More friends

5th October, Saturday

After leaving Brentford on the 3pm tide, we arrived just in time at 5, for our rendezvous at Hampton Court with friends Janet and John. We had shot through Kingston, me showering en route. I had hoped to stop to see my mum again but we were up against time, so I phoned to alert her we were about to pass her and would wave. She hadn't been expecting us to stop.Pete hooted and we both waved frantically with both arms, Mum waving back from her flat's balcony. Then we realised a whole group of people on the promenade were madly waving and smiling back at us too. They must have thought we were a bit bonkers making that much of a gesture to total strangers. Hey ho, that's probably another camera we are on as 'the mad boat people we saw on our walk today.'

Anyway, J and J joined us on board for a glass of wine. John's new varifocal glasses clashing with the swaying of the boat so that he had to steady himself here and there. He is still getting used to them and I must say they make him look very distinguished, despite him staggering around like a drunk! We had a great evening with them, pizza in Molesey and a good catch up as we haven't seen them in an age. Didn't get back on board until gone 11, very late for Saras. However before being able to go to bed, we had to mop up considerable puddles of water that had collected at the bottom of the boat below the calorifier, which had clearly been spewing out hot water from it's loose top fitting whilst we were going fast. It has done this before, but not to such a great extent. We had been wondering why the water pump had been firing every 15 minutes or so by itself to get the water pressure up and now we knew. On Sunday morning Pete discovered he could tighten the fitting sufficiently so problem solved, although it is obviously a lousy connection which will have to be replaced at some point. The trouble is with all boat plumbing problems they are awkward to get to and involve contortions into bed lockers and cupboards. I let Pete do it. I'm the torch holder.


6th October, Sunday

Fiona and Alec join us for a cup of coffee having cycled down to our mooring. They only live up the road in East Molesey and we had offered a boat trip but they had sunday lunch guests, so we arranged to meet them later in the Old Crown pub in Weybridge where we were mooring. The weather was fantastic and we moored amongst the fishermen opposite the weir where canoeists were sloshing about. It was like a summer's day, lots of people out enjoying themselves. Once again, great to see old friends we haven't caught up with in a while and Fi and I bored Pete and Alec by discussing other old friends and their whereabouts - Fiona being far more diligent about keeping in touch with these people. We also discussed the joys of travelling. They have done a lot of the world and we were particularly envious of what sounded like an amazing trip to Kerala. It confirmed to us that that is another place we want to get to.

Good weekend altogether, if a little more frantic than we had meant it to be!