Sunday 22 February 2015

A Charging Herd of Elephants and a Return to Plan A

Sunday 22nd February 2015

Yesterday evening after checking into the hotel we just had a relaxing cuppa before we went out for dinner; after such a long drive we felt a bit tired and wanted to relax a bit.
No such bl___y chance; the noise above us was pretty much like a runaway train or at the very least a herd of charging elephants.

It was most probably just a 7-year boy running and stomping back and forth across the room. It went on for a good 10 minutes before becoming somewhat intermittent but just as noisy.

You would think that responsible parents would have had the sense to realise that since they were not on the ground floor that there was a strong possibility of someone being in the room below - I was tempted to call Children's Services at Stafford Council to advise that this child was left alone and unsupervised, but Diane tied me down before I could ring.

Anyway on our way out I did inform reception who said they would have a word.

When we returned the rug rat was quiet and the remainder of the herd were asleep.

Just a pity that this kid's bladder control wasn't a bit better - during the night there was a stomping across the room as he (I am assuming it was a boy) needed a pee - personally I would have chained him to the toilet and left him there for the night.

"Her indoors" slept through it all, having her break a bit later, and I eventually got back to slept only for the herd to have been awakened and frightened by the sound of me loading my shotgun - he was at it again just after 6am on a Sunday morning.

Definitely no chance of any more sleep, so showered and dressed and down to discuss with the night attendant - not much joy there - agreeing with someone who is annoyed is the quickest way to remove any anger.

Back upstairs and it continued intermittently; I held off on going and personally giving the parents a good whack around the ears - but I couldn't find a lump of wood to use.

After we came back from breakfast, there was peace and quiet above us; we finished packing and went down to check out - by this time the woman whom we had complained to the previous day was back on - we explained the situation and that we had not had a good night - she refunded the full amount (including the booking fee) without any problem - a sort of a result - I still would have liked to have had a quiet word in the parents ears about next time finding a suitable place to leave their progeny - I do know of a good local kennel.
In this case it really is the fault of the parents.

We are now back on the boat after Dot and Gordon picked us up and brought us back - we managed to have lunch at The Miners Arms, which was very enjoyable.



A wonderful week is now over and becoming so last week.

I will tell you one thing though - it is a lot bl___y colder today than we had last week - time for the thermals to go back on again.

Along the way this week, on hearing of problems with lock repairs being required at the Manchester end of the Rochedale Canal, which will take until the end of March, and also hearing that the breach near Sutton on the Trent and Mersey was due to open tomorrow, we have returned our plans to part of the original one that we had had a few months ago.

Rather than going down the Marple flight and through the Ashton locks into Manchester Picadilly and then onto the Rochedale - which probably would have been in mid-March - we will now just go to Bugsworth Basin and back to Bollington for next week and then head back down Bosley locks, then the Cheshire locks onto Middlewich.
After that it will be onto Anderton and spend some time on the Weaver - will need to book for the boatlift; after that it will be into Manchester via the Bridgewater - for the end of March.
Just a longer time-frame and seeing a bit more along the way as we will see the northern end of the Weaver.

Quite funny how easy it is to come up with a new plan when there is a change needed!

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