Crick's Indian restaurant: excellent

We did no boating today, but I retightened the mooring ropes every now and again. We are now as close to the bank as I think we'll get. Photo tomorrow if I remember.

I cleaned the top of the boat with a microfibre cloth and propped up the solar panels with soup tins to face approximately south as we'll be here for a few days. The boat is now covered in hawthorn blossom again - it's that time of year.

Boats are continuing to arrive for the boat show; May Contain Nuts came in in front of us. Nigel has an interesting boat, with the engine not at the back, or even amidships, but at the bow, powering a hydraulic pump. Everything is hydraulic drive: main propulsion plus both bow and stern thrusters. It doesn't seem to be very efficient. I said we use about 1.25 litres per hour of engine running; Nigel said his consumption is about three times as much. Oo-er.

Walking to the marina for a cup of tea with Robert and Margaret on Blue Iris took an age as we stopped and chatted to loads of people on the towpath.

I put down my mug to take this photo of a yellow biplane overflying the marina and show site.

In the evening, as promised, we went to the Indian Lodge restaurant in Crick. We were joined by Margaret and Robert and had a very good meal. We ate quite early at 6pm, and found we were the only diners. Perhaps it gets busier later in the evening - I hope so, as it would be a real shame if it doesn't last. The restaurant is attached to the Royal Oak pub, which means that you can have a proper ale with your food. The menu was refreshingly short; I had lamb chilli garlic for the main course. The meat was tender and tasty. Before that I had a spicy chilli chicken starter which I won't have again. The menu described it as Indo-Chinese, which should have been sufficient warning. It was more Chinese than Indian - very nice if you like Chinese food, I'm sure. Overall, though, it was a good experience; I can see us going back there before too long.

When we left I found my bike had another puncture, in the back wheel this time, so I had to push it back to the boat. A job for the morning.

As we walked back the sun was setting over the canal.

Tomorrow we'll be helping to set up the BCF stand in what used to be called the Kingfisher Marquee (Boating Marquee?), so there'll be quite a buzz around the place as the other exhibitors set up their stalls.