The family portrait on the roof of Northern Pride - on our English wedding anniversary!

Yesterday we celebrated Barry's 55th birthday - it'll be a slippery slope now towards his 60th, lol!  Timely then for us to be considering where we wish to meander along to our retirement years; maybe New Zealand, but possibly England.  The conversations currently are around saving to return to UK in about two and a half years time, to buy another boat and live and work in some capacity from it.  But that seems a long way away, so in the meantime, we're having fun in Gisborne and making some time to publish more blogs from 2010 ...

Sunday 26 September

I was rudely awoken by Barry at 0645hrs, after a restless night trying not to disturb Lisa sleeping beside me.  Sadly Kim's grandma died in the early hours and she'd been called by her father to give her the sad news.  Barry waited a while, having been there to support Kim as he was sleeping on the floor next to her bed, then gently woke me up saying "Kim's nana has died"  - I jumped up in horror because I thought he said "Kim's nearly died"!  Grace had been poorly for a few years, but it's still a shock when you lose someone dear.  So Kim was making plans to return home that morning, ready to travel up to the midlands to see her dad and family.

It took a while to get the remainder of the sleeping beauties up, especially on a cold morning with no heating.  No-one had much sleep, but we wanted to make the most of us all being together and get a family portrait on the roof of the boat, even if we were all a little worse for wear!

Lisa, Sandra, Kim, Barry, Tom & Jamie

The photo was taken with Barry's camera on a timer, perched on Tom's tripod, with the wind blowing a gale and the boat moving - it's amazing we got anything!  But we're tenacious people, and eventually got a shot that we were happy to gaze at affectionately in years to come.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The oldies and the youngsters (note the NZ boat in the background)!

Kim left for Brighton after a quick breakfast, bless her.  The rest of us managed to sort ourselves out and catch a bus to Camden - the London Underground was doing its usual work on the lines at the weekend so there was hardly any service.

Camden is such an amazingly vibrant and colourful place, with an array of 'stuff' to tempt your wallet into buying things you never knew existed never mind ever 'needed'.  The lock market that we passed on Northern Pride a couple of days previously was just a smidgen of the place, there's a long road with outrageous shop fronts and then more markets to wander around - as well as a few eccentric people too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camden Market and the shop frontages all seem to want to outdo each other but in reality they all end up looking pretty similar ... ... though with some very elaborate props

The view as seen by gongoozlers on the bridge at Camden Lock

 Making the most of any 'canvas' available - this the railway bridge!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Beauty and the beast?

Time to eat lunch, but getting anyone to make a decision wasn't easy - far too much choice!

They'll try and tempt you with a free sample, then hope to coerce you in to buy 

 Even a horse hospital - hopefully no equine flesh was for sale on the food stands!

 

 

Decisions made eventually; lunch stop for two of the three of the family living in England ...

 

 

 

 

 

... and the three New Zealand residents temporarily in the British Isles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The lovely Lisa all wrapped up, and a statue holds up well

I'm sure it's not all cr*p - there must be some necessities in there somewhere? Something useful for on a narrowboat maybe?  But we didn't discover 'just what we needed' thankfully!

The 'Verve' of London - we have a ''Verve' cafe in Gisborne - owned by Barry's brother Ray 

 A buzzing, bustling place

After we'd seen all we could handle of Camden, Lisa had arranged to meet some friends for a Sunday roast at 'The Hawley Arms'  - apparently where the singer and exhibitionist Amy Winehouse regularly drinks and 'performs' (not necessarily in an entertainment/singing capacity!).  We all went with her and had a drink before saying our farewells to her ...

Sarah, Lisa and Liz and their spangly scarves - part of a beautiful group of friends from Sutton Coldfield for around 23 years 

Tom, Jamie, Barry and I then had a bit of a mooch around Camden Lock Market, where we came upon a stall with piranha like fishes eating away at people's feet ...

 

 

 

For a few pounds you could have these flesh eating fish nibble your dry feet skin away - tempting to try, but we resisted ... 

 

 

 

 

 

Camden Lock Market - not quite so colourful and exciting in the rainy British weather - so different to our English wedding day on 26 September 2009!

Late in the afternoon, Jamie caught a bus back to Wembley and we jumped on one heading to Paddington.  After managing to get some diesel we all fell exhausted into bed around 2300hrs.

 

 

a bus trip back to Paddington to the boat ... 

 

 

 

 

 

... and the relief of the timely arrival of P.J.Wakham's friendly diesel and pumpout boat 

 

 

 

 

 

 Not a lot of living space up at the front

 

This little fellow had fun scampering all over the boat watching the proceedings

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tom has less than five days left in England, with lots to pack in during that time - including a trip on the Eurostar to Paris on my 51st birthday on 28 September.  I suspect Barry and Tom may find a few things there worth photographing too  ...

A wonderful weekend in 'The Big Smoke'

Sorry!  Here we are again, it'll take us months to complete the journey's bloggings at this rate - which may be the objective, to string it out for as long as possible.  It's difficult readjusting to 'normal' life again.  But we WILL get it completed - honest Pete (but thanks for the nudge!)

All is good here in the Southern Hemisphere.  I've had our first pay day so that's a relief, and though we hate to rub it in for those who are reading this from UK, it's our first day of summer tomorrow and we've had temperature of around 28 degrees today  It's hard to believe that there's already snow in the UK - amazingly Barry wishes he was there to experience it with you all ...

