Shardlow

Despite the bucketing down rain Mick headed off to catch the bus this morning, thankfully not getting too wet. A fourth elbow joint, a mask and masking tape for my work along with a Saturday newspaper and the eternal hunt for pink cat food in gravy.

With the boat to myself I got the sewing machine out from under the dinette, time to make a pregnancy bump from a cheap calico bag and some stuffing. Rebekah, the actress, is very small so I’m hoping the pad will look like she is nine months pregnant and not about to totally pop! I’ll try it on her next week and see if it needs making smaller or not.

A try out for some competition numbers that will get attached to the actors costumes for one scene. I’ve bought some vinyl that can be cut into shapes and then ironed onto fabric. The instructions on line were for use with high tech cutters and big irons that all cost a fortune. I would be using a scalpel, scissors and the cheap travel iron we have on the boat. I followed instructions, but not correctly, I’ve ended up with numbers back to front! Thankfully this was only a try out and I’ve plenty more materials to get it right next time.

Mick returned with the shopping in sunshine. A quick lunch was then followed by a couple of hours cutting, gluing and sticking. Today the milk pods got two thirds covered before I was loosing the light. My new mask seemed to be doing the job, but fumes seemed to be getting inside the boat instead! Here’s hoping it doesn’t rain too much tomorrow so I can take the sides off the pram cover as well as wear my mask as there is still plenty more stinky sticking to do.

Time to get on with more jobs inside. The panto potato was cut into chips and I made up a couple of card trays for them to be fixed into. Some painting will be added at some point.

Then time to turn attention to the giant mug again. The handle was tried out, then attached inside. The rest of the work now needs to be done either outside or elsewhere. I still haven’t tried it through the back doors! That will all be fun and games tomorrow!

As Mick came back from Derby there was a boat coming up through Shardlow Lock, they had just come off the river. He chatted to them. They had come from the River Soar along stretches that were mostly amber but some were in the red. The river reopened on the 4th January. Sadly for us our route is still closed at Cranfleet Flood Gates. If our original plan had been possible, today we would have been sitting at Keadby waiting for Vazon Sliding Bridge to reopen following the rail strikes.

We watch the levels and watch the weather. We could be here for a while yet.

0 locks, 0 miles, 2 buses, 1 elbow, 35mm masking tape, 1 mask, 2 boxes pink gravy food, 9 months, 2 trays of chips, 2 bigger ears, 2196 backwards, 1 handle.