Oundle Marina

Ken very kindly gave Mick a lift back to Peterborough today so that he could pick up a hire car, well van. Today would be a trip to Scarborough for a change over of lodgers and an opportunity to add to the compost wheelie bins at the house, three full buckets to deposit. Mick had hunted round for a good deal on a car, it being Bank Holiday weekend meant it wouldn’t be cheap, but luckily he found that the Peterborough branch of Enterprise would be open today, saving us another days hire which we wouldn’t need.

I signed into the Geraghty zoom, changed to Sundays hoping that more people would be able to join, Saturday morning activities popular for both young and old. Subjects covered were good places to go on holiday, awol cats, and watering trees.

Mick soon returned, boat chores, water, yellow water all done. The van was loaded up and after breakfast he was on his way up to Scarborough, leaving Tilly and me to hold the fort.

Being on Oleanna on my own (apart from my feline assistant) meant I could take over pretty much all of the boat. Drawing board set out on the sofa, model box on the table where Mick usually is allowed a few inches, boxes of model bits and paints here there and everywhere. I hoped today would be a productive day.

Boats came and went all day. A cruiser was put in the water. Others arrived to fill with diesel, all the time I kept my head down working, all the time Tilly closed her eyes, a shame the mooring here isn’t cat friendly.

Late afternoon Sue from NB Cleddau popped her head up to the mesh in our hatch and asked if I’d like a cuppa. A break would have been nice, but I was doing my best to make use of the extra space and a day sitting still, that list of notes slowly getting worked through. She did however bring the news that Islip Lock was closed due to a mechanical failure and would be closed until further notice. Islip is closer to us than Irthlingborough Lock which was closed until a couple of days ago. We’ll keep an eye on notices and hope it opens quickly, we’ve places to be!

I worked on into the evening, stopping for a Co-op chicken tikka masala with a homemade gf nan bread. Then I continued for a while longer, my front cloth my main aim of the day and still in need of more work.

In Scarborough, Mick met one of our lodgers, cut the grass (it actually needed cutting!), made up a bed for the night and did some laundry. All the familiar feline neighbours were still about suggesting the human neighbours haven’t moved house yet.

Just as I was packing up for the night emails started to come in from the Director, she has a young family so tends to do work after their bedtime. This did mean I didn’t get to turn the TV on and have a cuddle with Tilly until after 10pm!

0 locks, 1 broken, 0 miles, 1 van, 3 buckets, 3 feline neighbours, 0.75 front cloth done, 10.5 hours work, 1 very bored cat.