I put the light out last night?

For the answer, read on...

We woke yesterday morning to see some ice floating by on the cut, but nothing too dramatic. We made a lazy start appropriate to a Sunday morning, but after I'd wandered into the village to get a paper and had a cup of coffee, I was seized by a spirit of industry and did the engine oil and filter change.

The gear box seems to have stopped leaking, and everything looked much as normal, though there was a bit more water in the stern bilge than I expected – I may need to tighten up the stern gland again. It's a tricky one; if it's overtightened, the excess heat will wear away the prop shaft, which is made of comparatively soft stainless steel, and would be an expensive repair to replace.

As I was finishing up, some boats started passing by, further breaking up the ice.

We went for a walk after lunch, as far as Common Lock, where we found Fly Agaric waiting below the lock, and another boat just reversing back down it. Seemingly, they'd been taking it in turns to break the ice, but the lead boat, having got into the lock, had found her prop absolutely solid with a coal bag and some other stuff.

They'd had a go at clearing it, but the water being very cold, and as they didn't have a pair of long rubber gloves, this quickly became a test of pain endurance which had defeated them.

Hence the decision to come back out of the lock and for both boats to spend the night on the lock landing, in the hope of warmer conditions in the morning as predicted by the forecast. In any event, the ice above the lock looked pretty solid.

As we were helping them sort this out, another boat, Arkeroo, came up behind, tried unsuccessfully to wind below the lock, and also decided to spend the night there.

Having done all we could to help, we wandered back to the boat. In the course of the day, we'd had an exchange of emails with Jane Howarth, inviting us to dinner last night, and agreeing to make her washing machine available to us. With the cut likely to be pretty impassable for a few days yet, we're trying to avoid using too much water.

In addition to taking a washload to Jane and Will's, we'd prevailed upon Elanor to call in on her way back from a marathon Ceroc dance session to pick up a couple more loads to run in her machine. What would we do without that girl, I don't know. Actually I do, we'd have to exploit our friends even more than we do already.

We filled in the time between tea and going out by finishing off the Canal Boat quiz, which we will now email to the editor in satisfaction of my promise to Martin Ludgate that I'd put in an entry this year.

I have, of course, no interest in the prize (a bottle of Famous Grouse whisky), I'm only doing it for the sport of the thing.

Just after seven on a crisp cold night we set off for Will and Jane's. This turned out to be a stonking evening of good food, helping them eat up various bits and pieces left over from Christmas, drinking a variety of liquors (ditto) and exchanging banter, serious thoughts and arguments for a long time. (At one point, I swear Jane was arguing in favour of the Hindu caste system, but that seems so unlikely, I must have dreamt it.)

When we finally tore ourselves away, it was two in the morning, and snowing. We slipped and slithered our way back to the boat, made a cup of tea, got into bed, drank the tea, put the lights out, and guess what, the church clock struck three.

As may be imagined, it was a very lazy start this morning, and we've had a quiet time of it, pottering about, reading and going for another walk just after lunch. Our friends of yesterday have gone from below Common Lock (I'd put a pair of long rubber gloves in my pocket just in case they hadn't) and we saw a couple of boats on the move.

Back in Sanity, we watched an interesting DVD Will had lent us, made as part of the Alrewas Arts Festival last year, about the canal through here. It was very well done for such a production, and told us a few things we hadn't known about this bit of canal.

It'll be an early night tonight, I guess, and the Village Walk tomorrow. With a bit of luck, the ice will have relented by Thursday, at least enough for us to get up to Fradley, and there's supposed to be a serious change in the weather by the weekend.