Toddling to Tamworth

17th & 18th July

It's been a good two days boating, albeit over water we know very well. It's made a good break from the challenges of boating on moving water; knowing exactly where the good moorings are to be found, estimating how long a route will take, not worrying about the weather forecast other than to decide how much waterproofing to put on.

Yesterday we set off at a good hour. Sheila moved Sanity onto the water point whilst I nipped into the village in search of a paper and some fresh veg. It was early enough that the Co-op wasn't open, so the veg came from the butchers, but that's modern village life for you.

(Actually, I can recall a town in North Wales where the best barbers was also a licensed firearms dealer, so maybe it's not so modern after all.)

We then had the entertainment of boating up to Fradley Junction, which was having one of its Freaky Fridays, but didn't have to wait too long at any of the locks. Once clear, I retreated below and left Sheila to do the steady plod to Whittington, where we moored just this side of the first bridge.

The wreck has gone from the length before – some new fencing in the hedge by where it was suggests that they had to bring lifting gear across the field to get it out.

We spent the afternoon comfortably inside the boat whilst it rained, sorting out some stuff for the Braidbar Owners Group, such as the new order form for Braidbar clothing, and emailing the group about the way we might spend this year's Owners' Weekend.

It was all a bit of a struggle, not to sort the documents out but to get them up on the website, as the internet connection was not good at all, but we managed it in the end. It did mean that by the time I'd sorted it, I was too tired of the sight of the laptop to do a blog post, hence today's double ration.

Today dawned much dryer, and we had a very pleasant chug through to Sutton Road Bridge, on a bright but cool day which has improved as it went on. The building works which were in hand when last we were here turn out to be a new base for Audi UK, as part of which they've installed a new footpath through to the road, making it easier to get to the retail parks without fighting your way through a hedge or two.

We got some shopping done, then spent the rest of the morning on the boat. This afternoon, we tried to find a micro geocache, but it's gone, the tree stump where it should have been having been moved.

Other than that, it's continued quiet. My account with Google Reader, which I've been using to keep track of various other blogs, went all strange, and refused to load. Some investigation on the relevant forum showed that I'm not the only one afflicted by this. It will teach me to be lazy and just use Google 'cos it's there. Instead I've downloaded a new piece of software, Netnewswire, which is doiung the job very nicely, thank you.

Tomorrow we'll amble back towards Fradley, planning to be in Alrewas on Monday night so as to do the Village Walk on Tuesday morning.