Success

I know that some of my fellow liveaboards get their repeat meds this way every time, but, gosh, I wouldn't want to do that. In fairness, it all worked out OK, but it involved being there at half eight when the Medical Centre opened, persuading the receptionist that I was a bone fide Temporary Resident, and then getting an appointment for 10.20 with one of the GPs. Trek back to the boat, hang about reading the paper, then walk back up the hill to see the doctor.

He was running to time, and had no problem with giving me a script for another month's supply. It's one of those new health centres with a pharmacy in the same building, so I nipped in there and around ten minutes later finally had my drugs.

Points to note: I had to tell the receptionist that I needed emergency treatment (true to the extent that I was running out of drugs I mustn't stop abruptly) and that I was staying somewhere with a postcode. I'd anticipated that one by looking up the postcode for the Stanley Arms last night, and since we were moored nearby, I thought that that would be good enough for them. They just need an address that's inside their practice area to put in the relevant box.

Someone told us the other day that there is a proposal to introduce season ticket repeat prescriptions, such as they have in other countries. That would mean that you got a script valid for three or six months, and presented it every month at any pharmacy of your choice, which would be much more convenient all round, not least because it would save the surgery staff an awful lot of routine and unnecessary work processing repeats.

The only other thing of note was that on my way back from the Medical Centre the first time, I got stopped by the police.

/blur

A pleasant young police woman in a small car (they don't call them Pandas any more, do they?) saw me walking along the side road that leads to the zig zag path down the hill to the footbridge over the canal, and had a casual little chat with me. I didn't think anything about it until a few minutes later, when I realised that I'd been a strange older man walking by himself past a kids playground.

I'm not complaining, it was all very friendly and just an example of effective coppering really, keeping tabs on stuff. But it's the very first time it's happened to me.

By the time I was back at the boat the second time, it was a case of a late coffee, and then an early lunch. The time restrictions on Saltersford Tunnel, whereby you can only enter between the hour and twenty past northbound, meant that we needed to set off at the right moment to get there during the window.

Leaving just after twelve resulted in us arriving just before one, having had to hang about outside Barnton Tunnel for a couple of boats to come through the other way. Both these tunnels are narrow and a bit bendy, and in the case of Saltersford, you can't necessarily see a boat that's coming through.

We've had a very pleasant cruise of it since, mainly in warm sunshine, finally tying on the towpath just beyond bridge 123 and just before Dutton Stop Lock. We passed Chance not long before we finished.

Sheila plans an early start tomorrow, setting off at seven with the aim of getting to Preston Brook Tunnel at eight, which is the start of the ten minute window for northbound boats through that one. Preston Brook isn't particularly bent, but it's long enough to make the time control necessary.