Bloomin' buses around St Noets are useless..

Moored Goba Moorings, Brampton Mill, River Gt Ouse

I spoke with the vet this morning for the first time about Lucy’s op.. he seemed very experienced and gave me a lot of confidence that all would be well.  I gotta give him his due, he took time to chat and answered all my questions.. however he did say that our Lucy probably wouldn’t be allowed home ‘till Saturday.. That gave me a heart sinking feeling, I was of the opinion that she would be back today.. OK I will live with that..

Anyway the op went well today, and the vet spoke to me this afternoon saying that everything was successful, he has cut the ball off the hip joint, so now at last she won’t be in any pain.. “She is sitting up and looking good and happy” said he.. “Phone me tomorrow at 11am, I will give you an I update on when she can come home”.. I wonder if he will say she can come home tomorrow.. I hope so..

It was market day in St Neots today, so I took the opportunity to get some bits.. markets are so much cheaper than normal shops and the stall keepers so joyful as they sell their stuff.. “You are a litter bug” says one to me as I pay £2 for a 30m roll of silver foil.. “Hey hang on” says I.. “I don't need all this cardboard packaging.. I just want the silver foil!”.. I handed him the heavy cardboard box telling him that I lived on a boat, and there was no room for such niceties!!.. He rolled back laughing!!

Three huge bits of rump steak for a fiver.. he wanted to give me six bits for a tenner.. again explaining about the tiny freezer compartment on my boat, to which made him stop selling stuff for a good five minutes while he asked me loads of questions about living aboard a narrowboat!!

Arriving back to the bus stop close to where we are moored the bell was rung.. but the driver never stopped!  “OI”…. “Ooops sorry didn’t hear the bell.. I can’t let you off ‘till the next stop”… grrrrrrrr some nearly half mile further on!!!

I nipped to Godmanchester this afternoon to collect some mail I had sent there.. I hailed the bus as it approached and it went straight past me!!  Then it stopped about 100 yards ahead and I had to run to get on it.. The driver was most disgruntled.. he wasn’t the only one!! Bloomin’ buses!!

We have decided to go back upstream to St Neots early tomorrow to pick up Lucy from there… for sure it is only about 100 yards to the vets from the visitor moorings at St Neots.. I can’t trust the buses around here to bring her home to No Problem at Brampton.. 

After first meeting Mark at St Neots a week or so ago, he surprised me again this evening after tea, bringing Lorraine, his other half, and his two labs with him.. what lovely dogs too, so well behaved.. we sat and chatted, and I enjoyed listening to his account of his visit to the IWA meeting at Beale Park a few days ago.. Nice to see you again Mark..

Beautiful part of the river between Paxton and Brampton..

Little Paxton-ish to Brampton Mill, River Gt Ouse, 6 miles 2 locks

I enjoyed our week at Paxton, but today we were on the move, so it was a fond farewell to our base for this week, for sure we will be back.

‘Tis a lovely part of the river this, it’s fairly wide in places and desperately narrow in others.. we are not in any hurry, nobody is in any hurry.. queues at locks, yes well sort of.. but it tends to be “You go first.. we have no rush”.. spose that’s why I like it over here during the summer.. Most are the same, if you want to rush then this is not the place to be..

Chatting away to people at locks today.. well the two locks we went through anyway, one lady was saying that over 100 people have booked in their boats to go through the Denver complex on one day next year on the way to the IWA Festival at St Ives!!!  Jeeeeeeeez, at the moment Denver complex would be lucky to get 5 boats through in a day what with the tides and the silting.. 100 boats???  Ha who is kidding who?!!

Buckden Marina were very helpful today.. I wrote them an email earlier in the week asking if they had an elsan tip out… Young Rebecca Carpenter wrote back apologizing for the delay in getting back to me, telling me on our arrival, that she had been off this weekend camping… well, for sure, we can let her off for that.

“Yes we do have a chemical disposal point
available to passers by at the marina.  We do not currently have any charges
for this service at present.  On arrival at the marina walk from the
riverbank towards the clubhouse then follow the road down to the left of the
building.  You will reach a wooden building on your left side which is our
toilet and shower block.  The chemical disposal point is behind the men's
toilet block and so if on the first side that you come to.”

I thanked her today for her very helpful reply, there are not many marinas that bother to reply when asking what services are available.. so there is one to note for elsan..  She had some gas today too.. ran out last time we passed.. my job!!

