Friday 12th February

I am really getting thin on the ground for news. The canal is still frozen so movement on the canal is sparse – not even the occasional narrowboat passing to get to the water supply and Elsan. We were surprised to see that the swan had not moved from her position on the ice since the previous evening and when at last she did skate away, she left her imprint on the ice which you can just make out in the photo.

I have been asked to do a talk at church on ‘the pain of rejection’ so I spent a couple of hours thinking about the subject and jotting down ideas. I normally write on a laptop but in the absence of that I either will write it out by hand or type it with one finger into my phone, just as I do with the blog. It really is very slow! We are waiting for the ice to melt so that we can move to the Marina, which is also next to the nearest laundrette. Our pile of dirty clothes grows larger by the day. Reminds me of an obituary I read recently of a journalist called Katherine Whitehorn who was the first female journalist employed by The Observer. She obtained notoriety in the 50s by calling herself a slut and not for the usual reason – she was referring to the fact that sometimes she was so disorganised that she ran out of clothes and had to resort to rummaging through the laundry basket using the sniff test to find the cleanest dirty thing to put on! We are not far off that on the boat I sometimes feel. Certainly if the weather forces us to stay put until Monday we will be running short of a few bits and pieces!

Our exercise today took in the small Sainsbury’s at Dobbies garden centre and then I went into Aldi whilst R waited patiently outside in the cold. However hard I try I just can’t rush Aldi – I think its the excitement of the middle aisles just not knowing what you may find! Heart shaped crumpets and heart shaped pasta coupled with a bottle of bubbly means we can celebrate Valentines Day in style, although I haven’t got R a card. Not much else on tomorrow – I can always make one!! I was also tickled to get a bottle of Gin called ‘Quick’. Sadly missing the ‘e’ but enough to remind me of a good friend with a similar name. When I came out the shop R had a rucksack full of coal which he had spied outside Iceland and had purchased whilst I had taken my time in Aldi. I had little sympathy for him having to carry it home as I had kept suggesting we get more sacks so as not to risk running short when the bad weather sets in. The passing fuel boat means coal is delivered to the door, or prow as they say, and it was recommended we purchase a lot of bags back in December! Now the ice is here it will be a while before a fuel boat passes but all is not lost as we should be able to stock up in the Marina.

The regular Friday afternoon Zoom call got us wondering if we could do a wine tasting together whilst apart. The challenge would be getting hold of the same bottles since geographically we are spread out with differing supermarkets. Amazon locker is an option for us, those yellow metal boxes you see often outside filling stations and I did see them at Dobbies today, but too late for us to make use of. Eyebrows may be raised if we ask for a delivery direct to the Marina. After all, a wine tasting calls for quite a few bottles. On rereading this I am beginning to think it not such a good idea with only 2 participants for all that wine. Especially with the season of Lent coming up. I did suggest to R we gave up alcohol but that did not go down well – his regular whisky is a big treat at the end of the day. Small pleasures I think are essential to getting us all through this latest lockdown. Am hoping he may give up the cigarillos instead. Being a weekend smoker, lines become blurred for R as every day is a Saturday! Another pleasure for some, I discovered on the Zoom, was face cream and other such lotions and potions. Again I realised how feral I am becoming on the boat. There’s only one mirror, I look in it as infrequently as possible and once I decide to go to bed I do so without delay and needless to say I slap onto my face whatever is to hand. I am sure this relaxed attitude will be evident when we next manage to see one another face to face!

We started watching the new Tom Hanks Western ‘News of the World’ which reminded R of an old John Wayne film with a similar storyline. I must say it’s a good few years since I have watched a western (in childhood I think there wasn’t much else on a Saturday afternoon apart from sport!) and this one, although good, seemed particularly long. We still have the final 40minutes to finish as my eyes just got too tired. Screen overload.