A bit weird in Wheelock

The EE/Orange signal has just disappeared here at Wheelock and since there’s no usable 3 signal either, posting this is going to have to wait until tomorrow when we’ll be in or near Middlewich.

It’s been a relaxing day after a quiet night, though another odd bloke turned up this morning just after breakfast. Smelling strongly of beer, he told me a sad tale about not having eaten for three days and being reduced to sleeping in the toilet block. Would I give him the price of a sandwich?

Initially I hardened my heart and advised him to contact social services and he went away to persuade the boat behind to give him a piece of toast. Later on, as we were waiting for the Ocado delivery, my conscience got the better of me; there we were waiting for a large delivery of groceries and here was this guy hanging about obviously not enjoying the benefits of living in the seventh richest country in the world.

So I made him a present of two chewy bars for his breakfast, whereupon he asked me for £2.50 to buy some beer. I wasn’t having that, and I don’t think he was surprised, frankly. We subsequently saw him enjoying some fruit juice and bread with the guy who was so catastrophically drunk on the towpath yesterday.

Why has Wheelock, normally a quiet, douce sort of village in our experience, suddenly acquired at least two vagrants? I guess Sandbach isn’t that far away, though that’s not a place I associate with social distress either.

I guess anywhere can be in these days of reduced spend on welfare, quite takes me back to the last time the Tories were in charge.

Apart from stowing the Ocado delivery which arrived just inside its time slot, we’ve been taking it pretty easy today. There’s been rather less traffic about, both on the cut and on the towpath, not sure why. If anything the weather’s been more conducive to strolling, being slightly less hot.

I’d meant to do a piece about the respective merits of Waterways World and Canal Boat, but that can keep for another day.