Dunham Massey

Blimey, no chance of sleeping in this morning! The sun rose opposite our bedroom window and was dazzling even with our eye lids closed. This of course isn’t helped by the four legged member of our crew not closing the curtains after she’s had a good nosy. We keep asking her to close them, but she just keeps ignoring us!

Sadly the bright blue sky and sun didn’t hang around all day, but then again it didn’t rain that much. It didn’t really matter to us as today was to be a work day for me and a full shore leave day for Tilly. Because of work, I may not be posting every day for a while, especially if we haven’t moved. We’ll still be here, just a little bit busy.

10 hours! Pawtastic!! I even got two outsides today. Both had big banks, one had trees near the top and all the way down, the other had trees right down at the bottom with a little stream and good pouncing friendly cover all the way down there. I did have to share some of this with the Moos. I don’t understand these huge things, they eat the friendly cover and never seem to find friends, they certainly don’t pounce! What is life without friends and pouncing I ask you?!

Mick pottered away the day, drying the washing on the whirligig between short rain showers. I worked my way through references, printing off the most important ones for ease of looking and then set to making a London Boozer, 25 times smaller than it will be.

When the boat ahead of us moved off we decided that we’d move up, they had a better view over both sides of the embankment. Tilly was encouraged home before we pulled Oleanna along. We’ve learnt that she’d only get confused if we moved the outside with her in it, so better that she’s tucked up inside. The TV signal seems to have improved too, just as well with the last day of the Tour de Yorkshire keeping Mick busy and the final episode of Line Of Duty tonight.

Today we have been astounded at the number of boats passing us. Around about 1pm there seemed to be a constant stream passing us. As we are quite near a narrow section there was even a queue at one point to get through. Since the New Year we’ve been in areas that are not highly populated with boats and now we are back amongst the throng. We’ve possibly seen more moving boats today than all year put together.

The London Leckenbys have been training hard for the Moonwalk next weekend. Last Sunday they conquered a 21 mile walk and tomorrow they will have a leisurely stroll of 12 miles, just to keep the legs limbered up. Next Saturday at 9pm Jac and Andrew will be setting off from Clapham Common to walk the 26.2 miles around the capital, taking in the sights as they walk through the night. A big thank you to those who have sponsored them, they are almost up to £1800, just brilliant. I hope Jac has sorted a good disco bra to wear as this years theme is Disco Inferno, I suspect there will be quite a few influenced by Madonna.

0 locks, 200ft, 10 hours, 2 snoozing for more energy, 16 pointless Moos, 4 friends, 3 trees, 7 annoyed crows, 7 sheets reference, 4 sliders, 4 doors, 1 final episode or will there be a sixth series?

Staffordshire Arm to Little Bollington

Just over a week ago I succeeded in finding some yarn for a lady who is wanting me to knit her some socks to replace a pair she had lost. The hunt for the yarn has taken some time, trying to find the nearest thing to the original German brand. I’d visited all the online warehouses a month ago having no luck. So now I started the hunt for some options she might like instead, only to come across what possibly was the original yarn. We were both very excited. I placed my order.

The company I placed my order with deliver by MyHermes, so I selected the nearest pick up point to Telford Basin, Spar Tower, Piccadilly Gardens where it should have been sat waiting for me on our arrival. They tried to deliver it twice, but for some reason the driver couldn’t deliver to the address I’d taken from their website! Maybe they missed the great big tower in the middle of Manchester! The email telling me this suggested I might want to send a parcel myself from the nearest parcel shop some 0.05 miles away! Grrrr!!!

I contacted MyHermes twice. The first time they agreed that the address was correct and would have it delivered, except the driver couldn’t! The second time I contacted them I was informed that the parcel had been returned to the retailer. A bigger GRRR!!!!!

Luckily the returning parcel showed up in the system of the retailer and they could send out a special order for me to pick up. MyHermes was not an option this time, but good old Royal Mail was. A check for Poste Restante places on our route out of Manchester gave me Sale Post Office, handy as we could do some shopping whilst there.

