Category Archives: Buses

Tideway Tilly. 10th July

A photo heavy post! If you click on a photo it should enlarge.

Limehouse Basin to Ontario Bridge 205A Grand Union Canal

Tilly seemed keen to be out this morning despite the not so inviting view from our bedroom window. Today we’d be heading out onto the Tidal Thames so no shore leave for cats, no matter how much they shout!

One of the last jobs to do today was put Tilly’s escape pod back together ready should there be any necessity to abandon ship. She also quite likes to sit in there anyway.

At 10:30 all crews congregated in the car park for our final briefing. An extra sheet of paper was passed round which detailed the distances between bridges on our cruise upstream. We were reminded to keep looking behind us as that is where the danger can lie, make sure our anchors were actually attached to our boats and just to hold our course and not to turn into waves as they can come from any and every direction. VHF radios were handed to crew who didn’t have their own, ship to ship being on channel 8.

St Pancras Leader, Simon, would radio VTS (Vessel Traffic Service) when they left the lock and the third lock leader would do the same when the last and final boat entered the tide way, Tail end Charlie would be Oleanna today. There wouldn’t be much commercial traffic on the river, but plenty of Clippers and speed boats. The weather forecast wasn’t so good, everyone prepared for rain which was just trying to start.

The first locking of four boats was at 11:15. Limehouse Lock can hold three narrowboats abreast and as two boats were short they could sit one behind the other. We watched as the boats pulled into the lock, each passing ropes round the risers on the lock walls, these are positioned directly under the bollards above.

Waiting for NB Chance to take her position in the lock

The pull as the lock starts to empty, radial gates not paddles, is strong necessitating ropes needing to be passed round a T stud to help you keep hold.

We watched as the lock emptied and then the boats departed. NB Thermopylae led the way followed by NB Chance, NB Misty Blue and NB Mobius brought up the rear. Each boat motoring out of the lock and turning right onto the Thames keeping a distance between each other.

The next boats were ready and waiting for the lock to be refilled, we headed back to Oleanna for a final briefing with our second mate, move the towline to the bow and untie ourselves from the mooring.

Oleanna looking forward to her trip up the Thames

Tilly was warned that that the outside we’d be moving today was likely to be quite lumpy bumpy for a while, she retired to her escape pod and waited to see what happened.

NB Coracle was lead boat, followed by NB Small World then us at the very back. As the lock gates fully opened Andrew on NB Coracle said ‘Let’s go boating!’ It was 11:48 we were 15 minutes ahead of schedule.

Leaving Limehouse Lock, the river was big but not as big as leaving Goole

I closed the cratch cover up and moved through Oleanna to the stern. I was soon pleased that I’d thought to move bottles from the galley shelves and counter tops as the river was most certainly lumpy. We turned into the flow of the tide heading upstream.

Speed boats zipped past their wakes moving across the river. They were towards the south bank, we were towards the north bank, the waves kept coming and coming, first this way then that. You said it was going to be lumpy! You didn’t say that we would be looping the loop!!!!

Tilly wasn’t happy, she was shouting at the back doors! I have to admit that I wasn’t too happy either as Oleanna rose and fell with the waves. Please excuse the out of focusness of this footage as my camera had no idea what it should focus on! This is by far the lumpiest water we’ve encountered. As a child I used to be seasick every time I even stood near to a boat, so today I did my best to keep calm and looked round at everything to keep my mind off the swell.

We fell in line behind the lead boat and NB Small World, one yellow buoy coming a touch close to us. The river was moving us along, at one point I couldn’t hear the engine, Mick had put Oleanna into tickover as we had been gaining on the boat ahead.

Behind us Canary Wharf, ahead old warehouses, the River Police jetty.

The Shard came into view, then as we rounded the bend at Wapping the view opened out.

The Walkie Talkie, St Pauls, BT Tower, City Hall and of course Tower Bridge. Wow!

Dora May just off centre with a blue and cream wheelhouse

At Tower Moorings we tried to spot Dora May that used to belong to my friend Kathy. She is still moored there, wheelhouse positioned with a great view over to Tower Bridge.

Just look at that! Tower Bridge built between 1886 and 1894

We managed to line ourselves up briefly for a photo we’ve been dreaming of for years, under the central span of Tower Bridge.

Then we got back in line with the two boats ahead and headed for span 1 to the north side. It is quite an impressive bridge to walk over, but more so to pass under.

We waved to the south bank of the river where Mick’s sister Christine had positioned herself.

No chance of spotting her, but thankfully she spotted us.

I especially like the one in front of the Tower of London.

The bridges now come thick and fast as did the swell.

Trying to take photos clinging on, trying to stay upright at times was quite hard.

London Bridge Hospital looks like a new coat of white paint has been added, keeping it crisply clean, soon followed by Hays Wharf. This wonderful deco building once a wharf now contains consulting rooms and the cardiology department for the hospital.

Follow my leader under the correct spans of the bridges as waves buffeted themselves against Oleanna.

Tate Modern (opened 2000) and the wibbly wobbly Millennium Bridge (opened 2000, reopened 2002).

The Samuel Pepys pub is where Mick used to drink when he worked almost next door for BT in the red brick building.

More bridges, more sights, more big trip boats.

Pillars where old railway bridges used to be. The Oxo tower (originally a power station supplying the Post Office, built at the end of the 19th Century) more shiny tower blocks.

Waterloo Bridge (opened 1942, fully opened 1945), The National Theatre (opened 1976). Have to say I was a touch disappointed that the National hadn’t brought the horses out from War Horse onto the terrace to see us pass as they did for the Queen!

Frequent glances behind brought different views as well as checking if we were being followed.

Hungerford Bridge (opened 1864) and the Golden Jubilee Bridges (completed 2002)

Then Hungerford Bridge and the Golden Jubilee Bridges. Were we early? We looked up as we came under the bridge.

A pair of shoes, legs, a radio 2 news presenter stood phone in hand ready to capture us as we passed below.

Thank you Adam, hope you got to work on time.

The London Eye (opened 2000), County Hall (1922), Tattershall Castle (a steamer built in 1934 and was used as a Humber Ferry) and onwards to the Houses of Parliament (finished in 1860) and Westminster Bridge (opened 1862).

Such a shame Big Ben is still swathed in scaffolding, maybe we’ll just have to come and do the trip again in the latter part of 2022!

As we passed the exclusion zone in front of the Houses of Parliament I shouted out a few comments to those who run our country. I so hope they heard and will take heed of my words!

Under Lambeth Bridge ( 1932) with the MI5 offices (1929) with it’s gold roof.

A boat sat out of the water a structure held it upright. I wonder if those eating and drinking at Tamesis Dock knew they weren’t afloat.

Mick tried pointing out another building he used to work in. ‘That one with all the windows’! It turns out Mick used to work next door to the MI6 building on the south bank, well before it was built.

By now the river traffic was easing, the swell gone. Under Vauxhall Bridge, the four towers of Battersea Power Station (completed in 1955) rose from the redevelopment below.

