Despite all sorts of painstaking work and planning, yesterday, the day before our departure, the toilet valve that I thought I had fixed was still letting water by. I stripped it down and, of course, the leak worsened. It is a Duravit Starck 2 cistern, which uses a Geberit valve, only stocked by specialist merchants, none of whom open on a Sunday. I went to five or six places in Blackburn and Preston and eventually bought an isolator valve (the plumbers had not fitted one and I will order a new diaphragm when we return from cycling.
The outcome was that all the other planned jobs were delayed or had to be abandoned. I weeded, edged the beds and sealed the kitchen floor, put up the ladder to paint the beading to the new double glazed unit that I had fitted earlier in the week. Cath cleaned, took Turnip to the cattery and did a hundred other tasks. Because we have the house on the market, there was even more pressure than normal to leave it presentable. After all, what would the burglars think of us if we left the place a squalid tip?
Today, by fortunate and blessed contrast, has gone rather well, apart from my waking at 04:30, not uncommon but something that I hope to see off during this trip. We cycled to Preston, having left the house pretty decent and I even managed to clean the bird droppings off the kitchen window. They carry out a Dambusters style series of raids this time of year and make a hideous mess.
Crossing Birmingham to get to Snow Hill was a pain but the light flooding into The new New Street station makes a huge difference. The platforms are still grim holes but it is vastly improved. We caught the train to Worcester Shrub Hill, a charming station and cycled along the canal towpath and out towards the Vale of Evesham, whose microclimate has the hawthorn in leaf already. Curious brown and white lamps, a reminder of the wealth of this part of the country was founded on wool, now sadly worth little or nothing, sheep bein mainly reared for meat alone.
Beautiful rolling Worcestershire countryside, with a few challenges as a result, we ended the day in Tewkesbury, a pint of Wadsworth's 6X and a curry, how English. About 35 miles cycled today and perhaps 4 miles of walking. A decent start and on to near Almondsbury on the western edge of Bristol tomorrow. We managed to avoid virtually all the rain today and I caught the sun. More care required tomorrow.
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