London girl drives boat shocker

In a move that rocked the capital to its core, one of its citizens;

a.) Left the cosetting embrace of the M25
b.) Drove something that isn't a SUV (although its as big as some of them)

Here is Mary adding her own touch of glamour to the scene....




I needed to top up the tank for the heating stove, and thought we might was well go for a little cruise. As the Thames is still running very fast, we went down the lakes towards the boatyard. I think this is where the marina used to be, as marked out by all these posts and buoys.



Note the cluster of derelict barges on the left.

Do I know how to show the ladies a good time or what? (err.. no)

The unseen crew

A valentines day gift from my lovely girlfriend was this gizmo (cellphone shown for comparative size)



designed to scare insects (specifically spiders) and other pests away. I had mentioned that the spiders seemed to be coming out of the woodwork with the warmer weather, so I detect a degree of self interest in this present. :)

You can get one of your own here. We'll gloss over what I got her for now......

Anyway, too early to see how effective it is, but Tobias is staying away, so it has to be doing something.

Winter Wonderland

In a break from the usual narrowboat themed posts, I thought I'd write about my journey along minor roads in the snows that hit the UK today. I was due to attend a course at Chartridge House - something to do with leadership training. I saw the 'ship' part so assumed it must be good, after all I'm refitting a canal boat.

Anyway I departed the boat at about 7:00am, IRIS looked like this in the dark.



The car was also a little covered in snow too....



Progress was slow but steady. Mat had reported that the roads were mushy but not too bad, and this certainly proved the case once I'd got out of the marina drive. Henley (center of the known universe as mentioned in previous posts) wasn't too bad either, as shown by this atmospheric shot of some traffic lights.



The journey continued towards Marlow, I made the mistake of trying to take a picture whilst driving on snow covered roads, this is the result.



A better one, taken while stationary....



Remember kids, don't take pictures and drive - I almost went into a ditch. Once I'd abandoned this idea, the journey continued to interest, with people parking on hills and generally causing chaos. Now hillstarts in snow aren't my car's forte, so I was stuck three times for about 20 minutes each trying to get going. However, I continued to make progress, through High Wycombe, Great Missenden and on to Chesham. It was here that I finally got stuck as the snow was falling heavily and compacting on the ground. This was about two miles from my final destination.

As I tried to get unstuck by some houses I noticed some locals viewing me with a degree of suspicion. Turns out that there is someone in their village with a car like mine who they don't like. Apparently it makes a lot of noise......

As more of them were gathering with pitchforks and a pitcher of tar and a bag of feathers, I felt it was time to introduce myself. Once I'd explained that I was not the local annoying idiot, but merely some idiot from Reading, it was all smiles. A few of the assembled yummy mummies helped push me a little further up the road, but alas, we were on a hiding to nothing.

We decided that pushing my car underneath an old apple tree was the best bet until the snows melted.

After a refreshing cup of hot chocolate in one of the local's houses (turns out they were sheep farmers from Switzerland) I got a lift to Chartridge house.



I got a lift back and retrieved my car in the afternoon, as I was a little worried that the locals would burn it as some sort of message to the other one. So now its sat in the car park at the back.

Just so we have some nautical themes here, I've got a picture of IRIS I took the other morning when it was -8 degrees c.