Next week will see the return of the open-air cinema and theatre at The Coal Jetty. Apartments are being sold and retail and restaurants are already open. We do wonder what the residents will think of living next door to the Super Sewer though! I’m sure it will all be below ground.

Victoria Railway Bridge rebuilt and widened in the 1960’s

Chelsea, originally Victoria Bridge, rebuilt in 1937

Albert Bridge, built 1873, suspension bridge incorporated in 1884-7 and final alterations made in 1973

Victoria, Chelsea and Albert Bridges. The question is who was Chelsea? Did she have a bit of a fling with Albert getting between them!

Albert Bridge painted in pastel shades has a touch of a Wedgewood feel to it.

Battersea Road Bridge was followed by numerous house boats.

I wonder what it’s like living on one of those with the tides coming and going.

Lots Road Power Station which used to produce electricity for the underground is having a makeover. The internal structures have been removed and 800 tonnes of steel have been used to retain the exterior façade. Along with four new buildings the development will provide 420 residential units.

Hanging under Wandsworth Bridge ( built in 1940) is a dishevelled bail of straw. It’s an ancient bylaw of uncertain heritage that if a bridge arch is open to river traffic, but with restricted headroom, then a bundle of straw should be hung from the bridge as a warning. At night time it is replaced by a white light.

Fulham Railway Bridge (1889) and Putney Bridge (1886)

Down stream of Putney Bridge (1886) is where the Oxford Cambridge boat race starts, the course passes under Hammersmith Bridge, Barnes Bridge and finishes just before Chiswick Bridge a distance of four miles.

Fulham Football Club is having major works. The riverside stand at Craven Cottage was demolished and is being redeveloped into more than just a football stand. Floating pontoons are being used in the building work and an exclusion zone around these is in force on the river marked with yellow buoys.

Now we started to encounter rowers as we approached Hammersmith Bridge (1887). An area along the southern bank has been marked out for the rowers to use, keeping normal river traffic away from the area.

Hammersmith Bridge has been closed to motor traffic since August 2019 after cracks were discovered in the bridges pedestals. The closure was extended to pedestrians, cyclists and normal boat traffic last year. It is however open for pre-booked transits which are subject to a lot of conditions. One of which is that you have an abort plan should the bridge be closed in front of you. This would entail winding and stemming the tide in a predetermined section of the river, contact with VTS would be made and then we would wait for slack water before returning all the way to Limehouse Lock with the outgoing tide.

All three groups had to pass under the bridge in an hours window. Thankfully no abort signal was given and we as Tail end Charlie passed under the bridge at 13:38, well within the hour. Phew!

Under Barnes Railway Bridge ( built in the 1890’s), more rowers and paddleboarders.

We received a phone call from Simon checking our location at 14:00, we could confirm we were under Chiswick Bridge and all was fine at the back of the flotilla.

A zoom in on the camera to Kew Railway Bridge confirmed we were catching up the second group. NB Combs Lass and NB Galatea were just passing under the bridge, it was the first time we’d seen them since Limehouse.

Kew Bridge a wide span bridge was to be the last we’d pass under, the Tower of Kew Bridge Pumping Station watching our approach towards Brentford Junction.

Passing islands to our starboard side we could see the sculpture Liquidity by Simon Packard. This to boaters helps mark the entrance of Brentford Junction on the Thames, to locals it caused a big hoo-ha when it was first erected as it blocked the view from new flats and a local restaurant to the river.

This was where the flotilla would split. Three boats could be seen continuing on up stream towards Teddington. NB Thermopylae now at the back. The third locks worth of boats veered off at the Junction and headed for Thames Lock. Here NB Albert Victor was joined by NB Coracle our lead boat and we joined NB Small World in the second lock to rise up to the semi tidal stretch at the bottom of the Grand Union Canal.

I had chance to check on everything below, half expecting Tilly to still be in a tizz and maybe for her to have suffered from seasickness. I was greeted by a cat who was trying to be quite cool about everything, even if she was a little bit shouty! There was also a bit of a puddle in the main cabin. Oh dear.

However it didn’t take me long to realise that this was just water and it must have come in through our hatch despite the outer doors being closed. There was water on the surround. In absolute torrential rain with howling gales we’ve had water come in having been forced up under the doors. This must have happened when we were in the really lumpy water.

Thames Lock which takes us onto semi-tidal water

Heading to the bow to open up the cratch I also noticed a very small amount of water had made it’s way up under the front doors. These are raised off the floor of the well deck and have a frame that sits quite a bit higher than the doors. Water will have come in through the well deck drains on the choppy sections of the river and some of that made it’s way inside!

Maybe if we plan to do more rough cruises we should look at adding extra protection to these areas, the amount of water wasn’t alarming, but it would have been better to have come in to a dry boat.

A lock keeper was also on duty at Brentford Gauging Locks bring us up off the tidal water and onto the canal proper. We were now bunched up and a queue had formed at Clitheroe’s Lock. I headed up to help , other crew walking on ahead to set Osterley Lock.

When we reached the final lock of the day NB Albert Victor was waiting for a partner, so NB Small World joined them, leaving us to lock up on our own. The off side bottom gate refused, despite a bit of a waggle back and forth, to open fully, so it was one boat in at a time. On leaving half a tree trunk floated above the lock gates. NB Small World pushed it out of the way, but by the time I’d refilled the lock it had drifted back down to be in the way again!

The first sign of a gap in the moorings we pulled in, close to the community gardens. Tilly’s paw was already clinging onto the bathroom porthole her nose sniffing the fresh air, the trees here already having been given feline approval. As soon as our location had been noted with co-ordinates and what3words the rules were recited to Tilly and she was given 2 hours shore leave.

Time for a well deserved cup of tea!

Graeme and David with everyone else behind them

This evening we joined everyone else who’d come off the river at Brentford along with Simon who’d made it over from Teddington for a meal at The Fox. This is a pub Mick knows well as he used to live about 200 yards away. I was famished, but had also forgotten about the portion sizes. A portion of chicken wings arrived as a starter, I’d been expecting 4 or 6, but 12! Mick and I should have shared them. Sadly they had run out of rainbow trout so I chose pork belly with mash, Mick had sausage and mash. All the food was very tasty as expected.

A very good evening wrapping up an incredible day. The rain had held off, the planning had been spot on, the waves added extra adrenalin, advice was shared, lead boats knew the river, tail boats were VHF qualified. Thank you very much Simon for offering us the final space on the cruise. Thank you also to St Pancras Cruising Club, from start to finish we felt we were in safe hands.

