Boat Rollers

On a walk on the edge of Oxford this morning (on the way back from A&E - see below!) we passed this spot on the River Cherwell, where there's a boat bypass to avoid the weir. Presumably it's quite easy to pull a punt across the rollers rather than having to carry it. I've probably used it in the dim and distant past although I don't remember it, but it's a nice simple solution to a potential problem.

The day didn't quite work out as intended. We'd just finished breakfast in the hotel when we had a phone call for help from our Daugher-in-Law to say that our little grandson (almost 18 months old) had hurt his ankle on a slide in the nearby park and couldn't put weight on it - naturally he was very upset (our son was at his conference so not immediately available). Naturally we hurried over there and decided to call a taxi to take us to A&E at the John Radcliffe Hospital. We weren't allowed to stay with them as the children's A&E was rather crowded so we had to leave them there, although when our son heard about it he went over and was allowed to stay. They had very good care and various tests, X-rays etc were done but it took about 5 hours for them to be discharged with painkillers on the assumption that it was a bad sprain - no sign of any fracture, phew!

Son#2 and his partner were already on their way from Bath as we'd planned that we'd all spend the day together and have a nice lunch at The Perch pub at Binsey. In the end only 4 of us could make it as the others were still at the hospital, but at least we were able to spend about an hour all together after the little one was discharged from the hospital before the Bath contingent took their train back home. Our grandson was naturally tired and a bit fractious by then but seemed to be taking weight on his ankle reasonably well again so we hope he'll be much better tomorrow.

NOTE: KangaZu is kindly hosting this month's Silly Saturday challenge this weekend in memory of Admirer. Please do take part and give her plenty to chuckle about! Details are here.