Friday 23rd July

Oh dear – poor Millie! We had gone to bed and I was just dozing off (Richard was snoring away) when I heard a noise. It took a while for it to sink in and then I wondered if it was Millie. I got up and opened the door and outside was one very soggy moggie! She tried to get in but I stopped her and shouted - yes shouted - at Richard to get a towel as the cat had fallen in the river. Honestly I could have a party in the bedroom and Richard wouldn't wake up!! She did look a sorry sight with a very wet head peeping out of the towel. We don't know what she did - all we can think is that she just misjudged the distance from the bank to the boat in the dark. Strangely enough the front was very close to the bank last night - sometimes if can be a distance away. She doesn’t seem too worried about her experience – let’s hope this makes her a little more careful!

More frustration on the computer front! I went to put my back-up disc in the new laptop only to discover that it didn’t fit :-( It would appear that drives are now slim-line! We had planned on going to Tesco at Reading tomorrow but changed our plans so that I could get a new external hard drive. On our way down the river we saw a lovely modern house with a very nice boat house and a helicopter in the garden!! Richard said that he had once seen the pilot bringing it into land – it look a bit scary! At Tesco not only did we get my new hard drive but also all the heavy things for the store cupboard as we were able to moor right outside the store. We then pootled on down the river and moored up just above Sonning Lock for the night. More or less as soon as we got there we were greeted by a couple of black swans who thought that we might be a soft touch for bread – they were right!! Apparently black swans are native to Australia so either these two had come a long way or they had escaped from someone’s collection!