Category Archives: Pantomime

Panto Postcard 6, 2021

46.75 hours

Sunday. What a lovely day off spent with family. Finn the feline version of a silver back was first to say good morning to me, I was honoured as he rarely makes his way upstairs. Then Ziggy made sure I had enough feline attention by sitting on me and demanding I leave the crochet blanket alone to give her plenty of chin rubs.

The day was spent chatting with Andrew and Jac followed by an early lunch. A joint of lamb with plenty of vegetables and masses of cauliflower cheese. All was very very yummy and just what was needed to refuel me for the journey back to Chippy. I even got to take a generous doggy bag back with me!

Google had been good on the way to Hackney with it’s timings, I aimed for an earlier bus than suggested, just missing it. Then with the volume of people at Paddington it was slow going getting up into the station, I was there a minute before my train departed, but there was no mention of which platform, so I missed it! A change of route however got me back to Oxford in time for a bus back to Chippy before they became hourly.

Monday. Jo returned with a mass of giant prop veg. Those turnips nearly looked good enough to eat and her leeks made from yoga mats were a triumph! We were joined by Tim for a second day helping to work the way through the remainder of the prop makes.

The local BBC reporters came to film us getting ready to open the show. A few interviews were recorded and then Ash and Gav got to wheel the cannons across stage at speed, which of course was the bit that was used.

The dress rehearsal from Saturday was finished off, followed by a full dress with another set of Pippins. This then left the evening to do work. I decamped into the bar and spent several hours sewing velcro onto ribbons, sadly the bar wasn’t open!

Tuesday. More fairy lights went up in the auditorium and we were joined by the ushers for the final dress rehearsal when photos were taken. There were still notes to work on and the show was running a touch too long for days with two school shows. Whilst cuts were discussed long into the evening glittering happened in the auditorium, adding that bit of eco sparkle to the show.

Wednesday. I spent all morning in the land of latex glue. The auditorium needed a good leafing. I got into my stride with three plastic bags where leaves could be glued and left to dry as I stuck the driest onto the balcony fronts. The morning soon disappeared and it was time to clear everything away as we had two previews.

The first preview was filled with a school and a group of about 30 adults. Sadly after a couple of songs a fault developed with the sound so the show had to be stopped as nobody could hear the music. People ran round to find the fault and ended up replacing a faulty cable which seemed to do the trick. But by the time we were ready to start again there was a very long line of kids waiting for the toilet! The delay of around twenty minutes meant that the schools bus would arrive before the end of the show, so it was decided to get to the song sheet and then say farewell to the kids, the adults then more than made up for the lack of bums on seats whilst the show finished.

The second preview went much better, even the cannons did their best to impress and soak! The old Producer Will was in to watch, which was lovely as he put together the team and contracted us all before he left to go freelance.

During the show I realised what was missing from one of my sets. The interior of the tower had been bothering me, it was because it didn’t have any panto shadows. So the set was put on stage ready for some attention first thing in the morning.

Thursday, I was just about first in. Shadows painted before the cast arrived to work through the cuts that would be put in today. I had a few more notes to do before having a really good tidy up. Paints were labelled and stored back in the shed. The model was removed from the model box of the theatre, I keep a few bits as mementos but the rest has served its purpose so just ends up in the bin. All my possessions were collected together and piled up in the shower, the only place left in the building with space!

Just a few more leaves were added and the very last one recorded for posterity. I used a few leaves and added strawberries for my first night cards, the remaining ones were all packed up and put in the attic for someone to find in years to come. Out of the 3588 leaves I’d cut for the show I think I had about 900 left and if I’d had one more day I’d have used them all up.

At bang on 4pm I got a message, Mick had arrived in Chippy! A hire car had been picked up this morning in Scarborough. The car was loaded and the shower made available to the cast again.

The evenings performance was a socially distanced one, only 65 in the audience, but they all seemed to enjoy it. Maybe it was because there were lots of the team in as it was our last evening. Mick enjoyed the show and I was especially pleased that the Pippin team on tonight included my favourite, she tends to steal the show when she’s on stage.

After the show I joined the rest of the team in the stalls for notes. This actually was more of a goodbye to many of us who’d be leaving tomorrow. Tiredness and emotion took over a touch for me. After spending almost 18 months talking about the show and the design having been worked on for a year, there it was on the stage in front of an audience. We were all back doing what we love and sharing it with an audience. I’d avoided going to the pub for four weeks and kept my distance, worn my mask for eleven hours a day (sometimes more) but now hugs could not be refused.

Time to eat. Only one thing I could eat, and that was fish and chips at the Blue Boar.

Chipping Norton is where Bagpuss resides of course

Friday. No time to sleep in, there was more to pack in the car and time to say goodbye to Suzanne. Thank you once again for my Chippy Panto home.

Then we were on our way heading northwards. We paused to pick up some breakfast at Leicester Forest East Services. Last time we’d stopped here was when we moved NB Winding Down from Elton Moss, on that occasion we’d had three weeks of boat life and were deafened by the chairs in the dining area being scraped on the floor. Sandwiches would do us today.

We turned off the M18 at junction 6 and wove our way through Thorne to reach Blue Water Marina. There sat Oleanna tucked in with her new friends, a few with familiar names about the place.

It’s been strange not being able to go home to the boat whilst working on panto this year, my life having developed a north south divide! So it was good to see her in her winter home. Time to collect a few things I would want before it was time to say Toodle Pip to her for the time being.

The rest of our journey back to the house was filled with autumnal scenes up over the Wolds. Drax the only power station in the area still with it’s full compliment of cooling towers was busy working hard.

Sat in the bay window on our return was Tilly. I got a bit of a telling off to start off with but she soon remembered that I give better head nudges than Mick. Well first you’d gone and left me, then Tom did too! He’d even left me with the magic food bowl which had only popped once! I’d got bored of waiting for it to pop again. I was soon pinned down to the sofa by Tilly, Mick gave me a glass of wine and I caught up on Bake Off again.

Three weeks ago on the day we moved Tilly back to Scarborough, we were contacted by the SJT regarding a lodger for 6 weeks next spring, hopefully our first of several. So this year we know when we’ll be back on Oleanna, well hopefully if the plague doesn’t get out of control!

This does now mean that unless there is something boaty to write about, the blog will be going into hibernation again, hopefully not for as long as last winter as we’ll be back on board before C&RT’s winter maintenance is finished. In the meantime we’re working on a few new things to be included on the blog.

Now where’s that stoppage list gone?

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 missed train, 1 huge leg of lamb, 2 feline cuddles, 4 last days, 2667 leaves stuck, 21 leaf cards, 6 ribbons, 1 last night visit to the pub, 1 Oleanna visit, 1 ikea bag of stuff, 1 shouting cat, 1 warm lap, 1 designer pinned to the sofa, 1 panto opened, 1 Pip taking it easy for a while.

Panto Postcard 5, 2021

72 hours

Sunday, a day of rest all round. After spending nine hours leaning over painting the floor I needed to check I could still walk. After a bit of a lie in and breakfast I headed out for a walk to get some food. I walked up to Marks and Spencers Food Hall buying a pie and some stir fry vegetables, along with some other bits and bobs to keep me going.

This coming week I would more than likely be trying to paint things with the lights going on and off so I popped into Mountain Warehouse to buy myself a head torch. In past years I’ve ended up borrowing someone’s, but that wouldn’t be possible with covid around. I had quite a choice, narrowed it down to two, then one.

Much of the rest of the day was spent lying on my bed with my feet up. A couple of colours were added to my crochet blanket and two episodes of Great British Bake Off were caught up on. Once I’d watched Dr Who it was very much time to go to bed.

Monday. Ed the sound designer joined us, checking the system and making sure the actors on stage would be able to hear Barney the Musical Director as well as him being able to hear them. Will the Lighting Designer focused lights leaving me with just my head torch behind the backdrop.

Most of the scenery would pass by now, still finishing touches needed, but most of that could now happen in breaks when the lights were on. So I turned to smaller things, the bunch of parsley. The Designer arrived and had changed her mind how this should look! She doesn’t always get in the way, but today she insisted that I start again!

The other major thing that required painting was a portrait of Gothel the witch. I’d been hoping to catch Amy in costume at some stage before now, but had missed her on Saturday. Luckily she had taken some dressing room selfies of herself so I was able to use one of those. I’d been wanting to do a version of the Mona Lisa, it took a while to get her arms not looking stumpy.

