Monday 25th November
The weekend has come and gone, so has the Victorian Street market. Judging by the number of people thronging around here it has been a real success. We did try to have another look round at the stalls in the Quays car park on Saturday but there were so many people in the aisles between the stalls we were unable to see anything and passed straight through.
There were a lot of ‘characters’ about in the docks and in the town during this event as well. We saw a policeman on a penny farthing yesterday and a female vagrant being arrested by two bobbies the day before. There were a couple of chaps in costume but on huge springy legs in the Eastgate Centre and another one on stilts wandering up and down the street. There were also a group of music hall musicians playing in the street a lot of the time. They did very well as their fingers must have been numb it was so cold over the weekend!
So, it is all over now and we were surprised at the speed at which the stalls disappeared this morning. We aren’t missing the loud xmas music and carols which was emanating from the tannoy all day every day since last Thursday however. If I heard Go Tell It On The Mountain played on the hand bells one more time I was going to commit murder!
Still no sign of our immersion heater getting fixed. We had high hopes of this chap when he came round so soon after we phoned him in the first instant but I’m afraid we haven’t heard hide nor hair of him since he said he couldn’t get the element until Friday. If we don’t hear anything tomorrow we will see about getting someone else to do it after we get back from Southampton.
As a consequence of this we have had to press the Mikuni into service for hot water. The fire does heat the water but not hot enough for two showers. Considering we have hardly used the Mikuni since the boat was built (and then only to test it) we were pleased to find it working well. So at least we can still have hot water when we want but we would prefer to use the immersion heater.
Tomorrow we will be getting ready for our trip to Southampton. It will be nice to see everyone again.
