A Day On The River

A couple of weeks ago my friend Beth invited us for a day out on her parents' canal boat - unfortunately it wasn't the most beautiful day ever to be boating, but thankfully it only rained once for about 15 minutes (and at a convenient time to stop for a spot of lunch, at that).

We travelled from Reading to Shiplake and back, went through Sonning lock and I even got to have a go at steering! It was easier than I thought it would be and pretty fun. It probably helped that the boat has a top speed of 4mph...

We ran into some cute ducklings when we moored up for lunch; even when there was no food around this little one above was squawking and trying to bite his poor siblings. Guess we know who's boss!

It was a lovely day indeed for my first canal boat experience - I'm only sad I didn't take more photos of people. Tomorrow me and the boy are heading to Plymouth for a mini-holiday and his sister's graduation, and I will certainly be taking lots of photos of everything!

A Welsh Walk

I had a rather lovely (if sort of frantic) three day weekend dashing around doing nice things - on Friday I went to the Globe with my friend Miriam to see The Last Days of Troy, which was an excellent take on the myth (and funnier than I expected!). We also had a delicious lunch at Theo's Cafe, which belongs to the Globe, including the best vegetable tart I have ever had and at a super reasonable price - perfect for a quick lunch before a performance. Then me and Michael spent the weekend looking after his parents' dog, visiting my parents' cat and having a BBQ with friends on Sunday before heading back to Guildford. Here are some photos I managed to grab of our lovely (and tiring!) Saturday afternoon walk through the woods.

This is Rufus the crazy friendly  Welsh springer spaniel - he's only 18 months old so still loves running/jumping/exploring/licking/play-biting. Lovely but exhausting!

Lovely countryside just outside the suburbs of Reading.

"Surprise carrying!" Rufus was way too interested in some old bonfire of random rubbish and wasn't listening to reason (read: us firmly shouting "no" a lot and looking stern), so drastic action had to be taken...