Last day in Alrewas for now

We've had a leisurely day (I know, again) before setting off tomorrow for Crick, a trip that will take around two weeks at our preferred rate of progress. Unless we get delayed, we should have time to go right into Coventry this time, a run we've not made since our hire boat days.

We've done a last trip into the village to stock up with meat, and with enough other stuff to see us through to Tamworth; our next really good chance for restocking will be at the huge canalside Tesco on the way into Coventry. We also ambled down the towpath to the river section, just to see who was about and to look at the river; it's still in the green, but has come up just a bit since the weekend.

On our way back, we stopped to commiserate with a privateer who was trying to get water. A Canaltime had moored on the water point at the Wharf Bridge end, and the water point towards the river was out of use. Strangely, this was down to the young carthorse in the field behind (I choose my words with literal truth) who has developed a vice of chewing the cork float of any boat keys left in the latch of the water point.

There's no need to leave them there, of course, it's a slam lock, so this was an entirely avoidable incident. The horse had pulled on the float so hard, the key had snapped off in the lock, leaving insufficient stub protruding to grip and remove. We left the privateers shuffling the Canaltime, which was all locked up, so that they could get close enough to the functioning point for their hose to reach.

Other bits and bobs:

I ran the engine for a bit this morning, having forgotten to turn the inverter off last night, so that the battery charge was down to 82% first thing, and 77% by the time the heating had done its stuff (I didn't run the engine at all yesterday). I just brought the charge up to 93% with a bit over an hour's run; it's now on 100%, there having been enough sun for the solar panel to do the rest.

Dave arrived on ANON... this morning, and tied a bit further back. We were in the well deck, sawing wood for kindling, when he came by and stopped for a natter. Seemingly, he's doing reasonably well this year, not much trade on the towpath, but plenty via the internet. We like his stuff, and each have one of his belts; he's much more reasonably priced than some other leather shops.

There's a possibly apocryphal story about someone who ordered an iceberg lettuce in their online grocery shop, and when the order was delivered, it had been substituted… with a DVD of Titanic. Well, it's got an iceberg in it…

/no

I was never sure whether or not to believe that until Sheila was browsing Amazon yesterday, looking for a Kindle book to buy. She was searching for Brother Cadfael novels, and one of the results that came up was a Norman Wisdom DVD; I suppose Cadfael has to do with wise Normans…

/wahaha

Heigh ho, time to go; we'll make an early start tomorrow, as we have to drop down Bagnall Lock and wind, so it'll be good to do that whilst the hirers are still sleeping off their hangovers. Also, it's Sheila's turn to steer, and she's therefore in charge, and as you know, she regards dawn as the optimum start time for boating.

/blur