A decade ago R and I visited some english friends, living at the time near New York and a highlight of our trip was being taken on their speedboat to see the Statue of Liberty. It was one of those memories that never quite leaves you! Living now in London, we invited them to join us on Naomhòg as we journeyed yesterday from Paddington Basin to Colebrook Row in Islington. Not quite as speedy but equally interesting as we travelled through Little Venice, Regent’s Park, London Zoo, Camden Market, Kings Cross, on a sunny July day. How different London looks viewing it from the water and once again I was struck by the diversity of people who enjoy walking/cycling the towpath or living the boaters life, some in expensive, top of the range widebeams and some in boats that seem barely afloat. Such a kind community of people, mostly keen to look out for one another and offer helpful advice for visitors, such as us, just passing through and wanting to make the most of our stay at the Angel.
Wi and Lu and their dog, joined us at Paddington Basin at midday and we were delighted to also welcome their Ukrainian visitor, Ly, who has been staying with them for five weeks. With limited english I thought communication might be an issue but somehow we all managed to understand one another and I was touched when Ly told me, at the end of the day, how much she had enjoyed herself and how, for a few hours, she had been able to forget her troubles and relax. Certainly it was a new experience for her and, windlass in hand, she helped me work the three locks en route. The first lock we came to was right in the centre of Camden market, buzzing with people and onlookers, many watching us from eateries along the waterfront. It was like being on ‘candid camera’ and especially embarrassing when I found myself trying to shut a lock gate that was just too heavy for one person, not helped by the precarious positioning of one’s feet. There was no room to pull the gate shut without risking slipping one way or another into the canal and I found myself unable to budge the gate. When eventually it moved, there was applause all round and I found myself taking a bow, feeling hugely self conscious!
Wi had made a picnic lunch so we moored up, but with no mooring rings and just a concrete edge, Lu sat on a chair on the towpath, wrapping the midrope around the legs to serve as a bollard. As we only had four chairs between five of us, I clambered on to the roof (getting off is always a bit of a challenge!) and it was like sitting on a heated car seat!
We had pre-booked an eco-mooring just by the Angel and fortunately no one had overstayed their booking so we were able to moor in our allotted space, which entailed ‘double mooring’. Slightly complicated because you have to attach yourself to the adjacent boat and walk across either their bow or stern to reach the towpath. Fortunately the boat we are tied alongside has a very tidy stern making it easy to get on and off our boat. I set off to find the launderette, only five minutes from the boat, so extremely convenient and a snip at £4! Having no 50p coins I couldn’t make use of the tumble dryer, but hanging the wet washing under our stern cover, it has dried perfectly well and helped save the planet!
Meandering around the back streets of the Angel has been a joy. We found a beautiful community garden, that R sat in whilst I went exploring the quirky and individual shops in Camden Passage. Chapel Market was folding up as we arrived but still had a few interesting stalls. The revelation to us was coming across an ‘Amazon Fresh’ supermarket, available for Amazon Prime customers, with an introductory offer of 25% off your shopping (excluding booze!). You just need the Amazon shopping app on your smartphone and an active card payment method. You enter a QRcode on arrival and as you pick items off the shelves and place them in your bag a sensor on the ceiling records your purchases. On leaving the store, you are sent a receipt electronically for the items. No checkouts, just a couple of staff who helpfully explain the system to people like me who can’t quite get their head around this surreal shopping experience!
Coming across a small shop selling some beautiful leather bags, the owner, Chr, asked me the origin of my gold necklace, that had caught his attention. It is in the shape of what I call a ‘quirky cross’ which I loosely designed in my head and then a group of friends had it made for me for my 60th birthday. It’s my only jewellery on the boat and I wear it constantly so I was pleased it sparked a conversation about christianity and spirituality. Sadly I didn’t buy a bag – I couldn’t quite justify its space on the boat! I did however treat myself on Sunday, to a very sharp Japanese knife, on finding a knife store in Baker Street. Every time our daughter in law comes to stay I am embarrassed by the bluntness of all the knives in my kitchen (she’s a professional cook!). This knife is so sharp I have already nicked myself so R says it can only be used by me and Mi! It even has its own magnetic knife holder. I am so excited to actually be able to thinly slice through anything, although we were warned it was not to be used for cutting through hard objects, such as ice and avocado stones!
The joy of watching the tennis at Wimbledon has not abated. It’s great that you can, on iPlayer, restart the match so it doesn’t matter when you join it. We’ve also discovered a new, to us, detective series that will keep us entertained. Called ‘New Tricks’ we have actually watched a few episodes ad hoc over recent months. However today I discovered we could start from Series 1, episode 1, so we have gone right back to the beginning and learning the back story, puts the whole series into context. It made us laugh so I imagine we will be working our way through the numerous series, similar to our Vera addiction!
NarrowboatTLC 