Blowing Boelo. 24th October

Bancroft Basin to Shakespeare Marina, River Avon

We woke fairly early, had a cuppa. It was quite pink outside, but calm and dry. We decided to make the most of a window in the weather. Waterproofs on, ropes untied, I headed to the lock to set it whilst Mick reversed Oleanna out from our pontoon.

A swan bobbed about in the bottom of the lock. Had it been there all night? NB Grannys Buttons had arrived late afternoon and then the restaurant boat, The Countess had gone out and back with diners. I carefully filled the lock. The swan had no intention of leaving, it wanted the bottom gates opening.

Down we went, only a few people to watch us as it rained. A long sound on the horn before Oleanna turned out onto the river to warn rowers and other boats of her arrival.

I hopped on board and then we tried to negotiate with a rowing pair, who was going to go first. They seemed to want to let us head off, even though they would be faster. Past the RSC, it’s a big building! A lady stood painting at an easel as rowers came past.

**Hope she’s painting with oils otherwise the paint will run**

Ahead two rowing boats were blocking our approach to the lock. We held back, now in the way of the following rowing boat! After some loitering, boats moved out of each others way, good job there wasn’t more of a flow on the river!

Stratford Trinity Lock sat with it’s top gates open for us. Here on the river you close all paddles but leave your exiting gates open. The gates took a bit to get moving, even more to open the bottom gates!

Under the A4390, we could see where we’d be needing to turn. Mick didn’t get the positioning quite right to make a good swing in, but there was only a light tap as he managed to straigten us out as we entered the marina. We’d already been told which pontoon we’d be on, very close to the river entrance. We opted to go stern in, tied up, the pontoon not quite as short as in Bancroft Basin, but still not long enough for us. Time to check in,

It’s a long walk round to the office, papers to fill in, codes to be noted and a telephone number to call to open the front gates. Once we’d paid for our months visit we headed back to Oleanna taking a better look at other empty pontoons.

Our mooring has a gap between the pontoon and a high bit of piling, topped with timber. The Cat Health and Safety executives needed to make decisions. This was not suitable, should Tilly not make the jump, she’d be in deep water with no obvious way out. If we could move further round the marina there are reed beds, these of course only hide the water that lies beneath. We’d hoped the gap wouldn’t be too big, but it is. No point in moving as no shore leave will be granted, for four weeks! Eek!! That’s not going to go down too well!

Breakfast. We also opted to wind Oleanna to go bow in before it got any windier. This will make water and yellow water easier and we get a better view from the dinette and bedroom this way.

A walk to check on bus stops for tomorrow. The pontoon took 2.5 minutes to walk, then from the top of the ramp to the bus stop on the other side of the river took 9.5 minutes. I walked back and timed it in the other direction to near Waitrose, 8 minutes, but dependant on how much traffic there is to cross the road. I then bought potatoes and an apple to add to our roast tonight.

During the afternoon the wind got up, some slight adjustments of ropes and fenders were required, but we think we are slightly sheltered at our end of the marina. But we’re still very glad we got tied up before Boelo arrived.

Roast lamb, cauliflower cheese, carrots and beans, followed by an apple crumble with custard. There’s enough left overs for each of us for two meals and some more lamb headed into the freezer. A good last supper.

2 locks, 0.8 miles, 1 right, 1 left, 1 Avon licence, 1 Hamlet mooring, 1 months mooring fee, 2 bus stops, 1 phone off airplane mode, 1 last supper on the boat, 3 meals of left overs, 1 long list, 1 very disgruntled noisy cat!

For the next four weeks the blog will go into Panto Postcard mode.

Ahead Of Austen. 23rd October

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Wilmcote Bottom Lock to Bancroft Basin

Cuppa in bed. The weather was still calm, we opted to head off before breakfast to try to keep ahead of storm Austen. Waterproofs on just in case.

The approach towards Stratford is a little industrial, not much to look at, apart from one house. We dropped down Bishopton Lock. Noted the old hire base where there is a water point and bins. At one point we’d considered getting a winter mooring at Bancroft Basin for November. Staying on CRT water would have saved us a months Avon Navigation Licence, but Mick would have had to work his way through the four locks between here and the basin for water and bins. Not ideal to have to single-handedly get to the services.

