Saturday 20th June 2020

 

Brenda took the dog out this morning and, after an hour, Harvey turned up back at the boat on his own. A frantic search for Brenda found her on the towpath talking with someone.

At Tracey’s, the fencing was finished and the gate hung. Well pleased with the job but hard work.

In the afternoon, we met with Martin and Shelley in the grounds of the Kings Lock pub, bringing our own beer. Again, it was nice to meet up with old friends. The Kings Lock would be our usual meeting place but it did feel funny not being allowed inside. There were quite a few groups meeting up in the same way with most tables being full. Roll on when the pubs reopen.

Of course, there were no toilet facilities so we had to break up early. Brenda went for fish and chips, while I dragged the dog back to the boat, desperate for the loo. It was a long way back!

We sat in the front cratch and ate our fish and chips, very novel. After a bit of TV, it was early nights.

We heard today that at long last, Matt has paid-off his ship in Korea. He went away on 14th December for what should have been a 14-week trip. 27½ weeks later, along with circumnavigating the world, he is on his way home.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Thursday 6 th September 2018 We started off just before 10am in not too bad weather. The whole of the surface of the canal was covered in a kind of white dust. It turned out it was some kind of seed probably from trees, but it was a weird sight. We quickly came across the first lock of the day beside the Gallows Inn pub. We were going to stop here last night but we were both glad we hadn’t. The pub didn’t look very welcoming and the area didn’t seem the best. We had been warned that the locks on the Erewash Canal were heavy. And they are. Brenda was really struggling with many of them which is very unusual. Not just the weight of the gates but also the difficulty in operating the paddle gear. It is not a good idea to leave the boat unattended in a double lock when it is the only boat in there, but there were a few locks were we had to do just that and even I struggled mightily with the locks. Yesterday we saw just four boats on the move all day, and they were all go...
Read more
Image
Thursday 8 th August 2019 We had spoken with our neighbours yesterday, Ken and Mary, both in their mid-70’s who have lived on their boat, continuously cruising for 11 years. We had agreed to move up the river, doing the locks, together. After a couple of trips to Tesco’s, again taking the trolley right to the boat and buying a new cordless vacuum cleaner, we set off. It felt fantastic to be out on the Thames. At Caversham Lock, there seemed to be plenty of colour and lots of people watching the boats. We were held for a while at the lock with a queue of cabin cruisers ahead of us. It is necessary to hold an Environmental Agency licence for navigating on the Thames. We had been told at Blake’s Lock that we would be able to obtain one at Caversham, but the lock was being manned by a volunteer who did not have authority to issue licences. Beyond the lock was no doubt Reading’s better face and it looked lovely from the river. Reading Bridge was a particularly attractive brid...
Read more
Image
Friday 22 nd February 2019 The fog first thing this morning was so thick you could see no more than 50 yards. A harbinger of a nice day it turned out. We were on the move by 8am for the mile run-in to Atherstone and we moored just before the top lock near a road bridge that is very convenient for the town. We are opposite the derelict factory of Wilson and Stafford. This was a felt hat making enterprise that made hats that were exported all over the world until closure about 35 years ago. Apparently, slaves on the West Indies sugar plantations all wore hats made in Atherstone. The factory is a blight on the town. It has been sold several times for housing development and would make desirable apartments. The frontage of the building is listed but the problem lies inside. There are many chemicals absorbed into the fabric of the building including mercury, a heavy metal used in the making of hats and asbestos. It would cost a fortune to demolish or develop, including clos...
Read more