Attended our 10am Church service today on Zoom and it proved to be so much more meaningful than the services I have joined prerecorded on Youtube. Our clergy were in the church building leading the service but all the congregation were in their homes and we could see each other on the Zoom platform. Additionally after the service ended we were all able to chat with one another. I really hope this is a way forward for the future. Not that all the congregation are banned from the church building! Rather that once we can return to the building for worship we also continue Zooming the service so that those who cannot physically be with us, can at least be part of the worship in their own homes. I think the service will also be recorded so that it can be accessed on YouTube at a later time for those who cannot attend at 10am. I get so excited by the thought of the media possibilities that we have in all walks of life. I remember our son G having an old banger of a car and every time something went wrong he would just go to YouTube and sure enough someone would have posted a video on how to fix the problem!
Once the morning service was over we donned our warm layers and got the boat moving. Just two locks to do to get forward of the lock that will be closed tomorrow for a few weeks. Once through that lock we heaved a sigh of relief as we realised we no longer had a deadline. Infact the opposite. We now needed to find a good place to hunker down for however long necessary. I was looking at the map to see where a suitable mooring might be when the Grove lock marina caught my eye. We had rung them a few times last week but just got the answerphone so I had written them off as a possibility of a place to stay as noone returned my call. However as luck would have it today the phone was answered and we were told there was one available visitor mooring for a couple of weeks. So by 3pm we were tucked into our new home and hooked up to electricity, with ready supplies of water, wifi, showers to name a few of our ‘luxuries’ which we used to take for granted! We could even park our car if we had it with us! The shops at Leighton Buzzard are not too far to walk too apparently – it will be a toss up between how much we think we can carry and how often we want to brave the supermarket!
The washing machine is in the marina office which is only manned at the moment 3 days a week so I am not hopeful I will get a look in as one of our chatty neighbours told me there is always a queue! I used the machine on our boat last week and was amazed to find the shortest wash took over 2 and a half hours! Either I find a laundrette or I do the washing by hand. So tonight saw me fill the bathtub with a load of clothes and then wash them as best I could. That was once I had removed the fruit and veg and temporarily found them a new home. It really is an eye opener living in a small space!
NarrowboatTLC 