Coming off the Thames and Mr. C the lodger

Sitting here on a lovely day, the washing line is set up on a fairly wide piece of grass towpath and two machine loads are drying in the mid afternoon sun. We both sit at our laptops; Jaq is answering e-mail and I, having checked in to the canal forums, am now typing this. For all intents and purposes it is a normal enough day on board--but for our temporary lodger Mr. C.  Just three weeks today and he will be gone. Good riddance as well; just turned up out of the blue, paid no rent and expected me to give up everything.
It is said this unwelcome guest shows up years before it is discovered and attempts to take over your life.  Mr C. might have got his way if not for my secret weapon, my little Alaskan who can be as ferocious as a grizzly bear if needed. Thanks for being there Jaq.XX
So the plan was not just to wait for the scalpel wielding  bailiff to evict my lodger. We decided to starve Mr. C. and make him less likely to cause problems pre scalpel. I must be honest at this point and say that if I had still been on my own nothing in my diet would have changed and the lodger would have caused havoc in the plans to remove him.
He has been deprived of anything that might help him settle in and disrupt my normal day to day shall we say movements and cause Mr. Scalpel to adopt a different attack plan.
It seems he is not happy with his diet and has kept a low profile for a while now, I don`t miss feeling his presence and know his days are numbered.
Once again life is good although a post surgery battle to good health is yet to come but we are ready.
Ok so I`ll never be a writer but my mood just led my fingers across the keys.

Before I go on my thanks to you all for the good wishes and comments, it means a lot and gives us both an incentive to blog about this unusual cruise along the wet road.

Today we had our 4 yearly boat safety test (£145 $215) carried out and the boat passed with flying colours. Although on board we have both a smoke and carbon monoxide alarms they are not compulsory. WHY NOT?  Strangely one regulation is that all fuel filling points must clearly identify the fuel in use. So if you put petrol in a diesel engine it will cause problems and a big bill, I did this on a van once. Is this more important than dying in bed because you had no idea the boat was full of  smoke or carbon monoxide.
Tomorrow I have to go for a pre-operation check up. This will be to check general health and get to meet the Ileostomy nurse. After that we have a week and a half before the Radio therapy starts.

The following pictures were taken as we came down the tidal section of the Thames from Teddington to Brentford. It was a very high tide caused by the moon and sun`s gravitational forces and a great deal of the towpath was under water.

This was our last mooring at the rear of Desborough Island Walton upon Thames. I liked this mooring as I found a fiver ($7) laying on the grass after we moored. If you lost it and can describe it you might get it back........but then again.

Teddington lock is big (650`x25`) but not as big as Chittenden Locks in Seattle. The large one is 80` wide and 825` long. Blog post.

Notice the little girl paddling in the pub garden.

 

 

That`s all for now. I must say it feels nice to blog something boaty but by the same token I know many of you want the medical updates and I thank you for your concern.