Bealtaine is MY month. All month.  Always has been.  Two sisters have birthdays in May as I do.  Back in the day we were seven: two parents, five children.  Three sprogs had May birthdays and in 1954 I was 10 on Sunday 16th.  Brenda had been 8 a few days earlier and Catherine had her birthday on May 1.  We have a photo from that day on the lawn outside our house where Ma had spread a rug and laid out a fine repast in glorious sunshine. 

The world was ahead of us and ours to conquer.  May has remained the month we try to get together and this year decided to make my 80th birthday the excuse for getting together at Mill House in Hook which is a favoured watering hole adjacent to RAF Odiham.

The blog should have opened 23rd but the birthday lasted from 13th to 19th as, apart from the splash at Mill House, I relaxed all week as a guest of Karl and Brenda in Ivanhoe and was treated to a birthday dinner with their family before travelling to Whaddon, Cambs. to be wined and dined by my Icelandic family on 19th.  Three birthday parties in one week for a cove who has never willingly celebrated a birthday in his life

 IN OTHER NEWS 
20th I travelled back to my Peterborough land base to drop a large dolly bag, pick up a small one, travel to the boat at Weedon Bec and then progress through Whilton, Norton Junction, Braunston tunnel and down the Braunston flight to  fetch up eventually at Butchers Bridge on the bank holiday (27/05/24). 

On 23rd I had been at Long Buckby Wharf to meet a marine engineer who advises me as I upgrade the boat's electrics and electronics.  He was supposed to call on Wed.22nd but it pissed rain all day and we both agreed to wait for the drier morrow.  After meeting Simon I moved up the Buckby flight overnighting below the top lock.

On 25th I went through the tunnel, stopping above Braunston to clean the well, later dropping to Admiral Nelson.  ​The short pounds cause a lot of boat movement due to water transfer from lock to lock making it is almost impossible to write or concentrate so I dropped below the bottom lock to  within reach of a Gongoozler's breakfast on the 26th. 

No buses pass through Braunston on Sundays or Bank Holidays so those days were given over to restarting The Great Painting Project aka wabi sabi and the photo below taken some weeks later show how the overall scheme is developing.  The whole plan is outlined in detail at Curly Wurly Concepts and is a long term project which will be ready when it is ready.

May is auguring well and is going well after the horrors of the past three months brought about by the ME/CFS now thankfully abated. The physical side I can bear but the mental stupidity is very trying.  I am keying this blog at Ivanhoe (​what3words) before going down to Queensmead to look at dolly bags.  Saturday I am editing a book with my new dolly trolley packed ready for a 10oc departure tomorrow to The Chequers in Woolmer Green and dinner in Meldreth where nestles my wife's country cottage.  

Time to check where my technical life is at.  After the computer crash I decided to up my game totally. I now have three modern devices on the boat all running windows 10 and I have updated my mobiles to Samsung A04s running Android 13.  The A04s need substantial personalising as indeed do the computers to blend in totally with on-board connectors and this will be ongoing for weeks as I move forward, ever onward, on the Grand Union with sights on Warwick mid June and the Historic Boat rally at the end of June, after which I plan to go up the North Oxford canal possibly to Hawkesbury Junction

Not only is this ME week but is also in a way my week because it is the week in which my birthday falls and this year is a milestone so the family got together to take me out to lunch and shower me with love and cards and presents and we had a fantastic day at Mill House in Warmington. 

This week I add a new blog on 17th to preserve the New Year resolution to do four a month during 2024 at all costs and no cost at all.   To do that my wits have to work and I was sorely tried in that respect through most of 2023 and into 2024

ME as in Myalgic Encephalomyalitis, also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, is a condition unknown to British doctors or the medic system.  It crept up on me sometime in the early 80s and totally took charge of my life over the next few years such that by the end of that decade I had been retired out of my Irish Civil Service job. 

Post-Exertional Malaise (PEM)
 refers to a worsening of pre-experienced symptoms and/or the appearance of new symptoms after physical or cognitive exertion which was previously tolerated, frequently marked by a delay of 24-72 hours or more in the appearance of the symptoms. 

PEM is considered to be the hallmark symptom of ME/CFS.  It interferes with the ability to lead a "normal" life.  While in most fatiguing diseases patients experience symptom relief after exercise, the opposite is true for ME/CFS patients for whom even minimal exertion may cause severe PEM.  Recovery time from exertion may be prolonged, lasting maybe days and sometimes weeks to months.  Some ME/CFS patients refer to severe post-exertional episodes as "crashes".  

I have managed to avoid crashes for much of this century but the unmitigated stress of getting set up with the flat caused it all to come to a head.  Luckily with over thirty years experience at managing my condition I was able to avert a TOTAL crash this time.  Less experienced victims would have succumbed ...

Beltane is druidic Ireland's farewell to Spring (Earrach) and Sadbh has whispered that I have done a good job of keeping Pentargon and Wavy Rider afloat through the wettest Winter (Geimhreadh) on record. Yesterday Pentargon was treated to a 12month license 

Colin John Helen agus mé féin on a canal bank near Crick in 2023.  John and Helen are special buddies who walk the towpaths of England just because they are there. I believe they have covered over a thousand miles by shanks mare over the years.  They supply me with towpath lore from a user's viewpoint ...