Soixante neuf

I had a very fine birthday thank you very much-especially thanks to the good folk who sent cards and supported me in the pursuit of culinary pleasure making it all special.

Where to begin.

The Blessed Pam treated me to a Grand Day out on my actual birthday-off to Windsor where we were booked in at the Royal Adelaide Hotel-very nice, dinner overlooking the Thames by the bridge between Eton and Windsor and a play at the the Theatre Royal. All excellent. Such a lovely time-what a lucky man I am.

The play was a new murder mystery which was very well acted and kept you guessing till the end.

The Queen's in residence

Kir Royalty

The following day after a healthy breakfast (only half a black pudding) we went for a stroll albeit inhibited by a silly gouty toe,

This is known as the Long Walk which sounds like something Mao led but I don't thing he ever came to Windsor

but it is a very long walk....

Three miles in all-so I'm told

I'm afraid a gouty toe precludes me from signing on though I have been in" Sheet Street "often enough

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Sunday 17th saw a gathering of chums at the Greyhound Wigginton for a birthday lunch. 

It snowed.

Plenty of coal and logs-bring it on

spooky snowman

Before we dined Sue made a surprise presentation (well it was a surprise to me!) of a golden gnome and said some very nice things about me which was very kind though I aint really that worthy. Great fun.
The food and service were outstanding and with the addition of a defibrillator on the pub wall the Greyhound is the ideal spot for a boaters' gathering which I believe is the plan for next Christmas.

A very happy birthday. Cheers everybody.

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After the feasting some gentle exercise. Not straight away of course but on Tuesday a trip to Cliveden for one of the many walks through the grounds....with time for lunch half way. A glorious, sunny day.

Pretty as a picture

It's a frame up

Ham roll anybody?

Snowdrops in abundance!

To the woods!

Pam makes a trunk call

Out of the woods

             
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            Stop messing about Moses

Onward and Downward

   

2016 and suddenly it's down with the Christmas  lights and heading for my birthday (13th January).
A touch of the lurgy which has been infecting the parish is causing me some discomfort but being a man I laugh it off and press on with the day to day business of feeling sorry for myself. A bad financial start to the New Year.The boat took nearly 100 of your Earth pounds for diesel and the car is currently up on the ramp at the mechanics no doubt removing even more mazoola (£200)from my inadequate finances. And it's only 7th Jan.

The (please insert whatever name we're calling them at the time of reading) are slaughtering one another across the Middle East and anyone else they fancy wherever they find them and the North Koreans have just exploded an Hydrogen bomb .
Back in the UK St Corbyn of Islington has reshuffled the Shadow Cabinet so as to make them less effective-impossible- and snow and ice are threatened for next week after the wettest December since rain began. So it would be inappropriate for me to mention my lurgy again. Instead here's a picture of my Christmas tree on the mooring just before I turned the lights out. I know it looks a mess but you should have been there. Now it's de-decorated I'm missing it-pining you might say

And here's another picture which I thought  funny. When it comes to symmetry and tidiness generally I am probably the least OCDish person I know but I can see the dilemma here. By the bye I once asked an Italian why they didn't put a clock in the Leaning Tower of Pisa. He explained that it was because they had the inclination but didn't have the time.


The towpath on the moorings and the towpath opposite are in a bad state, very muddy and slippery and heavily puddled. On a boat in the Winter is ok as long as you have all your heating arrangements lined up and, of course, don't have any serious coughs or colds-which I do not-well, not that I would bother you with. Anyway the problems lie outside the boat, trundling essential fuel, food, alcohol,toilet/other stuff up and down a soggy/frozen/snow covered/and back to soggy/   path usually in the dark. ( I know the list above contains alcohol which probably isn't essential but if you've just trundled all the other stuff then it become so.)

Now we have a sink hole! Not big by some standards but big enough for somebody to break a leg or neck jumping off a boat. It is by the lock between the gates and our mooring entrance and is almost certainly due to the heavy rainfall. I've reported it to Canal & River Trust but I suspect they have similar concerns up and down the system. Here's a picture but it's got bigger since I took it. CRT were on the case in 24 hours and had it fixed. Excellent.


Talking of rainfall I don't want to bang on about HS2 as the whole thing depresses me but with the obvious need for major expenditure on flood relief and maintenance of an already crumbling infrastructure what kind of eejit seriously wants to spend money we don't have on a railway to get to Birmingham a few minutes earlier. Madness. I weep for the poor buggers ooop north as we all did for the poor buggers in Somerset last year. Why not have a look at the following petition and if you agree, sign up

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/117184

A bit of bad news. Another boating chum-this time from the Cowroast Marina-died on Friday (8th). Giles was, to say the least, an unusual character with trenchant views on most things and an apparent absence of any sense of humour; but he was generally interesting to talk to with a great passion for wildlife, particularly birds, and country pursuits. He'd not been well for a while but his sudden demise on board his boat was a shock and a shame. RIP.
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Lemsip with extra lemon and a tincture of
uisce beatha

The lurgy appears to be moving about though like most fellow sufferers I've spoken to it has settled on the chest-mine unfortunately- thus enabling me to do a passable bagpiped "Scotland the Brave" whilst pumping diesel into my day tank

To keep the lurgy  company my big toe has caught a bout of gout so the language is a bit ripe on board.
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Surely it's Hokey Cokey.....



Here's a blast from the past. I was almost certainly there as me and my gang rarely missed a concert at the Granada seeing all the top names of the '60s for what seems now to be very little money and if I'm honest wasn't that expensive then. This would have been 1964; can't recall what I was earning but under a grand a year so it's all relative but I certainly couldn't afford to see the big names of today (still including the Stones) as frequently and at todays prices and I'm pretty certain not many of the under 20s could.

I certainly remember seeing The Beatles second on the bill to Roy Orbison at Harrow and a fortnight later at The Granada Kingston they were top billing and the Big O had gone home. Great times, great names-and all for under a quid.

(The remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were-Marcel Proust)
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Apropos of nothing.... How's this for a brilliant van.........I'd buy this bloke a pint if I met him.

So it's two sleeps till my 69th birthday and my gouty toe is making me very fraught. I don't want to be crock on that or any other day. However I awoke to the news of David Bowie's death-only 5 days older than me and he's gone. Maybe I'll shut up about my ****ing toe.

A couple more cartoons to cheer you up-

That's it for tonight. If you have a prayer within you then offer one up for Giles, for David Bowie and.....if there's time.... for my gouty toe.  I'll be back after my birthday. Cheers.