Wednesday morning and we awoke to rain, nothing too heavy, the drizzly stuff, you know, wet rain. Our day's schedule is to turn the boat around just beyond our overnight mooring in Penkridge, then head back to Stafford, approx a 3 hour journey. The Captain has granted the crew shore leave for the day, to explore the pubs of Stafford. We have visited Stafford before and have some favourites to revisit. 

Yesterday, by October standards was a very busy day on the canal, it might have been the sunshine that brought all the fair weather boaters out, but this meant that we had a few delays at the several locks we passed through. Although we helped several people to fill and empty the locks, the knock on effect was that we lost time against our schedule and we had to miss our planned stop at the Bod in Baswich. We did however make it to Penkridge in good time and had a few beers in the Littleton Arms, before returning back to the boat for meatballs in goulash sauce and some red wine.

It's Tuesday morning, following some overnight rain, we are told the temperature today will rise to a balmy 16 degrees, so I am going to have to dig out my shorts ready for the heat of the day. 

We awoke Monday morning to a lovely still day, with the rising sun burning off the low lying mist that floated above the canal and across the adjoining fields. We had travelled down the Trent & Mersey canal from Stone to our overnight mooring in Weston and our destination pub the Saracens Head. The mooring was noticeably quieter than the busy towpath in Stone with just the occasional dog walker passing alongside the boat. 

It's an annual event that takes place anytime between October and December and considering the amount of alcohol that is consumed, the close proximity of water and the use of mechanical winding gear, the fact that it usually passes without incident feels close to being involved with a supernatural event. I am of course referring to the annual boys narrow boat trip. 

This year the boat is moored at Aston Marina near Stone in Staffordshire and although I believe we have a general idea of the route we are going to take, the direction of travel is pretty much determined by the availability of pubs en route.

I do like a bit of Take That, I wouldn't say I was their biggest fan but, they are, so I'm told, national treasures and of course their standing went up somewhat when they reformed with Robbie (but bizarrely not Jason), for a lock down performance on the Meerkat Music channel. As a family we decided we were all ready for a bit of popular culture, so we sat down to spend our evening singing along (well humming as I didn't know most of the words), glass in hand with the boys. After about 45 minutes, I was starting to get a bit agitated and I think everyone else was slightly puzzled , as we had only seen one song with Gary and Robbie, and the rest was just Take That through the years. I was muttering something along the lines of what a scam, when

For those that have been following my coronacrisis blog the good news is that sleeping arrangements are back to normal and Oscar the Dog despite lots of huffing and puffing is back in his own bed. Nights are certainly more restful, although I sometimes still hear the ghostly creak of floor boards as he takes himself off for a drink of water halfway through the night.

At this stage Borisolation isn't going too bad for me personally, in fact there are some significant advantages. I am fortunate that I can work from home, which means there are no 5:30am starts and no 2 hour each way commute into London and back. I wake up naturally, head downstairs, take Oscar for a walk, coffee and toast then start working in the study. If you have to work it's about as perfect as you can get. I must admit though my personal hygiene standards have gone out of the window. I can go several days without having a shower or a shave, it's just that at this stage, I've not managed to build it into my new routine. It's only when my wife starts opening windows and Oscar takes one sniff then walks away that I think maybe I need to make time to freshen up.