Back in Scarborough the roofer returned. The old gutters were replaced and the mass of down pipes moved to nearer the ridge of the roof, hopefully meaning that the water will spread across the roof and not just be a torrent down the corner of the house. The bill for the work turned out to be more than the chap had said, we thought his quote had included scaffolding, but now that was an extra £300!

Tuesday. Sound check day, I wondered if Gavin could actually count past two. Barney was moved onto stage. Trying to give him enough space for all his kit, keyboard, headphones, peddles, squeeze box, microphones, cameras, monitors as well as be able to change the scenery in front of him all took time.

Gemma returned and set about adding the fairy lights to the portals, I’d hoped someone would take this on. Due to a lot of previous layers on the portals we wouldn’t be able to push the lights through from the back, this is by far the neatest way. Instead they were cable clipped onto the front, it was quite fortunate that I wanted to cover the surface with thousands of leaves. Once the lights were up Gemma started sticking the greenery up.

Out in the garden Jo was busy with the big cannons. She’d had a brain wave overnight and done some research, I could assist with my boaters knowledge of amp hours and batteries. I got on with the final pieces of scenery, the cucumber sandwich slidders, all the time gradually adding more paint to Gothels portrait.

Wednesday. Mick caught trains down to Thorne, not as easy to get to as Goole was. On Saturday he’d not been able to meet up with any of the marina staff and by the time he arrived it was getting too late to winterise Oleanna. So he introduced himself to Sarah, received the marina rules and handed over some money. The mooring here is a touch more expensive than it was last winter in Goole, but it does include an amount of electricity in the price.

Mick emptied the damp traps, refilled them with new crystals and positioned them around the boat. The water was turned off, the system drained and the shower head laid in the shower. Cupboards were opened up to help with air circulation and the Alde boiler was set to come on when the temperature drops to 3C, a few degrees lower than last winter.

Time for the technical rehearsals to start in Chippy. The sweet chest had been tracked down, it had been sold off at the last Panto sale by mistake! The new owner will have it replaced with a chest that isn’t so important to panto.

Last night lighting states and sound levels had been programmed into the boards for the first part of the show, today we’d add the actors, costumes, scenery and props. Teching can be a slow process especially when there is SO much going on. Visual gags and luminous lettuce kept us all amused.

Thursday, more technical rehearsals. These days I spend watching, taking notes, helping solve any problems. But I’d also decided that baby Rapunzel needed to have a crocheted blanket! Yes we could have gone out and bought one, but it would have been hard to find a good one to match the show. Instead Jo supplied me with some green yarn with gold flecks and I borrowed a lamp so that I could see to crochet in row G whilst I wasn’t needed. In breaks more leaves were added to the portals and Gavin’s feet! He seemed to have a homing instinct to them whilst the latex glue was drying.

Friday. The Cotswold Thunderbolt was erected on stage and we had chance to add the rigging. A chap called Tim joined us to help Jo work on props whilst we continued with the technical. We worked our way through Act 2 until the actors ran out of hours. Then it was time to dry tech the ending of the show.

Wide ribbons had been made up by Valerie a local volunteer, Jo had fibre glassed the giant strawberry which was flown out. With big clamps to temporarily hold ribbons to the balcony fronts we tried out the ribbons and raised the strawberry. This all worked. We then dry teched the end sequence (without actors), it all slotted together as planned! High fives all round.

Saturday. Today we should have been doing the first of three dress rehearsals. Each team of Pippins get to have a dress, but we still hadn’t teched the end of the show with everyone, the five minutes was likely to take about two hours! So in the morning we did a dress rehearsal of Act 1. Imogen my work experience joined us and did her best to cut leaves to decorate the pram whilst sitting in the dark. We then positioned ourselves in the balcony to release the ribbons several times as we finished the technical.

Then followed a busy afternoon, trying to tick jobs off the list, painty jobs that could dry before actors returned in costume. I’d set myself an alarm and at 5:30pm it went off, time to wash brushes, get changed and head to the correct bus stop and leave Chippy for a night away.

This time I was heading to Hackney to see the London Leckenbys. Google suggested a route, S3 bus to Oxford, grab something to eat at the station, a train into Paddington, Bakerloo line then Central line followed by the 388 bus to Hackney Wick. A busy journey but not as alarming as the one to Doncaster had been two weeks ago. Unfortunately I got off the bus a little bit early so arrived about five minutes after I should have, but still before 9:30. Cheese and wine on my arrival with a guided tour of their new improved house, before sinking into bed in what used to be Josh’s room.

0 miles, 0 locks, 5 trains, 2 buses, 2 tubes, 7 tech sessions, 0.5 dress, 6 lateral flow tests, 1 head torch bought, 1 head torch misplaced after 3 hours! 1 boat winterised, 1 portrait, 1 pram, 1 MD squeezed in, 1 backing flat squeezes out, 1 asm, 1 blanket to make, 1 more long week to go.

Panto Postcard 4, 2021

Apologies, as this will be a short postcard this week, so I’ll stick to last Saturday as that was a very busy day both here and up North.

Mick was up seriously early and on a train at 5 something silly o’clock, he was heading to Goole to try to make the most of what hours of daylight there were. I on the other hand had a little bit of a lie in, well it was going to be a long day for me. Between the two of us we spanned 23 hours.

At Chippy Theatre it was time for us to be joined by Will Burgher the Lighting Designer who came in to watch a run of the show. The Pippins were also in and the three teams took it in turns to do scenes. Minimum scene changes happened so it was a little bit hard for me to make notes on what I still needed to work on, but it was good to see the show from start to finish.

I think it was Thursday that I’d received a message from Ann Marie and Dave from NB Legend, they had pulled up in front of Oleanna. We’d hoped our paths would cross earlier this year around Trent Lock, but we were just a bit too quick in passing on our way down to London. Legend has been down the Trent visiting all the off shoots, Boston, up the Chesterfield and when they came off the river at Keadby they had headed on up to Sheffield. We actually thought our paths might have crossed at Bramwith Junction a week or so ago, but due to Oleanna being poorly that hadn’t happened. Instead the boats met in Goole and they helped to keep an eye on Oleanna from the bow whilst Wendy and Martin kept an eye on the stern.

Mick arrived in Goole at 8am and cycled the mile to Oleanna, there was time for a cuppa and a catch up with Ann Marie and Dave before he needed to be on his way.

By 9:30 the pram hood had been dropped and Oleanna was winded to face west. Mick waved goodbye to Goole, NB Legend and WB Lullabelle most probably for the last time this year and headed out through the caisson.

He motored on along the long straight passing the breach site and on to Sykehouse Junction where we turned left onto the New Junction Canal. This had been planned to happen three weeks earlier and Bridget and Storm had kindly offered to come and operate the bridges for Mick, but today he was going to single hand them.

Now when I operate lift or swing bridges I keep a tally of how many vehicles I hold up. Admittedly I’m not single handing, trying to work the bridges as quickly as possible to hold up as few vehicles as possible, but I was a touch disappointed when Mick told me he held up ‘a few, not many, but a few’! That’s no good for the numbers!

Approaching Sykehouse Lock, is that a green light?

He worked his way along through the first lift bridge. As he approached the second bridge Kirk Lane Road Swing Bridge he thought he could see a green light at Sykehouse Lock. But at distances the lights can be a touch confusing and once he got that bit closer it was most definitely amber, self operation. I’d passed on my knowledge of this lock to him as there is a swing bridge over the centre of it and to be able to operate the panels at either end you need to insert your Key of Power into the panel by the swing bridge and open the bridge to the canal before either of the gate panels will work. However as he approached the amber light turned to green, there is an enthusiastic volunteer who can quite often be found at this lock and today it was Mick’s lucky day. The lock was set and waiting for him, he didn’t have to step off the boat once. Thank you.

By 1pm Oleanna had passed through the last of the six moveable bridges. Ahead lay the Don Doors, two guillotine gates that can be dropped when the River Don goes into flood stopping the river from backing up along the canal from the aqueduct. Earlier in the week I’d seen the River Ouse in flood so there was a possibility that the Don was high, but thankfully not high enough for the doors to be closed.

In Chippy by now we’d finished the run. The show was running at a half hour too long, some trimming would be needed, there is nothing worse than an over long panto, yet Rapunzel hadn’t felt too long. Dash headed home to work out what could be cut over the weekend.

