Thursday 5th August
Due to – a) My not updating last Sunday and b) the lack of a 3 signal at Weston and Burston this will be a HUGE update!
Sunday 2nd August
We descended the first 3 of the Stone locks with the intention of carrying on to Weston for a couple of days. We needed a paper and as it was Sunday the shops didn’t open until 10am. By the time we had done the 3 locks and got water it was nearly 10am. There was, surprisingly, a space on the 48hr town moorings so we moored up so Ken could to go to the shops. When he got back we decided to stay where we were. It was a nice day and we really just couldn’t be bothered to go anywhere! So we had come about half a mile!
Before all this, at the 2nd lock, there was a hire boat waiting to come up the lock and a chap came up to help me with the paddles. He looked familiar but I didn’t say anything at first for fear of making a prat of myself. Eventually I asked him if he lived in Halesworth and he said he did. I was right, it was the bloke from the carpet shop next door to Patrick’s!
We spent the rest of the day lazing about, going to the pub, reading the paper, doing the crossword and generally not doing much at all.
Monday 2nd August
Having not done much the day before we thought we’d better get off to Weston. We had a good trip of 6 miles and 3 locks with no hold ups to speak of. As we were making our, rather slow with George, progress to the Saracen’s Head we saw Jeff and Shirl (from the boatyard in Thurmaston) on ‘Rising Damp’. They were on their way to Stone so they didn’t stop. When we got to the Saracen’s Head it was shut, not open until 5pm on Mondays! We had to encourage George to carry on in to the village so we could go to The Woolpack instead, which is a nicer pub, not that he would notice that! He was rewarded with a biscuit from the new landlady. He also got a lot of fuss from a chap who used to foster Bull Terriers.
Tuesday 3rd August
We stayed at Weston and did some cleaning. Ken got all the stuff off the top of the boat and cleaned the roof. I did the cratch and started on the inside. We were just having break and a cup of coffee when a contractor came along on his mower. As the stuff off the roof was taking up half the grass he wanted to mow he said he would come back after we had put it back on. Before he came back and before we had a chance to do that, 2 chaps with strimmers appeared. They were very nice and waited while we put all the stuff back on the roof. They were very careful while they were strimming which was nice of them because some contractors can be a bit cavalier about stones flying up etc.
The woman on the boat behind us came past on her way to the shop later on and we ended up having a long chat about this and that, including the fact that she came from Pakefield! She had a friend who used to live in Ditchingham and used to go to dances in Bungay, small world!
Wednesday 4th August
As we were going back to Stone at the end of the week we decided to go up to Ingestre (pronounced Ingestry) where we could turn round and then go back and stop at Burston. This journey of 3 miles and 3 locks (actually 2 locks but we had to do one in both directions) ended up taking 3 and a half hours, an average speed of less than 1 mile an hour! There were a lot of boats about so there was a bit of waiting about for locks. The majority of the boaters were either American or Canadian, funnily enough.
When we got to Burston we set off in search of The Greyhound, as recommended by Barry and Barbara. We went up a little lane from the canal to the village and discovered 3 roads up any of which it could be. Having investigated all of them and not finding the pub, or any people to ask directions from either, we were about to give up and go back. However a car pulled up outside a cottage as we were passing and I asked the lady who got out if she knew where the pub was. She had never been to this village before but had passed it on the way in! It was further up one of the roads we had already investigated but obviously we hadn’t gone far enough. We were discussing whether we would be able to get George up there again when the lady offered to give us a lift, how kind. So we piled into her rather small car, George had to sit in the front foot well between Ken’s legs as I didn’t want him to get on the back seat!
The Greyhound is a nice pub and we had a good covered smoking area to sit in, which was a good job as it rained quite hard while we were there. As we were leaving the landlady told us we could have taken George in the games room had we have wanted to. Bit late though.
Thursday 5th August
We have now returned to Stone as we have Mum and Dave and Tony and Trish coming at the weekend. On the way in we saw Jeff and Shirl on the way out, so we have missed them again.
We managed to get George to toddle a little way round the park, along the River Trent, which flows through here as well as the canal. He obviously knew this wasn’t a short cut to the pub!
This afternoon I visited my very expensive hairdresser again, well it is 2 months since I last had my hair cut! We also bought some things in Boots and both of us thought the other one had picked them up, but neither of us had! So we have to go back tomorrow and hope they remember we left them as we can’t find the receipt (must be in the bag!) I also went in to the Orange phone shop and cheekily asked for advice about the fact that I had been getting no service for 3 days on my Vodafone! The chap in there was really nice and took my sim card out, put it back in and it worked!
We are now watching the Proms. Mahler is currently competing with the Stone campanologists and George is joining in with the wind section!
