The Auction, The Result

Grand Union Canal, Willen Park, 0 miles, 0 locks

Well how did the car get on?

That's my car (the black one at the top of the picture) waiting for it's fate to be decided. This picture was taken before the auction. Our car was given the best spot where everyone could see it, right beside the entrance to the Auction. 

The crowds gather, waiting for the proceedings to begin.

As the first car appeared, the auction commenced.

The chap on the podium with the microphone is the auctioneer.  He reminded me of Fred Elliott. Everything he said had to be repeated about three times, I said about three times!

Then it was the turn of my car. As I had to stand next to the auctioneer in case he needed to consult me on the vehicle, I did not get a picture. But as the bidding got close to the reserve figure, the bidding slowed right down and....fell short of the reserve, not sold. Ah well I thought, it wasn't meant to be this time. So I queued to get my keys and log book back from the auction office, ready to drive the car back to the boat. Then my phone rang. It was a number I did not recognise, when I answared it,  the call was from the car auction. And I was in their queue at the same office! Basically the person who put the last bid in wanted to buy the car. We agreed a figure (this was a little more than the final auction bid, but less than my reserve) The car was sold after all - Phew! We did not get as much as we wanted, but at least it is sold now and we can get on our way.

So, we will be on the move in the next few days. Two tunnels, one aquaduct, lots of locks, one National Waterways Museam, plus lots of surprises await us as we head off towards Oxford. We can't wait! 

Car auction day today

The Grand Union Canal, Willen Park, 0 miles, 0 locks

It's Wednesday, and that is car auction day. The weather for the occasion, well it's raining a lot. Raincoats required today!

I will attend the auction this time, and that means I will get some pictures of what goes on. The plan is I will take the car along at about 4.30pm. Fill the paperwork out, then hang around for a while until the auction starts at 6.30pm. It's supposed to take a couple of hours for the auction to take place. If I do not sell the car I will drive back, but if it sells I will get a taxi back to the boat. I don't fancy getting the two buses late at night.

Before that though, I checked the diesel tank on Brumpoolie yesterday afternoon and the diesel level is way down. I know we are not going anywhere at the moment, but we run the engine to give us electricity. So I will drive to Peartree Marina this morning, which is about 4 miles away, and fill my two barrels with diesel. They both take about 25 litres each, so this will give me 50 litres and a good top up.

The gas bottle also ran out the other day. I had a spare which I changed, so I will also need to replace this new empty bottle with a full one from Peartree Marina today. One thing I found out was when I came to change the bottle on Saturday, was I did not have a spanner to undo the large nut that connects the bottle. So I had to borrow one from Paul next door. As we went to the Car Boot sale on Sunday morning at the MK Bowl, I managed to get one there. We checked to see if it would fit on a gas bottle we spied behind a burger van. The owner spotted us with our spanner on his gas bottle and thought we were trying to pinch his gas!. We quickly explained what we were doing, and made a hasty retreat to the spanner seller.

Lynne, I'm sure will be doing her favourite pastime of cross stitch today while I am out. So, several wet and muddy walks with the dogs (v quick ones), a visit to Peartree and then the Car Auction later. Fingers crossed we can sell the car so we can finally move off on our travels.

After the auction I'll post a blog to let you know how we got on.

Car Auction, then on the move.

The Grand Union Canal, Giffard Park to Willen Park 1 mile, 0 locks.

One of our two main things to get done before we are set for the off, is selling the car. I decided to see if I could sell it at the Milton Keynes auction. The auction is based beside the site of the MK Bowl. This has been used in the past for some of the big concerts in the area such as Robbie Williams, but nowerdays it is more likely to be used for Sunday car boot sales!. The car auction is across the road in a purpose built “shed”

The Auction is held every Wednesday and Friday, so Friday’s auction is was to be for me. After sorting out the paperwork, I took the car to the auction, walked halfway back to the to the boat when it started to pour with rain. So I hopped on the first no 2 bus to Newport Pagnel, which goes past Giffard Park. If I had walked the full way back it would have been about 6 miles. I like walking…

Look at the black clouds over the Auction building, maybe this was an omen?

