Sunday, February 19, 2017

Faring and sharing

Three months ago, I wrote in the blog,
"Several friends and family members have asked us recently what our cruising plans are for next year, and answer has been, "not to have any plans". Basically, we'll go to the gate and turn left, then see what happens."
Already, it's looking as though that might not be the case this year after all. We still have no idea where we might go, once we get moving, but we have already made plans around friends and family which are bound to restrict our movements.

In May, we'll have three friends with us - Frankie and Andy, and Colin - all old friends from years ago when Grace was designing knitting patterns with Frankie, and with Elaine, Colin's wife, who, very sadly, died last year. Having five on board, albeit only for three nights, is going to be... erm... challenging! But it'll certainly be fun, too. The three of them have no previous canal experience, apart from Frankie and Andy's one day with us at Foxton Locks.
Andy, Frankie, Grace and Colin
Probably before then, we'll have Jacqui visit us for a day, and Trevor another day. These two were students of mine in the late 70s and early 80s, two of the many I've recently been reconnected with through Facebook. It was Jacqui's jewellery fair we went to see in December.
Grace's eldest sister, Dorothy, has a 70th birthday celebration at the end of June - she shares it with her youngest sister, Madeline. Michelle's booked her break from work to spend the first week in July with us - Fradley Junction and back via Nottingham. A few days after that, we need to be back in the house for a week.
Fradley Junction
Some time in August or September, it'll be the turn of Christine and Mike, who've not holidayed with us for a couple of years now. They'll be with us for a week, but we'll be looking to find somewhere for them to meet us while we're already out on the cut, away from the marina.

Now, me being something of a grumpy git at the moment, that looks at first sight to be very fragmented, and not very good for faring (bargee writer and blogger Val Poore's word for travelling - as in wayfaring, seafaring). However, when I do the counting, we do actually get three decent stretches of time that amount to a total of 24 weeks, which would do us nicely. It'll be more if October turns out to be as good as it was in 2014, when we had a brilliant trip to Stratford-upon-Avon.

So I'm not complaining. We get the best of both worlds - faring and sharing. We like it that way!

2 comments:

  1. And you really can't beat that, Roger. Faring and sharing is the best way to spend life! I wish you lots of both, and thank you for the mention :)

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  2. Too right, Val! (No thanks needed, always pleased to. I think you missed the post "Different ways" last month - just to let you know.)

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