Just another thing today too.. There is a permanent hosepipe at this marina, and there were boats moored in the way so it wouldn’t reach our watertank at the front.. had to turn round in the river to get water.. now if that was on the canal system people would have got upset with boats in the way of waterpoints, over here there are often boats moored on or close to waterpoints due to the fact that there are not THAT many places to moor, but everyone happily deals with that and finds ways of getting water to the boats.. so laid back!!

Lucy goes for her op tomorrow to remove the ball joint of her hip after her accident last May.. for those looking at this blog for the first time, you need to look at the May archives on the left and some of July and this month to see what I am talking about… Moored at Brampton Mill Goba Moorings means that I can catch a bus to take her back to St Neots first thing tomorrow.. I do hope they let her out tomorrow afternoon.  They said she would be OK to go on a bus after the op.. she is going to take a while to get over it I think.. after all she has had 6 anesthetics this year now. that is 6 too many for my liking..

Anyway, you can see what is on my mind tonight..

It’s OK here though, nearby there is a waterwheel which is working…..

 

On the left of this pic… I do hope it is generating something, I need to do some research to find out.. but I did do some research at the pub in the same picture, nice place what with all the flowers etc, fancied a meal there, but on checking it out, oh my the prices are very high.  I expect it is very nice, and what with a huge caravan site just in the background as you can see, and the clientele they get.. they can charge what they want.. a steak meal around £14 meant that we peeled the spuds tonight on No Problem!

Lots to sort type of day.. life can be SO annoying!

Moored Little Paxton-ish, River Great Ouse

Still here, but I had a load of little niggling things to do today, a whole list of them really.  Firstly this morning I could not find my notebook… it’s only small but very valuable to me.. I searched and searched… nope, flippin’ nowhere!  I mean, how can you possibly lose stuff on a narrowboat!

Then off to St Neots to post some important bits… went the wrong way into Little Paxton, and had to run for the bus, that totally knackered me out, and I thought I was going to collapse into a heap!!… *note to self – you must get fitter gal*

Then missed the bus back, gawd knows how.. was at the stop 5 minutes early.. it must have left early!.. OK just wait an hour for the next one… see what I mean about an annoying day?..

I purchased another camera the other day to replace the one that I broke a couple of weeks ago, but it arrived in a right state, it certainly was not new, the box it came in looked like it had been round the world and back!.. Wrote them an email to say I was returning it, nothing back from them so had to phone them to tell them it was coming back.. I do hope I get my money back.. I am worried they will say that it has been returned in not a ‘new’ condition.. well it was not in a ‘new’ condition when I got it!..

Then a phone call to the place I bought the Sea Searcher Magnet from.. it didn’t arrive today, and I wondered why… anyway phoned them… it cut off straight away and on the phone it said ‘call barred’.. alarm bells rung!… fire up computer, go to google, type in “The Boat Supply Company” to see if there was a new phone number and hey presto… they were part of Lees Boat Builders who had gone bust! Damn!

Next stop my credit card company online to see if the transaction for £18 odd had gone through… nope.. OK so phone call to credit card company.. “Is OK” says she “I can’t stop it going through if they call for it, but if you send me the link to the info that they have gone bust it can be refunded”… phew!

Next.. my hat!  I lost my hat that I bought at the East of England Show in Peterborough.. well not lost, I left it on the bus!.. phone them up.. “Nope not seen it” says he from the bus depot.. “It may well be still on the bus”, says I.. you see, people don’t know the lockers actually work on these long distance cross country buses.. It was a smashing hat.. a sort of Australian Leather Bush hat, you know, the ones with the big brims.. I do hope it is found..

Phone the post office at Godmanchester to let them know that there is a parcel arriving that is not coming by Royal Mail… Would they do me a favour and sign for one from a carrier.. they don’t have to.. “Yes yes… sorry goodbye I have a long queue”.. Oh well.. *sigh* he did say yes, let’s just hope he doesn’t send it back!..

Vic found my notebook.. it was in my rucksack… just about the only place I didn’t look… Ummmm I still don’t remember putting it in there.. time for bed said Zeberdee!!

And the world wanders by on Bank Holiday on the River Gt Ouse

Weekend and today – Moored Paxton-ish, River Gt Ouse

I’ve only just come indoors!

Not only am I a water gypsy, but I am a land gypsy too now… the camp fire has been burning since we arrived here last Thursday, and it has been absolutely wonderful..

There is nobody about in the pic… but some things to notice….

Our roof has been painted!

