Today we left Gailey at about 10.0clock but before we left we went to the garden centre that was right close by and I got some new plants for my tiny boat garden, you know that bit at the front, well my geraniums drowned in all the rain we had over the summer,I did try and rescue them, but Alan Titmarsh I am not,  so they unfortunatley are well not alive or barely if they are, and after falling in to the herb garden and hanging on them to save my life last week " you will know about it if you are keeping up to date with all of my entries on this site" well I am updating the garden with some winter violas and an Evergreen bush type thing, that will also come in as an outside christmas tree as it is a little bit christmas tree shaped so I will put lights on it come the time.

We were going to moor at Stafford boat club but it looks like they have let out all their outside moorings for winter, so we carried on to here, so whilst Richard walked the dogs I made the fire and it worked and then I put up the sattelite dish, which Richard normally does with this gadget squeaky sattelite finder thing, but I can't do that but there are some houses in view and I just pointed in the same direction as they had theirs pointing and it worked, amazing !! whilst Richard was out he checked on the pub we are moored near and they are doing a carvery for £3.50 and it was just fine no worse than any carvery I have had for double that, and actually it was better and I have got  3G power here so the photo's are all up to date let me know if you think there are any more I should add but thats it for now and until next week we will call that a week so dont expect a write up tomorrow as you have had two this week.

Bye for now

Love

Chrissie & Richard x x

Hello again

"Shocked are you " ? that I am writing again so promptley and its only Friday, well I thought I would tell you about our visit to the Secret Nuclear Bunker.We left Nantwich to travel a couple of miles further to Hack Green where the Nuclear bunker is, we went in and it is amazing to see the utter waste of money (I dont mean our money paying to go in ) I mean government money,  rooms upon rooms full of computers and great big old machines, i'm sure they were computers of the day, well it was built in 1952, and do you know how I know that ? well strangely enough whilst we were in there we met two old guys, and one of them actually started on the building in 1952, he was a brick layer, although it was built of 3ft concrete lined with steel, and he was told he was building a radar station, it was the first time he had been back to see it, now that I thought was pretty amazing and he told us he was on 3 bob and hour, thats 15p to you youngsters out there !! and he was a tradesman, how times they have a changed eh !!.

Wednesday 8th October we went on to Market Drayton another gorgeous day, we stayed for the night but we had missed the market, however moored right next to us was our trainer  T.R Boathandling (Terry) on his boat Shropshire Lass the very boat and the very place we did our training and he had a couple doing the same things as we had done, I'm sure he must have told them that we were his ex pupils, good job they didn't see me driving !!

Thursday 9th Oct went on from Market Drayton to Wheaton Aston a pretty little village and the diesel was only 62p a litre so Richard was pleased, so we filled up, got some coal and blue stuff that we put in the toilet, I am also collecting wood whenever I walking alongside the boat with the dogs, but its difficult with Rio Grabbing at every stick I pick up, but I am trying to get a collection together like some of the boaters I see, I was asking someone if we could buy some wood as the top of their boat was full of neatly stacked logs, and I thought it was the Wood boat, well it turned out it was wood this lady had collected, well I have about three sticks, but I am going to find some, British waterways cut down trees that are dangerous and sometimes, they leave piles of cut logs for the boaters, but we are never in the right place at the right time, I mean we could buy it, but it would be fun to be able to gather it for free, thats what boating is about in the winter.

Today we stopped at Gailey. I must say happy birthday to our niece Tana, I could not call her as I lost all my numbers with the phone in the canal so if you dont get a call its cos I dont have any numbers, get calling me or send your names and numbers to me, but anyway Happy Birthday Tana with love from

Richard and Me x x x

No pictures.  still in the countryside I dont get that much G power.

