Jericho

The post panto song worm in my head is starting to wain thank goodness. Don’t get me wrong, the songs are good, it’s just there is only so much you can take of ‘DND, Do not dispair. CYC, Cause you care. SOS, Save our Square’ most days and nights.

On Wednesday morning one job was long overdue, although Tilly didn’t see it that way. It was her three monthly flee spot on treatment. I take her collar off for this, so I try to do it when we know she won’t be allowed to go out. Today however she had a quick look outside and then decided to sleep the remainder of the day as we still hadn’t moved the outside! After a second of fluffing up her fur she realised what was about to happen. Her legs shrank and she silently scurried from one end of the boat to the other. When my hand reached to the top of the cupboard where the flea stuff is kept her legs disappeared all together!

One vet once told me that the spot on stuff doesn’t hurt them in any way. How many vets have had this evil stuff applied to the back of their neck and between their shoulder blades?! Houdini hated it also.

We used to try to work as a team pinning Tilly down to administer the stuff which comes in a little tube. But the last few times I’ve tried to do it myself, it feels less threatening and on occasions has been a lot easier as Tilly doesn’t scrunch her shoulders up, as much. But on this occasion she managed to squirm her way free before all the spot on stuff had been applied. We are so used to her bell that she can sneak about without it, catching her again I had to keep my eyes peeled.

Next was to stock up on some gluten free flour whilst we were near to a Chinese Supermarket. Being away for panto has meant my sour dough starter has died a death, I’m not sure it was all that strong anyway so I’m going to start from scratch. This time using a different method with Buckwheat and Sweet rice flours rather than just Brown rice flour.

Mick came with me to the supermarket then carried home my purchases whilst I hobbled into town to try to start my Christmas shopping. The seventh brick below the lock was showing today, so the Thames is on a downward trend.

I managed to get a few stocking fillers but nothing majorly exciting, refueled with a gf sandwich from Tesco I persevered for a while longer spotting one thing my Dad would have loved, Meltis Fruits. I even tried to spend a voucher I got last Christmas but there is still nothing at The White Company I fancy that would fit in with our life style, space and current muddy towpaths.

Mick had waited in in case NB Dusty the local coal boat arrived. They are based at Lower Heyford north of Oxford and had planned to do a run to Oxford this week, but there was no sign of them. We’d been hoping to see them to stock up but also as an indication that Shipton Weir Lock would be passable, the C&RT Strong Stream page isn’t working at the moment.

My post Panto cold seems to have been kept at bay, but sadly something else got me. An upset stomach which kept me awake for much of Wednesday night and into Thursday morning. This necessitated Mick and I swapping sides of the bed. Despite trying to keep my fluid levels up I then got cramp in three places on my bad leg. Each one requiring my leg or foot to be bent in opposite directions, impossible to solve or so it felt.

So, much of Thursday was spent catching up on sleep for me, watched over by the still silent Tilly. Mick headed to the chemist for some Electrolyte Powder to help with my re-hydration. Luckily my legs since have not cramped up again, but my bad calf has been left feeling bruised and very painful to walk on.

By mid afternoon I was starting to feel a touch hungry, so a poached egg on toast was prepared by the master breakfast cook. This went down a treat and was followed by a snoozy afternoon in front of another Morse episode and a bit of french cuisine with Rick Stein. We’ve no idea what caused the upset, maybe the Tesco sandwich as this was the only thing Mick didn’t eat.

0 locks, 0 miles, 0 collar and cat tags, 3 monthly torture, 1 bag potato starch, 1 bag tapioca starch, 1 bag millet, 1 bag sweet glutenous rice, 6 boxes New Berry fruits, 0 white things, 0 cold, 11 visits, 1 sleepless night, 3 cramps at once, 200ml electrolytes, 1 very slow quiet day.