A nothing sort of a day….

North Oxford – Braunston to Rugby

A warm, cloudy and very humid day today.  We set off for Hillmorton under threatening skies, and that’s how it’s stayed all day.  Since yesterday evening actually, when the clouds darkened and a storm threatened, but didn’t actually happen.

Storm clouds approaching yesterday evening

The locks at Hillmorton were much quieter than normal, we met only 2 boats going the other way, and, because of that we were down the three locks in record time as there was always one of the paired locks ready for us

Paired top locks at Hillmorton

The skies were getting increasingly dark by now and we knew the forecast rain wouldn’t be long in arriving, so instead of continuing on to Tesco’s, doing some shopping and then having to go on in the rain until we found a mooring, we decided to moor by the golf course just outside Rugby and sit out the rain until tomorrow morning.  We will have to move then, even if it’s still wet as we need to get to Hawkesbury Juction hopefully tomorrow or by Thursday morning at the latest because by then we will be getting pretty desperate to empty loo cassettes!  It’s been raining quite heavily on and off since lunch time, so I thought I’d try out my new baby, and I’m in love!!!!

My new baby is a Baby Dyson!  I’ve always hated ‘cylinder’ vacuum cleaners (which is what we had), it takes as long to put them together as it does to do the job, and then they don’t do the job very well!  Consequently, the floors on the boat didn’t get vacuumed as often as they should have.  I’ve used a Dyson at home ever since they first became available – Cassie’s (and previous dogs) constant moulting means we need a good vacuum cleaner, and I’ve always been pleased with the job they do.  We went and looked at the new Baby version with the fold down handle, and decided that we should have one.  Not cheap, but we thought that if it got used more often and prevented us from wading ankle deep through Cassie’s tumbleweed it would be well worth it.  It does the job in half the time, and actually picks up the dog hair from our rug, which was a nightmare to get clean before. As with all upright Dysons, the handle detaches and the hose pulls out from the back, making it very simple to vacuum the edges where the brush doesn’t quite reach. The handle pushes down into the hose at the back, so it fits very easily into our storage cupboard, and the ‘ball technology’ makes it really easy to manoeuvre.  So that’s why I’m in love – anything that makes cleaning easier gets my vote!

Ready to use

Ready to put away

7.5 miles and 3 locks