Waterway Routes under new improved rain shield which wasn’t required today

5 locks, 18.75 miles, 2 rights, 34 bridges, 3rd locking, 10th in line, 1st St Pancras cruising cat, 1 lumpy river, 1 shouty cat, 2 puddles, 1 sister-out-law, 1 fellow blogger, 1 boat in tickover much of the time, 4 rice crispie cakes, 0 flying pigs, 4 power stations, 3 lock keepers, 2 hours shore leave, 1 fox, 807 photos, 1 very nice meal, 1 fantastic day.

https://goo.gl/maps/kU1p4HBtsysYSh7c7

For more photos of the trip from the front of the flotilla follow this link to Scholar Gypsy

Adam has also published a post with his photos this morning, showing the second group of boats as they headed for Westminster Bridge. A link to his blog Briar Rose

Plain Bounty. 20th May

Viking Marina, Goole and Scarborough

From the above photo you can see we were early to rise this morning. There were presents to open first thing and then a train to catch.

I’d not managed to do terribly well on the present front, Goole had let me down. But Boyes did have a supply of Plain Bounty bars which Mick loves, so at least that brought a smile to his face. A new boating cap which he already knew about and some clips for hanging t-towels, I know how to treat my boy!

At 8am I was out of the door and on my way to the station. It’s about a twenty minute walk from Viking Marina, but there is always the chance that the swing bridge in the docks might be opened for a ship, the only way round would be over the gates of Ocean Lock which might also be in use. So adding an extra twenty minutes to the walk was wise as I had a booked train to be on. However it wasn’t needed.

Today was the first time I’ve been on a train since I came back from Vienna, I was relieved that there weren’t too many people on it so managed to have plenty of space around me. The two ladies across the way kept me amused with their gossiping.

My destination today was Scarborough. Up to Brough, along the banks of the Humber and in to Hull Paragon Station. I think the last time I came to Hull on a train was when the country was totally snowed under in 2010, the car was buried under a couple of feet of snow out the back of Hull Truck for a week or two and the direct train line was closed due to snow drifts.

Part of the longest station bench in the world at Scarborough

The train then backs out from the station and heads its way northwards stopping at numerous stations which always seem to come in the wrong order to me. A glimpse of the sea and lots of green fields and only one gnome visible at Seamer Station amongst all the weeds.

There was now time to call in to Sainsburys to pick up another present for Mick before hopping onto the No 9 Bus out through Scalby to the Rugby Club. The place was heaving again as it was about ten weeks ago. I joined the queue which moved quickly into the sports hall. My card had another sticker added to it, then I was sent to stand in line for my jab. Last time all nine booths had queues of four people waiting for them, but today I seemed to have timed it well as I was the second in line, then got moved over to an empty booth. My appointment had been 12:30 but I was done and jabbed by just gone 12:00.

No stickers on offer today. I had however brought my own badge to celebrate the moment. A few months ago I’d seen that a friend of a friend was selling a limited number of covid vaccination badges in aid of Gavi, the vaccine alliance. I made a donation and had received my badge which I’d saved opening until today, the monster sticker guarding it until the right time.

The next bus back into town meant I had loads of time to kill before my booked train back. I stocked up on various things from real live shops, got told off for taking a photo of the shutters pulled down at Debenhams and wondered how long there had been a cat cafe in Bar Street.

With my packup lunch I headed to a bench in front of the Town Hall to say a final farewell to Scarborough for a while.

By the time the train got back to Goole it was raining so I got soggy on my walk back to the boat. Back to Mick’s birthday and bakewell tart birthday cake.

During the day the Goole Escape committee had been Whatsapping. The weather forecast still not good for tomorrow. We decided to wait and see how things were in the morning, will there be a suitable window as the very wet weather front goes over?

Will we be going under this bridge tomorrow?

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 cap, 5 clips, 2 chunks of plain chocolate and coconut, 2 trains, 2 buses, 1 tablet stand, 1 polo shirt, 5 minutes, 2nd jab, 1 last look at the light house, 2 slices of birthday, 4 paracetamol (not all together) just in case.

If you are into yarn and knitting Lisa, from across the way in Goole and Scarborough, has just started to vlog about her hand dyed yarns and all things wool, along with a bit of boating. We even get a mention along with Tilly sitting on her shelf, thank you Lisa. So todays link is a bit boaty and a lot woolly.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAQNhaXP75jBRuOb9GFpBbQ

Sibling Christmas 7th 8th December

Cropredy Marina

Booking into Cropredy Marina wasn’t solely to do washing but so that we could have a few days away from the boat, leaving Tilly in charge and in the warm.

Saturday morning we packed a bag with clothes and presents. She refused to put me inside it, so I sat on top with the hope that they wouldn’t forget me. It didn’t work!

Mick had booked our tickets to London a few days ago. Splitting our journey to London at Oxford, a direct train back for the two of us cost £28, not bad, but we did have to be on specific trains. We booked a taxi to get us to the station in Banbury, but amended our booking when Mick noticed that the train we were booked on was going to be half and hour late, which would give us just a couple of minutes to catch the next train.

So at Banbury we squeezed onto the first train heading to Oxford and Mick was ready to argue a point with the guard, but nobody checked our tickets. At Oxford we had an hour spare so bought some sad gits sandwiches at M&S and waited for the next train. This train stopped everywhere, but we did have seats so we could settle down for a while. My knitting came out and I got the rib done for a glove by the time we arrived in London.

Then a bus took us right across London to Hackney and my brothers house.

Christmas post was mixed with our postal votes for the General election. Mick had applied for his on line whilst I did mine by post from Chippy. His arrived very quickly and mine in the second batch. What was interesting was our different envelopes, Mick’s being for a postal vote from abroad! We both took time to study the instructions, marked our crosses and sealed the envelopes, they went in the post on Sunday morning.

We had a lovely evening with Andrew, Jac and Josh. Eating , drinking and me making two batches of my gluten free puff pastry. It’s amazing what a difference in just room temperature does to pastry. On the boat I’m sometimes tempted to do two roll and folds in a go, but Andrews house was so warm the butter just kept melting quicker than I could roll the pastry out on his granite tops. I did discover that rolling out on a worktop above a dishwasher was not in the slightest bit good as I almost had to spoon the butter back onto the pastry.

Sunday morning there were jobs to do. Mick headed to buy wine and flowers, whilst I made a wreath for the front door and Jac and Andrew tidied up and cooked.

My Mum’s huge chopping board came in handy

This was the first time Andrew had ever dealt with gluten free pastry and it’s been a while since I’d made any, I’d forgotten how crumbly it is. Making two huge long Salmon En Croute took a bit of doing, the pastry being quite short it wouldn’t let us do any pretty lattice work on top, but we got the two of them into the oven in one piece.

Paul again, Marion, Kath, John, Christine, Sean

Today we were having a pre-Christmas get together with three of Mick’s sisters, sadly Anne lives a touch too far away in Scotland for her and Alasdair to be able to join us, but I’m not sure we’d have been able to fit them in! Last year we’d had such a get together and it was really good fun it was decided to repeat the event.

Presents were exchanged, news caught up on, jokes told, food eaten, wine drunk. A very good Sunday afternoon with almost all of our siblings. It was enjoyed so much I suspect we’ll be doing it again next year.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 home alone cat, 1 magic food bowl, 1 very full bowl of biscuits, 1 taxi, 2 trains, No 30 bus, 1 wave to Joa, 1 load of washing hung out super quick, 1 pair gloves started, 1200 grams puff pastry, 6 folds and turns, 2 A envelopes, 2 B envelopes, 1 brother, 3 sisters, 1 nephew, 11 for lunch, 2 cats, 1 very lovely weekend.

