WHEN IS A TOILET NOT A TOILET

TUESDAY 17^TH TO THURSDAY 19^TH APRIL 2012    

                                                                    

 Our friends and their boat that are joining us for our venture onto the Fens are not able to leave the Thames until later this month, with that in mind we decided to have a lazy day at Hillmorton. Sorry, I realize that most of our working friends and family will consider that every one of our days are lazy, all I can say is “tough”. In the evening we followed the directions for the ten minutes walk to the Stag and Pheasant pub. Although the neighbourhood was nondescript the pub externally looked relatively promising, what a disappointment, everything about it was uninspiring, not even the adventures of the ‘Simpsons’ on the wall mounted TV inspired Jacquie. Its only redeeming feature was that it kept us dry whilst a squally rain storm passed by.

The weather at the moment is heavy rain showers, we are very grateful, as it must help to alleviate the water shortage on the canals. On Wednesday morning we picked a dry moment and Jacquie set off along the towpath with Duggie, but not before we all togged up in our waterproofs. The towpaths are the muddiest that we have seen for a couple of years and by the time we all arrived at Rugby, we were all wet and Dug was very muddy as well. The usual shopping trips to Tesco’s and to Halfords for more of their excellent rolls of paper cloth, ideal for cleaning up after painting and oily engine bay jobs. Of course I have to have a pilgrimage to Maplins, this time to buy a self loading screwdriver, brilliant.

We had moored by a grassed area, upon which sits a toilet block, this has been boarded up for as long as we can remember. To my surprise on Thursday morning, I saw a gentlemen from the boat in front of us; disappear around the back of the block, carrying a cassette and on investigation there is a functioning Elsan Disposal unit there, hooray, just in time, must add that one to my Nicholson’s guide.

We tried to find a less muddy, morning walk for Dug before casting off, as we knew that after more heavy overnight rain the towpath would be even worse, we failed. We left Rugby in the dry, but soon the rain returned, so we stopped for the day at Brinklow, purchasing two more bags of coal and a small tin of bitumen from their well stocked chandlery, the bitumen for touching up the scars that are already starting to mar our shiny hull.

Finally apologises for the dearth of pictures, rainy weather never inspires me to take photos, I am afraid the boarded up toilet is as good as it got, I will endeavour to do better.