Fog & Bl#@%y buses

0 Locks and 0 miles.

In the last 2 days we have had 3 separate incidents concerning buses. Two scheduled services never materialized leaving me to freeze in a bus shelter for 30 minutes waiting for the next bus. Dot had the infuriating problem of a bus sailing past without stopping to pick her up even though she was waving her arm franticly. And they wonder why people don’t use public transport more often! We both finished work yesterday as we had jobs to do on the boat today before our 1^st UK Xmas. (For Dot anyway). As I had done some painting inside the boat this morning we decided to go for a walk in the fresh air after lunch. Did I say FRESH air, that’s a laugh, it was so foggy and cold but we did manage to explore another part of the area as yet unseen by us both. We can now confirm there is such a thing as a pub with no beer, The Lime Kiln pub on St Albans Hill Road which had all the doors and windows boarded up. The sign outside the pub, as was another sign extolling the beer garden and meals were still there for all to see but that was all. Is the great English institution of the “Local” falling on hard times?
During our walk we found the local “Tesco’s” super market so as we needed a few things we went in. Well what an eye opener, all the checkouts of which there were at least 15, had queues which extended down every aisle with about 10 trolleys in each queue. I know its Xmas but we are not used to this kind of hustle and bustle. Luckily we qualified for the 10 items or less checkout which was less congested.
The unit in the photo was a extendable radiator cabinet from Homebase DIY centre which I modified into a book case. Fitted in very well under the gunnels and it looks original matching the existing timber work.