After such a busy weekend in London I spent Monday and Tuesday catching up with friends and doing the housekeeping. On Wednesday I was back in London where I visited the Quentin Blake exhibition at the new House of Illustration on Granary Square in the newly developed Kings Cross area. They are making a good job of the development and it has a cultural vibe (much needed, I must say). I met Caroline for lunch at the Royal Academy where we went around the Dennis Hopper exhibition. He only used his camera from 1961 to 1967 and he captured the era perfectly, especially as he only used black and white film. I would have loved to have stayed to watch his two movies, Easy Rider and The Last Movie but time waits for no man(or even for me)so I jumped on the tube to South Kensington where I was meeting up with Rose before she went to the Proms.

I was soon back on board Olivia and through the Claydon locks after which I enjoyed the rural lock free pound to Marston Doles. One thing that I have noticed more and more is that boaters don't seem to do any preparation before they cast off. Today I had a couple who were reversing back from a lock to the winding (turning) point. As they were all over the canal (as I would be if I were trying to reverse) we struck up a conversation and it transpired that they had decided to turn at this point as "it might be a while before we find another one". I was asked by another boat whether there was "a water point in the vicinity" and another was surprised when advised that there was not a shop for another two hours. Is it just me but I find that a lot of the pleasure is in the planning of the journey? Having said that I had a choice of either walking nine miles or taking two bus journeys. I decided on the latter which took three and a half hours!! Two of these hours were spent waiting for a connecting bus because the existing timetable means that one bus misses the other by about two minutes and both buses run every two hours.

My first cruise on the tidal Thames

I have been lucky enough to have a fantastic weekend. On Friday I was treated to tea at the Ritz! It was last year's Christmas present from my son's partner and included myself, my sister, my daughter and son's partner. We started with a glass of champagne moved on through the finger sandwiches and some fancy cakes and tarts, then onto scones and finished up with a choice of either Bakewell tart or lemon drizzle cake! All washed down by copious amounts of very tasty tea.

After we went our separate ways I jumped on the DLR to Limehouse where I met up with Heather who had invited me to accompany her on a trip on the Thames the next morning. There was a briefing in the evening after which we moseyed on down to Island Gardens where we had a brilliant viewpoint for the firework display which was part of the Totally Thames festival. The added bonus was that after the display a lot of the tall ships started moving to their positions for the next day.

On Saturday we were up early ready to cast off at 07.30. Sixteen narrowboats and one cruiser were to make the journey in a convoy. We took off along Limehouse Cut and down Bow Creek coming out onto the Thames opposite the O2 dome.

The river seemed very calm and just right for a newbie like me. We cruised past Greenwich and across the river to the south side behind a massive cruise liner, Europa, where we found the entrance to Deptford Creek. This is not a pretty creek but it was interesting to see it and we attracted several bystanders who enjoyed seeing all seventeen boats cruising up and back. One little girl had a horn which she "parped" so we really did have to return the compliment :-).

When we got back out onto the Thames, once again crossing the river to the north shore, the water seemed to be quite lumpy and we had several of the jet experience boats zipping around near us adding to the waves. I found this a bit of a white knuckle ride and was happy to hand the helm back to Heather who took it all in her stride and got us back into Limehouse lock. All in all a very enjoyable morning. After lunch we went into Greenwich by DLR but it was absolutely rammed with people visiting the Tall Ships festival events. I gave up and went to stay at Tom's house.

On Sunday we went to the Angel Canal Festival. Luke had a stall there which attracted good interest. There was plenty to amuse a two year old including donkey rides, funfair, creepy crawlies and hawks and owls, boating activities and much more.

Enjoying late summer days

This week I travelled from Banbury down to Little Heyford. The weather was fantastic: warm and calm. Apart from the hire boats the canal was quiet and I was able to find some wonderful rural moorings. One evening, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a bird land on the bow. When I moved to get a better view I saw, for just a fleeting moment, a kingfisher. Magic. At Heyford there is a station which runs about four trains a day to Oxford and, with my railcard, the fare was only £3.05p! I took advantage of this and had a lovely day in Oxford. I visited the Ashmolean, the Modern Art museum, the unique shops in the covered market and had a good old mooch.

The lift bridge at Little Heyford is really heavy and I couldn't fathom a way to tether it up (You need a crew member to sit on the beam). Luckily I commandeered some cheerful and helpful dog walkers on both the outward and return journeys. I wonder if the Canal and River Trust will ever acknowledge single handed boaters (there are more and more of us) and plan to alter how such bridges work. At one of the locks I found a small queue caused by the gate not closing fully. CRT came out and poked about with their rake which located the problem. Apparently it was a bag full of tools and components. I wonder if it was dumped there or whether it fell off someone's boat.

I am heading northwards again now, making my way to my home patch.