Reaching Bramwith Junction Mick battled a touch with the wind to turn the sharp left to Bramwith Lock. Sadly no help on hand here so the ladders were used to get on the boat once she had descended. By 2:30 he’d passed through Bramwith Swing Bridge and was on his way to Thorne.

This left Thorne Lock with it’s swing bridge to do, all operated by the Key of Power, well apart from the road barriers that are manually swung into position. Then it was the renowned Princess Royal Swing Footbridge.

Mick moored up and went to operate the bridge, he followed the instructions to the T, but the very particular barriers on the far side got the better of him! Two barriers pull out and lock into position, you then cross back over the bridge and pull out the barriers on the control panel side. This means that unless you are as skinny as a heron you cannot get back across the bridge to wiggle the far side barriers to encourage them to locate properly. Fortunately a local came along and knew what to do. The bridge opened, Mick brought Oleanna through and another local closed the bridge and returned the key to Mick, handy as the bridge landing on that side has deteriorated so much it would have been just about impossible to get off Oleanna safely and tie up.

Not much further on they had reached their destination shortly before it got dark. Mick turned Oleanna into Blue Water Marina, her winter home this year. We’d hoped to be able to return to Viking Marina in Goole, but Laird had no room for us, our mooring from last winter now occupied by a go faster cruiser. Mick secured Oleanna to the short pontoon that we’d been allocated, closed her up and headed to the station. Today’s mission was accomplished, winterisation will happen on another visit.

Back on stage the technicians spent the afternoon adding more lights, they were meant to be focusing the lights on stage and then moving to the front of house bars handing over the stage to me to paint. I got myself ready with pots of paint, brushes on sticks and the model to follow. We were all in a position for me to start painting a little later than originally planned, they carried on working in the auditorium until I’d painted too much of the stage for Will to be able to play Hopscotch anymore.

The stage flooring was recently resurfaced which should have made for a nice floor, but somehow the boards were laid rough side up, this made the painting of washes quite a bit harder than it should have been. When Ash left at 11pm I thought it might take me another four hours to finish painting the floor and get two coats of glaze on it, but time just evaporated.

Once the washes were complete I stopped for something to eat, then thankfully enough of it was dry for me to add green hedges, the heating in the auditorium having been put onto it’s highest setting to aid the drying. Next came white and purple for a touch of floweriness. Gavin hunted round for several fans to help with the drying and by 3am I was applying the first coat of glaze. This should have had two hours before the second coat was applied, but by the time I’d finished getting into all the nooks and crannies it felt dry enough to walk on. The second coat went on in 18 minutes, the roller sleeve was left in a bucket of water to be cleaned out properly on Monday and I was out of the door just before 4:30am.

A long day for both of us.

3 locks, 17.6 miles, 9 bridges, ? held up, 3 lefts, 1 lockie, 2 helpful locals, 1 winter mooring reached, 2 weeks late, 1 run, 30 minutes too long, 1 hour late starting, 9 hours of floor painting, 2 coats glaze, 4:30am, 1 pooped Pip.

Panto Postcard 3, 2021

61.25 hours

My planned escape back to Oleanna was very nearly thwarted. I left the theatre with ten minutes to reach the bus stop I have used on a Saturday night to get to Banbury in the past. I glanced at the time table only to discover that the last bus to Banbury did not stop at my bus stop, it was a fast bus. Two minutes later I saw it pass the end of the street! I called the taxi company that had ferried me back and forth last week and pleaded with them to help me. Thankfully they had one driver who wasn’t booked up all evening and he’d just returned from a break. I was soon back on track but £25 worse off.

The first train to Birmingham New Street was very pleasant and roomy, however the next train was packed with singing shouting Barnsley football fans. Luckily I had a reserved seat, well three in all for my journey up to Doncaster as I’d bought split tickets. I sat wincing every time the next round of songs was shouted around the carriage. I wore my mask hoping it would keep any possible virus at bay, not just for me but also the whole panto cast on my return. Eventually the carriage emptied out and things became quieter.

Mick was at Doncaster station to pick me up in a hire car and whisk me back to Goole so that I could surprise Tilly. She was so pleased to see me that I wasn’t allowed to stop stroking her until it was time for bed.

Sunday. What a horrible morning! We’d been hoping to move Oleanna today, the alarm had been set, but the sideways rain was so not conducive to seven hours or so out side to get her along the New Junction Canal. So instead Tilly got to come and go, using the hire car as shelter and we had a cooked breakfast. Hooray!

I actually needed a quiet day as I was really rather pooped. Mick headed off to buy some Puppy Training Pads whilst I did very very little. It was so nice to be back at home with my two favourites cosy in front of the stove.

Yesterday Mick had discovered that the boat moored behind us was Martin and Wendy’s Lullabelle, we’d escaped Goole with them back in May. Lullabelle is part way through having a repaint, Martin had spotted Oleanna though. They have spent the summer months pootling about on the Ouse, up to Oxclose Lock which was closed and down to Naburn. They then headed back to Selby, had a trip round Trent Falls on Sea Maiden ( another Escapee) and Lullabelle was one of the first boats to get through Selby Swing Bridge when it was finally removed to be mended.

Monday. Time to pack things, the main one being Tilly. Our original plan had been to return to the house on Sunday, have a day for Tilly to settle down with me being around before I headed back to pantoland. But there had been a misunderstanding with one of our lodgers who’d decided that she was not leaving until today, she’d also said no to Mick dropping in to pick up Tilly’s Cat Caravan. Her show was moving on to Newcastle so she wanted to avoid any unnecessary contact, we respected that but were a touch miffed that she’d been confused at us wanting to return to the house on the Sunday when that is when she’d booked the house til!

*I don’t see why I couldn’t have stayed here!*

Anyhow, we packed the hire car. Fleur the Company Stage Manager in Scarborough had lent Tilly a Cat Caravan, which she wasn’t too pleased about. Also what was it with those Puppy Training Pads! I’m not a puppy and I certainly don’t need training! Our drive back to Scarborough involved two stops to refresh the puppy pads and after about half an hour Tilly seemed to be calming down a touch, maybe helped by the Pet Remedy, or just that she was getting more queasy. Poor poor Tilly! It was a relief for us all to reach the house.

Once Tilly had been cleaned up I didn’t bother restricting her to a room at a time, so we both checked round the house, Tilly more vocally than me! She definitely knew where she was, Yes, Scarboreugh! Our lodgers through the summer have ranged from being awarded 11 to 5 out of 10 for how they have left the house. A spare clean sheet for our bed would have been nice, but that was soon sorted.

Shoes from down the road has been making himself known to our lodgers and came peering in through the kitchen window only to find that Tilly had returned and that we would not be a push over. Stupid Cross Eyed Cat!

Having people live in your house means you get left with things, the garlic will get used, but I think we now have a touch too much malt vinegar! The rest of the day was spent doing washing, unpacking and making lists. Followed by fish and chips from Cappleman’s.

Tuesday morning and it was time for me to pack my bag again. Mick gave me a lift to the station, Scarborough was wonderful and sunny, such a shame to spend the day on a train. Mick headed back to Oleanna to pick up more things and check in with Martin and Wendy who would be keeping an eye on her for us for a few days.

My first train was to York where the River Ouse was in flood, right up to the level of the Museum Gardens, so no boats were moored there. I changed trains to a direct one to Banbury which followed parts of the canal network and rivers, the Soar looked really quite full. Back to Chippy on the 488 I stocked up with some food and went straight into the theatre.

Final preparations were taking place for publicity photos so we tweaked a few things whilst the Dame tweaked her padding. Lights were focused onto stage and then scenes were run for the photographer. Meanwhile I carried on painting behind the backdrop.

During the afternoon news came through that one of the Pippins had tested positive on a lateral flow test today. The Pippins had all been in yesterday after school for a couple of hours rehearsing with the adult company. PCR tests were arranged for the company and anyone who’d been in close contact, it looks like I’d chosen a good day to have off!

Wednesday. The theatre was a touch quiet today with the majority of people having gone to Banbury for a test. The test centre where they had been booked into via the NHS had closed three weeks ago! Luckily their appointments were honoured at a drive through test centre not too far away. Doors and windows were kept open and everyone wore a mask all day long.