At Birmingham Road Lock we had gongoozlers watching as they had their breakfast both at the Premier Inn and at MacDonalds.

Next was Maidenhead Road Lock. I remembered this lock very well! The bottom gate has a meccano type contraption of a cranked lock beam. I seriously struggled with it when we were here before. Not much to put my feet against, the stonework potentially slippy. I waited until very little movement could be seen in the water below the lock, got hold of the very end of the arm with one hand and pulled using my body weight. Well, blow me over! It moved easily and steadily, no need to alter position to keep the gate moving. Maybe some work has been done to it so it’s balance is better.

Below a boat was coming up the next lock. I looked at how I would lower the paddle, I’d have to dip down and be within the framework, my knees didn’t fancy that, so I opted to leave the paddle up, it would be much easier to close once the gate was closed. I made sure I mentioned this to the crew.

Oliver’s Lock, the last of the day, has some very nice planting along side it. It’s a shame someone has also decided to add their tags to the off side wall and lock beam. We dropped down and were soon passing under the low bridge into Bancroft Basin. Ahead the RSC building.

Trip boats and ice cream boats were in the basin along with one other narrowboat, so we had plenty of moorings to choose from. We pulled in and did our best to tie up to the short pontoon. We’d made it before the storm hit, time for breakfast.

About an hour later the wind started to build, some rain too. More ropes were required, the centre lines from the roof were just encouraging Oleanna to rock in the wind. Mick put out lines from the fender eyes on the gunnels, this improved things.

I put a shopping list together so that we could have a Saturday roast tomorrow, then headed out to do the shopping leaving Mick sorting out a laptop with a working hinge for me to take with me to Chippy. I visited a butchers and checked on a few restaurants, then compared prices between Sainsburys, Tesco and M&S the only options in this part of the town.

**Sadly no-one was serving chilled medication today!**

For the next month I will mostly be eating chicken, so I splashed out on a half leg of lamb. I also picked up a bramley to make a crumble, but omitted to weigh it before paying so I popped it back. A check on the river level on the way back, the Avon was in the green, hopefully it would stay that way for the morning.

The weather had been blustery here but not that wet. However up in Scarborough things were very VERY WET! There had been a cloud burst, flooded roads and houses. Where I’ve spent much of this year walking was under feet of water!

Normally this weekend our friends Dawn and Lee of Animated Objects do Moonlight On The Lake at Peasholm Park. You walk round the lake and wonder at all the beautiful lanterns they have been making over the last few months, a serious amount of work goes into the event. But safety wise it had to be cancelled, so just about as soon as they’d finished installing everything they were having to do the get out before anyone could get to see it. Such a sad outcome after so much work.

As it was still stormy we had some bolognaise sauce with jacket potatoes that were baked in the multi fuel stove, they had good crunchy skins.

25 locks, 2 miles, 1 short pontoon, 2 extra ropes, 2 tickets left, 2 expensive! 1 late breakfast, 1 leg of lamb, 1 bag carrots, 2 potatoes, more can wait, 1 blowy afternoon, 1 bored cat.

https://what3words.com/cliff.cried.wounds

Two Days Into One. 22nd October

Aunty Locks. 21st October

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Black Boy Bridge 69 to Lowsonford Top Lock 31, Fleur de Lys, South Stratford Canal

Another wet start to the day, at least we’d not had a disturbed nights sleep. We actually managed to get ourselves up and ready to cruise pretty early for us, well we’d a touch of making up to do from yesterday and had a destination to make today.

Push off was around 9:30, in the rain! We had about 2.5 miles to do to reach Kingswood Junction where the Grand Union Canal joins the Stratford Upon Avon. Just before the junction we passed Heidi’s old boat The Rum Wench. An old work boat sped towards the junction from the south, turning in. Which way would they be going? North or South on the Stratford. As we turned in at the junction I could see them going through the link, a straight on modern channel which saves going up one lock and down another to start the descent down towards Stratford. One person climbed off the roof, then the stern of their boat gradually moved towards their port side, they were north bound.

