Wednesday 27^th June 2018

It was lovely last night, hearing the church bells from St. Michael and All Angels Church ringing out on their Tuesday night practice.

So today seemed yet another day of chasing around, arranging and buying things.

First thing, I bought and fitted a new door lock. Had to fit big spacers behind the lock plate which is what was wrong with all this time. At least now the lock works although the job will have to be made to look tidy at a later date.

I walked around to the cemetery to try and catch Dennis, the sexton. I have been tracing Tracey’s family for a while now and have tried countless times to catch Dennis, who knows all there is to know about Middlewich cemetery. He is semi-retired now though, and increasingly hard to find.

Before leaving though, while taking the rubbish bag out of the bin, the bag split. An awful job and an awful smell.

We went shopping to Tesco’s. Bought loads of stuff, all of which had to be carried back to the boat. No great hardship but surely I can make it easier.  

We had to take Harvey around to the house to be clipped by Sharon of Posh Paws for probably the last time. I had been back numerous times but it was the first time for Brenda. She found the place lost, empty and barren. It was as much a sad experience for her as it was for me.

We visited Meryl while Harvey was being made handsome. Meryl is the wife of my old friend Pete, who died last year. She has a puppy now. A labradoodle.

On the way back to pick Harvey up we did a big, alcoholic shop in Lidl.

Once back at the boat we decided to move on. We had, we felt, been in Middlewich long enough. We are still being chased to make the final payment for the boat despite the endless delays encountered, problems with the boat and items we have paid for. It all seemed to be getting to be too much. I for one, felt as though I was being kept in a cage.

We dropped down the Big Lock, watered at the water point below, after chasing away the hire boat that was moored there and carried on to the council waste site. Tracey had taken away some rubbish for us, but what we had was starting to smell. We got to the waste site at 2 minutes to 5pm only to be told they now close at 5pm. I was able to dump the rubbish but have been left with all the waste oil after changing the oil in the engine and gearbox. So how do I now get rid of it?

For a town that sits on the junctions of the Cheshire Ring, the Four Counties Ring, routes to Manchester, Llangollen and Chester, a town that is built on the canal, geographically and historically, Middlewich is not at all friendly to boaters. There is no rubbish disposal or toilet emptying facilities and the most used water filling point at the junction with the Shropshire Union Middlewich Branch is cut off. Not even at the Folk and Boat Festival was there any extra facilities for boaters.

We carried on to Bramble Cutting were we are moored up for a few days at least.

Bramble Cutting is a mooring created by the Northwich Boat Club at some time. It is a beautiful spot, some say one of the best locations on any canal anywhere, located on the offside from the towpath, has bench seating and barbeque areas. I had wanted to moor here for many years, all we needed was a boat. It lies less than two miles from Middlewich’s Town Bridge but is a million miles away.

Spain, Italy, Greece, France, forget them all. Bramble Cutting is absolutely idyllic.

                                                               

I had often walked past here, seen boats moored up and said to myself, “bastards”. I was so desperate to be here today that, if we could not have secured a mooring, I would likely have cried. As it was we got the last mooring, along with two other boats.

We had a lovely barbeque and watched the sun go down over Bostock, a road we had travelled many times en-route to Winsford or Northwich.

So a fantastic end to a day. A day that is more like what we came onto the canals for. And hopefully now, the start of our new lives.