Sunday 20th August
So… After our brief stopover at Mercia Marina we left this morning with washing done, batteries charged, water tank full and poo tank empty and returned to Willington Visitor Moorings as we had arranged a grocery delivery from Morrisons this evening.
So there we were watching the world go by when we heard a call “Hello Joy”, “Hello Chris” and there was nb Jubilee passing en route to the IWA Festival at Ilkeston over the bank holiday weekend.
Later Jan surprised us by popping in (they had moored about ¼ mile away) and came in for a cup of tea while John cycled back to Branston for the car.
Jan kindly invited us for an evening meal but since we were expecting Morrisons we ‘reversed’ the invitation and we produced a Mushroom and Green Pepper Stroganoff on Wrens-Nest.
Jan contributed some extra mushrooms and a sponge for desert and we enjoyed a really pleasant evening.
Tuesday 22nd August
After a quiet day yesterday we had a late-ish start at 11am and had a lock free journey, cruising up to Horninglow Basin where we were tied up by half past twelve on the visitor mooring just past the basin.
In the afternoon we decided that we would go and a take a look at The National Brewery Centre, we found that we had just missed the bus which would take us almost directly there so we decided to walk.
Big mistake, we were in need of a drink before the tour of the centre!
The museum and buildings were very interesting though and at £8.95 each for us ‘Seniors’ we thought it good value especially as it included 3 beer tokens each so you can sample a variety of their wares in The Brewery Tap.
https://youtu.be/KfD1-hImuLU
Needless to say we caught the bus back from outside Sainsburys!
This evening we cooked lamb chops with pea, mint & chive mash inspired by Jamie Oliver’s 5 Ingredients – Quick & Easy Food recipes which was on TV the previous evening.
Wednesday 23rd August
Today we ventured into town again, after cooking a ‘Full English’ to sustain us, but we were now more savvy about the bus service although I had to watch out, as the (lady) bus driver was very covetous of my trilby.
We had a snack of tea, hot chocolate and fruit toast at Muffin Break and had a wander around the town. Joy bought a new bag and splashed out £2 for a T shirt for me in Primark, but the rest of our purchases were mainly edible.