De Ja Vue

I usually finish work at 4pm and it takes me 10 minutes to get home via country lanes.  I leave the refinery and turn onto the A5117 that runs in a straight course to the M53 motorway and then Turn off through Stoak and Wervin villages avoiding all traffic.  But not last night.  Apparently a chemical tanker carrying Aluminium Sulphate had overturned on the M56 near Preston Brook spreading its load across the motorway.  As a result the M56 was closed in both directions and every man and his dog heading home via Chester.  Traffic was being diverted off the motorway onto the A5117 and chaos reigned supreme.  It took me 90 minutes to get home as I sat parked on the A5117 for over an hour not moving.  The picture was no better in Chester and its the first time since we moved here in 2000 that we saw the traffic all over the entire City at a standstill

I have to say you folks on the boats are so lucky to avoid all this!

When Chris and I was at Crick this year we were fortunate to bump into Paul, Elaine, Brombo and Sam from Caxton aka The Manly Ferry .  We both had appointments to go aboard boat so barely had time for a decent chat.


We have been reading their blog since they bought Caxton.  I got in touch as they were heading our way to Chester and so we had arranged to meet up outside Telford's Warehouse where they were moored last night.  Due to the traffic it took a while to get there instead of minutes but I got there in the end at 8.45pm and the traffic was still bad.


I have to say as I came round the corner by Telford's I got a feeling of De Ja Vue as Caxton was moored not far from where she was this time a year ago (see my previous post here).  She still looks as great.

Paul and Elaine invited me on board and made me every welcome.   Brombo though, felt compelled to let me know that this was his boat and I was sitting in his chair by barking.  After a bit of fuss and tickling behind the ear Brombo allowed me to stay :-)  Brombo and Sam are lovely dogs and you can not help wanting to take them home with you, they are such great little chappies.


We chatted for a while about their plans and I spoke of our progress  with AmyJo and then thought we would sample Telford's Warehouse for the pub of the day, or night in this case.  I've not been in there up to now and I agree with Paul's assessment.  The staff were a bit off handed and crashed around the bar making a frightful noise at times, however, the beer was good and the place is so interesting being converted from a warehouse (hence the name of course) its still worth a visit.


We were enjoying ourselves and chatting away so much it was 11pm before we knew it. As it was getting late we said our goodbyes and promised to keep in touch but not before a quick photo shoot for the blogs.

Paul and Elaine with their Nephew Liam.

As I mentioned in my last post Chris is still in Essex and there is some good news about her mum. She has had a CT scan and that shows no sign of dementia so that is a big relief.  They are keeping her in for now as she is starting to perk up a little bit and Chris is coming home tomorrow.  I think she is much happier now knowing mum is being looked after and Alan, her brother, can have a well earned break at the same time


Well that's all I have for now... The sun is just starting to get hidden by the gathering clouds but its still quite pleasant sitting out in the garden so I guess I'm just going to have to lay back and inspect the inside of my eyelids for a while....TTFN