Goodbye Llangollen

As lovely as it is it’s a bit out in the wilds with no mobile connections, or when you do get one right down back to the start of it again, which is at wrenbury a local was telling us they have never had a decent mobile connection and that’s in Cheshire. Since I last wrote on the 29^th

Sept which was Bethan’s our niece’s birthday we have been having a wonderful time, apart from when Richard fell in the cut, no I forgot to tell you last time we were untying to leave from Ellesmere, when Richard lost his balance and fell in, which is quite normal apparently according to all the old hardy canal dogs, your nobody on the cut until you have fallen in a few times, well when I realized he was fine and climbing out I was able to laugh, a lot, well he would laugh if it happened to me, well it very nearly did when we were moving the boat to another mooring in Llangollen basin so that we could fill up with water easier, and to get away from the crazy wind that had taken the chimney cap in to the canal and a rug   we use outside the boat when its rainy or muddy anyway we were coming in to moor and I was at the front cos it was a head on mooring, and I slipped, but Richard hadn’t even seen me go down so if I had not  hung on to my herb garden and the geraniums I would have been in, so I am more careful now, Richard isn’t, he nearly tripped today rushing to help me with a rope, when I can manage just fine, but that’s the name of this dangerous game !! If you lot out there thought it was all calm and easy think again we don’t half have it tough!!!

Well after Richard had climbed out of the cut I made him take all of his clothes off outside the boat (except his undies) and then he went straight in to have a hot shower and I put his dirty clobber in the washing machine and off we went again, with no harm done.

Along the way up to Llangollen we had been meeting a holiday boat full of Americans, they were absolutely lovely all of them there was Bill & Linda Slupe, Don & Dorie, Dad and Daughter ( Don also took a fall in to the canal this week) and Janna, we kept meeting up because you don’t always moor at the same stops so you sort of stagger their in front you’re in front and so on throughout the week, so near the end of their holiday you are getting to know each other very well, well we had said our goodbyes a few times and then kept bumping in to them on the way back, finally at the Jack Mytton inn which is a super pub that does wonderful food so we had lunch with them for the last time and really said our last goodbyes exchanging addresses and Linda gave me some special hand cream that she had and it’s so lovely that she is going to send me some when they get back home to Idaho, Dorie, who already knew us as she had Googled us whilst in America (yes we are world famous) she recognized Giggsy & Rio tho not us,  wasn’t going back home she was going out to Africa on a tour to see some friends, we must be on a million photo’s of hers, she thinks if you take enough you will eventually get a good picture, but I did tell her she wouldn’t get a decent one of me unless she called in hair and makeup !! But she never did, it was great meeting all of you guys and maybe we will meet again someday.

Well we really enjoyed Llangollen such a pretty little village and still alive with holiday makers, shops selling everything that is Welsh and its lovely to see these places thriving, the River Dee runs right through it Richard and I ate at a hotel that looks right on to the river it was gorgeous. We started to wend our way back stopping on Thursday at the Jack Mytton pub for lunch with the Americans and we stayed until Saturday morning as we spent Friday evening having dinner there with Gill & Paul our friends that live at Ryton X1 Towns which is not far away and had a lovely meal again at the pub. Saturday we stopped  at Whixall where David and Christine Garside live to collect Richard's books,  David came to have a drink with us on the boat on Saturday night, then on Sunday we made our way down to Wrenbury where we spent the night it was Freezing cold but not for us we have the fire on and roast and when we woke this morning everywhere was white and frosty and the sun was shining on the water and it was all misty, you will see the photo’s when I get enough G power to upload them, so we set off today which got us off the Llangollen canal and turned back on to the Shroppie going round the other way from where we had come so tonight we are in Nantwich, it’s such a pretty village, I came here about nine years ago to Bethan and Chris’s wedding, and I’m sure the hotel we stayed at then is now shops but I will have to check with them, but it’s still very pretty, tomorrow we are going to the market in the morning and then tomorrow afternoon we will go and see the secret nuclear bunker, but don’t tell anyone as it’s a secret !!!

