Of Mice and Men

... or at least 'Moustraps' and Boaters !

Elaine here ... Paul is busy watching some boring old football on the tele ...

Yesterday we had a MASSIVE day out ... at 11am we got the bus with Ray, Toni, Dot and Gordon to Hanley - as we all had tickets to go to see the 60th anniversary tour of Agatha Christie's 'The Mousetrap' at the Regent Theatre.  We got to Hanley a bit early so we headed into Weatherspoons for a quick lunch!  The place was absolutely heaving.  Weatherspoons always seem to have amazing builings; this one was also amazing - just unfortunate that it used to be a slaughter house in days of yore !

After lunch we headed off to the theatre - we had booked the matinee performance so that we could get to and from the place in the day time - but this is also the time that many of the elderly in the community head out - we all felt positively youthful !  As the lights went out and the play started all that could be heard around the theatre was gentle squeal of hearing aids being turned up in harmony !  It was a lovely play - very twee.  It was pretty darn hot in the theatre and conseqently I had to give Paul the elbow FOUR TIMES ... to wake him up !!

Lovely theatre ...


After the play we headed back to the bus station (which is a pretty grim place in Hanley ... good job they are building a new one!) and boarded our '101' bus back to Stone.  Here is a pic of the naughty kids on the back seat ... 

Our chariot delivered us back to the Swan in Stone, where we felt a need to break up our journey and wet our whistles!  Following that we continued our trek - on Shanks' pony this time - back toward the Marina - but heading for the Three Crowns, where we had a table booked for pie night!  On arrival at the Three Crowns we met up with Roly, Rob, Jim and Joan - some of the other boaters from the Marina.  After more wetting of whistles we sat down for our lovely pie dinner - and a good night was had by all !

 

 

 

This morning we had to get up (relatively) early as Bombo had an appointment at the hairdressers.  Here is the before picture ...

and here the after ...

Half a dog !!

After that our old friends, Sheila and Greg, (from Aus) arrived for a visit so we had a cuppa with them on the boat before heading out to a local (ish) dog-friendly pub - The Clifford at Great Heywood.  Unfortunately we had left it too late for lunch so ended up consuming copious amounts of crisps instead - oops !  We spent a couple of hours there and then delivered them back to the Marina where they got back in their car to head back to Runcorn.  It was lovely to catch up with them and see how they are enjoying ol' Blighty!

Paul and Greg - gosipping !

  

 ... and after that we got back to the boat and Elly (from NB Parisien Star) popped over for a cuppa as she is off to Germany for a week and we won't get to see her again before we head off cruising next week.  I think we are the first of the 'gang' to head out of the marina - it will be sad to be saying cheerio to our new-found buddies, but hopefully we will bump in to the on the cut ... not literally !!

All in all a busy two days - way too much excitement for us so tomorrow we will chill !