**Right to say hello to NB Red Wharf. Straight on and left to Panto!**

Through the link for us too but turning towards the south. Damn a boat was on the water point, a chap popped his head out saying the tap was slow, sorry! There’d be another tap tomorrow so we weren’t too bothered, just the mountain of washing to work through before panto.

Now back to narrow locks with single gates top and bottom, far easier than the beasts at Knowle yesterday. The rain became intermittent, our soggy waterproofs nearly having time to dry before the next rain gave us another soaking!

**The way we’d originally planned to come**

Now which way to turn my windlass? The top paddles all wanted to go Anti-clockwise, so I ended up muttering to myself Aunty Locks to fill each and just about every chamber. The top gates on the Stratford have a thinner edge by the offside upright, making for a less than confident step to the far bank to be able to lift the paddle that side. I managed, but Mick later suggested that maybe tomorrow we try just lifting one paddle.

The locks are fairly evenly spaced, not close enough to walk ahead to set the next one, but close enough to walk between them. The towpath was mostly okay, patches of mud to avoid. At one lock I’d closed the bottom gate and stepped off the brick surround, here the grass was muddy and I skidded down only a foot or so to the towpath, narrowly avoiding getting a seriously muddy bum! Only thing was I’d twisted my left knee, the knee I’d had problems with a couple of years ago. It felt ok, but it would be wanting a rest soon.

The barrel roofed lock cottages that the Stratford Canal is known for are all slightly different. The first one down the flight has a rather elaborate criss cross pattern, quite gingerbread like, maybe I should paint them some candy canes for around their front door. Another looks worn and weathered, possibly someone doing some work inside.

After Lock 29 I walked on ahead to check on mooring possibilities. Above lock 30 there was space, I phoned Mick to tell him I was going to look below too. I could hear everything he said, but I was pure darlek to him. There was space below, so we’d be going down the lock. Just after I’d lifted a paddle on the lock my phone rang, an unfamiliar number. It was a discharge nurse at the hospital informing me that Hospital Transport was there to move Frank to his new home, he should arrive there within the next half hour! Time for another happy dance, not just at the news, but also that my phone had found signal for the call. Messages were sent on to others who needed to know and then to wait for news of his arrival.

Stopping at a reasonable time for lunch was a bit good, we’ve not managed that for a while. Tilly was given four hours shore leave. She checked the stern, then the bow, but decided that it looked good enough to risk getting wet.

The internet was rubbish, bad TV signal and our phones had an intermittent signal. Then the hinge on my laptop broke! This is the third time it’s done this and is most probably the last time too! Oh well just as well we’d be heading to the pub later.

With Tilly home, us both dried out and some washing done we put on some none boaty clothes and walked down to the next lock and across to the pub, the Fleur de Lys. Here we were meeting up with Chris and Jennie who used to own NB Tentatrice. We once managed a cuppa with them and Monty their woofer at Radford Smelly and our paths have crossed a few more times briefly. We’ve been trying to meet up for a proper chat now for the last few years and today we finally managed it.

Mick and I both chose to try one of the pub’s legendary pies. Mick had steak and ale and I had a gf steak and red wine, both very nice. My gf crumble was very hot and the topping had only been scattered on top of the filling, not baked with it, but it was pleasant enough.

We had a very lovely evening with Jennie and Chris, sharing boating stories and tales of Monty. We were so busy talking that we forgot to take a photo of us all together! This seems to be a recurring omission! Thank you Jennie for the cards, they are stowed away safely on some shelves awaiting December and more importantly the 25th!

9 locks, 4.6 miles, 1 right, 1 straight, 1 left, 2nd soggy day in a row, 1 slip, 1 twist, 1 gate each end, 4 hours shore leave, 4 beers, 2 pies, 1 burger, 1 gammon 2 eggs, 2 brulee, 1 brownie, 1 crumbled crumble, 2 cards, 2 months early, 1 Mrs Tilly stamp of approval.

