A trip to Derby

We've had a successful trip into Derby today; we'd originally planned to do it yesterday, but put it off when we saw the weather forecast. It was bad enough today, much drier, but with an icy wind that made waiting at the bus stop a bit of a trial. (Sheila would like me to add, I know, that it wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't made us set out so ridiculously early).

We got Sheila's spectacles repaired, I made another raid on Lakeland and we paid a cheque into our bank account, using the wizzy machine in the Nationwide. We're getting to know our way around the Derby Westfield, which is definitely one of the better examples of its kind.

Mind you, we like visiting Milton Keynes, too…

Responding to yesterday's comments, both here and on Flickr, first of all I should acknowledge that the suggestion for restructuring the engine bay originally came from that wise and pragmatic character Mr George Eycott, aka Bungle, during the debate in the topic on the canals list. And I must thank both Sheila Halsall and Peter Young for their good wishes. As I've said before, it's stuff like that that keeps me going, especially on a day like today when I don't seem to be able to type four words on the trot without a typo.

Finally for today, I should join a number of other bloggers in commenting on the forthcoming elections to the first Council of the new Canal and River Trust that's supposed to be taking over from BW in England and Wales on 1 April.

Those of us who have 12 month boat licences can stand and vote for four reps, and as you'd expect, the various  organizations are putting up candidates, four of them in the case of the IWA. But we also have a candidate from amongst the ranks of the bloggers in the shape of Andy Tidy, aka Cap'n Ahab. Looking at his cv, he looks like a solid non-partisan option, and I reckon he's worth a vote. (Don't get your hopes up yet, Andy, I'm typing this without consulting Sheila, and although the licence is in my name, I feel sure she's going to want some input…)