Thats all for now sorry the pictures are late but I’m still not getting 3G power so until then you will still have to imagine

Love

Chrissie & Richard x x

Struggling with getting a connection up this Llangollen canal, well thats my excuse for not writing until today, but we have been so busy, you may wonder what we have to do all day, well when I'm not dragging Giggsy out of the canal,I'm cleaning and watching the world go by, mainly watching the world go by,  whilst Richard does all the driving, but he really doesn't like my driving,last week for instance he gave me a go at the helm and I got distracted, whilst he was doing something else and we ended up in the undergrowth, so thats it until I promise to pay attention. its so intoxicating you can get right lost in it, but where we have been travelling since the last time I wrote has just been so gorgeous, we have travelled through cheshire which I have never been through before, I think I may have been through it on a motorway to somewhere but, never have I seen it this way nor has Richard.

We moored the other evening at a lovely quiet spot, apart from the motorway in the distance, and then along came this other holiday boat,and we thought "hello a noisy stag party of young hoodlums", how wrong can people be,they turned out to be the lovliest family we have met for a long time you will see their picture in the gallery and why they were out on holiday,so Mr Martin and boys it was a pleasure to meet you, and hope that we meet again along the canal if you make it an annual event. Even if it is crazy swimming in a freezing cold canal !!. Had a lovely Birthday drink with them in the pub when we stopped the next night at Middlewich, it was to celebrate Danny's birthday he is the singer in the family.

on Friday we reached the Llandgollen canal which was quite lovely rolling hills green and pleasant but still in Cheshire, Saturday turned out to be a wonderful day for Richard, we were travelling along the Llangollen when it got to the time where we start to look for somewhere to stop, we thought we would eat out tonight as I cant be a domestic goddess all week, so we found a pub, advertising  food, moorings and so we thought that'll do for us, but it never appeared so we carried on with me worrying about having to cook again !! when we happened along the prettiest moorings advertising the shop in the garden, so we thought we would go and have a look, its always good to shop !! when we were in the shop the lady spotted Richards Norfolk accent and asked where we were from, it turned out to be the ex  Harbour Master of many years in King's Lynn and Richard new him, it was David & Christine Garside, so they shut up shop cracked open the wine and beer and we had a good few hours chatting with them, which I think both Richard & David enjoyed as they both still love and miss King's Lynn by the sea !! small world hey. They sent us away the next day with a fresh baked loaf some black pudding for me and cooking apples, oh and wood for our fire, Thanks David & Christine we will call in on the way back for Richard's books on King's Lynn. We only travelled untill lunch time and stopped for lunch and the night in Ellesmere, which must have been a very busy little canal town in its day with some lovely old buildings down at the basin, which is now being redeveloped Richard got a haircut, I got some Rosie and Jim Videos in a charity box for Harvey and Ellie so they can see how Nanna and Gandy Live on the water,although they do already have some.We carried on  today after shopping in Ellesmere this morning and got to Chirk, with Richard having to Navigate through two tunnels, one 386 metres and the other 174, and the chirk Aqueduct which is high but not as high as the one we will do tomorrow.

until next time

Love

Chrissie & Richard x x p.s pictures are very slow up these parts so until I can get them on you will have to imagine.

Still travelling to Llangollen

But before I start, or should I say before you start reading this entry, go back to the last entry because I have edited it and added an entry from another writer, Mike Moorse from nb Guelrose, who wrote about our day with the Brave injured soldiers from Selly Oak hospital. So if you would like to go back and read that first, he explains about the charity which I wasn’t sure of all the details so this will explain it all.

Sunday 21^st September 2008

Well we are still wending our way to Llangollen and it’s an absolute wonderful journey the scenery the people and the weather has been like the summer we never had. Spent the day cleaning the boat went to the Wedgwood factory and shop could only visit the museum as the factory tours only run on weekdays. But still very interesting and lovely pottery and stuff! Another glorious day but can it last, the day had started with a misty cold morning but with a lovely sunrise & ended with a beautiful sunset.

