Yorkshire part 1

 July 11th

A pit stop to Tesco before heading North toward Yorkshire wasn't planned, but Ian had forgotten to top up the motor home diesel tank. Driving up to the pump, crikey, he was that dismayed in seeing just how much diesel had gone up! She's a thirsty beast, our motorhome, and it seemed to take an age to fill, The pounds kept creeping up! Anyway, our first stop was at Brigg, it's a garden center about the halfway point. They do wonderful breakfasts, we have stayed twice before and each time enjoyed them immensely. Because of my lettuce leaf diet, it would be most unfair if Ian had gone without me, so I persuaded told him he had to make do with cereal instead.

We left before 11am and, for lunch, stopped at a viewing area near the Humber bridge. A café was nearby, not too far for me to hobble. I ordered ordinary tea and Ian a green tea, then went to find a table. I was not amused when he arrived back with a slice of chocolate Malteser cake. Seeing my indignation, offered to cut me a small piece as a taster. The look I gave him said it all!

Goose trying his luck

 

On route, a 'road closed ahead' sign stopped our progress as we neared York. A fire had broken out near a farm, we saw the smoke from way off but hadn't realised it would cause us any problems. Well, the Sat Nav kept telling us to make a U-Turn, couldn't find another route through, and so with no diversions in place, Ian had to follow his nose. He's very good at that, his sense of direction is amazing. As for me, forget it. I still get my lefts and rights wrong!

Prospect Farm camp ground is what we call a 'hideaway' site. We have stayed many times and are now on first name terms with the owner. With only two caravans parked toward the back of a massive field, we could choose where we wanted to go. A water tap was nearby, and we chose a spot near to that. It's also fairly near to the elsan point, not so far for Ian to walk to do the deed. An awning went up, creating a lovely shady place to sit and while away the afternoon. 

 

The decision was made to stay until Monday, just chill out for a few days and enjoy the good weather. It's hot, about 27 deg, plenty of insects flying around as well. Ladybirds are plentiful, and we heard on the news today that they have become a bit of a nuisance, even stopping the cricket at Lords for a while. Not seen anything like those numbers, but hover flies are as bad as flies here. Ian fished several out of his beer yesterday.

 And seen at Humber bridge

 

Another short break

 July 10th

We are away again, managed to grab a short break while we could, because since my last post, things have moved at a pace. My appointment with the consultant/surgeon at the private hospital on July 1st was for 9 am, which meant an early start to get there. Sat Nav said 30 minutes, but was that with the rush hour traffic? Anyway, we left nearly 50 minutes before I was due at the hospital and needless to say, Sat Nav was right, so we had a bit of a wait when we arrived.  Walking through the doors, wow, talk about a posh reception area. We were met by one of the receptionists, very pleasant and welcoming and, in our opinion, would not have been a stranger at a model agency. In fact, all the staff, including the nurses, were just as glamorous. 

Dead on 9 am, the consultant came out, shook our hands and showed us to the consulting room. Looking over the physio notes and x-ray agreed my knee was pretty bad. Out came his diary and said would August 2nd for a total knee replacement be okay. Good grief, I never expected it to be so soon. Of course, I agreed, he pencilled it in, then explained all the things that could go wrong with this type of op, including death! "Oh eck" I thought, sounds drastic, but I expect it's what's told to everyone having an anaesthetic. As we left, he took me to one side. "You must try and lose some weight before the op, and I recommend a lettuce leaf and water diet from now on"! "Crikey, that's a bit harsh", thought I. I did ask if it was alright to have a tomato with it. He thought for a moment and said, "Just the one"!

As for Ian, we are still waiting on blood test results, his weight has remained stable, and he feels very well in himself. An appointment has been made to see yet another consultant mid-August, hopefully, if I'm walking okay, I can go with him.

So that is why we decided to take a break before the 'Big Day', and so Yorkshire was the chosen destination. To date, I have lost 7lbs, that's a lb a day. The diet consists of fruit for breakfast, no lunch and a small side plate of salad with either salmon or prawns to help ease the hunger. Also, chair aerobics has become the norm, a 30-minute workout every morning. It certainly gets the heart rate up! I know the diet is drastic, but I'm determined to lose a stone before the op. The way I'm going, that does seem achievable.  Fingers crossed anyway.

A short break

June 25th 

 We did manage to get away, not to Yorkshire, but 'down south' to Dorset. We had good news last week, all clear with Ian's scan. Oh, actually, that's not strictly true because a small nodule was found on his adrenal gland. Now, this nodule was present on a scan way back in 2015, the consultant then was not concerned, so why worry about it now? Anyway, an appointment was made at city hospital for mid-August, I'm sure the NHS are determined not to let him go!

