Wednesday 1 April 2015

Jobsworth at Polesworth; the Tardis lands in Atherstone

There we were, gongoozling at some road workers resurfacing Polesworth's high street, when a jobsworth foreman suddenly came from nowhere and started haranguing me for looking at "his" men. "Stop interfering. The government is paying for them and they don't like being watched" is what he said, in a very unpleasant manner. We were flabbergasted. I tried explaining that we were not "interfering" but it made no difference. He merely repeated his diatribe. Of course, afterwards I thought of a few things I could have said - not that they would have made any difference - but, at the time, we were speechless. As we walked away we bumped into an Ocado man sympathising, and saying that in a few moments he would have to wheel his trolley across their precious tarmac to make some deliveries.

The day started much better, passing Clemency waiting for the crane that would come today ending six weeks of living in the air. This was followed by a reasonably uneventful cruise to Atherstone, where Doctor Who has touched down.

Close inspection reveals a St. John Ambulance poster on the Tardis. Perhaps the Doctor has taken up some voluntary work ...

At the top lock we emptied what needed emptying and filled what needed filling before setting off down the flight in the wind and rain (what a surprise). Actually the sun came out for a time, but the rain reappeared before the bottom. There was plenty of traffic coming towards us, and every lock was in our favour or had a boat just coming up. I made sure to use the side pond at the middle lock, naturally.

Here is Jan steering Jubilee towards Lock 10.

A little further on we passed a Black Prince hire boat pinned to the bank by the wind. When I'd got past the next bend - and therefore heading into the wind - I tied up and was just about to go back to help them when I saw that they'd got away.

At Polesworth we pulled in to the visitor moorings by the Bull's Head, walked round the town (village?) and ate on board. Average pint of Doom Bar in the Bull's Head. We'll be back on Saturday as this is where the Boaters' Christian Fellowship Easter Cruise will end up (we're on our way to join the cruise which starts from Glascote tomorrow).

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