Money money money

Any boater reading this will already have heard the news that the EC have refused to let HMG allow continued use of red diesel for pleasure craft. So sometime we'll be paying about double what we do now. I guess that's another £250 or £300 a year for us. Ah well. Apparently they are allowed to make arrangements for a transition so perhaps that nice Mr Brown will take pity and give us lots of warning or maybe phase in the change. We live in (slender) hopes.

I shouldn't think many people are boating from choice at the present. The rivers down here are in "red" condition and it has been really windy. My garden fence was leaning badly today, and having propped it up, the gate won't now shut, partly because the wood is swollen with the constant wetness.

Changing the subject completely (boaters may switch off now if they want), we went to a fascinating do on Friday. It was Roger Watson's 60th birthday bash coupled with the 17th anniversary of Traditional Arts Project (TAPS), of which he is artistic director. Roger is well known to folkies throughout the land and a friend of ours. As we expected, it was a real mutlicutural event. The (huge) buffet was a mixture of very authentic Indian and Middle Eastern snacks and sweets, and the entertainment featured a whole list of acts including an amazing steel drummer, a lady playing Andean? music (pan pipes etc), a village folk choir, a mumming play with longsword dancers, songs from the brilliant Rob Johnson, a few more I can't now recall, and of course Roger's Anglo/ Afro/ Indian band Boka Halat who were on top form. All that and free guinness too. What more can I say!

Christmas is coming and we went to a carol singing session at a pub near Alton. We sang for nearly two hours. Exhausting.