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 travelling companion 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.
2nd
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.
And if you look closely you can see Castleford's motto,
AUDATER ET SINCERE, "boldly and earnestly".
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.
4th
Caught the bus into Normanton and found Farmfoods. Couldn't see any raspberries anywhere even though
the sticker was advertising them as £8 per kilo, much more than the £3.20 a kilo Ipaind 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 charge the 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 travelling companion and I made pigs of ourselves with raspberries, cherries, blueberries and, in my case,
ice cream and for my travelling companion clotted cream.
5th
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.
6th
Daily trip into town to get apricots, my travelling companion is bottling them and check on the post and to see if my Chromebook is in yet.
7th
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.
opened a branch in Castleford,
they had the premises built to order.
See their logo at the top.
Whiling away the time on the computer playing with an idea or two. The license holders from
CRT haven't arrived yet. my travelling companion 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.
9th
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.
10th
Staying cool
11th
Got some apricots but no license holder or Chromebook
12th
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.
13th
Really getting to grips with the Chromebook today.
14th wtw
Content
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16th wtw
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17th wtw
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18th
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.
19th
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.
20th
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.
21st valley.spends.ample - 4 miles 1 lock - Swillington Bridge
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.
22nd
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 and caught a different bus, this time heading for Wakefield.
Hasn'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.
23rd
Walked up to the next lock this morning to get rid of some rubbish.
