As forecast...

…Winter is back with us, with a bitter easterly wind making things feel very cold indeed. However, we made it into the village this morning and sorted our registration with the surgery there. It was quite a run around, with loads of forms to complete and a last minute hold up because the administrator who does the IT wasn't happy that our Post Office form confirming that our mail was to be delivered there didn't have a PO stamp on it.

No matter, we got it sorted and will be able to use the surgery from next week.

This is the appropriate place to record once more our gratitude to Jane Howarth (and to her partner Will Chapman who's done his bit when Jane was away) for the use of their address in Alrewas for the last eight years. It's made life so much easier being able to go to a boater savvy practice like Alrewas – we hope and believe that Willington will be as good, even if they are a bit more demanding about proof of identity than Alrewas was.

Apart from these excitements, we've lurked in the boat, mostly. I did go and buy a bag of fuel from the shop; we're using just over a bag per week and wouldn't have made it to the weekend on what we had in the coal box, especially with this wind blowing. It meant that I was presented with our first parcel via the new PO and Still Waters system, a pack of Craftmaster Wash and Wax.

It's such a shame it's too cold to wash the other side of the boat this week…

/wahaha

Sally tomorrow, so watch this space.