The camp fire is alight

Mugs of tea are steaming on the table

There is no rain

There is a log for visitors to sit on

Isn’t this just the most wonderful mooring!

It was very hard to tear myself away from the warm fire outside this evening.. ‘Tis amazing that my back felt cold in the breeze while the front of me was warmer than the July days just gone, when life was almost unbearable with the heatwave..

Anyway, NP’s roof has been painted.. Vic did that yesterday chancing the rain, and sure enough he got lucky, the rain came last night.. it was really heavy too, even wakening me up. 

The water is so very clear here, it’s like living in an aquarium.. I can see into the water for well below the bottom of No Problem and watching the fish is fascinating, catching them is another thing though.. .. Ha, but Vic wanted to check out any damage that had been caused to our boat when we got stuck on the cill the other day.. so he donned his swimming shorts and took a close look.. Molly, Chas and Ann’s dog on Moore2Life, thought he should have stayed in there longer and ‘guarded’ the bank!!….

There were no ill effects of that day, and everything was fine as far as the rudder and skeg was concerned..

Off to St Neots again tomorrow, not by boat, but by bus.. there is one goes from Gt Paxton, about a half hour walk from here.. Some post is arriving for me there, plus we need some more bbq fuel.. nearly run out I have, and for sure I am determined there will be many more bbqs before the summer is out!

Paxton revisited...

Moored Gt Paxton-ish, River Gt Ouse

A warm sunny morning for a change.. last night I even though about lighting the wood stove..

Vic was in the mood for painting and maintaining.. I was in the mood for walking, so while he……

Was on the roof preparing for a coat of paint, I was out and about walking.  A favourite 5 mile walk of mine from last year.  From where we were moored to the next lock downstream shaded by the trees all the way, then across country to Dadlington, a remote village with just a few houses and back to Paxton Nature Reserve.  Passing on the way pit workings that looked more like a lunar landscape…

Spose they got to get the gravel out of the land for ‘our’ use, but hey it looks really awful while they are doing that.  But Paxton Pits Park is rather nice with loads of different walks all round the lakes that once looked like the pic above.. now those lakes are full of wildfowl, although no sign yet of any winter visitors to the lakes.

Lucy really enjoyed her walk today.. she went steadily along and never tired..

Hey this pair look happy enough as Ann and I walked.. It’s been a while since I been walking properly.. there has been a lot going on and I have not felt settled.  But we are staying here at this lovely mooring over the Bank Holiday, I think it will do me the world of good just to stop still for a few days without any commitments.. and what a mooring it is too.. I think I might rate this one as one of my most favourite of all in England

Still looking at the winter stoppages but for sure it’s Kennet and Avon Canal for us this winter. We need to be west of Newbury by last week of October.  I am surprised Caen Hill Locks were not earmarked for a change of paddle gear this winter… seems users of that flight near Devises are not happy with the number of turns required on the windlass (lock key) to raise and lower the paddles… I will have to find out more.

Balmaha stops by on the way to Bedford

Moored Gt Paxton–ish, River Gt Ouse

I guessed as much yesterday evening, and sure enough late morning saw the arrival of Mo and Vanessa on NB Balmara.  We have been reading each others blog for a long time now, so it was great to have a chat for a couple of hours over a cuppa.  They are enjoying the river just as much as we are, and they have the same gripes as us about the lack of facilities in the east.

We chatted especially about how this area is going to cope with the influx of narrowboats next year at the IWA festival due to be held at St Ives.  The Environment Agency are sure going to have to do some work to upgrade moorings, provide more facilities on route from the main system and for sure, clear the silting around Denver.. remains to be seen.. chit, chat, chit, chat.. before setting off on their way to Bedford to met up with family…

The Winter Stoppage Program (pdf 172kb)  is out!  So that is me browsing that for the next few hours working out where exactly to spend the winter months..

The Great Bank Holiday escape from St Neots..

St Neots to Gt Paxton (ish), River Gt Ouse, 3 miles 1 lock

Over to the Post Office this morning and some last minute bits and bobs in St Neots before pulling the pins and moving over to the Priory Centre pontoon moorings for a fill of water.  Waved bye to Mavis and John on NB Maybe and made our way to St Neots Lock.  I guess one of the slowest filling locks in the entire country this one.  It is massive, and can take an awful lot of boats.  I think two narrowboats would be OK side by side in it… but I am always wary of the chains on the sides of these locks and getting caught up on them as happened to us last year at Yarwell on the River Nene.