Soggy Stiff Knowle. 20th October

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78A Damson Lane Bridge to Black Boy Bridge 69

Last night as we sat watching TV my phone binged for me to approve a purchase being made with my credit card. I wasn’t purchasing anything, I was watching TV. Earlier this evening I’d put an email into spam and thought nothing of it, suggesting I’d made a purchase from a company. Time to call the bank, something fishy was going on! After chatting to the lady for just a couple of minutes I asked her to put a stop on my card. Whilst we talked to check what was me and what was fraudulent, other transactions were being attempted, Uber, JD Sports! A new card will be sent out to me, I asked for it to go to a branch but the only one in Stratford is only open on Mondays! Hopefully the problem has now been solved, but I was warned to be vigilant as it is likely to happen again.

It rained overnight, pretty heavily. The gap we’d chosen in the trees wasn’t a very long gap either so the rain got another chance to keep us awake, quite a disturbed night.

It was still raining when we woke up, still raining as we had our cuppa in bed, still raining as we had breakfast. No point in waiting for it to stop, because it simply wasn’t going to.

We pushed off in full waterproofs, padded waterproof trousers as it was a touch chilly this morning. I had a go at ringing the discharge nurse at the hospital, straight to answerphone, maybe she was off this week. I decided to give Social Services a go to see if they knew anything about Frank’s funding. I know the routine now when I call them, give them all the info, then they say they’ll pass it onto the team.

The rain kept coming and we kept pootling onwards, no choice as we’ve Stratford to reach before I need to head off to panto. Today we’d need to be down Knowle Locks with the aim of mooring where we’d have reached should we have come down the Lapworth flight.

**If you covered this life raft in astro turf it could be a hobbit house**

My phone rang, a withheld number. It was a discharge nurse, the lady I’d talked to in the past was off this week. The funding for Franks onward care had come through and he had a fully funded place in a nursing home. She said the name of the home. Brilliant! It was the home we’d hoped to get him into, they’d been holding a room for him. The plan had come off. Time for a happy dance and maybe a tear or two. He’d be moving tomorrow. Fantastic. I just needed to make sure he knew about it. Easier said than done!

I passed the news on to key members of the Frankness group first, then onto everyone else delaying the start of our descent of Knowle Locks.

Mick had gone ahead to set the top lock. A branch was by the top gates, so he’d headed to get a boat hook to shift it. A lady came from an offside boat with her boat pole to help get it out of the way to somewhere the volunteers would be able to get it out. It was a pretty big bit of tree.

We now worked our way steadily down the five big locks. Winding the paddles up on one side only to let the water down, it’s too far to walk to cross the beams, even more so on such a soggy day. In the past I’ve used the offside paddles, but today I opted for the towpath side, hoping they’d not be as stiff. Well they were still stiff and took quite a bit of puff to get them moving even with my long reach windlass.

I’d set the next lock down and open the top gates, then walk ALL the way round back to the lock above that had been emptying. The whirlpool that these locks create can have you spinning round in circles, add into the mix the usual strong wind! Thankfully today there was no wind and we’d taken our time, so passage between chambers was straight and forward, rather than round in circles!

Now our aim was to reach Kingswood Junction. It was still raining, we were hungry. I didn’t want to stop for lunch and then start again putting wet clothes back on. We opted to do about another half hour to the next mooring after the pubs. There was space, we pulled in, put our waterproofs to drip dry in the bathroom and showed Tilly the outside world.

**Paddle gear and water running over the gates**

How dare they tie such a wet outside up! It was the same front and back! Rubbish. Oh hang on what’s that in the sideways trees? See you later! She made pretty good use of the two and a half hours she was awarded.

Some panto emails needed looking at and all the time I kept trying to speak to Frank to check he understood what would be happening tomorrow. In the end I called the ward, only to find out he’d been moved to another ward. Mick sat on the phone until we finally got through to the new ward. A message was relayed to Frank to give me a call. Finally! I’d managed to talk to him, he must have turned his phone down without realising.

I cobbled together a Chinese chicken dish. Left over roast chicken dusted in corn flour and five spice, shallow fried. I added some small chunks of root ginger, some red pepper and green beans. Then made a sauce with soya sauce, maple syrup and a spoon of the red currant jelly we’d been given at Urban Moorings. It was very nice served with rice. Next time I’ll add some water at the end to create more of a sauce.

