Nasty start, better end

Bit of a problem here, I do like to start with the positives, and then deal with less good things later, but on the other hand, it's a good idea to stick with some sort of chronological order, on the basis that at least some of my readers are as easily confused as I am. And frankly, today didn't get off to a good start.

Oh, I know: Andy Murray has just won Olympic gold to add to all the other medals Team GB has. That's great stuff. And I've just placed an Ocado order for tomorrow for Norbury Junction, where they didn't used to deliver.

Good, that feels better.

Right, now for it: we'd decided to make a prompt start today, dropping down the lock first thing and onto the water point before we ate breakfast, and then toddling on to Gnosall. So after tea in bed and getting washed and dressed, Sheila went off to set the lock, and I got the boat ready. It was half seven, so I didn't start the engine until I'd let the bow line and stern spring go.

Then I started up, going back to tickover straight away, and untied the final stern line. As I was coiling it up to put on the slide, the guy who lives in the trailer home on the offside came out in his dressing gown and started effing and blinding at me for running my engine before eight o'clock.

Now, it is the case that you are not supposed to run gennies or engines for battery charging purposes before that time, but there is no restriction on when you choose to navigate (though many hire yards prohibit moving their boats in the dark). I tried explaining this to chummy, but he wasn't having it, and offered to come down to the lock "to f***ing sort you out" if I persisted on disagreeing with him.

So I waved him goodbye and boated off, followed by shouts of "and don't effing come back, you a***hole!"

It leaves you a bit shaken, that sort of thing, and my heart rate has gone up a bit just typing this, but fortunately it's pretty rare. I can only think of two such occasions, including this one, in 37 years of boating, some of that time as a truly incompetent novice hirer. Admittedly, the other occasion was just the other week at Great Haywood, but there you go. Maybe it's my hairstyle.

There was an upside; as we worked down the lock, the old working boats Tench and Greyhound were getting ready to go up, trad engines cracking away in fine style. We mentioned what had happened to the steerer of Tench, and she offered to give him a blast on her klaxon as she went by…

After that, life was pretty uneventful. We had a good chug to here, with a fair bit of traffic coming the other way, but no mishaps. I held back at one bridge hole for an approaching boat, and a boat waited for me to get out of Cowley tunnel before entering, but all was very calm and relaxed.

We've popped up into the village to do some top up shopping, and as I say, we're getting a delivery to Norbury tomorrow, which will help with the depleted state of the food cupboards. The weather still looks a bit unsettled, but there's not much wind in the forecast, so no big probs there.