M.H. 2 and cup final

A fairly bright, but cloudy start to FA cup final day, Arsenal v Aston Villa. If the  " proper " Arsenal turn up ( they don't always ) they should win, but that remains to be seen. It will be exciting anyway. My dad, bless him, was an Aston Villa fan as my mum came from Birmingham originally, but she was still a lovely person.

Last night's meal went better than expected, given the prior history, but we did get an insider view of Keith's and Jen's "go to it" attitude to boating. Dormouse is their third or fourth boat, previous ones being a sailing yacht, a French barge and another narrowboat which unfortunately went up in flames . Having travelled most of Europe in record time the last couple of weeks must have seemed very slow to them, but hey-ho, we learnt a lot.

I have yet to recover from the hectic schedule and the subsequent health issues, but the next couple of days relaxing in Market Harborough should help address both.

Our friend Sue has been admitted to a hospice near Leicester and Lynne kindly showed me a photo of her in her room there (the wonder of social media) which I can add to my brain's album of mum in an oxygen tent ( remember those?) and dad on his hospital bed connected to various machines On a brighter note my brain album also contains pictures of Chloe very, very close to death in an incubator and Joel having undergone a liver re-plumbing operation as babies, and look at them now. The art is getting the brain's gallery balanced.

We moved Tardis Two into the wharf and onto an electric point for the cup final and Sunday/Monday, ready for stocking up with foodstuff and other essentials. The batteries will be fully charged and all we will then need for the remainder of our summer ( ? ) travels will be diesel from Foxton.