First Night.

Last night was my first night of sleeping on our new mattress and the first thing I noticed was how firm the foam mattress was, which was so different from our memory foam mattress. Keith reckoned he would sleep much better, but I was not quite so sure, as I am not used to such a firm base, but I was up for the challenge. I settled down beneath the duvet and put my head on my pillow, I then did not know anything until I woke up at some stupid o’clock with my ear aching, now this could not possibly be due to the mattress, but it did wake me up. Once the ache stopped I did go back to sleep and then woke again at 6.30 am, so I guess the mattress must have given me a reasonably goodnights sleep. For me it will take a few days to get used to the firmness, so watch this space to whether I think I am liking it.

After breakfast and a cuppa in bed, whilst watching the BBC news, it was time to get up and walk his lordship. That is Paddy not Keith .

Whilst we were out I took some cuttings off a twisted Willow tree. I bought some rooting powder, and now I am taking cuttings from things I like to see if I can get them to root. I can see our garden being full of all sorts of weird and wonderful things later on in the year.

10 am coffee and I then decided I was going to walk up the Hatton Flight to see if I could find our friends Irene and Ian on NB FreeSpirit. Irene and Ian are moving an Anglo Welsh hire boat to Oxford and we were hoping to meet up. I walked up two of the locks and saw a boat in the lock, but it was the wrong colour, it turned out to be NB Verity, but a further two locks up there was Irene and Ian just going into the lock.

Ian clearly spotted that it was me walking up the towpath with camera in hand, because he began waving at me. I text Keith to let him know I had found Irene and Ian, because I had left him back on the boat, as we thought the walk up the locks maybe to much. It was absolutely wonderful to see them both again and to help them down the remaining locks.

I got a windlass from Irene and whilst she steered, Ian and I worked the locks whilst natter away. I made a suggestion that perhaps they would like to join us for lunch at the Wetherspoons in the town, which did not take much discussion between them both, as it would mean Irene would not have to cook for their evening meal.

As we got to the final lock who should appear but Keith.

He had decided to take a slow stroll to come and find us, which was wonderful.

Having cleared the last lock, Irene and Ian moored up and then they walked to us once they were all sorted out.

Irene, Keith and I went for the Thursday Curry Club meals and Ian had the Ham, Egg and Chips. We had a wonderful time catching up and finding out their plans for the Summer. Because Keith and I are not moving this year, we will enjoy hearing about other peoples cruising. Irene and Ian are such wonderful friends and we are so like minded, we always have a great time together natter about all sorts of things. The last time we saw Irene and Ian was in October when we ate out for Ian’s Birthday, so there was plenty to natter about. After a fantastic lunch, we walked back to the boat, where we said “Goodbye” to Irene and Ian who needed to get underway again. I will keep up to date with their progress on their blog. After all the walking, Keith was looking a tad pale and worn out, so the rest of the afternoon will be spent relaxing for him and I dare say a nap.