Waterhall Park, Lombardy Poplar Trees, a canal boat and a book

I need to do something about charging up the batteries on my phone in the boat.  Not because I care about contact with an outside world Saturday, but because I can’t take pictures of what I am seeing.

This week J&D Marine Services came to take a look at the boat at 7am.  I am giving him a shout out because he is earthy, nice and very knowledgeable about canal boats.  He also has a lovely young dog called Monkey Rose who gave Noah some exercise chasing her up and down the canal path for an hour.

The boat needs a new bilge pump and at least 2 new batteries.  The 12 amp fridge needs to be set between 1-2 and the isolator for the invertor isn’t working and it needed to be switched off in the engine compartment.

We finished off the morning by doing self serve on a pump out (never done that before), diesel and water at Willowbridge Marina.

 

In the afternoon Quirk went to poker and I walked with Noah through Waterhall Park to Fenny Stratford and back along the canal path.  There was a beautifully marked out pathway adjacent to the canal with Lombardy Poplar Trees on either side.

https://www.theparkstrust.com/parks/waterhall-park

Later I sat on a very old folding chair that used to be Bear’s he took to festivals and finished Emily Maitlis’s book ‘Airhead’ that had both fallen in the canal and been eaten by the dog.  The only bit that made me laugh was when balaclava man poured water down his front – a lovely line – ..’a bloke who’s come to tell the politicians how life really is, unable to find his own mouth’.

In spite of the references to her children (particularly Max) and her stalking never-ending nightmare, I didn’t warm to her.  This is a woman who knows her own worth and there is nothing wrong with that.  I also appreciate her book wasn’t meant to be funny, but insightful (and show how clever she is).

It brought out the same detached irritation that the Netflix film Expedition Happiness did this week and which I switched off after 40 minutes.  Just too many shots of Felix Starck and his girlfriend looking lovely and loved up and in love with their dog and hating horrid passport control people.

He is obviously gifted in a number of areas, cycled across 22 countries, runs his own business in Germany, a dab hand at kitting out second hand buses to designer level, but somehow remote.

Maybe both just a little too concerned with their own image.

 

Being on the boat reminds me that it’s ok to slow down and not fill every moment with doing useful ‘stuff’.