5 locks, 5.1 miles, 1 extremely soggy day, 1 fraudulent transaction, 1 credit card stopped,1 restless night, 9 messages, 1 happy dance, 1 deep breath, 0.75 hours early stop, 2 coats dripping, 1 unimpressed cat turned into an impressed cat, well I think if you look back to 2021 you’ll see that I wasn’t given enough shore leave to make my mind up about this mooring completely, 1 Mrs Tilly stamp of approval.

https://what3words.com/compose.broccoli.marine

Diverted Traffic. 19th October

Making A Start. 18th October

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London / Sheepcote Street Bridge to Lister Street Bridge, Birmingham and Fazeley Digbeth Branch.

**Today’s M&S brunch had a Christmasy feel to it**

Another early start, a cuppa, a brief chat with Andrew and Jac and time for a cuddle with Finn their cat before we headed to catch a bus making our way back to Marylebone Station and then on to Birmingham. Another morning for an M&S sandwich brunch. I did pretty well with my knitting, however I discovered that I was about to run out of one of the colours, so I had to stop with only a few rows to go. More yarn was required from the big drawer under our bed on the boat.

Back on board Oleanna we heard what Tilly had been up to, something to do with Westlife coming round for some Dreamies, but I’m not too sure about that! A change of clothes and we were ready to push off, our four days mooring about to elapse, plus we also wanted to start our departure from Bumingham.

**Going down the top lock of Farmers Bridge**

No news had come through about Lock 17 on the Lapworth flight, next update due tomorrow. If we set off in the direction of King’s Norton Junction it would be sods law that the lock wouldn’t be mended for another week. So instead we committed ourselves to the longer way round to reach the South Stratford Canal via the Birmingham and Fazeley, Framers Bridge, Ashted Locks, Ashted Tunnel! Then onto the Grand Union and Camp Hill Locks, Knowle down to meet the South Stratford at Kingswood Junction.

**Looking up the flight from the second one down**

I walked ahead to get the top locks set for us whilst Mick paused to dispose of rubbish. Two CRT fundraisers were chatting to people at the top of Farmers Bridge, they’d signed four people up today, a reasonable day for them and so long as the sun shone it was fine. With the top lock full and the gate open I headed on down to set the next lock. Apparently there had been a boat a couple of hours earlier going down, the flight was to be their first flight, their first lock ever.

Soon into our routine for the flight, me walking down to the next but one lock to lift a paddle to fill it, on the way back the next lock was already full so the top gate could be opened, back to the lock above where Mick had brought Oleanna in, closed the top gate, lowered the off side paddle, then he lifts the one bottom paddle before stepping back on board. It’s quite a good division of labour, means I get lots of steps in and means you tend to make use of the water you are bringing down with you.

A lady stopped and opened a top gate for me then she walked up to give us a hand with gates. Her boat was round on Oozels Street Loop and she’d just been to the Pen Museum, one we’ve yet to visit. Thank you for your help and nice to have a chat for a while.

**And from the other side, but dark though**

Obligatory photos were taken with the BT tower and Oleanna in her new livery.

The flats that had to have their cladding replaced are no longer covered in scaffolding. They now have a fake wood cladding, a section of which had already broken off.

At a couple of locks the boat ahead had left a paddle up, easily rectified. Another lock had a yellow CRT Aware label saying that the paddle was out of action. As I walked down past the lock under the building to the one below I could see there were three such yellow lables. One on the paddle, which was up, another two on the bottom gate beam and handrail. To me that meant the paddle even though up was out of action. The pound above was really low, by at least 3ft a sign saying to leave the lock empty at all times on the top lock beam. We’d need to fill the lock quickly and move down swiftly I thought, no setting ahead, well we were nearly down the majority of the flight anyway.

I set the lock filling and went back up to explain to Mick about the levels. I emptied the lock Oleanna was in. There was a shout from Mick, Oleanna was starting to list, sat on something! I closed the paddles, then gently let water back into the lock from above. I closed the top lock gate on the lock below. Then Mick suggested seeing if I could close the paddle with the yellow label on it.

