Bouncing up to Birmingham

We're in Birmingham!!!! :) :) :) Yes, we've been before, a couple of times, but I LOVE Birmingham :)  It's a big diverse city in terms of people and architecture, and yet everyone just seems to get on - in terms of people and architecture....  It has a great feel and even better Balti....  But let me share the journey here with you first.... I headed off from Huddlesford on Thursday morning, solo and mapless, but thinking it would take me up to two hours max to get to Fazeley Junction.  I checked the forecast, which gave me a 20% chance of rain, so you can imagine my shock when I had to pull over an hour later in torrential rain to get my waterproof trousers on.....  It continued to rain until I got to the junction - just under three hours later :(  I stopped for water (which is when the rain stopped!) then moored up on the Birmingham and Fazeley canal.  I then walked up to Asda, did a shop then waited for Mike to arrive, which he did, just after 7pm.  After an emotional reunion - NOT - we had dinner, watched tv (yep, still working perfectly, haven't had to tune it in for days!!!) and went to bed.  Next morning was an earlyish start with us aiming to get to Minworth for the night.

It was freezing cold and squally showers arrived just as we arrived at the bottom of the Curdworth Locks.

Thankfully it was just a couple of showers and the sun came out again, but it was still absolutely freezing!

 

Coming out of the Curdworth Tunnel, which neither of us have any recollection of going through when we came the other way on this canal in January.....

We made good time to Minworth and stopped on the outskirts, where we had moored earlier this year.  It's meant to be the first 'safe' stopping place as you exit Birmingham, but is still a bit rough.  In the morning we had a broken glass on our bow and chipped paintwork, but we hadn't noticed it being thrown at us through the night!
We set off VERY early for us (ten to 9!!!!) Saturday morning, and having got up the three Minworth Locks treated ourselves to a sausage sarnie and coffee for breakfast.  Unfortunately at the top lock, I couldn't get the offside paddle back down fully, and noticed that a tyre that had been bobbing about, was no longer visible.... It must have got sucked into the sluice and was now stopping it from closing properly, which would mean any boats trying to go down the lock wouldn't be able to equalise it.  I called CRT so the duty manager could come and sort it out and we carried on.

The scenery gets more urban the closer you get to Birmingham

The junction of the Birmingham Canal Navigations - we took the second left to take us up into the city centre

We were soon climbing the first flight into Birmingham, the 11 locks of the Aston Flight, all quite industrial.

 

Having completed the Aston Flight, we head towards the 13 lock Farmers Bridge Flight.  I still get such a buzz of excitement when I get my first glimpse of the BT tower.

So, 27 locks later, we moored up in the centre of Birmingham, where we will stay until tomorrow, Wednesday.  We've made use of civilisation to make a start on our Christmas shopping and get a wine delivery from Majestic :)  Mike always starts to look smug at this time of year, more smug than usual I should say.... as he goes off on secret missions and squirrels interesting looking packages away in the bedroom, making sure the door is shut and I can't see.  I can't really be @rsed to be honest, and wait for him to drop hints, like sending me a link to the pen he wants :)  He did take me to the Jewellery Quarter where I chose a beautiful gift that was WAYYYYYY over budget, but he bought it for me - then squirrelled it away with the rest, so you and I will have to wait til Christmas to see it!
We've explored parts of the city we hadn't seen before; John Lewis opened in September and we've fully utilised this new addition.....  In hunting it out tho', I was delighted (and a bit emotional) to come across the Old Rep Theatre, where I studied for a year 1993-1994.  The centre of Birmingham has changed so much that I find it hard to get my bearings from how I knew it in the 90s.  Fantastic memories, great times, great people.  I'm still in touch with the drama teacher Isobel and will meet her and her husband Neil on Wednesday evening for a catch up.  Isobel worked on voice production and diction with us, and even now, I find myself speaking properly and trying not to drop my 't's when I'm in her company......

 We also found the old rag and indoor markets, where we got a bargain giant joint of beef on Saturday night as they were closing :)  
Oh, just a bit of boat stuff, we have found another use for our gorgeous Heritage Stove......

Drying logs in the warming oven :)

 Mike looked online to see if you could dry wood in the oven, and lo!!  You can :)  So we've been using the warming oven to speed up the seasoning process of our scrounged from the tow-path wood :)
 We also did laundry today.....

Doubling up as a clothes horse.....dries within a couple of hours.

 Mike was about to start cooking tea, but we've decided to go out...revisiting The Bank restaurant that we enjoyed on Christmas Eve last year, with our friend Pete.  Well, we can remember that we enjoyed it, but can't really remember anything much more than that... much alcohol was taken.... so it'll be interesting to see if it's as good as we thought we remembered it was..... We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow to get out of Birmingham, 20+ locks, so we won't be having a heavy night.... famous last words.......

