Living in Sanity Again

A quiet day, mostly

2012-01-27T16:32:00.000Z

After the excitements of yesterday, we made a leisurely start this morning, lying in for a bit as we didn't have to be up and about by eight in case the chairs came. The morning was spent doing bits and bobs online, like closing a bank account (we've finally got clear of the toils of Santander), and I rang BW Leeds to ask if the direct debit mandate we had for paying Sanity's licence could be transferred to Sanity Again.

The short answer was "don't know", which wasn't a great surprise, frankly. The knack to dealing with craft licensing at BW is to expect the worst, so as not to be disappointed. We've cancelled the mandate, and now will have to take out a new one, identical to it in every way, so as to pay this year's licence.

Still, it's not as chaotic as my favourite online trader, Cheap Mobility Online, aka Discount Mobility Direct. Not having seen the promised refund, Sheila went into PayPal and raised a dispute to start getting our money back that way. There was swiftly an email from DMD saying that the chairs had been despatched and would be delivered soon.

Huh?

/XD

They said they weren't available yesterday. Back on the phone I went: "can we call you back?"/ "no, that didn't work last time"/" the directors are in a meeting, I will get one to call you".

Right enough, shortly we had a call to say that they had now sourced the chairs and that they definitely would be delivered on Tuesday.

Time will tell; we've left the dispute running in the PayPal resolution centre, and will close it if the chairs do in fact arrive. It would be Tuesday, of course, the least convenient day, but that's not their fault, I guess.

Meanwhile, having been impressed by the folding sack truck we borrowed from Stephen yesterday, we went into Midland Chandlers and bought one for ourselves. We were served by Graham (at least that what the receipt says) who mentioned as we were chatting that he reads this blog. So, hi, Graham,
/hihi
and I've made a note never to refer to Midland Swindlers here again!

/blush

This afternoon, we managed to get in a walk to Stenson Lock just before the heavens opened with hail, rain, sleet and quite possibly snow. It looks like winter's back.

Bad start to a great day

2012-01-26T17:01:00.000Z

Let's get the grotty stuff over first, as it happened, indeed. Not having been called back by the guy from Cheap Mobility Online yesterday, I rang them this morning. After being kept on hold for ten minutes, I was told "We've been on to the manufacturer, and they say all the latest batch of those chairs had to be recalled because they were damaged in transit". So much for the previous assurance that they'd been despatched a week ago Tuesday.

If that's the best they could think of in ten minutes, I'm not impressed. I've cancelled the order, and we'll go back to the shop in Derby where we first saw them. It means paying more, but hopefully we'll be dealing with a more honest supplier.

Cheap Mobility Online also trades as http://www.discountmobilitydirect.co.uk/ and http://www.discountmobilitydirect.com/; you have been warned! We now wait to see how long it takes them to refund our £410.

Now on to the good stuff. Peter and Susan turned up at half ten, and we had a great day all round, being joined by Stephen and Jayne for coffee. Peter had brought the new batteries, and by twelve had finished swapping them over. He then went off with Stephen, and did some stuff on Dolce before all six of us retired to the Willow Tree for a leisurely lunch, followed by cups of tea on Dolce.

It was, as you might imagine, a very merry meeting, not long finished, and filled with all kinds of gossip. We're pretty tired now, so I won't do much more tonight. At least, as the chairs are no longer coming, we can have a lie in tomorrow!

Good stuff, less good stuff

2012-01-25T17:17:00.000Z

We'll start with the good stuff; the Ocado delivery turned up exactly half way through the booked time slot, and was almost all present. They'd subbed straight orange juice for orange and pineapple, but we can easily live with that.

The other really nice thing is that I asked Stephen and Jayne if we could borrow their folding sack truck tomorrow, because Peter is bringing the new batteries with him, and we'll need to move them from the car park to the boat. It turned out that their old truck had died, but as they were planning to get a new one anyway, they went and got it from Midland Chandlers today so we could use it tomorrow.

Aren't friends marvellous? I'd always been told they were a good idea, and now it turns out to be true…

/wahaha

Less good: guess what, the chairs have still not arrived! It's now ten days since we ordered them, and a week since we were told that they would definitely be here by last Monday. I called Cheap Mobility Online, got some bloke who promised to ring me back, and guess what again…

It's so annoying when this sort of stuff happens. I can recall an interview with Sir Terry Leahy; when asked what the secret of his success as a retailer was, he said "It's so easy; you find out what the customer wants, and give it to them. I don't know why everybody doesn't understand that."

Heigh ho, nice day to look forward to tomorrow, entertaining Peter and Susan, getting the batteries sorted, having a meal with them and Stephen and Jayne in the Willow Tree.

And making another phone call to Cheap Excuses Online…

/floor

Dog to dog blog: loafing about with Grandpa

2012-01-24T16:55:00.001Z

Hi folks

I'm so sorry I never met Lynx, he sounded so cool and chilled, and such a wow on the keyboard. Run free, guy. Here's a sad cat to cheer us up:

/omg

I've been spending the day on the boat with the AGPs whilst Mummy goes to work. It's been pretty quiet, with a load of rain getting in the way of serious bunny chasing, but I got in a half decent dash about in the field.

Don't believe I've written here since I got the new bed on the boat, though I think Grandpa had a bit of a natter about it the other week. The company ended up sending two beds, and after a load of quite unnecessary pondering, Mum did the obvious thing and bought the second one to use at home.

Mind you, in a typically unfair decision, she's not got it out yet, because she says she's saving it as a reward for doing some serious cleaning and clearing up. So this means I have to wait for her to get the act together so that I can get a decent kip.

How fair is that?

Finally, Grandpa announced after lunch that he was going to get his own back on me. I don't know what he was on about (I seldom do), but he went and LAY DOWN on MY BED! I had to cooch up on one side of it with my legs hanging off the edge.

I really don't know what that's about either, but just in case anyone out there thinks that this oh so kindly guy, published BOOKS and everything, is capable of such ~~inkonsidder~~ ~~incconsidder~~ unfairness, here's the proof:

See, hardly any space left for me!

Just because I give them the pleasure of my company on their bed when I've stayed over… Nope, can't bring myself to say any more today.

Loads of licks to you all

Sally

Quiet Monday

2012-01-23T16:33:00.000Z

Isn't it frustrating, sitting around waiting for a delivery? These days, we are spoiled by the likes of Amazon and Ocado, indicating a probable day in the first case and allowing you to specify to within the hour in the second when the delivery will come.

In the case of Cheap Mobility Online, we were given a five day window, of which tomorrow is the last day. It was useful to have this day at home, but it will get to be a bit of a drag if it goes on much longer.

Sheila's been having a mega washday, and I've been pottering around doing various bits and pieces, so not a lot of substance to report, frankly. Instead, here's a few photos.

First off, whilst I was working in the engine room yesterday, I had the stern doors open, so could see the effect of the gale whistling across the marina:

There are some sea sick coots in there somewhere

At its worst, the waves splashed against the bows of the boats opposite:

I don't think New Boat Co. managed to sell many of these yesterday

Today, another of the holiday lodges was delivered, and there was a bit of hassle getting the two halves through the vehicle gate:

Waiting for part two

They were then craned onto a preprepared plinth and screwed together.

Tomorrow, we have Sally with us, which will make it really interesting if the chairs come.

Gosh, that's better...

2012-01-22T16:40:00.000Z

Got some sleep last night, feeling a lot better today, though we've not been idle, and I'm looking forward to my pit again tonight.

Let's start with Friday night:

I don't know if it's relevant, but the first thing that happened was the main shoreline breaker on the power pylon on the pontoon tripped on Friday afternoon. I reset it with no problem, and put it down to just one of those things (the pylon is shared with three others, so not necessarily anything we'd done.)

It meant that the Mass Combi inverter/charger went into full charge mode, of course, and it was still running at 14.4V absorption when we went to bed at ten. I though it a bit odd, but wondered if it had decided to gas off the battery bank.

At half eleven, we were woken from deep sleep by the carbon mon alarm going off in the dinette. Scuttled through, no problems in sight, fire well banked down and sealed up, no feeling of dizziness or doziness amongst the crew. There was, however, a distinctly hot smell coming from the engine room, and the fan on the Combi was belting along at full chat. I disconnected the shoreline supply, everything calmed down, and we did what we could to get some more sleep, not very successfully.

Next morning, I reconnected the shoreline, the battery bank being discharged down to 60% and 12.1V. It went straight back into absorption mode, so after breakfast, as things were smelling bit again, I took the boards up and checked out the bank. The aftmost battery was almost too hot to touch, so presumably had gone into a dead short, hence the Combi's struggle to charge up the bank.

I've disconnected it by undoing the positive terminal clamp, lifting it off the post and wedging a bit of wood under to stop it dropping back down. The Combi eventually went back to float at 13.4V, so things are back to normal, more or less, but it's clear that I'm going to have to replace the batteries pretty soon before another one goes, and we end up with insufficient capacity in the bank to keep the Combi happy.

Apart from all that, I dried out the port side engine room bilge, and positioned some disposable nappies under all the pipe joints. We have a slow loss of coolant from the engine; it's not blowing off, because I run the overflow into an old milk container to check for that happening. There are no obvious signs of a leak, so it obviously happens slowly, and probably only while the engine is warming up or something.

The coolant will stain whichever nappy it falls on, thereby letting me work out which joint needs nipping up.

Also yesterday, we published Sheila's ebook, A Boater's Commonplace Book. As before, if you want a copy in ePub format, just email me using the link alongside. I can also supply it in PDF this time, all for the same price of £3.03. (The dollar price is $4.50, and everything else is converted from that.)

Today, we had a leisurely start, then I did the remaining bilges, under the engine and the one right at the stern. I've put an old plastic container under the stern gland, with the hope of being able to keep the rest of that bilge reasonably dry. I've made a resolution to check them all each Sunday in future.

Sheila did some boatwork, and there was a bit of tweaking to do with the way her book shows on Amazon, as well as tweeting about it.

Elanor has just been over for the second time this weekend (she popped in yesterday with our post). The field she usually uses to run Sally at the weekend is underwater, thanks to the Trent, so we've given her a run in the marina field. Sheila and I had already been for a walk, along the towpath to Stenson Lock, so I'm feeling exceeding well exercised today.

Too much to say and too tired to say it

2012-01-21T16:50:00.000Z

Good stuff – we've uploaded Sheila's book, and it's going through the Amazon publishing process now, so tomorrow, I should be able to announce its availability.

Bad stuff – the carbon mon alarm went off at half eleven last night, about an hour after we'd got to sleep. It was a false alarm, but there was all stuff to do with the battery bank which I'm too tired to explain today.

Things are more or less sorted, and I'll do a proper post abut it tomorrow - didn't get back to sleep until half three this morning, so things look a bit blurry.

/floor

A day indoors

2012-01-20T16:42:00.000Z

As forecast, the weather was wet and windy today, so apart from a meet with Stephen and Jayne in the Willow Tree, followed by a bit of shopping at the fortnightly mini market, we've spent it on board.

It has meant that a lot of progress has been made on Sheila's book, which is now in its final proof read phase. I seem to have found the best way of preparing a Kindle book on the Mac, after a certain amount of experimentation. This involved doing the main work in Pages, the Mac equivalent of Word, and then exporting the file as Rich Text Format (rtf), thus stripping off any odds and sods of tags left invisibly in there by whatever cutting and pasting has been done.

I opened the rtf file in TextEdit, and exported it from there as HTML. That file I opened in Sigil, where I did all the formatting, adding a cover image, breaking the book up into chapters and so on. Sigil saves the file as an ePub, the version used by most ereaders other than the Kindle. It is possible to use the KindleGen plug-in, part of the Amazon free app Kindle Previewer, to convert that to a .mobi file, but this doesn't create a proper Kindle Table of Contents (TOC).

Instead, I loaded the ePub file into calibre, and used its conversion system to generate the .mobi file which is the Kindle's native format. It seems a long way round the houses, but Sigil is really easy to use to do the formatting, and calibre seems to produce the best version of the mobi file, including a proper TOC.

Apart from that, we've not done a lot. We're still waiting for the chairs to arrive, so have been having to get up in good time each morning, in case they turn up at eight o'clock.

/floor

At least they are not likely to arrive on a Saturday, so we can have a lie in tomorrow.

Walking in a different place

2012-01-19T16:45:00.000Z

Today was the post-Christmas lunch for the Willington Walking for Health group. It's been a day when we really benefited from having good friends; Stephen and Jayne looked after our main phone in case the swivel chairs turned up, and Steven and Maureen gave us a lift to the pub which was the location for the walk.

This was the John Thompson Inn at Ingleby, just down the south side of the Trent from Swarkestone causeway. It's a splendid pub; originally a farmhouse, it was converted to a pub and micro-brewery in 1968.

We walked up from there onto the ridge that is the southern boundary of the flood plain, then along, round and down, finally taking another walk up a different part of the ridge. The views were remarkable, and the weather, though windy and cold, remained dry and for the most part sunny.

Proceedings were completed with a carvery lunch; they only do beef (or a small range of other dishes) but it was superb, and complemented with all the usual trimmings. The local brew was well worth supping as well.

Steven and Maureen gave us a lift back to the marina, and came in for a look round Sanity Again and a cup of tea. After they'd gone, we walked round to Dolce Far Niente to collect the phone and set of boat keys, and naturally stopped for a further natter.

Tomorrow is a mini market day, so we're meeting Stephen and Jayne again in the Willow Tree for a hot chocolate fix.

A merry meeting

2012-01-18T16:40:00.002Z

After a quiet start to the day, we rendezvoused with Stephen and Jayne and Mick and Alison in the Willow Tree and had a very substantial natter about the experience of building a Braidbar. Three No Trumps will be fitting out very shortly, and the Traceys were naturally full of questions about the whole process.

They were kind enough to say that they'd found Building Sanity Again (the ebook, not the blog) very helpful, which was nice of them.

After an hour, it began to feel as if we'd taken up space in the cafe for long enough, so we adjourned to Dolce Far Niente, where Jayne very kindly provided sandwiches and beer or other refreshment, and we carried merrily on for another couple of hours or so.

After the party had broken up, Sheila and I felt a bit dozy, but managed to find the energy to sweep Sanity Again's floor prior to the mid afternoon cup of tea.

A check with Cheap Mobility Online established that the new chairs are on their way, and may be delivered any day now. Since we are out tomorrow, at the Walking Group's post Christmas lunch, Stephen and Jayne have kindly agreed to take them in if they turn up. Truly, they are good friends to us.

It occurred to me that it's a bit daft trying to sell copies of an ebook when most of the content is available for free on the blog, so I've archived the latter for the time being. If you don't have a Kindle, but still want the benefit of my ramblings, you can always download Kindle for PC or Kindle for Mac, as appropriate, for free from Amazon, then buy the book…

/please

The last really cold day for a bit

2012-01-17T16:45:00.000Z

It's been a final brilliantly sunny but cold afternoon this afternoon, though this morning was rather cloudy and yuck. The forecast is for wind and rain again tomorrow, but much milder with it. We've had Sally with us today, enjoying her new bed and happily unaware of her loss in never meeting Lynx.

/no

I should catch up by saying that we had a good trip to Derby yesterday, getting a fancy new meat thermometer from Lakeland (one where you can set the target temperature for the meat and it tells you when the joint's got there), a supply of disposable nappies for drying out the stern bilges that are filling up with condensation, and a rubber mat from Wilkinson's to put in the glory hole bilge to keep the stuff in there up out of said condensation.

We also saw a swivel chair in The Home Store, the Florence swivel recliner, which Sheila had spotted online and wanted to examine in the flesh. It was quite narrow, and not expensive. The one in the shop seemed very comfortable, and was available for £240 delivered.

Back at home, Sheila found the same chair from Cheap Mobility Online at £204.50 delivered, so ordered two. These will replace the IKEA Poangs we've been using, which are OK, but not comfortable after sitting in them for a while, especially if you doze off. We just have to hope that the new ones turn up here when we're actually about…

Today, apart from pooch perambulating, I've dried out the glory hole bilge and Sheila cut the mat to fit in the bottom. The plan is to do each of the stern bilges in turn, so as to keep on top of the condensation.

The less good news here is that the shop was broken into overnight last night, and cigarettes and bottles of spirit stolen. An unsuccessful attempt had been made on Friday night, and over the weekend they'd strengthened the defences with shutters behind the windows and bars and deadlocks on the doors.

This time the sods came armed with a jemmy, and just jemmied the door open.

The marina's CCTV system goes live next weekend, so you do wonder about the timing, though it's probably just coincidence.

Tomorrow, we have a visit from future Braidbar owners Mick and Alison Tracey, who will become the proud owners of Three No Trumps, Braidbar 137, later this year. They are doing some shopping at Midland Chandlers, and taking the opportunity to meet up with us and Stephen and Jayne.

I wonder, is that boat name a Bridge too far?

/floor

Goodbye, Lynx

2012-01-16T09:15:00.004Z

No regular blog post today, I'm too upset after the sad news from Sue on Indigo Dream that her fantastic greyhound, Lynx, has died unexpectedly. Some of you will know him as well as we did from his occasional hijacking of Sue's blog with his diary.

At these times, it always seems to me that that old reprobate Rudyard Kipling put it best:

The Power of the Dog

THERE is sorrow enough in the natural way
From men and women to fill our day;
And when we are certain of sorrow in store,
Why do we always arrange for more?
Brothers and sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.

Buy a pup and your money will buy
Love unflinching that cannot lie
Perfect passion and worship fed
By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head.
Nevertheless it is hardly fair
To risk your heart for a dog to tear.

When the fourteen years which Nature permits
Are closing in asthma, or tumour, or fits,
And the vet's unspoken prescription runs
To lethal chambers or loaded guns,
Then you will find - it's your own affair, -
But ... you've given your heart to a dog to tear.

When the body that lived at your single will,
With its whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still!),
When the spirit that answered your every mood
Is gone - wherever it goes - for good,
You will discover how much you care,
And will give your heart to a dog to tear!

We've sorrow enough in the natural way,
When it comes to burying Christian clay.
Our loves are not given, but only lent,
At compound interest of cent per cent,
Though it is not always the case, I believe,
That the longer we've kept 'em, the more do we grieve;
For, when debts are payable, right or wrong,
A short-time loan is as bad as a long -
So why in - Heaven (before we are there)
Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?

