Kind of Blue: On the (watery) road again

Actually we have been out of the marina for about a month but still in the Gloucester area. The winter was fine. No really bad weather but at times we were glad of the shelter from the wind and rain. Other than that I would say that marina life did not really suit us. We were lucky with our neighbours on one side ( Dave and Maggie ) who have become great friends but John on the other side was an arse! It took less a day for him to bang on our door to complain about the noise of the central heating and less than a week to register an official complaint about noise. We felt like naughty teenagers. Apparently there is an unwritten rule that heating systems should not be run after 9pm. If we ever forgot to turn it off he would be banging on the door at 3minutes past 9. So not a great start to our stay at Saul and things didn't get much better with no phone signal, intermittent Internet (at extra cost) and feeling very cooped up.

On a more positive note we had a very different Christmas on the boats with Jamie and Dominique. We bought nearly all the ingredients for Christmas dinner from a farm in Frampton and it was delicious. Hannah came after Boxing Day and learnt to knit!

In January we were dry!! Joined the gym, lost weight, felt fitter. In February we went to Cornwall and Hayling Island, ate and drank loads, put on weight and had a great time!!! Dad turned 80 and we celebrated with the whole family at Warners. Lots of fun.

This is the whole gang including Laura who made a surprise appearance from America. Lovely to see her:)

In March we explored the Gloucester area and some of the Cotswold towns. John has started training for Ride London in August. His road bike was in Solva in a West Wales (having been lent to his friend Dave) so John hatched a plan to get a lift down there and cycle back. Only 120 miles! I joined him on the second day as back up crew.