More painting, nearly everything has a coat of paint on it now. Despite rehearsals going on on stage I can beaver away behind the backcloth quite happily. We had a production meeting at lunchtime. We collected in the bar and were joined by other members of the team via zoom. A laptop was pushed around the bar for people to give updates on their progress and bring up any problems. The main problem we have is that The Chipping Norton Theatre sweet chest, which has been in every panto that people can remember has gone missing! If you happen to know of it’s where abouts please let me know in confidence.

Thursday. Back in Scarborough we finally had scaffolders arrive. This is so that a roofer can sort out the roof where we have developed a roof garden which is letting a lot of water into the house and is possibly the reason the kitchen sockets have been tripping for the last few months.

*That looks like a good climbing frame!*

Mick added two containers worth of our solid deposits into the compost bin in the garden. The garden waste and our deposits from earlier in the year had almost totally composted down, this will be left until next year before it is used somewhere in our garden.

In Chippy rehearsals continued, the Pippins joined via zoom this evening, Dash (the Director) showing them where he wanted them to be in certain scenes. They also got to meet the Musical Director who joined us, Barney. Some singing was done over zoom too. It’s great that such things can happen keeping everyone involved with the show. By the end of the day everyone’s PCR results were in, only the one Pippin having tested positive, thankfully she hadn’t passed it on to anyone else. We all continue to do daily lateral flow tests.

Second coat of emulsion before the arty stuff goes on

I was called over by Dash for something important, he needed to give me plenty of chocolate to keep me going through the evening. Working for him is a touch like having a fulltime Dame in the room, and today I got most of the sweeties! A fresh coat of paint was added to the floor before we all left for the night.

Friday. Blimey it was chilly this morning, fitting for it being Bonfire night. Rehearsals continued, eleven out of twelve Pippins returning to the theatre.

I started putting finishing touches to several pieces of scenery and ended up the day drawing out the floor in paint in preparation for painting it over Saturday night into Sunday morning.

In Scarborough the roofer arrived and Mick got chance to see the roof where the problem was. The roofer wanted us to replace the slates with concrete tiles, but that wouldn’t be right for the house. He also wanted to redo the whole of the roof over that part of the house. Mick declined his kind offer, we just needed the roof to be good again and the rest of it seems to still be in good order. Thankfully the timber is just wet and not rotten. The chap will return next week to sort out gutters and reroute down pipes with the hope that the problem will not recur so that everything can dry out. We now need to find a plasterer to redo the kitchen wall, I’m not sure my dabble with plaster last winter makes me qualified enough for the job.

0 locks, 0 miles, 2 windy, 2 wet, 2 nights on board, 1 cat transported to the house, 4 trains, 1 hire car, 0 clean sheets, 5 out of 10, 1 tart, 1 Tilly tree climbed, 3 bottles Sarsons, 1 positive, 2 known neighbours, 1 not too lonely Oleanna.

Panto Postcard 2. 2021

70.75 hours

Sunday. What a lovely day. Time for a cuppa in bed for me. I didn’t really plan on doing that much as I’d had a busy week and knew that the following week would be even busier! Not having my breakfast chef on hand I put together a treat breakfast. Two toasted muffins with cheese and ham. Very tasty, but not a patch on one of Mick’s breakfasts. I then spent most of the morning trying to catch up with The Great British Bake Off, played on the laptop whilst crocheting and most importantly keeping my legs up.

During the last week my knees have taken a battering, an old war wound on my left knee used to be sorted with a good rub. But sadly now the effect only lasts a few minutes. So keeping my feet up was a very important job today, also having the opportunity to do some crochet was good. My blanket is now of a size that Tilly and it cannot live comfortably on my knee at the same time.

In the evening I joined Gemma (Production Manager), Chris (Production Carpenter), Ade and Lou (Set Builders) for a drink and some food at the Blue Boar where we could get a table. It was good to see the team again, have a drink and of course have fish and chips (gluten free version available).

Meanwhile in Yorkshire, Mick had been up early to move Oleanna for her rendezvous in the morning in Goole. Thank goodness it wasn’t further! His first hop before Oleanna was over heating got him about half way from Rawcliffe Bridge. Time to let the engine cool down before the next hop just to inside Goole caisson.

Then the final hop was into Viking Marina, to the boat lift. Oleanna wouldn’t need to come out of the water, but this was a space that was available. Our mooring from last winter now has a boy racer cruiser tied up to it, but we could still claim to be neighbours with Lisa and Al’s boat. The trip of 2.5 miles had taken Mick and Oleanna 6.5 hours.

Monday. A very busy day for me at Chippy, read through and fit up all rolled into one along with meeting a sixth form work placement student (Imogen) who’d be joining me several times this week. I collected all my model pieces together and using blue tack put it back together as best I could in the time I had before being asked questions by the builders, showing my face at the meet and greet. Blimey that was odd, everyone being masked, trying to talk to each other and be heard, whilst at least 20 other people were trying to do the same thing!

I did the model showing, followed by Helen showing the costume designs, then it was the read through, so much better read by the actors than read in my head. Plenty of ‘Chill out Hilda!’

Ade and Lou concentrated on building a platform for Rapunzel to get to her tower, whilst Gemma and Chris busied themselves rigging portals and cloths. I managed to get quite a few things drawn out so that they could all be jigsawed out to the correct shape. Jo (Prop maker) arrived with many goodies in her van, including the giant strawberry.

In Goole Mick and Alastair were being busy. First the antifreeze in the cooling system was drained off. Then pipes and the gear box oil cooler were removed. Lots of rusty crud was blocking these. A pressure washer was then fitted to the system and the whole thing was given a good wash through.

The system was put back together filled with water the engine started up. After about ten, fifteen minutes it became clear that the crud was not the only problem as Oleanna’s temperature started to rise again. Alastair decided that a pressure test would be needed to check if the head gasket had gone! This could only be done when the engine was cool, so it was decided to do that the following morning as it was already late in the afternoon.

Tuesday. More drawing up for me today and with the help of Imogen lots of furniture had a base colour applied, Imogen could well be a useful find. Ade and Lou headed home leaving a box of their fresh pressed apple juice for us all to enjoy. Chris and Gemma carried on rigging pieces of scenery with the help from Ash and Gav the two in house technicians.

By the end of the day I’d managed to get some paint on more pieces of scenery and solutions for the cinema screen to be able to fly in and out had been found. One tower has a hinged door in it the other has a section that can be removed with care, hopefully this won’t need to happen too many times. A good day in Chippy.

Heading back to Viking before she over heats

However in Goole investigations continued. Alistair set about doing a pressure test at 8am. This had to be done first thing as the boat lift was needed today. Thankfully Oleanna passed the test and so the head gasket is good, phew! He was sent over to the visitor moorings whilst the lift was being used. Mick headed off to do some shopping and once the mooring was free again he moved back over for more investigations.

The water pump was removed and then taken to bits. Ah Ha! This was the problem, Mick had thought it might be. For those unfamiliar with what the inside of a pump should look like, there should be 6 fins that pump the water through the cooling system, Oleanna’s for some reason only had 1.5, the rest having disappeared into the rusty crud.

A phone call was made to RCR as the job could now be passed back onto our breakdown cover. A new water pump was placed on order, but no-one was sure when it would arrive. Oleanna certainly wouldn’t be going anywhere, she was hooked up so Mick and Tilly could have power again. The marina sadly isn’t a suitable place for Tilly to explore so cabin fever was soon to set it.

Wednesday. Covid policy at Chippy Theatre is to do two lateral flow tests a week which have to be photographed and sent in to Annette the Company Stage Manager. There is also a thermometer by the pass door into back stage. Tuesday morning I’d offered up my forehead at which point the unit flashed red, displaying a large L. I tried again, the same thing happened. I removed myself from the building whilst the thermometer instructions were checked. As I thought, my temperature was too low, thankfully that meant I was allowed to enter the building and get on with work. The same happened again today, six times before my icy heart warmed up enough!

This was a delivery to the pub next door, honest!

The theatre has arranged for the theatre bar to be open on an evening for the company to drink in, hopefully reducing the chance of someone picking up Covid by mixing with the general public in a pub. I’d already decided that a bottle of wine back at my digs was preferable to going to the pub, plus I’m unlikely to be doing that anyway as I’ll be at work till late most evenings anyway.

The backdrop was flown out, red bands added to the portals, they still need to go gold, some of them were trimmed to fit better. As I’d designed the tower last January/February I knew getting in and out of it might be quite a tight fit, so I was the one who had to try it for size first. Thankfully I fitted meaning Rapunzel would have quite a bit of spare room as she is half my size.