Ave et vale, Leaway Lynx

Sunny Sunday

2012-01-15T16:50:00.000Z

Today has been much like yesterday, weatherwise, and very pleasant indeed. Apart from not going into the village to shop, we've spent it in much the same way as well, though we had a longer lie-in this morning, as befits the day of the week.

I finished reading through Sheila's book on my Kindle, doing a mixture of copy editing and proof reading, and we've started going through my suggestions together.

This will take a little while, not because of any big disputes, but because when, say, we agree that a sentence could be better written, it's not always immediately clear what's the best way to recast it. There'll be a bit of a break for a couple of days, probably, as we plan to go into Derby tomorrow and get a bit of retail therapy in.

I got a couple of odd jobs done, too. First off, I took down all the grills under the mushroom ventilators, removed the mosquito net discs for washing and vacuumed out the spiders' webs and such. The vents have been dripping really badly overnight in the frosty weather; it's possible that taking the netting out and improving the air flow a bit will help with this, but we shall see.

The other job was turning out the can cupboard under the gunwale. It's always pretty full, and has been even more so recently, partly because I kept forgetting that we had enough peanut butter and ordering another jar, and partly because there were a couple of two for one deals on things like Branston pickle that I hadn't been able to resist.

As usual, having hauled it all out and then repacked it, it's much tidier and things are once more arranged logically, rather than just wherever they'd fit in.

We've presently sold ten copies of Building Sanity Again in the UK, and three in America, which is gratifying, but I don't think I'm going to have much trouble coping with the impact on my lifestyle of being an internationally renowned author.

/wahaha

Sunny Saturday

2012-01-14T16:33:00.000Z

My remarks about the return of winter the other day were validated by last night's frost, which got down to around -4ºC. There was a deep frost on the pontoons when we poked our noses out sometime after sunrise, and I'm told by those who were about earlier that there had been a bit of ice on the water.

Some of the frost hadn't thawed by late afternoon, and we're due another cold night tonight.

It was a glorious day for walking, so we took ourselves down to the village for some shopping at the Co-op before lunch, and had a stroll round the marina after we'd eaten. This last took a bit longer than just the distance required, as first off we saw Takey Tezey arriving on the service wharf and went and had a quick chat and nosey inside the boat.

No sooner were we tearing ourselves away from Heth and Dave than Stephen and Jayne appeared on their way to the marina shop, so we joined them for a little, stopping to watch boats manoeuvring by the wharf.

In front of the shop, who should we see but Ian giving Katie a bit more exercise, and another natter occurred. By this time, Stephen and Jayne had done their shopping, so they and we wandered back round to the gate and headed back to our boats.

In the gaps between all this activity, I've done some more proof reading of Sheila's book whilst the author got on with a crochet order. I'm about 75% of the way through it, so with luck will finish that stage by the end of the weekend.

Social sort of day

2012-01-13T17:27:00.000Z

It's a bit late in the day, and I've yet to have my shower and cook dinner, so just a quick blog.

We've been sorting stuff out today, first off arranging to return the second dog bed that arrived from Pet Planet because they thought the first one had got lost but it hadn't, then settling to proof read Sheila's book.

At half ten, thinking that this was a Boaters Market day, we went across to the Willow Tree to rendezvous with Stephen and Jayne. In fact we had the wrong day, but had a pleasant hour with them anyway.

After lunch, some more proof reading was done, then Heth and Dave from Takey Tezey arrived for a cup of tea. That was another session of nattering, which ended as dusk was falling.

I was just settling down to do this post when a text arrived from Vodafone to say I'd missed a payment. We're swapping bank accounts at the moment, so this is one of the direct debits that hasn't managed to transfer. I went on line and paid the outstanding bill, then tried to set up the direct debit on their website. It let me get through most of the process, then fell over saying "Sorry, this functionality is not available".

I do wish Vodafone would get some decent web authors in; all the time I've been a customer of theirs, I've never known their website to work properly.

Never mind, it's been a really nice day both socially and weatherwise, so I'm not complaining, much.

/floor

Getting on with the next one

2012-01-12T16:37:00.000Z

We've had one of those quiet chill out days, literally in some ways, as the weather has turned a bit wintry again. Not in a bad way, it's been very pleasant, especially this afternoon, but distinctly cold, with the wind from the north east.

Having seen Building Sanity Again on its way, I've been getting on with the next one, A Boater's Commonplace Book. This one is largely Sheila's work, with just a few bits here and there from your correspondent. The content is pretty well finished, and I've spent a bit of time today getting on with the formatting. First I generated a set of hyperlinks from the headings in the contents page to the relevant sections of the book, then converted the whole thing to an ePub and moved it into Sigil to generate the chapter divisions and the like.

I also made an image for the cover from a photo of Sanity Again cruising up the Soar (the June calendar picture, in fact) and added the book title and authors' names to it. That was inserted at the start of the book, before converting the file again to .mobi with Kindle Previewer. This lets me check that it looks basically OK, and we have now loaded it onto both our Kindles.

The next stage is a bit of a plod, but very necessary; that's to read the whole thing on the Kindle, using its Notes facility to mark up any typos, or just places where the phrasing could be improved. Those emendations will then be made in Sigil, before regenerating the .mobi file to upload to the Kindle Direct Publishing site.

It will take another week at least, I expect – it's no good trying to rush this stage, you just miss stuff, so it's a case of doing a bit each day and stopping as soon as you get tired or start skimming over the text. That's more of a risk for Sheila who wrote it; it's mostly new stuff to me, so I'll hopefully be going more slowly through it.

By three o'clock we were a bit jaded, so took a walk round the marina in the bright but cold sun.

A recovery day

2012-01-11T16:27:00.000Z

We had, as expected, a merry evening last night, with Stephen and Jayne round to help us celebrate the launch of Building Sanity Again (that's the right link this time!) So we had a very quiet start this morning, not hung over, exactly, just still a bit part worn from the late night. At the last count, we'd sold all of eight copies, not bad for something that's basically being promoted via this blog and not much else. Many thanks to all those who have bought it so far; I do hope that you all enjoy and or find it useful.

I await the comments and corrections to be incorporated in the second edition…

/nobigdeal

We ambled round the marina in the late morning, just to get some exercise, though one or two people pointed out that we seemed to have forgotten the dog. Her bed turned up, by the way, after a long slow trip from Pet Planet. It's just what she wanted, so it was worth all the hassle. We've had a bit of fun working out how to store it when not required, but managed to cram it into a stuff sack and put it under the dinette. At least it stimulated us to sort out the stuff in storage boxes under there to ensure the most efficient use of the space.

As you can see, the bed's very popular:

At last, a decent sized bed!

This afternoon has been a pottering session, enlivened by the arrival of new neighbours Fred, Pat and Roxie on Elaine. This means that the Grebe pontoon is now full, and I suspect that there are no more 70 foot berths left, though about half of those here are winter moorers and will be off in the Spring.

Mind you, the weather we've been having recently, that seems to have arrived. It couldn't be more different from the last two winters, but much more in the pattern of the five before that.

The book's available...

2012-01-10T16:06:00.001Z

… and I've sold one copy already, to a reader of this blog, what's more. Thanks, it's a great start. It's available here, though Amazon have decided to credit Sheila with first author. Well, fair enough, I couldn't have done it without her. If you want an ePub version, email me and we'll sort out ways to pay – it will be the same cost as the Kindle version, that is £3.02, as I'm not allowed to undercut Amazon.

Apart from that, we've been dog sitting today; I had thought of getting Sally to do this post, but she says she's very tired with all the extra exercise she's been getting recently, and anyway, we're being dead boring fiddling about on the computers. She had a great run in the field with her mates Duffy and Katie, so she's actually not got much to complain about.

I've started work on my contributions to Sheila's book. I'm doing the stuff about phones, a couple of recipes and some bits about mobile broadband and the like.

Then it'll be into Sigil with it to sort out the formatting and add some photos, and it can go out into the world as well.

We're still using the 3 modem, as T-mobile seem to be having a problem round here, just a 2G connection with a very faint signal. Hey ho, no doubt it will return in due course…

Stephen and Jayne are coming round tonight to help us celebrate our publishing debut, so we'll have a quiet start tomorrow, I reckon.

The book is on its way

2012-01-09T16:07:00.000Z

Well, it's done. No, don't all rush off to Amazon to buy it, it won't actually appear for sale until tomorrow, but I've uploaded it to Amazon and it's passed its review process there. I guess it takes a few hours for the new books to propagate across the Amazon servers worldwide. I wasn't absolutely, totally satisfied with the final result (now there's a surprise); some of the font sizing is still not right, but it's really weird, I can't see it either in Sigil or Kindle Previewer, only when it's actually on the Kindle proper. It's not fatal, so folk will just have to put up with it for now.

I might try again to sort it when I do the second edition; I suspect it means stripping out all the text formatting in Sigil and redoing it, at which thought my heart quails, frankly. I've just seen quite enough of my own ~~limping~~ limpid prose for just now.

/blush

When I come to do Sheila's book, I'm going to tackle it rather differently, doing only basic formatting and setting up the Contents page with its hyperlinks in Pages, then exporting it as an ePub out of Pages and importing it into Sigil for all the other formatting like chapterisation and so on.

A small libation may be consumed on board Sanity Again tomorrow when it's actually for sale. When it is, I'll also make it available privately as an ePub for those who have ebook readers other than the Kindle; that will be by direct sale from me – use the email link on the right to pre-order if you want one.

After lunch, we took a walk to Betty's Farm to collect the large piece of gammon I ordered the other day. On the way back, we got some other stuff in the Co-op and collected my prescription from the pharmacy. Note well, the Willington pharmacy shuts for lunch from one till two o'clock, resulting in us hanging around for ten minutes.

We've been taking it easy otherwise.

Oh, one further thing; the T-mobile connection has gone dead slow, dropped right down to 2G, so I'm using the 3 MiFi modem instead; I'm glad I agreed to keep it as a back up, now.

Keep calm and go for a pump out

2012-01-08T16:57:00.000Z

The new version of the Met Office website, though only officially a beta test site, is a lot more useful than the original, and more accurate than any of the others I've tried. For several days now, it's been forecasting quiet weather today, and so it proved. This was good, as the toilet tank gauge went into flashing triangle mode last night. In theory, this means about another three days capacity at normal rates of use, but for peace of mind we treat it as saying "get a pump out now".

/please

That way, if there's a last minute hitch, we've still got a bit of ~~looway~~ leeway. In the event, we toddled round to the service wharf just after ten, having got a batch of bread dough rising first, and had our choice of the two positions, across the front or down the side.

It's actually easier to get back if I reverse Sanity Again onto the one down the side of the wharf, so that's what I did. Dipping the tank showed that we had used ⅜ of a tank of diesel since last time, so we got that topped up as well. Whilst we were there, other boats started turning up looking for diesel and/or pump outs too, so we'd clearly timed it right.

(To quote the old working boaters: "You shoulda got up in the morning".)

Once sorted, back to our home pontoon we went; by the time we'd finished tying up and reconnecting the shoreline, another three boats had been seen heading for the services.

Whilst Sheila took advantage of the good weather and the rolled cratch to clean up the well deck, I walked round to the office, paid for the diesel and bought another £10 electricity card and a pump out token. The aim is always to have one of each in hand, so that when we go out of the marina, we'll always be able to get a pump out and feed the meter no matter what time we return.

After lunching on the freshly baked bread rolls, we settled down first to some dedicated reading and dozing, then to getting on with the book (Bruce) and polishing the rose bowl trophy (Sheila). The book is very, very nearly ready to go; I just need to pop in a few extra line throws at the start of some chapters, and I'll be able to publish it. In the end, I used the Sigil program to sort out the final tweaks and to put a picture of Sanity Again on the title page.

Then, I'll be ready to add my bits to Sheila's book, format that, proof read it and publish it. Considering these were supposed to be our winter projects, they've gone remarkably quickly.

Saturday and Sally

2012-01-07T16:33:00.000Z

A leisurely start this morning, followed by a determined attempt to get on with the book, reasonably successfully. I've finished my proof reading, and spent a bit of time both before lunch and later in the day wrestling with some formatting issues. Most of these are now resolved, barring a very final chapter break that just refuses to submit. No matter, I'm sure we'll get there in the end.

Just after lunch, Elanor and Sally turned up, both looking much fitter. Elanor had some post for us, and Sally was absolutely delighted to see us, not having actually been on the boat for a while. Both her paw wounds are now healed, and she had spent 2½ hours playing with some mates on Cannock Chase yesterday.

For this reason, she wasn't quite as fast as usual round the field here when we went to give her a run, but certainly enjoyed herself putting the fear of death into the local bunny population.

We've ordered a new bed for her to use whilst on the boat, but, tediously, Pet Planet have let us down. The thing was supposed to have been despatched from Livingstone on the 29th December, but according to the tracking hasn't made it as far as City Link's hub yet. Pet Planet say they'll despatch another one, but of course it will now arrive next week, when Elanor is back at work.

After all this, I'm going to get Sheila to give me a haircut; I'm feeling distinctly shaggy.

Calm, clear and cold

2012-01-06T16:47:00.000Z

If this winter has been notable for wind and rain rather than snow and ice, it's also been striking for the changes of mood. After the howling gales of the past few days, today dawned both bright and a flat calm. It clouded over a bit at lunchtime, but then cleared to blue sky once more. The barometer has shot back up after its precipitous decline two days ago.

All these are the result of a well anchored area of high pressure in the Atlantic, the classic Azores High, I guess, which is funnelling depressions across its northern edge onto the British Isles. If the depression is slow moving and stable, we see a period of breezy rain, but if it's moving quickly and deepening as it goes, we get the sort of thing we've been enduring this week.

I'm pleased to say that it looks like we are in for a few days of this calmer stuff, which is good. The toilet tank will need emptying sometime soon, but with calm weather forecast, we can leave it until the tank is quite full, rather than doing it as soon as the three quarters full warning triangle appears on the gauge and we get a day when it's still enough to move. At present, it looks like we'll be doing that either Sunday, Monday or Tuesday.

This morning was a time for pottering. Sheila finished proof reading my book, and I managed to go through her suggestions and incorporate most of them into the master copy. I need to finish doing the same with the version on my own Kindle, then we shall be very close to publication.

Meantime, Sheila has finished generating content for her own book, the Boater's Commonplace Book, and has passed it across to me to do some stuff about communications, IT and favourite recipes. I also need to do the formatting, converting the basic text into something that will have chapter headings and page breaks in the right places, as well as adding all that standard copyright info and so on.

After lunch, we walked to Betty's Farm to buy veg and to order a piece of gammon. The good people at Betty's will get meat to order for you from the butcher in Repton, thus saving us a tedious walk across the road bridge over the Trent.

I think that's about all for today – have a good weekend, folks.

/bye

Breezy deliveries

2012-01-05T16:44:00.001Z

If last winter and the one before were notable for snow and ice, this year it's the turn of the wind and rain; today has been the most dramatic yet, with a howling gale and bursts of torrential rain. It reminded me of what's said to be the worst opening of a novel in the English language:

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford

In the midst of it all, our Ocado delivery arrived. Driver Les was as helpful as all the others, and wheeled three of our five crates to the boat with Sheila and I carrying the others.

We managed to get it all on board in a dry spell, but when the poor chap drove round to Quail pontoon to deliver to Dolce, the heavens opened again, and both he and Stephen got soaked, as did Sheila when she went up to the vehicle gate to let him out.

We managed to get the whole lot checked off and put away before lunch; Elanor then turned up with a parcel full of dried fruit from Julian Graves, and a consignment of gloves, both latex ones for me and ordinary household ones for Sheila, from Just Gloves. They are very good value; two boxes of 100 latex and a dozen pairs of Marigold type set us back just £22.20 delivered.

After we'd dealt with all this lot, we walked round to Dolce to return the dishes and bowls loaned to us for Tuesday's entertaining. Naturally, we stopped for a cuppa and cake, and another good old natter.

Tomorrow promises to be quieter and drier, which will be a bit of a relief, frankly.

Thinking on from my remarks yesterday about Cap'n Ahab, I notice a distressing trend amongst my fellow bloggers to assume that the charity initiative will go pear shaped or just mean that nothing changes, and to poke fun at the whole initiative. They may prove to be justified in this, but it seems sadly cynical to take that view at this stage.

There are serious issues about funding and how the transition will be managed, but things really could not have gone on as they were; let's give the new arrangement a bit of support – you never know, it might even make things better.

/please

A trip to Derby

2012-01-04T17:02:00.001Z

We've had a successful trip into Derby today; we'd originally planned to do it yesterday, but put it off when we saw the weather forecast. It was bad enough today, much drier, but with an icy wind that made waiting at the bus stop a bit of a trial. (Sheila would like me to add, I know, that it wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't made us set out so ridiculously early).

We got Sheila's spectacles repaired, I made another raid on Lakeland and we paid a cheque into our bank account, using the wizzy machine in the Nationwide. We're getting to know our way around the Derby Westfield, which is definitely one of the better examples of its kind.

Mind you, we like visiting Milton Keynes, too…

Responding to yesterday's comments, both here and on Flickr, first of all I should acknowledge that the suggestion for restructuring the engine bay originally came from that wise and pragmatic character Mr George Eycott, aka Bungle, during the debate in the topic on the canals list. And I must thank both Sheila Halsall and Peter Young for their good wishes. As I've said before, it's stuff like that that keeps me going, especially on a day like today when I don't seem to be able to type four words on the trot without a typo.

Finally for today, I should join a number of other bloggers in commenting on the forthcoming elections to the first Council of the new Canal and River Trust that's supposed to be taking over from BW in England and Wales on 1 April.

Those of us who have 12 month boat licences can stand and vote for four reps, and as you'd expect, the various organizations are putting up candidates, four of them in the case of the IWA. But we also have a candidate from amongst the ranks of the bloggers in the shape of Andy Tidy, aka Cap'n Ahab. Looking at his cv, he looks like a solid non-partisan option, and I reckon he's worth a vote. (Don't get your hopes up yet, Andy, I'm typing this without consulting Sheila, and although the licence is in my name, I feel sure she's going to want some input…)

Oh look, it's 2012

2012-01-03T17:04:00.000Z

Happy New Year, one and all; I hope it's a good one for you and yours, and better than 2011. We had a good, if quiet Christmas and New Year, sharing it with Elanor and Sally. Elanor has a new work contract starting on the 9th, so has a week off this week, handy for us to get various items delivered to her house, like the big Julian Graves order that arrived today.