Today we arrived at the lock just as it was ready to enter, and there were two plastic boats on the lock moorings ready to go in, but at the sight of ‘the torpedo’ (AKA No Problem) approaching they waved us through, and I gladly took the offer and pushed the throttle forward.  I would much rather go into an lock empty of boats than one full of the plastic variety! .

Chas and Ann on NB Moore2Life arrived shortly afterwards, but there was no room for them as well.. hummmm maybe they could have got upsides me.. dunno, I must find out the official width of that lock.  It has been rebuilt, you see, last year and the official guide book from Imray has the old measurements… I will find out for errrrrrrrrrr next year? Teehee… maybe,  maybe we will come again…

We decided to leave St Neots for a while, although we do need to go back for our border collie Lucy to visit the vet there on the last day of this month for an operation to repair a hip injury sustained earlier in the year, but on Bank Holiday it looks like St Neots is gonna be a wild place to be….

This was taken this afternoon, and you can see, behind Moore2Life, the fair had moved on to the parkland at St Neots…

Three times we had passed the GOBA moorings at Paxton during the last couple of weeks, and three times it was empty, but we did not stop because we had to be elsewhere… this time we wanted to stop…. typical isn’t it, bloomin typical… no space!!

There is only enough space for one narrowboat.. never mind, I had plan B.. as one does!

I had spied a lovely little mooring just downstream from the Paxton one on the trip from Godmanchester to St Neots last week.. and sure enough that one was free… lubbly dubbly! Actually I like it here even better than the GOBA moorings!

We are looking forward to seeing Mo and Vanessa on NB Balmara tomorrow.  If the rain stops in the morning they are sure to come upstream towards us, and we will be moored here for a day or so.  We are only about half a mile upstream from their mooring this evening.. Blimey it did rain this evening too!

Moored St Neots

It’s busy here in St Neots, and to get our Tesco delivery this morning we had to have it passed over two boats!  Three abreast on the pontoon side of the river this morning,  NB Maybe was parked on the inside, and John kindly help pass it across to Moore2Life then Ann passed it across from there to No Problem!   Got it all in the end, and went back across the river to the parkland to put it all away.

I had just swept the floors shortly after that when one of my blog readers knocked the boat.. It was Mark from Peterborough who has been reading the blog for sometime.  It was lovely to meet him, and a cuppa was shoved in his hand while we all chatted quickly about this and that.  Mark is having a boat built at Stoke on Trent, and should be out on the waterways himself next May… We hope to meet you again Mark when you are afloat.

Late this afternoon NB Ramyshome joined us here in the park.. Roger and Maureen have a website of their travels, and if you look at their very good map you will see that they have covered a fair bit of the British Waterways.

We didn’t do much today to be honest, well it was a long day of travelling yesterday and we just wanted to take it easy, so we wandered into St Neots and had a spot of lunch before browsing round the town and getting in the first of Vics ‘mini power walks’.  I know, I know… I said we were taking it easy, but his exercise routine has to start today!!

The sea searcher magnet didn’t arrive at the post office today, I do hope it does tomorrow as it would be nice to move down to Paxton for a while if we can get in on the one and only mooring down there.. well half of No Problem will fit on it.. tis only about 40ft in length that GOBA mooring.. Moore”Life will have to come alongside, but the walks are good, its a Nature Reserve..

I have to thank all those that commented on the last blog, and to those who suggested ways of exercising… Roger I think you take the top honours for your brilliant idea of hooking Vic up to a pedal machine connected to our batteries.. and get him to pedal away charging the batteries while he does himself a bit of good!!… Hilarious absolutely hilarious…

I did suggest it to Vic…. Errrrrrr he just said two words back!  How ungrateful can he get??

The magic magnet and Oxford and back in a day from St Neots

Today Moored St Neots
Weekend Godmanchester to St Neots, River Great Ouse, 9 miles 3 locks

We had some real blustery showers this weekend and had a couple of soakings too.  It seemed each time we moored the heavens opened, but we were delighted to have our pram canopy AKA ‘Wigwam for Whimps’… well I don’t mind being called a whimp.. in fact I am getting quite a collection of names now!!  Water Gypsie, Whimp… I wonder what other name I will be picking up this year!!

Anyway, poor Chas on NB Moore2Life was banging in his mooring pin with his hammer when it went flying out of his by now soaking hand at Godmanchester and splash, straight into the river.. After the rain stopped we tried to get it, but it was deep and even trying to fetch it out with a boathook was useless.

