Woke about half four and didn't really get back to sleep so got up at about half six, put the kettle on, not realising that I had lit the burner under the frying pan instead of the kettle. Surprisingly the smoke alarm did not wake my No. 2 up.
Our target for the day is Castleford or the cherry tree at Woodnook Lock if the cherries are ripe.
They are, picked a couple of kilos and processed them to see if we can preserve them. It looks good.
Raining all afternoon. Tomorrow we can check out the cherries we bottled today are good and if so we will hang around for a couple of days to make the most of the cherry harvest.

Met the guy who uses a little dingy with an electric outboard powered by a small solar panel to fill his water containers from the water point each day. Gave him the big water container that we no longer use as it is too heavy for me to lug from the front of the boat to the rear if wee run out of water. We have a much smaller container now (10lt) instead of the big (50lt) container.
An innovative kind of guy, he has a 10 watt USB washing machine. He described the design to me and I looked it up on the internet. Only does 1kg washing at a time and works by not only rotating the ash but also blasting the clothing with ultrasonic sound. If I didn't already have a washing machine I would consider one of these. Ha has also made himself a thermo electric battery charger which he fits to his chimney in the winter and it uses the heat from the chimney to charge his batteries.
Collected three kilos of cherries, which after stoning equated to two kilos of preserved cherries in jars.
I was on the back deck having a good old cough, trying to bring up some phlegm stuck at the back of my throat and a young lady who was passing asked if I was all right. I explained that I had a catch in the throat and it would be fine if I could just cough it up. She then asked if I wanted her to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre on me, going through the motions as she asked. It was quite graphic. I politely declined and thanked the stars that it was not a guy making the same offer and the same movements.

While we were collecting our last box of cherries a guy came up the lock single crewing, so I worked the lock for him. These locks are so big it is a major task to climb from the boat up the ladder, some 12 or 14 feet with a rope in one hand. He asked me where he could get a handspike for the Aire and Calder locks so I gave him a length of 3 by 2 I had purloined from a building site (after asking I might add) a month or so ago. I did notice that he had immaculately manicured nails painted bright red.
Arrived at Castleford visitor moorings in time to get to the EE shop to check out the upgrade that I have identified online that is appropriate for me. All OK except that if I want to upgrade on-line or in-store I need photo ID of either a current driving license or a passport, neither of which I have. The alternative is to give them a deposit of £50 so they can order the Chromebook I want and when it comes in I can then go into the store and complete the transaction.
My current deal is 20G data for £19 a month and free iPlayer use. (Very useful when the TV signal is poor). The new deal is 40B data and free iPlayer use for £21.50 per month AND a Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Go.
Got 2 kilos fresh apricots from Aldi (£2.60 per kilo).
Processed the cherries, another one and a half litres.
The Arriva busses have been on strike for a while now but are running again so I rang Farmfoods at Normanton to see if they have any raspberries. They said that they have loads, so I'll pop in there tomorrow to get some more.

Caught the bus into Normanton and found Farmfoods. Couldn't see any raspberries anywhere even though the sticker was advertising them at £8 per kilo, much more than the £3.20 a kilo I paid in Huddersfield. I was about to leave, disappointed, but decided to have a little moan to the cashier. I said that I had rung yesterday and was told they had loads and she responded by telling me they had a pallet load outside and she would get them brought in. Oh, goody. I got eight punnets and was surprised to find that I was charged 39p per punnet not the 99p per punnet advertised. I got some blueberries at the same price, and a carton of ice cream.
Back at the boat both my No. 2 and I made pigs of ourselves with raspberries, cherries, blueberries and, in my case, ice cream and for my No. 2 clotted cream.

I ordered the license holders for the CRT license because the ones on Dennis are falling to pieces, they should be at the post office in a day or so.

Daily trip into town to get apricots, my No. 2 is bottling them and check on the post and to see if my Chromebook is in yet.
Discovered Google Fit on my phone and turned it on. Did't think much of it till it started sending me well done messages.Since then I have been checking on it from time to time to see if I need to go foar a walk to top up my steps for the day.

:ooks like the daily walk into town to do the shopping is good for me, anyway, Google fit thinks it is. There is a CRT depot right next to the mooring and just outside there is a pile of old timber and other assorted junk. Today I noticed that there was three lengths of railway line, each about two foot long. Now I have seen on the internet where a guy has used a length of railway line as an anvil because the top surface is case hardened. I checked with Richard to see if he wants one and he does, so I checked with CRT if they were available and was told that the whole pile is there for boaters to use if they want to, mostly the timber.
Now Richard has a 23 inch length of railway line to use as is his want, when we eventually meet again.

Whiling away the time on the computer playing with an idea or two. The license holders from CRT haven't arrived yet. my No. 2 has ordered her license disks to put in the license holders when they arrive.
I had some old paper £50 notes hanging around and I need to get them changed to the new plastic ones. Tried a Lloyd's bank, they don't have any. Tried a Halifax but they need my debit card. (I am not with Halifax). Tried HSBC. They do not have any but they can order some for me. I will have to let them know when I want them and then I will have to take the same value of money out of their cash dispenser, in front of a member of staff so that they can be sure that the notes I am giving them are real. What! A right palaver.
Decided in the end to just deposit the money and then withdraw it in 20's later on.

