Rain, rain go away.

Thursday morning and it's raining quite steadily. Dot has gone into Hemel Hempstead with a couple of the ladies from the marina to investigate the new market place which apparently has been moved from the covered market place out onto High St. Sounds like a backward step to me but perhaps the land value of the covered market dictates better use of the land, i.e apartments or office building space.

In the meantime I will give the vacuum cleaner a work out and see what other chores need attending to.

Tis the season (for hoons)

Still moored at Apsley Marina

Tuesday night and all was well except for some blustery wind conditions which was rattling things around outside. About 1am a wind gust woke me and I thought we may have lost our satellite dish. Upon peering out through the front cratch I saw that the latter was still in place but the boat moored ahead of us wasn't, it was moored or resting up against the opposite bank. As this boat had been very loosely moored I just assumed the wind had pulled the pins out and blown it across the cut so knowing that there was nobody aboard I returned to bed.  I had just started to doze off when I heard Dot jump out of bed and yell "Bugger off". Now this is not normal behaviour so I shot out of bed into the cratch to see 3 louts running across the bridge. They were in the process of undoing our ropes when Dot felt the movement on the boat, these were securely tied onto the boat meaning it takes a while to undo them, hence we were the only ones still securely tied up.  When I got off the boat I found the boat behind us (n/b Tripitaka) had been let loose and they were at right angles across the cut despite their boat being chained to the bollards. The cheeky blighters had climbed aboard the boat to untie the ropes. Chris and Lesley had surfaced and were in the process of starting the engine. The hoons must have been very quiet because that boat has a Staffie on board for security and he never made a murmur and slept through it all.  What a way to meet your neighbours at 2am in the morning.

We helped them secure their boat and all the while the hoons were in the car park on other bank creating mayhem and shouting abuse at us, so Lesley fromTripitaka rang the police explaining what had happened and that we were still being harrassed by these guys. Within 10 minutes the police arrived and found them on London Road and rounded them up. What action was taken by the police we are unsure but at least these hoons may get the message, don't mess with boats that don't belong to you.

When it was safe to cross the bridge I went and checked on the other boat and found that it was only been held in place by the wind so I secured it best I could.

Later on Wednesday morning we met the lady owner of the latter vessel, which subsequently has been sold and awaiting collection, and helped her to return the boat to it's original mooring.

830 locks, 1140.5 miles, 33 Tunnels, 39 swing bridges and 19 lift bridges since Nov 2006

By the seaside beside the sea.....

Have you missed us? Sorry about that but we have just had 4 glorious days away in Paignton and Plymouth. For security reasons we didn't broadcast the fact that we would be away from the boat for an extended period.

We travelled down to Paignton by rail all the way from Apsley, which was a pleasant change, to stay with our cruising friends, Derek and Christina on n/b Kalimera. They have moored the boat up for the winter and returned to Paignton where they have a flat only minutes away from the railway station which is in the centre of the town.

On Saturday we ventured out around town despite the showery weather and visited Oldway mansion which was built in the late 1800's by Isaac Emmeritt Singer, the man who gave the world the sewing machine. He didn't invented it, merely improved a machine built by somebody else but failed to patent it soon enough. When the mansion was built it cost £100,000 and has been added on to over the years by Isaac's son Paris. Inside the main entrance is a beautiful ornate sweeping marble staircase with a beautiful handpainted ceiling. Of a standard matching a certain other ceiling in Rome.

The building has been used by several movie makers including a German company who used it quite recently with actors all dressed in period costume of the 1800's. Probably the most famous was the film "Isadora" starring Vanessa Redgrave about the life of Isadora Duncan who was tragically killed in 1927.

On Sunday we travelled by bus to Plymouth to visit my Uncle and cousin before they fly out to New Zealand to visit their daughter/sister for Xmas. Along the way we were unsure we were going to reach Plymouth as overnight rain had caused some serious flooding (Oxford re-visited) but the bus driver got us through.

Back in Paignton we had been told of a hotel called the Great Western Hotel which is owned and operated by a Great Western Railway fan. We went off in search of this hotel and were openly welcomed by Cathy who was as equally knowledgeable as her husband Mel on railway matters. Displayed inside the hotel is a virtual feast of railway memorabilia, model railways and other artifacts. Mel also built and operates the "00" gauge model railway which is on display at the Babbacombe Model village.

After an hour or more of me feasting my eyes over what was on display we left Cathy to get on with her chores and we wandered off down to the waterfront and pier to take in the sea air before we had to catch the train back to Apsley. Due to several cases of signal failure along the way we eventually got back to the boat about 8.45pm.

Lovely weather today - while it lasts

Footbridge over the Grand Union canal at Apsley

We are busy catching up on chores before heading south to Devon for the weekend. Weather forecast is not good with heavy rain and winds but the company will be good.

Day of rest.

Now moored at Apsley Marina

First of all I must thank everybody for their birthday wishes. Another year older and wiser.

Today has been cold and fine but it didn't stop half a dozen fisherman from setting up between us and the lock. They were all togged up as if they were going to the arctic circle which they certainly needed to be with the ice cold breeze blowing through here today. For all their efforts we only saw one tiddler landed.

Early this afternoon we wandered into the village as Dot wanted to buy some new bedding from Dunelm Mill which she found very conveniently in the mark down bin. Jammy beggar, talk about luck of the Irish.

Rather than go straight back to the boat we meandered further along the road where we found that the White Lion pub offering Roast Sunday lunch for £6.95. It only took a split second to decide on what we were going to do for lunch and a sound decision it was with 2 very filling meals.  Last time we were here the local pub's had stopped serving food due to the competition from the Paper Mill taking away all their clientele but I think the latter might be pricing themselves off the market or falling out of favour with the local's.

830 locks, 1140.5 miles, 33 Tunnels, 39 swing bridges and 19 lift bridges since Nov 2006

Birthday Boy

 

Jack Frost's about.

5 locks, and 3 miles . Now moored at Apsley Marina

We awoke this morning to something close to a winter wonderland, everything was glistening white with frost. Overnight the temperature had dropped to -5.4deg C, any wonder we got a frost. Needless to say we were in no hurry to go up on deck to start moving until very late morning.

We only crossed path's with 1 community trust boat which wasn't surprising as it's only silly beggars like us that cruise this time of year, but hey, its all part of the fun. At Nash Mills we filled the water tank so we are all set for the next week.

Goodbye to the M25 for sometime

We are now moored outside the Apsley Mills marina where we plan to stay for the next 14 days.We have been up to Sainsbury's and Homebase for some shopping and walking along the towpath between locks 66 & 67 we were amazed to find only 2 boats moored in this pound. Last November the place was full with at least 12 boats constantly moored up. We had heard that BW had been through here and had a clean out and this proved to be correct.

Didn't know we had dinasaurs here!

Another Lock cottage sold - Home Park Lock on the Grand Union

830 locks, 1140.5 miles, 33 Tunnels, 39 swing bridges and 19 lift bridges since Nov 2006