From ian.cardinal@lichfield.anglican.org Fri Nov 5 13:43:08 1999 Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1999 13:16:26 -0000 From: Ian Cardinal To: george@adiva.com Subject: Part 3 [ The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set. ] [ Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set. ] [ Some characters may be displayed incorrectly. ] Wednesday 4th We were awake early with a misty sun trying to push its way through the clouds. That sounds romantic, doesn't it? Rather less so is the reason we were awake early. Paul (one of our Kid's friends) arrived in the front cabin with a strange & set look on his face: "I think I'm going to be sick" he said. Blearily I suggested he tried the side doors to lean out of, but -----oops, he didn't make it. Being rather squeamish myself, Steph looked after him, though I ended up mopping the kitchen floor, emptying bowls etc. I'm sure I don't look my best wearing a pair of boxer shorts, leaning over the side emptying sick buckets before 7am!! Paul staggered back & slept some more, but Steph and I - didn't. We decided to get up and shower - bingo, the water was hot this time! 5 of us had breakfast about 8.45am and then Paul got up - to be sick again. There must be something about Shardlow - no. 1 daughter was sick there the last time we moored. What to do about Paul seemed a major consideration for the rest of the day. But the Sun was shining brightly as we left Shardlow & locked out on to the Trent that morning. A beautiful cruise under the M1 and a stop at Sawley Marina where I purchased a new Windlass for myself. The revolving sleeve had finally worn out on my old one, but I had owned it since 1975. Paul was distinctly wobbly, but not heaving his heart out any more. At this point he started talking about going home. How to get him there was the next consideration. Charlotte (no.2 daughter) refused to come out the cabin at Sawley locks after our experience with the keeper on Tuesday - but it wasn't the same man. This one was cheerful and friendly as he locked us and a Peter le Marchant Trust boat down. These boats are wide beam and set up for the "physically challenged" to be PC about it. I think they must be some kind of Christian trust - they certainly bear the fish logo on the boats. So down river and passing Trent lock we circled up and into the Soar again - home ground for us as we have been so often with Sileby Mill. The weather was so glorious I had my shirt off by now - and still have the brown shoulders to prove it. After all, they say Sun is good now, don't they? Seriously, don't you get tired of the rapid changing of Scientists minds on these sorts of things? One thing we noticed during these few days was the number of working boats. Has there been a rally of some kind? No end of times we were passing a "pair" breasted up. And as we locked through Radcliffe and Kegworth locks we spotted some more again. Some of them looked distinctly "new age travellers" but as Steph always reminds me, with my own set of bodily adornments they probably think I'm a kindred spirit, not a terribly nice and respectable Church of England Vicar, hah hah! Via mobile phone, Paul had managed to make contact with his parents who were going to meet us at Zouch lock at 6pm to take him home. This was a sad relief:- he really wasn't well, though was beginning to recover, and at least we were avoiding taxis and Steph having to drive him home, which was option 2. We arrived early at Zouch and twiddled our thumbs. Eventually we decided that a "cheering up meal" would be acceptable, so moved "Millstream" to the moorings outside the Rose and Crown there. It looked awfully shut up, despite notices saying open all day. Bit tatty too, if truth is told. The fallback position was to move on to Normanton if it didn't work out. Paul's parents arrived and took him away, and the lights went on in the pub. @ 6pm we went in & ordered a meal - which was truly excellent. Good food, good price I could recommend it to anyone passing by. We used to pass this pub on the road regularly, but had never really looked in. Believe the Nicholson's - it's good. A gentle cruise on till about 9pm took us to Bishop's Meadow lock & we stopped there for the night. Sorry to loose Paul, but the three kids were still enjoying themselves -- Ian Cardinal (aka Norman the Narrowboat)