Wednesday 4th November

R and the boatman tried to mend the Elsan but no luck so I resorted to ringing James and asking what our other options were for sorting our predicament. He reminded me of Warren, the pumpman on the waste disposal boat. I had totally forgotten him! A short text later and Warren assures me he can empty my Elsan £1 a cassette. Best £1 I may ever spend. So with that sorted I suggest to R that we stay moored in the vicinity that we are in but that the boat would be better a bit before the water point. That requires us to reverse. No problem you may think. But on a narrowboat, when you reverse you have no steering so I am on the helm reversing and R is on the towpath pulling the midrope and trying not to be pulled into the canal. He has to lassoo the rope over a parked (empty wide berth), although it soon becomes apparent the wide berth is not empty as a head pops out asking what on earth is going on on her roof! She was very helpful though when she saw our predicament and eventually we arrived at our new destination. Once the night came though we realised that we are parked outside a set of brightly lit flats so I think tomorrow there may be more reversing needed! As today is the last day of open shops I suggested that we see what Berkhamsted had to offer. Just as we left the boat we met a couple who were walking the towpath. Half in jest I suggested that if they turned up tomorrow with their mugs, I would fill them with tea. They thought this a great idea so we are now expecting J and A for a cuppa and chat tomorrow! Be interesting to see if they return or if they think I am a bit crazy offering strangers tea! Berkhamsted has a great array of charity shops which I enjoyed trawling (not sure R would agree) and I found 3 china mugs, a holder for cutlery and a beautiful alpaca cardigan because I have discovered I need wool to keep me warm! There was a lovely market (R bought a couple of hats!) and lots of ‘posh’ shops which I avoided, eventually ending up in Waitrose for our daily paper and some individually wrapped biscuits for our visitors tomorrow. We arrived back at the boat in time to join the funeral at Salisbury cathedral of a very dear friend whose daughter was responsible for R and I meeting in the first place. This lovely man, a clergyman, we found by coincidence had briefly been a curate to my grandfather and still has in his possession a prayer book that my grandfather had given him. A total coincidence that one day I would become great friends with his children. After finishing the leftover paella (I know how to feed a man!) with added veg, we ventured out to Berkhamsted in the hopes of sitting in a cosy pub. Last chance for a month. Everyone else obviously had the same idea and after being turned away by at least 7 pubs, we found ourselves at Pizza Express. There we received a lovely welcome and I have sat updating this blog, fortified by 2 Aperol Spritz, some polenta chips and a flatwhite. As we walked in with 10L of Tesco water the waiter was a bit nonplussed. Explaining that we are on a narrowboat that involves us reversing the boat to refuel the water tank so we felt we should have spare water on board, he told us that he will be at Pizza Express every monday morning and should we need any extra water we just need to knock on the door. What kindness you find in unexpected places. So now on to lockdown. Am not quite sure how the blog will develop as we won’t be travelling around (unless necessity dictates) so I will have to find something else to write about!