On Saturday I called to find out if the car had sold, but….unfortunetely it did not. Never mind. I think I put the reserve price a little high for the auction, but I do not want to give the car away. So, I will need to drop the price and enter it into Fridays Wednesday's Auction.

Saturday was a busy old day. After finding out the car did not sell at the auction, I had to get back to pick it up. A two bus journey there, a nice car drive back. The first thing I done on my return to the boat was to have a nice sausage sandwich…yummy.

Sizzling Sausages...Mmmm

After my sandwich, Paul in the next boat to us gave me a knock to say he had been to get his long hose, did I want to fill up with water? It always makes sense to when you can. So we both filled up before Paul asked for help to start his chain saw. This is used for cutting wood for the fire. If you find any suitable logs by the canal, it makes sense to grab them, then using the saw, cut them into pieces that fit into the solid fuel stove. Paul always has trouble starting his chainsaw, but I seem to have the knack. So we spent the next half an hour cutting up his wood, and I had my first go at using a chainsaw. Pretty violent things these chainsaws……..scary.

That's Paul on the left keeping the log still, and me using the saw on the right.

Sunday, we were on the move to Willen Park, again we followed our lovely neighbours Paul and Val, with their dog “Pepper” They have been so kind and generous towards us. Willen Park is only a short distance away, but as you should only stay in once place for up to 14 days, Paul wanted to move on, and we followed suit. I will post some pictures of Willen Park in the next blog.

Lynne took this picture of me when I was turning the boat round, ready to head off towards Willen Park. This is what I like to do, be on the move, seeing new places ...

Lots of catch up Pictures

Moored at Giffard Park, 0 miles, 0 locks

As promised, here are some pictures I have wanted to post over the last week or so.

 Minnie enjoying life at our previous base, Campbell Park.

Lynne out for a walk at Campbell Park with the doggies.

Rory enjoying a walk without a leader, freedom at last. "Now where have the other two got to?"

Our shops at Giffard Park

This swan is a regular visiter to our boat, usually at tea time!

Minnie wondering what my next move will be, a walk perhaps?

Lynne enjoying doing her cross stitch.

One of my trips out in the car took me to Leighton Buzzard, it was quite nice here.

When I was in Leighton Buzzard I came accross this. I couldn't resist taking a picture for Lynne, I know how much she misses her work!!

Doggie walk time again...

More pictures of Lindford, it's really nice around here.

Above is Lindford Hall

Messing around on Brumpoolie

 

And finally to finish off, an evening view from our side hatch

There are jobs to do and there are jobs to do

Moored at Giffard Park, 0 miles, 0 locks

Although we are still at Giffard Park, we have spent the last week doing jobs. We will be here for another few days to allow us to complete most of these jobs onboard Brumpoolie before we set off cruising around the canal system. But there are also other kinds of jobs to be done, daily "boaty" jobs.

The daily jobs are things like buying diesel to power the engine,  so we can produce electricity and heat, emptying rubbish, the loo and filling up with water. Yes unlike being on land where there is an endless supply of these kind of resources, we have to go and fetch such things! The picture below is a typical British Waterways service point, where water can be found and the facilities for getting rid of rubbish and emptying the loo! These services are free once you have bought your BW licence (same as car tax)

The diesel is from a local Marina which is about 3 miles away by car. I take my two barrels in the car, fill them up and on my return pour the diesel into my tank. Because we use red diesel and it is for heating, I only paid £1.06p per litre. The tank on Brumpoolie holds over 200 lites of diesel,  so it takes some filling. You can also buy the diesel from certain boats on the canals that sell diesel and coal etc, but you have to find out where they are going to be first! Once you are cruising you have to look out for the services and make sure you are topped up and emptied. otherwise you might enter a stretch of canal where there are no resources for a while and you could run out.

