THE WAITING GAME

 

Well as you know we were stuck at Brentford, and to make the most of it we decided to head into the town for a look round, and of course the pub. There is a lot of regeneration work going on in the town and it will be very nice when its all finished. We had a walk round and looked in an estate agents window and nearly died at the cost of houses, both to rent and to buy, its so much cheaper oop norf.

Last time we were in Brentford we tried the Brewer Tap which is by the river, so this was our first port of call. They had 5 hand pulls on but 4 of them were Fuller Pride, so not much choice. But then I spotted a bottle of Black Cab Stout in the cooler so the Captain was a happy bunny. We only had the one in there as it just didn’t jell with us.

https://www.brewery-tap-brentford.co.uk/

So on to the Black Dog. Now this was much more to our taste, with a choice of 2 darks for the Captain, and ABK lager for me. It is a lovely pub with a nice outside area but we chose to sit inside. It is very family friendly and obviously well used by the locals. The food menu was exciting and different. The couple next to us order the ribs and some loaded fries, they looked and smelt amazing. Well worth a visit.

https://www.blackdogbeerhouse.co.uk/

There was no update on the broken lock over the weekend so we had a quiet couple of days.

The Captain isn’t having much luck sorting out the stove situation, he found a company in Lancashire that makes stoves to order, so he contacted them explaining what we wanted, but as with the refurbishment they said it wouldn’t be until mid October as they are very busy. He looked into ordering an off the shelf model, but this came with delivery issues, so we may have to head back to Coventry a little earlier than intended to sort something out.

On Monday we had plans to meet up with my cousin Gary, and his wife Toni for a drink and a meal in London, we had intended to be moored up at Little Venice for this but ended up using the tube to get into central London. We went and paid our respects at Buckingham Palace, and the Mall looked amazing. The flowers at Green Park were beautiful and the whole experience was very moving.

We also made it to Borough Market, a real foody place and one of my favourite places.

https://boroughmarket.org.uk/

I would have loved to have gone and seen the statue of Bob the street cat which was unveiled at Islington last year, but we ran out of time.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-57855092

We had a lovely time with Gary, Toni and one of their sons Joe, including a lovely meal at Rasa Sayang. The day was exhausting but well worth the effort.

https://www.rasasayangfood.com/

Although the locks reopened next day we decided to stay put and recover.

But the following day it was back to the grind, and the 10 locks of the Hanwell flight. The paddles and the gates seemed very heavy after spending a week on the Thames doing nothing but hold a rope.

We managed to moor at Tesco at Bulls Bridge, and were very pleased to see a Lidl has opened on the same site, and a Home Bargains will be opening soon next door.

A boat pulled in behind us and we got chatting to Neil and Chris, they had just bought the boat and it had been on hard standing for about 15yrs, the engine was very smokey, but they were confident they would get it to Wigrams Turn marina without a hitch.

The journey to Milton Keynes started in earnest the next day, with the first lock of the 69 we have to do to get there. We moored in Uxbridge and had a quiet night.

8 locks to Rickmansworth, and we met boats at everyone, which was helpful and made it a very pleasant day. We had discovered a micropub had opened in the town since we were last here, so we had to go and give The Wishful Drinking a try. They had a good selection of beers, and as we were finishing our second pint a couple came in looking for a seat, as we were sat at a table for 4 we invited them to join us, and of course we got chatting. They were originally from Stoke and were fascinated by our life style. It made for a very nice finish to the day.

https://www.wishfuldrinking.co.uk/

I won’t say we were rudely awakened next day, but a race round the park we were moored next to, with the stewards shouting encouragement to all the runners, put paid to a long lie in.

After shopping at Tesco we set off to do the 13 locks to Kings Langley. At the 2^nd lock I could see a young guy crouching on the towpath, as I wandered past him I found out why. There was a large toad sitting enjoying the sunshine in the middle of the path. The young man seemed perturbed at this, and as I bent down to pick it up to move it off the path, he asked me what we should do with it. The toad, not wanting to be manhandled by me hopped off into the undergrowth and we all went on our merry way.

 

Also at this lock we met the Captain and crew from NB Puddleduck II, Gerry and Janette, and they joined us for the rest of the locks. They were great company, and Gerry recognised my Derbyshire accent as he had trained to be a teacher in Matlock in the 1970’s. They live in Lichfield now keeping their narrowboat at the end of their garden.

One of the locks on this stretch is a favourite of mine, as there are always loads of Gongoozlers there to chat to and help out if necessary. Today was no exception.

After a long day we moored at Kings Langley. The Captain had to take a look at the prop as it had started making a funny noise earlier in the day. Good thing he did, as one of the retaining bolts had sheered. Ever resourceful he had a spare, so next day before setting off he replaced the offending bolt and replaced all the nuts just to be sure.

Puddleduck II left a lot earlier then us about 8.30am. I was just up making our morning cuppa to take back to bed with a biscuit. I would have liked to travel further with them as we got on very well, maybe we will see them again someday.

As well as the toad we have had sightings of kingfishers, herons red kites, buzzards and a snowy white little egret. And first for us a little grebe.

Milton Keynes next folks.