Thanks for the welcome home willowfae, it's good to be back, if only for a few days.

For those regular readers of the entries from the narrowboat in France, I'll continue to post the boat log entries in the mornings until I return to said boat. Willowfae had been posting them for me, one week later, as I was posting most of them 'snail mail' from the depths of rural Burgundy, Voges and Lorraine. It worked well most of the time and I can't thank her enough for her commitment to keeping it all up to date.

Returned to find your lovely cards waiting for me meallanmouse ta ever so. I had been anticipating receiving them via MWNN but, here I am, collecting in person. It was the threat of the French strikes preventing MWNN's return home to give the Founder's Day address at Q.E. school on Saturday that has forced our return 'en mass' (that and the really draining hot weather that had both me and the dogs in a pretty poor state each day by early afternoon.)

Winge of the day; - checked the video recorder for the last 5 eps. of BtVS

first ep - no sound - thanks a bunch Sky 1
second and third eps - all ok
penultimate and final eps - not there! - bloody resident outlaw had remembered to set the cable box to Sky 1 on his departure but, while he was there, on the day of the transmission, had tuned to BBC4 - video duly recorded live coverage of the British and American troops in Iraq and a program about 'famous quotes' - aaargh it's a case of deja vu; I lost the final eps of Series 6 in the same way.

Consolation prize; wonderful willowfae had recorded the final ep. for me (just in case something terrible happened to my VCR (namely Uncle D.) and catsyj has sent me CDs of all 5 eps (albeit they can be watched only in postage stamp size on my CD as it is in realplayer format which is not compatible with my TurboDVD player.

whinge over; it's good to be back - full-sized bed; full-sized bath; constant supply of water; washing machine; dishwasher; fridge/freezer; north-facing parlour etc etc. (getting back to basics is fine, in moderation, it makes you appreciate the things we take for granted in the 'developed world'!

Off to take a bath, with one of the mini-bombs from Epinal.