With salmonella. Picked the car up. Looks like someone has run into it. Greg, the owner of forge farm, where I moored th boat whilst I was away left a note on my car before I left. Aparently one of his workers has some information about it. I’ll be following that u when I don’t feel so ill.

It has a small dent on the offside rear wheel arch.

The boat

Is fine. A little more condensation on the windows, otherwise exactly the same as when I left it.

I spent a couple of nights at forge farm before moving down off onto the network.

Easter blues

Or so it seems on the canal network. It’s Saturday of the long weekend and they’re having to restrict the locks by the afternoon. This is due to lack of water. I had to move the boat down for the same reason, it was sideways and the water wouldn’t empty out of the bath and draws were falling open.

I’m not much of a fussy boater, but this is one of the things that really fucks me off. Probably one of the reasons I didn’t stick around on the Kennet and Avon. Having your whole world view rotated by 30°, used to piss me off. Now it’s something I can really do without.

Anyways, come 8am Saturday morning, the boat was sideways, even though I’d pushed it off a ledge further out into the channel the night before.

As the boats started coming through, the levels started dropping and the boat leaned more, so I had no option but to move it right down to the lock landing. There was just enough to allow for boats to get in and out of the lock. The water was deep enough so it wasn’t continuously grounding itself.

That’s where I am now. Here’s a picture.

Recovery

From this salmonella seems to be taking a long time. I’ve been into the pharmacy and contacted the 111. All a waste of time. Better off just going with the advice from the health sites on the internet. They, including the NHS online, said ‘leave it alone, it will go away on it’s own’. Advice I was perfectly happy to stick with. By the time I actually got to talk to someone who knew what he was talking about, he said exactly the same thing.

So here I am on day 5. It’s cleared up.

New computer

My old computer had a bit of a mishap with a smashed screen. It’s taken some time, but whilst I was away, I sent it off for someone to have a look at.

Look at it they did. Fixed, it can’t be, (as Yoda would say). In this eventuality, I’ve been given a bit of money to buy a new one!

Next week, we’re going to have a quick look at it, and what it can do.