Jannock’s summer trip – day #11

Tuesday 11th September

Jannock was loosed off at ten past seven this morning. My tea was delivered to my bed and despite the return of sunshine and blue skies I remained there. After four days in holiday mode Jannock is once again a ‘fly-boat’ eating up the miles through long days. Tonight we’d like to make it to Sutton’s Stop. Last night’s rain awoke me from an Alice in Wonderland type dream where however fast you travel, your destination keeps receding. All that rain last night means I’m aware of the slipperiness for the single handed boater so I’d better get up rather than just laying here getting anxious.

What is it with the British weather, too hot to be wearing clothes on Saturday evening and two fleeces and a need for gloves Tuesday morning. And then we got to Atherstone!

Up to lock 6 from 11 we flew, graham on the bike and me steering Jannock until ……. Graham received a text message from the Halifax advising him that the new telephone banking security number he had ordered had been sent. What????? On the phone immediately to find out what’s going on, are we about to have our account raided again? He finally managed to get the new number disabled as he hadn’t ordered one at all.

After lock 3 we had to wait for a good 30 minutes whilst a BW/CaRT tug and lighter sat in lock 2 so that the machines clearing the silt out of the side pond could load it up. A mini-digger in the pond removed the reeds and silt and pushed them towards the larger digger which lifted them into the lighter. At one point the mini-digger driver was ferreting around in his pockets for his cigarettes and dropped a bag of ear-plugs into the mud. Graham pointed this out to him so he bent down out of the cab to retrieve them and immediately dropped his smart phone into the slime as well. Ooooooops!

Once through the flight we moored up and walked down into Atherstone for supplies. We found it to be far less depressing than on our last visit. We found the super butcher near the market square, by the church. Then we wandered down to the end of town to visit the big new Co-op. However we spotted Aldi opposite so went shopping there instead – BIG mistake because Graham came out with a new toy, a router table as a holiday souvenir. The market seemed to consist of just three stalls – fruit and veg, clothes and household goods of the kitchen and scullery type (well, I remember sculleries)

Storecupboard challenge day #9 – lunch was hot-dog sausages in warm crispy rolls. The tinned hot dogs were best eaten before 2003. They tasted none the worse for being 9 years out of date, but 6/10 was all they’ve ever scored so 6/10 it is now.

Supper (and overnight mooring) was courtesy of Terry and Christine, nb Grace. Their boat is away being worked on so we moored at the end of their garden and were treated to a very good chilli ‘n’ nachos. Christine showed us some of her watercolours that she’d done, they are lovely. Thanks for a good evening of chat and laughter. We hope to find some lyrical wax soon.

Brenda

www.jannock.org.uk