Time to have a rest.

 Greetings again Reader.

You may remember that before we went home I said it's all going to change.....?  Well, it has.

We had a busy 2.5 weeks, wrapped up in that was a trip to the Antiques Roadshow with my two school friends.  If you have never been, I warn you, queueing is heavily involved, over an hour.  Hahahah I'm joking you, over 5.5 hours.  The coffee in the tent was vile, but I had my two oldest friends and we had plenty to talk about as ever.
We met another farmer and his wife in the queue, they had two watches and were delighted to learn they could now fly to New Zealand on the suggested value.  My friend to was equally delighted to learn about her grandmothers watch which has come to her.  The value really doesn't matter to her as it will never be sold.

The fragrant Fiona Bruce.

We've know each other since I was 2 and 7 respectively, Sarah and Fiona, we have lunch together a lot....

We met our daughters Dutch in-laws again in London, took my mother out shopping, David won a golf competition and had his birthday family party.  All daughters were home plus someone else's toddler, went to a party and met people we hadn't seen for over 37 years and have almost decided upon a new kitchen and I got my brand new car's dent fixed (the less said about that the better)  Frankly Reader I want a rest.

We packed up and headed to Abingdon, no not to WaL but to Carol and George on Still Rockin'.  
We spent the night with them and loaded up the car the next morning with THEIR possessions and drove north again to Great Haywood and WaL.  There we unloaded THEIR bags and have you guessed it yet?

The four of us have all swapped.  Not husbands but boats.  Carol and George have for a while escaped from the glorious Thames and are at liberty in the Midlands, say Hello if you see them.  Which leaves us two on Still Rockin' on David's very favourite river Thames.

I can't say I'm not anxious about the handling of SR, because I am but just now I'm enjoying the space.  Did I say to those of you who don't know, Still Rockin' is a Widebeam Boat, it has a huge kitchen, huge bedroom huge bathroom that seven could get in, but most of all SR has a huge REAR DECK on which 37 could have a party.   That is where I am sat right now, looking over the river at Abingdon.
I can't say it's not a big responsibility because it is, firstly Carol has left us in charge of her wonderful cascading flowering pots.....  

Frankly I think this swap could only last a few days as I think they will get claustrophobia...... You might have to drag me off of SR kicking and screaming I don't know.


After we had showed them the few bits of running WaL (She is very simple and almost clockwork, not like SR who has sophisticated electrics and oh my golly Moses I had to make notes to turn the television on), after all that we jumped back into the car and went to Weston, just north of Great Haywood and met the adorables, Louise and John off of NB Ploddin' Along.  
They were on their way back to their near-ish-by marina after being on the Caldon Canal.   

So we all had late lunch together in The Saracens Head for a really delicious meal, Weston is on the Trent and Mersey canal and I would think we will be going back in the near future. 

I was polite and didn't have a starter as no one else was being a piggy, but I did of course have dessert.
I had warmed duck breast salad with pistachios and I had sweet potato chips too, then rhubarb Bakewell tart.

L to R Lisa,  David,  Carol, Louise, John and George.

After dropping George and Carol back at WaL in Great Haywood Marina we waved goodbye to and ran to the car before they had chance to change their minds and bolted for the motorway,  arriving back at Abingdon about 8pm.  
Tomorrow should be interesting, we have to drive this boat......