Memories

At last I am allowed to have a say on this computer while the Skipper is away … yet again.  At least I hope to make a better job of it than him, who doesn’t check through what he’s written in the blog and therefore makes silly typographical errors, to be corrected only by observant commentators. I ask you…. How slap dash can he get?

Of course he’s away visiting the other boat right now.

I knew this would happen as soon as I learnt we were to be joined by another boat for the whole of this summer! Off goes the silly Old Man, yet again thinking he’s twenty one chasing a bit of skirt.

I don’t see anywhere near as much of him as I used to. The favourite thing at the moment is as soon as they tie up, off they go for a walk together. Aaahhh ain’t that sweet. While I’m left all on my own for a couple of hours!

And I do get so lonely for the old days.

But this morning our party arrived at Great Haywood and I was pleased to see that ‘Roots and Wings’ tied up well below the lock in the country stretch well out of the way by Shugborough Hall, whereas the Skipper took me through the lock by the little café and we moored about halfway between it and the Junction.

The weather was very fine with a cloudless sky all the way, which makes a change from the overcast dreary lot we’ve been having for a long time now. It was so warm too and my roof was shimmering in the reflected heat. Even the Skipper wore a tee-shirt ….

and his shorts would you believe?

No wonder all the wildlife was scared away.

Anyway I was about to say that Great Haywood has many memories for me. I’ve visited here quite a few times not only with the Skipper but with my previous skippers  Ian and Linda, when my name was ‘JP2’, and it was here that they left me, up for sale just over three years ago.

That was a sad occasion.

And it was here that the present Skipper saw me for the first time forlornly on a very cold January day in 2009. The snow was deep and the canal was covered in ice as I watched him trudge slowly along the frozen towpath. He always tells everybody that it was at that moment that he fell in love with me.

Aaahhh bless him! He does have his good moments sometimes.

And it was in the marina here that he had me surveyed, blacked and painted overall the same year with my new name ‘Futurest’ in the big panel. I didn’t like it at first and I was glad that the Skipper left my old name painted on as well, so that my old friends would still remember me. But I like the new name now …. It’s kind of grown on me.

But I’m not very well still, you know….

My new fan belt that was fitted at Burton is now slipping on my flywheel and causing a great screaming noise. And no adjustment plate was fitted as the fan belt wasn’t quite long enough so the Skipper can’t adjust it himself.

Also ever since Claydon Locks I’ve not had a bow fender, which has made my nose a bit vulnerable, though I have to say that The Skipper has done his best quite successfully to avoid me banging against lock gates and other things.

So he walked along to the marina today and booked me in for a week tomorrow. In between I expect I shall be left on my own again while he and Janis swan off together on various jaunts.

It really isn’t fair!