Knackered, more city sights, a small princess and just a few boats

Saturday 2nd May to Sunday 3rd May 2015

It was a late arrival back on the boat for me on Saturday morning and I was completely knackered - no early finish this week and a longer journey back as well - all I really wanted to do was sleep.

Luckily, Diane was prepared for it so she had made ready to, yet again, venture out and see more of the sights.

Her initial intent was to continue the search for London's monopoly names, but she managed to drag herself around to a few famous spots.

There is a museum dedicated to almost everything and everyone, wouldn't
you say my dear Watson

love this image of the sunroof inside the museum, but also notice the
decorative work around the sides

The original Lord's cricket ground....

....was just here

another one bites the dust - scrub this one off the list

Just around the corner from Paddington happens to be St.Mary's Hospital where just that morning the new princess was born - Diane went to see the may-hem of the press and other crowds.

Outside St.Mary's, security was tight - crowds were cramped

Everyone was at the ready -apparently Prince Willy was inside

The proud dad was already in the car by this time

Then it was back to have a bit of a look at the IWA Cavalcade.

Crowds as expected...

boats as expected - here is Australia and Kangaroo

James and Amy (nb Willow) - fellow bloggers, lending a hand
at the Cavalcade

Before you get into the "pool"at Little Venice is this stretch

Just makes you wonder where you would store this inside
the boat

Just around the corner in the Regent's Canal - lacking a great deal of width,
the breasted up boats make it even more narrow to steer a boat through
(notice the breasted wide-beam pair as well).....

...seems that the locals cannot understand plain english.

Most of the report on the day centred around the pictures that she had taken and how nice the fudge tasted - the weather was reasonably kind to her, but she was fairly tired by the time that she got back.

Fortunately, I had slept enough so that I was a lot more awake now and also likely to sleep that night - but boy how I really ached - this body is taking it's time getting used to physical work - at least I don't have much to think about for the job.

Saturday night was a nice peaceful night and we both slept soundly and woke up at a normal time - there would be some that would say 6am on a Sunday is just not normal, but we felt a lot better.

We had already decided, prior to Diane's visit, that we would go into Paddington to the Cavalcade, as the boat handling competition would be on and we both wanted to see that part of the event.

On the way to the station was the bus-sleeping building -these lot were enjoying
a lie-in

A different board for the next train - notice the white arrow to designate the
line for the next train.

Since the day before, Diane had already decided to revisit the fudge tent for more supplies.
With minimal fuss we made it to Paddington; it is to be expected that with these types of events there will always be a lot of people around and on that score we were not disappointed.
 

Bunting and colour everywhere....

and plenty of boats

a view of the bow of Australia

The clouds held back on the day, but the wind was up a bit; we wandered around to check on the best vantage points, not really knowing exactly how it would be "run".

Finally it started and consisted of the boat entering the course, reaching a mark and doing a 360^o  turn then head to the Warwick Road bridge and hold off the side (without touching) - helmsman to step off and shake the hand of the judge there, then reverse about 100m around the centre island and hold still for 30 secs in front of judge no. 2; followed by a 180^o turn and head back past judge no.3 from whence they came.
Given the strength and direction of the wind we found it enthralling and appreciated the skills on display.
 

Boat handling -entering the "arena"...

...doing the 360...

.....holding under the bridge....

...reversing around the island...

...after the 2nd hold, it was then time for the 180...

...and after passing the final judge (on top of his boat) it was all done - an
excellent run

There was to be a 2nd heat later in the day but we decided that lunch and other things would be better.
We went into the IWA tent and quite accidentally we met up with a lady that we had met at last year's Crick show - they were in need of seats and a table which were we able help with and we got chatting.
Her name was Dianne (extra 'n') so my Diane remembered her name.

By the end of our current conversation, she and her husband most likely will be doing the Thames this year and we should be able to accompany them using their VHF.

OK, by now it was most definitely lunch time - Diane's sugar clock was telling us both that and we opted for the cafe advertising Sunday Roast - went in, ordered coffees to begin with - then the crunch, "oh we aren't doing it today because of the Cavalcade" - "but you have it advertised".
Very unenthusiastically apologetic they were; we were less than pleased and left; still saw the sign later on.

Diane had raided the fudge supplies, which had been purchased earlier, and therefore was feeling better - in the end we just decided to head off on the train and would find something somewhere.

A need to change trains at Hammersmith which included a complete change of station (they were just 100m apart) and we were then on street level and found a Weatherspoons doing Sunday Roast - brilliant, so we went there.
We know the food is pretty well generic but it does taste alright and we were glad to relax at the same time.

Back to the boat to further relax - by this time we were getting rather tired and so we just settled in - luckily the Snooker World Championship was on, so our attention was to that and we ended the day ready for sleep.



No travel