Narrowboat Alacrity

My favorite slippers are no more………………………….

Jo had bought them for me at Christmas, very expensive and oh so comfortable a Rolls Royce of slippers……………

Having had quite a hard day at work and had eaten more than was probably good for me at dinner, forty winks were in order. Kicking off my slippers I settled down for a doze on the sofa. I can’t have been asleep for more than ten minutes when something woke me, reaching down to put my slippers on I noticed that one was darker than the other…………wet in fact…………. Jo mentioned that she had seen Katie (one of our cats) in the room for a few moments…………normally she puts her head in one slipper and goes to sleep, (Jo says it’s the smell that knocks her out) but what made her pee in one God only knows????

When I looked out of the kitchen window this morning it looked like the garden was covered in white blossom except it wasn’t blossom……………..on closer inspection it was feathers, almost as if someone had emptied a pillow out.

Then I saw it………………….. do you remember the film About a Boy starring Hugh Grant, the scene where the boy had tried to feed a duck with his mum’s homemade bread and killed it, the duck was floating upside down in the lake………….well it wasn’t a duck it was very fat Wood Pigeon floating feet up minus most of it’s feathers in my garden pond.

A quick spanish inquesition followed with my two cats Rosie and Katie both denying all knowledge and blaming the moggie next door.

I must admit they are getting old and lack the killer instinct spending most of their time indoors, but then i’m biased……

I didn’t need the alarm clock today………..as soon as I awoke I felt like a greyhound when the trap opens……..

I had done the shopping for the weekend yesterday so all I had to do was put it in the cool bag, put the cats on their automatic feeders and go………..not so quick John……..Ah yes I forgot about SWIMBO….need I say more. Groan………………pack, tidy up wipe this, wipe that, have you done……………………………..you know how it goes.

 Well finaly we arrived ……Just looking at the moored boats, The sounds and smells are a panacea to the battered brain…….

Not having visited Alacrity for a couple of months I expected to find her damp….not so, But she was full of spiders who took umbrage at being disturbed. They were abseiling out of the curtains and assorted corners for hours much to Jo’s disgust (she really hates spiders) so the air was rent with squeeks and other sounds of loathing.

We planned to take Alacrity out and decided to take her over to the Loading dock to fill her water tank and get some gas.

Talking to Paul from the Marina he said that this was the busiest weekend of the year so far and that due to the bad weather most owners were just starting the season.

Now for the smelly bit, we moved around to the pump out and found Nineveh waiting for a mooring to go on brokerage. With all the chores complete we moved off.

Piccadilly Circus or what Iv’e never seen so many boats on the move and everybody happy. We slowly motored down to Braunston Turn and turned left for Napton and Warwick we had decided not to go far and moored just after bridge 101.

Well having just picked up the cats, done the shopping and visited Vi (my mother-in-law) I decided it was time to update the blog.

Whilst I was away I had read a few books on Linux (alternative computer operating system) I had sort of decided to try Ubuntu a variation of Linux, Having downloaded the programme I decided to load it.

It loaded like a dream and recognised all my hardware it even went on to start downloading the updates……………….Phutt…………….Sod all happened…..ok ok so I should have left well alone, But as you all know I never learn……..The upshot is that the power supply has gone faulty and yes its £89.00 to replace.

So while waiting for it to arrive I’ll have to use my laptop………………

With holidays looming I was just checking the cats vaccination certificates and found that Katie was due for her booster, I dutifully booked her in to the vets………………..

Katie is a small cat, and has been ever since we got her from the Woodgreen Animal Shelter she is active and eats like a horse.

The vet prodded and poked her and said “shes lost some weight since you were last here” I explained that she was always small “mmm we had better do some tests they won’t take long” said the vet and rattled off something that was out of the script of Holby City with a price tag that would feed a third world country.

The vet told me to wait in the waiting room and they would get a blood sample and give Katie her booster.

That’s what she thought…………………..a yowl rent the air……..  it sounded like Katie was objecting to giving blood, normally she doesn’t make any noise unless she’s killing her stuffed mouse.

The vet appeared a mite dishevelled and bloody  ”she’s a bit feisty, can you give us an hour to calm her down and take the sample”……………………………….

An hour later I went back to pick Katie up…………. well the vet looked worse than Katie ” we got a blood sample but we haven’t given her her booster yet she’s too upset”……………”Upset” looking at Katie sat quietly in her basket having a wash………….no you don’t say……..

Leaving the vets with a smug cat and the “Call us on Monday for the results” ringing in my ear. and a wallet £76 lighter and still no booster……………

Groundhog Day………………

My Blog may be all over the place at the moment as I’m playing around with Plugins and learning more about Wordpress  trying to make the blog more mine so please bear with me.

Today the SWMBO decided to spring clean “Take Cover” The cats, fur ruffled shot out the cat flap, me being more rotund wouldn’t fit through so I was captured…………….what I had realy wanted to do was work some more on mastering Wordpress. This was not to be………………

So I was put to work de-scaling the shower head and spraying something toxic into the oven that was reputed to be the holy grail of cleaners, as I was coughing and spluttering the cats sneaked back and did what they do best and bagged the warmest place the in the conservatory and were instantly asleep.

Rosie (on the left) is 15 and Katie (on the right) is 13 both came from the Woodgreen Animal Shelter at Godmanchester near Cambridge.

Don’t let the picture deceive you although they look as if butter wouldn’t melt they are a pair of con artists and whoever said that “Dogs have Masters and Cats have Servants” was very right.

Well having earned enough “Brownie Points” I have escaped to the study (posh name for the small bedroom) to continue to try and wreak havock on my blog.