Faith - the atheists disadvantage

Sorry if these posts are a bit deep... but they are what's in my head. 

The above statement is inpart owned by Stephen Fry who said ( it may have been on desert island disks  - my go to driving and cleaning podcast favourite) as an atheist he had to live his best and fullest life while alive as he like me believes there is no afterlife and when you are dead - end of... nothing, like those times you go to sleep and do not dream, you are not aware or conscious at all - thats how I see death, a very final act. 

So I was walking the other day thinking things as you do and I reflected on how lucky you are if you have a faith. I always said I'd revert back to the church when I got older as I may well need comfort that the afterlife may bring but is removed from me being an atheist. Now that's like backing the best team in the league because they always win despite living in a football town of losers... not really on and not something I can convince myself about - even now. 

I am 'Church of England' and if I'm honest did like to hear the bible stories when we went to chapel every Wednesday at College Primary School, Great Northern Road in Derby ( sadly now a housing estate). I also liked the hymns and the sermons. But try as I might Jesus, buda Allah is absent from my life. I do have a bible which I intend to start reading as one thing I do 'think' is that the bible is a book written to help steer people to being good, sometime by positive role models and sometime out of fear !!

So when I reflect on a few peoples comments "You are always out and about" "Always doing something" "You have so many holidays" etc etc.... that's because I have to, I can't cheat the privilege I've been given/earnt.

So until I get faith if ever.... I like Mr Fry will have to live life to the full.... which to be honest isn't all bad.

Right  - got to plan those 2022 trips and yes I'll update soon on Percy's Donk, which in the spirit of the positive, at least I have a good idea what the problem is .... but as to how many motorbike tokens  (££££) it'll take to fix it... to be decided  !

Depressed in November

Take your pick for other words to use to describe  November - the clocks going back, crap weather etc etc etc they add up to making me  how I feel about this time of year.

It used to get me every year - low mood I think the doctors called it - otherwise known as depression. In the past I've taken St. John's Wort tablets - basically a herbal antidepressant but they are bloody addictive and a bugger to come off in spring.  I used  St Johns wort tea bags when I was living on the boat as a half way house  - Since retiring I've been clear of it but this year for reasons I can't nail down its got into my head and won't leave. 

I will evict 'it' and I won't be at the doctors or health shop taking pills (might go for tea bags) for it either. I've prescribed a high dose of daylight and aching muscles that will be the outcome of increased fitness I'll pursue.  I'm also off alcohol in the main. Just not fancying it at the moment. I still have a glass of red wine occasionally but not as much as I used to drink. 

I'm posting this because I need to look back on it and prove it was a 'thing' not something that owned me for any degree of time. I am also posting it as I know others suffer and sharing is good. 

So looking forward to bogging November off but at the same time I'm in no hurry to wish my life away ...Keep smiling and I hope this reflection has not brought you down in any way.

More water to walk next to

My focus for the remainder of 2021 and into 2022 while boating is limited due to engine checks etc is my fitness. I know you are not going to believe this but I'm 60 FFS next year. I won't do 60 very well so be warned family and friends.

My good friend Graham who does not do social media  - we were apprentices together in the Print industry in the 70's. As an aside  - Yes I am a time served ( 4 years) journeyman printer. A craft/skill that is less in need now due to those pesky computers. but in the day it took 4 years to hone the crafts to be a lithographic/letterpress/ gravure printer. 

Anyhow we fish together and walk together and seem to be able to talk about stuff most of the time without repeating ourselves - or if we do we politely not remind each other we've heard the stories before! 

So the other week we set the world to right and tried to reset my pending November SAD with a refreshing eight and a half mile walk around Carsington reservoir.

For the record really as in another post pending I'll update on Percy and plans for 2022 and a raft of other observations and markers to what I've been doing for my dotage reflections  !!

On returning home and having food I then got my ( electric) bike out and did a Morrisons shop in Cheadle - a 10 mile round trip as I choose different ways to go out and back.

Grindley brook staircase and other destinations

Percy is in disgrace bobbing around in her new home Great Haywood marina waiting for a visit from her engine reverse birth partner Paul Redshaw ( Tony was also present when Percy had the lister installed as opposed to removed in a normal birth - what a waste of typing that all was !) So the visit to Grindley brook staircase  on two wheels. For the diary is was a long way round 160 mile mild day of biking. Phone repair at Timpsons Asda somewhere in Newcastle Under Lyme, then some browsing not purchasing motorcycle gloves then bacon at the staircase.

