Things going well

I suppose I ought to be cautious about such hubris, but after a stressful couple of weeks, we do seem to be getting on top of things. We're back in the boat until next Monday whilst our penultimate guests occupy the lodge. Meanwhile, we've been to Ely by train for Graeme's graduation ceremony in the cathedral there. We stayed two nights in the Lamb Hotel, a classic English middle ranking place. None of your Hiltons or Marriotts here, a bit scruffy, staff who often seemed a bit unsure of what they were doing but an excellent location just a couple of minutes from the cathedral.

We had two good meals, one at the Royal Standard in Fore Hill, the best steak I've eaten for a long time, and one in the Grand Central on the riverside, an American restaurant with ridiculously large portions. It was great to have some quality time with Cathy and Graeme, and with the grandsons and their cousins on the Sunday morning.

Health wise things are pretty good too. The pressures in my eyes have dropped significantly, possibly as a belated effect of the laser treatment. If all is still good in six months, I may even go back to annual checks. Sheila had her second toe joint replacement on Wednesday, staying in overnight as she didn't go to theatre until mid afternoon. It took them a long time to discharge her yesterday, mainly due to a delay in getting her take out drugs prescribed, but we finally sprang her at half three.

She has to spend the next two weeks mostly sitting down with her foot up, but she's in very little pain already, less than before the op. We'll move back into the lodge on Monday for three and a half weeks. If her recovery goes to plan, we should be boating again by the end of July.

And the boat? The Webasto is now performing properly, not that we've needed it recently, but the batteries are getting very tired, down to about 100 Ah left out of 460, I reckon. The solar panel keeps them going, with a bit of top up from the shoreline each day. The hope is that they'll last out until we get back to Braidbar in August, just before the Owners' Weekend.

The Trojans haven't done particularly well – I reckon it gets too hot for them under the engine boards when we're cruising – so I'm thinking of going onto basic sealed units. If they last a couple of years they'd be more economic than four years of Trojans and, being lighter, would be easier for me to change. The Trojans weigh around 27kg apiece and are just too heavy for me to drag out from under the deck.

Finally, some grateful thanks. Firstly to Jean Gittins who helped us move stuff from lodge to boat, then to Wynne Jones who collected us from Derby station on Sunday because the trains weren't running to Willington, to Jo James for taking Sheila to the Royal Derby in the early morning and especially to Elanor who has been a great help and support in lots of ways, not least in taking me to collect Sheila yesterday after hanging about all day waiting for the phone call. Truly it is wonderful to have such friends.

I'll blog again in a few weeks time.