Not Much Boating, All Scrubbed Up for a Wedding!!!

Well, not much boating has been done since I last posted as we were dawdling our way along the Coventry canal to Kings Orchard Marina where we'd leave Quaintrelle for a few days whilst we headed south in a car for a wedding.

The Happy Couple

 

Ooops - no.... HERE is the Happy Couple :)  My beloved English Princess, Alison Harper (now Harold!) and her fantastic husband Rich Harold.

Prior to attending the nuptials, Mike had headed off to Grantham to work leaving me in glorious isolation at Fradley Junction, but returned on the Tuesday evening - short week!  On Wednesday we boated for a little while down to the village of Fradley, where I hunted out the Co-op, went for a run and Mike did some work from the boat.  On Thursday we caught the bus into Lichfield and had a look around the town, did some shopping, walked for miles to the Co-op to collect Mike's new (correct size) waterproof!!  Both our phone batteries had died by this point so we had to find our way back to the bus station by memory.  On the canals our sense of direction is fine, we can go one way, or the other and usually the boat is pointing with her front pointy bit in the direction we should go....  On land it's another story.  Even with a Garmin to find our way we inevitably get lost and appear to be devoid of any sense of direction/navigation we've ever had.  A twenty minute cycle to a supermarket nearly always ends in a two-hour detour round the dodgy bit of a town - we never get lost in the posh bits :(
Friday we headed down to the Kings Orchard Marina.  Marina's are usually a nightmare at the best of times as they tend to be on big, flat, exposed areas of land which the wind makes a beeline for and you get blown about a fair bit.  On Friday it was also windy so we had a double nightmare.  We pulled up at the office to check in, which was easy as the wind blew us onto the side.  Then we couldn't get off again to our pontoon.  Mike ended up reversing off and backing right down the marina.  He did a brilliant job in very tricky conditions.  We got her moored up, hooked up to power and Enterprise picked us up at 1pm in a classy(?) Fiat 500.....cute, but not really Mike's cup of tea as far as cars are concerned.  Still, it got us from A to B safely and reasonably cheaply.  On Friday night we stayed with our newly land-lubbed friends David and Victoria (Ex-NB Pas Meche).  They are renting a property in Bath, and it's huge and very, very nice.  It was so good to see them and catch up.

Catching up with Middlewich Duck at his new pad.  I chose NOT to wear a hat to the wedding....

  
On Saturday, Victoria discovered a new talent for hairdressing as she blow-dried and straightened my hair, and we headed to Ali and Rich's wedding at the Moonraker Hotel on the outskirts of Trowbridge.  We ate, we drank....we drank...then we drank some more.....

We wouldn't have known anyone at the wedding apart from the Bride & Groom, but I'd been to Ali's hen-do in October where I met the gorgeous Mrs P.  It was lovely to see her again and meet her hubby Adam.

This is us with Deborah and hubby Chris.  I'd also met Debs at the hen-do and it was really nice to 'know' some people to sit and chat with.  The girls from the hen-do were such a nice bunch and it was nice to see you all again ladies!

Mike practicing his 'Snowbaby' look for Christmas.

 After a rather hung-over breakfast on Sunday, we headed back to David and Victoria's and went for some lunch at the Boat Inn in Bath, where we reminisced over passing by on the river last summer on our way to Bristol.  Mike and I then drove up to Grantham as Mike was working this week.  The big softy misses me when he's away, so he took me with him for a couple of days and while he went to work on Monday, I made use of the pool, sauna, steam room and spa in the hotel - nice :)
On Tuesday I dropped Mike off at work, drove back to Lichfield to return the car and  Enterprise dropped me back off at the marina where I filled with water, put the laundry on and braved my way out of the marina solo.  Solo and mapless.  We have Nicolson guides which are our bible of the waterways, showing us the routes and where moorings and services are.  I couldn't find ours for the Coventry for love nor money.  Having searched everywhere, including the ovens of the Heritage stove, I decided it must have blown off the boat when we were trying to manouevre around the marina last Friday.  So I'm kind of driving blind the next couple of days, but have checked my route on the maps on the CRT site.
Barney the storm was due to put in an appearance later in the afternoon on Tuesday, so I only cruised about 20 mins before I reached the visitor moorings at Huddlesford.  I was almost past a space in a line of boats when I decided to moor up, so had to reverse a bit to get in.   When I'm on my own, it's quite nice to be in a spot with other boats, and a pub nearby, just so if there's a problem there are people around.  All's been quiet though.  I decided to stay put today as it's very windy, and went for a run instead.  Tomorrow I'll head down to Fazeley Junction and pick Mike up in the evening and then we're heading to the bright lights of Birmingham for the weekend.  Then it's only a week til we head to the Maldives for 10 days - bet you can't wait to see pics of us sunning ourselves there ;)

The Curse of the Online-Purchased Waterproofs

Having spent a quiet Tuesday night moored near the Wedgewood Factory, we set off at our usual 'not too early'  time the next morning, aiming to reach Stone where we could do a food shop, return Mike's 'too big' waterproof he'd picked up further back and I could collect the other size of the one I'd ordered. It was uneventful, a bit foggy, cool and no other boats until we hit Stone itself, where it felt like we'd come onto the M25 of the Inland Waterways, with queues at the locks and boats going in both directions!

