They're here!

Saturday 24^th September to Monday 26^th September 2016

A quiet weekend was planned; a few trips down to the pub to watch some football; final clean-up of the boat; fill with water – before the explosion hit with the return of the girls from their cruise – well the return of one and the arrival of the other.

All started off well and good; went down to The Fountain Abbey to watch the Man United v Leicester game; I got there after the first goal had been scored and the second had just gone into the net, and then there was a mad frenzy with two more in the time it took to order a drink – what was this 4-0 before half-time.

In the end it was a great win and hopefully a sign of matches to come.

The rest of the day was quiet; it is amazing what time away from work can do for you -  I had already started and finished three books in the last week and that was whilst I was still working, so I started a fourth one that afternoon.

Sunday arrived, clear as a bell, fine and sunny, so started with a walk around to get the body working again; a message arrived on the phone via the blog that Marilyn and David were in London and seeing if I was still in Rembrandt Gardens – yes I was – we eventually met up and were cheerfully chatting away – we had not met in person before but have had a lot of contact back and forth for a couple of years now, but it was so lovely to finally meet.

We headed off to lunch at the aforementioned public house – and had a very fine time – took a couple of hours for us to get through it all and really had a great time with both of them.

 

Crazy kids!

Marilyn and David needed to head back to their lodgings in Pimlico and so we bid farewell to one-another and I headed back to the boat; I was tempted to stay and watch the next game at the pub but thought better of it.

Monday was D-day and everything was basically ready for their return which finally occurred late morning – there they were and I was so very pleased to see them both. Even though it was just over a week for Diane, it had been 2 years since I had seen Sam.

It was a great Monday having them both on the boat.

Diane decided that with all of the washing that they had brought back with them, it would be good to get most of it done; I thought that since we needed the engine on anyway, we may as well take the boat for a bit of a run – Sam had not cruised with us before – and we could just head down to the top of Camden Locks and then come back.

As it turned out, the trip was long enough for Diane to get two full loads of washing done – oops, I am starting to sound like other bloggers who talk about the use of the washing machine, but the end point is that as we were cruising, there were some ominous dark clouds seeming to follow us.

As we approached the top of the locks at Camden, a few spots started to fall and then after some centimetre perfect winding, the heavens absolute pelted down – the two girls ducked below decks quicker than I have seen them move before; all that remained out the back was a drowned water-rat with glasses, which is where they left me until I was soaked and the rain had disappeared – but once you are wet you may as well stay there until you moor up.

But at least the washing was done, which made her indoors very pleased indeed.

6 Miles, 2 Tunnels

YTD:  615 Miles (990 km) , 358 Locks, 8 Tunnels, 14 Lift Bridges, 3 Swing Bridges

Total: 4410 Miles (7097 km), 3057 Locks, 120 Tunnels, 59 Lift Bridges, 170 Swing Bridges