Well, we've started our summer cruise and it's been bliss so far - just being able to cruise for an entire weekend has been great as Kev works most weekends and I don't, meaning we struggle to get time off together to take the boat out too far without mucho forward planning). Various problems with the alternator, a bit of engine work, and both Kev and I partaking in the Warwick Hospital Vistor's Experience (free surgical gown with ominous previous stainage with every entry! Bonus paper pants for anyone under a G.A. ) last year put a crimp in our cruising plans - so we're making up for it this year.

The main plan is to initially take the boat as far as we can and still be within commuting distance of work for both of us. Challenging perhaps, but definitely doable. For me it's Stockton on the GU from where I can catch a bus to Leamington, then a connecting bus to Stratford - it means painful 5am rises and late nights but I'd wrestle my own mother for a different view out of the window and a new pub on the doorstep. For Kev his new bike (which he has named Henrik... of Ibsen fame (which as I pointed out to him, while being an admirable homage to Scandivian literature doesn't bode well for him or the bike not ending their days like an Ibsen heroin - depressed, suicidal and ultimately deceased)) will leap into action, as he'll be cycling to work in Leek Wootton near Warwick each day - it's part of his "Training" for whatever his next sporting event will be... his heart is currently set on doing the Loch Ness Marathon in the autumn. Sounds far too exhausting to me. (Now, shall I have peanuts or Scampi Fries with my pint...?)

We have a week's holiday booked towards the end of June so we'll start it from that furthest point, and probably head out to Braunston (as that's where his dad's boat was moored in the seventies and he wants to relive his youth!) and perhaps head down the Oxford a little way, before returning to Stockton ready for work the next week. After that we intend to spend a week or so each in Long Itchington, Radford Semele, Leamington Spa, Warwick, Hatton, Kingswood (tbc because public transport not so good there!), Wootton Wawen, Wilmcote, Bishopton and finally Stratford - all of which we intend to commute from. If the weather's behaving itself, we may even branch out on to the River Avon and head up to Welford and Bidford, before doing the whole thing again in reverse! We intend to prove, contrary to some beliefs, that it is possible to CC and hold down two full-time jobs! I'm particularly looking forward to staying in Wilmcote and Bishopton, because other than are brief liaison with the Trent & Mersey last eyar when we first picked up the boat, these are the only two places we can pick up digital TV!

The success of this summer's cruising will help us plan future commutable cruises down the Avon, and up the Birmingham and Worcester or Grand Union towards Brum and on the Coventry. And if we time our holidays to coincide when we're at the furthest point on these stretches, we can also take extended cruises to the Shroppie, Trent & Mersey and Oxford. A masterplan, I tells you!

Anyway, it's back to sunny Stockton for me tonight, a brief pint of Hooky in The Boat pub followed by a pork chop supper and who knows, perhaps even a Dukes Of Hazzard DVD (no digital TV reception yet, remember)before a book at bedtime and listening to the birds sing farwell to the sun. Don't get me wrong, there's still plenty of DIY that needs doing, there's 6 packs of pine cladding still in cellophane on the front sofa, in need of varnishing and putting on the walls; four bookshelves which need mounting on the walls; half a tonne of black walnut laminate florring to go down, a bathroom that needs redecorating, windows that need edging... but for now, we're enjoying being boaters. DIY tomorrow. Bliss....