Bits and pieces

On Thursday, we saw The Amazing Spiderman 2, and wouldn't have been too bothered if we'd missed it. Far too reliant on special effects - we saw it in 3D - and, well... bring back Toby Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, I say! The hero has gained superpowers that didn't exist in the good old days of Spidey, and this has taken away a lot of his vulnerability. We won't bother with the third in the series.

On Friday we drove to The Musician in Leicester, to see Dave Swarbrick and Said the Maiden together. The Swarb's solo violin didn't impress me much, but he and guitarist Jake Wilson were amazing together. So, too, were Said the Maiden, who performed a superlative 45 minute set, and later sung a Fairport Convention song "Quiet joys of brotherhood", with Swarb on the fiddle. (Recently, in an interview on Radio Cambridge, Dave said that Said the Maiden's version of this song is the best he's ever heard.) A brilliant evening.

Leaving the gig at nearly midnight, the Maidens came back to the boat with us, and spent the night, before heading off the next afternoon to Derby, where they took part in a St George's Day celebration in the town centre.

As we were all enjoying a breakfast of French pastries, Rolling Wave, in the berth next to us, spluttered noisily into life, and left about fifteen minutes later, on her way back to ABNB's base in Crick. She is for sale, and Yelvertoft Marina have a small number of ABNB's boats berthed here. Rolling Wave wasn't selling, and management wanted her gone. With Smudge on our other side also away from the marina at the moment, we have much-improved views from inside Kantara now - very welcome!

This morning, the weather's cold, wet and windy - perfect for cozying down with the stove on!