Happy Birthday and a Trip Home.

Thursday 5th to Saturday 7th September 2019 in Newark.
This really is a lovely mooring! The sunrise through the arches of the town bridge made a good start to the day.

Thursday was R's birthday so we had a relaxing day. The day started with "hunt the gift" as M had hidden R's present in a "safe place" and couldn't for the life of her remember where it was! Happily, there are only so many hiding places in a narrowboat, so the present was soon found (among M's undies!). Small, but beautiful - it is a sound chip and tiny speaker that R can fit into one of the small Terrier locomotives on the Hayling layout so that it will provide all the sound effects. We've heard it in operation and it's astonishingly realistic.

The speaker, that also has to fit inside the engine, is tiny!

We continued with breakfast at Waitrose and followed that by a gentle wander around this lovely town, including another look in at the castle.

In the early afternoon, we treated ourselves to a proper afternoon tea in the Old Bakery Tea Rooms.

The tea was impressive and we managed to finish all but one small piece. We were stuffed at the end!

Almost as lovely as the sunrise was the evening light on the castle opposite our moorings with the moon in a clear blue sky.

On Friday, M needed to go home for a night. We had found that there is a fascinating café in the old railway station building and they open at 6:30 - so, we went there for very early breakfast before M left on the 9.07 train. It is an interesting building and the interior has been imaginatively recreated. The food was good too!

R spent the rest of the day finding a DIY shop to get some bits for MM and then doing some work for Capture. At home, M found that a new book on the Hayling Island Railway had arrived for R. Yes, the teacosy wanted to read it too....

On Saturday, R spent the morning working on some train bits and then did some more Capture work before going back to the café in the station to await M's return.
In the evening, we went to have a celebratory meal in the local Pizza Express. Very unusually, the building has a round tower at one end.

Unfortunately all the tables in the upper floor were full, but we had a lovely table on the ground floor overlooking the river.

The manager was very kind and, when he heard that it was R's birthday, he gave us each a complimentary glass of Prosecco. A great evening and a lovely birthday!