Holiday for one or another?

I have been busy, but not with blogging. We went to visit our granddaughter in Kent over the last weekend and the Best Mate has stayed down there to spend some time with her and the family. So we are now boys alone in Banbury. And we are boatless!

We have lent the boat to a couple who were once boaters, were intending to buy a share in a boat, but things didn't work out. They needed a break from a stressful job and so we have lent them SONFLOWER for a holiday. I showed Stuart the ropes on Monday morning and I hope that they are now heading north. They have targeted Stratford. However, the weather doesn't seem too good to be doing 118 miles and 183 locks in nine days. Who knows what they might achieve. That, however, seems like stress in itself to me! They have just sent me a text message to say they are relaxed, and at Marston Doles. (18 miles, 12 locks) That would take me two days!

On Monday we got a phone message from some friends who used to moor and work in Banbury but now moor and work in Birmingham. We had had a chat a couple of months ago and had heard that they were having their boat blacked at Tooley's late in September. We had offered them the boat while this was undertaken as Tooley's do not like people staying aboard! Now they had arrived and the boat is going into dock on Thursday! The other friends who could have lent them their boat are on holiday in Malta and return at the end of the week.

It isn't late September yet is it?

We had a lovely evening last night catching up and drinking a beer together and I told them that our boat, which they had passed on its mooring in the afternoon, was no longer there but was heading north!

Today, I arranged for them to stay in someone's spare room and I met them at lunch time. "Thanks, but no thanks",they said "We have booked into a local B & B, we need a holiday!"