Visitors and crappy weather

19 June NOTE TO SELF: read for typos before publishing ... Have had to get into edit mode to correct things that I didn't check, dammit!

Well, the best thing about the weather being crappy is that it makes it bearable not being able to go boating. Well, we could boat but there's a bit of uncertainty about what pre-op appointments are required before Sunday.

So far there is one today, but we are expecting there is at least one other, yet to be scheduled.

But as the weather has been pants, the question of moving has been moot. And as we are on shore power here at Alvechurch Marina, there is no need to be running the engine to charge batteries when the sun cannot do the job on the solar panels.

We have had two sets of visitors in recent days and lots of laughs.

The first set were people we had never met but who also blog and whose photos I've seen often. Lisa and David from What a Lark, and their friends Amanda and David came to visit one morning. I'd made cheese scones in honour of their visit and done a big tidy and clean of the boat - sweeping, washing the floor, dusting, cleaning the basin and toilets, cleaning the butler's sink ... First impressions, don't you know!

There was much discussion of boaty stuff, including the angst, jointly and severally felt, about the lack of lock etiquette we had all recently experienced - and in both cases, on the Lapworth flight.

I promised to send them the cheese scone recipe and to give them John Wiper's contact details but so far have not done either. My bad. After this post, I promise!

Lisa and David very generously lent us their car for a couple of days, so we were able to go and do some shopping at the Bromsgrove Waitrose. But sadly, no Vogel's bread there, dammit.

On Saturday we had a call from our friends from Waikanae, Madeline and Bevan, who came over here to buy a motorhome for shipping back to NZ, after doing a few months tripping around Europe in it. The motorhome purchase has been accomplished, but not without incident.  It's a struggle to buy insurance for a motor vehicle here if you don't have a post code or are not a resident. After multiple abortive phone calls, Mads got in touch with us and asked what we had done. Given we don't throw out anything important and still have a Motorhome file in the email system, I was able to find the name and contact details of the guy who had organised ours. And he came through for them too. And they are using the same shipping agents we did - well, if there is a set of people who've already done the job successfully, why look for others that are untested?

Anyway, the motorhome is now in their possession and they were keen to come and show us. Mads texted from outside the pub on the marina site (the Weighbridge) as they had pulled up and seen Morris dancers performing. Way back when we were all living in the UK, we took Mads to the Charlbury fair, where the Morris dancers were performing and there was an egg throwing and catching competition. If I remember rightly, Jack Potter's son Richard and daughter in law Jackie came second in that!

By the way, I noticed (hard to miss) that the Morris dancers were in blackface. I asked one of them and she explained that, way back in the beginning of the dancing, it was done to earn money, esp when the overlords were not fronting up with the owed earnings. So they danced but for safety's sake, disguised themselves by turning their coats inside out and attaching rags to them, and sooting up their faces. Interesting stuff.

The motorhome is lovely, it's an Adria and beautifully spec'ed. So we had to drink champagne (theirs) and eat dinner on board Waka Huia (currently they have no gas and they weren't hooked up to power), and they breakfasted with us too.

Two sensible women and a photobomber, aka Bevan

I need longer arms to do selfies!

Now that is a better photo; thanks, Bevan.

The following photos have been added for interest and as a historical record...

The 14 year old grandson is now taller than his dad, I am sure! And look at those feet! What size are they? 

This is Kai, Tim and Dana's rescue dog. She is coming to stay on the boat with us while they and the boys go to Portugal for their holidays. On our request, Tim bought her a lifejacket as we know it would be very difficult to haul her out of the water is she falls/jumps in. Apparently this photo was taken mid-wag, although I am not so sure. Looks to me like those ears are back ...