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Shopping on a grand scale and getting away for a break on a boat.

September started with an interview for Cheryl.  No, not a job, but to become a co-opted Town Councillor.  It’s a long story but in essence she decided to stop criticising some of the things happening in the town and do something about it.  The council recently advertised that they were looking to fill a few vacancies so she applied and after a giving a short presentation on Zoom followed by a few questions she was duly elected next day.  So now instead of slopping up her morning cuppa in bed Neil has to tug the forelock he doesn’t have and say ‘your tea m’ lady’.  Ha, that won’t last!

Not much happened on the renovation front this month.  We’re still reluctant to get started on the next major phase so stuck with simple jobs. We had some minor window repairs and got Jake in to fit the internal doors downstairs.  After not having had any for several months it seems a bit strange although we still don’t tend to close them as it’s still warm.  We’ll really know the difference when it gets cold and we have the heating on. 

We’ve also put up a few more curtains and blinds and have almost finalised the designs for the en-suite to bedroom 2 and the family bathroom.  Cheryl had fun with graph paper and cut out shapes for the various option sizes for sinks, baths, showers and toilets as we decided on one layout then promptly trashed it for another bright idea. We’ve been round and around in designs so many times that we’re dizzy!

As the title suggests we’ve been spending again.  This time on the big items – sofas for the living room, a large dining table and chairs plus TV table and coffee tables.  This turned out to be surprisingly difficult for us to do. There are lots available to look at online but we wanted to actually sit and touch to help us decide.  Judging colours online is hit and miss, and we probably hold the record in returning the most packages to Dunelms, Argos & Next when it came to choosing the curtains.

Big items of furniture come with a hefty price tag so we didn’t want to mess up. We decided to take our time and ordered sample after sample as we dithered with neutral shades – who knew there could be so many greys, beiges, grey-beiges and beigey-greys? Eventually, inspired by our favourite prints and the fact we have chosen neutral walls and carpets we went for a bold colour. Then of course we found that size does matter – and the final layout of the furniture balanced by the features of the rooms. That narrowed down the choices as we worked out what could fit and where it was likely to go.

The time arrived to get to the shops and have what Cheryl calls ‘a poke and a prod’. Most retailers have very few on display and that’s assuming you can find a shop big enough to even have a display. Hmmm, maybe a move to the back of beyond does have it’s limitations? We had a couple of big days out in Exeter but really struggled. We didn’t like DFS and the other big chains, we also tried local suppliers but finding a comfortable sofa isn’t that easy.  Even Next don’t display everything they sell.  We wanted to try a new design but when we asked where the nearest one was that was on display we were told ‘Dagenham’! 

We’ve finally settled on sofas we know we’re going to like because both Leanne and Paul have the same model. We’ve also gone for solid oak for the other furniture but you will have to wait a while to see it all as it won’t be delivered for a few weeks. 

Three on a boat – again!

Our 2 weeks on the narrow boat was looming at the middle of the month and Alex & Freddy were only too keen to escape London again and come and house sit.  They arrived just before we left and they’ll stay for a week.  Paul, Miranda and numero uno will come and stay for the second week for a well deserved holiday. 

Our boat trip this year was to be from a marina near to Lichfield in Staffordshire.  We’ve joined forces with Gail again so we’re in for a relaxing time, lots of laughs and probably a little too much drinking.  On the way up we dropped in on June and Roy before shopping for the trip. 

After the abysmal weather of last years trip, in June, we set off in mid-September in glorious sunshine and over 20C.  Could it last we kept asking, the forecast says so for at least a week and so it was.  Just one day of heavy rain followed by a few days of windy but dry chilly weather.  By the time we had finished at the end of September we had one of our best trips weather wise. 

Our journey took us from a new marina, Kings Orchard near Lichfield, south along The Coventry Canal through Tamworth and Nuneaton but most of the trip was rural.  Rural worked for us as we were between Birmingham and Leicester which are two of the major conurbations under severe lock down rules due to Covid. Our boat this year was new to the Canal Boat Club and had the unusual name of ‘Fig Parrot’. Yes, there is such a thing – look it up!

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Social distancing is pretty easy aboard a narrow boat and even at locks it’s very easy to stay 2m apart even if other parties forget the recommendations.  We had planned our trip around mostly rural areas to keep us away from people as much as possible and within our Covid bubble of 3 we were destined to be as safe as we could possibly be. 

Gail and Cheryl were chatting to a live-aboard boater at one of the locks and she suggested we take a 2 day detour to visit The Ashby Canal.  We did and we were rewarded with a very quiet and very pretty canal.  It was also, lucky for us, home to a very rare and endangered species, the Water Vole.  One morning, as we drank tea in bed, Neil noticed one on the opposite bank tucking into some crab apples. 

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The picture is a little blurred but we were so excited to see a pair carrying on with their lives unperturbed.  The access and exit from The Coventry were both sharp and tight and Neil was smug with himself as he did both without touching the sides.   

Back onto The Coventry we took a sharp left on to The Oxford Canal.  Actually, rather than a sharp left it was a very difficult U-turn but yet again Neil managed it well.  This took us through rural areas to Rugby and down to Braunston and The Grand Union Canal.  We turned left to go through the Braunston Locks and the 2km Braunston tunnel before taking another left along The Leicester section to our final destination, the flight of locks at Foxton. 

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We’ve been through this flight of locks before but it’s an amazing feat of engineering with two sets of five staircase locks and one passing place in the centre. The dramatic locks and surrounding scenery are quite beautiful.  The plan was to go through one day, moor for the night, and return next day as it usually takes a while as its only one boat up and one boat down at a time.  It was so unbelievably quiet that we decided go through, do a swift 180deg turn and head back up and moor somewhere a little quieter.  The lock keeper volunteers thought we were mad as we could have just turned around at the top. We love the locks and Foxton is one of the best so down and back up it had to be for us.

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Sadly this was the first and only time we got flack from someone when Cheryl asked to be given 2m when she was trying to operate a lock.  As we said, Foxton is very pretty and draws lots of day trippers.  One particular individual, let’s call him Covidiot so as not to be un-PC, was less than polite when asked to move away from the lock gate arm.  He did move but not without protest.

The return trip is always interesting as you see things from a totally different angle and often see things you missed before.  You also get to see some of the weirdest things on canals, like tyre art, The Stig and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs……and why not?!  All in all, 2 weeks cruising in pretty good weather for the time of year was great fun and, as usual, we consumed far too much food, wine, gin and beer (that’ll be Neil then!). 

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Back into the car on Sunday for the 3hr drive home to spend a few hours with Miranda, Paul and grandson before they left for the drive home to Bristol.  It appears that they, like Alex and Freddy, had a good time enjoying the delights of Seaton and free accommodation, free that is apart from the odd gardening chore.

September is over, the leaves are turning brown as Autumn approaches and we head for our fist full winter in the UK for more than 12 years.  That’ll be the next instalment, Chapter 13, yet another new phase to our blog.

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