Twice As Big As The One On EasyJet. 3rd August

Pyrford Marina to Byfleet Cruising Club

The voice of Houdini woke us this morning, we were breakfasted and cruising far earlier than normal. Not far to go by boat this morning, just over a mile which brought us very close to the M25 and it’s constant rumble. We pulled in just after the Byfleet Cruising Club moorings on what we thought were visitor moorings. Our pack of info from the National Trust had suggested here as a mooring, but it seems that we might have pulled in on space meant for the cruising club. One chap asked if we were staying long and if it would be okay if we got breasted up to, (which it was as) another tried to make them sound a touch more friendly by inviting us to use all their facilities. We made sure that they knew we’d been pointed to the mooring by the NT.

We walked up to the busy main road which crosses the canal and then very soon afterwards the M25. Here we caught a 436 bus to Tescos. The route took us around the houses before it reached the huge store, another couple of stops and we thought we’d reached our destination. However we still had quite a walk, it did mean that we had chance to watch people zooming along a race track and on skid pans in shiny cars at Mercededs Benz World. All a bit too fast for us.

We were at Brooklands. The worlds first purpose built motor racing circuit which opened it’s 2.75 mile track in 1907. It is also the site of one of Britain’s first airfields which also became Britain’s largest aircraft manufacturing centre by 1918. Here they produced military aircraft such as the Wellington and civil airliners like the Viscount and VC-10. The first British Grand Prix was held here in 1926.

The race track banks up around the site, roads now cut their way through it, Tescos at one end and Brooklands Museum at the other. In 1987 a trust was set up and a 30 acre site was ear marked for the museum where the heritage of Brooklands could be celebrated. The finishing straight of the race track is on the site and the northern half of the runway was still used occasionally until 2003, in 2004 it was sold off and is now Mercedes Benz World.

Brooklands hosts collections of racing cars, motorbikes, aeroplanes and the London Bus Museum. We’d been warned that there was far too much to do in just one day so we decided to concentrate on the planes and buses.

Mick’s Dad flew with the RAF during WW2 and then with BEA on civil airliners. Because of this we headed straight out to see the planes. The first production Concorde sits in central position, you can pay extra to go on board, but we decided just to look from the outside. Her total flying hours 1,282hrs 9 minutes lags somewhat behind Oleannas 2,540hrs. It would have been nice to look inside the narrow plane, but we had far more important planes to look at.

Stepping down from the Sultan of Oman s VC-10

There are plenty of volunteers on hand, they range from men who know everything about how a plane worked and tell you all about it (so much so we could most probably service a VC10 now), to ones who tell you how the planes were used, to ones interested in your own connections to the planes,

Us reluctantly having our photo taken, I’ve had to zoom in quite a long way!

to one who insisted on taking our photo in front of a Hawker Harrier (it was easier just to let him do it), to one who was far more interested in hearing about our life on a narrowboat than telling us anything about the cockpit we manged to get sat in.

Toilet and bidet with ten times more space

There are two VC-10’s, one without wings or a tail. A family were looking round in front of us ‘That toilet’s twice as big as the ones on EasyJet!’ They were most probably right, I’d hate to have heard what they had to say about the toilet on the Sultan of Oman’s plane, it was half the size of Oleanna! There were also double beds with seat belts and everything covered in chrome green velour.

These planes are really quite big when you take all the seats out of them. The smell of the fixtures and fittings along with years of cigarette smoke that worked it’s way in behind all the panels was quite evocative.

Mick’s Dad flew Vicker’s Viscounts and Vanguards and here we got chance to go on board. The Viscount was most probably the first plane Mick ever went on with it’s big oval windows.

On the Vanguard a team of old chaps who had been ground engineers at Heathrow chatted away to Mick. These fellows had most probably known his Dad, Mick found an old photo on his phone of him in uniform, but it was badly lit so hard to see his face properly. This plane had been used for cargo, all the windows covered up, horses had been transported to the Olympics in Barcelona. Up front we could sit in the cockpit, Mick taking the Captains seat, was this a seat his Dad had actually sat in? We’ll have to check with those who hold Peter’s log book.

Mick sat in a seat his Dad almost certainly sat in

Unfortunately the chap who was going to tell us all about the flight deck was more interested in our life and gave us absolutely no information even though we kept trying, he was also a touch deaf. What will happen in such places when all the old chaps who volunteer have passed away?

There are new modern exhibitions in the Aircraft Factory where Mick managed to design a plane suitable to carry cargo using a runway of 1km.

The Stratosphere Chamber door rolled out of the way

There’s also a Stratosphere Chamber where Barnes Wallis carried out experiments to do with temperature and pressure. There are rooms laid out as if in the 20’s when the circuit and airfield were busy.

After a sit down and some lunch we looked around the London Bus Museum. Here the collection starts with a horse bus built around 1890 and the collection of rescued vehicles brings you almost up to date. The plaque saying that the Routemaster was the last vehicle designed for London Transport is a bit out of date as the Boris bus now drives round London.

The displays and information boards are huge, matching the size of the buses a shame a few of them are hidden behind the buses.

You can wind a destination blind and go on board a couple of the latter buses where turnstiles would allow you to buy your own ticket. I don’t remember these, maybe they didn’t exist in York.

The opportunity to ride on an RT was not to be missed, sadly we didn’t get the front seat, but it was still good. Mick used to get these to school in Ealing and the conductor today took our £1 coins and turned the handle on his ticket machine to produce our tickets. The amount of windows you could open are far better than on a Boris bus, but the suspension could have been better.

Twin Rover a bit early to have been one of Mick’s

A hunt round the displays and we found the Bus 65 time table, an often used route and a Child’s Twin Rover ticket. Mick and his mate Tony Silver used to get these when they’d saved up enough pocket money to spend a Saturday on the buses, going from one end of a route to the other and then getting on the next bus and seeing where that got them.

A quick look at some of the cars before we left and walked our way down where the runway had been towards Tescos. A few items were purchased before we caught the bus back to Oleanna.

Tilly had had a busy day keeping an eye on our new neighbour. What a composed fluffy ginger cat. For a while we wondered if it was alive, then eventually it did a considered slow blink.

0 locks, 1.31 miles, 3 buses, 4 tickets, 6 planes, 2 cockpits, 1 seat sat in, 18,300 planes built, 1st Grand Prix, 5s twin rover, 65, 165, 2 jacket potatoes, 1 bored cat, 1 confupuss neighbour, M25 to rock us to sleep just 200ft away.

https://goo.gl/maps/2jvByceRaPbLv8Tp8

With the sound turned up!

Here’s one I Poohed In Yesterday. 24th November

Caution This Is A Toilet Post!

