Tuesday 28 January 2014

Giant hail

By Friday Lesley's car was sorted so we went off to a big shopping centre on the outskirts of Leicester and I not only managed 4 1/2 hours of clothes shopping, I also bought a load of new stuff - I couldn't rouse myself enough to try anything on though but, luckily, it all fitted.

G had been at his Mum's and, on Saturday,  I was just about to walk down into Harborough to meet him off the bus for a pint when all hell broke loose. Thunder, lightning and giant hailstones all seemed to come from nowhere. The already filthy tow path wasn't much improved.

Sunday we left in the pouring rain - no choice really as I had family coming out to lunch on Monday and we couldn't expect 'proper people' to wade down the Harborough towpath. We moved to Foxton where the puddles on the towpath are at least over hard standing - I sent G to wrestle with the swing bridge and we moored up just before the junction with plenty of time for a pint before our Sunday roast which had been prepped en route.

We went to The Bell Inn at Gumley for Monday lunch - dog friendly (although we didn't take ours), people friendly, great beer and good food. In addition to an extensive and varied menu they also have 5 daily specials at £4.95 to which you can add any of the a la carte starters for £2 (normally £4-£5). Our 4 dishes came with potatoes/chips/salads/veg as individually chosen; plus an additional huge bowl of different veg and another of chips - the latter was donated to the lads at the bar and the former came home in a doggy bag for soup. Crazy quantities of food.

We were going to move on today but we couldn't raise any enthusiasm for it in the continuing rain, so stayed where we were and got on with some jobs. Even when the sun did make a brief appearance it didn't stop raining so a pretty soggy dog walk and not very photo friendly
 I doubt Anubis will ever come up and play again
 Hardcore under our feet
 Mum's in waiting looking resigned to the rain
Up the flight tomorrow - the forecast suggests it will be full wet weather gear again

4 comments:

  1. And today's useless piece of information, from www.touregypt.net,


    Anubis is an incredibly ancient god, and was the original god of the dead before Osiris "took over" the position. After that point, Anubis was changed to be one of the many sons of Osiris and the psychopomp (conductor of souls) of the underworld.

    Oh well at least it's drier than the weather... LOL

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    1. Nice to see that both Kevins are on the ball. Please let me think you know all this amazing stuff and don't have to Google it. Isn't psychopomp a great word? It's up there with discombobulated but, unlike the latter, it's damn difficult just dropping it into the odd conversation!

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  2. Look Look!!

    September

    file:///home/chronos/user/Downloads/DBA%20Calendar%20Barge%20Life%202014%20-%20A4.pdf

    Fame at last.

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    1. I know, it's a great photo of MR pushing the waves on the Thames last summer. Photo by the Indigo Dreamers.
      For those who haven't seen it, it features as 'September' on The Barge Association's calendar for 2014. Trouble is, if you're not a Dutch Barge Association member the site won't let you in and we can't get the PDF file across.

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