We spent the morning generally taking our ease. Christine had booked lunch at Carluccio's - and that certainly filled in a good slot on this miserable feeling day. There was a good children's menu and a corner table with a booklet of children's activities was very welcome. Christine was slightly disappointed with her Chicken risotto - the quantity of chicken included was a bit limited. However, the Tiramisu afterwards was 'very acceptable'!
Before lunch, they had noticed that it was market day in Berkhamsted, with stalls all along the main street. So after lunch they went to explore those and some of the shops. Gran was expected to be the indulgent Granny!
Back at the boat, more passing the time with iPad games and so on.
Christine suddenly noticed that the boat had lost its mooring when one of the mooring pins came out. With some effort in the definitely unpleasant rain, she managed to pull it back in. Why are there no hunky men - or any men around when you need them?!
Late afternoon, Jess asked what was for tea. Was she really hungry again? We decided to go out and look at possibilities. Christine remembered she had forgotten to get a Guardian earlier and they had to walk along the main street again to WHSmith's to get one. On then into Tesco Express and then Waitrose on the way back to stock up with what Jess considered sufficient - red pepper and cucumber sticks, pepperoni, pork pie, crisps, yogurts, chocolate cookies!
Then before bedtime and while waiting for Mike to return, they looked up more information about Berkhamsted Castle, finding some videos on the internet!
Mike again had a day with its interesting points! He had thought that the problem with the lights would not be a difficulty as he only had to drive down to Truro and back in daylight. Well, the sun came up as expected but so also did the murky mists. However, not too many vehicles seemed as distracted by his headlights as in the proper darkness.
Close to where he was going for the meeting Mike enquired at a car repair shop if they could look at it which - hooray - they did. After finishing the meeting on time Mike returned to the car to be told that both bulbs had blown! At the same time? Another person at the meeting had also said that they knew he had a lights problem as they had followed him as he pulled into the garage. Front lights? No, one of the rear lights also! It turned out that this was a quick fix as, for some reason the bulb was OK but had worked loose.
The journey back was much less eventful. He could drive back home much more relaxed and had time to change and collect all that he need for the journey including the rolls for lunch. He then set off to catch a bus to the station, sadly leaving the rolls behind but he had plenty of time to have a hot panini at the small but busy cafe in the former station signal box.
Just after eight in the evening he was walking the short distance from the station in Berkhamsted to the boat where he met up with the girls once again. Jess's reading had advanced tremendously since the summer and she gleefully told Grandad that she can now 'read in her head - it is so much faster'.
0 miles - 0 locks
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