Right! Well here’s the thing.I’ve been writing a newsletter for what seems like ages.It’s to go out with a mail shot together with this years brochure.as well as that it’s available from the web sites if you click on the “opt in” button and leave your email address .(That is once Sue’s got her head around how to do it, and that’s a sensitive  area  at the moment). Anyway the other thing that we intended to do with it was to publish it here on the blog. But try as I might ,I can not get it to happen ! After several hours and several sense of humour failures I haven’t managed it. why I can't get a word document onto a blog page I don’t know .But I can’t ‘I’m sure it must be possible and if any Techy or a not so Techy can tell me how for the future I’d be grateful . So there we are , if you want to read the newsletter than leave your email address on the web site, either one.You get a 20% off food voucher to use on boats as well at the moment so it’s worth doing.

A bit for boaters

We had a new toilet on our boat last month,(boaters always get round to talking about toilets after a bit.) We had one of those vacuum cassettes before .Sue liked it because it had a china bowl, aren’t women funny ,preferring china to drink out of I can understand , but a toilet ? Anyway I was fed up with it because it was becoming an expensive nuisance. Things kept going wrong and needing replacing ,and the cassette was in a cupboard that was difficult to access .I had to empty it every day and it was causing me pain and aggravation ! So with a lot of misgivings on Sue’s part we took it out and replaced it with a Thetford cassette , low tech in comparison and much easier to empty, every other day at most ,but alas plastic not china a big sacrifice on Sue’s part', and you can guess which part!

The next week we went to the caravan and leisure show at the NEC .Whilst looking at the super new caravans ,what did we see,Thetford cassettes with china bowls !---------WELL I DIDN’T KNOW ! But I do now

Will has seen the light

Last Saturday Will was steering Rose on an evening trip when he realised a  boat was coming towards him .This is quite a rare event after dark especially at this time of year. Those of us who do a lot of night boating know that the best thing to do when meeting another boat at night is turn your headlight or lights off.You can’t dip them and you just blind the other steerer.This Will dutifully did as well slowing to dead slow but unfortunately the steerer of the other boat didn’t ,he want steaming past blinding Will and sucking Rose into him causing a glancing blow amidships .Blind Will as we perhaps should call him then steered into a bush breaking a head light . Pierre who was inside performing with the craic that night was heard to shout over the Mic’ “That’s you’re no claims gone then Will”!, much to the delight of the passengers, a pre wedding party.Will still doesn’t know which boat hit him,perhaps it’s just as well.

Has Spring sprung ?

You do get the feeling it may have done .The grass is certainly riz and the canal seems to be waking up after a long winters sleep,sap is rising and nature is springing  into life .The ducks are getting noisy and amorous .Like a group of teenage boys ,showing off in front of girls  I suppose it won’t be long before the ducks are sitting on their nests. For the last two years we’ve had a duck sitting just outside the cafe ,but well hidden .The first year she managed to hatch quite a large brood ,in the teens as I remember .She led them proudly into the water for the first time one Sunday just as Rose was leaving for a Sunday lunch trip,the place was packed and everyone enjoyed the spectacle .Last year however I’m sad to say all her eggs were destroyed ,I suspect by a fox. Time will tell whether she returns this year.

What will return this year for sure is Mothering Sunday and that marks the start of our Sunday lunch cruises for the year .As I type I understand there are still a few tables available on that Sunday, but that won’t be the case for long so get in quick  if you want one.