Monday we left to go through Stoke I am really lost now, I sort of cant picture on the map where I am, I know I have never been this way, but on the canal it seems really odd that you arrive at places and it’s not by road so maybe it’s just me, and my lack of spacial awareness, and geographical knowledge, but then I look at my map of the whole canal system that also has roads on it and then I’m fine, Stoke was not pretty but very interesting with all the old potteries sites and the old fat jar kilns, we also passed Stoke City’s Football Ground that I don’t think you see from the road, so all very interesting,  we moored for the night at the portal for the Harecastle tunnel, which was a bit of an obstacle as Richard suffers with Claustrophobia,  which he is ok with the shorter tunnels where he can see the light at the end, but with this one it is 2756 metres long and they have to close the doors on you so that they can turn fans on to extract the engine fumes so that we don’t die of fume inhalation !! and you here tales from other boaters that say it’s really tight and you can hardly stand up, “not true” it’s not that bad at all. well we hadn’t been moored for ten minutes when another boat turned up to wait for the morning trip through the tunnel they were a lovely foursome and they said that one of them would take the boat through whilst Richard walked round with the dogs, the Tunnel master had told us the night before that the end of the tunnel with the most boats waiting goes first and it takes about 45 minutes to get through, so if the first lot go through at 8.00am then the others would go at 8.45ish, I was working on the premise that there would be more boats at the other end, I was wrong, so whilst I was in the shower at 7.55am rushing to be ready by 8.45 I was suddenly plunged in to darkness and we were off with Ian off the other boat at the helm, so I was able to finish my shower and dry my hair whilst he got on with it, and we were almost out by the time I went up top, but the tunnel didn’t seem scary at all it was big with plenty of standing room and Ian said he only had to crouch down once and he was quite tall, so thanks Ian and all of you on the Canaltime cruiser for your help and a great time and look forward to seeing you again sometime when you are on the cut in your own boat. ( sorry that giggsy came on to your boat and wouldn’t leave until some hours later) but they did enjoy his company.

We are now in Cheshire at the locks just before a place called Wheelock, the journey through to here has been as pretty as a picture and the weather again was perfect, on to Middlewich tomorrow and that will take us back on to the Shroppie where we head for Llangollen.

Bye for now

Chrissie & Richard x x

To Llangollen    

We Left the Marina on Thursday, because we had stayed to take the boys from Selly Oak Hospital on a trip, we took a lovely lad Mike Lewis who had been injured whilst serving in Afghanistan, he is from 2^nd Battalion

 Parachute Regiment and what a lovely lad he was to, we took him and his nurse Catherine for a little trip up the canal,just to get them away from the hospital for a change, he is really happy with all the treatment he has recieved so far, but its still nice to get out now and then, and then back to the pub for lunch, (just received a lovely thank you email from Him) there were other lads on other volunteers boats and it was a lovely way to spend a day, and really nice to feel we were doing a little bit to thank  our troops for what they are doing in the wars we have going on all over the world.  

So on our way, and the weather is perfect Thursday we travelled from the Marina to Handsacre  which is near Rugely In Staffordshire, found a lovely mooring near the village, Giggsy fell in again and was nearly crushed by the boat, he is always doing it, we start to pull in and he thinks “I’m off here” before we are close enough to the bank, and with 40 tons of steel (14 Richard says) well whatever it is its gonna squash him. Joey and Jayne popped over well we weren’t far from them only a 15 minute drive for them and it had taken us about 7 hours, we had already eaten so they had fish and chips from the chippy, but it was a gorgeous evening, one of those that we should have been having in the summer and he had something to bring to us that we needed for the TV so thanks Joe. Then we had to go and visit our new neighbours who we had spoken to earlier in the evening who had come for a look at our boat and we had said we would go round and see them so a couple of bottles of wine later and another great night so to Annie and Pete on Nb Annie had a great night chatting hope to see you again on the cut.