As for my knee situation, I have an appointment at a private hospital on the 1st July. Fingers crossed I won't have to long to wait for the op.

 It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, then, to get away for 4 days. I found a site near to Lyme Regis, looked lovely and quiet and had a fully serviced hard-standing site available. (water and grey water disposal) And yes it was everything the website had described, dog friendly, electric hookup, 2 fishing ponds, good walks, pub nearby but what was not mentioned was the roads leading to the site. Nearly three miles of narrow lanes with the occasional passing place. When the hedges started touching both sides of the motorhome, it was a little worrying! I often wonder how these sites are allowed to open when getting to them is so bad. Plenty of caravans as well, must have been a nightmare for them if they had met another vehicle. We were lucky, only had to reverse twice, so the decision was made to spend a very quiet few days not moving off site, so plenty of card games played, and I walked the best I could with my stick whilst hanging on to Ian's arm. The journey back wasn't quite as stressful, as we found a slightly shorter route back to the main road. Still bad enough though, and we felt lucky not to meet anything, apart, that is, the dustcart and that was going our way!

And once back on FS, a new family of ducklings emerged. More food for the Pike!

Update

 June 12th

And still the wait continues! It's been two weeks since Ian had a scan and still no results! We are feeling positive, though, because 'no news is good news' as the saying goes. He also still feels remarkably well so quite why he lost weight is beyond me!

So what have we been up too? Well, towards the end of May, Pentland (ECP&DA's workboat), went into dry dock for blacking. Somehow I got volunteered to do the job, probably because I blacked her originally. Anyway, I persuaded Ian to give me a hand because the weather was set to turn nasty, and we only had two days in which to do the job. It took a lot longer than I had anticipated, the hull was very pitted, loading the roller with bitumen wasn't enough to cover the rust. An old paint brush had to be used instead, and that took time, but we did manage to complete the task just in time before the rain started.

A small welding job had to be done. Malc and Ernie, both ECP&DA volunteers, held us up slightly

Beginning of June the funeral of Norman took place, gosh it was well attended with 100 plus of family, friends, and acquaintances, including several CRT personals, present. Not all got a seat, and a good 40 had to stand around the side. I think Norman would have been proud of the send-off, especially as the wake was held right here at the Great Northern Pub, his local.  Thank you to Ian and Kath for feeding the multitude.

With our grandsons first communion on the 9th, we took the motorhome to MK. The Polish family had claimed most of the bedrooms in our son's house, leaving only the converted loft for our daughter and son-in-law to sleep. For us to stay, we had to bring the motorhome, a bit awkward as our son's house has an arch leading to the rear of the house which was too narrow for it to fit through. With it being a weekend, we parked in the school car park, but not wanting to leave it there overnight, we managed to get the front end through the arch with the backend sticking out. It meant getting up early to move it back to the car park. 

Our son is 6'3". Oliver is almost as tall! 

 

The weekend was a great success, a BBQ after the service and the drink flowed freely, well it always does when the Polish contingency is present! 

Communion Cake

Now that's what I call a Chimenea

The decision was made on the Monday to head down to Blenheim Palace. It was the birthplace and home of Sir Winston Churchill. I still have a big problem with my right knee and have had to bite the bullet and buy a stick! Blenheim Palace is huge and even though I tried to fight the pain, we only spent a measly 3 hours there. The tickets were expensive at £41 each, so I felt a bit miffed that only a small part had been seen. But not all was lost because the tickets can be used again within a year of purchase, hopefully I can get the knee sorted within that time frame!

 

Sir Winston was a great painter.

Hmmm.....

Talking of knees, I saw the physio again today, and he has finally agreed to put me on the list for a knee replacement. To try and bring waiting lists down, I can now be seen at a private clinic under the NHS. Three weeks to wait before I get a letter saying when the surgeon can see me so we may (if Ian finally gets the all clear) go away for a short while in the motorhome. Abroad is out of the question but as we love the York moors and Dales so much, might take another jaunt up there. 

So unexpected.

 15th May

 Today we would have been on the ferry to France and although my suspected melanoma turned out to be benign, (phew) Ian is still under investigation. All of his tests have come back favourably, but still the NHS won't let him go. So for now we will remain at Langley Mill. In a way I'm glad because a week ago our chairman Norman (ECP&DA) and very good friend of ours passed away. It was all very sudden, he started to feel unwell last Wednesday morning, an ambulance was called, and he was taken to Queens Med, Nottingham. Unfortunately, whilst there, he had a massive heart attack and although the medical team worked on him for an hour, they were unable to restart his heart.  To say we were in shock was an understatement, and it has knocked his wife Shirley for six. So for us, to still be here, has meant we could support Shirley during this awful time. We have decided, even if Ian is signed off from the NHS, to stay until after the funeral. As yet, that is still to be arranged. I keep expecting him to come and say hello and talk society matters and football with Jim and Jenn. He supported Crystal Palace and hoped his team would win against Manchester City in the cup final on Saturday Now he will never know.  He will be truly missed. RIP Norman

This photo was taken at Shardlow Inland Port festival last September. 