In the meantime another narrowboat had moored right over the said hammer.. but chatting away to them about this and that, and mentioning the hammer on the bottom of the river bed, out he came with one of those sea searchers.. a very strong magnet.  I have heard of them, but never seen one in action.. I was absolutely amazed!!  Down it went into the weeds and up it came with the hammer!!

What amazed me even more was the way that this chap was trying to prize the magnet off the hammer!!!

I got straight onto google and ordered one… not at £25 that they normally are in the chandlers, but at £18 odd here to St Neots Post Office.

Stopped on Saturday evening on the delightful GOBA moorings by Brampton Mill…

Just on the right of this pic. 

So today we went off to Oxford to see Vic’s specialist after having been back for tests previously, this was the day that the docs would be making decisions about what to do with Vics legs.  Well he does have a blocked artery.. but all is not lost because his body has done it’s own bypass of the blockage, and is using a mass of tiny veins to get around it quite adequately, and they are improving all the time and getting stronger….  I won’t go into all the techno details, but they have decided that they will not do a surgical bypass of the blockage, but let the body do it itself.  There is an added risk that if they did a surgical bypass, it might not work, and that could mean a loss of the limb..

So they want Vic to exercise more and diet a little… well stopping smoking always puts weight on, hey don’t I know it too!.. So I will be looking at an exercise routine for Vic to make his legs stronger and a diet for us both to take off a few pounds!

They don’t want to see Vic anymore at Oxford unless things take a change for the worst, but they are expecting it all to be plus, plus and plus again for the future for him. 

Right now I am knackered… but we had a good weekend all in all.. and I am a very happy person tonight..

No Problem gets stuck on the lock cill as we cruise to Godmanchester

St Neots to Godmanchester, River Gt Ouse, 9 miles 3 locks

It was nice this morning so we decided to go collect my post from Godmanchester and St Ives today.  We will return to St Neots on Sunday.  Anyway we needed some diesel, and the marina near to Offord Lock sold diesel.  A lovely part of the river this, I enjoyed very much..

However, at Offord Lock I got the backend of NP stuck on the cill.  It was very tight you see.  There was a plastic cruiser in front of me in the lock, and although I thought I had ample room, keeping an eye on the white line on the lock wall showing where the cill was… it lied!!  The cill was a good foot or more into the lock than the line said!!

The cill, for those not in the know, is a bit of concrete that the top gates are sat on, and that concrete stretches into the lock.. if you get the back end on that then the front can very quickly become submerged if action isn’t taken immediately as the lock in emptying.. but I shouted as soon as I realised and the paddles on the front gates got wound down at blistering speed, while someone opened the guillotine gate behind me to let some water in to float NP. Phew!  This is the first time I have every got No Problem on to the cill, and the last I hope!!

Pulling in for diesel the heavens opened,  poor Vic was in the middle of putting the fuel into the tank when an almighty rain storm hit.. in fact he had to stop such was the heaviness of the rain.. luckily I had seen it coming and just got the back covers up on No Problem in time.. he was soaked!!

After about ten minutes of torrential rain, the sun shone again, and we finished filling up with diesel at a decent 55p, filled with water and continued on our way.. still enjoying the wonderful scenery..

I popped into Godmanchester on arrival to collect the post, then caught the bus to St Ives to collect post that I had sent there… well we were suppose to be on our way back downstream by now.. so I had arranged for post to be delivered to the various places as we past.. anyway that all done we have settled once again in the delightful park here.. One bit of post hasn’t arrived yet, I do hope it does tomorrow, I wouldn’t mind going to the GOBA moorings that are fairly close to the marina where we got diesel, the moorings look really nice…

We are going to get to know St Neots very well ....

Moored St Neots, River Great Ouse

Still here we are, in the park.  It’s quite nice really.. there seems to be no hassle about ‘moving on’ and no signs to say how long we are allowed to stay either.  That is quite handy.. me thinks we will have to visit a lot in the next couple of weeks..

The news from the vet was not good today, Lucy had some xrays done and they showed that the hip ball has slipped even further out of the socket, and is on the edge of that… sooooooooooo decisions made, she will have another op to cut away the ball joint.  But that can’t happen for another two weeks, the only vet able to perform that op at the surgery I chose, is busy this week, then next week he is on holiday, and I ain’t about to put Lucy through another load of xrays and stuff at a different vets just to get it done quicker.

‘Tis a pity the first op didn’t work, but I am happier, to be honest, that she is having this next op.. I have been worried about Lucy going walking, in fact we have not been walking really since the accident last May.. and looking at the xrays today I have been right not to go across country with her.