We of course did the staircase when we did the Llangollen in September 2020.... happy memories.

Then it was over to Great Haywood to check Percy and pick some bits up we'd left behind.

One of the benefits of my Himalayan 'Adventure' motorcycle is I can point it up any little lane and explore so instead of the normal route from Uttoxeter to home via Alton or Ellastone ( both lovely villages) I went off piste and found this gem 

 

I took a walk around and marked it up as a future cycle destination when the weather is allowing.

A really sad bitter sweet few days

So the sweet ... We are grandparents again as Benjamin Wells arrived safely into the loving Wells family of Tom Courtney and Teddy 14th October 9.43am  Always a relief ( I always shed a tear of happiness, this time luckily no one witnessed my weeping as it was done on a walk along the edge of my valley)

I'm so proud of them all.

Then last week my youngest son and his fiance left London and their lovely two bed apartment in Greenwich to seek new challenged in the frozen north - well Buxton for now. They arrived for an overnighter with us in the cottage with a large van one of our neighbours let park on his 'yard'. Loaded said goodbye to the London life and drove 4 hours to us - an emotional and tiring day.

Next day Wed 20th October I followed the convoy of Van and car to a very upmarket Buxton postcode right next to the new Crescent hotel and overlooking the Buxton Opera house. We unloaded and set up home. 

Now the bitter(ish) I took advantage of the fact Callum had the large van and the next day he picked me up and we went to Shebdon and cleared the mooring ( Canoe gardening tools chiminea etc ) It was hard to arrive and see the mooring in its finest, sunny, boats moving, people pottering. We emptied the shed and moved twice plastic storage shed and walked it down to Mandy who gave it a good new home.

The new tenant had taken a liberty of dropping a load of slabs ready to remove some of the grass I suppose plus cut back some of the vegetation that meant I didn't have to worry about emptying the compost heap we had filled. In some ways he had done me a favor as it really did not feel like out mooring as he'd 'taken over'. So we drove off and I didn't look back.... 

Very sad but .....

.... I visited the boat a few days later to basically check it and collect  some stuff. All was ok. I'd brought a 25 meter hook up. Where we are in the marina is right at the back in the corner and the marina actually is very shallow at the back so reversing in means the rudder gets locked and there could be a risk of it being lifted out of the skeg cup. To be fair Julie and Tony offered me two alternative mooring but where we are is quiet and there is only one pontoon I'd prefer which is right opposite the entrance where we can see boats moving.... if we stay I'll see what it taked to get one of those moorings. 

Anyhow the umbilical cord connected I switched the changeover switch to generator ( I will need to change that label to 'hook up' ) then switched  the battery charger on and ..... no lights on my newly installed Galvanic isolator  - how ironic, remember this post  - click me  It was me telling you I'd installed a piece of electrical equipment I didn't need !! Batteries being charged and lights all quietly being fed mains electricity for the first time in our ownership 

So no loose current emanating from my boat's electrics ( If I've understood the thing correctly) Just so ironic that I fitted something I thought I didn't need now its earning its keep.

I took a walk around the facilities as I emptied the cassette (no more transferring full poo tanks in the back of the car post cruise)  - or rubbish, or recycling. The elsan is spotless, the showers are like new as are the loo's. The workshops seems comprehensive ( they don't do gas work but they have someone who does - we need the regulator and pig tail replacing as its quite old - picked up by the insurance survey) There may be a few issues with the T&C's that we got after signing up ! But that may not be an issue we will see. 

So for now I'm waiting for a visit from Paul Redshaw to look at the engine and check it over. In the interim I've got the gas locker to paint, the cabin to polish maybe put in a new floor in the kitchen and bathroom and maybe finish the stove in the back. All jobs technically not to be done in the marina, but we are at the back out of the way. If we get challenged we'll be off, there has to be some common sense.

Into the marina who saw that coming ?

