Wednesday 10th February

Started the day with a Zoom ‘Breathe’ chat. A get together of a mix of people just wanting some company. We used to meet weekly at St Andrew’s Church and would combine art, food and chat. Now we are just able to chat but hopefully the time will come when we can gather together and enjoy being creative as well as sharing a meal again. This morning one of the group was reminiscing about the fun and friendship she shared over 35 years as part of a caravan club. Not dissimilar living to a narrowboat and certainly the same basic life challenges of finding food, water, waste disposal etc. It reminded me of the first caravan my parents owned in the early 50’s, before my day! But my older brother and sister remember travelling to Norfolk in the caravan and en route there was a puncture. Dad parked up in a lay by, left mum in the caravan and returned home with my siblings to get a replacement tyre. Meanwhile mum awoke in the morning to knocking on the caravan door and a line of truckers, thinking she was a tea van, in search of breakfast!

There were many caravan stories but I remember the last caravan coming to rest in our garden to be used as mum’s dried flower studio (she pressed bridal bouquets and made pictures out of the dried flowers). It had hardly arrived when there was an enormous storm and a tree crashed through the middle of the caravan wrecking it! No more caravans after that!

Trust our water tank to be empty on one of the coldest looking of days. We had no choice but to reverse the boat through the lock. R was all for doing it in the morning when the snow was falling but I persuaded him, after looking at the weather forecast, to wait until after lunch, when the sun was due to shine. I had to go and hunt for my glasses which for some strange reason i have not felt the need to wear for the past 3 days. Although bi-focals, I can see the telephone screen perfectly well and it hasn’t seemed a problem not seeing clearly in the distance. Perhaps because I no longer am driving a car! Felt the need to find them before steering the boat though! Sure enough, a blue sky emerged and we managed without any blue words emerging to reverse the boat through an expansive layer of thin ice, to the lock and then the water tap. P and Pixie the dog were there so we had a brief chat whilst R sorted the Elsan. Refuelled and refreshed, it was a doddle returning to our mooring, although a palaver for a lock that only moves water a depth of 11inches and yet also has a heavy swing bridge to manoeuvre every time a boat goes through!

It was such a beautiful afternoon that we locked the boat and walked in the direction of all the big stores, such as IKEA. It looked open but I think there was just a click and collect option. A bit further and we arrived at the MK football stadium and an enormous 24hr Asda Wallmart. The food section was open but the majority of the store looked closed off. The near empty carparks everywhere brought home the impact of this lockdown on the retail sector. Adjoining the stadium was a cinema and string of restaurants, all closed. There was still a fair amount of traffic to dodge as we crossed the dual carriageways. Made trickier by returning home with some long and slightly cumbersome foraged wood!

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Watched a 1980s Bob Hoskins and Michael Caine film, called Mona Lisa, which was rather gritty and sad. Also amazing to see how much London’s skyline has changed in 40 years! And no mobiles, just bleepers and telephones and very cumbersome computers!