End to a perfect weekend in Droitwich.

Hi Folks.

It was time to say goodbye to the marquees, stalls and some of the other boaters today, as people left for home or pastures new. For us it was a day of food shopping and browsing, because we did not want to leave for another day at least. To be fair we thought it better to let those go who needed to be somewhere. So we waved goodbye to those we knew before heading off to Homebase to buy some Hammerite paint and paint stripper, the reason for this will be come clear in future posts. We then had a coffee before heading to Morrison's to stock up on food for the next leg of our adventure down the Barge Canal. After lunch we walked back into town to have a further nose around the shops and another coffee out. We had time to kill, so why not spend it browsing around shops and drinking coffee. When we returned to the boat, quite a few of the boats had left the basin, so there were a few gaps.

The heat of the day was rising and Marmite was clearly not coping to well with it as she lay in the back cabin rather subdued, which is very unlike her.

During the afternoon Paddy took up his place on the back counter, taking in the sunshine, whilst Marmite laid in the back cabin where it was a little cooler.As the afternoon wore on the places which had been empty were filling up quickly when a large Woolwich bow came into the basin, it was Buckden coming in to moor for a couple of days.With it being our last evening in Droitwich, we decided to eat out and so we opted for an Indian, this was mainly because the Chinese is shut on a Monday. We were told about Dilshad's in the high street, so after keith had walked Paddy and we had both dressed up a little, we walked down through Vines Park and along the main road to Dilshad Balti Restaurant and Take Away. We received a very warm welcome and were shown to our table in the window on the left hand side of the photo. With a bottle of wine ordered we began with Popadom's and then had our main course, which were sublime. With just a small amount of room to spare we both opted for a pudding of ice cream which was yummy. The meal and the service was excellent.

On returning to the boat a Blue Bar racing pigeon kept flying from boat to boat. I knew it was someone's racing bird because it had it racing number on and a race rubber. It kept trying to get to the water in the canal, but of course there was no way it was ever going to reach it from either a boat or the pontoon, so I had a brain wave. I put some water in Paddy's dog bowl and some bird food in a dish and laid it down on Working boat Spey to see if it would come down. It did eventually find the food, but walked straight past the water, which it needed the most, so I used a margarine carton to pour the water to and from the dog bowl and finally the pigeon realised where the water was. It finished feeding on the bird food and then tucked into the water. At least it has been fed and watered for the night. I left it settled on a high concrete bollard in the basin for the night, hoping that in the morning it would have flown home. My skills with racing pigeons has not left me thankfully. I used to fly pigeons in a previous life, so know all about them and what to do. The best ending would have been to catch it and find out who its owner was, but this was not possible, so I did what I could for the bird and hope it will find its way safely home.

It is now way past 10pm and time for me to go to bed. Tomorrow we set off on the next leg of our adventure.

Chat soon xx