Late evening: Awoke to lovely weather and ahead of us lay an unplanned day, hoping the fuel injectors would arrive in time for us to move before the end of the weekend. J kindly lent us his small white van and we tootled into Royal Leamington Spa, a journey of about 20minutes, to see what delights it had on offer. We were pleasantly surprised and spent an happy hour pottering. At least I did, not so sure that was R’s idea of time well spent. We were successful in finding a few more bits for the boat and we then enjoyed a great cup of coffee and a delicious pear and ginger cake in a community cafe that supported independent crafts people and sustainable projects. It has been running for three years and looked to be well frequented. I particularly liked their non gel hand sanitizer which you sprayed on with the added bonus of a pleasant fragrance. Usually in stock, it had sold out but they have given me the mail order details. Slightly tricky on a boat!
No news was not good news and to compound matters R dropped his metal specs case with glasses into the canal as we were entering the boat. We hunted for the magnet we thought we had brought with us for emergencies such as this but to no avail. The electric cable J kindly supplied to the boat also got trodden on so we are not sure how effective it will now be in powering up the boat batteries so our mobile phones may go flat and the lights may dim before long. On the plus side, R toasted me a crumpet with nut butter and banana which made me feel very ‘at home’ as did watching an episode of ‘Vera’ from the current season. Supper was simple – heating up the frozen homemade curries we had bought in anticipation of a microwave meal at the pub we were staying in, but then got evicted because of a double booking. Never one to waste anything, I just hoped they would still be safe to eat as not only had they been unfrozen but they hadn’t been in a fridge for a day or so. R said the boat was cold enough to act like one!
NarrowboatTLC 