News in Brief.

And it will be brief for a while due to all the things going on at the moment – at work, at home and at the boat. Well what a busy week so far. Friday I did a bit of single boating and moved Minnow from her moorings to the bottom of the garden to load diesel, gas, food water etc, etc.

Saturday, after Dawn had finished work, we took Minnow up to Hoo Mill for a surprise visit to Andy and Laney off Josher motor boat Lily, surprise it was as well as it was Andy’s mom’s 80^th birthday and they had all gone to a surprise party for her and did not return until the early hours of Sunday morning and so we ended up having to drink the supplies that we had taken with us!

At about 4.00am on Sunday morning Dawn was awoken by what she thought was somebody rolling one of these water barrels along the towpath past Minnow, that is until it repeated a second time and she realised it was thunder followed by a good old downpour. Sunday was quite a lazy day as we started off with a full cooked English, followed by a couple of hours chatting to Andy and Laney, who by then had arose from their pits, By about 12.30pm we were ready for the off and so made our farewells and we moved Minnow on up to Stone. The trip was quite uneventful apart from being raced to a bridge ‘ole by a hire boat so I chucked her in astern and let her walk across the canal and straddle across the bridge ‘ole making them wait while I buggered about getting Minnow back in channel, then just before Weston lock an old couple on a forty footer decided to pull out in front of us as they saw us approaching only to proceed to travel at less than tick over, which as those of you who know is something a Bolinder hates. They finally tied up just before stone but the damage had already been done and Minnows Bolinder played up all through stone locks, I should have put the lamp on really I suppose to put a bit of heat back into the engine.

We finally tied up at Stone at about 5.30pm and left Minnow opposite Roger Fullers place so he could keep an eye on her for us. We walked down off the towpath to the garage on the main A34 and sat on the wall munching crisps and a chocolate bar from the garage while we waited for Dawn’s nephew to pick us up. When we got home it was shower then ordered a Chinese take away for delivery. While we had been away we had received a message from the breeder of our new ‘boat dog’, as George was now 14 years old and boating was all getting a bit too much for him. The message was to say to call her and arrange to go and see the litter. On Monday, while I was at work, Dawn phoned her and arranged to go over that evening. The whole litter were beautiful, great big three week old chunky chocolate Labradors,

there are three dogs and four bitches. We have pick of the litter, but we have already said we will be having a dog but have not yet picked one as I like to wait until at least 6 to 8 weeks to give them time to grow a little bit and to develop their individuality. Can’t wait for the next few weeks to pass and pick one and bring it home and take him Boating! Dawn has already picked his name, Bruce. So until next time

Don’t bang ‘em about, Bruce

Blossom