Sleep at last.

Last night we went for a walk to see what was happening around town. When we reached the bridge we could hear what sounded like a party or some sort of festive activity. We found Radio Oxford had a car playing loud music and a mobile hot dog stand giving away free hot dogs. The fire brigade had also set up their own canteen where they could get hot drinks and soup.

We finally managed to get a good night’s sleep with all of us sleeping in this morning and having a very, very late breakfast. After checking our water tank we found we still had about 300 litres but we would need to top up if we were all to have showers. As we only have 1 x 5 litres bottle we had to think about what we could carry more water in as the water tap is 500 yards away down by the lock. I remembered we had 2 x B &Q buckets which hold 10 litres so we gave them a good scrub up to make them more hygienic. As I started to walk down to the lock a lady from number 12 which is opposite our mooring asked if I wanted water. When I replied yes she invited me in to fill the buckets in the kitchen. Between Peter and I we ran a shuttle backwards and forwards across the road and soon had another 100 litres safely aboard.
While doing the water a young lad came to the door with free editions of the Oxford Mail daily paper. He gave me a copy and my interview was reported on page 2. We also had an email from Australia to say that they had seen our boat on the TV news over there. With all this publicity we will start to get a feeling of notoriety.
Ray the local lock keeper came along this morning with a smile on his face and the good news that the water level is definitely dropping. He thought that the river had dropped an inch between the time he got up and breakfast time.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody for their phone calls, text messages and emails with messages of concern about our wellbeing and offers of help.
It is now 1pm and we can see a definite change in water levels. Bones from n/b Bones has just popped in for a coffee and check up on our well being. Nice to see you again Bones. This week end Bones has volunteered to help Maffi on n/b Milly M do they Caen flight so we have been giving her some tips on how best to achieve this. Good luck you two.
Damn and blast, its 2.30pm and it has just started to rain quite heavily which is not what we need right now. It is also getting quite blustery. A good afternoon to get the cross stitch out or watch a DVD, decisions, decisions. We were just thinking, when did we ever find the time to go to work. It’s a tough life this retirement business.