A lovely Sunday rise

We set off on Sunday late morning from Debdale - I'm not sure if it happens to others, but on this boat there are ALWAYS thousands upon thousands of things that a certain person deems absolutely critical** to being able to move off ... Another certain person has to exercise extreme biting of the tongue and trying not to sigh loudly at the constantly added to list of critical items that are achieved at the rate of snail's pace. Honestly, it's like trying to herd cats when there is only one and it hisses and spits when asked about progress and getting moving...

And that continued yesterday - this time I tried staying in bed till the last minute, but my getting up seems to prompt another brain flurry whereupon another set of tasks are identified that MUST be done.

** I ask you - are these tasks critical to moving the boat?

• tidying the cratch lockers - bagging the fertan, polishes, fabricseal, bagging the seat cushions for the cratch lockers (separate bag of course), stowing the potting mix that was PERFECTLY happy on the roof
• placing everything tidily into the gas locker (spare outside chairs, extra hoses, redundant aerial poles that, according to me,  will come in handy when we have to construct a shade sail, tarps that will come in handy for the same purpose) - karma got him though, as the very next day he had to remove all that bumpf when we had to replace a gas cylinder ...
• collating all his additional pairs of specs (a couple of M&S pairs plus his sunnies and old prescription specs, his magnifying glass and monocular) into one bag and finding the best place for them - I said in the wardrobe; he has negotiated to have them on the dining room table. Makes not much difference as he takes them off and leaves them wherever he happens not to need them anyway. 

It is clear that a certain person is NOT a project manager and has no characteristics, however faint, of such. Parallel processing, critical pathing, JFDI do not enter into the certain person's way of thinking/doing/working. Thank heavens we never worked together in real life, as he (oops, a certain person) would have been the single biggest threat to delivery timeframes and would have received several bollockings and invitations to relocate to an operational role...

AAARRRGGGHHH!!! OK, enough moaning for now ... I DO love him dearly, and he occasionally tries my limited patience sorely!!!

So as I was saying - Sunday was a lovely boating day: sunny and fairly warm, and we had decided that we would be content to moor at the bottom of Foxton Locks if it was heaving with boats all wanting to go up/down the locks.

On the way from Debdale the trees are in a variety of stages of spring - some with blossom, some in leaf and some still thinking about it

I know someone can tell me what this white-flowered tree is. Its perfume is rather heady and it is ubiquitous along the side of the canal.

When we arrived at the bottom of the locks across from Bridge 61 pub, there was no one queuing, - when David went over to check in, we were signalled to go straight in.

He has wound up the paddles and is just tucking the windlass into his belt loop.

The gongoozlers were out in force on the flight, given how lovely a day it was, and we had lots of help from young kids wanting to open and close gates, and all keen to know about the locks and the boat and how long we are over here for each year. It was a very fun ascension of the locks as it was so social. One woman told us her daughter had recently got married on Waiheke Island, others mentioned they had been or wanted to go to NZ.

So once moored at the top near the splendid horse statue, I changed out of my dirty shirt and headed along to the cafe at the top of the locks for icecreams. Very yummy - we each had two scoops, mine were mint and choc chip, and toffee. For David I chose rum and raisin, plus mint and choc chip. We both had a flake in them ... Decadence, but I think David deserved it and I wanted one.

When I got back, David was chatting to a couple from Stoke Newington who had hired a boat from Market Harborough and were moored temporarily in front of us. We had forgotten how much boating you do as a hirer (or if you are Mick and Julia) and David told them they could possibly get to Braunston ... In a phone call later with M&J they said they have done from Debdale to Braunston in 2 days. A tired sigh escaped me then 😏.

Then the Canal Chaplaincy boat moored up in front of us, and the woman complained it had been their worst ever trip up the flight - I asked why, and she said because of all the people. WTF? Que? Isn't the chaplaincy meant to be approachable/pleasant/open? I strongly resent money from my licence fee going to pay them anyway***, and that was only reinforced by that crap attitude!
*** My view is that if boaters need to speak to a pastor/reverend/verger/priest, the cut is always close to villages and every village has a church and there is always a god-botherer nearby for people to talk to. Why do we need to pay for that service that is amply supplied in most communities? AAARRRGGGHHH!!! Please don't get me started!