I spotted a problem with part of the set. A tent that needed to be on wheels. A discussion was had about it. One side saying if they’d have known it was to be a truck (on wheels) then it would have been built completely differently. The other side said it had always been a truck and that the drawings most probably said as much. In fact the drawings had sketches explaining what would happen to the tent truck. A carpenter would be found to amend the tent.

Mick busied himself on Oleanna. There was the green wire to solve from the alternator belt incident. He also took apart our original domestic water pump and gave it a good clean as suggested by Alastair. This worked a treat, so it was put back to work. The new faulty one was also taken to bits and the switch was found to be faulty. Mick managed to mend this whilst Tilly climbed on the ‘Feed me’ shelf at regular intervals throughout the day. Well I had to occupy myself with something if there was no shore leave! Tom got himself a gate key and blatantly chatted to Toms outside, coming and going at will, leaving me to snooze in front of the stove!

Thursday. Test day for me and another day of being cold hearted!

Today the actors moved into the theatre to rehearse. I moved into the auditorium and spent the day painting the groundrow, which I thought I’d based on a David Hockney painting of the Yorkshire Wolds. However on visiting the Co-op it appears I’ve been influenced by the mural there!

Dash (Director) had quite a few questions and found it quite novel that they could be answered by me within minutes, it’s not often a Designer is in the rehearsal room all day every day. It’s nice for me to hear where ideas are coming from rather than just getting the request on an email at the end of the day.

In Goole Mick waited for the new water pump to arrive. We’d been hoping to have Oleanna back along the New Junction Canal by now, maybe at Bramwith Junction. Extra crew, Bridget and Storm had been enlisted to work the lift bridges for Mick, but by now they had been stood down several times. The pump would be coming from Beta and should be delivered by midday on Friday.

Fusedale alongside the new dry dock at Viking Marina

Fusedale turned up for refuelling at Viking Marina, Laird was expecting it to require 850 to 1000 litres!

Friday. Chris returned for the day, a few hours of his work saved the technicians several days worth and I know things will work now including the tent truck, Hooray! Scenes were rehearsed, a lot of long hair climbing in and out of windows. How to support your long hair and a witch at the same time became a bit of a theme for the day.

Then in the late afternoon the Pippins joined the actors. The Pippins are local school kids, in three teams who add to the chorus of panto. Two hours with lots of singing and dancing on stage whilst I hid behind the backdrop working away.

By the end of the day the town flats were complete apart from some purple blooms.

Around 11am a delivery arrived in Goole, a water pump! You can now see what damage the old one had very clearly. Alastair fitted the pump, the system was filled with antifreeze mix and the engine started up. Everything seemed fine.

A working gauge to show the water pump working!

The new green wire also did it’s job, the temperature gauge showed a constant 80, this hadn’t shown a reading since the belt incident. Hooray! on two counts. By 2:30pm everything was deemed good to go, only thing was it was far too windy to move Oleanna. Mick would most probably have got her as far as Lisa’s boat and ended up being blown alongside and pinned there. Laird from the marina was fine with Mick staying for another night.

Saturday, a slightly later start for me today, just as well as the covid policy at the theatre has changed. Every morning before going into the theatre we all now have to do a lateral flow test. This is so that during rehearsals the actors can all be unmasked, but whilst moving around the theatre masks are to be worn. As I spend my life going from here to there and back again, I wear my mask pretty much all the time. I won’t be changing this even if everyone is testing daily, even though the back of my ears are red roar! I so feel for those who’ve been wearing masks all day every day for the last 18 months.

Time to draw up the tents and when the acting company had left for the day the scaffolding tower was erected so that I could reach Rapunzels tower to touch up the paintwork and finish bits that couldn’t be done before. The technicians dug out old equipment to see if it worked from under the stage and then Gav did a very good job of being ballast at the bottom of a ladder for me whilst I painted a coat of gold on the arches. At 6:15 an alarm went off on my phone, time to wash up, pack up, get changed and run away for the weekend!

In the afternoon Mick returned the key fob for the gates to Laird, thanked him and then moved Oleanna out from the marina. The doors were opened up and Tilly was set free to explore once more.

0 locks, 3.1miles ish, 1 new water pump, 2 mended domestic waters pumps, 1 big flush through, 1 pressure test passed, 0 blown head gasket, 34 litres antifreeze mix, 3 lateral flows, 1 theatre with doors open, 19 cast, 3 carpenters, 5 long days, 1 normal day, 2 soups, 1 brolly, 3.5 meters of hair, 1 new leaking roof, 1 tent on wheels, 4 panto masks,12 hours a day, 1 weekend off, WOOHOOO!

Panto Postcard 1. 2021

59.5 hours

Monday morning I was in the theatre early. Time to hunt out my paint orders and old paint I would be needing this week. The dressing room that we normally use for a props office (until the Dame takes it over) was piled high with Panto Post. I found most of my things tucked under a pram in the wings of the stage.

I then met up with the new Producer Suzette who gave me a lift out of town to Alfred Groves and Sons in Milton-in-Wychwood where I would be working this week. A while later Gemma arrived with the advance pieces of set for me to paint. These are the pieces that will be needed early on in the fit up or will end up being high up.

We collected more things from the theatre, like a table chair and ladder. All pieces of scenery were laid out and by the end of the day everything had a prime coat of paint on them. Taxis were booked for the rest of the week to get me back and forth.

Meanwhile up in Yorkshire. Mick did a few things whilst still having use of the car, he’d hoped to be able to buy a new part for the kitchen tap which is dripping again, but one will have to be ordered on line. Once he’d returned the car he and Tilly made ready for the off. Because Bulholme Lock was still being operated by a Lockie he wanted to take advantage of not having to single hand it. He was beaten to it by the gravel barge Farndale, heading back to Hull sitting high in the water. With big beasts of boats now using the waterway it’s wise to find secure moorings as mooring spikes are unlikely to withstand the movement.

Mick descended the lock and headed downstream towards Ferrybridge. More buildings have been demolished around the power station and the old coal wharf is gradually being dismantled. I’m kind of glad I wasn’t there to see it, although jealous at the same time.

Tuesday. My taxi arrived and whisked me out to Groves, the driver I would see several more times this week. Despite it being unseasonably warm I had paint that wasn’t drying! So I spent the day drawing everything out. To aid this I hunted around some skips in the yard outside, nearby carpentry workshops supplied me with offcuts I could use as a yard stick. Fixing a pencil to the end means you can draw from a distance and supposedly get better curves. The only sticks I could find had been oak, a touch heavier than I’m used to, along with the lack of practice my curves were not so good, but that could be sorted with paint.

A short day today as I had a ticket to see The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde at the theatre. Blackeyed Theatre are touring the production for which I have several connections. It was adapted and directed by Nick Lane, the Company Stage Manager Jay and one of the actors Zack are all people I have worked with, they are part of my Hull Truck family. It was great to see the show, but better to see Jay and Zack. We headed to the pub where they were staying for a couple of drinks after the show. I of course took a kettle with me, now I could have hot drinks at the paint shop.

Back in Yorkshire. Mick had moored overnight in Knottingley allowing Tilly to have a bit of shore leave. The river level had risen and the flood lock was closed behind him. Good job he’d come through the day before as it’s a very long lock to single hand in.

Next stop was just below Whitley Lock. He’d arrived as someone else had below, the lock got a touch confused so even though it was almost in his favour it was emptied to bring the other boat up which seemed to sort the problem out. The crew from the other boat helped Mick down. He then pulled up on the visitor moorings and let Tilly out.

Wednesday. At last I had dry paint! I could start to add more. I spent a lot of the day either bending over or on my knees laying in and blending the yellow stonework on Rapunzels tower, both inside and out. It took forever and my knees were not my friend by the end of the day. I did treat myself by starting to add some colour to the Cotswold Thunderbolt pieces. Being able to stand up to do this was a joy, I needed to move the other pieces up off the floor and also get some heat as it was starting to get chilly. The weather had been fooling me and I’d not even thought about heating until then.

It was raining at Whitley. Mick decided that he would leave when they moved up to Tilly, so she got busy outside. Just as well he’d managed to tie up to rings as Farndale came past with a full load of gravel. One of our fender hooks broke and sadly a rope fender dropped into the deep Yorkshire water.

