Old friends and new friends

Yesterday Lesley came for the day. Lesley is my former boss from the Home Office back in 2005 and now fondly known as ODS for Old Darned Sock after a few surgeries. She was to meet us in the long-stay carpark next to Waitrose in Berkhamsted. But as she failed to put into the GPS the name I'd texted her, she ended up in the Waitrose carpark and couldn't find the long stay one. I phoned her and suggested she turn around 180 deg and she would see me, diminutive though I am, standing in said carpark...

While we were waiting for Lesley, we went for a walk into the High St at Berhamsted - it's rather lovely

There was a small French market setting up stalls but no one buying at this early hour. Lots of people drinking coffee though.

On our way from Berkhamsted we saw this building - is it a former BW building? It has a slipway into it.

When Lesley was going through her chemo, I sent her a Taranaki Hardcore cap - she still wears it, so guess who looks like an NZer?

Elegant brick bridge

OK, so we are very close to a very large city. Can you tell from this photo?

Not a boat in sight

Now how is that for dessert? Reconstructed Eton mess plus chocolate. Dinner wasn't so bad either, but dessert was simple but a winner.

We had a lovely day - it is always great to see ODS. She couldn't stay on with us as she has major works occurring at her house and needs to be on hand for supervision and quality control purposes. Apart from which the kitchen and bathroom stay cleaner if she is in residence ...

With ODS we travelled down a whole 2.5-ish miles from Berko to near the Three Horseshoes pub (at Winkwell, I think). And who should be moored in front of us but Still Rockin' - I went along with a pen and paper to leave a note in case there was no one on board, but yahoo! there were George and Carol plus a vociferous Molly. We had a short chat and then I threatened that we would come back with wine after Lesley had gone.

So with David suitably showered and changed out of his grubby jeans and shirt we went down for our first ever visit on a widebeam boat. It is lovely and if we were going to retire to the UK permanently, we would love a widebeam as a floating apartment. Carol and George's wb SR has a conservatory front and back and a lovely reverse layout,  spacious galley, saloon, bathroom and bedroom. Very beautiful indeed.

Carol is trying to arrange the bottles and glasses so it looks like she isn't drinking. Mmmmm...

Now that looks more accurate

But more importantly, Carol and George are just lovely. We have made new friends and that is very special.

As we left this morning, we tooted the horn just to make sure they were awake. Carol was just out of the shower as she took photos of us heading for the swing bridge.

This morning we left Winkwell and came through the swing bridge - didn't have to hold up any traffic.

The first lock of the day

The pound at Winkwell was very full so even as we emptied the lock the water came over the back gates.

We are now moored up for the day at Apsley. It is David's turn to be poorly - he sounds very hoarse so he's now lying on the sofa (Jaq, laying on the sofa would be too strenuous for him - he'd need to develop an ovipositor first and evolutionarily speaking that could be a struggle...) having consumed a lemon, honey, cinnamon and clove drink and some cough medicine. It's a good thing I had it first as we have all the right stuff on board to take care of him!