Fine dining and conversation.

Hi Friends.

After a very busy day yesterday, with the coal delivery and a film crew on board, we left Market Harborough and moored up for the night behind Chrissie and Richard on NB Digitalis. Chrissie and Richard very kindly invited us to dinner. So having scrubbed ourselves clean and donned some clean clothes we grabbed a bottle of wine out of the fridge and went out for an evening of fine dining and conversation. The three course meal was extremely yummy. Chrissie tried to tell me it was just something she had thrown together, but the meal she cooked would have been up with all those meals dished up on "Come dine with me". Now I am not one for Stilton, but in Chrissies Mushroom Risotto it was mmmmmm, I absolutely loved it. The whole evening was fabulous and we never once discussed toilets.
For those not on boats reading this. Normally any boaters conversation always has the issue of toilets in it. Because some boaters prefer pump out toilets and others like us like the cassette toilets. But last night toilet was never mentioned once, even though we had drunk 2 bottles of wine during the evening and a couple of coffees. Come 10.30pm I could feel my bed calling and so we said our goodnights and left them to enjoy the rest of the evening.
Back on board our boat, I was soon snuggled down under the duvet because I was cream crackered, it had been a busy and long day.

This morning we were awake pretty early and so Pad got his morning walk as the sun was coming up over the hill.
I had let the back cabin stove go out last night, because it was clogged up with clinker, having burnt the last of the coal from another coal merchant and the coal was dreadful it has to be said. It would clinker the fire up, which meant the fire would not work properly. So one of my first jobs was to empty the fire out and then remake it. It also gave me the opportunity to sweep the chimney. With the stove remade, we said cheerio to Chrissie and Richard and pulled off of the over night mooring, with a view to head for Saddington. Have negotiated the Foxton Locks swing bridge, I met Keith and the boat in the Rainbow Bridge '0le, where we saw John and Jo on NB Acen, they are heading into Market Harborough basin for the Winter. Having said "good morning" to them, we said we would see them in a couple of weeks time and went on our way. We had our first collision for weeks. It happened just after Debdale Marina. We were meandering around the bend when an Anglo Welsh boat came at speed towards us. We could not get out of the way because we were on the outside of the bend and he was not quick enough to take action, so a hefty collision took place. We however did not move as we are weighing around 29 tonne at the moment, they just bounced off of us. The woman on the bow was apologising, to which I just said "don't worry". There is absolutely no point getting cross, because these things happen and to us it appears most of the time ha ha ha. We just carried on our way as they tried to get their short hire boat under control.
We arrived at the winding point at Saddington, we winded the boat and came back to near
Smeeton Hill Bridge No.70, which has a lovely view across the fields and lots of peace and quiet.
Yesterday I put some Lamb's Knuckles in the back cabin stove to stew. With them cooked and cold I have taken all the meat off of the bone and added veg, potatoes, onion and garlic to the stock. It is now back in the back stove cooking for tonights dinner. Later on I will add some Mushrooms and Dumplings for a warming Lamb Casserole. The Lamb Knuckles were only £1.50 each, so a very cheap meal.
I am going to end this posting now, so that I can get on with ordering my Tesco food order for next week, which we will have delivered to the boat. Oh the joys of the internet and a decent connection. Have a wonderful day.