Sally's cut paw pretty well healed before New Year, but she then got a splinter of flint in the other forepaw, which necessitated some digging out, so she's presently going round with a blue booty on that side when out. Elanor had to enlist the help of Jackie from Capable Canines to deal with it; Jackie is really good and helpful that way, and saved Elanor a fortune in vet's fees by digging out the splinter and dressing the wound with gauze, cotton wool and vet wrap, aka cohesive bandage.

We've been plodding on with our books; mine is very nearly ready to publish, but still needs some polishing. I must get back into the routine of doing a bit of work on it every day.

Yesterday, we had a visit from Bill and Eileen from New Dawn, together with Stephen and Jayne from Dolce Far Niente. Bill trimmed Sheila's hair for her, and I served a large lasagne with garlic bread and salad to the gang. Jayne had brought an enormous apple crumble to follow, together with a choice of Greek yogurt or double cream to put on it, so it was a merry party all round, the biggest bit of socialising we've done all holiday, in fact.

The boat has continued to behave itself, mostly, though the display on the Hurricane remote switch has gone out again. I thought I'd give Peter Mason at Braidbar a quiet week to get back into the swing of things after the break, and then get onto him about this (and about permanently resolving the battery issue) next week.

I'm quite drawn to the idea of the radical solution to this last, that is, get him to reconstruct the engine bay to move the Hurricane aft onto the swim, and place the battery bank forward in the usual Braidbar position. This is how he did it on Dolce, so it should be feasible for us, possibly with some restructuring of the things like the engine exhaust.

Here's a photo of the arrangement in Dolce, courtesy of Stephen Pigott:

Hurricane at the back, batteries in front

If it looks a bit dusty in there, that's because it was taken during the build; I can testify that Stephen keeps his engine bay a lot tidier and cleaner than that. His seafaring days may be behind him, but that's no reason to let standards drop.

/nobigdeal

See you in 2012

2011-12-23T16:43:00.000Z

I'm going to make this the last post of this year, and take a break until 2012. Elanor continues to make a good recovery, but it means that we are very busy walking Sally, looking after her house and our cat in it, as well as preparing for Christmas.

The main unanticipated event was the Squirrel glass cracking yesterday. It suddenly split from top to bottom; I was able to get a replacement from Midland Chandlers, of course, and was pleasantly surprised when the screws holding the clips came out without trouble. I used some WD-40 on them, and a serious bar on the Allan key socket, but it was still a relief.

The guy in MC advised putting a smear of Copaslip on the threads before reassembly; I didn't have any on the boat, but have ordered a small tube from Amazon, and when it arrives will take the screws out and treat them. The other thing to know is that you shouldn't over tighten the screws, nipping them up just enough to hold the glass securely against the rope seal behind it.

We've been seeing a lot of condensation in the engine room; Sheila and I spent some time sucking water out of the engine bilges, but the main solution is to keep the door open between the bedroom and the engine room so that it ventilates.

There are a couple of cold spots that we're going to get Braidbar to investigate next time we're up there, as well.

Apart from that, we've been plodding along; I called at Betty's farm on my way back from Elanor's this afternoon to stock up on fruit and veg, and the turkey arrived later this afternoon. Earlier in the day, we'd met the relief postman, who identified Sally as Doberman lurcher on the basis of her paws and upright hind legs. She was just pleased to be fussed over.

Have a good Christmas/holiday/solstice/New Year, folks, and as I say, I'll see you in 2012.

Oh... and Sally says WOOF!

Quick update

2011-12-21T16:43:00.000Z

Just a quickie 'cos we're run off our feet here:

Elanor is fine and recovering nicely
She and Sally will be with us for a few days more
Sal's paw is healing well, but she needs a couple more days of only leash exercise to make sure things carry on getting better
I bought two bags of Briteheat and two of Taybrite from the shop today; I'm going to mix up my own mixed ovals
All we need now for Christmas is the turkey
Santander have finally sorted out our switch of accounts to Nationwide, they say; watch this space.

Another quick update in two days time.

A quiet day between two busy ones

2011-12-19T16:40:00.000Z

As I suspected, yesterday was really quite hectic, what with Elanor dropping Sally off with us before going to see a panto with her dog training colleagues, and Graeme, Cathy and the ~~menaces~~ grandsons arriving at the same time. So for a while we had the boat heaving with dog and kids and grown ups.

It all settled down eventually, and after lunch we took Sal for a run in one of the running about fields. Her paw is healing slowly but steadily; swabbing it with Hibiscrub after being out produces no bleeding, though the wound still looks a bit damp. Hopefully it will all heal up over Christmas, ready for the new season's training and events.

Once the Lincoln party had left, I roasted the forerib of beef joint we got from the butcher on Friday. It turned out to be massive, so we'll have plenty of cold meat in the run up to Christmas.

Sally was very quiet overnight until about half four, when she started pacing and whining. This usually means that she's getting cold sleeping alone on the saloon floor (she says) but in fact I suspect it's more loneliness. We let her through to join us on the bed, and she graciously agreed to let the humans have fair shares, that is, half the bed for her and half for us.

I managed to get snuggled down with my back against hers and most of me still under the duvet, and was just nicely dozing off again when she started having the most active and prolonged dream; rabbits were clearly involved, as there was much sotto voce woofing, and all four legs were twitching away.

All of this transmitted itself to me of course.

So we've been taking it easy today. It was seriously cold this morning, with the lake frozen right across, but the forecast thaw has arrived, and it's now much easier walking underfoot. Sheila's been catching up on the washing, and I've been doing various bits and bobs.

Tomorrow, I'm supporting Elanor whilst she has some day case treatment, so no blog until Wednesday.

Getting ready to last out Christmas

2011-12-17T16:48:00.000Z

Today started very well; we'd run out of muesli, so we went across to the Willow Tree for two of their famous Boater's Breakfasts. For £6 you get a properly fried egg, two rashers of bacon, a sausage, a round of very tasty black pudding, some baked beans and some mushrooms, half a tomato, two slices of toast and a mug of coffee.

No lunch was required.

Walking around was quite tricky first thing; there had been a shower of rain in the early hours onto freezing ground, so black ice was lurking everywhere.

Back at the boat, we sat and digested for a bit, idly catching up with email and the like, then had another cup of coffee and made an expedition to the village to stock up on veg, muesli and other comestibles. It promptly started to sleet, of course, but we managed to get there and back without getting too wet.

After a bit more quiet recovery time and a mug of soup, we girded both our loins and the boat's and went across to the service wharf, dodging the showers more or less successfully.

There we pumped out, filled the fuel tank right up and replaced an empty gas bottle. This means that we are now pretty well set for the holiday period, if broke. We're expecting more freezing weather tonight, in which case we'll be glad we got sorted out today.

The family are descending on us for the afternoon tomorrow, so I'll probably not blog again until Monday.

Very chilly

2011-12-16T16:27:00.000Z

For the first time this winter, it seems possible that we shall see some ice on the water by the end of the weekend. There have been odd bits of cat ice in the shallows on frosty mornings, but so far no suggestion of the main surface area becoming solid. However, the forecast suggests that we shall have sub zero temperatures Saturday night to Sunday morning, and the cold conditions for the past week mean that the bulk of the water will already be pretty chilled.

In the light of that, we may well go across to the service wharf for a pump out and diesel on Saturday afternoon, rather than Sunday morning, as we'd planned when we gave up the idea of doing it on ~~Monday afternoon, Monday morning,~~ Sunday afternoon.

Today, it was very cold in the wind, so that we felt well chilled walking across to the Willow Tree for a rendezvous with the Coffee Bar Kids for hot chocolate. After a pleasant hour, we went out to raid the mini market, with only limited success for once. The butcher was there, and had brought our beef fore-rib joints, but the veg stall hadn't turned up, a bit of a blow, as we'd all let our stocks run down a bit in anticipation of a good splurge today.

A walk into the village is now indicated for tomorrow, so as to have a sufficiency of veggies for the week.

We've spent the rest of the day huddled in the boat, working on various projects including the Canal Boat Christmas Quiz (mostly Sheila) and my book (me). I've just got the final chapter to write; I've got the notes for it, so it shouldn't take too long to do, then it will be a case of tweaking and polishing and finally publishing the thing.

After tomorrow, blogging may be a bit erratic in the run up to Christmas, with a lot of family commitments to cover, but I'll try and get something in at least every other day, then probably take a break between Christmas and the New Year.

A pleasant evening and a visit from Braidbar

2011-12-15T16:26:00.000Z

We had a very pleasant session with Stephen and Jayne last night, consuming an excellent meal and nattering away until gone 11. Thanks very much, you two, it was great.

On the way round to Dolce's mooring, I tried taking some photos of the Christmas lights on some of the boats. It wasn't entirely successful, despite the use of the Gorillapod to fix the camera to the top of various fence posts, but I did manage this one:

I don't think camera shake was the problem, more movement of the lights themselves in the breeze.

On the way back, Jayne pointed out Takey Tezey to us, just a couple of boats away from Dolce, so Heth, your troubles may just be beginning…

/wahaha

Today, we pottered about doing on board stuff all morning, then had a call from Peter Mason at ten, confirming that he would be coming down with Andy Grindrod to fix a door on Dolce and investigate the cause of a water leak under their galley sink, and to look at our battery bank.

After going to Dolce first, he left Andy there sorting stuff out and came over to us for a chat and to top up the batteries. In the end, the answer was to dismantle the bank, taking each battery out, cleaning the terminals and topping it up.

This should extend their life for a bit; we'll see once they've been fully charged up and discharged a couple of times, but in the long run, replacing the batteries with ones from Pb Batteries that can be auto topped up is the answer, I reckon.

Meantime, I'm making progress on my book and Sheila on hers; whether we'll get them out in time for Christmas remains to be seen.

We also continue to struggle with Santander Bank, trying to get them to co-operate with Nationwide in transferring our accounts, but that's a tale for another day, when I'm feeling stronger.

/floor

A pleasant day

2011-12-14T16:32:00.000Z

We've had a relaxed day in the boat, apart from walking into the village in the morning to post those calendars which needed to be so despatched. The printing session yesterday had taken quite a while, the printer becoming more and more cantankerous as time went on. Basically, it's getting old, the same as the rest of us, and really doesn't like doing long runs at best quality setting and on stock that's at the upper limit of what it will take.

By the finish, I was having to print each sheet as a separate job, otherwise the thing just sat there sulking. I replaced both ink cartridges, but once those are mostly used, I reckon we'll be looking for a new printer. I'm planning to stick with HP again; ironically, most of the all-in-one beasts are over-specified these days, with WiFi capability and all odd stuff like being able to email the job to it.

As long as it prints, scans and copies OK, I'll be happy; the USB connection runs neatly along the back of the desk from the Mac Mini box on one pedestal to the printer on the other, and Sheila usually connects to it via the WiFi network and the Mini. I guess the only advantage would be that my machine wouldn't need to be on when she wanted to print, as long as the WiFi modem was running.

Having posted our stuff and done a bit of shopping at the Co-op, we ambled back to a nice warm boat. Shopping at the Co-op is enlivened by the character behind the till, who seems to have modelled himself on Roy Hudd playing a manic shopkeeper, a sort of inverse version of Arkwright. No complaints; he noticed that the cherry tomatoes we were buying were on their death date and gave them to us half price.

I'm currently editing my ebook, going through it on the Kindle to spot typos and infelicitous phrasing, before writing the final chapter and then bullying it into a decent format. At the moment, the chapter numbers insist on appearing on the page before, at the end of the previous chapter, for example.

We're off out tonight, dining with Stephen and Jayne on Dolce Far Niente. I've just heard from Peter Mason at Braidbar that he may be coming to see us tomorrow. He's got a replacement cupboard door to fit to Dolce, and wants to have a discussion with me about the best solution to our battery bank dilemma.

As I believe I've already said, topping them up is very difficult, so the choice is either a set of deep discharge cells from Pb Batteries, complete with auto top up system, or going over to sealed units.

Looking after Sally

2011-12-13T16:10:00.000Z

I can't remember if I've mentioned it before, but Sally currently has a sorely paw, having probably stood on a piece of broken glass or similar when in hot pursuit of a cat the other day. It's taken a lump out of the side of one of her pads, the chestnut pad on her left fore paw. She's being very good about not licking it, but it's in an awkward place.

Elanor has been putting a sock over it with a plastic bag over that when taking her out, and we tried that this morning when taking her for her first thing run in the field. We're obviously not as skilled as Elanor, and it all came apart rather, with the result that the wound opened up again and started oozing.

Elanor had left some Hibiscrub with us, so we were able to bathe it when we got back to the boat. This afternoon, I tried putting a piece of gauze on the wound before binding it over with tape; that worked a bit better, but it still got a bit rubbed up. If necessary, she'll have to go to the vet, possibly ending up with a cone of shame on her bonce to stop her chewing off a full dressing.

I did wonder if we would need to cut slots for her ears through the cone, which occasioned much hilarity about the place. It's not a serious wound, just hard to heal.

We've spent most of the rest of the day printing the calendar. It takes a while to print off six by twelve sheets at 'best' standard of print, not helped by the fact that the printer is feeling its age a bit, and occasionally throws a wobbly about such a big job. This then necessitates switching it off and on again, and sometimes rebooting the computer, with the associated challenge of not losing track of how far you've got with the job.

One final query: a letter in the Independent today recounted the experience of the writer, who had wanted to pay £20 into each of his two grand nephews' Child Trust Funds. He filled in the paying in slips at his local branch of HSBC, and took them with two £20 notes to the teller.

Only to be told "Sorry, we don't take cash."

Huh?

/blur

To Derby again

2011-12-12T16:26:00.000Z

Needing some 120gm paper stock to print the family calendar, we caught the bus into Derby again this morning. We had a generally successful trip, and did so without leaving the Westfield centre, it being very cold outside. Lakeland, WH Smith, Holland & Barrett and Debenhams provided the stuff we needed, and we lunched at an Indian place on the second level. Kebabs and nan bread, would you believe - very tasty.

Before we left, I put the calendar pictures up on Flickr as usual; I'm still pleased with them, which is a relief. All we have to do now is print out the calendars, bind them up and despatch them.

Meanwhile, Elanor finally sorted 3 to her satisfaction; a SIM only deal would actually have cost more than her just keeping or selling a phone she doesn't want, so she's staying with the original deal and buying herself a cheap basic open phone from Carphone Warehouse.

No, I don't understand, either.

There's not a lot else to tell today; we're bracing ourselves for another storm this week, so it's good to have got the shopping out of the way.

Getting on with it

2011-12-11T17:31:00.000Z

We've spent Sunday in the boat, catching up with stuff as the weather deteriorated as the day went on. It wasn't too bad at first, but by lunchtime the sky had clouded over and it started to tip it down. This was a shame, as the plan had been to run Sally this afternoon, but it was just too wet.

Elanor came over anyway to bring post and have a natter; she's still working on the 3 situation. The cunning plan now is to convert her contract to SIM only and buy a basic phone from Carphone Warehouse.

Meantime, we've finished designing this year's calendar; I was worried that I hadn't taken enough photos, but in the end I think we've ended up with a better set than last year.

I've also discovered that Sally likes aniseed balls; well, there's a surprise.

/wahaha

Tomorrow, we'll go into Derby; I need to get some more 120 gm paper to print the calendars, and we could use a new pair of pillows.

/bye

A frosty day

2011-12-10T16:54:00.001Z

It was pretty cold overnight, and we saw ice on the water for the first time today; only cat ice in the shallow margins, but still ice. The frost layer on the pontoons made for very careful walking; I had some ash in the bucket, so sprinkled that on the route from the boat to the safer ground of the spine of land that runs down to our mooring.

It being a nice day for a walk, we went down into the village to post a couple of presents and to buy some stuff from the Co-op for a change. The wind started to come up, so we were glad to get back indoors to the warmth of the Squirrel. We're getting through the coal a bit faster now, as I'm stoking the stove to stay in overnight.

Yesterday in Midland Chandlers we bought the new issues of Waterways World and Canal Boat. The latter contains Martin Ludgate's Christmas Quiz. It seems a bit trickier this year, with more pictorial stuff that's always harder to spot if you don't happen to know that location, but we've had a good thrash at it today and it's starting to look quite sorry for itself.

Elanor had planned to come over and run Sally this afternoon, but she got held up in town, first off getting new front tyres on her car, and then arguing with the staff in the 3 store. She'd been rung by the customer retention team and offered a contract extension and a new phone, but when the phone came, it proved to be a Samsung Galaxy Mini, despite her telling the sales staff that she didn't want a touch screen, just a basic button phone.

When she phoned to arrange a swap, she was told that she could go into the 3 store to do it, but that's not how they saw it in the store. In addition, the only button phone they had was a rather sad looking Nokia, so it looks like she's going to repudiate the whole deal and go elsewhere.

Last heard of, she was in Carphone Warehouse reviewing her options with them. I knew 3 didn't have a very good rep for its customer service, but this seems particularly feeble of them.

She's coming round to see us tomorrow, so more on this anon, I expect.

Christmas shopping

2011-12-09T16:31:00.000Z

We've been using our time lurking on board these past couple of days to get the Christmas shopping sorted, mostly via the internet, indeed, mostly via Amazon. Partly working from wish lists and partly from advice from those who should know, we've identified stuff for almost everyone now, ordered it and the despatch confirmations are starting to come through.

In addition, we walked down to Betty's Farm shop today, the weather being ideal for the purpose this morning, clear and cold. There we both stocked up on veg and the like and found a handy present for one of those we hadn't yet sorted. Whilst there, who should turn up but the coffee bar kids, Stephen looking much better after enduring the cold that's doing the rounds. So we hung on whilst they shopped and then all walked back together to the Willow Tree for restorative hot chocs.

This afternoon, we braved the now icy wind to visit the Midland Chandlers store on site, where, believe it or not, we found presents for Daniel and Alex, who are very fond of the Muddy Waters books. All we need to do now is to design and print the Napier Family Calendar, and our family Christmas cards, using photos taken during the year for both.