Looking back to the wharf at Stone.

We moored right in the town centre, just a few minutes walk from an excellent butcher and the Coop, also visiting Morrisons to replenish our pie stock.  We then had a quiet night in, watching some tv.  Yes, that's right.  I said, "Watching some tv."  You may recall (if you've had the stamina to read previous posts) that we've been having a serious lack of tv signal for the last few months.  Well, on our last evening on the Caldon, we were moored up where we'd been moored before and had got a signal, but we couldn't get one :(  In a fit of frustration tantrum, I flicked at the tv with my foot, and a picture appeared!!! I swear, I did only flick it, it's not stable enough to be kicked - I mean physically stable, not mentally - tho' maybe mentally as well....... "I knew it!!" I said between gritted teeth, "It's the bloody connection, not the f@ckin' signal!!".  Mike responded with his usual, "Yes darling." and left me tampering with the connection.  I removed the connector and stuck the copper wire straight in, and lo!!!! Suddenly we had 61 bloody stations to choose from!  And yet.... there was still nothing to watch..... Anyway, a new connector later and we've had tv everynight since :)  Such is my delight at this novelty, that while Mike's been at work today, I've watched, Homes Under the Hammer, Escape to the Country (two episodes), oh, and two episodes of Frasier.  Don't tell Mike.

Anyway, back to the travel story; we left Stone on Thursday heading for Great Haywood, with plans to visit Shugborough Hall, which we hadn't had time to do (more 'no time' Neil ;) ) when we came up this way in the summer.

Had the strangest feeling of being watched going down the lock at The Star in Stone.

Coming through Bridge 82 which signalled our 2000th mile since we started!!!

 En route we clocked up our 2000th mile on the cut :)  since setting off from Weedon on 24 June 2014.  We moored up just above Haywood Lock and settled down for the evening to plan our visit to Shugborough Hall the next day.  Not only did we find it is now shut for the season, but because the National Trust lease it out to Staffordshire County Council, we'd have had to pay to get in even though we are NT members!!!  We were really disappointed as it looks great, but our spirits were lifted when we made arrangements to go out on Friday with Chyrelle and Sam from NB Calon Lan, who we met and travelled with for a few days on the Weaver this summer.  We had a great night with them eating, drinking and talking boats and anything else that came to mind.  We'd also got the news of a new baby on Friday, our friends Viv and Neil welcomed their first-born son Edward into the world - soooo happy for them, he's a wee cutie!!! :)

The next morning was absolutely chucking it down, so we sat tight until just after 12 or so when the rain lightened up then stopped.

Coming out of Haywood lock and the rain into the sunshine

 

Leaves hanging in there to look pretty for another day or so

Another of Brindley's feats of engineering taking us over the River Mersey

We arrived at Rugeley late afternoon, after filling up with diesel at the fuel boat Dexta, which is a moored fuel boat on a farm, and very cheap - 60p a litre!  The following morning saw us top up at the local Morrisons again with the stuff we'd forgotten to buy at Stone, and late morning headed for Fradley Junction.  Although the Trent & Mersey isn't the prettiest of canals, there are some really pretty bits, but also lots of interest along the way.  This next section took us past one of my favourites....... The Armitage Shanks factory :)  My obsession with toilets/toilet talk was rendered silent in reverence as we passed the yards full of toilets.  Hundreds of toilets.  All stacked up, pallet after pallet...

Pretty autumn scene, with Armitage Shanks in the distance

Stacks of toilets.....

Stacks and stacks of toilets.....

Some lucky toilets are going on a trip!!!

I'm sure it had nothing to do with all the toilets on view, but shortly after, our black tank began to exude it's usual "I'm getting quite full" odour, so we stopped in at Kings Bromley marina for a pump out.  Our gauge for the sh!t tank has never worked properly, so we just have to go by length between pump-outs and smell, which is really crap..... ;)  The wind had really got up by the time we were leaving the marina pump-out station, making it tricky to wind Quaintrelle round and of course, we just had to meet another boat trying to turn into the 'one boat-width' entrance as we were coming out, but Mike steered her well and we left with no drama.  I think the other boat got stuck by the wind onto the side, but I was too scared to look back.... :(

We arrived at Fradley Junction and turned onto the Coventry canal - our last new section for this year.  We've done the southern part of the Coventry, but not this wee northern section.