She will have the op and then the vet said that Lucy is to get as much excercise as possible, no cage rest after this one… hoo flippin ray.. at least she can do what she loves to do, and so can I without all the worry about it dislocating.

On Monday Vic has to go to the hospital in Oxford again to see the specialist about the circulation in his legs… sheeeeeeesh!!  It’s all happening!

If the weather is OK tomorrow we might pop downstream to Godmanchester for the weekend before returning here on Sunday evening so we can catch the bus to Oxford.. there is an express to there from St Neots, saves going through London, anyway I have some post to collect.

The camera is working again this evening!

Vic made it work.  He got hold of it and gave it a good banging… “Nothing to lose” says he… it went all shuddery then froze.. stuck in the on position, so I removed the batteries and put them back in again and hey presto… it was working perfectly.  I did some test photos late this evening, nothing in particular, just to see, and everything is fine… will take some tomorrow for the blog… Ha saves filling out the insurance form.

Great market day here today in St Neots.. I got some shorts and lightweight threequarter length trousers.. well I gotta hope there is still some summer left!

Decisions, decisions, but we need to base at St Neots

Moored St Neots

It’s nice here at St Neots, I like the town a lot, ‘tis very laid back and friendly.. people like being asked where this and that is.. “Oh the fishing tackle shop is hidden here, I don’t know why, but seems they don’t like ‘outsiders’ finding them”… OK, so me the detective found them!!

Lucy went to the vets today for an update on her devastating injury of 3 months ago.. I am not happy with the result of the surgery to try mend that hip.. I want the ball of the hip removed so it isn’t touching the hip joint.. hard to explain to you all, but I know my dog.  The operation at Peterborough was not totally successful, she is still not putting her leg to the ground at ‘cantering gait’… I have not been walking with her for fear of her knocking that joint out again.  It was pinned, but when the pin was taken out the ball bit slipped and is just hanging on in there on the socket joint.. what is she knocks it?  Will it come out of the joint, and we will be in the same position as we were three months ago..

I ramble here.. but the alternative to what she has at the moment is to cut off the ball bit of her hip joint and let the muscles and tendons etc make a new joint for the hip… there will be no cage rest after this op, and as much exercise as I can give her.. to me that seems the best option.. at least then I don’t have to worry about her jumping about and knocking the hip ball joint out of that socket..

She goes to the vets on Thursday for xrays… I know vets know best, but I know what will be best for her too…

OK so that is that..

Things are not that good at the moment… just a bad patch I think… I took a nice pic tonight of NP at St Neots…

Then promptly dropped the camera as I got down off a park bench that I took the pic from and the camera fell onto the concrete and broke!

Such is life I suppose, but we will base ourselves here or here abouts for a while, Lucy needs sorting and so does Vic.. his next appointment in Oxford is next Monday, and the bus to Oxford goes through St Neots so we can catch it here..

But we can relax too.. here Ann of NB Moore2Life snapped a delightful photo when we were at St Ives, of a couple of water gypsies with their dog..

So this is the blog of the water gypsies aboard No Problem at St Neots!!

Weekend and Today – Goldington, Bedford to St Neots, River Gt Ouse, 10.75 miles 5 locks

It certainly was a lot cooler this weekend.. out came the coats, and I very nearly got the gloves out too, but preferred to stay a bit cold than to succumb to autumn!

I like this bit of the river.. it twists and turns and keeps you alert.  There are by-waters going left and right, and sometimes you wonder if you have gone the right way.. the heart rate rises when the river becomes covered in weed.. “maybe we should have gone left?”.. but nothing much can happen if we take the wrong route anyway.. we would just go aground probably.. and there is always a reverse on the gear lever!!

Whittington Lock above in the pic, I am already down as Moore2Life approaches.. there is no hurry in East Anglia.. we think it is a big event if we see a boat each day.. so very quiet and laid back..

I was sad to say goodbye to all the places we have visited this year, Gt Barford….

Here we had the most fantastic ‘family weekend’, now we are heading the other way.. making our way towards winter..

But we will be back.  This evening we are at St Neots, and the river is quiet apart from a few rowing 8’s charging up and down.. yes right now they are charging up and down the river.. take note of the posting time!!..

So the reference to the title tonight.. “So this is the blog of the water gypsies aboard No Problem at St Neots!!”

