A riotous afternoon aboard No Problem and an eviction from Paddington

Sunday saw the Sunday lunch club reconvened for one of Sirs renowned Sunday dinners on No Problem plus Les and Jaq from NB Valerie. Actually, Les and Jaq were actually invited - we just muttered, 'apple crumble' and turned up!

 Jaq giggles as we  I rib her unmercifully about her inability to speak English like wot we do

 We all seem to be looking a bit worse for wear by this stage

Sue wearing the only possible expression when you're eating one of Jaq's Angel Bars - and yes Vic; I did spot you hiding the last two!

 Sadly we could only stop the one day so yesterday morning we pulled pins getting to Northolt ish about 2.pm. I stayed with MR whilst G walked to his Aunt's for a quick visit and to collect our fuel filters we'd had delivered there. We pulled pins as soon as he returned, eating supper on the hoof, and arrived in Paddington Basin about 8.30. The last available space was outside the M & S Cafe and I promised myself a treat of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs in the morning - little did I know!

 We tied the front of MR to the last of the bollards and the back to a pontoony bit at the end of the basin

 and then let Daisy out to play for a while

I was just crawling, exhausted, into bed when there was a knock on the boat from the local security blokes (not C &RT).

 10.45pm, "you can't moor that barge here mate".

"Why not?"

"Because that pontoon is private property"

"We'll untie it then"

"Then I'll report you to C & R T for blocking the navigation"

"please do, because we're not blocking anything"

"You can't stay here"

"Where do you expect us to go at this time of night?"

"you can't moor that barge here"

"why didn't you tell us earlier?"

"you can't moor that here"

Bored with the circular 'jobs worth' conversation, G untied the stern rope from Mr Stroppy knickers' pontoon and slung a mud weight out and we went to bed. There was another knock 15 minutes later but we ignored it.

 7.00 am this morning I was woken to the bleep bleep of a reversing lorry and there's another knock on the boat - this lorry with a dredger on was parallel to MR waiting to be put in the water where we were moored - why didn't the bloody idiot tell us that the night before. These guys were very pleasant and gave us 5 mins to drag on clothes and get MR out of the way - so much for smoked salmon and scrambled eggs - we didn't even get a cup of tea or clean our teeth!

With no other moorings available (we could hardly breast up on someone at that time of day - and anyway signs say it's forbidden) we had no choice but to continue on towards Camden Locks. It was, of course, chucking it down with rain. Two soggy, thirsty, hungry and unhappy bunnies