Laughing John is here!

Aha! here we are breasted up alongside John. He arrived yesterday after the rain had slowed right down. David and I walked along to the first lock, expecting to go to the second one as arranged. But he hove into view behind nb Sokai which he'd locked up with the previous day as well. So only one lock to do - very heavy gates that needed rocking to get moving (a Julia trick) - and then back on John's boat to the mooring.

The kind people moored behind us moved their boat back a bit - the guy even got dressed to do so! - so that we could put John next to the bank as he'll be staying longer.

We went over to get water and empty the elsan and then reversed back to breast up. I was going to turn at the winding hole so that we could breast up, stern next to stern for ease of egress and ingress; but someone has moored across the winding hole. And I hadn't reversed far enough back to get in and around without touching their boat. So, even though the guy came out and offered to move, I decided just to continue with reversing. At least that way we won't have to turn to head for Debdale in a few days.

I had made ciabatta the day before in readiness for John's arrival, so the first order of the reunion once moored up was a cup of tea and ciabatta, olive oil and balsamic. Yum! Although I do prefer it with butter myself.

Not pretty but yummy!

John biked back to get his car from Smeeton Bends and then took me shopping in South Wigston. He said his cupboards were nearly empty, but he came out of Tesco's with two bags and I came out with a very heavily laden granny trolley and one bag ...

John came for dinner - I tempted him with his favourite of gammon, mashed potatoes and veges, and I had made a chocolate brownie for dessert. Nibbles were obligatory as there was still some ciabatta left ...

Had to send this photo to Mick and Julia - they said they were waiting for the taxi to arrive to bring them to us. Considering they are in Birmingham, all the cabs we phoned said no to such a long journey ...

A meal of great hilarity and I found that, in the absence of a good red, John likes chardonnay - a good thing that Julia brought me 9 more bottles to Willington then!

This morning I discovered that the remaining half of the chocolate brownie has been sundered. David has been warned that I have measured it now, and if any further microns of it are removed then a corresponding number of microns will be removed from a delicate part of his anatomy.

He tells me that I need to know that chocolate brownie has a natural shrinkage factor - so will said delicate nether regions if that chocolate brownie gets any smaller without permission of the ship's cook!