I haven't blogged since we got home, and reading through last Friday's post I realise I left us half way through the last day.  It was in fact a good, non-stressful day. We enjoyed Tixall Wide but were disappointed not to see kingfishers there.  We finally moored up about a mile from the boatyard, with two locks to do in the morning.  We BBQd again, but ate it indoors.  We were back at the boatyard well before nine, moored up to one of the parked boats and went off to the lounge to have another big breakfast.  Joe and Sally joined us, then Steve and Kate went home and we stayed an extra day in Stone.  Fantastic Italian meal out, and then a great evening under Joe's new patio heater, listening to music, and drinking.  In the afternoon Dave had helped Joe install a double outdoor plug, and renew the wiring to one of the front room plugs.  Joe was very pleased, even though the front room is half finished, with bare parquet blotched with paint, and the fireplace partly stripped out.  It will be lovely when it is done.

Life has been a bit flat since we came home.  The Knees have had three days at Clogwyn, so we have been quiet, with no-one but the cats to visit us in bed in the mornings.  They are just back, and we are going to have a take out curry.  Normal life has been resumed.

This is our last full day on Martha Ginger.  We made it to Penkridge last night and had an excellent pub meal with Joe and Sal at The Boat.  Autherley Junction was a bit tricky; we came out of a lock straight onto a T junction, across a huge winding hole.  We had to make a sharp left, but because the back end was still in the confines of the lock until the last minute, there wasn't room to swing round.  We pushed our nose into a well-damaged elder on the opposite bank - I suspect it is there to cushion the blow!

Unless Great Haywood is time-consuming today should be quite manageable, so we laid in until quarter to eight, had breakfast and went unwashed into Penkridge to shop.  And I had it in mind to take photos of the school where Mary-Ann was Head for 4 years.  That all worked out well, the sun is shining - again! - and all is peaceful on the water.  We have run alongside the M6 for quite a while, and the South-bound traffic is hardly moving.  4mph looks good in that situation.

We made it to Norbury Junction last evening, a very long day.  There were some tricky locks and one set of five took us about two hours. The problem was too many people going through in one direction so that we came out of a lock into very shallow mooring for the next one.  It was a situation where ideally you would wait in the lock until the next one was ready, avoiding mooring up in the shallows, but not everyone understood that, and some people get so impatient you would think they were late for work!  To be fair, all the hired boats are working to a deadline, and we have found already that however well you plan there is nothing you can do about the flow of traffic.  We also had a delay when our back fender got well and truly stuck under the lock we had just come through.  A lovely family waiting behind us came and stood on the back end and weighed it down enough to free the fender and its bolts and chains, but it was an embarrassing moment.

I have accidentally deleted most of my still pictures, getting in a muddle transferring them to my portabale hard drive, and deleting them from the camera before checking they were saved.  I have discovered that I have no picture of our lovely boat to send the boys, so we need to remedy that when we can get out of the boat.  As I write, Dave has tapped on the window, and I see him and Kate trudging up the towpath to our first lock of the day.  They are going to try to dispose of yesterdays rubbish and take a photo while they are out, but once we get into the lock I will lose coverage so its time to stop before I lose everything.

I last blogged when the others had gone to find food for the BBQ.  Inevitably they also found a canal-side pub where we had a sandwich and beer, and where Steve looked over the bridge and realised that our next manoevre was a left handed, right-angle bend into the Middlewich branch of the Shropshire Union Canal.  To make matters worse the water top up ;point was almost at the bend, and the canal sent immediately under a bridge and into a lock.  And there was a queue.  So what looked like a nive striaghtforward day suddenly looked very tricky.  It all worked out in the end though and we made it to Church Minshall in good time for our BBQ.

Yesterday was  15 miles and 17 locks day, but 13 of the locks were at the end of the day in Audlem.  By the time we got there we were all shattered so we abandoned the plan and had scampi and chips at the Shroppie Fly, leaving 9 of yesterdays locks to do this morning before starting on our scheuled 20 miles and 12 locks.  As I write we are moored up in Market Drayton, filling up with water yet again.  We have been moving since 8 0'clcock and are doing pretty well, so hopefully we shall make it to Gnosall this evening and be back on track to meet up with Joe and Sal in Penkridge tomorrow.

We are having a leisurely day today, because we covered so much water yesterday.  After the tunnel and all the locks we arrived at our destination, Hassall Green, at about 4.20.  According to Nicholson's Guide we should have had quite a choice of eating places after our hard day, but had settled on either The Canal Centre, which had shops, restaurant, maps etc, or the Romping Donkey for a pub meal.  Unfortunately the Romping Donkey was boarded up, and the Canal Centre had closed for the day.  Nothing daunted, our team of three carried on, through cold and rain, and completed an extra 9 locks arriving at Wheelock tired and hungry but well satisfied.  We moored up  and went in search of food.  Right next to the tow-path was a restaurant called the Old Mill which is a very nice Italian eating place: lots of exposed brick and beams, round oak tables and padded chairs, and attentive service.  The hilarious thing was that we had promised ourselves a 'dirty meal' like fish and chips or a take-out, because none of us had showered.  So there we sat in all our unwashed glory, dining out in style.  I guess we all smelt the same, because none of us remarked anything, and the staff were very polite.  I fancied a mixed seafood risotto but was a bit anxious about eating mussels and octopus and other shellfish - the last thing I want is to make myself ill and spoil everyone's holiday.  There was a very expensive mixed seafood on the Specials board which was salmon and tuna and prawns, so I had a conversation with the waitress about what would be in my risotto.  I am pretty sure that she asked me what I would not want to find there, so I said mussels and shellfish.  Somehow the wrong message got through and my tomato risotto rice was full of mussels, and squid.  It was gorgeous and although I was so full I had to go to bed early it has done me no harm.  All the food was good, so we felt the mislaid plans had turned out very successfully.

