Party Time!!!

Blimey! Where do we start!! We will try and make this quick....We went down to Kent for Al's 50th Birthday. She woke up in the bed and house she was born in, to some presents from Del, and more about that later..

For lunch she went out with her mum and dad to a local pub and then in the evening she had a party at our favourite place to eat, the Beeches Pub and Restaurant. It was a fancy dress do with a 70's theme, and there were 65 guests.

There was live entertainment and there was even seventies games for the kids. A big thank you to Maxine and Graham for hosting the show and to Terry (Del's Step mum) for making the cake.

Thanks to everyone who was there and making it such a fun night.. For most it was a night they won't ever forget...

We were up till 3.00am and we slept in a camper van in Maxine and Graham's garden and we met back in the pub for a morning coffee in our pyjamas.

On the Saturday we spent the time trying to recover and were treated to a nice meal by Bernie and Sarah in the evening and stayed the night with them.. Sunday we all went over to Del's Brother Cliff and Louise who also run a pub..(lucky aren't we). We had Sunday lunch there with them and friends to finish off the weekend..  We slept back with Al's mum and dad on Sunday night.
Monday we took the fancy dress stuff back and then made our way back to Derwent6 to detox. (Well so we thought). We arrived back at 3.00pm and was then met by John and Angela of n.b Ellen who invited us up the Red Lion pub for a drink.. We wanted a early night so we staggered back at midnight...

Tuesday we set off early (well Del did) and made our way out of a busy Crick which was moving boats around at 6.00am in the morning for the boat show next weekend. We got to the Watford flight and only waited ten minutes before the lock keeper waved us down.
We then met the armada of boats going to the show. We met four in Braunston Tunnel, but it made easy work of the locks as two boats were always coming up at each lock we approached. During the day we passed twenty boats. We stopped for water and then stopped off at the chandlers before heading out into the countryside for some peace and quiet.. We met up with friends Paul and Lynne of n.b. Piston Broke and had a chat for half an hour and then pressed on to find a nice mooring. It was nice to be by ourselves for a bit and Al went through all her cards and presents..

 Another big thank you to you all, our friends and family were so generous....