We had been in the centre of Rugby for too long so we decided to moor in the middle of nowhere for a while. I had a reaction to the Covid jab, shivery and really bad hip pains last night and felt totally washed out all day

Moored up just outside Nuneaton but close enough to get there in time for my hospital appointment tomorrow. We have moored here before and find it a very pleasant spot with open views across the fields.

Quick trip into Nuneaton to go to the Same Day Emergency Care Unit at George Elliot hospital for the follow up ultrasound scan. Moored up no more than 200 yards from the hospital so I could walk there quite comfortably (saving loads of money on taxi fares). Had the scan which indicated that there was still no clot, so proclaimed 'all clear'. Advised to make another appointment with my GP to see what to do next.
Cruised through to Burton Hastings to organise a supermarket delivery.

Nice view of Stoke Golding church.

Turned around and in the process went to Sutton Wharf to do the usual maintenance tasks. Starting Dennis has become a tricky business. You have to get the throttle setting just right at a fast tick over and bring it back to a medium tick over as soon as the engine catches, otherwise it just dies. When travelling you dare not reduce the throttle setting too much or it just dies. Turning around and mooring up has become a major exercise as in both instances you need to cut the throttle to put it into reverse and again to put it back in forward. Thank goodness we are booked in for a major service on Monday.
In the process of turning round this morning we did not make any friends as we had to pass a number of boats somewhat more quickly that we otherwise would have done and because we were breaking ice at the same time we were scraping the blacking off the boats that we were passing. Not good.

Took Dennis along to Ashby boat Co for the service. Mark (who was there when Dennis was commissioned in 2007 and who did a lot of work on her) seems a very competent engineer. He did the service and then investigated why it was still difficult to start and run. He eventually found that where a copper pipe went into a rubber hose, the copper had scraped off a tiny bit of the hose which was still attached but forming a sort of one way valve in the copper pipe causing and irregular flow of fuel. He fixed that and everything works just fine.
I was speaking to Richard a while later and he remembers having a similar problem with a coach many years ago, so not a unique problem, but very nearly.

Moored close to a couple of people that we have come to get to know Susie and Keith. They each have their own 35ft boat and travel together all the time. Keith has been diagnosed with dementia so Susie has a lot of caring on her hands.

Busy day today. Fuel boat came past so we purchased eight bags of coal. Then we motored along to Market Bosworth where we collected a twin tub washing machine that I had organised.
Found out the my travelling companion can have her Covid jab in Nuneaton, so made a mental note to get her booked in.

I did three lots of washing in the new twin tub, worked really well, at least as well as I remember my old one. Set it up in the shower so no worries about the hose coming of the back and flooding the boat like it used to on Almyne. All in all a very successful day.

my travelling companion got the washing machine out, set it up and started washing. Wails of woe - "It's sparking and smelling!". I turned off the invertor so that no-one would get electrocuted and investigated the situation. Yes, indeed, the motor on the washing machine was smoking and burnt out. It was fine yesterday. The spinner still worked so my travelling companion did her washing by hand and used the spinner to get it nearly dry.
Meanwhile I contacted the seller by email and told them what had happened, just need to wait for a reply.
Rather than have a series of emails on a day to day basis I have collected all of them here. (Except that I cannot find them so unti;l I do this link has been disabled.)

Arranged for a delivery from Tesco at the picnic area over the other side of the canal for Sunday. We prefer it over this side as at the picnic area, surprise surprise, loads of people like to hang around and feed the ducks and generally shoot the breeze. Whereas over here there are relatively few passers-by. Not only that, on this side we have uninterrupted sunshine (when the sun is shining) instead of being in the shade of the trees.

Moved over the other side about an hour before the delivery is due, only to watch the Tesco delivery van drive past. I thought that he probably had another delivery in the village and would be back at his due delivery time. As it turned out, he was having a good day and was really early with his deliveries. So early that he could not be bothered to pull over and come and look for us. After waiting until the delivery slot time had expired I rang the help line who told me the driver had rung me but got no answer so could not deliver! When I said that the vehicle went past a good 45 minutes before the due delivery time I was told that delivery times are only a guide! Lots of toing and froing and the customer services person told me that the delivery had been re-scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. I explained that I was on a 48 hour mooring so I could wait til tomorrow but no longer and I was running out of food.

Can you guess where this is going? No delivery. Rang customer services again. They did some investigating and were most apologetic in explaining that the store manager had cancelled my order. They offered to re-instate it but by this time I had completely lost faith in them and said I would make other arrangements.
my travelling companion walked along to the farm shop (about three quarters of a mile away) and did a basic shop which although was not expensive was still more that I would expect to pay for the same items elsewhere. Still, at least we could eat for a couple of days.

On our way to Rugby where we can do an Iceland shop. They do a 3 for £10 deal on frozen trout which we like as it keeps us in oily fish for at least six meals.
Took time out to book Covid jabs for my travelling companion, she really does not like needles.

Had to stop just before Bulkington Road Bridge speech.liner.among because the police had found a body in the canal. They could not say how long we would be held up for as there was no indication so far as to whether there was foul play or not. In the incident in April 2011 where a body was found in the canal under Bulkington Road Bridge Scottish Rob was held up for two days while the investigation want on. In that case a guy had killed his girlfriend, wrapped the body in a sack and deposited her in the canal in the bridge hole. It turned out that in this case someone had just had too much to drink and fell in, so we were allowed to continue on our journey after a few hours.
Got a full refund for my undelivered groceries and a £10 voucher for my inconvenience.

Moored up at Brownsover close to the Rugby Tesco superstore so organised a 'click and collect' shop. Didn't get too much as we had to carry it quite a long way back to the boat.
Another telephone consultation with the doctor, another course of antibiotics. Organised a flu jab at the same time and collection of the antibiotics and my normal repeat prescription. Walked up to the doctors, got my flu jab and checked with the nurse about my cholesterol levels. A couple of years ago I had a blood test and was told they were a bit high so I have abstained from butter on everything and sausage, egg and bacon with fried bread every mooring for breakfast. She organised a blood test for me. Rather than trekking all the way over to Kings Cross Hospital the other side of Rugby I can book in for the blood test with any participating phlebotomy clinic. I popped along to the pharmacy to collect my prescriptions. It was closed, I mean really closed and shuttered. I wondered if it had closed for good but on further inspection there was a tiny note in the window, well off to one side saying that they were closed for lunch and back at 2. I could wait for 35 minutes rather than walking back to the boast and then back here again. I was tempted to get a portion of chips from the chippy, but as I had not brought any money with me went without

Got out of Rugby as soon as you like and moored up at Brinklow, one of our favourite spots for a couple of days.
Went on line and found that I can have my blood test done at a pharmacy within walking distance of the canal at Sutton Stop, where we usually stop off to use the facilities. Sorted.

© Chris Giles 2022
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