clivenmel
- Dec 18, 2008
- 3 min read

Dec 18th

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We were surprised when we woke up this morning at how mild it was. Considering the really cold snap we have experienced recently it was actually quite warm! We had had a very peaceful night, it was amazingly quiet considering we were quite close to a road bridge. Anyway we cast off and mosied on up the canal for about half an hour then moored up again so that we could go shopping. We needed to find a post office and also stock up on a few bits and pieces from Tescos. The post office was actually in what must have been an old indoor market, very reminiscent of the one that we used to go to as kids in Huddersfield! It was brilliant, in fact Clive was seriously considering leaving me there and going for a pint – he was bored! I thoroughly enjoyed wandering around all the stalls and bought myself some more plastic boxes for the freezer and also, at last, bought some Christmas decorations for the boat! They are only small, just ones that I can hang in the windows on little suckers; angels, Father Christmas, Christmas tree, bells etc etc plus two bigger ones to stick on the cratch window. Well at least I feel a bit more festive now! Its been a bit weird – Christmas has sort of sneaked up on us when we weren’t looking!

As we have said we want to spend some time with our kids, Vicki and Gareth, and also our granddaughter Indeia who is in America at the moment but will be back on 27th December. We are going to stay at Gareth’s house. So I decided I need to pamper them a bit seeing as how we have abandoned the poor little dears and the best way to do that is feed them! So I am going to take the opportunity of producing a few of their favourite recipes eg spaghetti Bolognese, curry, chilli, etc and freeze them to take with us. It is going to be a bit strange trying to produce Christmas dinner in Gareth’s kitchen – I have come to the conclusion I will just have to pack up everything of mine from the galley and take it with me! Well – you like your own things when you are creating in the kitchen – well at least I do!

So, we are now moored up outside a pub (again!) called The Black Horse. We may well stay here until Saturday as it means we can give Vicki the postcode of the pub for the satnav and hopefully, if we ask them nicely, the pub will let her park the car in their car park for a couple of days. Then on Monday morning we can cruise down to the marina at Fenny Stratford and Vicki can drive down to meet us. We will then leave the boat in the marina, hooked up to the electricity point, knowing that she is safe until after Christmas.

Hopefully we can then get back to Cambridge for lunchtime as I have been invited to join my former colleagues at the hospital for a few Christmas nibbles and festive cheer. I am really looking forward to seeing them all again.

Well that’s about it for today.

Dec 18th

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