Catching Up

Much has happened since my post of Sept 19, both in our life and the wider world

• The ex Idle Woman - Sonia Rolt died aged 95. I only met her once, about ten years ago but she impressed me with her knowledge and understanding of waterways matters.
• I had a birthday
• Our younger son announced that they are expecting twins in the new year which will bring our complement of grandchildren up to six
• We put our house in Bath up for sale. It has been very successful as a holiday let but we feel we need a land base we can call our own. Unfortunately Bath is too expensive for us so we will be heading north 
• We came into Aylesbury for the winter at the end of August, two months early, as we had so many commitments the logistics were becoming unwieldy. Whenever we have to leave Gecko for a week or more we  need to leave it somewhere both safe and accessible. This is not always simple
• The number of boats sink in locks seems to contiue unabated with the deep lock in Bath probably top of the list.
• At the end of August we organised a walk along the Wendover Arm with a guided talk provided by Wendover Arm Trust.  The ladies of WAT provided refreshments and C&RT opened up the Tringford pumping station for us
• We spent three weeks in Murvi shepherding some American friends around. We met them in Holyhead and progressed via Pont Cysylte to Wasdale in The Lakes. After hiking there we next visited Oxford and Bath before establishing a base in Chipping Campden from where they could hike the Cotswold Way. After depositing them at Fishguard we spent a couple of days in S.Wales before heading for Brixham
• In Brixham we had a week with the grandchildren which.was great fun
• About a week ago we managed a visit to The Travellers' Club in Pall Mall followed by our first ever lunch with friends at Simpsons in the Strand
• Whilst in London we took a trip up The Shard for the phenomenal views
• In between times we have moved Gecko three times as the winter moorers have arrived.
• And finally, my twenty-year-old hip has now given up to I shall be going into hospital sometime soon for a revision.

Now we need to do some catching up