We're looking forward to a quiet evening with the fire well stoked and the central heating doing its bit. I dipped the diesel tank today; it's just under half full, so sometime next week we'll pick a day when the wind isn't too bad to go across to the service wharf, pump out and fill up with diesel, so as to be set up for the Christmas period.

A stormy day indoors

2011-12-08T16:24:00.000Z

The weather has been as forecast, and indeed we've behaved as I forecast last time; we've had a quiet day indoors, listening to the wind howl and the rain pour down from time to time. I'm certainly glad we made it back yesterday, as the wind has gone round rather, and would have been blowing in the port quarter when I was trying to berth Sanity Again.

Nuzzling up to a pontoon to windward is one thing, but being blown down onto one to leeward would have been much trickier.

I'd cancelled the order for the paper at the marina shop, of course, but when I went in to restart it, they had one on the rack; it looks as if they just carried on collecting it anyway. I was able to get some peppers and mushrooms too, which was handy, as I'm making risotto tonight, and would have had to walk into the village for them otherwise.

We'd told the Walking for Health folk not to expect us today, and did think about going to see the Owl Experience at Betty's Farm instead, but by mid afternoon the weather was at its worst, so we've stayed inside doing Christmas shopping via Amazon.

We must have got a bit punch drunk in the process; the final item was Sally's present, an Easidri towel, and we sat and solemnly discussed whether to order it with gift wrapping and a tag before coming to our senses. Sally may be bright, but I don't think she's going to look at an Amazon parcel and think "Oh goody, a towel for Christmas".

My thanks to Ann Street, by the way, for drawing these to our attention; they sound much better than using an old towel.

We made it

2011-12-07T16:50:00.000Z

Since the forecast indicated a steadily deteriorating situation, we made as early a start as we could, getting underway at half seven, when it was just about light enough to see to boat. At first, the weather was quite pleasant, calm and dry, though it had rained and blowed overnight.

I winded Sanity Again below Bagnall Lock without too much trouble, though the winding hole was well silted up with disuse. It's amazing how quickly things go back without traffic; the paddle spindles are rusting already, for example.

All went swimmingly until we got to Branston, when a long threatened rain squall burst upon us as I approached the lock. Sheila, who had hopped off at the bridge by the pub, got the top gate open in good time, but even so, just as I lined up in the throat of the lock, a huge blast of wind shoved the stern sideways, and Sanity Again cross winded (ie jammed) hard. A good example of Sod's Law that the worst weather should strike at the most exposed lock.

On we toddled through rain and hail, Sheila now steering to give me a break. I worked Dallow Lane and then took over the helm again. The rain and wind came and went; for much of the time it was fine, and most of the showers didn't last too long. It helped, too, that the wind now mainly came from astern, so keeping a steady track through the water wasn't too hard.

At 11.45, Sheila relieved me again, and I went below to make us mugs of soup and to eat lunch. By the time I'd fed, Willington was on the horizon, so Sheila prepared her lunch but left it to eat later.

My turn into the marina entrance nearly came off; with the wind still from behind, I needed to get the bow round and into the hole quickly. I misjudged it slightly, and we hit the piling splay around the entrance a bit of a clonk, but then it was just a matter of motoring the stern round and so into the entrance channel.

Boating across the marina was fun, with Sanity Again crabbing like mad with the wind on her side, but fortunately the passages around the lake are all quite wide, so there's plenty of sea room to take corrective action.

The boat which shares our slot between the pontoons has a Saltire flag flying from its bow, and as it moors stern in, I had a good indication of the wind speed and direction as I approached the pontoon. It was a case of turning her into that wind, which was blowing onto the starboard bow, again going for it quite hard, then hard astern once the bow was in the lee of the boat alongside, so that the wind pressure was now pushing the stern round the way I wanted it to go.

We touched the pontoon quite gently with the port bow, and once more it was a case of helm over and revs on to bring her round parallel to the slot and in we went. It all went much better than I'd feared in the small hours of last night. As I say, in these conditions (wind speed 20 mph, gusting up to 40), you've got to be "bloody, bold and resolute"; creeping up on the target is just not going to work.

So here we are, once more snug and sound with the shoreline connected, and all the facilities of the marina to draw on.

A quiet day tomorrow, methinks.

So far so good.

2011-12-06T16:16:00.000Z

Blood test done, drugs collected, dog both sat on and walked. So today has been reasonably productive. Now, all we've got to do is get back to Mercia.

The forecast for tomorrow promises early rain, then strengthening winds, so it's going to be a bit challenging. It doesn't look any better for Thursday, and there's a snow warning for Friday, so we don't want to hang around.

We'll probably just slog back tomorrow; at least wind is just hard work, not actually damaging to the blacking the way ice would be.

Heigh ho.

Alrewas again

2011-12-05T16:31:00.000Z

Well, here we are again, happy as can be…

We had a pretty straightforward run from Branston to Alrewas, leaving at eight and arriving at half ten. It was Sheila's turn to steer, and she slogged on despite a bitterly cold wind, muffled up in layers of fleece and wool.

I got some shopping in after we'd revived, bread from the Co-op, a paper from the newsagent and chicken fillets and pasties from Coates.

We've spent the rest of the day huddling in the boat with the stove well stoked. Sheila's finished subbing my book, so I've got a bit more work to do on it, with a final chapter to write and stuff to tidy up, then we might be getting near publishing it.

Tomorrow, off to the surgery for a blood test, and Sally sitting too. Should be fun.

Then Wednesday back to Willington, as long as the wind isn't too bad.

A trip out

2011-12-04T16:22:00.000Z

First of, Sheila says thank you to all those who sent her good wishes on the occasion of her not getting any older...

/blur

Today has generally gone to plan, in that we managed to drag ourselves out of bed in good time, despite being a bit Takey Tezey-ed last night. By ten past eight we were on the pump out, pumping out, and by 8.30 were heading out of the marina. At 8.32 Sanity Again stuck her bow onto the opposite towpath, and by 8.40 we'd managed to haul her round, Sheila with a bow line on the towpath, and your correspondent with a stern line on the off side, the wind having ensured that trying it any other way just meant blowing sideways down the cut until becoming wedged again.

Off we went at last, and at 8.50 we passed Ivor Batchelor walking his dogs along the towpath. If we'd been just ten minutes later getting going this morning, he'd have found us wrestling with the boat jammed across the cut, and the story would have been the length and breadth of the system with about 48 hours.

We stopped at Shobnall and had a conversation with Andy there about Boaters Phone Company adaptors for the Samsung Galaxy, Mark at BPC having recommended that we do so. All this demonstrated was that neither the Galaxy SII nor the Galaxy Europa antenna socket will take any of the currently available adaptors, so it's back to Mark on that one.

We did buy four bags of Mixed Ovals and a couple of bags of kindling, then plodded off again, getting to Branston just on twelve. I baked some baguettes whilst we discovered that a) the T-mobile signal doesn't support data here, and b) the old 3 MiFi modem had a flat battery.

Later on, after a restorative lunch, I got the new 3 Galaxy sorted as a WiFi hotspot, propping it in the side hatch to do so, since we can't use the external antenna on it. It's successful, as you can tell by the fact that you're reading this.

The weather has been seriously wet and windy this afternoon, but we're hoping it will dry up and calm down a bit tomorrow, long enough for us to get to Alrewas, anyway.

Small celebration

2011-12-03T16:37:00.000Z

Sheila says she doesn't have birthdays any more, so this is not one, obviously. But she still got some pressies and cards this morning, and we're having steak tonight, courtesy of the organic butcher yesterday.

We've had a quiet day, as you'd expect, a walk round the marina, ~~guzzling~~ partaking of deluxe hot choc (with marshmallows and whipped cream) in the Willow Tree, then watching my gift to her this afternoon, in the shape of a DVD of the Royal wedding; a chance for some unashamed sniffling, in my case because I'm still getting over this cold.

/hmm

Plus, I see what they were going on about re the MoH's dress.

Tomorrow, we set off for Alrewas, so we're hoping that the forecast lull in the wind does indeed occur.

A displaced Sally day

2011-12-02T16:40:00.000Z

Regular readers will know that we normally dog sit on Tuesdays, but with Elanor being struck down by the lurgy at the start of this week, we didn't do so. Elanor's back at work, but still feeling a bit pale and wan (it's a vicious little bug that takes a couple of weeks to get over properly) so she's not been going to dog training, which in turn means that Sal has been missing out on a lot of exercise.

Since they were due to visit us this evening anyway, Elanor asked if we would take Sally during the day and get her charging about a bit. This we've done; it's been very successful. They turned up at eight as usual, Sally looking very cosy in her heavy coat, the one that's really a horse rug for a very small horse, a Falabella, say.

I took her for a first run after we'd finished our early morning routine of checking email and the like. As we got to the usual field, Ian from Nobby was there with Katie, a long, low slung dog, the result of an encounter between a Bassett hound and a collie. She actually looks a lot like the stretch limo version of a Cardiganshire corgi , and gets on well with Sally. They were having a good old charge about when Barry from Adagio appeared in the next door field running his Bedlington terrier cross whippet, Duffy.

Duffy made it clear that she really, really wanted to join her friends, so they came round and the three of them hurtled about to their hearts' content. After a bit, Sally started checking out the bunny options instead, which involved a lot of running to and fro by the hedges, so more exercise for her.

We all then walked round the rest of the marina; Sally was being remarkably well behaved, only grumbling at Duffy when the younger dog kept trying to get some more play out of her; Duffy is one of those dogs who just doesn't understand why the rest of the world needs to slow down occasionally. It just shows that three bitches can get on together.

Back at the boat, I had coffee then went shopping at the fortnightly mini Farmers' Market, getting a range of meat, a bit of veg, and a jar of mini beets in orange and spice dressing.

After all that, it was chill out time until lunch. Sheila and I took Sal for another run this afternoon, and then retreated to loaf for the rest of the day, the weather having turned from bright and frosty to overcast and grey.

Elanor is coming to help eat the haggis in a bit, so it's going to be a sociable evening.

Getting back to normal

2011-12-01T16:56:00.000Z

We're slowly returning to our normal state, though still a bit short of energy and inclined to cough and splutter from time to time. (OK, I know that some of you will say this is my normal state.)

We managed a nice lie-in this morning, and then had a productive day at the ebooks. Mine is at the stage where I've asked Sheila to read it through before I go any further; Sheila has a bit to do on hers still, but then she is writing mostly new content, whereas I've been largely editing blog posts into a suitable format.

I think it will be a few weeks yet before either is ready for publication, but we're getting there. I must say, it's been an eye opener re-reading what I wrote two years ago in the light of some of the decisions we finally made.

Our Ocado delivery turned up just after half eleven, and it was gone twelve before we got it all checked off and put away. I've got one more booked for the week before Christmas.

We had time to make and scoff lunch before going out for our Thursday walk. The walk itself was along the towpath to Egginton and back, so nothing we didn't know about, though I got some info about a loop back over the railway that might be handy next time I'm walking Sally in that direction. The real gain we get from these outings is the chance to meet folk who are nothing to do with boating or the marina.

We had a good session in the pub afterwards, nattering about this and that, including taking cruises on a freighter; one of today's walk leaders, who hasn't been there before now, is another ex-merchant seaman, and he and his wife, Phil and Thelma, were a great source of info on the subject.

Get fit, get a cassette

2011-11-30T16:40:00.000Z

One slight oddity of Mercia is that the only Elsan disposal is right over by the service wharf; handy on one's return from a cruise, but half a mile away from the Grebe and Heron pontoons where we are. As I walked across to the shop to buy some eggs for omelettes for tea, I passed a couple walking along with a cassette on a folding trolley, and thought that one "advantage" of the cassette toilet is that you do keep that bit fitter…

Speaking of which, we're all feeling a bit better, thanks. Elanor managed to get back to work, which was popular as others had had to take the day off courtesy of the unions, and we've managed a totter round the marina followed by restorative drinks and toast in the Willow Tree.

More has been done on the books, and I've been researching the best way to prep the final result for uploading to Kindle Direct Publishing. It will be a while yet, but it's always to good to have some idea of what's involved. It's mostly straightforward, as iWork Pages will export the file as an ePub, which Amazon will convert to Kindle format.

There's a Kindle Previewer you can use to check the outcome of that process, which demonstrated that the main problem is going to be the Table of Contents (toc to its friends and enemies), which the Mobi based formats do differently from everybody else. I've been struggling with it for a while this afternoon, but when the discussion in the relevant online forums started talking about "modifying the manifest with a guide to the toc anchor", I lost the will to live for a time and gave up.

Heigh ho, it would be awful if everything in IT was straightforward, wouldn't it?

NO.

/no

We've an Ocado delivery booked for tomorrow, and another for 20 December, the last slot I could get before Christmas, and they only released the Christmas slots today.

Elanor and Sally are coming round on Friday to help eat the haggis (well, Elanor will, I doubt if there will be any left for the pooch, and it would be very fattening for her anyway, honest).

Wet, wild and windy

2011-11-29T16:22:00.000Z

Many thanks to all those sending their good wishes by one means or another; we're steadily improving, health wise, but the same can't be said for the weather, so it's been another day lurking indoors whilst the deck furniture rattles in its stand on the roof and the rain lashes down.

It does mean that we've got on with our literary endeavours, if that's not too fancy a term for it, and I've done the letter to 3 cancelling the contract for the MiFi. For those who didn't see it, there was a useful comment from Jenny, who is the mastermind behind the Canal Life site, drawing attention to this webpage, describing the limited bandwidth needed to download one of their jigsaws.

Apart from that, the only excitement came in a text from Bill and Eileen of New Dawn, who are presently living the lotus life at Fuerteventura on the Canaries. It's all right for some.

/shock

Elanor is still struck down by the lurgy, so we didn't see her or Sally today; we're hoping she gets on top of it soon and is able to resume her busy life.

/hihi

We should be out and about again tomorrow, if the forecast is to be believed; we keep reminding ourselves that this is still a lot better than -5º C overnight temperatures and bank to bank ice, which is where we'd got to this time last year.

Taking it easy

2011-11-28T16:56:00.000Z

It seems to be one of those colds that just hangs about making you feel lousy but not seriously ill, though it's been bad enough to keep Elanor off work. After a bit of a grotty night, we got up and staggered about this morning, doing bits and pieces but not over exerting ourselves. Some more of both books has been produced, and a bit of email correspondence carried out.

After lunch, we felt well enough to wander down to the village to get some stuff that the marina shop doesn't stock, but were glad to get back indoors. Sheila's been doing several loads of washing, having a proper Monday washday; with a big tumble dryer available in the service block, it's possible to turn stuff round in the day, which is good.

I've put another Ocado order in for Thursday; we seem to be developing a routine of one order every fortnight, and buying meat and veg from the farmer's market the next day. The internet's been very on and off, presumably because it's cyber Monday, when more online shopping will be done than at any other time of year.

Since it's St Andrew's Day on Wednesday, I've ordered a haggis, but that's about the height of the excitement for today!

Recovering

2011-11-27T16:30:00.000Z

Despite us all feeling part worn, we had a good meal with Elanor last night, casseroled shin of beef with mashed potato, sweetcorn and broccoli. We managed a half decent night's sleep, despite the efforts of the smoke alarm, which went off briefly at half five. It didn't keep sounding, though of course I checked through the boat for any source of fire anyway. The Squirrel was well burnt down, and all was well in the engine room.

So I took the alarm off its mount for the rest of the night, and we managed to doze a bit more. Later on, once we were dressed, I gave it a good blasting from the compressed air can, and sure enough, some bits of spider's web blew out. The only consolation is that our arachnid friend must have got quite a headache after being up against the alarm klaxon when it went off.

After all that, we made a lazy start this morning, and worked gently but steadily for a couple of hours, Sheila dealing with the post the Elanor had brought, and I producing some more book and sorting the on-line billing for the new 3 phone. It doesn't have Angry Birds on it, but having tried the game on line, I can see the addictive qualities…

Talking of games, we also found a website full of canal related games, jigsaws, hangman and the like. It's at Canal Life, and seems a good source of such things, though I suspect it uses quite a bit of bandwidth when you download a jigsaw.

We managed a totter round the marina by way of exercise, but otherwise haven't stirred out very much. We're hoping that things continue to pick up, and that normal service might be restored tomorrow, or the day after, when we'll be pooch pandering again.

One day just to get through

2011-11-26T16:08:00.000Z

It's presently a bit dreary outside much of the time; grey and windy and cold, and we feel pretty much in step with that. There have been brief periods of sun, but otherwise it's been the grotty aspect of early winter. Meanwhile, we're still feeling the effects of this cold, which makes us reluctant to do anything very much, frankly.

Elanor felt too weary with the effects of a hard week's work and the onset of her own cold to come over last night, so she's coming tonight instead, having had a decent kip.

So, there's not a lot to add, really. We got round to having a look at the first episode of a box set of the first season of Deadwood, which Elanor had been clearing out a bit ago and passed on to us, but didn't take to it, so it can join the collection of DVD swaps up in the laundry, along with the various paperbacks they've got up there.

Hopefully, we'll begin to come back to life with the start of the new week and an improvement in the weather...

Cold and windy

2011-11-25T16:33:00.000Z

It's felt quite wintry out there today, which fits with the way we're feeling in here. Both of us are fighting off colds, with Sheila about 24 hours behind me. Elanor is due to come for dinner tonight, and rang at lunch time to say she wasn't sure if she should as she was getting a cold.

We reassured her that she hadn't got anything we didn't have already, probably.

So, apart from collecting the paper and some carrots from the shop, our outside time has been restricted to journeys to the services block and a walk once round the marina.

I carried on working on the book, and Sheila has been pottering on online as well, though not undertaking anything very complex in view of her dopey state.

One thing she did do was to subscribe to Hidden. This is a fiendish and quite cheap ($15 per year) app that lets you track your MacBook, iPad and so on if it's stolen. It will even use the onboard camera to take a photo of the thief when he/she tries to use the machine, and tell you where the beast is to within a hundred yards or so.

It looks like the weather is going to stay chilly for the weekend, but compared to last year, we're not complaining.

