Monday 21st October – Sunday 27th October
Things weren’t too bad on the weather front on Monday apart from a rather stiff breeze so we decided to go off to Gloucester for a couple of days. At this point we were still expecting Mum and Dave and Tony and Trish to come so we needed to get to Gloucester and get shopping before making our way back to Shepherd’s Patch for their arrival on Thursday.
However, having looked at the forecast for the end of the week they decided not to come and postponed their visit. So we stayed in Gloucester, in our favourite mooring by the lightship, Monday and Tuesday.We did the usual things we do in town, shopping and going to the pub.
Wednesday we had to move because our 48 hours were up so we did sanitary station things and a Sainsbury’s shop then went off to Rea Bridge, where we still are having decided it would be as good a place as any to sit out the impending storm due here tonight (Sunday).
So what have we been doing while we have been here, apart from the obvious? Well, when we arrived on Wednesday Ken had his flu jab, in the pharmacy at Tesco’s of all places! He was going to have it done in Boots but we noticed that it was £3 cheaper in Sainsbury’s. However the pharmacist was on her own when we were in there so she couldn’t do it at that time. We were going to go back but as there was the same deal in Tesco’s he had it done there.
Thursday was a lovely day and we took advantage of this. I gave the dinette table another sanding and another coat of varnish and while I was at it I varnished the shelf we bought for the cratch in Banbury months ago! Meanwhile Ken was doing some rust treatment mainly on patches on the roof. I also resprayed a couple of the mushrooms which had become scratched due to things rubbing against them on the roof.
While Ken was waiting for his undercoat to dry we had a walk round Quedgeley, looking for the old bit but the only old buildings we could find were the church and rectory! Everything else is fairly modern, I don’t know what happened to the rest of it. We then had a sit outside The Haywain and watched the world go by, or rather watched the world go in and out of Tesco’s carpark!
Friday was another day of unbridled usefulness! Ken dismantled the washing machine in readiness for getting it out when our new one (and tumble dryer) are delivered when we go in the marina. He has since eyed up the potential space there could be and declared it would be the perfect place for his fishing tackle and besides two buckets and a pair of rubber gloves take up so much less room than a washing machine! I told him the divorce papers would be in the post!
Yesterday (Saturday) we had had enough of being useful so we decided to walk in to Gloucester instead. This is about 3 miles from here along the towpath to Hempstead Bridge and down the Bristol Rd. Unfortunately (or fortunately which ever way you look at it) I had just had a cup of coffee when we decided to do this walk so by the time we got to Gloucester I needed the loo. We had to go in Gloucester Quays so I could go and we happened upon the Mountain Warehouse Massive Sale with an extra 20% off. Ken did need new trousers so we located just what he wanted. Well, we did, after I had wrecked the display trying to get his size from the middle of the row and deposited several pairs on the floor. I didn’t really need a new top (reduced from £59 to £10-59 and another 3 pairs of socks (70% off) but I just couldn’t resist.
After the exertions of all the walking and shopping we went to wait for the bus in the ‘Wetherspoon’s bus stop’. Mind you we had to leave The Water Poet when the Abbott ran out and go to The Regal. God, there were some awful people in there that day! One family sat near us with particularly unruly children, they were a nightmare, jumping all over the bench seats and the wooden shelf at the back of the seats. No wonder the husband was having a sneaky double vodka at the bar while he ordered their food! We were quite glad to get the bus home.
Today we went back to being useful as battening down operations had to take place in preparation for us getting blown off the face of the planet later on tonight! Ken shortened the aerial pole so we could still have the tv on tonight but there was less to sway about. We have been meaning to do that for ages because you don’t always need to have the aerial up a high pole. We still have the rest of the pole in case we need it. We also took the satellite dish off and put it in the cratch, no point in having it up on the roof acting like a sail! We also tied the gang plank and poles etc down and brought the life ring in. We have got 3 mooring ropes on as usual (hopefully that will be enough) and we are moored to metal girders so they should hold us fast. Now we wait and see how bad it is.
After we had secured the boat we went to The Friar Tuck to watch the football, I can talk about football this week because although both of us got 0-0 draws at least we didn’t lose! It had been showery all morning and I elected to put my waterproof trousers on for the 10 min walk to the pub. Ken elected to take his in a rucksack. Guess which one of us arrived at the pub with wet trousers, ha ha!
Obviously we are not going anywhere tomorrow but are hopeful we can get to Sellars Bridge on Tuesday before we run out of water! We won’t be able to go far because the Bridge keepers are now on Winter hours meaning they don’t work on Tuesday’s or Wednesdays. After we get our water we will probably come back here. We want to be in Gloucester again at the weekend for the firework display.
