And then there were three

The afternoon tea party boats are dropping like flies!

nb Shoehorn is leaving today, nb Klara tomorrow and then there'll only by nb Two Jays left here with me for Monday.  Just the three of them left now over on their pontoons.  So I won't be entirely alone for Monday's afternoon tea.  With nb Ferndale and nb Winton's Folly gone, there are no more of the afternoon tea boaters left on our pontoon. It's nice that there are a couple of liveaboards down the end.  At least there's somebody about. 

I'm terrified of forgetting my key and being locked off the pontoon at night.  I've only done it once and luckily it was daytime.  I always take my keys (on a strap round my neck) and my phone when I head off the pontoon.  When I was minding Banjo he was so excited one morning to be going for a walk that he stood out there barking madly.  I kept thinking he'd wake the folk who sleep in!  In my hurry to get out so he'd stop barking I overlooked the keys.  Thank goodness the marina office was open and they let me back in.  So now I keep imagining how awful it would be at night when it's freezing cold to be locked out.  I always double check for my keys now before I shut the pontoon gate.

Yesterday (after giving Carol a blogging lesson) I caught the bus into Hanley for a bit of an outing.  It was a rainy sort of day but I had a look around the shops.  Roly and Bev had sent a text saying they'd come over for coffee so when I got to the bus station at Hanley to wait for the bus back I messaged them saying to come in 2 hours.  I figured I'd be back in an hour and a half at worst.  The bus trip takes about an hour, plus a 10 minute walk back to the marina.  With the bus coming every 20 minutes... or so it says... I'd have plenty of time.  Wrong!  I must have just missed a bus but I don't know what happened from there.  There was a "101" bus sitting over in the row of parked buses at the other side of the station and it was 45 minutes later that it pulled out, and came around to the stand.  The driver had been there the whole time,  I'd seen someone talking to him earlier.  It was 4pm by the time I got back onto the boat.  Roly had seen me walking back from over on "dog walking hill" so they came 15 minutes later so I'd have time to get sorted.  They must be the most thoughtful people I've ever met!  We had a lovely chat.  (It seems they haven't read my blog from yesterday).