Oh, and one piece of cheerful news; the latest customer for Sheila's crochet was so thrilled with it, she texted us as soon as it arrived to say so. That sort of thing makes all the difference; thank you!

Pleasantly weary again

2011-11-24T16:54:00.000Z

We've just had an hour's walking with the Walking for Health group, followed by an hour in the Green Man with a soft drink, having a natter. Walking options are a bit limited from Willington to be honest, but it's a chance to socialise with local folk, and ensures that we do a bit more walking.

This morning we had a lazy start, followed by a bit of a tidy up of the well deck. I bought two bags of Briteheat from the shop, a smokeless fuel I've not encountered before. It has very small briquettes, so we'll see how it does. Sheila has sawn up most of the wood that Elanor brought us, and I bought another bag of kindling from the shop, so we are prepared for most eventualities. We also put stuff away and swept the deck, leaving the whole area positively smart.

I've done a bit more to the book, whilst Sheila tracked down the answers to last week's general knowledge crossword. I also sent a Happy Thanksgiving email to my sister, who'll be spending it with friends in Baltimore.

After all this exercise, I'm pleasantly weary is the official line, more like cream crackered, actually. I'm looking forward to a shower and then cooking Mee Goreng for tea (that's spicy fried noodles to you.)

A trip to Betty's

2011-11-23T16:32:00.000Z

After a relaxed start, we ambled over to the marina office, collected our invoice for converting from winter to permanent moorer, and paid it. This being a very straight place to deal with, Jo had calculated the cost of the permanent berth from 1 November to their year-end on 31 August, then deducted what we had already paid for the winter from it, rather than treating our stay as two events, one the winter mooring from 1 November to 29 February, and another as a permanent moorer from 1 March to 31 August.

It's that sort of thing that makes one happy to recommend the place.

The weather being dry, if cold, we then mounted our expedition to Betty's Farm. It proved to be a bit under half an hour's walk, out of Willington past the Co-op and straight on until the place came into view on the left hand side. They have a lot of hens, all busy bustling about in large fields, and a varied stock of groceries in a farm shop.

We could have spent a fortune, but restricted ourselves to some chicken fillets (not from the layers, which are a modified Rhode Island Red, so not much meat on them), pasties for lunch, bread, some veg and, of course, half a dozen eggs. Prices weren't the lowest ever, but not extortionate, and it all looks very good and fresh.

This afternoon has seen more work on the books, and then some loafing in the warm; it's getting colder outside, though there's no sign, either in the sky or in the 30 day outlook, of seriously wintry weather. More a case of "risk of frost" than "severe weather warning: snow", so very different from this time last year. I see we had the first ice right across the marina on the 26th, followed by snow the next day.

Apart from that, there's not a lot to tell; we'll get another walk tomorrow, hopefully, which will give me a chance to try out the new phone away from the boat.

Soggy Tuesday

2011-11-22T16:47:00.000Z

It's felt soggy all day. Mainly, this is because it has been; the weather was wet first thing, and didn't really dry up until after lunch. This was not popular with Sally, who got soggy in her own right playing "chase the tug toy" in the dog running field; we had to dedicate an old towel to dog drying purposes when we got back to the boat.

But we're also feeling a bit mentally soggy, having had a bit of a broken night, then getting up in good time so as to be at least dressed when Elanor delivered the pooch, and expecting the shoreline supply to go off between 7 and 7.30 for testing purposes, and it never did. It wouldn't have made a big deal, of course, but when you're expecting something to happen and it doesn't, it's confusing.

No matter, we've got through the day; apart from exercising Her Houndiness, we've done a fair bit on the computers, Sheila doing more book, and me playing around with possible designs for a Braidbar Owners' Group logo.

Elanor also brought the confirmation letter from 3, so I've activated the new phone. It struggles to get a signal in the boat (the 3 signal isn't strong down here on the water), in fact it doesn't really get one at all, but outside it's fine, and of course it has all these smart phone facilities that will probably take me most of the life of the contract to get to grips with. It should be possible to get a BPC antenna adapter for it, but some liaison with Peter at Shobnall will be required for that; they're not familiar with this model at BPC, so some direct comparison of sockets is needed.

As it can be used as a WiFi hotspot, I think that we may well abandon the old 3 MiFi contract, but keep our Voda voice deal, and so have a choice of two networks for voice (Voda and 3) and two for data (T-mobile and 3) across three appliances on fairly cheap contracts. We'll see, anyway; there's no rush to make a final decision.

Tomorrow, we plan to find Betty's Farm, a source of all sorts of edible goodies, seemingly, including meat, and an easier walk than the slog along the road to Redshaws in Repton

Industrious Monday

2011-11-21T17:12:00.000Z

After all the excitements of yesterday, Sally wasn't the only one to feel extremely weary. We went to bed at half eight would you believe, and didn't really surface until half seven this morning, having both had a decent night's sleep for once.

As a result, we've managed to put in a good day's work all round. Much of the morning was spent at the IT interface. I've done a bit more on my book, and got my head round the way in which iWork Pages can convert a document into ePub format. In that mode, it can be uploaded to Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing, where it will be converted again into Kindle format and made available for sale. It also means we'll be able to offer it for direct sale, probably via eBay, in ePub format, so that people with other kinds of e-reader can buy it.

Not that we're expecting a massive sale mind, but it will be nice to let folk who want to read the whole thing off line do so. Meanwhile, Sheila is working on another book, which she's calling a Boater’s Commonplace Book, a compendium of answers to all the questions we tend to get asked about the liveaboard lifestyle. She also ran a washload, and I refilled the water tank.

Some of this work carried on after lunch (I've barely read half the paper today), then we went for a walk round the marina to stretch our legs. In fact, we went twice round, collected the washload that had been tumble drying whilst we did so, then went to the Willow Tree for a restorative cuppa.

Whilst there, we were accosted by Stephen and Jayne, aka the Coffee Bar Kids, who didn't for once stop for a drink, having walked to Stenson Lock and had one in the café there.

Back at the boat, we settled down to relax for a bit, then I turned to and got on with this, as well as dealing with some email correspondence. All in all, a productive day.

and today's Sunday –

2011-11-20T16:45:00.000Z

but tomorrow is cancelled because we are, shall I say, cream crackered? It's been a great day, but entertaining Graeme, Daniel and Alex is certainly exercising.

Elanor and Sally came over and joined us after lunch, though Sally was even more tired than we are now, after competing in her first agility event yesterday. As we all feared might be the case, she was the comic relief, eliminated four times out of four for stuff like refusing too many times, going over the A frame the wrong way, trying to have a dump in the middle of the arena… Not to mention spending a bit of time working the crowd by standing on her hind paws, resting her forepaws on the barrier and looking hopefully at their hot chocolate/burgers/crisps/whatever.

No matter, she didn't threaten anyone or disgrace herself in that way, just didn't concentrate on the task in hand. When she's in the mood, she can fairly fly over the jumps, but not yesterday. It's a matter of more experience, hopefully; though some of it may be the Doberman coming out. Sometimes a Dobi just can't resist the temptation to go for the laugh.

Anyway, it was great to see all the family again (except Cathy, who was doing Christmassy stuff with her Mum) even if we're left a bit wrung out now.

Tomorrow, we'll just chill for the day, probably, with maybe a visit to the Willow Tree to help the mood along.

Now I have to go back and subedit this lot; you can tell I'm tired, about every thrid word has a red dotted line under it…

/blur

Oh… today's Saturday!

2011-11-19T16:31:00.000Z

We spent most of yesterday telling ourselves it wasn't Saturday, but only really believed it when today's Indy cost £1.60 for the Saturday edition. It's been that sort of week. We've not stirred out much, apart from an amble in beautiful sunshine down to the village to get some folding stuff, having spent all that I had on meat and veg and olives and cheese yesterday.

Just as well we went early, it's really clouded over and cooled down now. Sheila continues to struggle with sorting the new bank account out, and I've been catching up with stuff on the web.

The new phone duly arrived with Elanor yesterday, but I've not commissioned it yet until I've seen the confirmation letter from 3. Not that I'm a paranoid, cynical, distrusting type, you understand, but I want to be sure the deal is what the nice man on the phone said it would be before doing anything that would prevent me from sending the whole lot back if necessary.

The phone looks OK, a Samsung Galaxy Europa, the baby one of the set. Not much good for web browsing, the screen's too small, but otherwise a fully functioning Android phone with WiFi and GPS would you believe. Not bad for £10 pm.

Other than that, we've been lurking indoors, doing the crossword, reading the paper, watching out for Takey Tezey turning up, you know how it is. (Yes, Heth, I know it's too soon, and you've had your own phone related grief to deal with, but it makes for something to look out for.)

Soup and stew tonight, methinks, to feed us up ready for the onslaught tomorrow, when Graeme comes over with the grandkids for the day, and Elanor will hopefully drop in as well.

Sally's doing her first agility competition today, so we're just waiting to hear if she was a star or the comic turn. Knowing Sal, it could easily be either.

Change of status, and in-marina retail therapy

2011-11-18T16:58:00.001Z

After seven and a half years, we are no longer continuous cruisers. (Disgraceful types, should be made to pay a lot more for their licences.)
/wahaha

We went into the marina office this morning, ostensibly to buy an electric card, and bought a mooring instead…

In truth, we've been thinking hard about it all for a couple of weeks. Although we probably won't get full value for the extra money, the idea of having a place we're absolutely entitled to retreat to in case of ill-health or needing an operation or something was very attractive. We did think about investing in one of the really nice holiday lodges, that would bring 5 years worth of mooring with it, but it would have stretched us just a bit too far, leaving no spare cash in the kitty for winter sun holidays or the like, or even to cover some disaster to the boat.

We get to stay on our existing mooring, which is great as it suits us down to the water. The marina is considering what pay back to offer to those of us who are permanent moorers but are out cruising a lot; we wait to see the result of their deliberations.

Needless to say, we'll still vehemently support the rights of CCers to cruise as much as they like for the same price as the rest of us. And thank heavens we didn't go to Barby Marina!

Having done this, we had a restorative coffee/luxury hot choc in the Willow Tree (we get a 10% discount there, now), met up with Jayne and Stephen and then shopped like mad at the fortnightly mini market. We bought lots of nice meat (and ordered some beef fore-rib and a turkey for Christmas), some veg from the market garden stall, some nice Italian cheese and some Kalamata olives in blackcurrant and rosemary dressing.

Scrumptious is the word I want here.

We've spent the rest of the day recovering. I did a bit more on the Kindle book (it'll be a while yet at this rate) and made up a special ring tone for the Pigotts when they call; a bit of "We sail the ocean blue" from HMS Pinafore seemed appropriate in view of Stephen's nautical past (though he's merchant, not RN).

Then, beset once more by that imp of mischief that's got me into so much trouble down the years, I also carved out a tone for incoming SMS texts from the same track. Now, the arrival of the text will be announced by the phone merrily singing "Ahoy, ahoy, the balls fly free, ahoy ahoy, o'er the bright blue sea".

Wicked sense of humour Sir William Schwenk Gilbert had, and it got him into trouble too from time to time, so I'm in good company.

Elanor's coming to dinner tonight, so I reckon it ought to be lasagne, her favourite, after all the running around she's done looking after our post this week.

Sociable Thursday

2011-11-17T16:55:00.001Z

Getting an Ocado delivery can be a social event, at least the way we do it. I'd booked a delivery for the 10 - 11 slot, and Jayne Pigott one for 11 - 12, so we invited them for coffee whilst they waited for theirs to come. (We are much nearer the access gate than they are.) In the event, this didn't go quite as smoothly as it might have done. We'd assumed that the two orders would be on the same van, and therefore would arrive together, but no, ours was on the Lemon van with Trevor and the Pigott's was on the Cabbage van with Helen.

Ours turned up just before 10, just as Jayne and Stephen arrived for coffee. We soon had a saloon full of Ocado bags all over the floor, and Pigotts swigging coffee all over the furniture. They kindly put up with Sheila and I doing our systematic checking off of the delivery, whilst Stephen waited for the call to say that the other delivery had turned up.

Unfortunately, it transpired that his iPhone on the 3 network had lost its signal; when he got it back by going outside, he got an unwelcome voicemail from Helen; she'd arrived on the dot of 11, couldn't get hold of them and had gone away again.

Much calling of the Ocado call centre followed, at the end of which they were told the delivery would be rearranged for 6 to 9 this evening. It then turned up at half twelve, Helen having decided to have another go as she was re-passing the marina.

A case of all's well that ends well, even if it meant the Pigotts came out for the Thursday walk at half one leaving their saloon floor strewn with Ocado bags.

We had another good walk with the Walking for Health folk, along the side of a nature reserve where we spotted a Little Egret. There were a lot of twitchers about, as a rare Glossy Ibis had been seen there yesterday, but had now removed itself to Cheshire, apparently.

Once more we ended in the Green Man after a good walk of over an hour, and consumed various soft drinks for half an hour. We've fallen back on our boats now, in my case to do this blog, and in the case of the Pigotts to put a fortnight's supply of groceries away.

We'll all meet again in the Willow Tree cafe tomorrow preparatory to visiting the fortnightly mini market.

A first visit to Derby

2011-11-16T16:36:00.000Z

I'd never been to Derby before, except passing through on the train, so it was a new experience. Quite an exciting one too, though that's more about the way the Villager bus drivers approach their task.

"Con brio" is the best description, probably. Hanging on tight is compulsory. Anyway, in less than thirty minutes, we were in the city's spiffy new bus station, and exploring the centre. We'd had a useful briefing from Steven and Maureen from the walking group, and Sheila had done a bit of on-line research to get the locations of the shops we wanted to visit.

It was a largely successful trip. I've got the T-mobile Wireless Pointer for internet access (it's better than the MiFi as it has a connector for an external antenna), and after a lunch in Bird's on Irongate near the Cathedral (shades of the old Lyons Corner houses) we braved the Westfield centre.

In there, you could be almost anywhere on the planet. I bought a new mega wok from Lakeland, as well as a further supply of EasiYo sachets, and Sheila found some tops she liked in good old Marks and Sparks. Before that, we'd been to Silly Sid's, a rather cavernous furniture store, full of hand written price tags and odd characters lurking in the shadows.

We'd hoped to see some swivel recliners in there, but didn't find the ones we were looking for.

We got the 1400 bus back, and were glad to collapse in the boat. I've had the Pointer working; it's easy to set up and to reset the SSID (network name) and log on password, and it seems quite quick, though I had to sit it on the roof to get a signal. I've ordered the needed adaptor from Boaters Phone Company; once that comes, the beast can just sit on the desk, plugged into the antenna and a power supply.

The new phone from 3 has arrived at Elanor's, but it will be Friday before we get it here.

Sally sitting

2011-11-15T16:27:00.000Z

Today being Tuesday, I was going to get Sally to do the blog, but she says she's too tired. This is a bit worrying, as after last week, she was still too weary on the Thursday night to do agility properly, jumping over the first big fence, but then giving Elanor plaintive looks, asking "Do I have to?" So Elanor asked us not to exercise her so hard today.

We took her to one of the free running fields first thing; there didn't happen to be any other dogs in there at first, and she spent a pleasant ten minutes running about all over the place. When she gets a bit far away, Elanor is in the habit of shouting "Oy" at her, but I find that very hard on the larynx, so I've been training her to come to the whistle on the end of a mini Maglite we happen to have. This was quite successful, starting by calling her in the usual way, adding the whistle as she came charging up and rewarding her with a treat when she arrived and sat.

By the end of the session, she was coming in to the whistle alone. A couple more dogs arrived just as we finished, and she was very well behaved towards them; she's much more socialised these days than she was when Elanor first had her, mainly as a result of all the exposure she gets at the training classes.

This afternoon, we went for a walk round the marina, rather than a longer walk on the towpath. We called in at the field on the way, naturally; it was busier, and she made friends with a collie and another dog of uncertain breed but very pleasant appearance, rather foxy faced and red coloured.

After a bit a couple of collies arrived too, and the five dogs spent quite a lot of time charging about, so Sally was well exercised again. When we got back to the boat, she seemed very content to settle down on her bed, except when human activity needed monitoring, naturally.

Sheila's been having a mega washing day, doing towels and sheets as well as an ordinary load, so she's been up and down to the service block, tumble drying them.

We're both working on writing Kindle books at the moment; Sheila is experimenting with one as an extension to her page on this blog about living aboard, and I'm converting the Building Sanity Again blog to eBook format. I don't suppose we'll make a lot of cash from them, but it's fun giving it a try.

Chilly

2011-11-14T16:43:00.000Z

The easterly wind has continued to blow cold today, so we've rather concentrated our attention on the inside of the boat. We made a very lazy start, in fact, and pottered about for much of the morning, until we finally summoned the energy to walk down into Willington. I had a script to get made up at the pharmacy, which they did very efficiently, and we had letters to post and a bit of shopping to do.

For example, the marina shop doesn't stock bananas – when I enquired about them, I was told "We did have some, but someone went and bought them."

Back at the boat, Sheila set out to catch up on the laundry, whilst I caught up on the paper. I lit the fire a bit before lunch, as it was clearly not going to get any warmer. After lunch, I had a sales call from 3, and for once succumbed. Our Vodafone contract is coming to an end, and 3 offered me a very nice deal, with a lot more time and texts, as well as 500 Mb data, for the same amount I'm paying now, plus a new Samsung Galaxy.

It'll mean the hassle of stopping the Voda contract and moving the number in due course, but probably worth it.

We've spent much of the afternoon in the Willow Tree with Stephen and Jayne; it's been a few days since we had a chance for a natter, so it was good to catch up. I've bunged an Ocado order in for Thursday, topping up on the heavy stuff we don't want to lug in from the village.

Tomorrow, Sally sitting, and then on Wednesday we thought we'd go into Derby.

Pottering

2011-11-13T16:37:00.000Z

A lazy start on a misty morning has led to a bit of work getting done, but not perhaps quite as much as we'd planned (no change there, then). In point of fact, Sheila has been doing the lion's share of the brain work, as she slogs on doing all the stuff connected with changing over the current account. Sure, the new bank moves all your direct debits (possibly) but it's all the in-payment type stuff to sort out that takes a while. In particular, the NHS Pensions Agency doesn't let you change your bank account details on line "for Data Protection Act reasons". No, it's because you can't be bothered to set up a secure way of doing it.

