Fri 1st May
Boat entry label
James went to collect the boaters pack from the water space
office, as well as the tickets for the evening meal, and the change from Pat
Barton, and the brass plaque, with theme: “Canals in Bloom”.
Brass Plaque
Then there was the usual shuffling of boats, because those
with moorings in the Pool were not allowed in until 6pm, when the trip boats
had finished operating. Meanwhile they were temporarily moored in other places,
including on other boats moorings. When we had finished, we had Hallmark
in front of us, with Dave and Maggie, whom we had met two years ago at the
quiz. Behind us was Cider with Rosie. We had no boat on our outside, although Daddy-long-legs
was meant to be there.
We saw Eric and Sue go past on Cherie. They are always at this event. We have also
spent time with them at other places including Skipton on the Leeds and
Liverpool Canal.
Further along the towpath was Fulbourne, last seen
sharing our pontoon in Aylesbury. Trinity
was also there, with Henry and Lin and visiting family. Sola Gratia was also there, with Tim
and Tracey and guide dog Oakley. In the
Pool we saw Annie and Walt, BCF boat owned by Lorraine and Mike. At the end of the boats in the Pool was a
coot’s nest with very young baby coots.
Over the weekend they must have had their photos taken a thousand times.
We walked to the beer tent where the fish and chip supper and quiz was to be
held.
Boats in the Pool
Coot nest – stars of
the show
The beer tent was particularly well stocked this year, with
Old Rosie cider, which didn’t run out.
Who cares about the rest of the selection such as beers? The fish (or chicken) and chips was expertly
delivered and well received.
We had a good BCF quiz team, with Peter and Fran, Tim and
Tracey, Lorraine and Babs and ourselves.
Mike wasn’t there as he was a council candidate and apparently there was
an election on or something. We did
well, coming equal first out of about eight teams. Sadly we lost the tiebreak question, so we didn’t win the box of
chocolates. It was all good fun.
Unfortunately the place was very crowded, and there wasn’t room to
accommodate Dave and Maggie from Hallmark on our team.
Sat 2nd May
Little Venice Cavalcade
We had a good look round the stalls in the morning, as it
was fairly quiet, and we had Greek souvlaki from one of the food stalls. We saw Caroline who was there for the day
playing her saw.
In the afternoon we were by the boat, and we had a visit
from Peter and Valerie Hodges from Ruby. They had come by car on this
occasion.
Peter and Valerie
Later we were having a last minute music practice before
heading for the open mic evening. There
was a knock on the door and a man said: “I’m here for a cup of tea”. We didn’t
know who he was, and he was obviously inebriated. We explained that his timing was less than perfect, as we were
just about to leave for the evening entertainment. He said: “OK, I’ll call back
in half an hour”. He said his boat was
only three boats away. We firmly turned him away, suggesting he come back
tomorrow.
A few minutes later, when we were walking to the beer tent,
carrying instruments, we saw he was on board Sola Gratia, where understand he
fell asleep. His boat was not in
Cavalcade and was some distance away.
The open mic session was much more limited than when we used
to run it with Byfleet Boat Club. We
had a team of people going round all the boats enlisting support and
participants, so we had a good selection of people taking part. This time the MC was Chucklefoot, who had
already performed several times in various locations that day. There was also a
folk trio who were guest artists. In
the end there were only four participants from the floor – Jan, Peter and Fran,
Eric, and us. We each sang three songs
and there were no second sets. However, it was all good fun, and we went down
well. We sang “Long way down” “Put your sweet lips” and “Waterloo Road”.
Eric and Chucklefoot
No boating today
Sun 3rd May
Little Venice Cavalcade
We had rain in the night. This was originally forecast for
Saturday, but thankfully held off until the small hours of Sunday. We walked back to the beer tent once more,
this time for the worship service led by Graham Nunn and his Church Army
team. This was very informal, with
music ably led by one lad on a guitar, and a message from Graham, accompanied
by a magic trick with ropes. We had
about forty people, and many went aboard the Church Army wide beam hire boat
afterwards for coffee and cake. Very
civilised.
Worship in the beer
tent
Back at the boat, the sun came out, and we put out a table
with literature. We were amazed at how
many leaflets were taken when we weren’t actively in attendance. We had a few conversations with people, and
one in particular with a lady called Catherine, who is searching.
Reflection art
Our mooring at Little
Venice
Many people including us were finding they were coughing and
their eyes were watering. The consensus was that it was the plane trees that
caused it. There were very fine fibres all over the boats underneath the trees.
In the early evening we returned to the food stalls for a
Mexican wrap, and then from the stern of our boat we watched the illuminated
procession, which took place from about 9pm. It was a pleasant dry evening, and
was good to toot and wave at all the participating boats. There were only about
ten boats, whereas in previous years we have seen up to twenty taking
part. Sola Gratia and Annie
and Walt took part. We have given
away all our lights, as we have no space to store them.
No boating today
Mon 4th May
Star Wars Day
Little Venice Cavalcade.
