Farewell Finn, my faithful friend

So last week I said goodbye to my friend Finn, whom I've known for as long as I've been here reporting to you – three and a half years! He has been getting a bit slower with age, and with reluctance and the concern of their friends his people had finally decided that the time had come. Whoa, steady! What did you think I was on about? Put away those hankies! If you'd only waited I would have finished the previous sentence – the time had come for them to move to another job so they've gone to Hucknall in Nottinghamshire. I've told you about them before: Rev Helen and Rev Peter. Its Rev Peter who revs the car so much that Rev Helen won't let Rev Peter drive her. To celebrate their departure we went to an appropriately distant evening party in my mate Gunna's garden in Audlem – all three lots of "themselves" (mine, the Revs and Gunna's lot). The people kept apart from each other so to make up for it the four-legged set had a good chase, rolled about on the lawn and generally created a disturbance. Gunna has an older brother called Mungo who is getting on a bit but soon livened up when he saw the take-away food.... Well we gave Finn a good send off and to be honest I think he'll be glad of the rest.

What else is new around the village? Summer is apparently upon us and following my comments last month about about the sun beating down and it being "hot, damn hot" normal service was resumed with rain and storm. Fortunately not as bad as the hailstorm in USA recently. If you're of a nervous disposition don't watch this link!

Now that canal traffic is starting up again I've had to be a little more cautious about my canal swims – the other day a boat came through bridge 12 as I was well on the way to getting my bronze certificate for 25 widths. So to give you a flavour of canal swimming I've attached a few photos. Being a responsible type himself adds the caution – "don't try this at home, folks". Do you think Tom Daley could learn a few points from me about diving in? Probably not, but then I bet he can't swim with a stick in his mouth! Downside though, I had to have my quarterly shampoo. Fortunately no pictures since the first attempt when himself let go of me, all foamy and sudsy, to pick up his camera. It took him a while to get the soap off it .....

So that's all for now, I'll be back with you in August

Madai, your rovering repoorter

PS: well some of you are spreading the word because we're getting lots of readers. Keep up the good work!