Mike left me home alone this morning to go to work for a couple of days, and the boat is in my favourite state; full of diesel, full of water and empty of sh!t ;)

Quaintrelle remembering with her poppy at Fradley Junction

Oh, if you were wondering (I know, it's a big 'if', you're probably not in the least bit interested even if you remembered it from the start of the blog!), the other size of waterproof I'd ordered; they sent the wrong bloody size!!!  The label said Medium but the jacket was a teenytiny XtraSmall!!!  So it got sent back in the package with Mike's giant one and I've kept the Small I ordered originally as they have none left now :(  Anyway, it fits fine and kept me lovely and dry in the heavy rain on Thursday.  I just can't bulk up underneath as much as I think I might need to on very cold days - we'll see.

And with that, I'm off, Pointless will be coming on........Next Week, we're having a bath in Bath and scrubbing up for someone's nuptials (Ali & Rich!) - wooohoooooooo!!!

 

Trundling Back Along the Trent & Mersey

Crikey, where does the time go?  Here we are 11 days since my last entry and SOOOO much has happened, but I had so little pictures I thought I was going to have to put up one of these...

 But fear not, having dug around in my phone photos I've dug up a few.... So, what's happened since last entry?  Well, the clocks went back, November stepped forward and my dear friend Julie became a grandma to gorgeous Emily Rose - a cause for celebration - and we did.
However, I left you (and the boat) in the Festival Park Marina at Etruria last week and on Monday I took the train to Fife and Mike headed to work in Grantham.

Believe it or not, the cheapest fare I could get was a First Class Advance!!!  Which I took full advantage of.  I opened my mouth to ask for porridge and the words, "Full English Please" slipped out.....

 Back in Fife it was lovely to see my mum and my brother and nephew Alex who were up for a few days.  Sometimes Alex and I have too much time on our hands...

Mr D being made up as a military duck

I spent Thursday in Edinburgh, got my hair cut (lots of it, all gone - I was starting to feel like a middle-aged hippy....), did some shopping then met Julie to celebrate her new grand daughter.

Edinburgh Winter Skies - almost enough to make one homesick :(

 We had a great catch-up and on the way home I thought it would be a great idea to take a photo of the new road bridge across the Forth, well, one of the stantions of it...

Considering I'd drunk a bottle of wine and was on a moving bus, I actually don't think this is all that bad...

 Mike arrived on Thursday evening and we headed to Edinburgh to the dentist (we have all the fun...) then had a dander round the shops.  In the evening my friend Susan popped round with some homebaking to enjoy with our cuppa (her mum made it, not her) and it was really nice to see her and get the goss.
We had a quiet weekend trying to sort out luggage to bring back with us, as we'll not be back up to Fife before we head to the Maldives on 29 Nov, then France for three months on 30 Dec.  We managed to get everything into the new snowboard bag and one (large, extended) suitcase.
On Sunday we went to Dunfermline in the evening to see Belle & Sebastian play at the Alhambra Theatre.  Mike had only spotted they were on on Friday and we really thought they'd be sold out.  They weren't and I'm so glad - what a brilliant gig and in a great wee venue with excellent sound. 
 

Even with a lead singer with a bad throat, they were AMAZING :D :D :D

 I managed to not let Mike get a kebab on the way home and we were up and away early Monday, back to Stoke-on-Trent on the train.
We unloaded at the marina, then upped and offed for 10 minutes down the canal to the moorings at Etruria Junction.

There is a nice statue of James Brindlay at Etruria, without whom we would not be on our great canal journey - cheers James :)

 This morning, as we had gone to bed, we woke in thick mist. We set off down the Trent & Mersey and have stopped just north of Barlaston for the night, where I have done my first run since 11 September (I have a bikini to get into on 29 November.....) - 3 miles in 29 mins - not bad but my leg was hurting a bit when I got back, so I made sure to give it a good stretch.
You know, Stoke is one of those places that people (boaters!) always say, "Ooooo you don't want to be stopping at Stoke, get right through and don't stop til Westport."  Well, I quite like Stoke and we saw no trouble in our tooing and froing, give the place a break.

Note the adapted bridge to fit the lock beam.

There are hints to remind us of the industry that used to be along the Trent & Mersey

 We're off to Stone tomorrow, where I will collect a new waterproof as the one I ordered and got at my mum's is slightly tight (another reason to get running again), and Mike will return the one he ordered and picked up today and is too big......the joys of online shopping I suppose..........
Anyway, normal service will be resumed next week.
Probably.