Half an hour later Fusedale the other gravel barge came past fully laden. I suspect Mick knew they were on their way as he’ll have had the VHF radio on. The gravel barges don’t have to drop crew off with the key of power, there are Lock Keepers on duty for them.

Around about midday Mick and Tilly pushed off although they didn’t go very far, just to Heck Bridge as it started to rain. A strange noise from the domestic water pump made him investigate, it had sprung a small leak. He called Laird at Viking Marine to see if they had a 24 volt one in stock and he did. So later in the afternoon they pushed off again mooring above Pollington Lock.

Thursday. A chilly start, I was glad I’d taken my thermals with me to work today. I thought I’d be getting a work placement to help me for a couple of days this week and had planned on standing all the set pieces up with their assistance, but because of all the paperwork and regulations they won’t join me until next week.

Cafes, carpenters, bakeries, chilled medication, all sorts at Groves

The big gas heater above my head sadly doesn’t work, so I put in a request back to the theatre for assistance moving things and some heat. The flats are not that heavy and maybe I could have done them on my own, but one wrong twist and I’d be out of action, so not worth it. John the Artistic Director arrived to help move things about, so much easier with two and now my knees could take a break. Another two colours were added to Rapunzel’s tower and I started to base in one of the houses for the town square.

Mick single handed down Pollington Lock. There is still no mooring along this stretch of water following the breach last December.

Lengths of the piling holding the bank up slipped when the water level was low and parts of the bank have followed the piling splitting away from the bank.

Buoys mark the areas to give a wide berth of up to the New Junction Canal and around the bend where Drax Power Station comes into view (the only power station in the area still with all it’s cooling towers).

Then the right hand bend and past the breach site.

New piling over the big culvert and concrete now have a big rubber strip along the top edge. Two small manholes sit where there were ones before the breach.

A new wooden fence is in place and grass seed is just starting to take hold around the area.

All the big machines, pipes, generators have long since gone.

Past New Bridge 21 you can moor again and further on the almost ruin of a house is in the process of getting a new roof. It’ll be watertight before they remove the bricks and breeze blocks in the windows. Mick carried on past Rawcliffe and through Goole caisson. Both diesel points in Goole had boats moored on them so he winded and returned to moor at the far end. He walked back to Viking Marina to get a water pump. Laird had quite a few and was selling them at a discount price, without a guarantee as several of them had proved to be faulty. If they didn’t work at all he’d either replace it or give you your money back. Mick bought two in case and soon found one didn’t work. Maybe they were a batch lot that dropped off the back of Del Boy’s cruiser!

Not a bad view when I looked up from my work

Friday. A heater was meant to have been left for me to pick up at the theatre this morning, but was annoyingly absent. John would sort it later in the morning. I based in more of the town flat and then started to add extra bits to the ship.

John visited me twice, once with a heater that didn’t work, then with one that did, Hooray!

I then spent the remainder of the day lining in the tower pieces. By the end of the day I had finished several pieces of set, a few just need a few finishing touches which would be better done when they are upright.

I requested to the taxi driver to take me to Sainsburys, I’ve been to most supermarkets this week, so that I could get something in stock for tomorrow. But Sainsburys seriously let me down with very few things I could eat without buying a mass of veg, I tried the Co-Op too and gave up, rewarding myself for a good days work with a chicken doner and chips. These I find are best eaten on a bench, they taste better in the open air! The aroma attracted some company from a local beggar who just missed me putting the box in the bin. Even a very big head nudge didn’t work.

Mick returned the none working water pump, got another, but doesn’t hold out much hope. He stocked up with food spotting that Exol Pride seems to have a new mooring near the coal tipper. We wonder if this is because it was all getting a touch too busy with the gravel barges also using the same moorings. He topped up with diesel at Goole Boat House and headed back out of Goole to just before New Bridge. Tilly prefers it out there. The unfortunate thing is that just as he was about to pull in he noticed that the engine temperature was rising, it kept on rising. Mick moored up.

The skin tank wasn’t hot, there was little hot water, but the engine was most certainly hot. Was this a recurrence of what happened on the Thames two years ago? Or had the water pump on the engine gone? A phone call to RCR in the morning when he might be able to get a touch closer to a road.

Finished, Rapunzel’s window when it’s cut out

Saturday. Somehow my taxi this morning had been cancelled, I got it sorted and got out to Groves for a bit after 10. I managed to join the Geraghty zoom for a short time whilst I opened up tins of paint. Lovely to see everyone even if briefly.

Time today was precious as it was my last day here and the set pieces would be collected tomorrow. I ended up finishing several other pieces but by the end of the day I had no idea if the roofs for the towers were right or not as I had to leave then drying. Paint was all packed away, my possessions collected together and hopefully I left the place in a reasonable state as I ~~ran~~ hobbled to catch my taxi. My left knee is very much looking forward to doing next to nothing tomorrow.

I could do no more, before my taxi turns up

Mick decided to move to Rawcliffe this morning where there are bollards to moor to and an easier place for an engineer to get to the boat. Oleanna managed to hobble the distance but was getting very hot and bothered as she arrived.

A nice local engineer came out, listened to Oleanna’s woes and history. He doesn’t think it is the pump on the engine, but thinks the system is gunked up again as it did on the Thames. He feels that the system needs a good flush through with a power hose. He thinks that maybe the level of anti-freeze wasn’t correct in Oleanna’s early days and that a flushing out means that we can start from scratch again. We’ll see, Oleanna now has an appointment with a jet wash on Monday, if she can get there!

3 locks, 27.65miles, 1 straight on, 4 winds, 3 water pumps, 1 too hot engine, 11 taxis, 1/3 of the set, 3 heaters, 1 working, 1 lovely space to work in, 3 supermarkets visited, 0 digs cat, 1 scrounging cat, 1 friendly landlady, 2 ex truckers, 1 show, 31 pots of paint, 1 fat knee!

Panto Home. 17th October

Castleford

My last Sunday morning on board before panto, so I had requested a cooked breakfast. Very yummy it was too.

A few last things to pack and then I was ready. Time to push off to load the car.

Late yesterday afternoon I’d heard a boat pulling in a boat behind us. This morning as we started to untie a chap on the narrowboat was doing the same. Without assistance he was taking his time, so we waited patiently before undoing our ropes.

NB Honky Tonk and Oleanna one boat apart

I looked at his boat. Hang on! Could this be a boat I’d been keeping my eyes open for since we reached Wakefield? It had the right configuration at the bow, but I just couldn’t see it’s name. The chap reversed out from the mooring and proceeded to wind, heading back towards the flood lock. As he did so we both spotted each others boat names at the same time. NB Honky Tonk is another Finesse boat, we follow each other on Instagram. We waved and had chance for a little bit of a chat, but the distance between us was a touch too much for him to hear properly, he at least got the jist that we wouldn’t be following him to Lemonroyd Lock, a shame really as we could have met properly.

Once he’d cleared we followed suit, pushing out and winding. We headed up towards the flood lock, all of 0.4 of a mile. The lock landing was full of fishermen, so we couldn’t pull in there and get the car alongside to load it.

Instead we pulled up behind the boat moored on the water point and whilst I popped the last few things into bags Mick ferried things to the car.

Once I was off loaded we winded again and returned to where we’d come from, mooring up well in case any of the gravel barges were on the move. Now it was time to say goodbye.

Well I knew what was happening, but a little unsure to what extent. She’d been putting things in bags, lots of them! Last time She did this we all moved to Scarboreugh, to a house! But this time it didn’t look like I was going anywhere. She gave me a big head nudge and asked me to look after the boat and Tom, I also got some Webbox too! Then they were gone, leaving me in charge. Thankfully She’d left me my evening dingding and extra biscuits!

Normally it takes 50 minutes to reach Chippy by bus, today it would take about three hours by car. The last stretch gave us great views over the Cotswolds. We dipped down through Over Norton and into Chipping Norton.

I’m staying with Suzanne again where I’ve been for the previous pantos. She was away for the weekend so had left me a key. We off loaded the car and had a cuppa, then it was time for Mick to head back to Oleanna. He could have stayed the night, but would have been under time pressure to get back with the hire car. Heading back today meant he could do a few chores in the morning, return the car and then hopefully get down the broken lock whilst it is being manned, the day after it will be closed for divers to hopefully fix the problem.

