Travelling to the black country museum (a blog from Baz)

Good evening!

I'm currently sitting on the back end of Chertsey with my wonderful girlfriend IzzI sorrounded by working boats and looking at a rather impressive chimney. We, IzzI; mum; Jim; and me, are here for the Black Country Museum boat gathering. We have our costumes all ready for tomorrow and mum is cooking us lying around curry (curry made from what whatever's lying around... Chick pea korma with broccoli and cous cous) and I thought i would take you through our journey so far.

After a night of mod cons (read: running water) on Bakewell we set off early with the promise of bacon rolls for breakfast. Huzzah. We made good time on our way to the Wolverhampton 21 and happily munched on our rolls* and it wasn't long before we came across the first set of paddles. With Jim cycling on ahead to empty the locks and mum at the tiller IzzI and I worked the paddles and we completed the flight in two hours and six minutes. That was over the 1:45 that mum was aiming for but with two paddles out of comission, 1 paddle mishap (nobody injured!) and my refusal to run between gates, I don't think that's too terrible.

After the 21 I steered the rest of the way to the museum. I did bang the boat twice (sorry mum) but it weighs a few tons and is made of steel so I don't think I damaged it. I did do a couple of good turns and backed into the museum to make up for it. I'm a little bit proud. A bit of exploring, and a bit of a nap later, and I started this blog.

I'm not entirely sure what's going on tomorrow but I have my neckerchief ready.

Sleep well.

S.

*
Recipe for boat bacon rolls. Feeds 4.

You will need:
1 frying pan
1 enamel tray
1 Beatrice stove
4 buttered rolls
14(?) bacon rashers
1 boat

1. Forget the frying pan
2. Start the boats engine and begin travelling
3. Balance enamel tray on Beatrice stove
4. Cook bacon on enamel tray
5. Allow engine to rattle tray off stove and deposit bacon under the floor
6. Find 13 rashers of bacon
7. Assume thats how many rashers you started with
8. Brush off the dirt
9. Cook bacon a bit more
10. Place on buttered rolls
11. Eat.