Timmy's fallen down the well.

Do you remember the old Lassie films?

Lassie would run up to someone, bark twice and they would deduce from the barks that something bad had happened and someone needed rescuing.

Beano has obviously seen the film's.

A couple of days ago I was walking him along the towpath, there was a jogger approaching, he was wearing headphones and singing along rather loudly. Beano watched him carefully. Suddenly Dan, another boater appeared, he was pushing a wheelbarrow along that had two toilet cassettes in. It was rather loud and rattling a lot. This was all too much for Beano who turned and fled back to the boat.

Beano obviously felt I was under threat as instead of running into the boat he stood on the back and barked twice. He then jumped off the boat and barked twice again.
He kept this up until Steve came out to look for me. By the time Steve climbed out of the boat, Dan's wife Sophie had arrived home and stopped to say hello and Dan had walked back to their boat.

So Steve waved to me and tried to persuade Beano to go into the boat but Beano insisted on staying outside until I returned.

The new normal

It is what it is and I just have to manage.

I'm getting used to the constant moaning and bitching. I've still not managed to do anything right.

I'm getting used to doing everything at  a snails pace, the going over and over every plan ad infinitum, the refusal to wear hearing aids, the constant complaints that I don't speak clearly.

I'm still struggling to cope with the twitching legs when he's trying to brake when I'm driving. The frantic screams of STOP, STOP, STOP when he forgets that green lights mean go. The constant hand flapping because he thinks I'm in the wrong lane. Today he shouted at me to get a move on before we missed the lights, he was oblivious of the learner who's car had stalled just in front of us.

Stopped by the police

Thank you for your comments.
Chris, I'm 68 in a few weeks so I'm definitely classed as older.
Smaller life, my hair was very dark brown, as I aged it went grey, when I coloured it my original colour was too dark for my skin tone, so I went blonde. Once we moved on to the boat I stopped colouring my hair as I didn't want all the chemicals going in to the canal so I'm now grey/white. My hair is long, I wear it tied back.


I have a guilty conscience where the police are concerned. I don't know why because I have never committed a crime. I've had a couple of speeding tickets but they are hardly classed as the crime of the century. Last week a police car followed me for eight miles, I was a gibbering wreck by the time I got home.

At the weekend I was stopped by the police, I wasn't even driving at the time, I was blackberrying. 

I wasn't naked either! I was fully dressed and wearing a hi vis jacket. They stopped to tell me to be careful as I was near the road.

This is me

Readlisten, we ordered an extra length  of pump out hose, so there should be no more shit showers.

I recently bumped into an ex neighbour in the local supermarket, well actually I took evasive action as I didn't want to talk to her. I almost didn't recognise her, she belongs to a FB group that I belong to and has recently posted photo's of herself that I think she has photoshopped. She is a couple of years younger than me but looks about 35 in the photo's.

One of Steve's friends is on the dating site Plenty of Fish, he often arrives at a meeting and is unable to spot his date as she looks nothing like her profile pic. what is the point? 

I know that people add animal faces, floppy ears and pink noses to their pics, my grandchildren do this and other things to their photo's.

I don't like having my photo taken but I need a photo for a course I'm on, I see no point in altering the end result and I'm not looking to join a dating site either.

So this is me, the growth on my nose doesn't show because of the shadow, but I think it's a good likeness and hopefully it's not a face that would give people nightmares.

The unicorn bed

DGD looks a tad bleary eyed as she woke just as DD finished building the bed, it was 3:30 in the morning.

Ouch

We moved on Friday, we had crew so it was an easy move.

Beano and I walked 3 miles but we had help at the locks from our crew.

Unfortunately we hit a submerged log as we approached the last lock on our trip.

The propeller was badly bent, we wondered if the shaft was bent too.

We moored up as planned and went to the pub for lunch and to drown our sorrows.

We phoned the local engineer and he came over this morning to have a look.

He was able to effect a repair, much to our relief, it cost £100, but worth every penny.

This weeks mooring spot.

Eleventy billion photos of the dogs arse

Steve has started posting on FB about his stroke recovery and life on the cut.

He takes pics of where we are and of boats if we see any old ones.

This morning he decided to take pics of Beano on his morning walk.

Once he knows which direction we are heading Beano runs on ahead.

Every time Beano stopped to look at Steve, Steve whipped out his camera and Beano turned around and headed off again.

I must admit I'm looking forward to seeing Steve's post with eleventy billion photos of the dogs arse!

Sold and gone

Yesterday our old boat was craned on to a lorry and set off to its new home in Ireland.

It passed its survey with no real problems so there was no more negotiating to be done.

Today the money went into our bank account and has been transferred to a savings account.

No doubt the bank will be phoning us soon, every time we pay in a lump sum they phone to offer us a loan.

Last week I received a rather stroppy message from my bank. It was to inform me that they had reduced the credit limit on my credit card and that I was to respond immediately to get the limit raised again. I don't have a credit card with them, I refuse every time they offer me one.

We will not be rushing out spending the money that is in our account, this is what we will be living on for the next few years.

I shall however be visiting the Clothing Barn near Newbury, I don't have a single pair of trousers/leggings that don't have holes in.

Free apples

A passing boater gave me some cooking apples this morning so I decided to make a cake. An apple and blackberry tray bake.

First though I had to walk back to the marina to collect the car.

We left the marina Saturday morning, went through one swing bridge and one lock and we've moored up on the visitor moorings at Woolhampton.

Unfortunately the tow path is still closed so Beano and I had to walk along the road, there is pavement most of the way but the big lorries thunder past very fast.

On the way to the marina I picked a few blackberries, they're very small and mostly shrivelled but I picked a few to add to the cake.

