May - Intrepid etc

Maryanne was hors du combat at the beginning of the month having done her knee in so she was unable to do any walking - just as my ankle was beginning to get better.  So we decided to meet in Denham for lunch so that Mike could cycle out to Denham and meet us at the pub (still in training for his cycle ride to Paris).  I took Suki for a walk along the canal first - up one side and back the other. We had a lovely lunch - it was a scorching hot day and we sat in the garden where Mike's bike drew a lot of attention.

St Mary Barnes were having a new web site set up in WordPress and I went along to an afternoon's training session by the hosting company.  However I since managed to get rid of all the Barnes web site stuff on to Trisha - who is absolutely addicted to it and happy to do it all.  The hosting company is a lady who buys a large amount of server space from "Heart" and then sells it on as hosting.  As well as paying her to set up the site Barnes will pay a monthly maintenance charge.  For this she will manage the updates to WordPress itself and make sure all the plugins work etc.  She is also available for help and support. Mind you I found a way of identifying the various sections (rather than just calling them all text or image) which she said was not possible, and then when I pointed it out she said it must have been an improvement in a recent update to WordPress which she hadn't noticed!  We decided to archive the old site with a link to it rather than transfer all the old stuff into the new one - I made a few alterations to fit the new profile and I am staying responsible for the archive which shouldn't need very much work at all from now on.

The curate at Chiswick was appointed vicar at Sunbury and we went over for his induction - obviously we went early to ring the bells first! I have never seen so many clergy robed up - and there were many more clergy unrobed in the congregation.  The reception was packed but the canapes were good.  It all just seemed a bit smug and upper middle class.  All these well off, mainly white, professional people welcoming a vicar to a huge vicarage overlooking the river in a posh part of town.  Perhaps that's a bit bah humbug - but I can't help comparing it with what Bob Mayo has to deal with in Shepherd's Bush (where I used to do the Parish Sec job).

Sister Jennifer celebrated 30 years as Sister Superior at the convent and we were invited to the celebration tea party.  We enjoyed a splendid tea and admired the huge cake.

I survived the first week of Intrepid with Tony, Gill, Claire and Bjorn joining JJ, Mike and Me again this year - it makes such a difference knowing it is only for 6 nights. We took the boat from its mooring at Nether Heyford in Northamptonshire to Nottingham - click here for Itinerary.
Claire & Bjorn grab some lunch before we set off
We had reasonable weather most days - just one where it rained heavily all day and Mike did most of the driving that day!  Suki and I did a lot of walking which was nice.  Apart from crawling under the sink on the first night, Suki was reasonable settled through the night throughout the week, right up until the last night - when the wind got up and the boat was moving around a lot.  I was up with her at 2 am but luckily managed to get her to settle down after about an hour - I think the wind must have dropped a bit.
Suki hiding under the sink
The fridge packed in after a couple of days - which was an extra challenge!  Luckily we had eaten most of the supplies we had got in for the start of the trip so nothing actually went off - but it was difficult to do a big shop as nothing would stay fresh.  Tony and Gill were pretty useless around the boat as usual, but Claire and Bjorn are very good value - know what they are doing around boats and energetic and competent.  There was a bit of tension by the end of the week between the two couples as Claire and Bjorn made it known they did not think Tony and Gill were pulling their weight around the boat!  The ringing was good though and they scored 6 out of 6 QPs in some very fancy methods.

I took the train to Wellingborough on the Saturday and had a taxi booked to take me from there to the marina at Nether Heyford to pick up the car. I was very early for the train so sat for over an hour on the platform, no doubt looking somewhat dirty and dishevelled, with Suki on a blanket beside me and several bags around my feet.  Unsurprisingly a member of the station staff came up to me eventually to see if I was ok - no doubt thinking I was some sort of bag lady/homeless person.!  I had a reasonable drive home and got back in time to sort my stuff out and do my washing and then collapse in front of the TV and have an early night.  I thought I would be having a duvet day on the Sunday - but got up with bags of energy so did the ironing and admin bits and pieces.  I also went to explore the farmers market which is now on every Sunday at Wendell Park School.  It was very good - about 50-50 stalls and street food - and I got several nice things.

