We were well and truly on our way, the Paddington Branch of the GU will be our home for the next few hours, not my favourite place in the world but a necessary evil to get where we want to be.
But the 1st March has not started well, not at all well!! I was supposed to go and visit my bestest pal Pamela today to help her celebrate her XXth birthday weekend, but instead I am stuck in bed unable to move. The exertions of the last few days have caught up with me in a big way and have completely scuppered my plans. I can barely walk and my hip feels like it has popped out of its socket!!
The whole reason for the rush through to the other side of London was to beat the forthcoming lock repair stoppages. We needed to do it before I left for Huddersfield. To delay would have meant a hefty wait whilst CART attempt to repair the locks, which from experience drags on and on. Days turn into weeks and so on. Not a risk either of us was willing to take as we are both keen to get back to the Midlands and we had Ed to help us, so it felt like now or never.
The swearing and shouting coming from our bedroom this morning would have made Roy Chubby Brown blush. I was very upset and quite distraught that I was going to have to miss my trip. Poor old Yog came into the bedroom with tea and a slide of paracetamols at one point. He got sworn at so ferociously that he didn't even attempt communication with me until I spoke to him later in the day. Poor old sod, tea and paracetamols normally works so he had run out of solutions and had no idea what to do to make things better.
By mid morning, Ed had left to go back to his daughters and pick up some things and Yog was at the tiller chugging. I was in bed looking at the ceiling.
Pamela is upset with me, Yog has run away to the tiller and I am left with just myself for company, all miserable, in pain and snivelly. All I can do is lay still, any attempt to move hurts. I am trapped in my own sad world that I have created myself and everyone I love, is either cross with me or unable to help. I am the most upset with me, my poxy body has let me down and stopped me having some well earned fun and games. Today is a 0/10.
I never envisaged that I would put my back out though and Pamela is not happy with me for damaging myself :0( I can feel it through her texts. You will know what I mean if you text your mates a lot, you can tell when they are not happy, even if they say they are OK, you look at the screen in front of you and you know things are not what they appear to be in the words before you. And I knew, Pam was not a happy bunny either. :0(
Unhappy as we both are about the situation, Ive done the damage now and have to take the consequences, and trust me its not just my back that's causing me suffering. Pamela in her own way is getting her feelings across!! We are both hacked off at me because I've broke myself.
Even now with the benefit of hind sight, I'm not sure I could have waited and travelled to Huddersfield before we set off. The thought of waiting for CART to get their act together on my return, being stuck on the Lee waiting for them to sort out the middle lock on the Hertford Union, then the Top Lock doesn't bare thinking about. Mile End Lock repairs have been going on for ages so you cant even use Lime House Cut as an alternative at the moment. So anyone wanting to travel west to the Regents is buggered for now and the near future.
I think I will watch the stoppage list and see how long it does take them as I am damn sure it will be well over a fortnight, probably nearer a month.
Todays summary reads March 1st 0/10
Travelled 8 miles, him on the tiller and me stuck on my back. Everyone mightily hacked off.
We made it to Northolt last night before stopping. By late afternoon I could just about walk and had managed to get myself to the counter so I could watch the coconuts go by for the last 30 mins or so of the days cruise. We spotted a lovely big pile of logs on the towpath and moored right next to them. A young mum with a puchchair was also there putting some of the logs into a blue ikea bag. She was going to drag them and the buggy down to the nearby marina where she was moored with her baby. We volunteered to deliver some logs to her boat the next morning to save her dragging any more down for a few days which she of course accepted. Yog cranked up the chainsaw and chopped a good few days supply for both of us. Then he came in and gave me tea and paracetamols :0)
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