Tuesday 9th July
Yesterday was spent finding the fishing tackle shop, which for some unknown reason was not open, doing washing at Silly Suds launderette (a very good launderette with a lovely lady running it), shopping at Sainsbury’s and going to the pub. We went to the pub three times (shock, horror). Firstly, while we were waiting for the washing to finish so we could go back and put it in the drier, we went to The White Swan (a bit pricey but a nice hotel, where they have lavatories not toilets!) for one.
Then after we had put the washing in the drier, done some shopping and taken it back to the boat and gone back to the launderette to pick up the washing we went to The Golden Bee. Here we met a very interesting chap from Coventry who kept us entertained for ages with his historical and personal knowledge of his local area.
We returned to The Golden Bee in the evening for a steak which was, as usual, very good. On the way back to the boat we had to pass the ice cream boat and as he was still open we just had to have a curly cone, yum!
The amount of people here enjoying the sights in the sunshine were amazing, even late in to the evening. Unlike Monday night when we only had the gentle sounds of the Morris dancer’s accordian, bells and sticks, last night we had a large group of rowdy youth in the park, messing around and generally being loud and stupid.
There was a boat called Raven moored opposite us on the linear moorings on Waterside, we know him from when we were moored at Thurmaston because he was in Syston then. Someone from this group of youths must have upset him because about 11 pm there was an almighty kerfuffle and he was out there shouting and swearing and saying ‘Just you £#!#*#$ try it then!’ His wife was trying to calm him down. According to the bloke on the hire boat next to us the police came and carted someone off.
We spent the rest of the night with one ear open just in case there was any more trouble.