So today we left Manchester, reversing back from our mooring slowly, both of us fending off as we went past boats on both sides. Mick then winded Oleanna and brought her in to the water point. Here we filled up the tank whilst the washing machine was on, emptied the yellow water as it was on the right side and Tilly had a freshen up of her pooh box. With chores done we pushed off under all the viaducts and past all the arms, taking the third right.

We’d considered going down Pomona Lock to Salford Quays, but hadn’t got round to ringing to see how much it would cost us, so that expedition will have to wait until we’re here the next time.

So much building work is going on in Manchester, just about anywhere you could squeeze a new building one is going up, even the tram is being extended to the Trafford Centre.

Now it was time for me to go to work. We’ve been along this stretch many times and my assistance isn’t required, so as we cruised along I sorted out the basic setting for Panto. With the drawing board out I worked out sight lines and a design to go on the portals.

Mick turned left at Waters Meeting and soon pulled in at Stretford Marina for some coal and a refill of diesel. Then we were on our way again, passing The Watch House Cruising Club Moorings, under the M60 and pulling us in outside Waterside Arts Centre in Sale. Having Waterway Routes on my phone tracking where we are I can pause work at a suitable moment to pop up from below to help moor up.

First the Post Office for my parcel. The nice man had a look everywhere, but sadly my yarn hadn’t arrived. Next delivery to them would be on Tuesday, we’d have to come back. Here’s hoping Royal Mail know how to find their Post Office! A shop at Sainsburys followed, enough to last us until Tuesday when we’ll bring a bike with us and get heavy things like wine and cat litter.

Then we carried on out into the countryside whilst I made a start on cutting circles out of white card. I wanted to lend a paw or four so that when the outside got tied up She could come out and play. But She wasn’t too impressed. She didn’t want paw prints all over the box and She won’t let me sit in it! So not fare!!

The moorings by Dunham Woodhouses were busy, but that didn’t bother us as we prefer to be further along on the embankment with a view towards Dunham Massey. Once tied up Tilly had her cat tags and collar put on, neck nearly dry dry now, and was given a couple of hours of shore leave.

As I carried on working Mick settled down to watch the Tour De Yorkshire, ending in Scarborough today. Sadly the TV signal isn’t too good here. They passed the end of my old street as they headed into town and The Big Picture, produced by my friends Dawn and Lee at Animated Objects Theatre Company, laid out in the grounds of the castle got a shot from the helicopter. A blustery day on the Yorkshire coast with waves coming over the sea wall narrowly missing the riders towards the finishing line.

0 locks, 10.38 miles, 1 wind, 3rd right, 1 left, 67 litres diesel, 40kg excell, 1 composite drawing, 3 round portals, 5 paw prints, 1 floor, 0 parcel, 0 boxes wine, 1 missing best man, 2 Albert Street just out of shot, 1 very very big picture, 1 favourite mooring.

https://goo.gl/maps/tj4ofbdxyiSkNgkZA

Staffordshire Arm

I have a very wet neck! The sort of wet neck that means I’m not going out for a while. She says it’s for my own good, I say it’s horrible having a wet neck trying to crawl all over your body. It just won’t dry!

I know it’s going to happen when she reaches up high in the bathroom, then she takes my cat tags off. No matter how much I try to avoid her She still succeeds, at last this time Tom didn’t grapple me to the floor.

Back to normality and tea in bed this morning, with last weekends newspaper. Followed by the breakfast we’d planned to have on Wednesday before coming into Manchester, but decided against as we’d have had to be up earlier. Poached eggs on crumpets, yummy.

We took our time doing things today, well we have been rather busy this last week. Our mooring is reasonably quiet for a city centre. The fans from the gym swimming pool sound like the next boat have got their webasto heating going all the time and this morning there must have been a class going on as I could hear instructions being shouted. We’re also just around the corner from the Youth Hostel, so during the day large groups of youths pass by taking their suitcases for walks. Today we had one group leaving as another arrived, hope they all ended up going in the right direction.