So I am now in Chipping Norton for the next few weeks, working hard, doing my best to avoid catching any lurgy. Mick and Tilly will still be cruising and taking photos for me. For the next few weeks it will be Panto Postcard Posts only on the blog. See you at the weekend.

0 locks, 0.8 miles, 2 winds, 2 Finesse boats, 2 many bags, 1 full car, 1 very early dingding, at least we remembered this time, 3 hours there, 3 hours back, 1 Chippy home again, 0 Pepper the cat :(, 1 post a week for a while.

How Much Stuff?! 16th October

Castleford

After the Geraghty zoom this morning Mick headed off to pick up a hire car. He’d shopped around to find the cheapest option. Enterprise just pipped Thrifty to the post as Thrifty have a maximum mileage after which you are charged quite a bit per mile.

Butter, light muscovado sugar and golden syrup

Whilst Mick was out Tilly got to come and go as she liked whilst I first wrote a long list and then started collecting items together. Next week I start work on this years Chippy Panto. On the two previous times we have been on the South Oxford Canal, an easy weekly commute for me to get back to the boat for weekends. This time being a lot further north, I will only be getting one trip back to see Mick and Tilly, plus I’ll be there for five weeks. So my packing needed to be more comprehensive than in the past.

Living on a boat means things are beavered away all over the place. The steps at the stern had to be removed to access the lower cupboard where I keep my Scenic paint brush bag. Then the winter bag of clothes needed to come out from under the bed. This has normally already happened to get our warmer clothing out of storage, but so far this year we’ve not felt the need for thermals. But I strongly suspect I’ll be needing my long johns before too long.

As everything was gathered together and packed into bags I was staring to run out of places to put everything. The bed became piled high. The sewing machine came out from under the dinette seats and sat on top of them in the corner. It really is amazing just how much stuff can be tucked away.

Stew bubbling away, jackets in the stove

A pork stew was put on the stove to have with jacket potatoes later in the day. I carried on packing. The Bourbon tin came out, still full with drawing tools from two years ago. The big pencils got a good sharpen whilst I watched boats arriving to be penned down the broken lock. Mick had a walk up to chat the lock keeper as he was hoping to be able to get the car a touch closer to the boat to load all my stuff. The road to the lock has a barrier and if it’s not open you have to reverse for quite a distance before you can turn round. The lockie suggested returning to the flood lock where you can get a car right by the north bank. We’d leave moving until tomorrow.

A batch of apple crumble flapjack was made and once cool it was cut up and shared between two tuperwares. One to stay on Oleanna, the other added to yet another bag to head to Chippy.

When it came time to go to bed everything was lifted off the bed and put on the floor under the flap of our cross bed, at least now it wasn’t in the way anymore.

The generator has been chuntering away again tonight, still going as we turned the light off at gone midnight!

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 car for 2 days, 0 space nearby, 3 sharp pencils, 9 hours, 2 ikea bags, 1 large hold all (obviously it didn’t hold everything), 1 paint brush rucksack, 1 rucksack, 1 food bag, 2 crochet blanket to finish, 1 food bag, 1 sewing machine, 1 pooped cat, 1 designer all packed up, 1am!

Sad Estate. 15th October

Stanley Ferry to Castleford Cut

No need to rush today, we are on schedule and having pushed on a touch yesterday to get somewhere suitable for Tilly, we were a touch ahead of ourselves.

As we had breakfast a tug came past pushing a skip piled high with brand new lock gates. Stanley Ferry is one of two places in the UK where lock gates are manufactured and refurbished. In an average year around 100 gates are made here, that is a lot of oak! Between November and the end of March sections of the network will close for maintenance, an extensive stoppage list is put together every year with chance to make comments before it is finally published in August. Cruising in winter can take some planning.

Soon followed a crane boat, most probably heading to the same site to off load the gates. We pondered where they were heading and if the skip boat was short enough with the tug to go up the Calder Hebble Locks together, we suspected not, there’ll be some bow hauling out of locks.

The sun was out, clear blue skies and plenty of them now that we are out of the hills. We pushed off pausing for me to work Ramsdens Swing Bridge, I only managed to hold up one cyclist! A chimney sweep sat having a fag break on a roof sunning himself.

Then on over Stanley Ferry Aqueduct and past the workshop.

The big doors were open so we could see inside. Hoists were about to move more gates about inside. Out side piles of gates lay on the concrete, one pile had a constant stream of water running over it, the oak all dark. Presumably this is to keep gates from shrinking as during their working life they will hold back tonnes of water on a daily basis. New baulks of oak sat close by.

No squeezing into locks today, no need for handcuff keys or windlasses. The Aire and Calder requires the Key of Power. Birkwood Lock however never looks like it should be key operated as it’s gate beams of oak have relaxed through the years, it looks like they’d need a good old shove, but no the Key works wonders.

On the lock landing below there were pots of flowers that were past their best, then hand scrawled signs that could have been painted in blood were a big contrast.

Sky sky sky. 180 degrees of it. Chilly but so very sunny.

A short distance above Kings Road Lock is where the proposed route of HS2 crosses on our map, I’m no longer sure if the northern sections of HS2 will happen. Thankfully today there were no huge mounds of earth to spoil the views.

We pulled into the lock landing to empty the yellow water into a container for disposal later. This meant the lock was emptied by a wide beam heading up. We were ready before the lady moved to the top gates to start filling the lock, so I offered to use my key at that end, the console traps your key until the gates are closed. She was quite happy for me to press the button for two seconds to commence the filling, so was I!

Down we dropped in the huge lock, it’s as if those short locks were a figment of our imagination now!

Pink Panther keeps an eye on where Foxholes Lock used to drop down onto the River Calder. Ahead we could see that traffic on the M62 was stationary on the eastbound carriage way, we however were cruising along quite happily in the deep wide water.

A top up of water above Woodnook Lock before we pulled in to descend. This was to be my last lock for a while, the last before I head off to Panto land.

Now back on the river we passed familiar sights Woodnook Viaduct, Fairies Hill Lock, no yellow wide beam moored below it today. At Methley Bridge Boat Yard the boats were still three deep. Welding going on and a great named tug, Chugger-lugs-the-tug.

Towards Castleford Junction, where the Aire and Calder Wakefield Branch meets the Aire and Calder from Leeds and Goole, there is a housing estate going up. I’m fairly sure we’ve been past and seen the Marvin the paranoid android houses before, but now there are even more going up.

Each and everyone of them has the sad furrowed brow, what a sad estate. Did the architect never see how sad they looked?

Left to Leeds, Right to a weir, or straight on to Castleford and Goole.

Straight on for us and through the flood lock. Now where to moor? We need to be here for three days, so longer than the 48hr moorings. We carried on towards Bulholme Lock and pulled in on the south bank just before the edge becomes high.

Was that a ‘Red’ light at the lock? A cruiser pottered about in front of the light. Yes it looked red. Normally the lights on the Aire and Calder are on Amber, self operation. Maybe a gravel barge was on it’s way up? Once we’d moored up the reason arrived in our Inbox.

One of the lower sluices has an object jammed in the gate preventing the sluice paddle from fully closing. This impacts lower lock operation. The upper lock is operational but only operates via the desk in the lock tower and not via the lock side customer operated pedestals which only operate the lower lock.

Actions to investigate and make repairs are in hand but the lock will not be operational via the customer operated lock side pedestals until these are undertaken and completed. To facilitate lockage’s and until repairs have been completed the lock will be operated by a lock keeper on the following dates and during the time periods indicated below. Outside these times the lock will be closed:

Saturday 16^th, Sunday 17^th and Monday 18^th October 2021: lock open from 10am, last lockage 3pm

The lock will be closed on Tuesday 19^th October to allow access for divers to investigate and undertake repairs.

Bulholme Lock is big, but it also has, like many others around here, an extra section to make it even longer. These stem back to when Tom Puddings transported coal around the area. So even though the bottom gates of the lock cannot be made water tight, the middle gates (in normal operation the top gates) are, so they can be used as the bottom gates instead. The extra gates which are rarely used can only be operated by a lock keeper in the tower, hence reduced working hours.

Tilly was given four hours! There was a bit of coming and going at first, but then she vanished out of sight for a couple of hours. That’s more like it!

As the sunset, planes flew over and boats lit their stoves, sending up plumes of smoke. Just a shame someone had got their genny going. Even more so when it didn’t stop until around midnight!

