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| Bunting and chimneys |
For a couple of days, it was summer.
Cavalcade 2013 got off to a soggy start on Saturday 4th May with grey skies and heavy showers, but to be fair the '99% against Austerity' demo was much more of a damp squib, with a small gaggle of people in Guy Fawkes masks with a megaphone sitting on the steps outside the National Gallery, heavily out-numbered by bored cops.
I decided the revolution could manage without me and returned to Little Venice.
The showers fizzled out, the visitor numbers started to rise, and I had a lively couple of hours on the Info stand before returning to 'Uppie', to find that Jon had already been busy with visitors. We'd told lots of our South of England-based friends and family members about our proposed visit and already seen some of Jon's cousins on Wednesday evening, my Dad on Thursday and Jon's daughter Faye, her husband, their baby son, plus Faye's parents-in-law on Friday, but on Saturday it was all go with several parties of both friends and family arriving at regular intervals. Jon's estimate was that he'd made forty-one cups of tea by the end of the day!
We could possibly have turned this into a successful commercial enterprise as Uppie's side-hatch proved to be an irresistable attraction to passers-by, tending to be open when we were 'at home' to keep the busy boat cool and well-ventilated for our numerous guests. I came back from one Info stand session to find Jon chatting to a Japanese couple who had literally stuck their heads in through the side to see what it was like within, and while we were talking to some of our visitors on Sunday, out on the towpath, a pair of American ladies started commenting to each other about how 'cute' it was. A few lucky tourists were invited aboard when Jon was feeling especially welcoming; an Israeli woman commenting, on seeing our cosy but quite narrow bed, that there must be 'no marital difficulties'!
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| Only the flowers to do |
I also managed to become a minor tourist attraction. This was on account of making a start to repainting the boat's name and, despite a complete lack of sign-writing experience, changing 'Birmingham' to Kidsgrove'. Sitting on my folding chair on the towpath, I found myself on the opposite end of the camera lens to usual, listening to people talking in numerous languages and the chink and swearing noises as they stumbled over the frequently-spaced mooring rings along the towpath (a noise that sometimes woke us in the morning and could be heard as we settled down to sleep each night!). The English comments tended to be either warnings to children not to knock into 'the lady painting her boat', kind remarks and complements or, probably the most frequent, 'You can do mine when you've finished!'
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| Matching pair |
Both Sunday and Monday were dazzlingly bright, and Monday was warm too, and the crowds arrived in droves. We ran out of event programmes by lunchtime on Monday, a nice change to the soggy bundles we've had left at the end of previous rain-drenched festivals, and Jon's raffle-ticket selling was somewhat more pleasant without the books turning to papier-mache in his hands.
Conditions were also perfect for the evening events. We had the opportunity to travel with the procession of illuminated boats on Sunday evening aboard 'Tickety-Boo', allowing me to take some unusual night-time views of west London from the canal as we travelled back to the 'winding hole' at Kensal Green to turn the boat and then to join the other vessels, passing under bridges and beside towpaths crowded with spectators. It was a magical night.
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| Cavalcade by night |
Having had such a good time boating in London, it was tempting to stay longer, perhaps exploring down to Limehouse Basin or out to the Lee and the Olympic Park, but in the end we settled for a morning cruise along the Regents Canal, past London Zoo and as far as Camden Locks, before starting our journey home along the Paddington Arm, back to Bull's Bridge Junction and then north. But that journey isn't yet complete and we still don't know when we'll be bringing Uppie home, or via which route!
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| Uppie in The Pool at Little Venice |