Friday left at nine in the morning and stopped off at Morrison’s in Rugely to get supplies and then carried on and moored at 5 o’clock in the middle of nowhere all on  our own, no light pollution no houses no nothing just the sheer beauty of the countryside, it was just before   Weston Locke at Weston on Trent, you just can’t imagine such loveliness, the sun set was gorgeous, and in the morning it was all misty on the water and the sun rising red again it was a beautiful morning, we love Saturday mornings anyway with SOTS at eight on radio two and then at ten over to Planet Rock on digital radio we headed off for Stone in Stafford, but there was nowhere to moor as it was so busy so we carried on until we got to Trentham, which is the home of Wedgwood the furniture (nah only joking I know its pottery really. Another glorious day walked to the pub for a carvery and shared a giant nickerbocker glory type thing and another glorious sunset it’s a lovely life on the cut.

Happy Birthday to Linda that was on the 18^th and then on the 24^th it’s our lovely

 Jamie Hems birthday Happy Birthday Jamie, from your favourite mother in law & Richard x x

This is an Entry that I have taken from one of the Narrow Boats that took the Servicemen on the trip up the canal as well I have taken this entry from his blog nb Guelrose which you can also read, I am sure he wont mind but he describes the day much better than I did. "Thanks Mike & Jenny hope you dont mind"

Wednesday 17th September 2008

Richards Turn to go back to King’s Lynn

I know I didn’t write last Sunday but we had a party at the Marina on Saturday 6^th Sept so I was a little tired on Sunday

and I had written for the week on Thursday the 4^th so you readers out

 there putting in complaints, yes we mean you Colin Marshall !!  “Joey said you missed reading us so sorry about that, I will never let it happen again, well not until the next time.

We are here in the Marina again because it was Richards turn to go home, it’s so much easier if only one of us goes at a time, then we don’t have to worry about putting the dogs in the dog hotel, and all that nonsense so Richard went home on Monday to catch up with the family, so I was left to my own devises managing the boat and the dogs and the rain, it just rained and rained, I was going to do some varnishing on the cruiser stern seat, and the tiller handle but it rained from when Richard went on Monday until he came back on Thursday 11^th which was his

 Birthday (happy birthday darling) so the sun came out for a while, we went to the Indian for a meal with Joey & Jayne to celebrate, it was called the Ivory Tusk here in Fazeley, we weren’t to impressed, but you live and learn, won’t be going there again, the food and service were o.k. but, it just wasn’t the best Indian we have had. On Thursday before Richard came back I thought I would get the boat spick and span and change the sheets, so as I had been letting the dogs come on the bed in the mornings whilst Richard was away, I thought I would shake off the dog hairs before I put the Duvet cover in the washing machine, so I took it up on deck and held it well above my head so it wouldn’t get anywhere near the water, and shook, then I heard plop, “oops my phone was still on the bed as Richard had just called” Oh its terrible losing your phone, you just don’t have any ones number or anything, but I got it sorted the next day, well I bought a new phone and the Vodafone shop gave me a sim card with my original number so nothing has changed there, only I don’t have any numbers so if you call me I will be able to save the number.

Saturday another Party at the Marina, “I know it’s such a friendly place here, There is a gorgeous garden on the Marina that is Dedicated to Bob, and the party took place there, everyone bought food and drink and a good time was had by all again.

Sunday Today we had a morning mooching round the boat Richard got that varnishing done and I sorted out my Herbs and Geranium plants at the front of the boat, as they had been drowned over the last few weeks, I have re-potted everything and hopefully things will grow again. We were going to take off to Llangollen tomorrow but we are helping Corrine out who runs the Marina, she does a lot of work for her charity, that helps injured soldiers, and on Wednesday the injured soldiers come from Selly Oak hospital and have a day on the boats a trip up the canal and then off to the pub, so we have offered our boat to carry some of them, but if she doesn’t need the boat we will crew for her or help in some other way, so we won’t be getting away now until Thursday, so just mooching around in the Marina and messing about on the boat and if the sun shines it will be idyllic.

Love

Chrissie & Richard x x

Sunday 31^st August

Raining again, who would believe this month it’s been absolutely terrible, but for us it’s been a good way to start on the boat, so now we are used to dirty paws and smelly dogs and it can only get better, we can’t have any more rain, can we?

