Retirement with No Problem

Today Moored St Neots
Weekend Godmanchester to St Neots, River Great Ouse, 9 miles 3 locks

We had some real blustery showers this weekend and had a couple of soakings too.  It seemed each time we moored the heavens opened, but we were delighted to have our pram canopy AKA ‘Wigwam for Whimps’… well I don’t mind being called a whimp.. in fact I am getting quite a collection of names now!!  Water Gypsie, Whimp… I wonder what other name I will be picking up this year!!

Anyway, poor Chas on NB Moore2Life was banging in his mooring pin with his hammer when it went flying out of his by now soaking hand at Godmanchester and splash, straight into the river.. After the rain stopped we tried to get it, but it was deep and even trying to fetch it out with a boathook was useless.

In the meantime another narrowboat had moored right over the said hammer.. but chatting away to them about this and that, and mentioning the hammer on the bottom of the river bed, out he came with one of those sea searchers.. a very strong magnet.  I have heard of them, but never seen one in action.. I was absolutely amazed!!  Down it went into the weeds and up it came with the hammer!!

What amazed me even more was the way that this chap was trying to prize the magnet off the hammer!!!

I got straight onto google and ordered one… not at £25 that they normally are in the chandlers, but at £18 odd here to St Neots Post Office.

Stopped on Saturday evening on the delightful GOBA moorings by Brampton Mill…

Just on the right of this pic. 

So today we went off to Oxford to see Vic’s specialist after having been back for tests previously, this was the day that the docs would be making decisions about what to do with Vics legs.  Well he does have a blocked artery.. but all is not lost because his body has done it’s own bypass of the blockage, and is using a mass of tiny veins to get around it quite adequately, and they are improving all the time and getting stronger….  I won’t go into all the techno details, but they have decided that they will not do a surgical bypass of the blockage, but let the body do it itself.  There is an added risk that if they did a surgical bypass, it might not work, and that could mean a loss of the limb..

So they want Vic to exercise more and diet a little… well stopping smoking always puts weight on, hey don’t I know it too!.. So I will be looking at an exercise routine for Vic to make his legs stronger and a diet for us both to take off a few pounds!

They don’t want to see Vic anymore at Oxford unless things take a change for the worst, but they are expecting it all to be plus, plus and plus again for the future for him. 

Right now I am knackered… but we had a good weekend all in all.. and I am a very happy person tonight..