I think we have bottled eight or ten 1 litre mason jars with apricots. At the current price it is a good investment.
No license holders or Chromebook yet.
Wandered into a charity shop, something I have not been doing of late because there isn't really anything I want or need, and spotted a 'book' about pirates and their history and a model pirate ship to make. Got that for £2 and I'm going to save it to while away a long day in the winter.

Staying cool

Got some apricots but no license holder or Chromebook

More apricots. The license holders have arrived -hooray. The guy in the post office was getting to recognise me and would yell at me that it hadn't arrived to save me standing in the queue for ages.
The Chromebook has arrived so I managed to get that sorted out as well.
Back at the boat I unpacked my new toy. I'm most impressed. The reviews I have read about it have all been good with the proviso that the screen resolution is not that great. Coming from a ten year old laptop the screen is at least as good as the one I have if not better.
A few keystrokes and it is set up to run Linux, an OS I am very comfortable with. No hard disk drive as, in theory, all files are stored in the cloud. But it has an internal memory of 64G and I have installed a 128G Micro SD card so it now has the same capacity as my laptop. I expect in time I will migrate all my stuff from the laptop to the Chromebook and consign the laptop to history.
Providing of course that I can run all the quirky things like vMac and Yaze-ag on it.
Even then I expect I will still use the laptop so serve my web sites.

Really getting to grips with the Chromebook today.

In an attempt to make sure we did not lose our mooring (it's nice here) we set off at half five to go to the lock and fill up with water. By half six the tank was full and we returned to our mooring before anyone else got up. Good move.

Spent most of the day keeping out of the sun. Did put a big brown Judge enamel teapot full of water on the hatch cover and by the middle of the afternoon the water was hot enough to do the washing up.

Very early morning trip into town to avoid the heat of the day.The letter from CRT with the license disks has arrived so we can move on tomorrow, we have been here quite a while.

Did some last minute shopping before we set off 'cause we might not get to any shops for a few days. Pleasant journey, not too hot with just a light breeze. Moored close to the bridge.

Tried catching the No 9 bus into town. The bus stop is on a corner and it is impossible to see the bus coming until it is nearly at the stop. And, being a main road the bus came trundling along at a fair old lick, so by the time I saw it it had gone past. Most discombobulated I was. Went back to the boat to wait till I had calmed down and make another attempt later on.
In the afternoon I walked to a different bus stop and caught a different bus, this time heading for Wakefield. Hadn't been on the bus for long when I spotted a Lidl, so got off at the next stop and did my shopping there.
Checked on my phone and saw that I could catch the No 9 bus back to the boat from a stop close to Lidl. When the bus eventually came, some 15 minutes late, I told the driver of my morning experience and asked him the best place to catch the bus. He told me that they would stop anywhere that it is safe to stop if I put my hand out. That's good to know, he also dropped me off at the canal bridge saving me a long walk back from the bus stop.

Walked up to the next lock this morning to get rid of some rubbish.

Got a shock when I looked at my EE over fifty pounds. Went into Castleford EE shop and queried it. Sort of a cock up and obviously a misunderstanding. I had meant to cancel the old contract. The new one was added instead of being a replacement. Alls well that ends well canceled the old contract and will get my money back for it.
Early start, caught the bus to Kippurpays to the hardware store there. They have some borax, I purchased their entire stock five boxes. Missed my stop on the way back and ended up at Lidl, I wanted some ice cream and some single cream to go with the plums I have stowed away and got a one pound fifty fruit and veggie box, loads of carrots apple's tomatoes, a couple of sticks of celery two bananas and an aubergine. Everything really right and ready to be eaten. Had the aubergine for dinner baked with cheese and tomatoes as a side dish to cauliflower carbonara.

Walked along to Lemonroyd lock to check out the facilities. The elsan emptying point is accessible from the towpath so we don't need to go back to Castleford or into Leeds to empty the loos. Walked into Lidl to make up my step and heart points. Got another kilo of plums and spent the afternoon making a banana loaf and bottling the plumbs. Added the blood pressure readings to google fit. Don't know long it will last last. Used yesterday's bananas and apples to make a banana loaf, it so long since I've made one that I'd forgotten how.

Spent most of the day planning a trip to Whitby by way of the North Yorks Moors Railway steam line. Quick trip into town to get some more plums which I bottled.

Took a bus to Leeds today to get my No2's Senior Railcarrd and the tickets for the trip to Whitby. The salesperson organized slightly cheaper tickets for us. That accomplished I wandered around Home Sence and John Lewis looking for a grater. Both were close and had a much better range than other shops I had been in but still not what I wanted. Visited the market where I got some greens and what must be one a half kilos blueberries for £1. Back at the boat I bottled all the ones I hadn't eaten on the way home. Ran out of water mid afternoon so had to take Dennis up to the next lock to top up with water, a pleasant trip out. Got a Metro at the station.

We planned an early start to empty the loo cassettess. Got to Lemonrroyd lock by 6am only to fmg the elsan dispoal full and unusable so we decided to go to Castleford to use the facilities there. It was a good journey even if it was raining, at least we were prepared for it. On the way back I had a shower and shave, and put the washing on From Lemonroyd Lock back to our mooring my Np2 had a shower.And we still had hot water after two showers, a full load of washing and cups of tea. Back by 10:15