Thrupp

Today we have been on a bus trip. The S4 picked us up from Thrupp Turn, a short walk away, winding it’s way around villagers taking us to Banbury. I picked up a parcel from the Post Office, more wool and handed over another with finished woolly things inside. M&S supplied us with lunch before we headed to Tooleys Boatyard.

Kate Saffin and Colin Ives were running a workshop on composting toilets this afternoon. Recently on a facebook group Composting Toilets for Boats and Off-Grid Living Mick had made a comment about the installation of our set up. We have a Separett Villa which doesn’t come with a collection tank for your yellow water, we had one built in under the floor and have a pump to empty it. Kate asked if Mick could write something to add to the files on the groups page and then invited us to join in at the workshop. As it was a free event we decided to go along and see if we could learn anymore about waterless toilets.

Kate Saffin (Alarum Theatre Company and doyen of waterless toilets) talked everyone through the basics of how a composting toilet works. The name ‘Composting Toilet’ is a bit of a misnomer. In the early days of boaters buying into this type of toilet the companies selling them suggested that the contents would compost, some saying within 6 weeks, the contents of the solids buckets could then be used as compost. This was never the case. If you are a vegan your deposits might be composted down after 4-6 months, a meat eater 12 months. No matter what diet you have all the bugs in the solids will have died off within 100 days.

We were talked through the differing types of waterless toilets, how people tend to use them. Kate had brought with her her three buckets. A single lady living on her own she tends to have a bucket in use, one stored away doing its secondary composting and a third either empty waiting to be used or fully composted down ready to be returned to the earth. Today she showed us a new bucket which she was preparing for use (wood cat litter pellets are her preferred base layer), a bucket that had been on her roof doing it’s stuff about eight months old and her third bucket which she had finished using yesterday. My out of focus photo is of her 8 month bucket and the one she’d been using for the last four months. The photo isn’t out of focus due to aroma as there was absolutely none.

Conversations were had about what cover to use in your buckets, whether to leave toilet paper in the mix, any concerns about being on medication, just about every question you could possibly think of was covered by the workshop.

Colin of Kildwick and The Little House Company started about four years ago, building himself and family a composting toilet to use on their boat. A family of four quickly filled up their cassette toilet and walking up a steep hill to the elsan was becoming a very regular thing. Colin designed and built his first toilet and then looked at how to improve it with a better separator etc. Other boaters asked if he’d make them one too. Over the years Kildwick has expanded and now they have difficulty keeping up with the demand. The Little House Company are now the UK stockists for Separett Toilets.

There were several of Colin’s toilets to have a look at, including one with, what has become known as, a glitter shitter. This is a separator that is glittered and has become very popular. I think that if we’d been aware of Kildwick when Oleanna was being built we’d most probably have gone with one of their toilets. Having said that we are very happy with our toilet and would never go back to a pump out. Having been in a house for almost a month doing panto, I was appalled at the amount of water being wasted every time I flushed.

We were already converts and our approach is very standard. However we seem to fill our solids bucket a little bit too quickly. Colin and Kate recon that we might be using a bit too much cover material, so we will try a bit less in future. We’d also been wanting to see options that people use for the secondary composting stage on boats. If we had a home mooring we’d be able to carry on the composting process on land, but we don’t. We came away with a few more ideas which need thinking about a touch more before we go for it. A very interesting afternoon.

By the time we got back to the boat we wanted something to eat so headed over to The Boat. The menu seemed to have changed since we last visited, but the chips were still not as good as they could be and most of our food wasn’t that hot. I say most, as my BBQ chicken bacon and cheese pot was bubbling away, but our peas were decidedly cold. Next time we’re in Thrupp we’ll try the Jolly Boatman instead.

0 locks, 0 miles, 2 buses, 2 parcels exchanged, 3 balls of yarn, 2 jacket potatoes, 2 cups of tea, 1st visit to Tooleys, 2 poo experts, 3 toilets, 3 buckets, 8 months old pooh, 4 months old pooh, yesterdays pooh, 1 glitter shitter, 1 gammon, 1 cheese pot, 1 pint, 1 glass wine, 1 very very very very bored cat!

First Time Visit With Plenty Of Memories. 18th November

Blenheim Palace

Today with the sun shining we ventured forth and caught the S3 bus from the station. This bus normally goes all the way to Chippy, but that was not our destination today. We hopped off the bus a few miles short of Chippy at the gates of Blenheim Palace. Today was going to be an expensive one, Blenheim isn’t a National Trust House and costs quite a lot to get in. However a thorough look at the website meant that we knew about their Good Journey Offer. If you travel by bus or train to the house and present your ticket at the entrance kiosk when you buy your ticket then you will receive 30% off. If you also make this payment as a donation you will then be given a donation receipt to be able to convert your day ticket into a yearly pass. This we hope will be worth the queue to get such photo passes. I think this is a way for them to claim gift aid on your entrance, except we don’t pay tax so couldn’t tick the box, we still got our passes.

We’ve tried to time our visit before the house and garden get revamped for Christmas so that we could see the house rather than the Christmas displays. Yet everywhere was filled with Christmas trees, most groaning at the weight of all the decorations. Masses of Poinsettias crammed into dishes on tables. This would have made my father rush for numerous black plastic bags to give them the correct amount of sunlight a day that these Mexican weeds require. (This once dominated one Christmas for him, trying to keep the red leaves attached to the stems for as long as possible by lowering a black plastic bag over the poor plant each night, he’d even rigged the bag up on a piece of string so it could be lowered and raised at the correct times.)

An audio guide gave us information of key parts of the ground floor and on various paintings that adorn the houses walls. All we can say is, the Churchills were rich buggers!

Blenheim Palace was built as a gift to John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, from Queen Anne in thanks for his victory at the Battle of Blenheim on 13th August 1704. It is the only non-royal house in the country to hold the title of Palace and was built between 1705 and 1722. The house became the subject of political infighting leading to Marlborough’s exile and damaging the reputation of it’s architect Sir John Vanbrugh. Funding for the building was never fully agreed upon, Marlborough put in £60,000, the government and Queen picked up much of the rest, but in 1712 after an argument between the Queen and Duchess funds were halted, £220,000 already spent, £45,000 still owed to workmen. The Marlboroughs were exiled to the continent until after the Queens death in 1714, when they took it upon themselves to finance the reminder of the build. Magnificence of such buildings was far more important than comfort or convenience.

Designed in the English Baroque style it became home to the Churchill family which has now spanned some 300 years. An act of parliament was passed when there were no sons to inherit the estate, so the amassed wealth could be passed down the female line. It’s most famous claim is that it was the birth place of Sir Winston Churchill. The generation that decided to open up the house to the public (helping to pay for it’s upkeep and almost certainly avoiding inheritance tax) were most probably very grateful that Winston was a premature baby. At the end of the 19th Century the palace was saved from ruin by the 9th Duke marrying the American railroad heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt.

