Thursday, 31st December

A cold and crisp start to the day, frost lingering on boat and ground as we head for our first lock. 7 locks later finds us heading into Berkhamsted and waving at boaters who we met when we were here for a month on lockdown. It is all comfortingly familiar and yet slightly depressing at the same time. It feels like we are no further on in regaining some sense of normality than we were in early November. We decide to moor near to the train station partly because we look out onto a park. That involves a further two locks which we go through after a water fill up and use of the Elsan at Old Mill, where we moored up for a month previously. It’s the one I complained about to the CRT as we left Berko and they said they would fix. Sure enough, I found it in perfect working order! Arriving at our new mooring and immediately hearing the trains reminded me that we have forgotten their frequency and the noise they make, but no doubt we will quickly become accustomed.

As we had copious hot water i enjoyed a relaxing bath and was in my pj’s by 6pm! Think that’s a first for New Year’s eve! Meanwhile R christened his new bow tie and it’s commented on at the Zoom get together we have with some long standing friends. A few Zooms later, a thrown together bowl of pasta and a large gin accompanied by a film that finished bang on midnight, saw in the quietest new year in nearly 34 years of marriage! Contrast it to 20 years ago when there were lots of big celebrations to see in the new millennium – only seems like yesterday! One thing there was in common – the quantity of fireworks. In Berko tonight they went on and on although from our boat all you could hear were the bangs. Didn’t actually see one in the sky!