Saturday 9th & Sunday 10th October

Saturday was supposed to be a lovely day and though it was warm the sun didn’t really break through all day. We walked up into Shepperton to do some shopping and then we both did some work around the boat – Richard on the outside and me on the inside. We had visitors, Chris and Andy Bloomfield, coming for dinner so I wanted the boat looking nice. I actually managed to “cook” a three course dinner!! Well the main course was cooked but the starter and dessert were cold. Chris and Andy had walked so, you can probably imagine, a good time was had by all. Sunday dawned with blue sky and sunshine and more than made up for Saturday. Richard set off down river about 10am while I made a chocolate cake as we had Richard’s three step daughters, two husbands and two children coming. We went up through Shepperton Lock and moored up outside Thames Court for lunch. The pub didn’t open until 12 noon but people were arriving about 11.45am and bagging the outside tables so we went across to bag our table. The girls arrived and we ordered lunch which was a disaster – the waiters didn’t seem to know which table their food was for and we didn’t get anything until Fay went and complained. It seemed that our dinners had been given to other tables! By this time the children, Brooke aged 2½ and Leo 15 months were bored stiff! We then went back to Mary H and off up the river. We went through Chertsey Lock which was a bit worrying as there were adults and children everywhere! When we got back to Shepperton Fay invited us back to their house in Thames Ditton – which we did and really enjoyed. It was a lovely day but we were both exhausted by the end!!