Nov 30th

Normal 0 false false false st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* 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;} It would be nice to say that Saturday dawned fair and bright but it wasn?t ? it?s foggy! No surprise really since the air is cold and the winds are very light (beginning to sound like a weather forecast!). Anyway, not in any hurry, we set off late morning and slowly went through the Gailey lock, then Brick Kiln lock, Boggs lock and Rodbaston lock and finally off into the misty landscape. I had half thought of putting my front light on like you do for car fog lights but quickly realised that with so few boats about and not going 70mph, we weren?t in any real danger so left it off.   We did come across one or two other mad boaters coming the other way, suddenly appearing out of the mist and gingerly passed them with a wave.   The countryside is eerily quiet in the mist; even the birds seem to have decided it wasn?t worth singing about so we slowly wound our misty way all along to the village of Penkridge. We?d never heard of it before but it?s a really pretty place with all sorts of old Tudor houses with half-timbered frontages, lovely gardens and a proper ?Village? centre. It even has its own gaol ? evidently a WWII lock-up for POW?s and now a hall. We went for a walk and did some shopping at the local Co-op before settling down for the rest of the day.   Sunday morning is very different ? nice and bright though still cool. We had a lazy morning and then at about 11.30am decided to push on a bit as we wanted to get to the Midland Chandlery before it shut. The main reason for the visit is to see if we can fix the TV aerial. I unfortunately caught it on a bridge a while ago and it?s been a tad loose since. The gales last weekend finally brought it down and it?s not going to stick back without some extra help; maybe these guys have some magic glue or some other more permanent fixing material. It?s only about 2 miles further on and we planned to stay local until the final stoppage cleared anyway, so it all comes together nicely.  So, we set off and slowly wandered our way alongside the M6 passing another group of Anglers in a competition ? slowly otherwise you get glares and comments!   Nothing much else to report other than the fact that when we arrived at the Chandlery, it was closed anyway! Ho-hum.. so we?re here anyway just beyond the lock that it sits at and we intend to stay put here and take a look inside in the morning.