We are expecting my wife’s two sons, their partners and our two grandchildren to descend on the boatyard at Wayford Bridge this morning for a leisurely trip down the River Ant, so we are up, breakfasted, car loaded with food, boating paraphernalia and dog, and ready to leave the house by 10am – quite impressive for a Sunday!
Once everybody is on board, we motor down the River Ant, across Barton Broad to How Hill, where we moor up, and my wife prepares bacon butties, cheesy chips and drinks for everyone. Ice creams are procured from the local shop for dessert, and everybody’s happy.
Getting ready for the return trip, I manage to lose my balance, fall backwards and bash the back of my head on a metal bracket attached to the boat windscreen. It hurts (a bit) and I have drawn blood, but it doesn’t seem too serious so my wife holds a cold, wet handful of tissues over the back of my head while I steer the boat back up the river to Wayford Bridge. As we are getting everybody (and everything) off the boat and onto dry land, I put my hand to the back of my head and can feel that I have a gash in my scalp, so my wife and I head over to the minor injuries at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital to get it checked out. Luckily the injury is fairly superficial, and a very nice chap cleans the wound and glues my scalp back together again. Not quite the ending to the day that we had planned, but all’s well that ends well.