After breakfast (bacon butties) and plenty of tea and coffee, “well it was a heavy late night drinking the night before” we went traipsing round the centre of Birmingham looking for new dog harnesses for the lads (Giggsy & Rio) as whilst we were out on Saturday night they decide to chew each other’s harness off (“what’s all that about” ?) that's a question for any aspiring dog psychologists out there, so they needed new ones, fortunately Giggsy hadn’t chewed right through Rio’s so we were able to put that one on to Giggsy as he needs one, Rio is a good boy and will do just as he is told, (“ Well Giggsy must have told him to chew off his Harness”) well we didn’t find a Wilkinson’s in the City Centre, so we will have to manage until we get one, had lunch in the Centre and then sent Pauline on her way, it was great to see her hopefully she will have her sea legs next time she comes, she felt a little bit queasy with the movement of the boat but she managed with them wristbands you can get.

Good job we had put that Harness on to Giggsy as when Richard was walking him later in the day he fell in again, he likes to walk as close to the edge as possible, but then so does Rio, it must be a dog thing, well Richard scooped him out and he lives another day.

Monday 1^st Sept  started off lovely and 

 Sunny which was good because we were about to leave Birmingham and I had 24 Locks ahead of me, well we went through most of them before the rain came, but then it started and we still had Birmingham to get out of, we set off about 9 in the morning and travelled till about 4.30 because as good as Birmingham is there is nowhere on the out skirts and further on to moor that looks safe and countrified so although we would not normally travel in the rain today we had to and it rained, and rained and rained, so we got wet !!

When we had finished the Birmingham 24, we then had 11 more to do to get back to the Marina where we are headed as Richard is going home for a few days next week,to see our new baby bump, that Sarah and Simon have recently announced, so congratulations to Simon & Sarah,  so I will stay with the dogs and the boat, and get some work done, we didn’t make it all the way we stopped off at Minworth, Richard lit us a fire and we were soon cosy and dry, I had picked some blackberries at one of the locks along the way,just enough to make a small crumble to go with dinner, "using homemade crumble mix, not out of a packet" and also after all those locks and all those miles walking I made a homemade soup aswell as dinner, as I had some celery and carrots that needed using up, but I thoroughly enjoy it.stayed here for two nights just taking it easy, well it rained all day again so we weren’t going anywhere. Wednesday we moved on down to the Dog and Doublet pub which is not to far away and we went to the pub for dinner with Joey and Jayne, well on the way out Richard went to use the loo, as he was washing his hands he heard a man singing in the cubicle with the door left open, Richard thought he must have been a merry pubgoer, but as he was leaving he pushed open the cubicle door to find no one there, the place is haunted and I think Richard must have heard him !! “The Ghost, George his name is, supposed to hang around table 11 but obviously used the loo as well”

Thursday rain again heavens opened as we were going to the marina so another couple of hours in the rain and in to the marina, we are now on the shore power so we put the central heating on and cosied on down again with the telly on and catching up with this website, I had a contact from an old boss of mine Colin who has been following our travels its always lovely to hear from  people, colin had had a laugh about my broken toe episode, well I would have laughed too if it had of been someone elses misfortune so thats o.k Colin, say hello to Wendy see you when we do.

A very Special birthday boy today our little grandson Harvey so Happy Birthday Harvey have a lovely day with love from Nanna & Gandy x x

Love

Chrissie & Richard x x x

August Bank Holiday Monday

Hello again, back to not remembering to write as regular, I get so easily distracted, never mind we are here now.

Today Richie and I took off from Brewood (Brood) and went to Autherley Junction on the premise that if we could get a mooring we would go to the IWA (Inland Waterways Association) annual festival which this year was at Autherley Junction which is right close to Wolverhampton, we were lucky enough to get a mooring so went to the show, the weather was perfect and it was a great place to be especially as Amber Boats who built our boat won the prize for best boat builder, and we were there to see it and they certainly deserved it, in our eyes they were always winners, so well done to all the lads at Amber Boats and Congratulations.