Derrrr! Of course it closed, it had been left up by the boat ahead, possibly to help keep the lock empty or maybe just by mistake. If it hadn’t had the yellow label on it I’d have done it before now! We started to let water run down through the lock above to try to improve the level in the pound. I could now see another boat coming up towards us, best stop them from using the lock ahead of us. I went down to explain and suggested they wait in the lock they were coming up. One chap went up the locks to run more water down from above. Then a lady arrived, learnt what was happening, there was now another boat sat below the lock one boat was in, they’d be able to get both their boats in the pound for us to get passed. Hmm, maybe not such a good idea three boats in one pound!

**Safely across and going down the troublesome lock that has a leak on the quadrant wall**

The levels were starting to look better. I refilled the lock below, and opened the gate, then we gently emptied the lock Oleanna was in, me stood ready to close a paddle should she ground again. Thankfully no such problem this time, Mick moved her from one lock to the next. Phew! Now we just had to get past the other two boats. The one in the lock was brought out into the pound, their boat too long to pull into the towpath, but Mick managed to pull out of the lock and slightly across the way to then give them enough room to go into the lock above. The boat that had been sat below the lock gates, apparently in a narrow bit so it would have to come up (?) was actually pulled back out of the bridge hole to make room for us.

Both of the boats were Canal Time boats, far shallower draft than Oleanna. They’d be fine going up once the levels had been sorted a bit more. I reassured one lady who thought they’d be stuck mid flight overnight. It might take them a couple of hours to get to the top with both boats, but their pub meal and pints would be extra deserved this evening.

We worked our way down the remaining locks without incident. Another paddle having a yellow label as it was out of action. As we rounded the bend at Aston Junction we could see the narrowboat we’d been following down the flight. They’d just entered the top lock, 7 more to go before they’d find moorings by Rocky Lane Bridge. Not much further for us, we pulled in in front of Aston University Buildings, this would do us for the night.

Some lock crew baking was required, followed by a chicken going in the oven to roast, after all it had been quite a long time since our M&S brunch!

**2 not 3 faulty paddles on the flight**

13 locks, 1.6 miles, 1 bus, 2 tubes, 1 train, 1 exited cat, 2 boaters eager to get on, 1 seriously low pound, 3 yellow labelled paddles, 2 uphill boats, 1 very tight squeeze past, 2 boy racers, 1 cake, 1 roast chicken, 2 boaters wanting a lie in please!

https://what3words.com/drips.salt.smoke

The First Of The 60ths. 17th October

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Bumingham / London

Another early start, this one even earlier than the last few, we were awake before the sun had lifted over the horizon today. Breakfast and the magic food bowl set. Not Again! This is getting tedious!! We walked through the city the sun coming up and making everything look wonderful. The Library shone gold, and when we reached St Martin in the Bullring the sky behind the church peachy gold and just emphasised how high up the centre of Birmingham actually is.

We climbed on board a train from Moor Street Station headed for London Marylebone. I had time to carry on knitting the next pair of sockathon socks, I’d made pretty good progress with them in the hire car to and from Scarborough, maybe I’d get this pair finished on this trip to London.

A walk, then the tube, except there was some hold up, so we changed lines and got ourselves to the Mildmay Line to Homerton. At my brothers we dropped off our overnight bags and we had time for a good chin wag, some lunch and an attempt to sort dates for a pre Christmas get together. Have to admit my mind hasn’t been thinking of such things at all recently.

Back into London to meet with my friend Nick and friends at The Albany pub by Great Portland Street tube. It is soon to be Nick’s 60th birthday so he’d arranged a get together with friends and their woofers. Tilly had been invited and she’d accepted. The menu later on didn’t include rodent curry, so in the end I declined the invite!