Shirley, Richard Parry and Norman

 

Bad news maybe?

 May 1st

 Not a lot has happened since the Pie and Pea outing, hence the lack of my usual ramblings, The only bit of excitement during March (apart from the Pie and Pea) was the partial eclipse of the sun on the 29th!

Without the appropriate camera lens filter, I wondered how to take it, but the opportunity came when I happened to glance down between FS and the bank and noticed the reflection in the water. Perfect, especially as not a ripple was had on the water.

April came and went, with the only break in the monotony of staying static, being a trip to Nottingham arena to see Jeff Wayne's musical version of War of the Worlds. It was spectacular and well worth the price of the tickets. Jeff Wayne, even in his eighty-first year, still had the stamina of conducting the orchestra for the length of each 50 minute performances.

 

War of the Worlds fighting machine.

With our holiday abroad looming, we moved into the Great Northern basin ready for the holiday to Europe mid-May, the excitement was building, the motorhome got ready, and we even went with it to a weigh bridge just to make sure the limit of 3.5 tons was obeyed. But sometimes things happen which are out of one's control and unfortunately this happened to us both.

It's all to do with the NHS grabbing you and refusing to let go. 

Long story short, a mole was found on my back which may be a melanoma. Last week I had it removed, and the stitches came out today. So far the results haven't come back but the way the nurse removing my stitches spoke, it probably was what I had feared. Going away then, for 2.5 months, was probably not a good idea.

Secondly Ian, who feels remarkably well I might add, had been losing weight, and now he too is under the thumb of the NHS. The outcome of that is still being investigated.

So for now everything has been put on hold, times are uncertain and all we both can do is hope for the best outcome.  If everything comes back clear then we will still go abroad, if it doesn't.....well let's not dwell on that too much.
 

A grand weekend

 March 24th

It was a brilliant weekend. 10 boats turned up, most above lock but some below. That sunken cruiser on the lock landing caused a few problems, it would be lovely if CRT could pull their finger out and get it removed. 7 months lying on the bottom is quite long enough, thank you very much! Anyway, Friday's boaters game night was a huge success, and a fair amount of beer was drunk on that evening! 

Saturday, the numbers swelled. 4 live bands kept us entertained to almost midnight. The Pie, Peas, Gravy and Mint sauce arrived mid-evening, supplied by Mrs B's catering company, stopping the music for a short while, Shirley, and I was kept busy dishing them out. This, we hope, could once more become an annual event, it was pre Covid, six years ago, when the last Pie and Pea took place. Everyone at the 'DO' agreed we should do it more often.

 

Two tubs at the back full of mushy peas and gravy. 

 Most of us went to bed slightly tipsy, it was a good job the boats were nearby!

 

Sunday morning boaters left to start their cruising season, unfortunately we were not amongst them. It was back to Langley Mill for us. We did have locking buddies, Canada Dave and wife Mel (yes, you guessed correct, both are Canadians). They joined ECP&DA about a year ago and have been regulars at our work parties on a Friday. One job Dave helped with was the post repair on the lock gate at Sandiacre. A good quick solution to a job that CRT couldn't carry out immediately. 

Leaving for Langley

The whole trip back up took about 5 hours and that's good going considering all the locks were against, several times the boat hook had to come out to remove debris and branches from behind the gates and tackling the awful leaking Greens Lock.

At said Greens Lock Ian and Mel struggled to get the bottom gate open, Ian lost his footing and felt his knee go ...what a B....and just when he thought it was getting better! Back to a hobbling gait again. Of course going up we didn't have the same problems with being pinned to the wall, just the getting through the top gates, both of which could only be opened a fraction. Dave went out first, managing not to scrap the side of his lovely new and shiny boat, well Ian did lean hard against the gate to give him more room.

l

That's all the gap we had

We did just about remember to warn Dave of that sunken boat after Gallows Inn, unfortunately he still somehow managed to hit it, which brought it up to the surface making it easier for us to see and avoid. 

Jim (Dire Straits) had Langley Bridge Lock open and waiting. He gave us the low down on Jenns eye operation to fix the displaced retina and very relieved that all went well. She is now confined to lying on her back for the next 10 days, only allowed 20 minutes in every hour to be able to sit up, eat and go to the toilet. 

So that's it for the foreseeable future. Next outing will be in the motorhome in May and that is a European holiday driving to Pompeii.

And seen on route