Nov 19th

Normal 0 false false false /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} Thelma duly arrived on Monday evening along with her sewing machine and an almost finished door curtain.  After unpacking all her bags and things she very kindly drove me to Morrison�s so we could stock up, especially on heavy things like potatoes etc whilst transport was available � then we picked up a Chinese take-away � yummee!!    Now for the important business - as you can see from the photograph there are air vents in the bottom of the door but also there are gaps around the top of the door where it meets the hatch and it isn�t just daylight that comes in, its fresh air!  However one can have too much of a good thing and especially on bitterly cold winter nights! So on Tuesday morning Thelma got out her trusty sewing machine and started putting the finishing touches to our new curtain, adding the Velcro etc.  Then it was time to try it out.  It fitted absolutely perfectly and is exactly what we needed.   We are both extremely grateful to Thelma for putting so much time, effort and ingenuity into making our curtain.  She did say that trusting to a photograph and someone else�s measurements was a bit of a leap of faith for her but the end result is brilliant. Now Thelma being Thelma was not content with just making the curtain, she also took into account that we have limited space and needed somewhere to store it during the day when it was not in use � so she came up with another ingenious idea � it now rolls up and is stored underneath the overhang neatly, secured by Velcro!  I think she should patent it myself!  There are a couple more photos in the gallery. We were moored up in the marina again in Market Drayton in order to link up to mains electricity so that Thelma could power her sewing machine but  because Thelma had her car here it meant we could still get to Norbury Junction for the folk club last night � the journey that had taken us over five hours by boat the other day only took 40 minutes by car!  It was a great evening at The Junction Inn, there were only a few of us there; all of us boaters except Thelma.  Two guys who played guitar and sang, Clive, Thelma and I and another guy who played the whistle � very well!   We have some family friends, John and Val, who live in Marchamly, which isn�t far from Norbury and they came down to join us too, so all in all it was a great evening.  We will certainly make sure that when we come back this way, hopefully in the Spring, we will try to ensure that our passage through Norbury Junction coincides with this fortnightly folk club.   Well that�s about it for now.  There has been no further sign of our lovely kingfisher since we came back to the marina, but no doubt we will see others on the way.  We will be setting off shortly to continue our journey South.  I am just doing a bit of laundry by hand � unfortunately there is no launderette on this stretch of the canal so its back to the old rubadubdub!!  I have had to put it off for a couple of days as one can�t have the boat festooned with knickers etc when one has visitors, can one!