Around 30 of us met at the pub, had a drink and then headed into Regents Park. The walk would cover quite a distance, so Mick opted to get a bus to the next location. The masses stopped to look at the sculptures in the park. We only saw a few of them before it started to rain and everyone’s attention was distracted from the artworks to a double rainbow. I got chance to chat to various people who’d been at Nick’s 50th in the Yorkshire Dales and I got to meet his in-laws, Kerry’s family. Nick is my oldest friend, by that I mean he met me when I was only a couple of days old, he was a couple of months old.

We wove our way through the park. A slight detour to see the giraffes at the zoo who had just been given some fresh branches to munch on. Then across the Regents Canal to Primrose Hill. Here we met up with Mick again and climbed to the very top. Photo opportunity with storm clouds over the high rise cityscape down below.

I’d looked at a map for where we were headed, it wasn’t that close, there were a few comments of ‘How much further?!’ Was everyone still with us? We now meandered our way through the streets, a pit stop and a half pint each at Camden Brewery, I enjoyed some gluten-free, alcohol-free beer, you’d never have known anything was missing! Chance to chat to Nick’s brother Guy who is now retired and is planning quite a major cycling trip to Istanbul next year, this year he’d achieved Lands End to Gateshead using quite a bit of the canal network.

After dark we arrived at The Pineapple, Kentish Town. An old fashioned boozer with small rooms, but a larger one upstairs. Here we were joined by more people and the rest of Nick’s family, his sister and his Mum, both of whom I’ve not seen since 2019. Plenty to chat about as we all drank, ate Thai curry and on in the back ground on a large TV screen was a coloured version of the World Cup final of 1966. Mick and I tried our best to see if we could spot our friend Frank in the crowd, but the resolution wasn’t good enough. We and more importantly, Frank knows he was there!

A lovely afternoon and evening with friends and their family. I was asked what I’d be doing for my 60th. The second time this had been asked in one day! Well a thought had been to have a do in Scarborough, but timings for that are now a touch wonky for several reasons, so I may have to opt for a get together at a later date. We’ll see.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 train, 5 tubes, 1 overground, 2 buses, 1 Elizabeth line, 23161 steps, 125 brisk minutes walking, 1 Leckenby lunch, 2 pubs, 1 brewery, 1 tyre tree, 4 woofers, 1 absent cat, 2 giraffes, 1 big view, double rainbow, 1966 World Cup final, 60 years old.

Westlife. 16th October

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Scarborough /Bumingham

Up early, a few jobs to be done in the house to leave it ready for lodgers. The freezer was the main job as it had been defrosted yesterday and needed mopping out.

The drive back southwards was longer than the drive north, more traffic and far more tractors on the Wolds. We paused at Doncaster services for breakfast, a cuppa each and an M&S sandwich.

Coming into Birmingham in a car we try to catch glimpses of the canal below flyovers. Part way back I got a message from Adam regarding Lock 17 on the Lapworth flight, there was a stoppage, next update on Monday! Eek!!

Our planned route would see us descending the locks in a few days and they are at least a days cruise away. I looked at the stoppages map was there an alternative route open to get us down to Stratford Upon Avon?

Yes another route, more locks and therefore more hours cruising to get us onto the South Stratford Canal. But at least there was a route.

**A bit of maths to while away the afternoon**

Back in Birmingham Tilly was pleased to see us. A shopping list was put together, then we headed out to Tescos. A few messages went back and forth regarding the lack of news about Frank’s discharge. I called the discharge nurse, she’d been waiting for a response form CHC, but now that wouldn’t happen until after the weekend!

Mick returned the car to Enterprise whilst I sat down to finish off the Cutweb accounts. An hour and a bit and all was done, a rogue £5 and some interest had made the numbers a touch wonky the other day. But now all was fine.

A haircut for Mick was achieved out on the towpath shortly before the light faded, an increase in hubbub was happening across the way at the Arena. Who was playing tonight? Westlife! Mick checked the ticket prices, but we decided we’d rather settle down in front of the stove and TV for the rest of the evening, after all Traitors was on!

0 locks, 0 miles, £5 fuel just in case, 5 miles left in the tank, 2 sandwich breakfast, 0 news again, 2 boxes wine, £7.29! £97.97p,1 set of books balanced, grade 3, 1 cuddly cat on the sofa.