I took Annie out for a walk at seven this morning. The fog was incredibly thick, I could hardly see my hand in front of my face and I couldn't see a thing of Annie. It's good that she doesn't go far away from me! I could hear the russle of grass as she was running through the field.

It's been a busy day here at Norbury today. First job was to get the three dayboats away and then plough on with the other normal daily chores. Kim and Joyce have been busy in the tearoom apart from their breaks when Lorraine and Denise took command. Ange has looked after the customers that returned from their holidays on our hire boats this morning and the five parties who have departed this afternoon.

Jake has done the internal checks on the boats and has shown the boats out this afternoon, whilst Fred has turned the boats round, blacked the boats on the dock and Bernard has done the engine checks.

It's been alot warmer today, Fred has even taken off his jumper and is now working away in his t-shirt - that's the first time for a few months... (not the working bit! haha).

There was a production put together by the British Transport Commission (predecessors to British Waterways who have recently been taken over by the Canal and River Trust) called the Gentle Highway. There was one boat today, that really didn't understand why the canal system is nicknamed "The Gently Highway". Following a pumpout he needed to turn round, so put the gearbox in reverse and revved the engine until it was black smoking. After the boat began moving backwards, he moved the control into forwards and did the same. The only problem was the gear linkage had fallen apart and he careered into one of our hire boats and a tremendous speed. Denise even came out of the laundry to see what the bang was. I also heard the bang and went out of the office to help. Once we put the linkage back together he managed to turn round. If only he had used a few less revvs then he wouldn't of had the collision.

I'm now starting to look forward to having a few days off. Simon is back on Monday so I'm spending the day in the office with him and then I'm away for four days. We are going to be going to Audlem from Tamworth for the Transport Festival which is held in the field behind the Shroppie Fly on an annual basis. Further information can be found here. As usual we are heading across Birmingham to enjoy some city life and to get in some shopping before we head off down the rural Shroppie.

That's it from me today.

Best regards,

David Ray