Saturday/Sunday 5 th /6 th January 2019 The kids were taken home on the train on Saturday. Manny starts back at school on Monday and it was felt better if he had a full day at home beforehand. This meant we only had them for one full day and two nights. But we all enjoyed ourselves. It is hard to say goodbye though. I took them home on the train with a change in Birmingham New Street, using my senior railcard again. Brenda called in to the marina to arrange for water there. Other than that she has not been feeling too well with a cold virus so took the rest of her time easy. She did however, play about with the power management. We had been thinking that the batteries not charging were something to do with the running of the engine with the inverter switched on. And she has proved this by running the engine, with the inverter off, for just 15 minutes, and the batteries came up to 100% charge. I can’t figure out the logic behind this but hey ho, I am retired. Sunday we...
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Friday 4 th December 2019 We had forgotten at dinner last night, to make it a Christmas dinner with the kids. So we had a Christmas breakfast with cheesy crumpets, bacon and maple syrup. We walked the dog to the nearest water point a mile away as he was going to be left on his own a lot today. We took empty water bottles with us to fill as we are not planning to move until after the kids have gone home so wanted a top up as we will be low by then. We found the water point was out of use with no notification. There are few enough water points on this canal as it is without one being out of use. Over the 22 miles of canal there are just four watering points, and the three others are all now behind us. We notified CRT who say it will be next week now before it can be fixed. Back to the boat to drop Harvey off, and carried on to the nearby Triumph Motorcycle Factory where we had booked a tour for 1:30. The factory...
Thursday 3 rd January 2019 We tidied the boat and eagerly awaited the arrival of the kids. After calling in at a McDonalds on the way over, they arrived at 1pm. Matt stayed a while and then left to beat the traffic. He is due away back to sea within 48 hours, it was just the third time we have seen him over the last year. We went for a walk to see the Greyhound Stadium. Alarm bells started to ring when we noticed the roads of the new housing were called Stadium Close and Paddock Way. Our guide is 15 years old. The stadium was sold to developers in 2006 and demolished. Apparently, there used to be no less than five greyhound racing stadiums in Leicestershire alone. No there are none. On the way back we rescued a stray dog that was stopping the traffic and took him home. His owner didn’t seem in the least bit bothered. Over dinner of cottage pie, the kids’ favourite, we opened Christmas presents. We got a lovely bronze mouse to go along with the many other mice on the...
Wednesday 2 nd January 2019 We had a breakfast of kippers and poached eggs. Love kippers right up until they decide to put in an unwanted repeat performance. Over the last few days moored at Stoke Golding there has been a steady procession of boats passing us. More than we have seen for many, many weeks. The mooring here is very popular with walkers and families out feeding the ducks. Very well fed ducks, they’d do well with a nice cherry sauce. We left the mooring and headed towards Hinckley. A very cold, still day with patches of mist. We had a slow, uneventful cruise over the 4 miles to Hinckley and moored beside bridge 17a. This carries a busy road though, so Brenda walked down the canal and found a quieter mooring opposite the marina. The kids are coming out tomorrow, their dad is bringing them, so we will be here for a few days yet. The stoppage at bridge 6 has been put back to 9 th January so there is plenty of time to get beyond that point before the stoppa...
Tuesday 1 st January 2019 We had a long lay-in and a lazy day, which was how we had envisaged our New Year. Last night we went to the pub, it was jam packed solid but we managed to get a couple of seats in company with a family out from Leicester. The music was in the other bar so we couldn’t hear it. After just a couple of pints we left and returned to the boat, we had always wanted to see the New Year in on board her. We were outside for midnight. There were loads of fireworks going off around us. With a low cloud base, the fireworks were reflecting off the base of them from as far afield, it seemed, as Leicester, Coventry, Hinckley and Nuneaton. Quite a spectacle. We had a New Years’ dinner of whole fresh cooked prawn in butter followed by roast rib of beef and all the trimmings and a quiet evening in front of the tele. Weather: not sure, we spent the day inside.
A resume of our 2018: The year began frustratingly with a lot of uncertainty. The boat build had not started, with no prospect of it starting, and the shell was still in storage. Despite initially being given a launch date of the week before Christmas 2017. Both houses had buyers but the sales were not progressing very fast, especially Chester Road, the sale of which we were constantly expecting to fall through. I had been finished work for over 6 months, this to oversee the build, so a lot of wasted time and the loss of a lot of wages. Brenda had officially stopped work in January but, because the build was not progressing, she continued working but cut her hours to 24 per week. So we felt very much in limbo. Meantime, we continued to clear the house which was a mammoth, upsetting task that neither of us enjoyed. It was very hard sorting through treasured items collected over the years, photographs, books etc etc. It is surprising just how much can be colle...
Monday 31 st December 2018 The damp in the wardrobe had dried overnight. It will have to be monitored, but in the meantime we have decided to fit vents into the wardrobe doors. We had intended catching the 10:23 bus to the Morrisons store outside Hinckley, but we missed it. We bought some heavy items in the village shop and returned with them to the boat, then set out again to catch the 11:23 bus. Brenda then went in to Morrisons while I visited the nearby Wickes store. Again, far too much stuff was bought to comfortably carry back, but it has to be done. The shops on the Ashby canal are few and far between. We were back at the boat by 1:30 and proceeded to pack the shopping away, no mean feat. The rest of the afternoon was taken up with myself on the computer and Brenda going through contacts on her phone. This evening we intend visiting the George and Dragon in Stoke Golding, they have live music on, but we want to be back on board for midnight. A Happy N...