On to more pleasant people:

Next a family came past - two teenaged girls and their mum and dad. They saw the boat name and exclaimed - 'NZers??' And they are too. Then the woman said to David 'Your face is very familiar to me.' So followed a recap of her places of work. One of which was Learning Media Limited where David worked from prior to its inception (from the Dept of Ed, to the Ministry of Ed to the creation of LML which he helped to establish). Recognition bloomed on both faces and then there was a long discussion of people in common, etc. Colleen and Mark are both working over here and unfortunately, their girls are not really enjoying being here. They are loving the experiences and travels, but are really missing their friends and the beach which they lived very close to - now they live almost in the centre of England, a long way from beaches and an even longer distance from their friends. It's a tough one.

David and I spoke about it later and I asked him how he had coped when they lived in Tanganyika when he was a third and fourth former and had to go to boarding school (12 hours away by bus from where they lived), and was only home for school holidays. He said he was terribly homesick, and each term he made up a calendar grid and marked each day off until he could be home again. And he said he never told his parents how sad he was.

However the over-riding memories that David has about living in the US (when he was 10 his dad was a Fulbright exchange teacher in New Mexico), and Tanganyika and then in Morecambe England (for 6 months over winter) are the ones that formed his character as a man of integrity, compassion and egalitarianism. He KNOWS about white privilege because he saw and experienced it starkly in both the US and Africa, and being the person he was with the parents he had, his eyes were open to others' far less fortunate experience of life.

I don't think he would change any of that because it was so formative, but he certainly remembers the homesickness.

Colleen and I are now fb friends, so David and I are planning on asking them to come for a weekend on the boat - all to add to the girls' pleasurable experiences here in the UK.

After they left for their late picnic lunch, we sat outside with wine.

Clean top, still in my boots, washing hung out (David's work clothes that he had to take off as he stepped into the boat at Debdale and that I put straight into the machine - I am sure the water darkened the canal ...) My wine bottle is balanced in the little table, David's is on the stern - that necessity is a design flaw in the little table - it assumes that a couple drink the same wine. Luke has been requested to take account of that when he produces another table for us.

This photo better shows the table - it is stuck in the ground on a metal spike. I'll take photos another time to give more detail for those who may be keen to replicate it.

And along came Andy and Shelley who had hired a boat before, but he had fallen in - I think that had less to do with the boating than it had to do with his apparently having consumed a bottle of red ... I think they live in Cottesthorpe (?), drink occasionally at Bridge 61, recognised a photo of Mick and Julia (mainly showing their hair), were fun, and I couldn't tempt them to have a glass of wine with us.

Then a younger couple came along and were very interested in our little wine table that we brought over from NZ. (We had bought it at a vineyard in the Hawke's Bay when out for lunch with Janneke and Nico a couple of years ago. When we went back there earlier this year in the motorhome, the man who made them had moved on and was no longer producing them. So I think we need to engage Luke to go into a sideline production business ...) The young man took photos and seemed very keen - we did suggest it was a business opportunity plus a long-standing source of presents for friends and family ... His partner suggested that it could also have a scooped out centre so the bowl of nibbles (see photo) would sit steadily - take note, please, Luke.

Lastly an older guy came by and stopped to chat - he stayed for so long he had to phone his wife to let her know he was OK ...

It was truly a lovely afternoon/evening of social interaction - just what we do this for! Not sure of the motivation of the chaplains, racket, racket ...

Dinner was going to be cheese souffle, but a certain person told me he'd had it twice and didn't really rate it. Mmmm!! Nice to find that out as I am about to put it in the oven. But a late save - we had put some cheese scones from the freezer into the oven to warm as we trundled from Debdale to the bottom of the locks - they had been forgotten in the ascension. So a salad and cheese scones. Weird, but it worked, esp after wine. The cheese souffle lived on and was eaten by me the following evening with a cranberry chutney and a salad from my allotment on the roof - David had hummus and chorizo slices with his allotment salad and was well pleased.