The Early Bird Keeps His Berth at Paddo Basin

We have two of Elaine's friends coming to stay with us from Macclesfield tonight.  As we were very low on water we thought we had better do another early morning 'stealth run' to the water point.

We both woke up very early so we cast off and crept away, it was 4.30am!! 

We got back to the berth at 6.00 am ... it is now 17.35 and there are 5 empty spots in the basin - you just cant pick it.  We did go back to bed for a couple of hours ... it was just too early.

As the boat was now facing the other way around I polished the port side; I really can recommend the Craftmaster polish, it does a good job, still took me hours though!

We both gave the inside a good clean in preparation for our guests.

In the afternoon I took the dogs for a good walk down to Hyde Park, as we will be going out and leaving them in the boat for a few hours.  On the subject of leaving the dogs on the boat, I was reading the NB Parisien Star blog today and the subject was how hot their boat gets inside in this heatwave.  Our boat just doesn't get hot ... all I can think of is that we have double glazed port holes, it has also got two houdini hatches that we cover when going out in the daytime sun, we also leave all the windows open.  When we come back to the boat even if the temps are in the low 30s it always feels cool inside.  At night we sleep with the front doors open and the cratch doors open and it is just perfect - in fact it gets a bit too cool and we have to shut the doors. Conversely, the boat keeps the heat in well during winter, perhaps it's the insulation? The roof is scorching in the sun, plus the sides being black get very hot!  Answers on a postcard please.

Back to the walk, I had a nice lay down and an ice cream.  Elaine stayed on the boat as her back is still hurting.

Self portrait.

One thing for sure is that we certainly need some rain, check out the pic below of Hyde Park, looks more like the Aussie Bush ...

Passed a nice little mews on the way back where they were having a couple of parties...nice - we wouldn't mind living there!

Went past the hospital on the way back ...still no Kate, but there was a lot of attention going on around this American chick.....

....Don't know who she is though. 

Going back to last night's blog where I was cruelly conned by a heartless Kate impersonator, she was also conning this hapless Italian journalist, but check out the chap in the red...Its The Dalai Lama having a sticky beak!  All the celebs are there !  (The Dalai Lama is displaying a 'Kate and Wills' badge so we think he is camping out in front of the hospital with David Beckham's dad).

Let's see what mischief we can get up to tonight with our guests !