xmas and beyond

so to bring you up to speed this is what has happened up till xmas,The anti biotics worked and relieved the pain for about 2 weeks untill they returned, so made another appointment for nick at the dentist, this time he drilled out the wisdom tooth and drained the abscess and said it should be fine now till you hear from the hospital, WRONG!!! i had made an appointment to see the dentist to get my abscess sorted xmas week so booked it for the 23rd dec knowing we were going to be home by then, so we had booked into mercia for a week whilst we went home for xmas, as nick was in  a lot of pain i told him to come with me and gatecrash the dentist which he did, so after having my tooth out nick went in and the dentist phoned the hospital immediately saying they had to take him in,so off we went to QMC A&E we arrived there at about 9.30am we finally get on the ward at 2pm, baring in mind in 2 days to xmas i had ALL the xmas things to do, cards,shopping,presents etc etc, so i leave him on the ward while i go "do" xmas things,arriving back home at 7.30pm i phoned the hospital before i visited, good job i did as nick was in theatre and was told to ring back in an hour, which i did to find he was still down there, anyway to cut a long story short, he finally gets back on the ward at 12.30am needless to say i didnt visit and he was in for the night, so picked him up xmas eve and i still had xmas to deliver, so dumped him at home and got it all done. xmas day was much better we went round to see the grandchildren and to give them their presents, no drinking for us tho as we were both on anti biotics again **sigh** anyway the week was soon over and it was back to the boat and out of the marina back onto the cut **yay**

xmas with the grandchildren

                                      HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Not a good week

As the title suggests we have both got trouble with our wisdom teeth, i had to phone chris up to fetch nick so he could go to the dentist with his as he was in so much pain i nearly took him to the hospital, anyway he went to our dentist at home and was given anti-biotics and they referred him to QMC to have it taken out along with another one which is also going to be troublesome later on, he could have to wait up to 8 weeks, lets hope the pain has subsided before then, i made an appointment at the local walk-in centre to have mine seen to as i know i have an abscess in my wisdom tooth and all i needed was anti-biotics because they won't take it out whilst it's infected, neither of us has had much sleep over the last week or been eating much, let's hope the tablets kick in soon so we can be pain free till they can be removed.

Brrr it's getting cold

yep winter is on it's way, we have had a few night's with frost on the grass but we have also had a few sunny but cold day's cruising, with christmas only 5 week's away we have decided to put the boat in a marina for a week whilst we enjoy christmas with the kids,parents and grand kids, not much has been happening apart from shopping and cruising on nicer days, went into barton marina for diesel and coal and was suprised at the price of thier diesel at 82p per litre but on the other hand the coal was £12 a bag, not what we usually pay but we had no choice unless we spent a full day travelling to shobnall or mercia, oh well we shall stock up when we get down there.

A special visitor

Well we have had a busy couple of weeks, what with the BSS, nicks birthday and now a visitor in the form of my grandaughter who is staying with us for a whole week. we did some shopping and went on the park but the weather hasn't been too great this week.

A trip to the park

4yrs old and playing the DS

River Dove in flood

As we moored up we saw a rainbow

bewildered dogs lol

Sunset

Update

so to bring this up to date, we got hold of a core plug and nick fitted it,checked it didn't leak then topped with anti-freeze ready for the cold nights ahead, bought 3 new fire extinguishers for the BSS ready for jim coming this weekend,  so jim arrived to do the BSS when he got to the gas part he said we had a leak, after 30 minutes of trying to sort it out he discovered it was his gas hose connector that was split "phew" so turns out our supply was ok, so BBS passed for another 4 years, as it was nick's birthday we had a little friend and family gathering at ragley, it was great to see old friends again.

Swans at stenson cafe.

Butter wouldn't melt

John,Joy and Roz

The Crew

Winter is a coming

With all good intentions of moving up the T&M it was not to be, we have a slight problem with a leaking core bung in the engine so had to sit around waiting for chris to pick us up tomorrow so we can get a new one, they are not expensive only being 50p each but probably going to take nick all day to remove it and fit the new one as it;s in an awkward place, apart from that there's been nothing happening apart from the weather which can't make it's mind up, we have booked the BSS once that's done we are going to meet some friends at ragley for nicks birthday once the engine is sorted..

