First contact

They say that the best laid plans don't survive first contact and it seems that they (whoever 'they' are) are correct. I have just checked Waterscape and BW have increased the time taken for the work on lock 52 on the Tardebigge flight and we have now lost the first window that we had identified in January to take the boat up to Birmingham. Ho hum. The next window in the weekend of the 25^th January unless of course there is an extension of the other work they are doing on the same flight. I always knew I'd have to remain flexible in regards of winter cruising.

The handover briefing is now on Monday afternoon instead of Tuesday but I will now have to leave the boat at the boatyard for a little longer. I should have delayed payment for a little longer as now it will be my boat and they will probably charge me mooring fees whereas if it was still their boat they couldn't really have done that.

We have been packing away our books to give to a local charity. We didn't realise how many academic books we had gathered over the years. As previous mature students we tend to have a reverence for books that others who take education for granted tend not to have and as such want to ensure that there is at least the possibility that someone may be influenced and possibly be inspired by what inspired us in the past. I'm not sure how three boxes of philosophy, sociology, politics, economics, psychology and education will affect the Atherstone area but that's where they're being sent. It will be sad to see them go but other than an emotional attachment to them for a variety of reasons, pragmatically they must be banished for reasons of space.