Avoiding St George

Saturday was bright and sunny and was also the annual marquee erection day.  Lots of big strong men joined forces to try to put up our marquee, to the amusement of the audience.  After much debate (if that's the right word) they finally succeeded.  One of the best comedy shows around, should be televised!

As the weather continued to be good, we escaped up the river for a while; we had thought of staying out to avoid St George's Night at the Club, but in the end went to the Five Miles and back, with the evening spent outside the boat, on David and Sarah's boat, in Joe's Cafe, and finally in the Clubhouse.  2 am found David and John getting out tables and chairs to see if we can cater for the 120 who are coming on Saturday (we can't). 

On Sunday Blue Dragon came out to have a clean up and to get her bottom anti-fouled, so the afternoon was spent playing with the pressure washer, and cleaning and polishing.  Hard work, but relieved by Sarah's offer of tea and bacon sarnies.

And so.... home to rest!

CMBC Crufts and Blue Dragon camping

Well, another exciting weekend down at the Club.  Started with road-kill for Friday dinner - as in "Oh dear, we've got a dear little deer for dinner, dear" - (thank you Moira, far more useful than running over a hedgehog), expertly cooked for us by Gloria. 

Saturday was hot and sunny, absolutely glorious, so there were a lot of "fair weather" Club members around to make the place look busy, and some of us (not necessarily me, of course) actually were busy. 

Lizzie with her fenders

Mr Blue Dragon attempted to mend the leaky roof on the caravan, fingers crossed that it works, although we hope it won't be put to the test too much in the next few months ...

Later on one tiny dog managed to make just about everyone make a little bit of a fool of themselves, even Mr Blue Dragon sat playing with her - and he supposedly hates dogs (who's he kidding?)

We escaped from the Club in the evening to go for a rather large meal at the Wok and Grill in Trumpington - eat as much as you like, so that's what we did!  I'm not sure which bit of China Viennese Whirls come from, but they were very nice.

Sunday morning was another sunny one, so David got the flags out to see what they'll look like for the Open Weekend, and Geoff attempted to translate them into English.  Unsuccessfully.  We expected them to say "Welcome to the Club - you won't get a mooring you know!!" but sadly they didn't, unless it was in some fiendish code.

We decided to see if our old awning would fit our caravan, but alas, as is the usual way of things, it didn't.  This is made more galling by the fact that we had it made smaller to fit the old van.  Grrrr!

And then the excitement began ... No, not John and John checking out the £20 gas cooker to see whether it's okay to put in the boat ...

...but the far more interesting CMBC Impromptu Crufts Show.  What a wonderful mixture of dogs, all getting on together, so we took them on lap of the grounds.  It was something akin to taking a kindergarten group for a walk.

And so, off home to all the boring things we should have been doing ....

Wow! The sun's arrived!

Great weekend, only too short!  We were at the Club from Friday night.  On Saturday John had to do some work on the boat, fitting flooring in the bilges so that we can utilise the empty space down there, which took him most of the day, but he looked happy playing with his woodwork tools, and didn't cut any fingers off.

Sam is back into the swing of things, keeping guard outside our boat, a very comforting sight, and Sarah couldn't resist get out her famous nibbles bowl.

We didn't feel like sitting in the Clubhouse all evening, so we went to the Slap Up for a lovely curry, and then descended on John and Pat Innit for another drink, and so to bed.

Sunday morning, we set off for a quick jaunt down to Bait's Bite Lock and back, but David and Sarah followed us, and we went all the way into Cambridge, surviving the perils of stray rowers, and managing to moor easily at Jesus Lock.  We had a quick mosey round the quayside area, lunch on board, and then headed back to the Club.

A lovely day, what it's all about!

Easter ... brrrr!

Well Easter at last, cold and windy, but not too wet!  Thankfully Daughter Thing came home for the weekend to introduce Boyfriend Thing so we had an excuse for not staying out on the boat.  Still, we had to take it out, as a matter of principle (similar to the old principle,  when I was young, of changing into short socks and sandals at Easter no matter how blue our legs went), so...

off we set on Sunday afternoon, down to Dimmocks Cote bridge and back. 

The weather held out reasonably so we didn't get wet at the lock (a minor miracle) and we got moored without crashing into anyone's boat, although John forgot to tell me he was trying a different way of doing it so I was somewhat more clueless than usual.  But all's well that ends well, and we had an enjoyable time.  We'll be sorry to see the Things leave when they set off back to the West Country today.

Daugter Thing and Boyfriend Thing at the Mill Pond in Cambridge