A busy and productive trip

It’s been a very good day, not least thanks to Elanor’s help. She and Sal turned up at half nine as arranged and we drove to the massive Dunelm Mill warehouse in Derby. There we spent the best part of two hours walking round the various areas checking out the quality and appearance of things we’d seen on-line.

This led to some confirmed decisions and some changes of mind; there’s nothing like picking something up in your hand to judge its appeal. As a result, we’re now much clearer about a lot of our planned purchases; once we know exactly when we’ll have possession of the lodge we can order up the goodies for delivery direct to the marina.

Similarly, there will be a lot of stuff to come from Argos; there’s less need to do a physical check there as a Henry vacuum cleaner is a Henry vacuum cleaner, for example, and Toshiba tellies are what they are.

Back at the boat we had lunch and took then Sally for a walk round. She’s been very quiet today after all the excitement of yesterday– indeed, on our return to her in the car at Dunelm, she was crashed out in the driver’s seat and took a while to wake up properly. (A note in case of any concerns out there; it was a cool, rainy day with no risk of overheating and Sal views the car as her alternative cave to the one she has at home.)

The walk took us past Walnut Lodge, of course, where the plumber was just finishing off before the gas man commissioned the boiler. David Boddy, the marina’s landscaping and planting consultant, was there talking to Stuart about his planting plan round the lodge, a discussion in which Sheila was able to join to her great satisfaction.

The cleaning team will go through tomorrow and, as long as our cheque has cleared, we’ll be able to take possession on Friday. Since we’re talking about banks getting their act together, we’re not holding our breath and are assuming that it will be more like Monday or Tuesday.

In any event, we’ve got other stuff to do on Friday and over the weekend. There’s the Midland Chandlers Freaky Friday discount day to take advantage of (20% off), an Ocado order to receive that afternoon and then we’re taking the boat out for the weekend.

We’ve agreed to give Richard Parry, Chief Executive of the Canal and River Trust, a half day’s cruise on Saturday as part of his self designed research into life on the water. We’ll  probably make it to Branston Water Park from where Elanor will give him a lift back to a station to catch a train home. We’ll stay at Branston overnight, wind at Barton Turn and come back to the marina on Sunday.