Oh My Goodness Gracious Me

Today we had a Monday boaters afternoon tea with a difference, it was a bring your own curry day.

I made a chicken and mushroom curry, Elaine a lentil dahl, we kept them simmering away on the multi-fuel stove, ahh the smell of curry wafting through the boat. 

 

It was a very successful day with lots of different curries, accompaniments and desserts. We also had Indian beer and some very nice Moet & Chandon champers.  

Aston Marina is owned by the Webb family who also owns a very large plant hire company in Stafford. 

He had lots of his toys at work today driving some piles. We believe they are building a BBQ area.

I had an email from the fundraiser for The Christie hospital to say that we raised 3004 pounds yesterday! Not a bad result, and all in loose change.  

All In A Good Cause

Yesterday was another woeful day weather wise, so it was another day confined to the boat.

I did a couple of small repairs to a door and a tap whilst Elaine painted some rocks which she then leaves in strategic places around the place.....Guerilla rock painting!

Then a strange thing happened, Jaffa the cat put a crisp packet on his head (he really did!)

... he is a bloody stupid cat!

So to today, Sammie was as eager as ever to go for a walk ...

Then it was back to the boat to quickly feed the locals ...

The Christie Hospital in Manchester is such an amazing place ... treating thousands and thousands of patients a year, so I decided to go and do some fund raising for them.  Ray from NB Ferndale said he would like to come with me. 

So today we drove to The Manchester United football ground, grabbed our buckets and tee shirts and joined about 40 other volunteers.  We shouted ourselves hoarse trying to get the incoming crowd of supporters to donate their loose change to a worthy cause!  We spent about two and a half hours there and collected 245 quid between us!

Not a bad result !

Social Merry Go Round!

Yesterday we went up to Manchester to meet up with Elaine's surgeon for the follow up chat after her op, it was all good news. 

 We arrived back at Stone just in time to catch up with Elaine's sister and her hubby who had popped up from Kent on a lightning trip to see Elaine.

It was a bloody awful wet night but nothing could stop us from going to The Exchange for a drink.  I introduced Paul to the Titanic real ale range - he reckons that the 'Steerage' was the nicest ale he had ever tasted.

We then went to an Italian restaurant for a very nice dinner, the only downside being the very over attentive waiter who had the most appalling BO!

This morning Paul and Julie came to the boat where we had a long chat before heading off to The Hollybush at Seighford for a late lunch. It was an amazing pub - it seems that it was going to close down so the villagers bought it and the Titanic Brewery run it. 

After a late lunch Paul and Julie headed off back down the very busy M6 to Kent.

before we went back to the boat we headed off to meet 'The Aston Marina hardcore boaters' who were having early doors at the Exchange!

Bombo crashed out on Sue as he had been up all day and was getting weary ...

Sammie was also feeling a bit tired from the pub crawl ...

Poor boys ...

It was a very funny afternoon with a most amazing bunch of people.

Diane got very friendly with this poor banana!!!! 

Birthday Girl

Today is Elaine's birthday - we were going to do lunch but the weather is so atrocious she didn't fancy going out in it.

She had a lot of cards and internet e-cards and greetings but the ultimate birthday card came from the Prime Minister and his missus ... apparently he follows the blog!  Who would have thought :)

Sue from Nb Festina Lente bought her a lovely daffodil plant, plus lots of old English sweeties ...

They were presented in a dog neck cone (wound healing neck protector) ... this is to stop Elaine gnawing at her stitches!  Seems to be working well!

As we missed out on lunch we planned to go out for dinner, but the weather was still absolutely appalling, so I nipped down and got a yummy Thai takeaway.  I managed a swift one in The Swan whilst waiting for the takeaway!

Random-Acts-of-Kindness-Day

We are trying to go bed earlier these nights to make more of the next day ... we are slowly getting there - we made it to bed at midnight last night!

RAK number 1:  Ray and Diane bought me a bottle of Man Flu mixture, as they know at this difficult time I cannot be laid up with the worst disease known to mankind!

RAK number 2:  On our way out to Stone this afternoon we dropped by Ray and Diane's boat NB Ferndale for a cup of tea and yummy Tim Tams, then Diane stabbed Elaine with a 'kin great needle! Actually it isn't too big, but she has to have a jab every day for a month to reduce the chance of a blood clot after her surgery.

RAK number 3:  We drove down to Stone and found a nice parking spot quite close by.  As we were walking up the road the traffic warden was putting tickets on some cars - he nicely told me that where I was parked had now turned into a school pick up zone and asked if I would like to move the car across the road, so I didn't get a ticket.  Nice chap, could have just let me walk away.

RAK number 4:  Next we had to go and see a solicitor to get a couple of certified copies of our passport for some business back in Oz.  No probs ... he photocopied the passports, stamped and signed them for us.  However, upon asking how much we owed him he said "nothing"!!  A solicitor that doesn't charge!  Another nice chap.

Then I stealthily crept away and bought a card for Elaine as it's her birthday tomorrow.  I couldn't find her a present, but I bought a book for myself!  

We were thinking that we didn't have to go to Manchester for about three weeks but the Surgeon's secretary rang today to summon us back there this Thursday instead.  Oh well. up the M6 again.

Milestone!

As you can see the "keep the dogs off the war-wound box"  fitted a treat last night!

