Friday 19th. We arrived at Jannock late morning and unloaded the car and phoned Brian Holt. He and Diana had volunteered to help us work down Stockton flight to the Blue Lias at the bottom. When we arrived we were the sixth boat there so moved onto the last mooring space bankside. We later shuffled back alongside Harnser when more boats arrived. With no formal activities planned for Friday, we greeted friends, old and new, as they arrived and finally adjourned to the bar for a meal and social evening.
Saturday 20th. The sun shone on the 15 boats and 4 camping units gathered at the Blue Lias. The teams went off to do the treasure hunt I had set along the towpath between Southam road bridge and the top lock. Brian was also running a fender throwing competition at the same time. All competitors returned safely and tea was taken on the grass alongside the boats. To be honest, we spent most of the weekend occupying the lawns outside the boats as the weather was so good. The evening entertainment this year was a duet, Jane Rouse and Tim Christian who had us singing along to numerous canal favourites including one that most people knew all of the words to, London to Birmingham in 4 1/2 minutes. After a morning spent collecting fees and organising things, this was my first chance for a good sit down. Their excellent performance was followed by the legendary Cutweb raffle which took almost an hour to distribute all of the donated prizes. As ticket picker, I was getting hoarse by the time they had all gone. Sunday 21st. The task of booking in the donated lots for the charity auction started at 10am and it looked as though the auction may run over into the planned sunday lunch, fortunately the two didn't clash and so we all sat down to eat on time. During lunch the legendary Bill Davies <http://www.billybubbles.demon.co.uk> arrived to visit along with Fanny the Woof. After eight years cruising around the continent in his narrowboat, Rosy, he has returned to the UK and the rigours of getting a BSC on her. He joined the communal lunch before heading back to Calcutt where Rosy is moored at present. The Sunday evening quiz at Blue Lias no longer occurs and so we had to hastily organise our own which Glen lead for us. Monday 22nd. Not much clearing up required so we started up, crossed the canal for a water fill and then headed South up the Stockton flight sharing with John P. on Black Pig. We made a good time and said farewell to him when we moored up ready to head home again. We went home feeling we had experienced a great weekend, I was happy hearing Brenda laugh so much considering what she has been through recently. Graham www.jannock.org.uk [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
