Meeting the first bloggers

We'd been looking forward to today (maybe not as much as tomorrow, but still).

We were up very early, mainly due to jetlag but also because we took Lois to the airport in Birmingham at 5.30am.  We had a lunch date in Stoke Bruerne with Jane and Ian, a lovely couple we met 2 years ago while staying in their self catering thatched cottage.  We were there an hour before the allotted time so went for a stroll down the towpath.  It seemed fairly bustling and we later discovered that was due to next weekends event - Village at War.

There were some vintage boats and then we passed the cheese boat, then the fudge boat and then I spied nb Hadar.  We stopped for a chat with Keith who offered some very useful advice about solid fuel stoves.  Jo returned from her rubbish collecting and joined in the chat with suggestions of the best coal to burn.  It was lovely to stumble across the first blogger boat and such a friendly welcome too.  Click on their names to see their blogs. Thanks guys.

Lunch was at the Navigation Inn and then we headed off to check out Jane and Ian's narrowboat which is moored not too far away.  It's a bit of a labour of love.

So it was a lovely boaty day.  On the way home we tried to find somewhere to buy a wireless internet dongle, a printer, and a smart phone.  It was busy by the time we reached Leamington Spa and we had not much luck with getting directions.  By then we were tired so gave up on that mission.

It wasn't until we got back that I realized I'd carried my camera around all day and not taken a solitary photo.  I'm going to have to get better at this.

Now for tomorrow..... the big day at last.  We're going to meet nb Parisien Star!!