The Cheshire Cat

This retirement is starting to become exhausting!

Last night we moored outside the Cheshire Cat which is part of the Vintage Inns hotel group.

The canal frontage directly beside the pub is restricted for the exclusive use of the two boats belonging to the Wirral Community Trust.    The Trust mission statement is

To seek to improve the quality of life for people who, by virtue of age, infirmity, physical, disability, mental disorder or social factors, are disadvantaged or deprived.
To make provision for the social, recreational and educational needs of the said people.

We had previously seen the boats and noticed they were configured for wheelchair access.

We managed to get onto the 48 hour mooring immediately in front of the Trust Boat moorings.  As we were tying up Waiouru a boat came from the opposite direction with two female “wally’s” on board (they were even wearing the obligatory hooped tops).  They proceeded to start mooring in front of us on the Trust Boat restricted moorings.  Jan pointed out the signs; told them they couldn’t moor and pointed out there was plenty of room on the 48 hour moorings behind Waiouru.  The Wally’s simply ignored her and moored their boat before leaving it unattended whilst they took their dogs for a walk.  Arrogant, ignorant, prats!

Jan had heard the food at the Cheshire Cat was excellent and had gone to the effort of reading the website where she noticed you could become a ‘friend’ of the pub and get 20% of your first meal.  So we printed the discount voucher and headed for the pub.  The service was excellent and the food tasty.  Jan had the fish pie whilst I opted for the boar burger.  I guess that meant I had a pork burger!  Jan had also heard the pub gourmet chips were very good so I paid the extra £1 to have gourmet rather than standard chips.  We can confirm the gourmet chips were very good. Neither of us could manage an entree or dessert. 

It rained over night, although I slept right through it!  Must have been the luxury of sleeping in new sheets……. Sheets that are different because there’s no large hole in the bottom one on my side of the bed!  We decided that although the sky looked overcast, we should start making our way back towards Barbridge Junction whilst it wasn’t raining.  We’re not in a hurry, but dry cruising is preferable to wet!  It went from drizzle to light rain around 10.am so we moored on the 48 hour rings at Bate’s Mill Bridge.  The is a small rural pub on the opposite side of the bridge which we may check out later this evening.