So Bombo crawled up the side and sat on her head instead!

Today being Monday it was the usual get together at the cedar huts for afternoon tea and drinks.  Last week it was Australia Day, this week it was St Piran's day, being the national day of Cornwall. The trouble is, I have just googled St Piran's day (I do like the blog to be accurate) and apparently it is on 5th March so I will have to check with our Cornish contingent on the marina to find out why we are a month early!

Any way back to business, any excuse for a drink.

As you can see Elaine made the trip to the huts today!  She was well wrapped up, plus had a hot water bottle as the huts have no heating.  Diane (NB Ferndale) brought along a bundle of blankets and she was soon cocooned in them, so she was well cosy!

The food today was a gastronomic delight with Dot's Cornish pasties, which were superb - the best pasty I have ever tasted in fact!  Sue brought along her world famous,yummy flatbreads, Joan brought scones, Bev brought cheesecake and Diane made some Nigella-Lawson-inspired salty chocolate slice, with a line of coke on the side.

I bought some meatballs from Aldi....I've been busy, OK?!

   

Gordon was flashing his Cornish rugby top ...

Next week it is going to be a Curry Monday!

Sammie enjoyed having his back scratched ...

We also found out that there are a lot of Aquarians on the marina. We had five rounds of Happy Birthdays - to Elaine, Ray. Joan, Bev and myself!

Before I get to the title of the blog, a special mention to Diane from NB Ferndale ... not only has she been walking the dogs whilst we have been going back and forwards to Manchester, she also has volunteered to be Elaine's personal nurse and has offered to give her a daily heparin injection (for the next 21 days).   I should add that Diane has thirty years of nursing experience.  I can't make out why Elaine doesn't want me to do it!    

Milestone

Yesterday the  pageview meter clicked over 200,000!

I find it amazing and humbling that people take time out to read this blog.  When I started it back in March 2011 it was intended to be a daily, albeit public diary for friends and family to see where we were and what we were up to ... now we have a world wide audience!

It has always been a very much tongue in cheek blog on narrowboating, but sometimes, well most times, the narrowboat link is very tenuous!  How much boaty stuff can you talk about when you are stuck in a marina for months on end?!

I will end by saying that I really enjoy writing the daily drivel and thank Elaine for correcting my spelling, grammar and punctuation like waht she doz!

Thank you all for reading!  

Home Sweet Home

Elaine rang me this morning to say that she had been given the all clear to come home.  I sprang out of bed and once again gave the boat a going over to make it look a bit presentable.

I decided to take the motorhome again as it's more comfy than the little C3 Citroen, plus she could always go to bed if she wanted to on the way back!

By the time I arrived at the hospital they were giving her a huge bag of drugs to take home!  It was then time to take our leave with Elaine receiving lots of hugs and kisses from fellow patients and the wonderful nurses.

The M6 was pretty busy for the journey southwards ... I will miss the M6 (not) but we don't have to go back to Manchester for about another 3 weeks!

The dogs came with me to Manchester to pick up Elaine and seemed a bit non plussed by it all ... but once back onboard the boat they went a bit mental.

Bombo was very happy to have his mum back!

So that the surgery is over and after a couple of follow up appointments we should be good to go to leave the marina in April.  Actually, we are planning on leaving in the motorhome - the boat will stay here for a while.

I will leave to Elaine to write a few words, now that she is back with her pack

Hi Everyone !  El here ...

Thank you so much for all your messages and e-messages - goodness, they kept me busy!  The Nurses kept bringing me wads of paper in brown envelopes ... I think they wondered what was going on !  It was so lovely to receive them all ... thanks so much - I felt the lurv !!!

Well, all is good with me - I am sitting comfortably tonight in my little slice of heaven I call Narrowboat Caxton with all my boys!  I've got Paul the slave boy working hard too, so what more could I ask for?!  (Oh yeah, a bath!)

I just wanted to say that I have been treated amazingly (by the NHS) for the whole of this journey in several areas of the country!  I should just add that I do have a background in the medical / health industry and more recently in the natural health industry (UK, Middle East and Oz) , so I reckon I am pretty qualified to say that the medical staff I have encountered do exactly what they can within their remit but are also happy to listen to patient's needs / requests also - and, as such, have worked with me for my treatments, never against me.  I have, of course, been helping myself with safe, natural remedies along the way - but that is my area of expertise and my choice, so I would never expect the mainstream medical staff to know where to go with it - they have way too much work to deal with!

I was a little saddened during my stay in hospital though to hear people's many and various stories but more so that the majority of them didn't want to get involved in their treatments and handed it completely over to the docs ... to the extent that many of the people I spoke to weren't even sure why they were having the treatment / operations they were having ... they really didn't want to know.  Sad, but interesting.

Anyway, that is my little bit over.  I have enjoyed one of Paul's amazing omelettes since I have been home ... which was exactly what the doctor ordered!!  (I have also had a slice of vegetarian sausage roll passed through the side hatch by our next-boat neighbour Joan and the promise of a veggie pastie tomorrow from Dot ... yummo !)  I am sooo thankful for all my family, friends and support I've had and ... I will finish now ... (I know, too much morphine this week!!!) ... just want to say that our Boaty mates are wonderful people!  OK - that's my lot for now !