Bartimaeus

Having arrived at one of the biggest attractions on the England and Wales Inland Waterways on a bank holiday weekend, we have chosen to let the folk that only have this weekend free to cram in their experience. The weather has allowed us to stay in one place and still have fully charged batteries, so we have waited it out. There is no rush.

Bryn and Nye have chosen to go on a holiday to Lisbon. I have never been there, but was amused that on the day we were doing our walk below and on the Pontcysyllte aqueduct we received holiday photos from them, including this.

They didn't go over it, but saw it from the bus on the way to another attraction. I received it as we were walking from the road bridge to the riverside view of the aqueduct. It reminded me of when we were in York with Bryn and Nye was in New York and we exchanged tourist sights. The day before they had sent pictures of goats and rabbits and sheep from an animal centre, and we had walked through a field of lambs at Chirk and shared our cute wee sleepy lambs. 

On the next day we weren't going anywhere but Shane was interspersing working on improving features of the blog editor with improving the look of Bartimaeus. There were a few stages to the the makeover for Bartimaeus, which made a balance of physical activity and sitting concentrating and both were giving satisfying results. 

I was mainly watching his work or writing a blog or planning the next one, which I will say is helping him by testing the new features and giving feedback.

I did sporadic composing of "Walking In The Air" in the ridiculously  warm April sunshine, changing position to avoid burning. In the evening, Nye sent some news of their busy day. It didn't look as sunny there, but it looked warm enough since Bryn was in a t-shirt.

Nye was doing the messaging and photos and he mentioned a gondola and a tram. It's not Venice so the gondola was not a boat. I hadn't noticed the gondolas behind Bryn. They didn't mention any vertigo when they were high in the air.

The gondola glass was much cleaner than our windows, but they were getting a polish now along with the paintwork.

We did move Bartimaeus a little yesterday, but only to turn in the marina entrance and return to the same mooring spot to start cleaning the other side. I felt I had left all the work to Shane so offered to give it a wash and then we could go for a walk into Chirk while it dried in the morning sun. 

Our shopping trip was very successful, with a bakery where we got wholemeal bread and welshcakes. Nye had sent us a picture of one of his Lisbon meals the night before. I regretted that in our lunch spot I failed to send him a return picture of Welsh rarebit with laverbread, which Shane had ordered. I had fancied it, but was not sure if I would like the laverbread having never had it. Shane was happy to let me slice some off and get a taste. I couldn't detect the laverbread at all, so it is an ideal way to get your vitamins, if you don't eat many vegetables, so I  think it would have gone down well with Nye. I enjoyed the side salad with my toastie.

This morning Shane wanted to crack on with doing the polishing. He was finding it slow going, so I joined him since he had two dusters. He sprayed and smeared. I buffed behind him, which took longer. He did polishing of the inside of the windows while he waited for me to catch up and then did a bit of buffing of the bow.

Bartimaeus is getting smarter with all the polishing. My smart boy is polishing up the blog, so it's looking smart too!