It isn’t often I purchase a canal magazine.. they are quiet expensive and I can get all I need on the internet canal wise, but I got one this month.  I was a bit miffed by a certain Steve Haywood “The Columnist who speaks his mind”…

This guy is trying to be helpful to boaters who know nothing about their boats.. he has no patience with people like me and Vic..

“But if you think British Waterways are going to sit back while the canals get clogged up with retired couples living the dream, then forget the water, you must have taken up residence in cloud cuckoo land.  At the rate these cash-rich pensioners are selling up their homes and turning into water gypsies, it can only be a matter of time before there are regulations limiting it.  Or big charges levied for the privilege.”

Well Vic and me worked our b******s off for our working life… paid tax every year since we were 16 years old.  Never had a week of unemployment, and worked in excess of 8 hours per day.. now we sold our house and bought our boat and live the dream… we do it properly and follow the mooring code.. read a couple of years of blog, and that will be seen..

I have taken up residence in cuckoo land… If I am a water gypsie then so it be.  Actually that sounds quite nice.. maybe I should potter more on the system and limit my movements to a mere 2 lock miles a day…

Eat 'yer heart out Stevey boy, there will be no room for you on the system. so when you retire….  You will be able to sit in your garden at home on a sunny day, and sit indoors watching the box on a rainy day… enjoy that!

All quiet on the Ouse...

Moored Goldington Goba Moorings, River Great Ouse

Just been relaxing and doing a bit of consolidating bookwork and bits of paper today.  It is amazing how much space I have made just by going through all my paperwork here and shredding what is not required anymore.  Tons of paper like bank statements have gone.. now I have internet banking, I can view my statements online for the last 6 years.. we are becoming a paperless society.  I try not to send snail mail and encourage companies to deal through email to me.  This way I feel that I will not have to keep so much paper filed away here on No Problem.

I also visited a local physiotherapist today.. again looking on the internet to find the closest.  I have had a bit of a problem with what I thought was a trapped nerve under my shoulder blade.. Vic had been doing his best to try to massage it away, but it has been getting worse and has caused my whole left arm to be very painful, enough so over the last couple of days for me to have been on pain killers..

Anyway, it seems I have an injury and inflammation near my thorasic spine.. Seems I have given my back a right yank.  It might have been a couple of weeks ago when I carried a very, very heavy rucksack full of goodies from Tescos for the family visit.. So no carrying, pulling or pushing for a while.  Now that IS going to be difficult!!

Lucy did not go to the Vet’s today.  It seems the Vet Hospital in Peterborough where all her notes are had a computer breakdown today so could not send them to the vets here in Bedford.  I’ll wait till St Neots to get her checked out.

I sent the pic of Chas and Moore2Life going under the bridge at Bedford to Paul at Narrowboat world, and I see it is on the front page there this evening.  I am chuffed he felt the pic was worthy of that

Goodbye Bedford...

Bedford Priory Marina to Goldington Goba Moorings, 2 miles 1 lock

A quiet day today.. well not that quiet.  I have had a good springclean and cleared a lot of ‘hoarded stuff’ from No Problem while we were in the marina.

I have been having trouble finding somewhere to put things, and realised that there was no room left!  I tidied everything up after the last two weeks of visitors, and now at last NP is shipshape again.

Just the short trip today to the lovely GOBA moorings downstream of Cardington Lock.  I was rather laid back entering the lock and banged the side a bit hard.. Vic looked in disgust, but nothing fell off the shelves!   I should have been concentrating harder, it is a difficult one to get into.  The lock is 90 degrees to the left of the lock landing stage.

Popped to the post office in Goldington this afternoon and passed a vets on the way, so booked Lucy in for an appointment tomorrow to see how her hip is fairing… for those not in the know, Lucy our border collie, had an accident back at the end of May, and her hip had to be pinned back to the joint.  She is walking on it ok, but tends to carry it at speed.  I don’t think that is going to change now, she seems very happy to be a three legged dog overground..

We have not had the television on for ages, it must be over two weeks now, but tonight we did.. blimey scarey stuff on the news tonight, the security people seem to have everything under as much control as they can. 

Sorry there are no pics tonight, I don’t have any charged up batteries for my camera at the moment.. well I didn’t even get time to charge them over the last couple of weeks!!

They will be charged by tomorrow though…

A wonderful couple of weeks, and it's handy at Priory Marina Bedford...