Tuesday 26/08/08

started heading for Birmingham, as we had a party to go to so we took off to tackle the 21 locks down in to Wolverhampton, so with all the boats leaving the show as well we thought it would be a right long old game, but it turned out to be just fine, with boats in front and boats behind there was always someone to help open or close gates, and with boys from BW (British Waterways) to help as well we were soon through them in less than 3 hours, I don’t know how fast the pro’s do it but we were happy to finish them without so much as one cross word, that old lock monster seems to have left us thank goodness !! we carried on in to Dudley as it would still have been another few hours to Birmingham so we moored at the Black Country Living Museum and spent the afternoon enjoying all it had to offer except the fish and chips, which looked absolutely gorgeous, but as there was a massive queue we decided to carry on looking around as the chippy was open till 4 o’clock, well when we went back to join the queue at about  quarter to four the old fashioned bobby on the beat stands blocking it as they would then run out of chips so we missed them, never mind Richie and I can well afford to miss a portion of fish and chips !! we spent the night at the Museum moorings and met Jimmy and Max on Nb Kate had a lovely chat with them about all of their travels, and when we left in the morning they gave us a lovely dangley thing that hangs off the tiller pin, so thanks for that Jimmy and Max, and hope to see you again someday on our travels. On Wednesday we made the rest of the journey in to Birmingham not the prettiest of our travels, well it’s not bad but going under all of the motorways and roads that we did is not our favourite scenery. We moored up for a couple of days at Shernbourne Junction right in the centre of Brum, so we could be hooked up to the electricity for a few days, cos you know what happens when you are not moving but using electricity ? “yes read the previous entry I mentioned it in there” so we stayed in here until we could move on Saturday  to the moorings right in front of the mail box so that everybody could see us that came to stay at the hotel for Nicki’s party,  also we were nearer for my cousin Pauline, our most avid reader was coming to stay with us for the night to come to the party, Richard had to meet her from the station as I was getting my hair done, I can’t remember the last time I had a decent hair do. It turned out to be rather noisy with all of the usual Saturday night revellers passing the boat until all hours of the morning, and we didn’t close up the boat until 3am ish when our last revellers had gone to bed. Hope it wasn’t too noisy for you Pauline and we will see you next time, the party was great fun, thanks Nicki and happy Birthday for the 2^nd.

All for now

Love Chrissie & Richard x x

Mikron Theatre Company at Norbury Junction

Hello again I am good Keeping up like this, I think its easier if I write when I remember to and if I have the G power to upload it then its best to do it on a more regular basis. Well we stayed at Norbury Junction on Friday so that we could go and watch the Mikron Theatre Company’s latest production, and very very good it was too, well written and very well performed, especially under the circumstances, it was absolutely freezing, although it didn’t rain but there was a large audience at the Junction pub and they all stuck out the cold weather as it was an outdoor performance. The production was called DeBtonation which was all about the present monetary climate credit crunch and people with debt, they are company that tackles large scale subjects and turn History into vivid and dramatic entertainment, and very well they do it to, they are only a group of four they travel around in the summer on narrowboat Tysley and put on a wonderful performance playing many characters, with lots of costume changes, and all done really well we thoroughly enjoyed it and will certainly catch their next performance, they do two new plays each year so we hope to see their other one when we can, so if you are interested in this theatre group you can read about them on www.mikron.org.uk  well although it was good we still nearly froze to death I have never known it so cold not any night since or before not in mid August anyway.

Saturday 23/08/08 Happy Birthday to my brother Joey see you at the weekend. We travelled from Norbury junction and went back to Brewood (Brood) and came to rest in the place we stopped on the way down, its lovely wide open country and so peaceful, its nice to be away from everything sometimes, so we are staying her until Monday

Sunday 24/08/08 Happy Birthday to my sister Cath, “I know they are close they are twins with just a year and a day between them” !! so to the both of you this is much better than a birthday card isn’t it ? !!.

p.s I forgot to add that Simon who created this website for us has been doing some updating to the gallery and now it is in a new and easier way to look at, so thanks for that Simon we do appreciate all your hard work.

Will write again soon

Love

Chrissie & Richard x x