As we grow familiar with Patience and with the ways of the rivers it's easy to forget that some folks have never even been on a narrow boat (or barge or even "longboat" as so many people call it). So in a spirit of broadening the experiences of my family and friends I took Patience up the Old West to Pope's Corner with my parents - who in all their 80 plus years had never been on a narrow boat. They expressed themselves "excited".
Then on the day of the Royal Wedding I tried to avoid the sentimental outpourings by taking a trip to Ely with a friend, leaving our respective wives to gawp at the ceremonials. Tony cycled up from Cambridge, we had lunch at the Cutter at Ely (where we learned in 70 seconds of BBC News what our wives had been drip-fed all morning). Then we toured the cathedral, which had been open all day for a service to celebrate the marriage, paused by a brass band also celebrating the day, through the happy masses in the Cathedral Green and past a few moored up cruisers strung with bunting to the Lazy Otter with Tony's bike on board.
A good day out with a conspicuous failure to avoid The Wedding .... Nevertheless I wish the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (so they're now local?) every happiness.
I noted, incidentally, how much newspaper space was taken up admiring Pippa Middleton's bottom. So a good day was had by non-royalists too!
Then on the day of the Royal Wedding I tried to avoid the sentimental outpourings by taking a trip to Ely with a friend, leaving our respective wives to gawp at the ceremonials. Tony cycled up from Cambridge, we had lunch at the Cutter at Ely (where we learned in 70 seconds of BBC News what our wives had been drip-fed all morning). Then we toured the cathedral, which had been open all day for a service to celebrate the marriage, paused by a brass band also celebrating the day, through the happy masses in the Cathedral Green and past a few moored up cruisers strung with bunting to the Lazy Otter with Tony's bike on board.
A good day out with a conspicuous failure to avoid The Wedding .... Nevertheless I wish the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (so they're now local?) every happiness.
I noted, incidentally, how much newspaper space was taken up admiring Pippa Middleton's bottom. So a good day was had by non-royalists too!
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