Memories

28th August

On Wednesday we moored in Runnymede and took a walk to the Magna Carta memorial. Then an early night as we had been travelling quite long days in the rain and both of us felt exhausted. This being more justified for Pete than for me as he had been out in his canoe.

On a much warmer day, travelling on through Staines, I noticed my old friend's workshop door was open. They had no idea we would be passing, so fish-wife-like I yelled 'Ali' and much to my delight he came out and waved, then called Georgina and Emma whereupon we all waved frantically and we hooted and then we were gone!! We hope to moor up to see them on the way back, as at the moment we are on a schedule to get to Kingston to see my Mum and take her to see Small again.

With the sun shining intermittently we moved on to Shepperton; Lindsay's Lawn (as we know it, although where we got this from I can't remember) . Lots of memories here of mooring the barge several times at this spot with various collections of our boys when they were much younger, we don't think we have been back since. We have old photos of ball games, bbqs, and splashing about in the barge's tender, Squirty. It's a lovely grassed area in the Desborough Cut, backed by trees beyond which is a cricket ground - Pete used to play a game sending the boys to search for cricket balls and certain tree leaves and conkers; kept them amused for hours, whilst we set up lunch or a barbecue. Good times.
They have restricted the mooring space now for no reason that we can fathom. Such a shame.
The sun came out strongly in the afternoon, enough to dry some clothes and for us to sit on the bank and soak it up, then off to the the Kings Head pub for a pint.

Location:Shepperton

Bank holiday rain

25th August

We left a busy Pangbourne on bank holiday Monday in the pouring rain. The evening before we had witnessed the most amazing piece of mooring by a 15 year old (we later found out) who came hurtling into a tight space in front of us in a 12' wide plastic monstrosity without hitting us, the bank or the boat ahead! We were impressed, although the lady we spoke to on board (presumably a mum of the party of 8) was somewhat bemused as she told us through the shower room hatch which was merely 2' from our bow, that they had tried to moor at The Swan and had taken out the railings there; she was trying to put on make up at the time and ended up with a streak of eyeliner across her cheek as the boat ricocheted! The fearlessness of the young!

We intending to do a short day, but once we were drenched decided it made no difference and pressed on to Henley, observing the wet crowds piling out of the Reading festival towards the station and onto river taxis with their backpacks and soggy bedding.

We moored by the park, had showers, lit the fire and filled the boat with steam from our wet clothes.


                                               Pangbourne: Looming boat behind us too


                                                          The shower hatch next door


                                                  Wet Henley park through our window.

Location:Henley

Enthusiastic Dave

23rd August

Pete's old colleague and mate arrived on Saturday morning for our next leg out onto the Thames. He is the most upbeat and interesting character and so enthusiastic about the boat, it was great to have him with us. Shame his girlfriend couldn't have been there too. We travelled to Wallingford, stopping for lunch in the sunshine, Dave spotting a good deep, bankside mooring. This was a long day for us, but we needed to be able to drop Dave somewhere where he could get a train back to Reading where he had left his car. He made an arrangement with his friend Martin to pick him up from Wallingford. Coincidentally, this Martin used to work at the prop makers where I worked!! So at the end of the day, he and I were talking shop as were Dave and Pete! Small world.

Dave has a theory which I particularly like. The reason so many of us like this way of life, pootling along on boats, is because us bipeds were designed to see the world and experience life at 3miles an hour (walking speed) and that is just the rate we travel at. At this natural speed you have plenty of time to absorb the peaceful surroundings and enjoy the atmosphere and the Thames on a sunny, slightly autumnal day hits all the senses. His theory adds up.

On one of my teaching assistant training days, I learned that nowadays we are bombarded with as much information in one day as people in the 17th C would have had a whole year to take in. Perhaps that's why so many of us are stressed. We need to sit and stare more.




                                          Dave


                                                 Queue at Goring Lock


All three of our fellow lock companions rush to grab the last moorings at Goring, good job we were going on!

Location:Thames to Wallingford

Back to London

21st August

We moored in Oxford on 20th, Thursday, and of course had to have a beer at The Bookbinders, a great pub. I sat at a table whilst Pete got our drinks and a lady came and sat down with her glass of wine and asked "what are you still doing here?" I explained I had only just arrived and she roared with laughter, told me she had been there for a funeral gathering that afternoon and had come in to say goodbye to other guests as she was now about to leave! I guess because I had a black top on and she was completely drunk, I was mistaken for a mourner!! She was remarkably jovial, so we continued to have a ridiculous chat about the fact that she had missed the food and was therefore more drunk than she would have been and off she tottered!