Meanwhile, I got stuck into sweeping the Squirrel flue, one of those jobs that needs doing from time to time, especially after our episode of burning house coal earlier in the year. The flue wasn't too bad, in the event, but it was still a worthwhile if unavoidably messy exercise. The biggest hassle is putting the Squirrel back together again, fitting the baffles back in the top of the firebox, having removed them to get your actual clean sweep.

We'd planned to wash the boat roof this afternoon (hence the need to get the chimney sweeping out of the way first) but a cutting easterly wind has continued to blow, so we settled for another perambulation around the marina instead. Sheila's boots are coming on nicely; we plan to walk into Willington tomorrow, so that will be their next test.

Oh yes – odd things seen around the marina number 133. Coming back to the boat yesterday, after our visit to Roger and Janet on Shiraz, a couple got off the boat next door on their way to a wedding or some other fancy do. The young woman was smartly but conventionally dressed; the chap was in full Highland fig, jacket, kilt, sporran, long stockings and brogues. He did look a touch self conscious, so we didn't stop to enquire what was going on.

He might have menaced me with his sgian dubh…

/blur

Quiet day today

2011-11-12T17:26:00.000Z

… so not a lot to say. We took a stroll round the marina in glorious winter sun this morning, Sheila wearing her new boots to start breaking them in, and went into the Willowtree Café for coffee/hot choc with marshmallow/toast afterwards. We'd no sooner sat down at a table to await the delivery of this feast when Steven and Maureen, whom we'd met on the walk on Thursday, came in.

They joined us and we had a very pleasant chat, complete with useful info about Derby, which metropolis we plan to visit next week

After a peaceful lunch and a bit of internet banking by Sheila (we're in the throes of changing current accounts), we visited Shiraz for tea. They'd been away until now, so it was good to catch up with them again. They've been taking winter moorings here for a few years, so again we were able to pick their brains about bus routes and the like.

We've just now returned to Sanity Again. I've put a piece of gammon on to boil, with all different veg in there with it; an easy winter tea. Once the meat has come out, I'll add some dried beans I've got soaking, so that tomorrow, we can have soup and cold meat, another easy tea; winter does have some advantages!

/bye

To the butchers

2011-11-11T17:01:00.000Z

Not content with yesterday's exercise, today we walked into Repton to buy some meat. It's just over two miles of not very exciting walking (or exciting not in a good way, perhaps) as most of it is on a pavement alongside a busy road. The butchers is a smallish but very friendly retail type butcher (that is, he's buying in from a wholesaler and reselling) but with a good range. The meat looks very good, if a bit pricey.

The village itself is dominated by the school, and very interesting architecturally.

The trip back was a bit of a slog; we could have waited ten minutes and caught the bus instead, and I'd be tempted to do that next time. It goes at 15 minutes past each hour.

Alternatively, you can make a day of it by taking the bus into Burton High Street and then catching another one to Alrewas. Shop at Coates, lunch at the pub, and repeat the journey in reverse to get back.

We've been pretty quiet for the rest of the day, not unreasonably, I reckon. The paper has been read, puzzles done and a bit of crochet.

I'm expecting Elanor and Sally any time now; Elanor's bringing us some post, and stopping for dinner.

The firm designing the C&RT website is testing a beta version of it now; if you follow this link, you can take part in making the design as user friendly as possible by doing a simple quiz.

Relaxing morning, energetic afternoon

2011-11-10T17:05:00.001Z

We had a really relaxed start this morning, lying in until well after eight, then getting on with various computing jobs. I went and collected the paper of course, but apart from that we largely stayed on board.

Later in the morning, Jayne off Dolce rang to see if we were going on the local village walk this afternoon. I had been wriggling out of this, but the fact that Jayne and Stephen were going persuaded us to go too. It was a good decision, though a little ironic in some ways. The four of us walked into Willington, where the walkers meet in the public car park at half one. It's a "Walking for Health" group, with local authority support, and does about an hour's walk each week.

This week, for a change from their regular routes, they had arranged… to walk round the marina.

/nobigdeal

It worked out quite well, in the event. We all walked along the towpath to the footbridge, went into the marina via the far pedestrian gate, and went round it widdershins. We were the only members of the 14 strong group to use the marina, so we were able to add useful info as we circumnavigated the lake.

We went back to the village the way we'd come, and all went into the Green Man for a beverage. Most had tea or coffee, but some of us reprobates indulged in J₂Os. We were able to have a good chat with an assortment of local residents we'd not otherwise have met, and got a decent bit of exercise into the bargain, so by no means a wasted day.

The Green Man seems a decent if basic pub; we'll try a meal there sometime as a change from the Dragon.

Tomorrow, we plan to walk into Repton to visit the butcher there, probably coming back on the bus.

Into Burton again

2011-11-09T16:45:00.000Z

We've made another successful foray into Burton. The first bus that we can use our bus passes on leaves from the stop just down the road from the marina at 10.24, so it's possible to have a relaxed start to the day, getting various chores done around the boat before setting out. Fortunately, we got to the stop in good time, as the bus was early.

I collected my new varifocals, we found a new pair of boots for Sheila in Millets, and did a bit of shopping in Sainsbury's before getting a sandwich lunch in Marks and Sparks. Then we collected the engraved IWA trophy from the jewellers and had a half hour wait before the bus back was due. So we popped into WH Smith and bought a couple of puzzle books, Codeword for me and Killer Sudoku for Sheila. We were still hanging about for a bit, but the bus was prompt, and we got back to the boat by half one.

A successful session all round. It's being another clammy sort of day, so the fire's well stoked, and we've spent the afternoon relaxing, by and large, except Sheila did a bit more crochet, of course; I'm not sure whether that counts as hobby or work, as she enjoys it, but it's a paid for job.

Tomorrow, we might go on a walk that's organised locally, depends on the weather, methinks.

Dog to dog blog: another day on the boat

2011-11-08T16:47:00.000Z

Hi guys

I'm just giving grandpa a hand to tyoe this, nose under the elbow job, so the spelling may be a bit unconventional. Mummy dropped me off here this morning, much better than spending the day in the house on my tod, or with just the cat for company. The fire is lit, so lots of good kipping in the warm, and we had an excellent run first thing in the running-about-field.

Friends from last year were about, whicxh was cool. Duffy the whippet cross Bedlington terrier has grown uop loads, and we had some good fun chasing her tennis ball. We also ran some races, but, incredibly, Duffy is faster than me, amazing.

After a bit, Katie the low slung something (can't remember what) also arrived and potterde about. She looks like a Cardigan corgi cross, but I'm sure I remember form last year that she's not. Anyway, long amnd low to teh ground, so not very fast, but good fun to be with.

The weather was pretty much like the comntents of a poo bag, frankly, so after charging about, I was glad to get back on board and stack soem more zeds.

After lunch, I took both AGPs for a decent walk; we went along the canalside to a bridge that got klnocked dowmn last year (you can still see the clean brickwork), then over the canal, back along it a bit into and out of Findern village and finally some dull plodding along a road and abck into the marina. Got lots of admiration from passers by, and once back, met up with Katie again. TTHere followed one of gthose tedfious times with the humans yacking away whilst we stood round gettiong cold, but at last we came back to the boat and I could get my head down.

Hopefully, Mum is comimng to pick me up later, and I can get an early night. These fireworks ahve been keeping us up till midnight for the last couple of weeks, and I'm really pee'd ogg with them.

Not much esle to say; I'll try and get Grandpa to take some photos of my friends for next time, but don't hold your breath, he seems to think that two leads, poo bag dispenser, treat bag and spare coat is a lot to cayrry.

Loads of licks,

Your friend

Sally

Better outside than in

2011-11-07T16:53:00.000Z

After the merry weekend, I wanted a chill out day today, and that's what we've had, though not entirely in a good way. The weather, having been glorious yesterday, is grotty today, November at its worst. It's cold, drizzly, raw stuff that makes you glad to be indoors with the fire burning brightly.

We've spent the morning doing stuff either on the computers or the usual crochet and newspaper reading. I'm doing a pub guide for the Braidbar Owners' Group, combining entries submitted by the owners into one large document, turning it into a pdf and making it available on the group's Yahoo site, whilst Sheila is working away on a porthole doily order.

After lunch, we took a walk around the marina, just to stretch our legs. There was a brief power cut, but we'd not been long back on the boat when it came back on. We also went into the marina office to check out how much a full year's mooring would be. The answer was a bit less than three times a four month mooring, so a shade under £3,000. It's a tempting thought, as we'd have the convenience of always having somewhere to come back to, and we're told the local surgery is boater friendly. It's something to mull over for a while.

We also got another plip to work the access gates, to give to Elanor so she doesn't need to haul us out every time she comes to see us. I've had a chat with Peter Mason at Braidbar about the problem of topping up the batteries; he's going to reinvestigate automatic topping up systems and get back to me.

We're dog sitting tomorrow, then on Wednesday, we'll go back into Burton; we collected Sheila's other specs on Saturday, and mine are now ready. The IWA trophy should also be ready for collection.

Briefly: two busy days

2011-11-06T16:59:00.000Z

This is going to be a bit of a scramble; the internet connection has gone slow, the modem needs charging, and we've had a couple of busy but enjoyable days.

We had a good trip into Burton yesterday, choosing photos from the ones that got taken last week, and then enjoying the Bonfire night at the marina. After the fireworks, we retreated inside Sanity Again with Stephen and Jayne, I cooked some baked spuds, because the queue for them at the cafe had been enormous, and we had a generally good time.

Today, Bill and Eileen came over, Bill cut Sheila's hair whilst the rest of us, including Stephen and Jayne again, watched. Then we went to The Dragon for an excellent Sunday lunch, finally ending up on Dolce for tea and little home baked cakes.

We've just got back from that; the splendidly sunny day is going to be followed by a very frosty night by the looks of it, so the fire is lit and the central heating running full blast.

Oh, one other thing; the dog running arrangements here are brilliant, with two large and well enclosed fields for Sally to charge about in.

Hopefully, further and better particulars tomorrow, when I've recovered a bit!

What a nice marina

2011-11-04T16:24:00.000Z

We're in boaters' heaven; we refilled the water tank first thing, then later in the morning took Sanity Again across to the service wharf and pumped her out, filled the fuel tank and bought a cylinder of propane. The propane comes from the shop, the diesel is sold by the marina, and the pump out machine is a DIY one with tokens from the marina office.

I have to say none of these are the cheapest around (diesel 91 ppl domestic, 13kg propane £26.92, pump out £14.30), but the whole place is very friendly and helpful. We had to go out onto the mainline to turn round, but apart from that, no problems at all.

Having got back on our mooring, we visited the once fortnightly market in the car park, which consists of an organic butcher, a market garden fruit and veg stall, and an Italian deli. We bought some meat, a loaf of bread and some interesting looking pasta.

We also visited the café for coffee and hot chocolate. All of the buildings are timber construction, giving a very pleasant feel, not cold, bare and modern at all.

After lunch, we did a walk round the marina perimeter, which takes the best part of an hour to stroll round, by the time you've stopped to chat to folk and taken some photos. Here's a sample:

It's a big marina; this is just a part of it

These curious chaps guard the islands

The marina has won an award for its wildlife

Canada geese feeding

No, he's not part of the wildlife!

Ready for tomorrow's fireworks

Sanity Again on her pontoon

The Shakespeare hire fleet

Midland Chandlers

Ocado delivers again

2011-11-03T16:34:00.000Z

Another advantage of Mercia over Great Haywood marina is that Ocado deliver here but not there; last winter we had to use Sainsbury's, who are OK, but neither the website nor the quality of the goods is quite up to Ocado standard, in my opinion at least.

We pottered about for the first part of the morning, running yet another washload and doing odd jobs on the boat like cleaning boots and descaling the kettle and shower head with LeeScale.

I'd not long made a coffee and settled down to some computer stuff when the phone rang; the Ocado man was at the gate. He loaded the crates onto his truck and we were soon passing bags into the boat. On unpacking and checking the groceries, there was one casualty (only the second in all the years we've been using them). The loaf of sliced bread had been put at the bottom of the bag, and some bananas and a refill pack of Horlicks Light instant malted drink placed on top.

One half of the loaf was now a very curious shape. I've duly claimed a refund, and should see it within the next couple of days. It's only £1.40, but it's good to give them feedback, apart from anything else.

After lunch, we ambled round to find where Dolce is moored on Quail pontoon, right in the middle of the lake. It makes you realise once again just how big the marina is; it's so cunningly laid out that it's just not apparent much of the time. I'll try and get some photos over the next couple of days to illustrate this.

Tomorrow, we'll probably boat over to the service wharf, pump out, diesel and get a cylinder of gas, but apart from that it's going to be a chill out day. The washing is now up to date, and we can start thinking about getting into winter working mode.

Into Burton

2011-11-02T17:15:00.000Z

We made our first trip into Burton by bus today; it's an hourly service from a stop just up the road from the marina entrance. It takes about the same time as the journey into Stafford from Great Haywood, twenty minutes or so, but there's not the long walk at the beginning and end.

We dropped the IWA trophy off with a jewellers to get it engraved, collected the first half of the specs order from Vision Express, readers for Sheila and intermediates for computing for me, and went into Nationwide to do proof of identity stuff for a new bank account.

This all went very smoothly, so we celebrated by popping into M&S for some night attire each. A sandwich lunch in Sainsbury's (no expense spared in the Napier household) and we were done.

We had to wait for twenty minutes for the bus back, but it was a fine day and so no hardship.

The bus route is fun too, running along the southern bank of the Trent after going through Repton, a village now dominated by its public school, rather, but formerly the capital of Mercia.

We've had a quiet afternoon; Stephen and Jayne looked for a chat, but otherwise it's been pottering on the computer and yet more laundry. Sheila tells me that only another two washloads and she'll be done.

Mind you, by then, I'll have put more stuff out for the wash…

Into winter moorings

2011-11-01T16:40:00.000Z

It's been a busy day. Elanor arrived with Sally just before eight, and I then popped into the village to get a paper and some veg to make a stew tonight. We'd planned to get a pump out and fill with diesel on the way into the marina, but mature thought suggested that this might not be an optimal manoeuvre:

Working the boat with Sally "helping" is tricky enough, without trying to do a self pump out as well
The toilet tank is only just over three quarters full
There is admittedly just a quarter tank of diesel left, but we'll only be using it for central heating now, and it's recommended to use as much as possible of the summer diesel before filling it with the winter formulation.

So we decided to go straight onto the mooring. This was made more interesting by the aforesaid Sally effect (she likes to stand behind you on the stern deck, so that you are constantly worrying about kicking her into the cut) and by the fact that I had to hover for a while to let a CanalTime boat pass by before starting the turn into the arm that leads into the marina.

We'd already taken a bit more time than usual setting off; I had Sally with me on the stern, and Sheila went round pulling up the pins and pushing off the bow. Except that, when she hopped ashore to do this last, the towpath gave way under her foot and she sat down. The foot was well stuck, so Sally and I practised our Olympic looking as the stern drifted out into the cut whilst Sheila apparently just sat there on the towpath. Eventually she got free and normal service was resumed.

I'm pleased to say that no harm was done, good crew being hard to find these days, so one has to hang onto what one can get.

/blur

Good steerers are hard to find, too, and I have to admit that I misjudged the turn into the marina entrance slightly. The arm isn't quite square to the mainline, so you need to overshoot it a little and turn back into it. I overdid this, ended with the boat stuck across the cut and had to get Sheila to shaft the bow round. Typically, I was being followed by one of the Shakespeare hire boats (will they rename them the Earl of Oxford hire fleet?) being steered by a staff member who, of course, made the turn with no trouble at all.

This is a huge marina; it takes a significant time to boat from the entrance to your pontoon, which only comes into view after a while. There was the usual fun turning Sanity Again into her slot, but that went reasonably smoothly, with only a bit of shoving and heaving by Sheila at the bow.

Once secured, Sheila looked after the pooch whilst I did the running around getting out and rigging the shoreline and starting the water tank refilling. During the day, we've also disposed of a load of recycling (really good here, just separate the glass from everything else) and Sheila has run three loads of washing and tumbled two of them.

The other good news is that the 3 connection, which was pretty rubbish on the towpath at Willington, is reasonably fast in the marina.

I took Sal for a good walk this afternoon, crossing the canal by the footbridge near the marina entrance and walking east along the towpath for half an hour or so. There are some fields by the marina where you can run dogs loose, but I haven't sussed those out yet.

Tomorrow, we're going to take the bus into Burton to collect out first pairs of glasses, put the IWA trophy in for engraving and do some other retail therapy.

Last day out for a bit

2011-10-31T16:18:00.000Z

We've had a quiet day here in Willington, though it started early, body clocks not yet having adjusted to the changed time. We got a bit of shopping in at the Co-op, and otherwise have been lurking on board, dealing with emails and the like.

One item was the latest BW Boater's Update; nothing much new, frankly, I seem to have read it all already in other places, but I was struck by this encomium about the Canal & River Trust's new logo:

In the same way, the Canal & River Trust’s magnificent swan evokes serenity, protectiveness and much more in people’s minds. From the research and the reaction we know that it resonates well with the general public.

Now, to an extent all this is true, in the sense that this is indeed the myth that surounds the mute swan. I'm very happy to see them around, but anyone who has much to do with them knows that they are great, bullying, stroppy, murderous beasts, quite capable of demanding bread with menaces and of driving away any competition.

In the spring, the males or cobs have been known to drown an entire brood of ducklings to make sure that their own offspring get first crack at the grub.

There's a moral in there somewhere, as the Red Queen keeps saying in Alice in Wonderland. When she's not shouting "Off with his head" of course.

Tomorrow, into the marina...

What time is it?

2011-10-30T16:21:00.000Z

It's not often one can say "Earlier than you think", but for those of us in the UK, that's true today. We switched from Summer Time to GMT at 2 this morning, so if you are reading this at your desk on Monday morning and wondering where everyone else is, that's the explanation.

/nobigdeal

Best example of the confusion that the old "Spring forward, Fall back" rule can cause was evident this morning in the Co-op. Visiting it to buy guess what, I also decided to get four cans of Bass to keep the supplies going until we can get an Ocado delivery in. This meant that we had to wait a couple of minutes at the till until it was ten o'clock, as they are not allowed to sell booze before then on a Sunday.

