Market Drayton

Was a case of shall we shan't we this morning, couldn't make up our minds whether to go or stay. At midday we decided to go, the wind had dropped although it did look like rain. Noticed in one of the books that the cutting ahead could be a bit on the narrow side and its sods law that as soon as we entered the cutting a boat was coming the other way. We pulled over as near to the side as we could to let him past, luckily this was the narrowest spot and the other boats we encountered were able to pass with a few inches to spare. Got to Tyrley locks and the wind got up, boat coming up gave us a bit of advice about the weirs in each pound as they are a bit of a hazard at the moment with all the rain we have had recently. Paul was so busy talking to a guy on a boat waiting that he didn't notice the boat slowly being drawn towards the weir only me shouting at him made him get his concentration back. These locks were very busy with boats coming up only us going down so invariably there were a couple of boats in each pound waiting for us to come out of the lock. At lock 4 we went in and the boat in 5 waiting to come up sat in the lock as the pound has a shelf tow path side so it is best to pass in the middle of the pound and not try to moor up. We were hoping that with the amount of traffic we had passed Market Drayton would be empty but no, we had the last set of rings before bridge 62. Mind you as I write this there are lots of boats behind us on pins obviously a popular spot and they are still arriving at 9pm.
We walked up to the town just for a look round had to go to the bank so that is now sorted. Went to Morrisons for milk and ended up with a rucksack and 2 bags of shopping. Paul tells me he is not coming in another supermarket with me as I tell lies about the amount of shopping I am going to get and he has to carry the heavy stuff (which is usually his beers). Does this man want to eat I ask my self. Don't think there is another waterside supermarket until we get to Whaley Bridge so it looks as if I will have a lot of lonely supermarket visits. We went to The Talbot for a meal and I have never seen so much food on a plate. I had even ordered a small portion and still couldn't eat it all, so no room for a pudding. Our friends who originate from Hyde nr Manchester told us the further North we went the larger the meals and we thought they were joking. Paul can afford to put on a couple of stone I certainly can't. Paul is getting in to the different beers though. I had my normal cider and black and noticed the cider was 6% proof good job I only had a half. Have met up with nb Chickadee here, they originate from Sittingbourne in Kent which is about 5 miles from where we come from, last time we saw them was in Rugby last summer so was nice to catch up again. We are hoping to get to Audlem tomorrow so I think we are planning on a fairly early start as we have a few locks to do. For the past couple of mornings we havent got up until 8.30 so had better set the alarm so we can be on the move by 9ish.