Today you enter the building from the Great Court where colonnades flank either side of the house, each opening currently filled with a Christmas tree. The large hall follows with impressive Corinthian columns and vast amounts of carved stone. 20m above you is the ceiling painted by James Thornhill, where Marlborough kneels in front of Britannia with a map of the battle of Blenheim. This gives you just a small taste of the opulence that is to come in the State rooms.

Weaving around the hall, family portraits cover the wall. The most pleasing of 20th Century women.

A large cabinet is filled with model soldiers all standing in line and huge collections of china are displayed in all their grandeur along the hallways. Where ever there is space for a Christmas tree there is one, struggling hard to stay upright with their coverings of bows, baubles and the occasional pumpkin!

Drawing Rooms and Writing Rooms of various colours follow one after the other. Silk covered walls with matching upholstery. Furniture of every size and type. Courting couches where a couple could sit on a long stretch with space for a chaperone to sit at the end making sure nothing untoward occurred. Large lounging sofas, sprawling out as wide as Oleanna to narrow bolt upright sofas which were never intended to be comfortable.

After several such rooms we arrived at the first with the walls covered in tapestries. This was one of the main reasons I wanted to visit the house. Back in 1991 at the end of my second year at Croydon College (where I studied Theatre Design) we had to realise part of a theoretical design.

I chose to realise the masking from my design for the Benjamin Britten Opera Owen Wingrave based at the old Glyndebourne along with a large globe. The masking was based on the Marlborough tapestries which surrounded a large revolving skeletal house. Thanks to my old tutor Rob Muller for the photos of my work. I had given the tapestries a bluer hue than the originals and had painted into the more dramatic scenes with red highlights. These I planned would loom out of the tapestries when the lighting changed, a specific blue lighting gel did this for me, to add to Owen’s torturous nightmares of warfare.

Today was the first time I’d seen these tapestries in the flesh, the detailed border still very familiar to me (even though I’d simplified it somewhat). My painted versions must only have been a touch smaller than the originals and those on display in the state rooms are far calmer than those I’d chosen for the opera, these must be elsewhere in the Palace. Memories of hours drawing followed by painting them came back to me, along with the complaints from the computer department further along the corridor due to the aroma the blue pigments create once painted onto flameproof canvas. I was stood in front of old friends, the recorded guide burbling along in my ears about something or other.

The Saloon sits behind the Hall and is where guests would have been directed on their arrival. The tapestries had kept me for sometime but now the incredible painting by Louis Laguerre filled the walls and ceiling around us. Originally Thornhill was to paint this room giving a quote which in todays terms would have been around £84,000. Laguerre halved the quote, but certainly didn’t scrimp on the expertise. My photos do not do his trompe l’oeil justice. The painted balcony front is painted in such away you almost have to touch it to realise it is not three dimensional, putting my panto trompe l’oeil to shame. The mouldings on the walls and ceiling are wonderful, filled with portraits of people looking into the room (one of the artist himself). What a room to have your Christmas Dinner in, the Churchill family still do.

On through a few more rooms to the Library. Originally conceived as one long room it was divided up into five sections, suggesting different rooms. Like a long gallery it takes over one side of the house, filled with books and plenty of space to enjoy their words whilst maybe listening to a tune played on the organ! Queen Anne (a svelte version of her majesty) stands looking towards the far end of the library where the organ dominates. In WW1 the library was used as a hospital for returning injured service men and in WW2 it became a home for evacuated boys. Some of these stole three of the smaller pipes form the organ, which wasn’t noticed for some years. A few years ago a parcel arrived containing a note and the three pipes. The note was anonymous and was from the wife of one of the lads who’d stolen the pipes, saying that it was one of his last requests that they should be returned.

From here you can weave your way around a display all about Winston Churchill. This we did quite quickly, the crowds in the small rooms making it hard to read all the panels. Quotes and interesting facts had been put in larger print on panels around each room so we still got to learn a few details. One of Winston’s Siren Suits stands in a cabinet, velvet with matching monogrammed slippers. The bed he was born in and a small cotton top which had to borrowed from a local solicitors wife for him to wear as his arrival was unexpected.

Another look around the Library was needed and as we did so I spotted two very familiar people sat taking a well earned rest. Pearl and Rodney are the parents of my best friend from my college days, they became my other Mum and Dad whilst at Croydon and the following years. We’d last seen them at Kathy’s wedding in Lanzarote seven years ago. What a wonderful surprise and lovely to have a good catch up with them. Despite some health issues over the last four years they both looked great. As we sat chatting the organ started up with a very capable chap at the keys and stops, so we all stayed put for a while longer to listen.

Big hugs all round and we headed off ahead of them to visit the colonnade and chapel where a subordinate organ sat in the corner.

Past lunchtime we got ourselves a sausage roll and sandwich with a slice of cake each (good GF options even if nobody can make a GF sandwich look all that exciting!) at the Pantry before checking out the stalls in the Christmas craft fayre that surrounded the entrance. Here there were all sorts of yummy things to eat, some really good looking pies (from East Yorkshire, no wonder) and plenty of well made not standard craft fayre tat. One stall did nearly see me part with cash, but with Christmas coming up I just gave a very big hint to Mick.

As the sun started to set we rode the bus back into Oxford, knowing that there is so much more for us to see at Blenheim, we’ll just have to go again.

0 locks, 0 miles, S3 bus, 7 bus, 1 very rich family, 1 car park almost full, 2000ish visitors, 30%off, 2 annual passes, 1 amazing house, 27 years later, 2nd parents, 7 years later, 2 slices cake, 1 sausage roll, 1 sandwich, 2 much to see, 0 tat bought, 1 lovely day out, 1 tension square and pattern done for the next pair of socks.

A Parliamentary Train Ride

12th and 13th November

Monday 12th.
Pip headed off back to Chipping Norton on the 08:55 bus. Oleanna was getting short of water. The nearest water point is at the residential moorings next to Isis Lock. From a visiting boater’s point of view this is easiest to get to from the lock landing on the Sheepwash Channel below the lock. Officially this is EA water as it is a part of the Thames but I didn’t think anyone would mind me being there. So I untied the ropes and reversed back to upper lock landing, tied up, filled the lock, reversed in to the lock then emptied the lock and reversed out onto the pontoon lock landing. The washing machine had been on and after I had started the hose going it was just finishing a cycle. So I started another load whilst filling the tank. An hour or so later the tank was full and the washing machine was into it’s second rinse so I headed back into the lock and went back up onto the CRT waters of the Oxford Canal. The mooring spot I had left a couple of hours earlier was still vacant (there’s not much traffic around at the moment) so I tied back up there. It’ll do for another few days.