The other sort of jobs we are doing is sorting Brumpoolie out so we are ready to cruise. The first thing was we bought a 12v television and indoor arial. Any items using 12v electricity will save our resources and use less diesel. We bought a Logik 22" TV from Currys and an indoor Moonraker Ariel from Maplins. Perfect. We also bought a small bookshelf for the saloon (lounge) Next up are some storage boxes for the wardrobes. Space is at a premium onboard, so anything that helps save space is good. A new kettle, a pump for the diesel tank, a couple of chairs and a small camping table for sitting outside when the sun shines, various clothes hangers for drying the washing, plus various other bits and pieces. 

There are two main things left to do. Sort out the washing machine and sell my car.

Now the washing machine does not work and will need a new inverter installed to make it work. We will have this done when we start cruising and reach Braunston. I have spoken to an engineer there who will sort it when we arrive in about two weeks. In the mean time, it's more hand washing for Lynne!

As for the car, we will be moving around and will not need this. I might put it into a big car auction that is held here in Milton Keynes twice a week. I will go and speak to them tomorrow and see what they say.

Tomorrow I will catch up with lots of pictures.

A nice surprise!

Moored at Giffard Park, 0 miles, 0 locks

On Monday we had a nice surprise. A call from Joanne in the early in the afternoon. " I will be on the train to Milton Keynes this afternoon" This would be the first time Joanne had seen the boat, very exciting. So, a quick tidy up of Brumpoolie, followed by some food shopping at the local "Onestop" store which less than a minutes walk away. The train station is only a couple of miles away on the other side of Milton Keynes from our mooring spot at Giffard Park, so I picked Joanne up in the car at about 7pm. It was a nice surprise to see Joanne and a chance to catch up.

On Tuesday we went on a mini cruise back to Campbell Park which took about 1 hour each way including turning the boat around. While we were at Campbell Park, Lynne and Joanne then walked into MK Centre to look around the shops for a while. Joanne was not very impressed with MK Shopping Centre! The cruise back to Giffard Park was interesting as the wind was up and it was pouring with rain. This is fine if you are inside the boat with a hot cup of tea,  but if you are stearing the boat outside, slightly less dry.

On Wednesday, Lynne and Joanne took Minnie for a walk to Linford. This is a small village about 1 mile from the boat. Linforde was first mentioned in the Doomsday book in 1086. These are beautifully restored buildings and create a lovely area to visit, with landscaped areas around about including picnic tables.

Then sadly, time for Joanne to leave. So we were off to the station to catch the 4.13 train to London. This takes about 1.5 to 2 hours, followed by another train to Crawley, a journey of about 45 mins.

That was a real nice surprise to see Joanne, not sure when we will see her next, hopefully not before too long.

Giffard Park and Sunday Football

Campbell Park to Giffard Park, Grand Union Canal, 1.8 miles 0 locks

We have moved on now to Giffard Park, almost 2 miles along the canal. This does not seem far, but this took 45 minutes to cruise! Such is the pace along the canals. Suits us fine. We are allowed to stay here for 14 days before moving on again.

Giffard Park is not as pretty as Campbell Park, but it does have some advantages. Within a few minutes walking it has toilet and water points, several shops and a pub.

Now the pub made me think. I like to watch Newcastle United. As yet we do not have sky on Brumpoolie, so I have to go to the pub to watch the Newcastle matches, yes I know. They were on the TV last Sunday, so I looked for a nice pub using Google maps on my mobile, and set off on foot for a nice walk there. After setting off, a thought occurred to me. What if they do not show the match? We take it for granted that just about all pubs in the North East will show the football because of the interest, but maybe not so in Milton Keynes. So I called the pub. "Football sir? never heard of it,  no we do not have Sky". Well as it was only about 20 or 30 minutes before kick off and I was halfway to this pub with no car, I was in trouble!. So I phoned a few more pubs, but they all said no we do not show the football. One pub eventually did say yes, the Slug and Lettuce in Milton Keynes Centre. So I hot footed it there just to catch the start, even though it was almost 2 miles away. There were only a couple of people in the pub who were eating a meal, so I had the TV to myself! Now the reason I mention this is that Newcastle are again on the TV this Sunday, but I will have no such problems this time.

The Pub is a mere few steps away....

Here are a few more pictures of our new base at Giffard Park....