Bicester but not by boat

First thing we had to collect a couple of bags of coal from the office as we used up most of what we had during our trip out. Keeping the stove going all day does maintain a warm temperature inside the boat but also needs frequent feeding! We were also low on logs but they are not stocked at the marina so we will have to look elsewhere later on.

At 11 o'clock we set off by car to drive over to The Trigger Pond, a 17C pub on the outskirts of Biscester where we had agreed to meet up with Adrian , Alice and Jess for lunch. (Andrew left for home just before we set out).

It was a friendly and popular pub with a range of meal options but three of us took the fish 'n chips option - the portions were huge, well overlapping the size of the plates. Surprisingly (at least for some of us) this meant that we had to forgo the sweet options. alas).

Eventually it was time to leave and for the girls to transfer their luggage to our car - they are coming to stay on the boat for the next few days. Tomorrow we take our customary theatre trip, this time not in London but Birmingham which is only half an hour on the train.

Although Droitwich seemed to be just a couple of miles south of the snow line, the motorways had been well gritted and salted and, apart from a couple of congested intersections,. flowed smoothly.

Before checking in at the boat we set about tracking down some logs, thinking that a filling station might be a good bet. However, this meant finding them as the only two we knew about were on the road to Worcester which we had yet to explore. The Texaco garage had cheaper diesel than the other garage opposite so we took the opportunity to fill up whilst Christine checked out the logs. They had just a couple of nets, were not especially good and very expensive but we took one, just in case.

The other filling station proved to be even more expensive so we then thought of B&M on the other edge of town. At first we thought that they only stocked solid fuel but Christine did find them eventually and they were less than half the price of the first net as well as better looking, so we took a couple.

Time then to complete the journey to the boat - although Alice and Jess have stayed on this boat during the summer they have not visited it whilst in this marina.

After settling in they both eventually decided that more food today was a requirement so they were given instructions on how to prepare their own. Alice made a good go at eggy bread - and only set the smoke detector off once, it always does so when frying anything! - and Jess put together a good open pate sandwich.