Tuesday 13th
I’ve been on another day trip to London. I was born and brought up in Ealing in West London (not far from the Hanwell Flight of locks) but left the area 28 years ago. So with a bit of time on my hands I thought I’d have a little trip down memory lane. But to get there I went on a bit of a roundabout route.
If you are a train operating company and want to close a bit of railway line or a station you have to go through a long, complicated and expensive procedure involving parliamentary approval. So often a train company won’t actually close the line but instead run an infrequent service, sometimes once a week in one direction only, sometimes once a day. For example, don’t moor at Polesworth on the Coventry Canal expecting to be able to catch a train from the nearby railway station. The only train of the day there departs at 07:23 and there is no return service. There are quite a few of these services dotted around the country and they are known as “Parliamentary” services (because running the service is required by the original Act of Parliament when the railway was built). One of these services is in London: the once daily Chiltern Railways train from South Ruislip to London Paddington. Most services from South Ruislip go to London Marylebone but this service heads off down a railway equivalent of a backwater via Northolt, Greenford, Park Royal and North Acton to join the Great Western mainline at Old Oak Common and thence onto Paddington. So I caught a Chiltern Railways train from Oxford to High Wycombe, changing there onto a train that stopped at South Ruislip. At South Ruislip the “Parley” was waiting on another platform. There was one other passenger on the train and the driver checked with us both that we really wanted to go to Paddington. It was a very interesting ride, running alongside the Central tube line for some of the way. The track is formed of old jointed rails, it’s not often these days that you hear the clickety clack noise of trains passing over un-welded joints. Trees and bushes lean over the tracks and the train passes through a narrowing leafy corridor. We go slowly, no more than 20 mph, I suspect due to the leaves on the line and the fact we are the first train of the day to head this way therefore the track might be slippery. But all too soon we are onto the Paddington Main Line and it feels like we are allowed to sneak unnoticed into platform 14 which is tucked away in a little corner on the far side of the big terminal station. All in all a very enjoyable 25 minutes of train travel. Sorry, I didn’t take any photos, I wanted to enjoy the moment. If you are interested someone else has posted a Youtube video of their trip on this line here . Incidentally if you feel excited about this and want to experience it yourself you’ll have to do so before 7th December. After that day the line closes due to HS2 construction work. Presumably there is parliamentary approval for this! Or maybe HS2 is going to follow the route albeit underground so will count as a train service?

After that excitement I caught a normal train out to West Ealing. This was my old stomping ground.
Here is the house I was born and grew up in. It’s the semi on the left. I lived in this house until I was 22.

And here is the Back Lane entrance to the garage.

Just up the road I came across this from the days when the local authority provided everything.

Most of the shops have changed completely, except this one where I spent many happy hours in the past.

It is still trading and still has a wonderful array of electrical stuff in the window. Many of the pubs have changed names or no longer exist. Most of the bus route numbers are un-recognisable, I mean who ever heard of a 427, a 483 or even an E11? But Ealing still seems to be a busy vibrant place with lots going on.
After a couple of hours of strolling around Memory Lane it was back to Paddington to catch a train back to Oxford. This train took the more normal route via Slough, Reading and Didcot.

0.14 miles in reverse, 0.14 miles forwards, 2 locks (or the same lock twice). 1 full water tank, 2 loads of washing. 3 standard trains, 1 Parliamentary train. 1 excited cat, 1 cat bored again.

Panto Postcard 1

67 hours

It has been a busy week in Chipping Norton, I think my body has started to remember what it’s like to paint for eleven hours a day! In the past I occasionally did more.

Monday was read through day. A van with the major bits of set was being off loaded when I arrived at the theatre and despite there being very tight access into the building everything fitted. Phew! A meet and greet with the company before we all sat down to see what the script sounded like, followed by a model showing with a difference.

Normally everyone gathers round the model box and I do my best to show them how the show will work without knocking too many things over with shacky hands. However today I showed the company photos of the model. When Gemma and I had visited Plymouth all the bits of model that the builders were building were there but the box with the painted floor had gone missing. Process of elimination suggested that Gemma had left it a few weeks ago in Guildford. Calls were made but there was no sign of the model. Luckily I’d taken photos so the theatre had printed them out. I decided to show how one piece of the model would work so went to find it amongst all the bits and bobs. The chaps from Plymouth brought out a big box, inside was my shoe box of bits sitting inside the model box, that we’d assumed was missing forever. It would take too long to put it all back together so the photos had to do.

The rest of the day was spent putting things together on stage and finding space for everything in the wings. The base of the Gin Palace had to be cut out making it no longer water tight but manoeuvrable by the actors. Once the builds from Plymouth had been checked we retired to the pub for some food and maybe a touch too much wine.

Tuesday the set was joined by more things that Chris had built in Bristol. A section of the auditorium was cleared to make it into a carpentry shop for more bits to be built. I drew things out and Chris would then jigsaw them out before a coat of white paint was applied. All the time we could hear songs echoing down the staircases from rehearsals going on elsewhere in the building. Everything existed in one form or another now apart from the main stage set. Due to budget cuts we were planning to reuse old flats that the theatre had, recover them in canvas for me to paint. For this we needed quite a bit of canvas, which hadn’t arrived. We managed to fill the time well and a long day was put in by all.

Wednesday. The last day before rehearsals started on stage. Usually whilst rehearsals for a show are taking place in a rehearsal room the set is being built elsewhere. There is then what is called a fit-up when the set is put on stage, completed and the lighting and sound are added before the actors join for the technical rehearsal. In Chipping Norton however they don’t really have anywhere big enough to rehearse other than the stage. In previous years the set has been fitted up the week before rehearsals start and then finished off when possible. Time was ticking on and still the canvas hadn’t arrived. Phone calls had been made, Chris and Gemma were due to be elsewhere on Thursday. Just as we were trying to work when and where the flats could be done a lady appeared and patiently waited for a gap in conversation. ‘A delivery from Macdougals’ Bloomin brilliant! You have never seen so many people so pleased to see a large roll of fabric before.

Chris covered each flat, which then was primed by me before being positioned out of the way so the next one could be done. One set of flats were put up on stage the other taken into the auditorium for me to paint on Thursday.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday I spent painting away. I’m so glad I’d cut templates out as this saved me hours of drawing. Having a paintshop in the auditorium has meant that I am nearly word perfect with most of the songs for Act 1 and I know some of the dance routines too. Being on hand for questions has been good as I could see how things were being used by the actors, well when I had my glasses on. The portals gradually came together and I managed to time completing parts with breaks in rehearsals so that things could be moved around without too much disturbance.

My two crew worked hard hauling bits up and fixing them together as they were finished. The last section requiring all three of us, pulling, pushing and screwing them together with just enough time for me to catch the last bus to Banbury. Having to return the theatre to normality for films on Sunday gave us added impetus.

My digs are close to the theatre, I have a bathroom all to myself, which has a bath. This and my room together most probably equal the full size of Oleanna. There is also a very friendly old cat called Pepper who can open my bedroom door if I don’t lock it. She is persuasive when it comes to being stroked and will tap me on the nose to get my attention, especially when I am asleep.

67 hours, 2 portals, 3 days late, 8 colours, 1 quiet painter, 7 actors, 12 pippins, 5 minutes spare, 2 much still to do next week, 2 days off to recharge the batteries.

Up To Date And Overstaying. 12th October

Oxford

Mick nudging us up yesterday worked a treat, only one train through the night that we noticed and no compressor noise! A good nights sleep all round.

