Friday 1st February 2019

I spent the morning tinkering with the boat. First emptied the 20ltr container of water into the tank and went to the water point to refill it. Both of the closer points were frozen so I had to walk to the one on the far side of the junction to fill. I then took the toilet cassette to empty, refilling the water container for a second time, at the same time.

Gave the engine a look over and again, tried to check the batteries. I had bought an extending inspection mirror with an integral light but even this was not good enough for checking the batteries. I have come to the conclusion that to check them properly, they will have to be disconnected and removed. A major job and all to check the water level and test with the hydrometer.

In the afternoon we went for a walk along the canal to Longford and back along the road. It is not a nice area we are in, very deprived although around the canal is nice enough.

We had our dinner in the Greyhound. It was very, very busy with standing room only and not much of that. However, we did manage to get a table quite quickly even though other people were eyeing it up. Eating the dinner was not very good though as people kept knocking us walking past, the dog was crammed under the table and there was a woman sitting at the boaties table next to us with an incredibly high cackle of a laugh that never stopped and was driving us crazy. We didn’t stay long.

The canal has been frozen over all day with the ice about ¾” thick.





Saturday 2nd February 2019



The canal gradually thawed throughout the day although not altogether, the sky at night was clear so it quickly froze again. However, following the weather we have been extremely lucky as the snow and ice in the south has been very bad.

Brenda went into Longford for some shopping while I cleaned the front cratch and cut some logs with the chainsaw.

We then sat and watched the rugby 6-nations. Scotland-Italy and a comfortable win for England against the holders Ireland.  





Sunday 3rd February 2019

As we had previously decided, we kept our traditional Sunday. Prepared the veggies then went for a walk, finishing in the Greyhound for a pint. Got talking to a young family with two kids who Harvey just took to, he does miss our kids. They were named Martha Jane and Harry George, lovely old names.

We had roast chicken dinner and really enjoyed it. The smell when we got back to the boat, with the dinner cooking, just got the taste buds somersaulting.


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