Whilst we did so, another gent came through and expressed surprise: "It's nearly twelve o'clock" he said.

Er no, I think you may have just moved yourself onto Moscow time there…

Best bit of the day was visiting the marina, where we had a cheerful encounter with the guy in the office to do the paperwork, producing our insurance cert and Declaration of Conformity, paying the balance of the bill and so on. We also got our radio key fobs to get in through the gate into the mooring area; no remembering pin codes here.

We took another look at where we are to moor, and were impressed all over again. On the way back, we had another natter with Stephen and Jayne; Dolce Far Niente is tied just a bit in front of us.

Since lunch, we've been chilling out with the paper and stuff. It'll be another quiet day tomorrow, then on Tuesday we move into the marina, stopping for diesel and a pump out on the way.

We're also dog sitting that day, so could be interesting...

Busy, busy

2011-10-29T16:36:00.000+01:00

Having got ourselves sorted at Willington, we had a busy day with the family today. Elanor came over and collected us midday, and we rendezvoused with Graeme, Cathy and the boys in the centre of Burton. Amazingly, it all went fine, given that the other half had driven up from North London that morning.

We had a great session at the photographers; she turned out to be a really nice old dear, who was excellent at getting the boys to pose. We'll be going back next Saturday to choose which prints we want.

Since that will be the acid test, I won't plug the name just yet; watch this space.

Then we all went back to Sanity Again for refreshments and stuff, and I was presented with a belated birthday present from the Lincoln branch of the clan in the form of a bottle of 12 year old Bowmore. Yum.

After all this excitement, I'm pretty knackered, frankly, so will leave it at that for now...

On to Burton, then Willington

2011-10-28T16:46:00.000+01:00

It was another A-team day, when the plan came together in a very gratifying way. We got up in good time and arrived at Shobnall just before nine. Into Cooper's Square we went, and chose some frames for new glasses at Vision Express. Then came the painful bit, agreeing what lenses we needed and which arm and leg were going to have to go to pay for them…

We're getting two pairs each, of which the simpler ones will be ready by Wednesday (they couldn't do them in the spot, the machine had broken down) and the varifocals will take a week or so longer. After giving the credit card a fright, we went back to Shobnall where we bought some more kindling and four bags of mixed ovals to keep us going until we get into Mercia.

By now it was after eleven, so we set off for the last stretch to Willington, lunching on the way. In fact, Sheila was in the middle of hers when we arrived, to find the moorings incredibly busy. We've ended up just off the end of the visitor moorings. Initially, we had a rather grotty bit of towpath to tie on, and indeed I took a tumble getting off the bow; it had drifted out, so I made a big jump, put my foot down a hole and fell flat on my face, skidding briefly along still clutching the whirligig support pole I'd been fetching.

The good news is that the pole was undamaged, and I'd been planning to put that hoodie and pair of trousers out for the wash anyway. A bit later, the boat in front left, and we were able to pull forward onto a better bit of towpath.

Once we were all sorted, we popped back along the moorings for a good old natter with Ivor Batchelor, who's swapped his working pair, Mountbatten and Jellicoe for a single motor, in fact a butty converted into a motor, Lepus. The pair are up for sale on Apollo Duck.

Ivor's no longer trading in coal, but Mel is still painting and selling canalware.

Tomorrow, we're having a family get together; Elanor has a free voucher for one of the Burton photographers, so Graeme, Cathy and the boys are coming over and we're all going to get our photies took.

Dog to dog blog: spending the day with the AGPs

2011-10-27T16:49:00.000+01:00

Hi guys

I spent yesterday with the AGPs; dunno why, just when I'd got used to being left alone to get some kip during the day (while Mummy goes out to work to earn dosh to buy me more stuff), she decided to cart me off to the boat. NO sooner have I got there than it's on with the orange buoyancy jacket (does suit me, I admit) and off we go.

Loads of time spent turning round, then I stayed on the back to supervise Granny's steering. It means I can do Olympic looking when I feel like it, and Granny had put my blanket down just inside on the engine box to get some kip if I needed it. Didn't bother with it too much, just a lot going on.

Didn't need to bark a lot this time; I'm getting the ducks and swans just about where I want them. We finished up back at the water park where we were last time I visited, and Grandpa took me for another walk in the afternoon. This wasn't too hot, frankly, just a plod along the towpath and then a bit of field path, but at least it stretched my legs.

It made up a bit for the cruel treatment over lunch; Grandpa made himself the scrummiest sandwich you've ever smelt, sardines in tomato sauce, and though I kept practising my hypno stare on him, no joy at all, he scoffed the lot. I obviously haven't got the knack yet.

Grandpa says that if it had worked, I'd be doing the hippo stare instead, the way I put weight on.

He can be so cruel at times, it's just not true.

Things looked up in the afternoon, when new friends Stephen and Jayne came to visit. They used to own a labrador, but despite that showed a proper appreciation of how to treat me, and I was able to work the room for strokes and ear fondling for a good hour.

After that, finally got some kip before Mummy came to collect me. It's the night she spends at Capable Canines terrorising puppies, so she left me in the car for most of it, as I'm not fond of the little ankle biters. She brought me out for the last section to show them how to do it, but I'd stiffened up and could hardly hobble round the arena.

What with being dragged down the towpath and then left abandoned in cars, it's no wonder. Jacky the boss at CC says I need a proper coat to keep me warm, and she's going to let me try one on tonight.

Me, I fancy something like the one here.

That's about all for now; I'm having a regular day at home today, hence the chance to catch up with you all.

Loads of licks

Your houndie friend

Sally

Back to Branston

2011-10-26T17:05:00.000+01:00

In the days when we hired, we'd often take a boat out in the October half term, as the weather can be brilliant at this time of year, and so it's turned out this year. Elanor dropped Sally off with us at eight, and we boated up to the winding hole, turned round and by half eight were locking down the river lock.

Last time we boated with Sal, she seemed to enjoy being on the stern, rather than helping the lock wheeler, so we kept her there all the time this time. She was able to do some serious Olympic looking round the end of the cabin side:

The rake of the ears shows how much she's enjoying it

Most of the locks were with us, so we had a quick trip to Branston. I tried rigging the Gorillapod flexible tripod that I got for my birthday on the top plank of the cratch, and shot some video through the Fuji Finepix camera.

It's worked quite well, though I'm sure a proper camcorder would have done a better job; I was going to put a sample up here, but video files are very big even with a lot of compression, so I don't think it's feasible, sadly.

We've tied by Branston Water Park just a boat length ahead of Dolce Far Niente. I took Sally for a good walk at lunchtime, and then in the afternoon, Stephen and Jayne came round for a natter.

They were very popular with Sal; former dog owners themselves, they understand a dog's need to be cosseted, especially round the ears.

We'll stay here tomorrow, do a bit of Morrisons shopping and maybe try a meal in the Blacksmith's Arms in the evening.

Last day in Alrewas

2011-10-25T16:54:00.000+01:00

We were able to have a very relaxed start this morning, after an excellent meal in the George and Dragon last night. Will joined us for a drink or two, and brought my post. This included a bowel cancer screening test kit. For those under 60, you don't want or need to know about these; for the rest, all I can say is that it gives a whole new world of meaning to playing Pooh sticks.

/blur

Apart from that things have been great. Sheila had a good session at the dentist this morning; it was good to find out that the new guy is as skilled as the previous owners of the practice. Whilst she was away, I set things up to repaint the starboard gunwale, and after coffee, the two of us got stuck in and did it. This means that the boat is set up to cope with the worst that the winter can throw at the outside at least.

This afternoon, we took a stroll to see if we could find a route through a culvert under the A38 that would be a better way of walking to the National Memorial Arboretum than the one we used last time.

We found the culvert, and I've recorded that bit of it on the Garmin and on RoadTrip on the Mac. I'll see if I can find away of making it available more generally; we still need to check out the the other half of the route, from the far end of the culvert to the NMA.

Tomorrow, we set off again for Branston, where we should catch up with Stephen and Jayne on Dolce Far Niente. They left this morning:

Stephen hovering

Jayne waiting for the lock to fill

Oh look, it's Alrewas again

2011-10-24T17:02:00.000+01:00

It is nice when a plan comes together, and that's what happened today, with an added bonus I'll come to shortly. We dragged ourselves out of bed at 6.45, drank tea whilst dressing and breaking our fasts, and were on the way by half seven.

Tatenhill lock was soon passed, and on arrival at Barton Turn we stopped on the water point.

Thus far, it was a straight rerun of the last time we came this way, even to starting a washload whilst filling the water tank. The big difference was a lot less traffic, despite the fact that it's half term for most of the country. We did cross with Balmaha at Wychnor Lock; they told us that there was plenty of room at Alrewas, as indeed there was when we got there.

We've tied on the moorings by Rebel's field, which soon filled up. A quick trip into the village got enough grub for lunch and dinner, so we settled down to chill out for the afternoon. Elanor then rang to change arrangements for dog sitting this week; we'd been going to tomorrow, but she's asked us to take Sally on Wednesday instead.

No sooner was this organised than Stephen and Jayne from Dolce Far Niente turned up, and the rest of the afternoon slid happily by drinking tea and chatting.

Dolce is spending the winter in Mercia Marina, like us, so lots more opportunities will present themselves. Indeed, we may well catch up with them on our way back towards Burton, as they are planning to spend a few nights at Branston.

We've decided to eat in the George and Dragon tonight, and hopefully will meet up with Will Chapman whilst we're there.

Two black jobs

2011-10-23T16:35:00.000+01:00

Jobs involving the colour black have been the theme of the day, first with black paint and then with the black hearted sinner dog otherwise known as Sally the hound.

Sheila has been complaining for some time about the state of the port side gunwale, which never got a fresh coat of black sheen this spring. So while she was off getting my paper and taking a stroll round the Water Park lake, I made a start, sorting out the brushes, paint and stuff and getting the bucket and sponge out of the bow locker.

I vigorously brushed down the rusty area of the heavy rubbing strake that protects the bow of the boat, and then gave it a going over with wet and dry paper. Then I washed the whole area that was to be painted. Purists might comment that I should have used a rust converter and then primed the rubbing strake, but frankly, since it takes an awful lot of punishment even with skilled steerers like Sheila, there's just no point in taking too much trouble over it.

Whilst the washed area was drying, I went over the main cabin side and forward bulkhead, using a rag soaked in white spirit to clean off places where the Oxford Blue had got chipped. Then I took a large artists paint brush and touched in those places.

Sheila came back whilst this was going on, so we had a coffee before I got started on the heavy work with the black sheen. I used a foam wedge brush to do the tricky bits at the boundaries with other colours, then a big 3" brush for the rest. I was interested to try it this way; previously, I've used a small roller for this job.

It seems to be much of a muchness both in terms of effort and amount of paint used. By twelve, the job was done bar tidying up. Sheila had helped in the final stages, holding the boat away from the side, and glaring at those inconsiderate ~~sods~~ people who don't see the need to slow down even when they can see that someone is working on the side of their boat.

After lunch, Elanor and Sally arrived. Elanor was on her way to a performance of Riverdance at Lichfield, and left Sal with us for the afternoon. I took her for a walk in due course, up to Tatenhill Lock, across the canal and over the fields towards Tatenhill village, deliberately coming out somewhat to the west to increase the amount of exercise involved.

We had to do a bit of road walking on narrow country roads, which wasn't too pleasant, but eventually found the footpath leading back towards the canal, emerging onto the track which runs along the offside of the canal opposite the Bridge Inn.

I worked out this route with the aid of a bit of OS map printed off from the OS Get a map service. It's free unless you want to use their print service – they obviously haven't heard of partial screen capture, which produces a perfectly useable map square for this kind of shortish walk.

For anything more adventurous, I would want to use the proper purchased sheet anyway.

Sally is looking a good deal better exercised now than she did first thing yesterday, between her chase on the Chase and now her walk with me.

Tomorrow, we'll head back to Alrewas for Sheila's dental appointment on Tuesday.

A bit of catching up, and Sally on the Chase

2011-10-22T18:03:00.000+01:00

Today, we went to Morrisons, and later on walked Sally on Cannock Chase with Elanor. The walk was very entertaining; Elanor drove us round to Brocton and up into the Chase, and we did a circular walk from there. Sally was hilarious – she was very excited, having had comparatively limited exercise during the week now that Elanor is working, and spent a huge amount of time initially bounding up and down through the heath and heather.

We came down to the stream and walked along it to the Stepping Stones site, and so back up the ridge to the car park. We did about two miles, but Sal must have clocked up at least four times that.

I'm looking after her tomorrow, as Elanor is off to see Riverdance with some fellow dog trainers, so I'll make sure she gets some more walking then.

That's about all about today, so a couple of items of catching up:

First off, a while back, I was asked about the route from Branston to Morrisons, and never got round to answering properly as the IWA Festival happened. So here it is:

From the towpath by the Bridge Inn at Branston, walk up the steps onto the road and away from the canal into Tatenhill Lane. At the end of the road, (*) go through the underpass beneath the A38 and carry on until you come to Main Street. Turn left and walk past the little parade of shops (includes a PO and a newsagent/stores) and the pub to the main road.

Cross at the pedestrian crossing and turn right, still on Main Street, which is now a busy road. After a few hundred yards, turn left into Clays Lane and walk quite some distance along it on the right hand side until you pass a grassy play area. At this point the street bears left, but you go straight on along a footpath which leads into the back of the Morrisons car park.

If you are tied on the Water Park moorings, you can walk through the park, keeping to the left, until you come to another entrance to the A38 underpass, then carry on from (*) above.

Secondly, regular readers will recall our attempts to get our money back on the Gelert folding chairs which came apart on us. I'm sorry to say that despite letters, Bromley Hayes Garden Centre by Kings Bromley marina has declined even to enter into discussions about repaying us. An email to Gelert got nowhere either, so it looks as if we shall just have to write this one off to experience. At less than £50 for the two, it's not worth even going into the Small Claims court.

I can't recommend that Garden Centre, needless to say.

/omg

I can see for miles and miles and miles...

2011-10-21T16:39:00.000+01:00

Now that the drops have worn off, that is. We had a good session at Vision Express, just a shade late running. Sheila needs new specs, and I am just about changed enough to justify some too, so we'll sort those out on the way back through, I reckon.

I didn't feel like helping Sheila choose new frames whilst squinting through blurry eyes…

/blur

The run down this morning was very straightforward, and we got there in very good time, so were able to a) wind the boat before tying and b) unload all our recycling at the handily positioned council tip on the way. It was nearly lunchtime when we got back, so we ate and then moved the boat.

It was my turn to steer, and I was nearly fully functional again, so did the business. Actually, despite a certain fuzziness at more than 100 foot off, I managed a neat approach to the bottom of Branston Lock, though I say it myself. A single hander had just emerged and closed up as we came into view, but since the move off the lock landing into the lock is a bit tedious for a full length, I took Sanity Again gently up to the gates and Sheila hopped off to open them.

She afterwards told me that I'd stopped with just a few inches between the bow fender and the gates.

Neat, huh?

/nobigdeal

Back at Branston once more, we had a quick chat with Elanor on the phone, she being at home in her lunch break to run the pooch; she's stopping by tonight with a mail delivery.

The rest of the day has been pretty quiet, reading, doing the crossword and codeword, winding up Sue Cook of Indigo Dream on Twitter (Should that be twinding up?).

She claims that describing her car as stationery is valid as it's full of paperwork, but I thought it was already full of greyhounds…

/wahaha

We'll stay here for a couple of days, then back to Alrewas one last time for now.

To the Morrisons mooring

2011-10-20T16:25:00.001+01:00

Thinking that our eye test appointments were starting at 9.30 tomorrow, we decided to go to the Morrisons mooring, half way between Branston and Shobnall, today. This meant a reasonably early start, since we had to wind Sanity Again first. Accordingly, we set off at 7.45, just after I got back from a quick trip to the shops for, guess what, bread and a paper.

Sheila did her usual skilled job of the winding, though the winding hole below Bagnall is frankly only just long enough for 70'. It looks a lot longer, but the bend in the towpath opposite means that this is deceptive. Sheila motored the stern round, but actually I wonder if next time I'm doing it, I might not try just resting the stem on the fender at the back of the hole and hauling the stern round with a line.

Anyway, it was just on eight as we set off back for a straightforward run. Most of the locks were more or less with us, and we started to see some traffic going both ways. The weather was clear and cold, very pleasant as long as you were well wrapped up.

On this point, I should mention that we've been keeping the stove in all day for the last couple of days, so the boat is only chilly first thing in the morning. I suspect most boaters are in the same position, though some Kiwis turned Aussies living somewhere up the Llangollen are apparently making a virtue out of shivering in their multiple layers of clothing without even the Webasto on.

/hmm

It's all right, Tom and Jan, you are allowed to light the fire even though we're still on summer time you know…

;)

We got to the Morrisons mooring just after eleven, to find one boat at each end, so we've tucked ourselves in as neatly as we can, hopefully leaving room for one more here.

After lunch, we had handy texts from Vision Express reminding us that our appointments start at ten, not nine thirty, so we could have stopped at Branston. Oh well, it'll mean a lazier start in the morning, that's all, when we'll boat the twenty minutes to Shobnall and then walk into town. I hope to be able to blog at the usual time tomorrow, assuming my eyes have returned to normal after the effect of the dreaded atropine drops have worn off.

I don't know, I never touched anything bar booze and fags all the time I was an undergrad and postgrad, but since I've retired I seem to spend my whole life scarfing down one substance or another, all now provided free by a caring state.

Gosh I'm glad I don't live in the USA...

Another quiet day

2011-10-19T14:41:00.000+01:00

After yesterday's bustling around, today has been pretty quiet, both activity-wise and weather-wise. I was up early, so as to get to the surgery for 8.15 to make an appointment to see the GP. It's just as well I was, as Elanor rang at seven to discuss what to do with the hedgehog Sally had caught.

There wasn't much I could think of just then, and indeed since the tiggy was apparently unharmed by its trip in Sally's mouth, leaving it to recover in its own time seemed the best.

I'm due to see the doc at 3.40, which is why I'm doing this post a bit earlier than usual, the likelihood being that I'll be late back with cooking and stuff to do.