This morning we had a quick tidy up as we were expecting a visitor. Paul from Waterway Routes had come to visit. He brought with him the 80th update of his canal maps, we were the first to receive them.

We’ve been using Waterway Routes since mid April and find it very useful. The maps include all the information you could want whilst boating, water points, moorings, access to towpaths, to mention only a few. All the positions on the maps are accurate down to a five digit grid reference and those who have the maps are encouraged to give updates or corrections as they cruise the network, therefore making Paul’s maps the most up to date you can get. Every month there is an update. Today he very kindly came out to see how we are doing with them and so that we could upload the latest version onto the lap top.

Mick checked to see if our contributions had been added and of course they had been. Paul doesn’t just rely on boaters giving him updates he also does a lot of checking himself. Earlier in the week he’d had a trip up to Scotland and cycled 40km to check the information he has on the Union Canal into Edinburgh. During the summer months he and his wife cruise the network collecting data and recording journeys on their boat to produce DVDs. This summer their plans had to change somewhat due to lack of water, slower than planned restoration works and canal closures.

There was plenty to talk about and catch up on, even Tilly woke up from her morning snooze to say hello. I passed on information I’ve been collating from the outsides we’ve tied up and Paul is considering how best to add cat friendly symbols to his maps. This may be on an overlay as not every boater will need them. Tom and her have done an overlay of their own for the winter stoppages on the Oxford Canal which they think will be useful this winter. Just hope those stoppages are near good rabbit holes.

After a morning chatting, Storm Callum was taking hold, the train ride I’d been on yesterday was not possible today due to the high winds and waves at Dawlish. The serious winds meant we weren’t too keen on moving so we decided to stay put for the day. I had quite a few work emails to deal with and Mick wanted to go to John Lewis with his phone to get it mended. Many branches and twigs had been blown off the trees along the towpath into the city. Whilst Mick went to sort his phone I also ventured out to catch a bus to Kidlington. I most probably could have walked there from the boat when we come to leave Oxford, but that would have been too late.

In the old days when we lived in a house and I had a work room at the top of the house, I had a full colour swatch book for Dulux paints and others for theatrical paints. If there is one thing I miss now it is those swatch books. Choosing paints from either a computer screen or a swatch book with a fraction of the colours is impossible. So a trip to the nearest Dulux Decorators Centre was needed. Plenty of buses head out to Kidlington and there was a bus stop bang outside, so I didn’t have to get blown too far to get some shelter.

I first perused a stand and picked out the best colours for various things I’ll be painting and then asked if I could look at their big bumper swatch book. They obliged and I found just the right colour, checked prices, thanked them and was on my way back to the boat. A successful trip. Mick’s trip wasn’t as successful, his phone is having to be sent away to be mended, it may be a couple of weeks before he gets it back, fortunate we’re staying on the Oxford so he can always get a train back to pick it up. He returned with his sim card and has managed to find an old phone to keep him going.

The wind is still strong, so we won’t be going anywhere today, hopefully any C&RT number checkers will be sensible and not report us for overstaying.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 good nights sleep, 80th update, 1 stoppage overlay, 1 cat friendly overlay to be worked on, 2 windy to move, 2 windy for cats, 2 bus to Kidlington, 1 Tilly imposter, 7 bus back, £88.60 for 10L, 1 poorly phone, 2nd snake nearly finished.

Autumn Half Term. 6th October

Thrupp

It started to rain as Mick got out of bed to make tea. Was it worth getting dressed before our morning cuppa to get the cratch cover back on before everything in the well deck got wet? We knew it made sense and put top layers on with water proof coats. After wiping water off the cratch board the cover was back on before 8am. Damp things removed we got back into bed for tea.

Soon after breakfast the stove was lit, the temperature having dropped by around 10C since yesterday. We knew the forecast was for rain followed by more rain today, so hadn’t planned anything. It felt like an Autumn Half Term holiday where either you spent it in front of the TV or were forced to walk around the Lake District in the rain because it was character building! We decided to do the former after Mick had walked to the Co-op about a mile away for our Saturday newspaper.

A boy programme on trains was followed by a girl programme, GBBO. Then we decided to watch Mystery Road that is being shown on BBC4. Lunch was suitable soup with homemade chickpea flatbreads. The flour has been sat in a drawer for the last year and is just passing it’s use by date. They were an interesting experiment and I think next time I may add a touch of cumin. They also might be a good base for a flat bread pizza.

During the day my Panto snake puppet grew, it only needs a few more inches of body and then things like a tongue and some extra markings for it to be finished. Then there are another two to make!

Late afternoon the rain dried up so we had a stroll around the village. It wasn’t a long one as the village is quite small. A row of Grade 2 listed cottages sits alongside the canal. If you fancy one it would be a mere £425k in need of some modernisation. They do look cosy though. We studied the bus timetables to see if here would be a possible place for me to commute from, 2 buses and they run on Sundays, the advantage of being by Oxford Airport. Then we followed a path behind The Boat Inn which led us back to the canal at Shipton-on-Cherwell and the Holy Cross Church.

Inside no lights were on and the small church was a touch gloomy in the fading light of the day. A flash was needed to be able to see just about anything, a small organ and two bells. We returned to Oleanna having decided to eat out at The Boat Inn tonight, hoping that their beer stocks had been replenished from earlier in the week.

We joined four other tables in The Morse Room. The Boat Inn was used as a location in an episode of Morse back in 1989 (The Last Enemy) and the walls have numerous photos from the episode. John Thaw looked over my shoulder as I tucked into a steak and chips. We’d heard the chap on the table next to us checking to see if their pies were just stew topped with a puff pastry lid or a proper pie with sides, the answer was yes they had sides. But what we forgot to ask ourselves was how our food would be served. They arrived on plates, but the chips came in a mini frying basket with a piece of paper under them. These were dispensed with very quickly, all the food on a plate where it should be.

The steaks were okay, still not had one to beat The Old Hall Inn, Chinley (The Red Lion in Crick comes second). They certainly weren’t triple cooked chips, more the variety that had once been mashed potato which had then been formed into chip shapes, then sprayed with a coating to hold them together. The only option I had for pudding was ice cream. A scoop each of vanilla, strawberry and chocolate in a glass with a blob of cream on top. You may notice that I call this ice cream as it had no medicinal qualities to it what –so-ever, just supermarket cheepo ice cream. We decided to return to Oleanna to keep Tilly company for a second drink rather than spend more money on beer and wine in the pub.

0 locks, 0 miles, 0 bridges, 1 cratch cover back on before the rain really set in, 1 clean pooh box, 7 pencils, 2 pens, 1 handcuff key destined for the floor, 1 very bored cat, 3 episodes Mystery Road, 1ft of snake, 5 chickpea flatbreads, 0.5 of soup, 1 large glass wine, 1 pint, 2 steaks, 1 with 1 without onion rings, 1 stove lit all day, 1 very cosy boat.

Narrowboat Oleanna

Travels of Narrowboat Oleanna