Well… that’s a week gone by without updating the blog, we must be enjoying ourselves too much!
Monday 24th May 2021
Today was spent mostly doing odd jobs but Louise came to pick us up later and took us to pick up our car from Stourport, on the way collecting Jer from where he was working . We enjoyed a cuppa with Leigh & Malc & picked up a couple of mooring chains I had ordered from the chandlery. I called into Screwfix at Gloucester on the way back with about two minutes to spare before they closed and we just found room to park the car back at Splatt.
Tuesday 25th May 2021
This morning I fitted a ‘new’ pressure switch to our water pump, I’m really not made for squeezing into confined spaces anymore.
Later our friend Allison from Wotton called by for coffee, managing to negotiate the muddy towpath, we haven’t met up for ages so it was good to catch up with family news and hear about her new grandchildren.
After lunch we made use of the car to visit Lidl & Wickes in Gloucester and bought some more of those new laid eggs.
Woeful Wednesday 26th May 2021
Oh Wednesday! We decided to use our washing machine today to do a small wash, I fired up our generator and started the machine but the generator took exception to it’s lack of use over the winter and decided that doing the washing constituted an ‘overload’ although it had done it many times before over the last six years.
While I was attending to the generator and phoning around about repairs and Joy was doing a jigsaw in the cratch, visitors appeared on the horizon. Gill and Trevor had come to say hello but as Joy opened cratch cover she knocked off her glasses and you guessed it, they fell in the canal.
I wasn’t hopeful of retrieving them, Joy was upset and fishing with a magnet was unsuccessful so after many phone calls an opticians appointment was found in Worcester. After lunch Joy had the idea of using her litter picker and once we had found it tried plumbing the depths of the canal with it but it was too deep.
Somewhere in the depths of my memory I recalled that looking down a tube to see things underwater avoids reflections. A piece of wastepipe was found but was not really wide enough to see down, but was that something glinting down there?
Lying prostrate on the muddy towpath I still couldn’t reach the bottom so an litter grabber extension was made with a length of wood, three cable ties and a piece of string. On the second attempt I managed to retrieve the specs… Hallelujah!!!
An ecstatic phone call was made to Gill & Trev and the opticians appointment was cancelled.
In the afternoon I continued my phone calls to find a solution to the generator problem and ended with a drive to Energy Generator Sales
Thursday 27th May 2021
We have seen The Edward Elgar a few times and today they moored by the bridge and a coach collected the handful of passengers for a local outing.
It was ‘Art Day’ as usual for Joy and as I was pottering around on the back deck a familiar figure came into view, Diana, a friend from Wotton was coming down the towpath with her camera. We avoided her lens and invited her to call in for a cuppa on her way back, completely forgetting we had promised ourselves a treat this evening, so had to call her mobile and make a grovelling apology and promise to meet up again.
The treat, you ask, a night in a hotel with a bath to wallow in and ease the aches and pains which I have suffering from since working on the boat in dry dock. Joy says I’m just getting old, I blame lingering side-effects of that Covid jab!
Day’s Inn at Michaelwood Services is just basic but comfortable accommodation but you have to rely on Burger King, KFC or Subway for food, so we brought a picnic!
While checking in I mentioned we used to live in Dursley and the receptionist asked if I was the Chris Wren that used to run Wren Autolectrics. “The very same”, I replied, it transpired her husband had been one of my customers.
Friday 28th May 2021
Whilst in the area I have been indulging my taste for Lardy Cake, well I was born in Wiltshire, both the local garage and the Whitminster convenience store sell them, from different bakeries, so we have had to compare them and have to admit Jane’s Pantry & Dangerfield’s Bakery are both good although cannot match the sadly now defunct ‘Pie Shop’ in Devizes where I acquired my addiction.