Again a dry day today, despite forecast rain. We had lots of conversations with friends
and acquaintances from other boats. More leaflets went out. We decided to have another walk round the
site, this time going into Rembrandt Gardens, which was packed with people
enjoying the sunshine. We had more fast
food from the stalls, and watched Chucklefoot doing a one-man band set.
Peter and Fran
Sterns
Chucklefoot
Balloons
Inflatable dodgems
Water walking balls
The view from
Rembrandt Gardens
Punch and Judy
No boating today
Tue 5th May
Little Venice repositioning
The event now over, we decided to see some London sights, so
we took a bus to Trafalgar Square at looked round the National Gallery. We thought it was appropriate to see a
canal-etto (get it?). We also saw
Constable’s Haywain. We have been to the place where it was painted. The
cottage is still there, but the cart has been moved!
Canaletto
Haywain
We had a snack lunch in a café before visiting the National
Portrait Gallery for some more culture.
We saw a startling picture of Tony Blair. Enough to wake you in the night.
Then we took a bus back to Little Venice.
Tony Blair
Regent Street
We needed gas. We
had left Aylesbury with one just started cylinder, and one full one. On Saturday, six weeks later, the first
cylinder ran out, so we replaced it with the new one. Last night, two days
later, the new one ran out! Whether it was not properly full, or perhaps it
leaked, or the gas piping leaked, we do not know. This morning’s tea was made by heating the water in the
microwave. We had established that the fuel boat MB Ash had one cylinder
available.
We also needed to move our boat to Rembrandt Gardens, so we
left our mooring and headed for the Paddington Basin Arm, where the fuel boat
was. The Pool was now empty of
boats. We drew alongside the fuel boat,
and swapped the full cylinder for our empty one, and left £20 in the drawer
inside his cabin, as arranged on the phone.
We then cruised to the end of the arm, turned around and came back to
our new mooring on Rembrandt Gardens.
After the festival
Gas Collection
Paddington Basin
Architecture in
Paddington Basin
Our mooring on
Rembrandt Gardens with more plane trees
When we settled at our mooring, Hugo went out, and was
quickly chased back in by a young and enthusiastic brown dog. It turned out that this was owned by a chap
whose name we shouldn’t publish, and James had a long conversation with
him. He was a teacher and had been
verbally abused by the youngsters he was trying to help. He was planning to
give up his job. Unfortunately he had taken to drink to help him through, but
it probably wasn’t helping.
0 locks, 1 mile
Wed 6th May
Little Venice - London
Heavy Rain
There was very heavy rain in the night and beyond dawn. The
forecast was also for more rain during the day. We saw Eric and Sue go by heading for the Lee and Stort.
Eric and Sue
departing
As we had to go somewhere looking smart, we decided to take
a taxi instead of buses, as a walk in a heavy rain shower would have rendered
us bedraggled at the point of arrival.
We walked to Paddington Station (mostly under cover) and
took a taxi to the RAF Club in Piccadilly, where we had a family gathering to
celebrate the award of the MBE to my cousin Dick Bell. It made us very proud to be part of it, and
to hear him talk about what his Christian charity work in Nicaragua involved.
RAF Club, Piccadilly
The full title
Dick Bell, MBE
Angela, Joanna,
Caroline
Dick, Clive, Maggie
We then took a bus to Aldwych with Maggie and Clive, and
spent a pleasant time in a pub there, until they went to catch a further bus to
Liverpool Street for their train home, and we went to the Aldwych Theatre to
see a show.
Beautiful
Excellent performances and very slick seamless scene
changes. Thoroughly recommended. We were in the third row. We hadn’t realised Carole King had
co-written so many well-known songs.
Back on the bus to Paddington, where had a late snack in a
Lebanese restaurant.
No boating today.
Thu 7th May
One more day in London, with a blank agenda. We noticed that
the horse chestnut blossom was now out, possibly due to the recent sunny days.
Horse Chestnut
blossom
We had a lie-in, and then took a bus to Oxford Street.
Horse head sculpture
at Marble Arch
We had never previously visited Selfridge's. Now that we have seen the prices, we
probably won’t visit again. We saw a
pair of shorts, with the stitching fraying, and with rips in the fabric. The price? £200! We asked where we might
find some gloves for Hazel. There was
no glove department. It was all divided up under the designer names, so you had
to know which designer might have gloves.
There was another section selling Rolex watches at around
£35K. When we buy a watch we tend to leave off the K. Beautiful window displays though.
Selfridges butterfly
window display
We took another bus to the Haymarket, and had a very
pleasant meal in a vegetarian Indian restaurant, before wandering through once
again to the National Portrait Gallery.
We had a look at some older pictures of Tudors and Stuarts this time.
Rather than take the same bus route back along Regent
Street, Oxford Street and Edgware Road, we thought we would take two buses to
find a different route. So we went up Charing Cross Road to Warren Street, and
from there to Paddington. Long live the senior citizen bus pass!
We went to the amphitheatre in Little Venice to have a
Mexican burrito before buying some milk in Sainsbury’s and returning to the
boat.
No boating today
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