Things are looking up

7th & 8th October

Yesterday was another day for a relaxed start; Sheila had a hair appointment for 10 o’clock, and left to walk down to the hairdresser’s at half nine. For quite a while now I have been endeavouring to cut her hair myself (fortunately she likes a simple style) but since we are to be in one place for some months it seemed like a good idea for her to have several professional cuts and undo some of the damage.

Whilst she was out, I pottered about doing this and that on the boat, tidying it and cleaning in readiness for entertaining Iain and Luisa Bryceland yesterday evening. By the time Sheila returned, the boat was looking quite smart and tidy. I make this remark not in a spirit of self congratulation (much) but to underline the irony of the phone call from Susan Mason just after lunch.

This was to say that the monitor, keyboard and trackball had arrived. My initial reaction was to resist the temptation to dash over there, but Sheila pointed out it was a bit unfair to the Masons to leave two large boxes cluttering up their office. Accordingly, we went and collected them.

Back at the boat, the aura of tidiness was soon dispelled. I haven’t set up a new computer for some years, though it was a routine task in my last job before retirement. I had forgotten quite how much mess all the weird bits of packaging and polystyrene create, especially in a small space.

Needless to say, the rest of the afternoon was taken up with commissioning the Mac Mini. It’s a bit anxiety provoking at first, but once the main data folders had been transferred from the iBook (by restoring the backup I had made the day before) and the T Mobile USB modem installed and connecting to the internet I was able to relax and enjoy playing with my new toy.

There’s still a fair bit to do installing various applications I’ve downloaded from the internet over the years, but we do now have a functioning computer that is much faster than the old one. The main outstanding problem is that the fancy new word processor, Pages, and spreadsheet, Numbers, are refusing to import Office documents in the way that they should. Instead they fall over complaining of a problem with the SFCompatibility plug in. I haven’t yet had time to investigate the cause of this.

I finally tore myself away from it to have a shower and start cooking dinner. We had our usual excellent time with Iain and Luisa. Their tales of their early struggles in setting up Braidbar Boat Services are in equal parts hilarious and horrifying. They also put in an effective plea for Tim Tyler; they made the point that he will be mortified to be so late with the shell. They’ve offered to arrange for us to go over to Sheffield and see the shell in build which would be fun as we didn’t get a chance to see Sanity’s until it was delivered to Braidbar.

Despite the late night, we managed to get up in time to be boating at quarter past eight, as we wanted to come back down to Macclesfield to collect Sheila’s specs which Boots had got ready earlier than expected. As we were setting off we had a discussion about when the toilet tank would need pumping out. It’s just over two weeks since our encounter with Mr Gale at the top of Bosley, but the amber light had not yet come on on the gauge, so it looked as if we might get through the weekend before needing to do it.

We were steadily under way with me steering when Sheila appeared at the back and said cheerfully “Houston, we have a problem”. The red light had just come on on the tank gauge indicating that it was absolutely full. This told us three things:

• We hadn’t managed to pump out as much rinse water as we’d thought when Mr Gale descended on us;
• The float switch halfway up the tank has stuck again;
• Any further use of the toilet would result in an undesirable discharge overside.

There was a brief period of frantic cogitation before Sheila remembered that the yard at Bollington Wharf does pump outs. We’ve never stopped there before because it’s normally guarded by a Rottweiler. It’s a very cheerful looking Rottweiler but of course it would probably continue to look cheerful whilst tearing you limb from limb. No matter, needs must when the devil drives or the toilet tank is full.

It was a little tricky getting on to the mooring, but we then discovered that the owner and Rottweiler were away for the week and service was provided by a nice old bloke and a West Highland White Terrier. He proceeded to do a very good pump out, whilst regaling us with towpath gossip.

After setting off once more, Sheila set out to make a coffee for us both but discovered that the gas cylinder was empty. It only took a moment to switch over; at least it hadn’t happened whilst cooking last night.

Sheila hopped off the boat as we came through the bridge by the waterpoint and nipped up to the Co-op for bread and a paper whilst I boated slowly on. She caught up two bridges later and we’ve come through to our usual mooring on Gurnett Aqueduct.

We’ve had a successful trip into town and we’re treating ourselves to an M & S meal for two for £10 tonight to give me a break after my endeavours last night. Tomorrow we’ll head back to Poynton for a lunch on Saturday with Peter and Jan, Sheila’s brother and sister in law.