Mattress Delivery

One of the reasons why we came back from Paddington yesterday was that we had bought a new mattress at the New year but could only arrange a delivery for now. As we have a narrower bunk than most home double beds, the mattress had to be made to special order and then we had to agree an available delivery slot.

We had a phone call yesterday just to confirm it would be in the 9 - 11 am slot and that we would have another call in the morning to be more specific. Rather than try and persuade the delivery people to carry the mattress down to the pontoon we planned to move the boat across the marina to the service berth where the van could be brought very close.

Another call around 8:40 told us that they were leaving the depot at High Wycombe and would be about 40 minutes. Mike untied our boat from the pontoon and set off across the marina only to spot that the services were being used by another boater for a self pump out. However, he was - as is usual on canals - happy for us to come along side and has Mike was just about beginning to jump over with a mooring rope he could see two men hovering by the gate and what looked like  delivery van in the car park! A quick shout established that they were indeed the people from Dreams.

Mike and the other boater quickly tied off Take Five on the outside of the moored boat and the delivery men helped to drag the new mattress across so that Mike could push and shove to get the mattress into position. By now Christine was just about ready for the day having had her normal routines unwelcomingly curtailed!

Having made sure that the new mattress was the correct size and fitted into place we then had to get the old one out onto the shore but by now we were past masters at this manoeuvre! Fortunately the delivery men offered to put the old mattress into the bag we had been supplied with before taking it away. part of the arrangement was to dispose of the old mattress because, as non-residents of Hillingdon, we could not get the local council to dispose of it for free. Hence we had to pay anyway and we were not confident that it would fit into the car.

All this happened rather quicker than expected and so, alas, the camera was forgotten and we have no photos. Christine quickly made up the new bed and so the mattress has now disappeared from view.

We needed another bag of smokeless fuel and to fill up the diesel tank so Mike reversed out of the main - the easiest way given that the boat alongside the services left too small a space to turn around. The fuels were available from canal-side from Paul at HyLine, a leased part of the marina that makes use of the former dry dock.

After that was complete - never a quick job here - we returned to our pontoon and contemplated the rest of the day, indeed the rest of the weekend.

Christine wanted to have a long mirror in our bedroom cabin and this seemed like a simple task - just go to a local DIY store and pick up a narrow plain bevel edged mirror to stick on the wall - done this before.

We tried close by on the basis that it was p[erhaps not so likely but if it succeeded it would save us a drive up to Wickes in Uxbridge. Alas, only a few small and fancy mirrors were in stock. So off we went to Wickes.

No, they do not stock mirrors but suggested w try Wilko on the High Street and kindly pointed out that we could leave the car outside Wickes for an hour. Sadly Mike relied on the satnav to find the store - the directions we had been given were quite complex and we wanted to be sure. However, this eventually took us to the rear of the store with  no access an it was almost as far from there as we had come to walk around, into the shopping entre and eventually into the store. However, all this exercise was fruitless as no mirrors!

Back to the car and a quick Google search established that Homebase do have the required item in their stock range and so we set off for the nearest store some 5 or 6 miles away, although the fastest route took us down to the M4 and back up again.

By this time the outcome seemed almost inevitable and we had to make our way back to the boat empty handed. It seemed that our day matched the pattern of the weather - bright and sunny in the morning and increasingly dull and then wet in the afternoon!

Back at the boat Christine did establish that B&Q in Hayes did have the item in stock and in the store and they agreed to put one aside for us to collect next morning.

By now we also had emails from Joanna and family who had been on half term holiday in St Lucia and who were returning first thing Saturday. This tempted us to stay over Sunday so that we could go to St Matthew's Church in Yiewsley in the morning and then go over to Windsor for the afternoon.