Saturday 25 September

Today promised lots of love and laughter with all our four children due to arrive at various times.  We tried to beat the coldness by having big bowls of porridge for breakfast to warm up, and the blue skies and sunshine bode well for a day outdoors - we wouldn't want to spend too long with six people cooped up inside a four berth boat! 

Jamie was the first to arrive around 1100hrs, so we went for a walk around Paddington Basin.  There was a dearth of visitor moorings and like other places we'd passed in London, boats looked suspiciously as though they'd moored on the sparse spaces longer than the 7 days 'limit'.  We wonder how on earth anyone manages to find a spot to stay in high season if this is what it's like in late September?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our mooring location was a contrast of the new on one side and the old on the other

Around the corner of the Paddington Arm is very modern with all sorts of construction still going on

We wandered up to the junction at Little Venice where there were a few more visitors moorings - but once again it just appeared that the boats were 'permanently' moored up rather than 'just visiting' - bizarre.  Maybe we're casting aspersions where we shouldn't and the boats were all legitimately moored for only the stated time, but I think it's unlikely.

Barry decided he wanted to leave our prime position in Paddington and go on a trip on Northern Pride with everyone to Camden, but luckily I managed to persuade him otherwise as the chances were that we'd lose our 'space' and not find another one anywhere nearby.  As we'd booked to get the Eurostar to Paris on Tuesday (my birthday), I really didn't want to risk it.

We walked back to the boat for lunch, and Lisa arrived from Cheshire just before 1400hrs. We had a brief visit from our mate Pete who happened to be nearby visiting a friend - it was great to see you again, sorry we weren't able to be too sociable with our full day's schedule!

Tom helped Barry to dispose of the rubbish and fill up our drinking water container ready for the influx of guests, at Little Venice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of interesting sculptures around the area

The colourful cafe boat moored at the Little Venice/Paddington junction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not sure of the name of this delightful bridge over the canal heading west

Little Venice junction with Paddington to the right and the water taxi boats waiting for passengers

The banks are lined with boats of all shapes and styles ...

... and the cars and trucks drive over the canals oblivious to the tranquillity below them ...

... the Barclays hire bikes are all around London ... 

... and there's scooters galore outside Paddington Station ready for their owners to hop off the trains and speed away to work ... 

... in fact the city epitomises busyness, especially at the tube station

Having decided not to return to Camden today, Jamie suggested a walk to Hyde Park which wasn't far away.  So we put some warm clothes on and walked the streets of London.  Kensington Gardens were our first port of call, then on to Hyde Park where we came across an incredible 'squirrel/bird man'.  He was standing on the path with a rucksack on his front filled with nuts and seeds and literally hand feeding the squirrels and birds.  We stopped for ages watching him, then all having a go too.  I managed to get a squirrel climbing up my trousers and taking a nut from my hand - it was just so gentle and adept at holding your hand while it grasped the nut - awesome!  Tom got the hang of it too ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cottage at the entrance to Hyde Park 

One of the feisty little squirrels

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a quick lesson in how to hold your nuts Tom was soon acting like a professional!

 Up close and personal with the squirrels 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hyde Park is massive covering an area of over 350 acres.  The footpaths are like highways, the Serpentine runs through it, there's statues in abundance and Speaker's Corner to entertain you on sunny afternoons, and deck chairs galore to chill out on.  It's difficult to believe when you're in the park that you're in the middle of one of the largest cities in the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Statues and ornate gates to gaze admiringly at ...

 ... Roman columns ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

... and war memorials 

Having walked such a distance, we decided we weren't that far from the Queen's pad, so carried on walking to Buckingham Palace - it'd be a shame not to check it out while we were there!

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Jamie and Tom outside Buckingham Palace, waiting for their invitation to tea and cucumber sandwiches with Lizzie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 No luck, so Barry and Sandra and then Sandra and Lisa tried - but to no avail

 A stitched up version of the Palace

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Changing a guard - amazing how much pomp and ceremony continues in England

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having done the touristy thing, we walked through Green Park and met Kim later in the afternoon,  as she was walking to meet us. 

We hadn't realised how far we'd travelled on foot, naively deciding to walk rather than getting the bus back to Paddington as when we looked at a map it seemed to be not too far away.  It actually turned out be at least two miles so we were all exhausted when we finally returned to the boat!  However, there was lots of chattering done and sights to soak up along the way, so it didn't seem too much of a hardship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A simple dish of spaghetti bolognaise was our tea back on board, then it was more talking, drinks and finally a few games of cards - well actually it wasn't finally, as at about 0145hrs Jamie, Tom and Kim decided they weren't ready to retire and went out to find some more night life! 

The three of them returned around 0300hrs, stepping gingerly over Barry who was sound asleep on the floor in the corridor, and trying not to wake me and Lisa asleep in the static bed.  Jamie and Kim were sleeping in the dining area, their bed already made before they left, and Tom had the blow up single mattress on the floor by the front door - as you can imagine there wasn't a lot of space left!

 Paddington Basin at night time

  Our beautiful family together for one night - love you all heaps 

Look at the smiles on their faces when they got permission to go out on the town - note the clock says 1:45am

What a very special day and night, wish we could do it more often ...