Goba Moorings, Bedford to Priory Marina, Gt River Ouse, 2 miles 1 lock

We did actually cruise to Bedford.. it was funny really.. We got to this bridge and it was really really low, so we took the canopy down.. no it wasn’t raining, it has been so hot that we have had the back canopy up to shade us from the sun.. anyway, the canopy came down, the chimney came off, along with the sky dish.. only to find that 100yds further on was yet another bridge off to the right just before the lock that takes you up to Bedford waterside.  That bridge was just 2.1m.. I think we could have got under it.. but my plants might not have, so we called it a day, much to the amusement of locals enjoying the sunshine on the banks as they watched us turn and return back and moor downstream of the first low bridge!!

I have ‘the photo of the summer’ of that bridge.. this is Chas on NB Moore to Life just about to go under it.. but hey he seems not to notice just how low it is… I wondered if he was going to duck or get a ducking in the water!!!!….

It’s a good job narrowboats are not too high!.. I took granddaughter Kiera into Bedford Town for a wander round.. she wanted a McDonalds.. well don’t most 8 year olds, and we enjoyed some time looking round the market and the shops.  Dad had given her some money when he delivered her to me for her annual weekly visit to grandma, and she found a couple of bits and bobs to purchase.  We sat and ate our McDonalds on Bedford Riverside..

Yes I had one too!

We then made our way back to Priory Marina to meet with Wendie, Danny and other granddaughter Niamh (pronounced Neeve) who would stay with us for the whole week.  We had a wonderful time in their company, they had brought their tent, and I had spied several places where we could moor and also ‘moor’ the tent.  It did work out very well, they could board NP in the morning and have the whole of the galley and saloon to themselves if they were early, but to be honest we all sort of woke at the same time.

We BBQed each evening.. I remember two evenings in a row though that I fetched the plates out and the bloomin’ rain came down!!   We managed ok, clearing the decks inside to find seats to enjoy some fine food.  The picture above is from what we have called “R Island”, a wonderful place just off the main river.  It’s like a lagoon as you can see in the pic above.

We have been in the company this week of weed cutters, and they were near the island while we were walking, so Ann of NB Moore2Life asked them if they would cut the weed from the ‘lagoon’ off the main river… next morning they obliged, making it much easier to extract the two boats from a very very weedy area

After a very enjoyable week, we moored once again on the GOBA moorings at Great Barford ready for ‘tent city’!  Over the weekend our travelling companions Chas and Ann had a visit from their son Chris and grandchildren Ben and Josh as well as Chas’s mum.  Other daughter Jennie arrived bringing her hubby Phil and the grandchildren Molly and Jessica.  My son Tony arrived by bus during Saturday afternoon.. there was no room in any cars for anyone to bring him up too!.. so last weekend between the two boats there were 17 people!!

Tents were erected and chairs set out.. you saw the pic yesterday.. the children all had a wonderful time as well as the adults.. Cricket, frizby, badminton, skittles.. even the children had a party on the Sunday morning with a lucky dip that Ann and I had got made up of all the shredded paper over the last 6 months.. loads of pressies for the little ones wrapped up.. red for the girls and blue for the boys.. pin the tail on the donkey which Chas drew very expertly!!

WOW!!  Just the best time ever we all had!

Today I used the new washing machines here in the Marina, very handy place this is, and the people here are sooooo friendly and helpful.  So all the bedding is washed and put away till the next time, curtains and cushion covers washed.  I like this Marina, it is one of the British Waterways ones.  They are so welcoming here….

Two weeks of pure magic around Bedford and Gt Barford

Log since last blog – errrrrrrrr not sure but it’s been good!

I am alive, I am here, I am on the computer this evening.  Here is the reason there have been no blogs….

And if you can’t quite see why then click here for a bigger pic. This is ‘the family visit’!!

I just have so many smashing pictures to sort and size for the blog, and so many tales to tell.  Vic and I have had so much fun over the last couple of weeks, and I have had no chance to get to the computer.  The weather has been absolutely wonderful, and we have been just living outside on the river bank ‘till sometimes gone 1am in the morning.  We have had bbqs just about every night..

Anyway tomorrow we are going into Priory Marina in Bedford, they have some new washing machines, and the cost is very cheap, so I gonna do a ton of washing.  In between loading washing machines and dryers I will try to sort all the pics and give you all an insight, over the next week,  into what a fantastic time we have had.  Right now I am totally shattered.. No Problem is still not ship shape.. the family all left yesterday..

At the moment I am winning the sweepstake, I said I would find 2 odd socks.. Wendie said 6.. so far I didn’t find any!!