Friday 22nd November
This morning we had a mooch round the Xmas market which seems to be insidiously surrounding us, with new stalls regularly being added. There are all manner of gift, food and decoration ideas to be found here and it is a must for people who need inspiration to get that perfect, natural, eco friendly, made in Britain item or some delicious locally produced xmas fare. Obviously this doesn’t apply to a couple of miserable old Bah Humbugs such as ourselves, who don’t do Xmas!
Not wishing to appear cynical (but when you live with them you get like them) it’s all very nice but everything is about 3 times more expensive than the high street equivalents. Take as an example, one of the meat stalls was selling two 8oz sirloins (from a local supplier no doubt) for £15. I’m sure they are very nice but I am equally sure they are not any better than the two 8oz sirloins (probably also from a local supplier) we got last week from Sainsbury’s for £7.
The prices on the hot food stalls beggar belief as well – £8 for a designer burger! Think I’ll stick to having a sandwich at home. We discovered the double decker bus was a 1967 Routemaster which had been converted into a bar, which was interesting.
After this little excursion we went off up Bristol Rd where we went to the fishing tackle shop for worms, the hardware shop for a bolt for the front door and some ferrules for the feet on one of our deck chairs and a car spares place for some replacement alternator belts. All very exciting stuff!
We also went in to Gloucester Marine Services at Hempstead to make enquiries about a couple of things and had a look round while we were there. The chap we spoke to was very obliging but not really very helpful. We need to speak to the boss on Monday.
We returned to the boat via the towpath at Hempstead Quay which is a pleasant walk. Then we went to Robert Raikes’s House for a pint. Unfortunately we haven’t heard from the chap who is supposed to be fixing our immersion heater today. Hopefully he will call tomorrow to say he has the element and can fit it. If not we’ll need to put the Mikuni on or run the engine to get some hot water for a shower.