We laid in until 8.0 this morning, had breakfast and were chugging away by 8.45.  It has been a pleasant journey through some rural areas with orchards and well-tended gardens bordering the canal, and some more industrial areas, although nothing like the potteries.  Middlewich is a salt-producing town and has been since Roman times.  We passed the back of a big plant with an unbelievable mountain of pure white salt.  Apparently they extract it from the earth, and the workings have been so extensive that the canal has sunk many times and had to be shored up.

We are moored in Middlewich now at 12 midday, and the others have gone on a foray for the makings of a BBQ tonight.  It is a lovely bright sunny day with blue sky, although not hot, and we only have about 6 miles to do to reach the planned destination.  Whether we stick to that remains to be seen.  Once Dave and Kate get started on locks there is no stopping them.

I am doing pretty well, managing to take photos and some video, and to sit on a chair up the back some of the time.  I brought embroidery, but really there is not a lot of point in looking at what I am stitching when the scenery is being left behind at the rate of four miles an hour.

Canal Cruising

We are actually doing it! I am blogging from Martha Ginger, our 72 ft narrow boat.  It has just started to rain and Steve is at the back end manning the tiller while Dave and Kate beaver up and down the tow path doing the locks.  This is a really heavy day.  Our first major task was getting through the Harecastle Tunnel, which is almost 3000 yds long and takes about an hour.  We thought it was going to be  very claustrophobic and scary, but it was fascinating.  There were a few stalactites and some areas where the inside of the tunnel was coated with ripples of shiny stuff (?iron pyrites), but for the most part we were very impressed by the good state of Thomas Telford's brickwork. 

Anyway, soon after the tunnel we started on the locks and I believe the series we are doing now is known as Heartbreak Hill.  There are 16 locks in 10 miles after the tunnel.  We are doing well though, and have been quite lucky in that many of the locks have been ready to chug into, because of boats coming the other way.  We hope to find a nice pub to eat in this evening.  Hopefully we won't be as late as we were yesterday mooring up.  We were not able to leave the boatyard until after 3.0, and we were determined to be within easy reach of the tunnel before we moored, but it meant we were motoring until well after eight.  We chose to do the Four Counties ring this way round to get the hard bits out of the way first.

I feel pretty useless as I am not allowed to push or pull, and can't even stay on my feet for very long.  Something inside reacts badly to gravity, so I have retire at intervals to get horizontal.  Never mind, John Grishams The Confession is good company and at least I don't get wet and cold.

We started our holiday on Friday, and had a lovely evening with Joe and Sally.  Steve and Kate joined us in Stone just before ten on Saturday morning, and we all went to The Lounge for breakfast.  We shopped for our trip in the street market and the co-op opposite the boatyard, then had lunch-time drinks outside before presenting ourselves at Canal Cruising.  Dave bought me a dongle and Joe installed it for me on the first leg of our journey.  After about half an hour he had finished and decided to get off and meet up with Sal - he was still in his home neighbourhood!  He and Sal did their own thing for a bit, then surprised us by joining us for tea and cake at Barlaston.

The sun has come out, it is too pleasant outside to be in here blogging, but I will try to add bits as we go along.

It's ages since I blogged.  I have been a bit bored with myself, tired and frustrated by inactivity.  The worst thing has been an ongoing urinary tract infection.  I came out of hospital with a 'full house' of dipstick positives, (except sugar), an inconclusive culture result, and a 3 day course of ciprofloxacin.  From the start it has been difficult to tell how much of my pain was due to the operation and how much to the infection.  I had a scary do one afternoon when I retired for my afternoon nap just before the Knees took the children out for the afternoon and Dave went to Tesco.  The pain was worse than usual but suddenly became frightening, so that I could not ease it by any change of posture, and even taking a deep breath hurt.  I really thought one of my anastomoses had leaked, and sent for the doctor.  I think it is only the third time in my life that I have done that - twice on the two occasions when I obstructed.  It did eventually settle with a codeine and I stayed in bed until morning.  Since then I have had several telephone conversations with my GP about the urine infection.  She prescribed a week of trimethoprim.  This appeared to produce a remarkable improvement in the bowel symptoms, but after the first couple of doses no relief from the painful wee, so yesterday I made an appointment and took myself on the bus to the surgery.  I told her I needed to speak face to face to see whether she was laughing at me.  She assured me I was not being pathetic, and I thinj she meant it.  I am now back on ciprofloxacin, which yesterday seemed very hopeful but today is no better.  I think there is some underlying problem here, either with trauma from the operation or with the stent in my ureter.  I certainly don't think they will let me start chemo until it is sorted.

Tomorrow we go on holiday, so that will be something more interesting to think about.  I am disappointed that I am still so uncomfortable but I think the best plan is to go back to taking regular paracetamol and try to ignore it. 

Mary-Ann and Dom have Rachel and Dave staying with their two children, and they all seem to be having a lovely time.  They went to High Lodge yesterday and are at Gressenhall today.  We plan to BBQ this evening.  It is very windy but not really cold, and the children have been having a great time on the trampoline and the scaffolding climbing frame that Dave put together for the boys last week.  I really think they should wear hard hats, but so far nothing worse than a few leg and back bruises.  Both our boys are in love with Faith, so little Evie from school has some competition.

Last week we had two BBQs which went well outside on the patio, so tried for a third on the third of August.  Before Dave could even get the meat on the grill the heavens opened.  We had pushed our luck too far!  It was a real thunderstorm, so the food was cooked in the oven, but between bursts of rain Dave rushed it out to get a bit of smoke!