Lorraine brought Carolyn over in the evening and she stayed the night and then I gave her a lift the next day to Amanda's house in Melton Mowbray on my way to Lincoln.  Carolyn is going to stay there to help out when the baby is born (no sign of it yet!).  We were supposed to be going out to lunch but by the time Amanda had shown us round, then gone to collect Bethany from nursery, then taken me to the shops to do some shopping for Intrepid, it was 3 pm when we got to the local pub and the kitchen was closed.  Amanda hadn't realised that they wouldn't be serving food all day - she'll learn!  So we had a drink and then I set off for Lincoln where I was meeting up with the boat for a couple of days - luckily I had something with me from the farmers market to nibble.  I was somewhat surprised to get a shopping list from the boat which included "night nurse, paracetamol, tissues, ibruprofen" etc rather than bread and milk - but when I met up with them it was clear that several people had colds, or worse.  Louise Booth in particular seemed to have gone down with a nasty virus and in fact she came home at the end of the week with us instead of staying on for another week as planned to take the boat back to Northampton.  Mike was also ill - with a bladder infection which he gets from time to time - and just sat with his eyes closed shivering and retching (although he perked up to go ringing at the appropriate moments).  Having found a place to pass the shopping over to the boat as it passed by, I then went on to book in to the hotel, before going back to the boat for dinner.  In addition to no fridge on the boat, the hot water had stopped working and no-one had been able to have a shower!  I think JJ did manage to get it working again later in the week - although one day they ran out of water completely and boated until 10.40 at night to get to a water point.

The hotel I stayed in was amazing - it was the old Bishop's palace at Lincoln Cathedral and had the added bonus of giving me a parking space for the 2 days in the Minster Yard.  They were very relaxed about Suki being with me - not one condition or rule was laid down.  The room was very comfortable and the bathroom very modern with a lovely powerful shower.  At breakfast I asked if I could take a bowl of porridge on a tray outside, because of Suki being with me, and they insisted on bringing it down to me with a pot of tea and a croissant.  They were so friendly and helpful.


On the Tuesday I walked along the canal to meet up with the boat - unfortunately I walked for a good 30 minutes on the wrong side before coming to a dead end and having to retrace my steps, but the other side went all the way and I ended up walking for about two and a half hours before finding a canalside pub with a mooring to meet up with them and boat back.  When the boat was moored at Lincoln I went to get my car and gave Mike and JJ a lift up to the cathedral - Mike was still weak and shivery at that time and hadn't been eating.  I had just settled down with a cup of tea in my room as the QP started when Judy Sparling rang to say she was outside - she and Andy had only just arrived because Andy had been very ill on Saturday and their cat had been attacked in the night and needed to go to the vet.  So I bolted my tea down and went out to meet up with her and we had some ice cream sitting in the sunshine listening to the QP (which collapsed just before the end).  I went to dinner on the boat again that night (much easier than trying to find somewhere to eat with a dog in Lincoln) - Mike wouldn't eat anything.  I put him to bed before I left - he apparently improved during the next couple of days and was fine again by the time I collected him on Sunday.

I left on Wednesday morning - I had worked out there was a country park some 15 mins south of Lincoln where I could go for a nice walk with Suki before the drive home.  As I arrived at the car park I got a phone call from the hotel telling me I had left my purse in the toilets! So I had to go back and collect it after my walk - at which point they were unable to open the safe and I had to wait about half an hour before they finally broke into the safe!

I got out of spending another night on the boat at the weekend, and just went up to Retford on the Sunday to collect Mike.  I got to the church about 1.30 pm and walked along the canal for just over an hour before I met up with the boat (at a lock which was fortuitous) and then boated back.  We gave Colin and Louise a lift home - which didn't leave any room for my bike.  However I had already made plans to meet up with Beryl on 7th June, so I took a set of boat keys and will pop over to the marina and get my bike then which works out quite well.  Colin went back to the boat and finished the week off with JJ and Andrew Case once he had got Louise home.

The rest of the month passed off uneventfully.  Jayne had been sourcing plans for a new kitchen down in Devon - and I must admit the mock up did look very good.  I had tentative approval for this from Mike although no commitment yet.

Suki had more skin problems - I noticed a bald scabby place on her neck where she had been scratching a lot and I had to take her to the vet.  It turned out there was quite a large area she had scratched under the fur (which was shaved off).  She didn't want to go out for a walk for a couple of days - and I began to notice the lack of exercise myself.  She had antibiotics and I had to bathe the area and apply cream on a daily basis.  It gradually improved although her fur has remained very patchy and thin around her neck.


I did a day's gardening - quite a novelty for me.  I went to Homebase for some trellis and some climbing plants to hide the monstrosity of a fence that has been nailed to ours next door. We woke up one morning to find them attaching it to our fence posts.  I was furious with them but didn't insist that they took it down.  They have really ruined the garden next door.


I thought I would run out of motivation, but I actually put up the trellis and planted all the plants before flagging.  I also got 8 cheap floor tiles for £5 to put down at the front for the new wheelie bins which had been delivered - collections started in June.  I am very pleased with the way the garden has turned out - and it will be even better when the climbers have reached the top of the fence.  I moved the old wheelbarrow to the bottom of the garden where the grass never grows anyway and made a sort of feature of it.  I was done in at the end of the day though.



Popular posts from this blog

Christmas Newsletter 2018

Saturday 1 February

Roving Ringers Reunion Weekend 21-22 Feb