Time for a change

As you will see i have changed the layout to something a little different, not much to say really, just that we went to midland chandlers on friday to get stuff for the BSS which is due soon, so that saved us a few bob, we are staying on the T&M till the end of the month in various places as i have to visit my mum and perm her hair before we set off again, plus i want to see a few old friends and hopefully have my grandaughter for a couple of days. hope you like the new layout, if not oh well!!! :)

Time to move

well after the episode with the elsan at Bishop's Meadow Lock i decided to phone CRT and see what was going on, i was informed that the "tank" is going to stay as they do not intend to fix the elsan point for the foreseeable future as there is a problem with the cesspit, anyway we went back down the soar to kegworth where chris picked us up so we could go visit the grandkids and my mother, nick did some fishing but the water is so low and not flowing at all that he caught nothing, the weirs are not even causing a flow.
So now is the time to move off the river as there is heavy rain and thunderstorms forcast so we headed off down the soar and up the trent to the Trent & Mersey, we were going to head for ragley but the rain became too heavy so we moored short of it,we cant hang around as we need to be at mercia for the freaky friday tomorrow, oh well never mind there will be another time.

Lazy weekend

so we get to loughborough and do some shopping but decide to goto pilings and turn round but as we got there it was empty and quiet so we decided to stay for the weekend, that was soon broken friday evening when the marina boats came out of the marina and reversed passed us to moor up, they unloaded chairs, tables, gas bottles and bbq onto the towpath and no-one could get by them so they had to move it to the edge,next thing you know out comes the chainsaw and into the woods they went cutting  large branches off the trees, anyway we needed to get back to loughborough on sunday for the aldi special on chainsaw chains, we stopped off at bishop's meadow lock to water up and empty the toilets,there was a notice on the door which read "this station is closed, elsan is in car park" so off i trotted to the car park,hmm couldnt see a elsan point anywhere so nick went and had a look, low and behold he found it, it was a grey tank on the floor that you just tipped the toilet into, no water to clean it down, the smell was immense as you can imagine the stench of everyones shit all in a closed tank in the sun, then we travelled down the soar and found a quiet spot to stay.

Tank

how kool is this

boathouse

todays view

tonights sunset

Hi Ho Hi Ho its off to luff we go

Not a very pleasant morning this morning but the rain didn't last long and when it did rain again it was only shower's, quite windy tho and got blown about a bit at zouch lock and bishop's meadow, we reached luff about 3.30pm and went for a swift half in the boat inn before we went shopping, we are going to stay here for a couple of day's seeing as the weather is going to be nice over the weekend.

rain showers

Tonights view

Kegworth deep

Big water

onward and upward's, off to the trent before the rain comes, today was windy but dry and i managed to get cold in my ears which wasn't nice, the trent was very calm and so was the soar.

Leaving the T&M

Calm trent

get a move on

Trent, Erewash and soar meet

swan row boat

water level on arrival on the soar

Alrewas and on the trent

still feeling under the weather and yesterday i felt like doing nothing but sleep but hey ho!!! we still carried on as normal, arrived at fradley junction and to our surprise there were no boats at all how strange is that, same thing at alrewas, empty locks whats going on!!! although saying that there were no moorings to be had, not that we wanted to moor but all the same it was full. the trent from alrewas lock to wychnor lock was very calm and well into the green.

watch out for the speed camera and police boat lol

plaque on the mile marker

Juggler

Arrmitage Tunnel

and inside

The Plum Pudding and caravan park to the left

Armitage shanks

Armitage shanks factory

Fradley Junction looking up the coventry canal

an empty junction

chocolate boat at bagnall

river open

Staff & Worcs to the T&M

been a little under the weather for the past few days with a very sore throat and a chesty cough, nicks not been as bad so we have still traveled with me driving through the locks when needed then going back inside once it's done, had to have the fire lit too as i had a tempreture and was feeling the cold, the weathers not been too bad tho although we have had a little rain tonight.

river sow

Tixall lock cottage

Tamburo at tixall wide

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tixall wide

another sunken boat

Trent

Heywood Junction