BOATING ON THE THAMES

Mr J read this blog yesterday and said it was 'boring'. He thinks I should include details of what we see on the river, names of the locks, distances between the locks, etc. So I'll start with the locks, which are all very picturesque and manned by friendly lock-keepers. There are 4 locks between Wargrave and Marlow: Marsh (at Henley), Hambleden, Hurley and Temple (just before Marlow if you're going down river). And there's one lock between Wargrave and Sonning: Shiplake. It seems strange to think that we won't be on the river again until next year. Roll on the Spring!

I've just unpacked our bags and realised that I left the milk & cheese in the fridge - along with the grapes & bananas. Un-be-lie-va-ble! So it's back to the boat tomorrow, which is much earlier than expected. But I'm glad I remembered. Can you imagine what the boat would have smelt like if we'd left it there until March?

This was our last weekend on Happy Chance as she's coming out of the water over the winter. So with the sun on our backs we headed down the river to Marlow . It was the first time we'd been to Marlow and the first time we'd operated the locks on our own. (The locks are manned most of the time but between 1-2pm during the day and after 4pm in the winter it's 'self-service'. And as there were so few people on the river we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to figure out how it's done.) Luckily the instructions are very straightforward and (apparently) there's no way you can flood the river or cause a major catastrophe, which I was very relieved to hear as I was operating the lock. Another first was dinner at Villa D'Est e in Marlow - a great Italian restaurant. It's not cheap but it serves delicious food, has a buzzy atmosphere and is packed with lovely people (walk up the High Street, turn right at the top and it'