It's funny how the universe operates .... I'm a planner by nature and as I get older I worry more and plan more. Not sure why that is, I've seen it with people older than me who seem to have to get everything 'sorted' maybe because they have the time  and the usual work distractions are not there so they replace them with other works .... or maybe it's a 'being in god's waiting room' approach to sorting affairs out subconsciously who knows. I try and fight it, it's good to plan but when anxiety rears its head then the planning is getting too involved and I have to really work hard at stepping back and seeing the bigger picture.

We (I) am incredibly lucky in what I have in all aspects of life, health, love, relationships, family income, chattels, security. I do genuinely count my blessings and they are all anchors to remind me when my imagination and planning reaches anxiety point to 'rest and be thankful'  - as an aside I've always thought that to be a great name for a boat so don't  pinch it.

Here is the actual Rest and be Thankful. 

This year on my Himalayan 

On My Honda ST1300 in 2015 

Anyhow I digress. On the way back from the Stone dry dock Percy's engine sounded different. I was once told by a mechanic the best tool you have on an engine is your ears. So I diverted into Great Haywood marina and hovered in the entrance and called in and asked if they had a berth. The ever helpful Julie had a look and sent a nice fella out - not got his name yet to help identify a free mooring and grab the bow rope to help to tie up. As can be expected right now at the height of silly season in boat usage as well as buying and selling engineers are very busy and as the family we brought the boat from are vintage diesel engineers and the same engineers Tony and Paul who put the lister into Percy, it made sense to give them a call. So we are in a queue for a visit. 

We are in no great hurry as we took the educated decision over a chicken balti and two pints of Doom Bar (me) fish and chips and ginger ale ( Rachel) to relocate our mooring from Shebdon to Great Haywood. A little surprise to us and possibly those readers hardy enough to have been around a while as we have been on line moorers since we've owned boats 14 years - all three of them. 

For the majority of that time we used the boat(s) as our country cottage as we were living in a city suburb. A trip to the boat was an escape to the country and we didn't move the boat just stayed aboard in countryside. Now we live 365 days a year in that countryside so the visits to the boat to just get a rural fix are redundant. We decided in the Clifford arms that marina life ( albeit more expensive but with other fringe benefits) was the logical thing to opt for - especially as we were waiting for the engine to be checked and if work is needed might see us the wrong side of months of stoppages on the Staffs and Worcester. A hard but reasonable decision made all the easier as were were within a few weeks of the end of our current mooring contract at Shebdon.

So no more Shebdon but more Great Haywood. Will we miss Shebdon, a little but we've been there three years already. Great Haywood gives us still the four counties option plus the nice top end of the Staffs and Worcester. It also puts us a day away from the Coventry and all points south plus the nice stretch of the Trent Vale to Stone. Finally we are closer to the boat for checks and works. So sad but practical and a little bit exciting all the same.

Final bit of logical planning was within the week we will have, all being well, another grandson plus our youngest and his fiance will be moving back north from their raid on London's property and jobs market. 

Exciting changing times - a challenge to reign in my levels of anxiety but a world of new challenges and opportunities - life is so fleetingly short so grab every last chance for change and grab all experiences.

So the sun sets on our time at Shebdon 

Ready for the off

It'll be a solo run back over 4 days all being well. It might be a non starter due to my poor resourcing. I fitted the last Greasomatic see here Click Me  September last year  and didn't order more. I have ordered three now for the future and they should be delivered tomorrow so plan B is moor up somewhere and keep an eye on the bilge. I'm sure it will be fine as the existing one has 20% grease left.  

Finished the gloss black on the rear rubbing strake today .... not my best work but lessons learnt for next time. I had to start early and go back ( benefit of using Stone ) to fit the three rear fenders after the paint had dried as tomorrow it'll be us arrive 8.15 dock flooded 8.45 ( could be earlier). Rachel is taking me down but only locking me through the two Stone locks as she has commitments this week  - and we have a imminent arrival of a grandson so we need the boat back asap and to be around to help as and when. Plus other son is moving back from London so one or both of us are needed Saturday to help a partial move. 

Busy times....

A footnote .... the facilities and staff at Stone boat yard are very good. They are busy which is good, shame they could not fit me in for a bit of gas work needed ( not critical) but the insurance surveyor picked up the gas regulator and pig tail were old and could do with replacing. Might have to see what Norbury will charge. If we decide to self black the boat again we will be back here for sure.