Once I'd collected the car and returned to the boat I made the cake and cooked a chicken and some sausages. 

My freezer seems to be full of sausages that Steve liked for a few weeks and now doesn't. I've cooked them and cut them up and will give them to Beano. All the sausages are good quality, mainly meat so they will do Beano no harm.

I spent the rest of the day sat in the sun on the back of the boat with my crochet. I've made the first set of reusable face wipes, this is how many I made from one ball of Drops cotton.

It passed

We've been in the marina for a few days. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon as we had our boat safety examination booked for Thursday morning. The boat passed, we weren't expecting any problems as the previous owner was meticulous about keeping the boat in good order. Another £200 well spent.

This morning Steve had a Dr's appointment and then a meeting at work.

After discussion it was agreed that Steve will be dismissed on medical capability grounds.

There is no chance of any further improvement and he is not capable of doing the job he used to do.

This is the best outcome we can hope for and although Steve is disappointed that he cannot to work, he is coming to terms with it.

And then it went BANG

I cooked for stroke club today, it was very eventful. Every time I turned on the cooker hood or the dishwasher the electrics tripped.

We turned off the cooker hood and managed to get the dishwasher working, it's not like a domestic dishwasher, it's used to sterilise the dishes as I'm cooking for people who could have a compromised immune system.

Part way through the first dishwasher run, water started to pour out of it and then there was an almighty bang and the electrics tripped again .

The maintenance staff were called in, unfortunately no one seem to think that turning the water off would be a good idea. I did suggest it but obviously not having a penis my opinion was of no note.

I carried on preparing lunch, the maintenance staff managed to get the cooker working so I was able to finish the meal, albeit standing in  cold water up to my ankles.

I did wonder if I was in imminent danger of being electrocuted and was not impressed by the abilities of the maintenance staff. I did my own safety checks.

Muppets

Kethry I have a daughter in law who is in the same position as your husband. She feels the same way.

I know we were lied to but that is what politicians do, they lie through their teeth.

I truly believe that it doesn't matter which party gets in things will not improve.

Floating Bistro

There is a floating bistro moored in a nearby marina, we like to support floating traders so we visited at lunch time and had a burger.
We have booked a table at 6 tomorrow, Golden veg soup for starter, Beef and Ale stew with horseradish mash and Sticky Toffee pud for afters.
I hope it's not raining, if it is we will eat in our car.

Sick, sick, sick up to here.

I'm sick to bloody death of all the crap about brexit.

We are supposedly living in a democracy, the majority voted to leave, maybe right, maybe wrong.

But that was the vote, what we have now is a complete shambles.

MP's acting like spoilt brats, just interested in protecting their own interests, not one of them gives a bugger about the people they should be representing, they are not the fit to run the country.

I'm also sick to bloody death of Harry and Megan, waffling on about saving the world from climate change.

Twat in a hat.

Disclaimer:- Not all twats wear hats, not everyone wearing a hat is a twat.

Today has been a two twat day.
Firstly we had a twat in a hat who, after taking photo's of the outside of the boat, stuck his camera against the window and started taking photos of the inside. I was rather tempted to drop my keks and moon him but decided just to give him the finger.

After stroke club we walked Beano up to the next lock, there were two boats leaving the lock and two waiting to go in. One was a singled handed liveaboard boater with 40 years experience, the other was a hire boat.
Some hire boaters are very experienced and know what they are doing, this wasn't one of those. There was a crew of 6 or seven, they looked like an extended family
 Grandpa, grandma, mum, dad and two or three teens. Grandpa was IN CHARGE and was wearing a hat to prove it. He had no idea what he was doing but he was very good at yelling instructions, including telling the single handed how he should be going through the lock.

Grandpa insisted on telling everyone how to tie up their boat (when there are two boats side by side in a lock, they aren't going to go anywhere so don't really need the front middle and back rope to be tied) he was issuing contradictory instructions which only grandma tried to follow.
Once the lock gates were open he climbed on to the roof of his boat and started shouting All Aboard and Cast Orfe in his proper captains voice repeatedly. Unfortunately he then realised that once everyone was aboard there was no one left on the bank to shut the gates and the twat couldn't steer towards the bank as he was still standing on the roof of his boat!

Moving day

Five locks, three swing bridges, a water point, a two mile walk and a trip to collect my car.

I'm officially knackered.

Stroke Club tomorrow.

A day out

I had a day out yesterday, I went to the Southern Wool Show with DD1 and two dgd's. There are no photos of us as one of the dgd's is fostered but I will post pics of what I bought.

The show was bigger than last year, and the food was better too, they had baguettes this year as well as pasties and cake.

This is a square made with the butterfly loom I bought.

I also bought some Rico cotton

 and some Opal sock wool.

Beano had been calm and behaved well for Steve whilst I was out, sometimes he gets a bit panicky.

Beano was also pleased to see me when I arrived home whereas Steve started complaining within about 14 seconds of my arrival, nothing new there then. I collected some Amazon parcels from DD1 and packed them in a plastic crate, obviously I'd packed them incorrectly!

Once I'd made a cuppa I settled down to read.

I finished Tombland by C J Sansome which I really enjoyed. It's set in 1549 during the peasants rebellion in East Anglia.

I'm now reading How the Dead Speak by Val Mcdermid

Fecking morons

We are moving tomorrow and I'm really glad, it's been ok here and it has been fairly peaceful apart from a boat with a dog that yapped all night.

A few minutes ago though, we had three motorbikes go roaring past, they scared the bejesus out of Beano, he hurriedly crept on to my knee.

It's bad enough trying to avoid the kamikaze cyclists without having fecking morons on motorbikes racing along the towpath.