A Shooting Star - and Breakfast at "Pierreponts"

Monday 15th October, 2012 in Goring.
Last night, we walked up to the "Miller" in Goring village and joined Abbie and Dave for coffee after their dinner with Jenny and Phil. It was so nice to see them again and we stayed chatting until way past our bed-time. On our way walking back to MM in the dark, the stars were really bright and you could even (just) see the Milky Way. As we were marvelling at the skies above, a huge shooting star streaked across the sky leaving a trail of sparks behind it. It lasted much longer than most shooting stars - perhaps it was "space debris," who knows.
Back on MM, we noticed that on 14th October last year we arrived in Goring and moored up on our way to Guildford just four days after MM was launched, having done 16 hours' travel. Today, we arrived in Goring, exactly one year to the day later, having done 435.8 hours' travel!!  By pure coincidence, we saw we had even moored in exactly the same spot.  Extraordinary!

14th October, 2011 at Goring

What a wonderful year separates Goring on 14th October 2012 from Goring on 14th October 2011!

14th October, 2012 in exactly the same place!

Today started very well with breakfast at "Pierreponts" in the village. We both had boiled eggs (which arrive wearing little egg-cosies) with Marmite soldiers - delicious! They also make the best cappucino in England (at least, it's R's favourite).

The pretty little cafe was, predictably, full of happy folk starting their day with excellent food and drinks. Pierreponts only opens for breakfast and lunch and, looking at the menu on the wall, M declared that she wanted to work her way down it from top to bottom!

While we were there, two small groups of children arrived from the local primary school. They were doing a project to learn about local businesses - and their "research" at Pierreponts involved drinking hot chocolate and eating cup cakes. We wish that school had been that much fun in our day!
Later in the day, we called in to Capture to say Hi and then bought just a "few bits" in the village. We walked back to MM past Goring lock. The "Red Boards" have gone, but the river is still running very quickly - at between two and three miles an hour.

In the afternoon, Jenny and Phil came to MM for a visit, tea and cakes. They have lived all their lives in the village but have never been much involved with the Thames and we don't think that they had ever been on a narrowboat before; they seemed very impressed by MM.

Later still, Clare and John from Capture also popped in after work and had a glass of wine with us. It was very nice to welcome them for the first time.
When we arrived here yesterday, there was only one other boat moored up here; it seemed to be deserted so was probably abandoned here due to the "Red Boards." However, by the end of today there were a few other "gin palaces" moored up, plus one, rather scruffy, narrowboat.
Today: Just 2.9 hours to charge the batteries.