Apart from that, it's been a case of loafing in the boat, doing a bit of tidying up and reading the paper. I managed to finish the Codeword without cheating, but Sheila had to do the last couple of clues in the concise crossword.

Good grief, I must be short of stuff to write about...

Never mind, we're off again tomorrow, to the Morrisons mooring probably, so as to get to Shobnall in good time to walk into town and see the optician at half nine on Friday.

Just a quickie

2011-10-18T18:02:00.000+01:00

Blame Will Chapman; I went over to his house to collect some NHS mail (we live with Will and Jane for NHS purposes) and we got talking about this and that and the other, so it's nearly six and I should be cooking dinner.

In brief, I had a good session at the surgery, all well there, but I still need to see the doc tomorrow. Sheila needs some more work on her teeth, so we'll be back here in Alrewas next week.

Better and further particulars tomorrow.

Back to Alrewas

2011-10-17T16:26:00.000+01:00

One good thing about having to hang around and about Alrewas like this whilst we sort out our regular medical/dental/optical checks, it convinces me, if I ever needed convincing, that the life of a bridge hopping continuous moorer would drive me potty.

OK, pottier.

With exception of the bit right alongside the A38, the Trent and Mersey around here is a perfectly pleasant canal. It wouldn't win awards in a "most scenic waterway in the country" competition, but it's a good example of the early efforts of the canal engineers. And yet it bores me to tears, almost, to plod to and fro along such a short segment from Burton to Alrewas and back.

No matter. Today we made our early start without too much trouble, and were soon working up Tatenhill Lock. There was just enough traffic about to keep it interesting, but the weather was really not encouraging. We've gone from scenic autumnal conditions to just grim, cool, breezy and damp, though it didn't actually rain whilst we were underway.

We stopped at Barton Turn for half an hour and refilled the water tank. Sheila got a washload going at the same time, which was just nicely finishing as we arrived at Alrewas. I had to hover below Wychnor, the radios earning their keep as Sheila kept me briefed about what was happening at the lock, Wychnor being one of those where it's best to stay well back and let the descending boat get well clear before you head on into the lock.

Alrewas was pretty busy, but we've found a space on the 14 day moorings by the Bowling Green, so we will be able to sit here until Thursday, by which time we'll have finished here for the next six months, hopefully. Friday, we need to be back at Burton for the opticians first thing, so on Thursday we'll go all the way to the Morrisons mooring, I expect.

What a nice day, mostly

2011-10-16T17:19:00.000+01:00

Every year round about this time, I have the same thought. If I'd known I was going to live this long when I was twenty, I'd have taken better care of my body.

Probably. Too late now, anyway.

First off and before I forget, many thanks to Nev and Mike and Sue for your kind wishes; they are much appreciated. I shouldn't complain, really I shouldn't, I'm a very lucky guy and much better off in lots of ways than almost everyone else that's ever lived on the planet. I doubt if things will ever be as good again as they were for my generation…

Anyway, enough already, I'm sounding maudlin and I haven't even started drinking yet.

After opening presents this morning, we boated off to Shobnall and got a pump out, and I bought some Carnauba wax and boat wash. Peter at Shobnall very kindly pointed out that if I bought the two together in a pack, I'd save a fiver. That was really kind of him, considering that we'd made his Sunday by turning up asking for a pump out before he was even properly open.

(For reference, Shobnall does open on Sundays, but not till ten.)

Then it was tally ho back to Branston, stopping on the Burton side of the bridge this time. We're only here for the one night, and then on to Alrewas again.

I had a go at topping up the domestic batteries, but it's just too difficult. The first one is OK, more or less, but the rest are inaccessible. We knew that this was going to be a problem, as the battery bank is tucked away under the electric cupboard in order to make room for the Hurricane, which sits on the swim on the same side.

After the experience of building Sanity Again, Braidbar don't put a Hurricane in in the same way, but that's no help to us.

It's the penalty of being the innovator, I guess. The long term solution is going to have to be maintenance free batteries. The only way to service these ones would be to drag the whole bank out, and my heart failed at the thought today.

Later on, Elanor and Sally came over with their present for me. Actually, I don't think Sally had a lot to do with choosing it, but she looked on very cheerfully as I opened it.

We're not going anywhere special tonight; I'm saving that for when we're in Willington and I can visit the Dragon again.

A milestone

2011-10-15T16:38:00.000+01:00

I was just wondering what to headline this post with, when I noticed that it's my 1,000th. Isn't it amazing how much ~~dribble~~ drivel, either or both, you can get away with? According to Sitemeter, around 180 people read my witterings on any given day, so it must be doing some good somewhere.

Thank you very much one and all, I'm really pleased that my burblings are of some use.

Hah – I feel a nice warm glow, and not just because I was a bit slow turning the stewing dried fruit off.

We've been quite busy today, mostly shopping at Tamworth. Elanor ran us over there as part of her payback for us looking after Sally all week (mind you, she'd have done it anyway, I'm sure).

She'd also driven up to the APC depot in Derby first thing to collect a parcel from Julian Graves for me, hence the aforesaid stewing fruit. And she brought over the pack of LR1, N-size batteries I'd bought via Amazon, so the galley clock is working again.

Elanor, I don't know how we'd manage without you, really I don't.

/hihi

I've got my money back for my M&S sandals that started coming to bits, and bought a pair of moccasin type slippers in Brantano to replace them. I also nipped into Halfords and got a 5 litre drum of battery top-up water; the battery bank is due for an annual service, I reckon.

Oh, and we went into Sainsbury's so the galley cupboards are full again, including the wine cellar and wine rack.

Tomorrow, we celebrate my natal day by going down to Shobnall and getting a pump out, and I may buy some Carnauba wax whilst there.

Who said boating would be dull?

Away from Alrewas

2011-10-14T16:41:00.000+01:00

Things went largely to plan today; we got up in reasonable time, and I was just setting off to get the paper and some supplies from the Co-op when Elanor arrived with Sally. I got back as Elanor was leaving, and we were soon setting out for Branston.

Sally helped with the first couple of locks, but we discovered later that she quite likes being on the stern with the steerer. It makes it interesting for that person, as we can't quite trust her off the lead yet, so you have to juggle the dog, the tiller, the throttle and the PMR radio. Four hands would be good.

We coped thus with Barton and Tatenhill locks, Sally being reasonably well behaved. Indeed, she was very good with a ~~twit~~ gentleman walking a couple of dogs on the towpath, just as we were approaching Tatenhill. One dog was a well behaved terrier, but the other was a curly coated retriever, with all the intellectual endowment of that group of breeds.

/hmm

It charged up and down the towpath, woofing frantically, working from opposite one end of the boat to the other and back again. Sal stood on the back just looking at it for quite a while, and eventually gave vent to her feelings.

BARK!

Then she was quiet again, obviously having come to the same conclusion as us, that the dog was pretty well off its head. Its owner, meanwhile, just walked on up the towpath, occasionally calling it with no effect whatsoever. At last, just as I was thinking I might have some problems when I had to get off to work the lock, the dog realised that its owner was nearly out of sight and charged off.

It's not the dog's fault, of course. Some people are just amazingly casual about establishing a decent level of control over their mutt. If it's a small or inoffensive beast, this doesn't matter so much (though the poor thing will probably spend a lot of its life worrying about defending its owner) but not everyone realises that that sort of behaviour is just barminess, and would be seriously distressed if they had to confront the animal.

If you keep a dog, a) pick up after it and b) train it at least to be a good citizen.

/please

Rant over.

We found loads of space at Branston, and tied by the Water Park. Elanor came and collected Sally at lunchtime. Elanor gets off early on Friday, so it's a good chance to find out if the arrangements for keeping the hound quiet when alone in the house will work for a longer period. It's another situation where it's actually about reassuring the dog that it doesn't have to defend the property.

If Sal is calm and relaxed in her cave-like den in the back bedroom, then she doesn't feel obliged to go off like a banshee every time she hears something happening outside.

Geoff and Mags turned up on Seyella in the early afternoon; we've had a nice cup of tea and natter with them already.

A last day at Alrewas

2011-10-13T16:15:00.000+01:00

Well, at least until next week…

It's been another quiet day; I'm pretty well fully recovered and Sheila is well on the way. The internet connection has been more spasmodic than usual; maybe the mobile phone systems are getting more use whilst BlackBerry are struggling.

Apart from that, not much to report; walked the pooch, bought a copy of the latest Waterways World, that's about it, really.

There should be more to talk about tomorrow, when we boat to Branston for the weekend, coming back here on Monday for the last appointments (hopefully) on Tuesday and Wednesday. Then it will be back to Burton for the opticians and we'll be done for six months.

We'll have a little bit of time to kill before the start of our winter moorings at Mercia Marina.

Oh, and my pre-ordered Kindle copy of the latest Terry Pratchett, Snuff, has been delivered , just in time for my birthday. Nice.

On the mend

2011-10-12T16:22:00.000+01:00

Feeling a bit better this morning, we decided to head for Branston. We'd warned Elanor to expect to find us on the water point at eight, the tank being down to less than an eighth full. When we got there, we had to hang about for a Canaltime to finish filling, during which time Elanor turned up with Sally.

I think the Canaltime had finished; at any rate, they moved off soon after, and Sally wasn't at all vocal towards them…

The effort of doing all this demonstrated that we weren't as fully recovered as we thought. Fortunately, there was a space on the moorings beyond the water point, so we've stopped on it for at least today, and possibly tomorrow as well. We've got until Friday to move away and still comply with the 14 day rule.

I gave Sally a walk to Wychnor Lock this morning, but apart from that we've been taking it quietly. The good news is that Elanor's training exercise with Sal last night, working on her staying in the house quietly, seems to have been successful. Elanor was out for an hour and the neighbours reported no noise from the pooch.

The combination of the anti bark collar (it vibrates if she barks loudly), being shut in the room with her home cage in it, having something to chew and Radio 2 to listen to seems to be doing the trick. We'll carry on dog sitting this week, and Elanor will hopefully be able to complete the training over the weekend.

Not much to say today

2011-10-11T16:44:00.000+01:00

My apologies to those who reckon that if I've got not much to say I shouldn't post; if I don't say something, folk start to worry.

We're both a bit under the weather, Sheila more than me; nothing serious, I hope, just grotty, so not much has been done. I made it to the dentist; Sheila had to postpone, and I've managed to walk the pooch, but that's about it.

Oh, and I did the new codeword puzzle in the revamped Independent. It's 25 years old today, and I've lost count of the restylings it's had. Fortunately, the writing continues to be as strong as ever.

Hopefully, we'll feel better tomorrow, as we're planning to move the boat; we need water.

A bit weary

2011-10-10T16:43:00.000+01:00

It was too warm last night to light the fire, and anyway, we had had a good dinner of roast beef with wow-wow sauce, spuds and green beans. Possibly it was the impact of this meal that gave both Sheila and I a bit of a rough night for starters, but in addition, at around half three, Sally started whining. At first, I thought that she was just trying it on to get some company, but after quite a while, and after it had woken Sheila, we realised that things must not be right with her.

The poor tender little wuss was cold.

There was nothing for it but to let her into our bedroom, and therefore onto our bed. With a happy sigh, she soon settled down and was both whiffling and dreaming away. This meant, of course, that we got the benefit of the twitching limbs and strange noises, but we did eventually manage to doze off again.

We're looking forward to tonight, when she'll be back with Elanor overnight, and just coming to us for the day. As it is, we're getting a lot more exercise than usual.

The high spot of the day was checking out some photos of the Open Day and Owners' Weekend taken by Graham Johnson of Priscilla last month. One in particular has been captioned "Wilson, Keppel and Betty"; I've been haunted all day by an image of the two men concerned, Peter Mason, who's 6' 4", and Des Barnard, who's a good deal shorter, dressed in white sheets and fezzes and shuffling around to the strains of The Old Bazaar In Cairo.

Maybe next year we need to have a party pieces session at the Owners' Weekend…

/wahaha

Doggy Sunday

2011-10-09T16:09:00.000+01:00

I tried to get Sally to do this blog, but she's on strike. In fact, she's now lying in the kneehole of my desk, having started off sitting in there. That didn't work terribly well, as her head hits the underside of the desktop, so she's sort of lying down, with her forepaws on my left foot.

This is to let us know that she's a very tired dog, having been walked far too much over the last two days. Actually, I reckon it's the greyhound coming out; she's glad enough to go for the walk, and bounds about cheerfully for the first five miles, but then starts walking to heel incredibly well, and just collapses once back on board.

After first slurping up an amazing amount of water, of course. She will now spread herself out asleep wherever we happen to be, only waking up a bit when I start cooking, and doing so properly when we have finished eating, which is the signal for her to be fed.

This morning, Sheila did the walk into the village for the paper and some perishables like lettuce and hummus, and I walked Sal up to Common Lock and back for her morning stretch. That's around one mile, so she's had about 6½ altogether today; this afternoon we did the walk to Fradley village over the fields, then along the towpaths to the Junction and so home.

If I was being sadly anthropomorphic, I'd say that she's realised what the plan is for this week and is trying to demonstrate that she can be trusted to go to the office with Elanor, but really, it's just the Dobermanny bit about being close to her humans.

Office work is so tiring!

Dog sitting

2011-10-08T17:27:00.000+01:00

Elanor's got a temporary job for the next four weeks, starting on Monday, and couldn't get any dog sitting organised for the first few days, so it's handy that we're in the area…

We were looking after Sally this weekend anyway, as Elanor's off at the WRG reunion dig on the Basingstoke, and now we'll have her during the day for the week as well.

It's meant rejigging our cruising plans, as we need to be within easy reach of Burton; the job is from half eight to half five. We'll still leave Alrewas on Wednesday, after seeing the dentist on Tuesday, but instead of going to Tamworth and Kingsbury Water Park, we'll just chug gently into Burton, stopping at Branston Water Park on the way in and Barton Turn on the way back, probably.

Today we took the pooch a long walk through the fields to Alrewas Hayes and then back along the towpath. She was generally well behaved, despite provocation by an overweight labrador bitch at Alrewas Hayes, who came out and disputed the right of way with us for a bit until her owner came and removed her.

He wasn't very gentle with the lab, and it was at that point that Sally barked a bit; I really didn't blame her under the circumstances and she soon quieted on command. Elanor really has achieved a lot with the very nervous, mouthy dog she gave a home to fifteen months ago.

Oh, just to catch up; last Thursday's meal at the George and Dragon was as good as ever, if a bit over-salted for our taste. Definitely better than the Jaipur Cottage, though.

Lots to say

2011-10-06T16:46:00.000+01:00

I'm not sure where to start today, as there are three different topics I want to mention, and I probably won't be blogging tomorrow, so can't leave any of it until then.

People are more important than anything else, so let's start there.

We had a nice chat with Geoff of Seyella yesterday, together with his dog. Seyella is tied just a bit back up the canal from here, and he'd walked the dog down to see if we were about, which was really nice of him. The dog is another Bearded Collie bitch, like the "Flying Hearthrug" that inhabits Farne, and about as loopy, judging from her behaviour.

Geoff, it was good to meet up, and here's looking forward to more encounters in the future.

Next up is Bill and Eileen's visit this morning, to trim Sheila's hair. It's really coming on, and we are ever so grateful to Bill for taking the time and trouble to do it. They put a lot of time into keeping track of various Braidbar Owners too, so it's always great to catch up on all the gossip with them. For example, they were able to update us on the progress of Chris Herriot, whose boat, Eleventh Heaven, is in build at the moment.

Chris has just had a major operation and is still in intensive care as a result, so we're all thinking of him and his wife Lesley. Best of luck for a full recovery, Chris, and for many happy years boating on Eleventh Heaven.

Finally, as Sheila was sat there being trimmed, Streamline was seen going past, still with Alan and Liz on board. Obviously, we couldn't dive out for a chat just then, so after lunch, we walked down the moorings on the off chance, and there she was, tied by what used to be Rebel's field. It meant we could have another catch up session with them.

Another owner of Streamline, Peter Beckett, is a regular reader of this blog, so hi Peter, and make sure Alan leaves the old boat in decent condition for once…

/floor

Next up, at last we know what the new waterways charity is going to be called – it's to be the Canal and River Trust, with a logo not too dissimilar from the current BW one:

Hmmm… so will it be the CRT, like an old cathode ray tube, or will we all be in the CaRT?

The Welsh version will be Glandwr Cymru, so if the boss of that bit happens to be called Owen, presumably he'll be Owain Glandwr? (Jôc Cymraeg, ydy o).

Finally, a correspondent thinking of making the big move from land to water asked us about the annual costs of running Sanity Again. This worked out more or less as follows, all in pounds sterling:

Winter mooring	1100
Insurance	500
Licence	830
Engine maint	200
Blacking	400
Diesel	2000
Gas	120
Coal	300
Pump out	250
Repair and replace	500

Total	6200

That's all for now; probably no blog tomorrow, as I'll be at the Eye Clinic in the afternoon, so see you on Saturday.

Wild outside, quiet inside

2011-10-05T16:35:00.000+01:00

It's been a bit of a somnolent day on board, partly because it's been rather the reverse outside. The weather has been getting wild and woolly – no rain yet, but loads of wind. It made the cabin feel quite chilly, so we've relit the Squirrel. That's rather sleep inducing, not because of carbon monoxide leaks, I hasten to add, but just because it's so nice and warm and cosy…

We've both made expeditions out, myself first to get a blood test at the surgery. For once, they'd messed up; I'd got the right day and time according to the note the receptionist gave me on Friday, but it wasn't on their computer system. I had to hang around for a while (half an hour, maybe) before Gail the ~~vivisector~~ venusector could fit me in. (Sorry, I've been rereading HG Wells, The Island of Doctor Moreau.) No matter, it was soon done, and that's me finished with that side of things until a couple of days after my birthday, when I'll see the nurse for a full review.

After lunch, Sheila went back to the dentist to be fitted with her repaired plate. All was well this time; she's looking forward to being able to chew again.

The rest of the day has drifted by, catching up with email, reading The Independent and the latest Canal Boat and the like.

Tomorrow, Bill and Eileen are visiting to give Sheila's hair a trim, so things will be a bit livelier. We had hoped to give them lunch at the George and Dragon, but Eileen's got a dentist's appointment in the afternoon...