A lovely week!

My big Sis came to stay last week - we had a lovely 'girlie' time - that we havn't had since I was about 16 !!  So we had a fair bit of catching up to do !!

We started off the week with a lot of 'gasbagging' and thereafter got a little more active !

On Tuesday morning my Sister's GHD hair straighteners felt the wrath of the boat electrics - she had plugged them in and noticed that they did heat up quite quickly but when she started to do her hair there was a sssshhhhhttttttt and a sizzle and then a lot of smoke !  My sister had managed to extract them from her hair by this point - thank god !!  It really is a mystery to me as to why boat electrics don't like hair straighteners!  (We didn't have anything else going at the time either).  We did try my cheapo straighteners (whilst monitoring the mighty 'worry board' at the same time) and they seemed to work !  (However, I gave them to my sister to take away and she has since reported that they are not working - oh dear !!!).

Here is a pic of the damage done - with some of my sister's locks still attached ...

William looking on in the background !

I have found myself a beautiful meditation class here in Stone, so I dragged my sister along to that on Tuesday morning; all the people there were so welcoming and lovely we really enjoyed it!  We then went for lunch at a place called the 'Oak Tree Farm Project' which 'provides training and supported occupation for adults with learning disabilities, in a rural environment'.  It is such a lovely place - which also has a tea shop - serving yummy, yummy food - and the best coffee I have ever tasted in my life !!

When we got back we took the doggies for a walk and then we decided it was Bombo's turn for a bit of a 'do' !!  He has been getting really hot in the boat at night with the fire on, so I thought it was time for a trim !  We got out the doggie clippers and 'had a go' ... Bombo was very patient with us!  We thought we had done quite a good job until he got off the table - then we noticed all the long bits and liney bits we had left --- ah well, at least he is cooler now !!

Big Sis doing her doggie clipping ... 

That was way too much excitement for one day so we settled in for the night after that !

On Wednesday we went on a mission to hit all the second hand shops in Stone (of which there are a fair few!).  It was lovely ... we spent hours finding our second hand treasures (stopping for lunch along the way of course).  We got some really good stuff - skirts, tops, cardis, bags - I even found a pair of brand new boots, which fit like a glove!  On Wednesday night we went to the Bistro at the Marina for dinner - the food and the service was brilliant - there weren't many people in there though, it being a very foggy, cold night !

On Thursday we took a stroll along the towpath into Stone - it is about a 45 - 60 minute walk - especially with two sniffing dogs !   Along the way we saw this guy with a novel approach to cleaning his windows ... I am sure he must have done it a million times but it looked ooooohhhh so precarious ! 

My lovely Sis ...

It was a really nice day - so the reflections in the water were specacular ... 

When we got to Stone we popped into the Star 'Canal Bar' - it is jam-packed full of character.  We had a orange juice and a chat and got on our way back to the Marina ...

We stopped by at the Farm Shop and got some goodies for lunch and headed back to the boat ... by this time it was gettin' chilly !

On Thursday night my Brother and my Dad came down from Macc to have dinner with us - so we  had an excellent night in the Three Crowns pub just down the road from the Marina.  I like everything about that pub apart from the waitress who insists on calling me 'sweetheart' ... what the ???!!!!

By Friday lunch time my Sister was on the train back to Euston.  I headed back to the boat to clean  up the cratch ... in the morning (whilst chatting!) I had forgotten I had left the hosepipe in the water filler while I was filling her up - and consequently a fair bit of water had sprayed itself into the cratch !!  It was good to clean out the cratch - it was looking a bit grotty - it gets a lot of condensation out there (even without my tomato plants!).

On Saturday it was back to 'business as usual' - apart from a surprise visit from Ellie and Mick from NB Parisien Blue who had just checked into the Marina.  Saturday night brought a frost like I havn't seen for many years !!!!  I went to step out of the cratch late at night to take the dogs for their late night wee and found it was veeeeeerrrry slippy underfoot - so I put on the extendable leads for the dogs and left them take themselves while I stood in the cratch !!  They weren't impressed with the cold stuff underfoot either !

Anyway, we had the fire cranked up so we were cosy indoors ... Jaffa and the other two boys are like magnets to the fire !



Here are some pics I took this morning at about 7 am ... not that I was up then - just putting the heating on before sliding back in under the doona !

 

 

Today I tried to get back into my studies - I only have a week left to finish off a correspondence course that was supposed to be completed last year (yep, I have already had an extension!).  It is amazing when you have to do something you really don't want to how everything else around seems so much more interesting !!  Ah well - back to it ... !