3 locks, 1 flood lock, 6.21 miles, 1 straight on, 1 swing bridge, 1 cyclist, 1 boat helped up, M62 stationary, 14 day mooring, 0.5 half broken lock, 2 many sad houses, 1 happy cat, 1 annoying boater somewhere over the other side who needs new batteries!

https://goo.gl/maps/auWZtgb7zUWRd2qb8

Bridge Bingo. 14th October

Wheatley Bridge to Stanley Ferry Water Point, Aire and Calder, Wakefield Section

Today we needed to be moored up in time for me to join a zoom Production Meeting for panto, Tilly’s hope was that we’d be somewhere she could go out for the rest of the afternoon. We already knew that wouldn’t be possible. The travel time on our maps didn’t really give us a suitably cat friendly mooring for 2, 2:30pm, we’d see how we did.

So no time to sit around in bed, we’d got more short locks to descend and some miles to cover. This must be the first time on passing through Mirfield that there have been no visiting boats moored up, we could have carried on just that bit further yesterday, but Tilly wouldn’t have had any bracken or friendly cover to seek out friends in as the link fencing is right on the towpath here.

The boat that is being worked on is still covered in a tarpaulin by the water point and it looked like the charity boats were gearing up for a day of visitors. Just by the lock, no I’ll rephrase that, on the lock landing was a cruiser! Big signs say that it is the lock landing but the owner must be blind. Any single hander would have had to reverse past the permanent moorings to be able to tie up to use Shepley Bridge Lock. I however went through Oleanna to the bow (I don’t walk the gunnels due to my bad grip) and hopped off the front, luckily the lock was just about full.

No need to get the Calder Hebble spike out and risk dropping it into the hole below the ground paddle gear. The hard wood that the spikes are made from does not float! I’ve seen one disappear here before and on the same day met a second crew who’d lost theirs at a lower lock.

The paddle gear seems to be getting stiffer with every lock we work, at least it means you can’t whip up a paddle in the short locks too quickly. Once down the lock Mick turned left and pulled into the lock landing we were now on the River Calder, deep, wide, so different from the bottom end of the Huddersfield Narrow. With water under Oleanna she smiled a broader smile than she’s smiled before, nothing to do with a slight reposition of her twin horns after the tunnel. She also sounds more confident too!

Swans and geese blocked our way into Greenwood Cut, but luckily they all moved out of the way leaving just one cygnet to our port side. It didn’t complain too much at it’s enforced separation.

Greenwood Lock gave us plenty of room to breath in, the stern doors needed closing to avoid the torrent of water coming from under the top gates. Then Thornhill Flood Lock took us back onto a cut, a long cut. This is where we started to play Bridge Bingo.

Some bridges just have names, others numbers as well. However the numbers seem to be mixed up as if two waterways have been melded into one. 31, 8, 33, 34, 35, 22, 39, a few with names and then 26!

A moving boat came towards us, NB Little One, an Aintree Beetle, below the high up Railway Bridge 35. Great the Double Locks should be with us.

This is where Lillian had an incident the pound between the two locks which knocked her tiller out of it’s cut, meaning we had no steering. Since then we do our best to be very careful at these two locks. The top one was full, but the bottom empty, I went down to lift a paddle as Mick brought Oleanna in to the top.

With no means of crossing the bottom gates of these locks I started to walk back up to the top lock on the off side, but Mick had stepped off Oleanna on that side as the gate had opened. This meant running back down and around to get to the towpath side to close that gate, oh well my steps for the day had a boost!

These two locks are the last of the shortest locks, so we took care and nudged our way past the closed bottom gate. The intermediate pound was still at a good level, I’d opened the off side gate on the lower lock for Mick to be able to go straight in. However the two locks are on a bend and Oleanna really wanted to go through the other gate. Mick did his best to manoeuvre her round, but she clipped the port side bow on the walkway, smudging off some paint I’d touched up from a previous moment!

One day we will go down the Dewsbury Arm just to have a look, ‘Next Time’.

Approaching Millbank Lock I could see movements, another boat just leaving below. I filled the lock only using the gate paddles, getting the spike into use wasn’t necessary. As I went to lift the first bottom paddle another boat was pulling up below. The first paddle was just about impossible to lift so I moved over to the other side where I hoped that one would be easier. Have to say I’d rather be stood over the bow of the boat in a short lock to keep an eye on it catching on stonework.

A lady came up to help, I asked her to wait until we knew we were past the cill as we were over long. She understood and waited until Mick was happy with our position. We nudged past the closed gate and were set free onto the river again.

Next the Figure of Three Locks. Two locks very close together, the lower one was seriously damaged by flood water, the bywash being more or less totally washed away. I posted about it earlier this year as it was being rebuilt.

Today the locks are reopen, reconnecting the Rochdale and Huddersfield Canals to the eastern side of the network. Both Locks look pretty much as they would have before the flood damage. A new area of stonework on the towpath connects the two where the flood water pushed through from the river. Now sunflowers fill where the gap had been. Here’s a link to what it looked like after the flood and during the work to put it back together.

The lower of the two locks has a new bywash. The sides of it very high and built of sturdy stone, this had all but been washed away. The off side bank looks to have been replanted and today a farmer was out in his tractor. A very fine job done.

I wonder if the one new solitary stone below the lock will have something carved on it, it’s shouting out for it.

On past Horbury where we visited St Peter’s and St Leonard’s Church a couple of years ago. This is a John Carr Church and is where the architect is buried.

More moving boats and then moored boats below Broad Cut Top Lock, the locks were getting quite roomy now. Time was ticking on. We knew we wouldn’t make it to Stanley Ferry in time for my meeting so decided to pull in after the next river stretch through Thornes Flood Lock. Just as well we’d given ourselves a bit of leeway as Broad Cut Low lock took forever to fill and then with only one paddle working at the bottom end it took forever to empty!

We pulled up into the lock cut with half an hour before my meeting and had a late lunch listening to Tilly demanding to be let out. Too close to the railway for comfort she could protest all she liked, but we’d be moving on for her after my meeting anyway.

It might look good to you Tilly, but not to me!

A couple of new faces at the meeting today. Late last week a site was found for me to do a weeks painting near Chippy and set pieces will arrive for me next Monday. I have a clean bare space to take over for a week, I just need a chair, a table and a ladder and I’ll be painting away for hours. Every department was checked on, lists drawn up and the first day of rehearsals discussed, along with the obvious Covid protocol. I’m hoping my panto face masks are waiting for me when I get to Chippy as I think I’ll be wearing them a lot.

With the meeting over we’d pushed off within five minutes to reach a Tilly friendly mooring. Thornes Lock was our last short lock of the Calder and Hebble.

This required a hand spike to empty it as the other paddles were out of order. We squeezed in and dropped down. A chap walked up saying they couldn’t get through the lock without a Hebble Spike. I thought he was about to ask me to lock them through. But now the lock was empty they’d be able to fill it just using a windlass as I had. They took their time to move off the lock landing, the reason soon becoming obvious as they’d lost steering and were wanting to tie up above the lock to fix things.

On we pootled back on the river now, passing Double Two where I used to paint sets for the John Godber Theatre Company before I started living on a boat. Straight ahead the dangling sculptural man above the moorings near the Hepworth Museum still dangles. We turned right through Wakefield Flood Lock.

No visitors to Wakefield on the moorings today, but we did spot a very very tall telephone pole.

At Fall Ing Lock we could now breath out, we were leaving the Calder and Hebble, all the short locks behind us now and big Yorkshire locks ahead. It takes quite a bit of filling, longer when it’s a touch breezy and Mick had decided to hover and wait.

Eventually the lock was full and we could descend onto the Aire and Calder, each hydraulic paddle taking over thirty turns to lift. My arms were tired before I started!

Not long now Tilly! We sped down the river and through Broadreach Flood Lock and on towards Stanley Ferry. We’d made it with an hour before cat curfew!

11 locks, 4 flood locks all open, 11.94 miles, 0 short locks left, 0 manual locks left, 1 windlass back in the locker, 4000 engine hours, 1 hour, 11 panto zoomers, 1 painter starting on Monday, 5 chum zoomers, 24th October Tankards Bridge on the Selby Canal open to all craft after 13 months.

https://goo.gl/maps/hxQK6iE8fpJPvhJ5A

Narrowboat Oleanna

Travels of Narrowboat Oleanna