BSC complete... Yeahhhhh.

Yesterday, Matilda Rose passed her 1st BSC with flying colours, no adverse comments and done by a gentlemen who was very thorough and fair, if you need a good examiner who gives you absolute confidence then contact Nigel Smith from the Ashby Narrowboat company, Stoke Golding. We have also had our engine and Electrical check carried out by River Canal Rescue, James was also superb and commented on the well looked after Engine, thank you James. Lastly we had a problem with out Harworth boiler and that was sorted by another James, a one man band boat engineer who knew his cherries and we now have another source of heat and hot water, Thank you James.

We are now only a couple of days away from having to leave MR for a few days whilst we visit rels and friends in Norfolk, but then we will be closer to our return and a trip down the Grand Union to London, Jill wants to visit Little Venice but with the closures due in January it may be a little ambitious this time, we shall see!

Back at Brinklow

Arrived back at Brinklow in strong wind, and therefore, our usual dramatic fashion! The wind lashes across as you turn in & the prevailing wind is away from our pontoon so our arrival is always a bit nerve racking - anyway, no damage done. Daisy has been doing her best to catch up with the removal of all rodents, which have had a fairly cushy time since we were last here at the beginning of June. I'm sitting doing this blog whilst waiting for the guy to come & do MR's 1st BSC - we've done everything we can think of and given her a good clean so all we can do now is wait and see. Although it's lovely to have unlimited water & know that every shower will be hot and that you can jump in the car & get a pint of milk etc.: but it does take the adventure out of life & I always feel that our "proper" life is on hold until we get moving again. Anyway, it has to be done and it's nice to catch up with the family whilst we have the car - by the time we've spent a few days in Norfolk - it'll be around the 6th before we leave, but want to catch up with Caxton & Lady Hester first (the latter left the day before we came back-somebody obviously warned them of our arrival).

Baxter's food tastes are becoming quite sophisticated - having taught Muttley how to pick his own blackberries, we then found him eating cooking apples under the tree at Bascote lock! Fortunately his stomach survived the experience and, this time, Muttley didn't copy him so we are starting to have a little more confidence about leaving Muttley's muzzle off; could he be growing out of his eating disorder at last? Sadly, he still has to wear it around the immediate confines of the boat because of all the corpses & part corpses bought home by Daisy-he still finds these utterly irresistable - leading to, yet another, trip to the vets! This may well be the last blog for a bit because no-one wants to look at photos of Tesco etc-still, pictures of the sea next week might make a change.

To share or not to share?

It's always nice to think, when approaching a big flight of double locks, that it would be nice to share the locks & your day with another boat (like we did with Brian & the gang through the Stocktons & the Hattons). However, if you are not sharing with kindred spirits it is often way better to be on your own; the trouble is, by the time you've realised that there are "irreconcilable differences," how do you get out of the situation? "You go on, we need to stop for water" and "you go on, we have something wrapped round our prop," are invariably met with, "no worries, we'll wait & have a brew" or "we'll stay & help". Because, 99.99999% of boaters are lovely; but not always compatible!. I'm more than willing to do my share of the far sides of locks (heavier due to less usage & if only one gate has to be closed it's that one), but it really stresses the dogs out when we are separated from them lock after lock, & then they try to cross the gates which freaks us out. So...for the record.... I do not do locks in ANY kind of a rush & I don't do locks with people who don't take their share of the far side (for whatever reason -vertigo, tinatus, etc). Don't ask, I aint dancing!
Today we came up the Stockton flight with some great guys, Dave & Carol on Bronnington, waved farewell at the top of the flight &, about 40 minutes later hit the last 3 locks with the wind howling across the Marina-some poor chap broken down on the lock moorings (right where everyone coming round the bend bashed into him) doing everything he could to help both Barry & Bonnie on Audierne & us get into the lock - neither of us could have managed it without his help. The weather went from fine to scary in moments. Moored at the first opportunity!
I have a feeling I still won't have enough signal to load photos - but at least we have a connection tonight.