Refurb, Blacking and a trip home – 9th to 21st September
You probably don’t need to read any more. The subtitle is a good summary of what’s been going on! But please – stay with me – as I put a bit more flesh on those bones. News galore.
We had arrived at Droitwich ready for Old Nick to be lifted out of the water at the end of the last blog. Work ensued! Slowly at first but it gathered pace as we neared the next weekend. I met an old Droitwich pal (Jayne who used to moor very near us) for afternoon tea, mid-week but other than that, I was mainly getting ready to remove stuff for the refurb and packing to go away. We were doing the summer/winter clothes change-over as part of the same operation. Gluttons for punishment!
Work started in earnest on the Friday and we had packed up all of our goods and chattels kept underneath the dinette and – well – pretty much everything that wasn’t a fixture. TV, side table, Sonos, table lamps – even our armchairs had to go. The kitchen sink was excluded! It was all packed in a van and trundled off to Ortomarine’s base in Shenstone – near Kidderminster on Friday 12th.
That left us Saturday to dismantle the dinette and clean up all the dog hair etc, that lurks beneath it. It’s very much out of sight out of mind – you can’t see it, but you know that it’s there! We reckon we hoovered up enough fur to make another Border Terrier by the time we had finished! With everything gone it looked mighty spacious and we spent our last couple of nights on board, before going home, seated in our camping chairs in the saloon!
Sunday morning saw us do a final clean and hoover before packing the car and driving down to sunny Fareham. It was a good trip and we arrived home before George, Beth and Chester, who had been on their first ever camping weekend together. Chester was delighted to see us and we him. Our pride and joy.
It was Uncle D’s 89th birthday and we had arranged to celebrate with a Chinese take-away. When Paul and George went round to drop off the wet tent (to dry in his summerhouse) he said he wasn’t feeling so good and so we abandoned that idea. We had the usual round of appointments (doc x2, hair and vet!) an impromptu luncheon with Anne Robertson and her daughter Holly and we popped over to see our besties, (Sue & Paul). Other than that it was a week reserved for family. George kept us fed and watered all week – including a spectacular Chicken roast! He’s learnt from the best, of course!
I went to a gathering of old school friends on the Friday evening and had such a lovely time. We had done Thornton Wilder’s “The Matchmaker” (on which the musical “Hello Dolly” was based) when we were at school, and we realised that we had 5 of the 8 main characters in the cast sat round the table. We even managed to rustle up a few of the lines! “Money, pardon the expression, is like manure; it’s not worth a thing unless it’s spread around encouraging young things to grow.” A great evening, and one of the friends sat round the table (the one on the left in the pic below), has been my pal since infant school!
As it was cold and grey on Saturday we decided to go to the Blue Reef Aquarium in Southsea. As soon as we arrived, I realised that was a bad idea. Although I’m sure they are well cared for, it is anathema to me to see living creatures cooped up when they should be free. And shortly after we arrived, Chester said “I want to go home!”. Typical kids! Although I think he did enjoy it – in part. Maybe an expensive mistake?
Poor old Uncle D continued to be poorly all week, but by Sunday – though he was still not 100% – was definitely on the mend. I was glad as I was feeling awful about having to leave him to go back to the boat on Monday.
We spent Sunday packing away our summer stuff and getting out our winter stuff. Boring but necessary as there is not that much storage space on the boat. In the afternoon, we popped over to the Wickham play area with Chester, to give his Ma and Pa a little break. It was a nice breath of fresh air.
And that was our week at home done and dusted. You’ll have to “tune in” next week to see the shiny new and improved Old Nick. We are very pleased. We’ll be starting to make our way back to the Marina of Dreams – but more about that too – next week.
| Period | Miles | Locks |
| 8th to 21st Sep | 0 | 0 |
| Cumulative 2025 | 419 | 253 |