Braunston Stay. Thursday and Friday.

I woke early hours to the sound of rain thumping on the roof of the boat. Not sure why I woke, but maybe it was because of the rain a sound we have not heard for sometime. I did drift off back to sleep until 6.50am, when I got up and made us a cup of tea which was drunk in bed watching the BBC news.

Up at 8am, Paddy was ready for his walk, on opening the back cabin doors a boat was mooring up behind us having done the tunnel, it was Joe and Lesley on NB Yarwood. Wow I have seen many photographs of their boat, but to see her in the flesh she is stunning. It had been sometime since we last saw Joe and Lesley, in fact I think it was two years, because they still had their old boat and were moored at Stourport having Yarwood built. Paddy and I walked down the locks in the light rain and back again, he was not to impressed at having to get his paws wet. The generator went on to charge the batteries, which gave me a chance to check e-mails, Facebook etc with my very poor GPRS signal. It takes an age to get into anything oh the joy of a 3G signal.

We were invited to join Lesley and Joe on NB Yarwood for a coffee and a catch-up. Lesley gave us a guided tour of their wonderful boat. It is so well laid out and flows inside very nicely. It is a boat which they are justly proud of and so they should be, she has wonderful lines and looks stunning. We spent a couple of hours chatting and laughing and enjoyed a catch-up.

After lunch Keith and I walked up to the village shop and butchers to get a couple of items, on the way back we called into Trad Line and whilst walking there we met up with Chris and Carol on NB Euphoria who were just mooring up. We have known for sometime but had not seen for over a year. As you do we stood on the towpath having a good old natter before leaving them to get themselves organised.

Thursday was a day of meet and greet, which is always wonderful, especially when you have not seen friends for a while, this carried on into Friday.

Got up to rain falling gently on the canal, and the birds singing, they were probably happy to have a milder morning. Little was planned for the day, but I did get the saloon fire stoked up, the back cabin stove is out as it is warmer. I then did a small hand wash and a tidy of the boat.

There came a knocking on the boat, which sent Paddy into a barking rapture. Having climbed out of the back cabin to find out who it was, I was happily surprised to see Jimmy and Helen off of NB Border Reiver, who were moored in front of us. We last saw them at the Shackerstone Festival last year, but did not have much time to chat, so we did a bit of catching up on the towpath in the rain, as they were about to move off. Lesley and Joe came and joined us as Lesley had been walking the dogs, we had our own gathering going on. All to soon it was time to say “Cheerio” to them as they headed for the first lock and the chance to share with a boat who had come out of the tunnel.

Friday in many respects has been a quiet day, it rained on and off but that did not stop me doing a few jobs. We now look forward to the weekend.