Don’t worry. It’s not Barry or I who got the soaking this time. It was more serious than that – just kidding!

On Tuesday we travelled up the locks from Fradley Junction, and in one of them the boat bumped the gate a bit and I heard a crash inside the boat. I remembered leaving a glass of diluted squash on the table which had my McBook Air on it and freaked a little. It’s been a concern of mine that one day something will happen to it. It’s rather a lifeline business-wise for me.

Fortunately the glass and laptop were intact. A mug had fallen off a shelf in the kitchen and smashed a plate. Phew! It turned out to be a short-lived relief …

Later that afternoon I was playing around on Facebook, as you do (well some of us do!), and found that my Disney Character was Rapunzel. Quite cool thought I. I wasn’t so agreeable with her worst trait of ‘clumsiness’ though. It wasn’t something I related to and posted that on my feed. Little did I realise how accurate the description would turn out to be …

Around 10pm I was still ‘working’ on my Mac, reading all about guest blogging. Admittedly I was rather tired, but so engrossed in what I was reading I hadn’t realised how late it was.

I snuck a peek at what Barry was doing on his laptop (I know, sad isn’t it, better than wasting time watching TV though!). He was playing cards as I suspected.

Returning to my reading, and I have no memory whatsoever of what happened, my half full glass of dilute squash suddenly fell and spilled its contents over my MacBook! I moved as swiftly as possible, turned it upside down, switched it off and unplugged it and dried it with paper towels Barry hastily handed to me from the kitchen.

The news is not good. I believe I have killed it. Additionally a bit of liquid went onto Barry’s keyboard and his ‘l’ is now a ‘3’ and all manner of peculiarities were occurring as I left him yesterday.

Bummer!

I have an appointment with the Apple store in Brighton on Monday and can only hope that something is salvable. I’m pretty certain that even if the computer is knackered, that I can retrieve all my files and photos from ‘The Cloud’. At the end of the day it’s a thing, albeit a very important one in my self-employed life …

I’m typing this post on my mum’s rather slow desktop computer. I can’t upload any photos, so it’s a little dry if you’ll excuse the pun!

People and possibilities along the route

I’ve not written for over two weeks. Apologies! It’s been rather busy and needing to focus on running our businesses, seeing clients, painting faces, marketing, and lots of travelling takes its toll. This blog often struggles unsuccessfully to get up to the top of the ‘action’ list.

We were most honoured to be invited to take part in the next ‘Great Canal Journeys’ series, filming with Timothy West and Prunella Scales. Unfortunately it wasn’t possible to do in our trading schedule, we can’t afford to forgo another weekend as we did for Crick. Barry had passed Tim and Pru as he travelled through Braunston when I was at my daughters’, and they said a cheery ‘hi’.

Barry also met up with Fiona, the lovely lady who bought our previous narrowboat ‘Northern Pride’ back in early 2011. Sad to have missed her as we’ve been in touch on and off via email and Twitter but never met in person.

After I returned to the boat following five days with Lisa, Rob and my grandsons, we met up with Pam and Terry from Rooster’s Rest. Sadly we were going in opposite directions, which is always the case when we bump into each other. One day we’ll manage to have time to chat more …

And we almost missed Dave and Angie ‘Lady Esther’ who passed us in Fazely on Sunday. We only had a brief catch up as Dave wanted to get somewhere for a good signal to watch an England football match.

Barry and I thoroughly enjoyed our day at Throckmorton Airshow last Saturday. I was invited to facepaint there by the organiser, after she spotted me at St Richard’s Festival in Droitwich. I’ve got a couple of fab photos of Barry with a Vulcan painted on his face! Once I get my Mac sorted, I may be able to share them!

Heading to FAB Middlewich

Barry’s boating alone once again for a few days. I caught a train yesterday evening from Rugely Town, and will be driving down to my younger daughter’s flat in Hove, Brighton, tomorrow until Monday.

I’ll re-join him sometime on Tuesday, we think at Sandbach if he arrives by then.

Next Saturday, 20th June, is the start of the three-day Folk and Boat Festival in Middlewich and we’re both trading there along with heaps of fellow traders. We really enjoyed the event last year and 2015 marks their 25th anniversary so it promises to be even more magical. And our drear friends Helen and Andy from Wandr’ing Bark and The Jam Butty will be there too.

Hope to see one or two of you there!