This update is well overdue, more than a month since my Catty’s last posting!
The reason for our move to Banbury was… that I have a job! Just a part time one you understand, 14.8 hours per week, (you will, of course, have worked out that 14.8 is 2/5 of 37, yer actual standard working week for educational establishments) yes, I’m working for OCVC (Oxford & Cherwell Valley College) at the Banbury campus and my job title is “Technician – Motor Vehicle”. My job includes looking after the stores, making sure stuff in the department actually works and apparently taking cars to the scrap yard (good money in that at the moment), putting up notice boards and demolishing walls!
After only two weeks at work I had a week off as we had arranged for two of our grandchildren to stay for a a week. We had a great time with them down at Aynho, taking them out and about, but I think the highlight was a visit to Oxford Castle, where they were kept entertained with a climb up to the top of the tower and stories of ghosts and gory punishments meted out in days gone by. Grandpa got tricked by the pretty young guide into volunteering to be put in the pillory which amused them no end! The castle was a working jail until 1996 and I’m sure I remember going to the jail on a ‘General Studies’ trip when I was at Swindon College back in the 70s, they must have wanted to show us how we would end up if we didn’t pass our exams.
After another two day week at work we moseyed on up through Banbury to Cropredy as we had never moored there before and the Fairport Convention Festival had just finished so we hoped moorings would be available. We weren’t disappointed and found a spot to moor near the village.
Cropredy is a nice village just four miles north of Banbury and boasts two pubs a village shop, a gift shop/post-office next door, a costume hire shop, a tea room and much more. The only downside was that the mobile internet signal is not great, but we’ve invested in a tiny 3 Mi-Fi wireless router which seems to haul in the signal if we find just the right place in the front windows. By the way if anyone wants to buy a brand new Zoom Wireless Broadband Router we have one surplus to requirements, just contact us, long story!
On Thursday we drove Oop North to visit Tim and Annie (who used to run Annie’s Tea Room at Thrupp) and do some rewiring in the engine ‘ole of their new ‘fat’ narrowboat. We stayed in B & B overnight leaving Catty on her own on the boat, which we have done many times before, but on our return we found the cat flap forced open and Jade missing.
A neighbouring boater reported seeing her before lunch, but you can imagine the panic & the sleepless night as she didn’t return. The next day the towpath and adjoining fields were searched and posters put up along the towpath and around the village, and about teatime two ladies came along to say that they had seen her the previous evening near the old mill. We went there straight away but couldn’t see her around. I went through the bridge & asked at the first boat if he’d seen a stripy cat & to my surprise & delight he said yes, she had climbed into his cratch about an hour previously & gone to sleep on his bed!!!! She let me carry her back to the boat but was nervous about passing a couple of boats. Obviously she had obviously been trespassing on other cats’ territories and was scared to come back.
Anyway, we have got to speak to a lot of local boaters & villagers too who were all concerned & sympathetic, we appreciated that a lot.
Thank you Cropredy, we love you! ♥♥♥