Emailed blood pressure readings to Dr Sushma at the Rugby practice. Listening to the radio made me remember that as a child I was concerned by the threat of the cold war which coloured many aspects of my life and was quite a controlling influence. The controlling influence that is affecting my childrens lives is Climate Change, Food Shortage and Energy Deprivation.
While I was here I set up the pole lathe and tried out some of the wood we collected a few days ago. While I was playing a young coloured lad came along the tow path with some pieces of furniture and deposited them on a boat further along. He then returned and watched me for a while and then remarked that his grandfather used to use a pole lathe in Nigeria when he was younger (the lad that is). He nicknamed me Joseph the Carpenter. He also showed me a chair that his grandfather had made similar to this one. He also told me that the back of the chair doubled as a shield and the seat portion doubled as a short stabbing spear with a broad blade. When the warrior was was tired he could assemble the shield and spear into a rudimentary chair.
Recent research tells me that it is actually a birthing chair, perhaps his grandfather was giving him a fanciful story for a young lad.
Now we are on the Thames. Cruising a river like this is totally different to the canals. The river meanders all over the place and sometimes it is difficult to negotiate a sharp bend when the current is against you. There is so much water around and underneath the boat that there is no impediment to moving. On the canal there is always the bottom of the canal just inches from the bottom of the boat and often the bank is just a few feet away, both dragging on the boat.
On the river there is always enough room to turn around wherever you are. On the canal you have to travel to the next winding hole to turn around, sometimes many miles away.
Going upstream guiding the boat is easy, going downstream less so, it is easy to get into trouble by approaching an obstacle more quickly than you had estimated and then being unable to slow down quickly enough. You soon realise why you must give way to boats coming downstream.
Richard vidited while we were at the Trout Inn.
Emptied elsan at one lock and filled up with water at the other lock. Lost my baseball cap somewhere in the river. I cannot remember how many hats I have lost to the wind, I must remember to only buy hats with chinstraps in future.
Decanted 5 litres of wine.
Mooring fee £5. The cows can be a bit of a problem as we are moored in a farmers field. The cows keep trying the taste of the mooring ropes.
Since we are unlikely to get the opportunity of returning here we made the most of it and stayed for several days investigating thr area.
Heading to the Kennet and Avon canal.
D'fer limping very badly. Couldn't walk to the vets so Richard came and collected us and drove us the three miles to the nearest vet. She examined him and was surprised at how compliant he was considering the pain he was in. She thinks that he must have been stung as she could find no evidence of any foreign object between his pads. Prescribed pain killers and Cortisone with a top up of antihistamines (Lorratidine hay fever tablets to you and me) available from the chemist.
Emailed my peak flow readings and blood pressure readings to the practice nurse at Rugby.
I set up the pole lathe on the bank and had a play with it.
Role, my travelling companion's brother-in-law, visited and joined us for a couple of days cruising to Wallingford.
I followed up with the nurse on my BP readings and she said there would be no change to the medication.
Role left to get back to his car at Abingdon.
Lovely place to moor up with all the birds to watch.