I phoned Olly and once he had said 'you're only an hour away by car,' I was overtaken by the idea of going back to see the baby again and given that we had moored at the bottom of the canal just a stone's throw from the station, it became a reality. I left Pete on Friday morning to catch the 09.31 to Paddington and spent the day with our new addition whilst Pete chilled out on the boat after visiting his favourite cheese emporium in the covered market. I had a lovely day with the family, their second excursion with the buggy; we walked to Finsbury Park in sunshine. I spent as much time as I could cuddling my new grandson, watching his every expression - this being my new number one pastime! Oh joy!

Got back to Oxford at 8.20pm, and back on board for the night ready for our friend Dave to arrive the next morning for our trip out onto the Thames.

Cheeky behaviour

When I came out of The Boat Inn in Thrupp, where we had managed to get the last mooring space, I was surprised to see our boat had moved up some 20 feet. I was approached by a young woman from the newly moored boat behind us, who apologetically explained that she was having a mattress delivered to her boat the next morning and needed to be near the roadside so was forced to move us with the help of the people on the boat in front of us who also had to move. She was so polite and repeated that it was not the sort of thing she would ever normally do that I just went with it. However by the time Pete joined me after finishing his pint and he was none too happy, I had reconsidered the etiquette of doing this. They had had to remove our carefully positioned mooring pins and undo ropes on our decks which involves climbing on board. In any other situation (i.e: a house) this would surely be trespassing. It seems petty to be troubled by it but I fail to see why she couldn't have asked in the pub first to see if we were there so that we were given the chance to move it ourselves. It's pretty obvious that that was where we were likely to be. And I couldn't help thinking that if it were us awaiting a delivery, we would have made sure we got to that very popular mooring much earlier in the day to ensure we got in.

This sounds like a pathetic whinge, but sometimes boat people are a little too casual.

Location:Thrupp

Old haunt

19th August

We moved just South of Banbury on the afternoon I arrived back, moored and had a quiet evening, then set off next morning on a sunny but windy Tuesday along this familiar stretch to a favourite mooring, Somerton. The picturesque five bar gate across the field from our mooring has gone though. In its place is a sheep pen!

The locks are spaced out along this stretch and I am ashamed to say I let Pete operate them all as I know some of the bottom gates are too heavy for me. There are quite a few boats out, it being the summer hols, so there were a couple of lock queues to wait for but nothing too long - just long enough to give you the chance to put the kettle on again. One daft boater came at me through a bridge, lined up perfectly to pass us then looked the other way so that his steering went to pot and he was heading straight for us and didn't even realise. Pete was ready to yell from the bow and I had to stop but not before I had nudged a moored boat unfortunately. No damage done and nothing dangerous, but the driver seemed oblivious to the chaos he had caused, just said sorry with a laugh as he came past. Hey ho!

We stocked up at the Pig Place once again, another favourite haunt for the pigs we are! The weather had been kind to us all day but just as we put our chairs up on the bank, a shower came upon us. Pete decided to go canoeing in it instead ( the rain, not the chair!)

We had no neighbours for the night; beautifully peaceful, just the ducks quacking.



Somerton Deep Lock

Location:Somerton

A very important detour

14th August

The day after Pete's birthday, We woke up to a message from Olly that my grandchild may be on it's way. Luckily, Pete had moved the car a short way down the canal, so we boated through Claydon Locks, moored up and I drove to my Mum's, where she and I waited for news which came in fits and starts by excited and exhausted Olly texts! Pete moved on to Cropredy to spend the night and the plan was that I would drive our car home after the big event had taken place and subsequently take the train to meet him in Banbury.

Two days later I became a grandma, Olly and Fran's son arrived at 1.21am 16th August. It was all I could do to wait until 3pm visiting time to see him and his parents. I drove to London with mum and had one of the best experiences of my life meeting this new little person. Thrilling.

Meantime, grandpa Pete pressed on to Banbury by himself - we plan to return to London to see them and Dan again and wet the baby's head once we are on the Thames. Can't wait.

I returned the car to home and caught the train back to Banbury on 18th to meet patient Pete and get back onboard to resume our travels. Banbury is a good mooring especially as there are shops on your gunwale-step. Our fridge was full once again and Pete had had plenty of time to clean the boat! Managed to dodge that one quite well!!

I have the dearest grandson - no-one else has ever had one as special.

Location:Cropredy

De-spidering and new curtains

12th August 2014

Back on board, ready for another long trip. We will leave after a good clean up, which always takes longer than we expect. And of course we have interrupt that process to go to the pub, especially when Sid happens to be here working on his boat - it would be rude not to have a beer with him. A jolly evening in The Wharf, where we have spent many happy hours before with him and Jenny.

I have made and hung new curtains which we have badly needed for a long time - the old ones have rusty rings and need a good wash. A boat is like a shed after all, the elements permeate whatever measures you take, spider cocoons tucked into the curtain folds, eugh! New curtains have given a whole new freshness to the saloon - now the kitchen blinds look shoddy!

Anyway, Ani will look spruce for all of a few days at least.

Location:Fenny Compton