I had various things I wanted to buy for work. We are unlikely to be near to an art shop for a while, so I wanted to get another sheet of mount board ‘in case’ for my model and some red paper to be able to make some scale red velour tabs (curtains). So I set off on foot to Fred Aldous on the other side of the city centre.

Mick opted to visit the Science and Industry Museum which is almost next door. We had a great day looking round a few years ago and it is well worth a visit. So we parted ways, girl shopping and boy engines and planes. Just a shame that yesterdays downpour meant that half of the exhibits weren’t available as the building had leaked so much. After ten minutes he returned home to keep grumpy Tilly company.

I took a slight detour into China town to visit an oriental supermarket. I was wanting some gluten free soy sauce, not easy to come by, and some more white rice flour. In amongst the huge selection of rice flours there were bags of Glutenous Rice Flour. You may wonder why I’d be wanting flour with glutenous in it’s title as I follow a gluten free diet, well the glutenousness (I know that’s not a word) is because it is made from sticky rice the sort you get in sushi. This is also called sweet rice flour or Mochi flour and is apparently good in moderation in cakes. Happy with my purchases I carried on across the city centre.

Manchester Town Hall is currently closed for refurbishment. I remember one Christmas when my brother was at the University here they had a giant inflatable Father Christmas climbing up the clock tower. A lovely looking building, which one day I’d love to have a look around, it’s meant to be splendid inside.

Onwards to Piccadilly Gardens. Except my path was blocked. Police tape flapped in the breeze from every lamp post to bollard. A bus had been positioned across the road and numerous Police stood around giving directions to the masses of people who had been stopped in their tracks. I’d wanted to go to Primark and Debenhams on my way to the art shop, but it looked like they were in the cordoned off area. Someone said there was a suspicious package in the gardens.

Time to get to know some of the back streets then. I wiggled my way round and headed to M&S instead, all the staff from Debenhams were congregated on the footpath here, some had sought warmth inside.

A walk through the Arndale Centre brought me out to another cordoned off side of the gardens. here trams sat empty at the tram stop. People wearing Metrolink high vis were giving people directions around the locked down area and where they could get the next trams from. I wiggled my way round more streets until I got the the right one.

Fred Aldous had the things I wanted and I could have my large piece of card cut in half to make it easier to walk through the streets with. This was handy as my route back to Oleanna would take me along the other two sides of Piccadilly where people were now gathering as they wanted to get home.

Checking on line later, there had been three suspicious packages, two at Piccadilly and one in the toilets of Oldham Library. The police reported the packages to be ‘non-viable’ whatever that means. A 26 year old man had been arrested and some reports were that he had an arsenal of weapons, but the bombs had been a hoax. The city centre was still locked down this evening.

Ernie had been good to us this month so we decided to blow our winnings on a meal out. A good burger was in order (I miss them), so we headed to the Handmade Burger Company where they do gluten free buns. We stuffed ourselves with burgers, breadbuns and chips, with a side of coleslaw and a glass of wine each. Mine came so that I could assemble it myself. Very tasty they were.

For a Friday night everywhere was that bit quiet. We suspect the bomb scare had both put people off coming into town but also with half the trams and buses not running it was hard to get there. We resisted an invitation for cheap shots at a bar along the canal and headed home to sit with the grumpy one and drink some of our cheaper still wine.

0 locks, 0 miles, 6 miles walked, 1 cooked breakfast, 1 slow morning, 2 Green, 1 Labour, 1 boy museum, 0 planes, A1 into 2 A2, 6 sheets red paper, 2 bags flour, 1 bottle soy sauce, 1 city on lockdown, 3 non-viable devises, 2 burgers, 2 glasses of wine, 1 mardy cat.