Gloucester (Sat 27th July)

Last night Derek and me went to bed before the kids, well lay on it whilst they watched Big Bang Theory. I fell asleep before the kids were ablated and in bed, we had quite a good night despite the sticky heat. Derek the early bird up at 6 30, there was no hot water for me, so I had tea in bed and nodded whilst he watched the world on the water go by and walked the dogs.  The kids were in our bed for 9 30 so the back cabin could be sorted and the generator put on to warm the water.  There is a group of ducks going up and down the water, Mallards, Black and White and a couple of pure white ones.  The noisy white ones are leading them from boat to boat quacking instructions as they go.  We persuaded Derek to come into town with us, promising Greggs and Coffee, it was about 11.  The first port of call was of course the aforementioned Greggs, we had our elevenses and Derek showed us where the market was, then he left us to shop, what is he like, the coward!!!!  We trawled all round every shop in Tewkesbury and had a really nice shop.  All of us got something, Amelia did sneeze and moan a bit in the charity shops and antique shops, she says she’s allergic to the old and smelly !!?  We were back at the boat for 3 ish Amelia fed some ducks including 7 babies, 2 yellow and the rest black and yellow.  I watered the plants and when Charlotte and Derek went to get provisions from the co-op, I got some insulation tape from Derek’s work bag (green and yellow stripey earth tape) and decorated the tiller arm and various poles on the top of the boat.  The tiller arm need painting and Derek wants to do it when we get home, the spoil sport, so I resorted to the tape instead.  He just shrugged his shoulders and grinned when he got  back !!!  At the lock there were a lot of gongoozlers, a boat was coming through. A group of ladies had a little sausage dog (Dachshund) His name was Chip and he was a silver dapple like Miss Delilah Sarah’s oldest girl dog.  I gave him a pat and told the ladies about the Team Taylor K9 Clan.  Amelia did some craft work in the boatmans cabin, I did some blog, Charlotte messed about with her new ipod 4 and Derek cooked the tea, guess what happened next, it started to rain, yippee its lovely, cooling everything down nicely and according to the forecast to be continued for a few days.  We are on our way to Worcester tomorrow and then later in the week heading for Tardebigge flight, so I hope the weather will be a lot cooler for all that work.  Bed for all of us at 11.