How much curry is too much curry?

So here’s the thing. Mandy doesn’t like curry. It makes her feel sick. In her younger days several people tried to convert her with different meals but she just doesn’t like curry. This aversion is so strong that she won’t let me eat curry either because she says she can smell it through my pores.

This is a real pity for me because I love Indian food. Back in my working days I used to travel to India a lot, and I really enjoyed the variety of the cuisines and the many layers of flavour.

So when Mandy is away I make the best of it. Once a year she goes off for the weekend with her nine school friends that she has stayed close to for nearly 60 years. This time they were in Ludlow and by all accounts had a lovely time.

Meanwhile I took the opportunity to eat curry – lots of it. On Friday evening I went out with my brother in law and sister in law to the Jai Lounge in St. Annes. We knew its reputation was excellent and it lived up to the hype. It tasted really authentic and I loved it. My Kashmiri Lamb with a garlic nan was especially good.

Saturday morning I had some left over curry from my freezer, in an omelette for a rather delicious breakfast, and at lunch I made a garlic chilli chicken with plain rice. Yum. Saturday evening there was a chicken madras and a king prawn bhuna, accompanied by poppadoms, pickles and more rice.

On Sunday Mandy was coming back in the afternoon, so I had a quick breakfast of leftovers, and then sprayed the whole house with air freshener, and opened the big doors into the garden. At lunchtime I finished off the poppadoms and pickles and sat down on the sofa feeling replete.

I had had the most wonderful weekend. And I wonder. Is there such a thing as too much curry? I don’t think so.

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Not a bad way to spend my birthday

Once a year we have a weekend away with Mandy’s two brothers and their partners. This year the weekend coincided with my birthday and we hired a beautiful renovated chapel in the South Lake District.

I can’t think of a birthday weekend I have enjoyed so much. The weather was cool but sunny. The house was stunning and comfortable. We had great food and great drink. The pub was a real community local serving tasty real ales. We walked along the banks of Windermere, and up to a castle for a picnic. We had a delicious breakfast at a bakery. We did a circuit of Tarn Hows, and wandered along the Ulverston canal from town to sea, imagining how it used to be with an iron works and ship building. We played games and read books. We saw tiny baby pheasants and cuddly highland calves.

We enjoyed ourselves so much that we have already booked next year’s trip, further north in the Lakes, near Keswick. And guess what? It is my birthday weekend again. I had better start dieting now!

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Is Blackpool just pubs and B&Bs?

We are back living in our Lancashire house this week. We are not so far from Blackpool. Blackpool has a terrible reputation, not all of it justified. It is true that there is a fair amount of crime there, but no more than most UK towns. It is true that it is a bit “chavvy” in the summer, with stag and hen dos wandering the streets in various states of inebriation. It is true that some of the shopping areas are looking a bit run down. But it also has some lovely areas.

I took Lulu for a walk this morning to Marton Mere, on the edge of Blackpool. It is a lovely tranquil nature reserve, based around a lake, with pretty paths snaking round the reed beds and bird hides. During our walk we heard reed warblers, Cetti warblers, wrens, robins, white throats and many more.

It is amazing to be so close to a town and still be in nature. Narrowboating can feel the same. Sometimes I know we are travelling through the middle of a big city, but perhaps we are in a cutting, surrounded by trees, and it could be in the middle of the countryside.

I think anywhere you are you can find peaceful spaces, as well as noise and excitement. I know which I prefer.

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Which is better – a lazy week or a busy week?

This was the final week of our two month trip to Oxford and back. Most of this adventure has been pretty busy. There are usually lot of jobs to do – moving the boat, filling with water, checking the engine, visiting a new town, shopping for groceries. You know the sorts of things. I like to be busy. Mandy laughs at me because when we have a day off, I normally make a list of things to do, and enjoy ticking them off. So for me this has been an odd week. We found ourselves well ahead of schedule and so had lazy days, with maybe an hour cruising, and including three days when we just stayed in one place doing nothing.

It was a good place to be. The sun was shining and at this time of year the nesting birds are all calling to their mates. Using the Merlin app I listened out for them and in one five minute period I could hear about twenty different species, from willow warblers to robins.

I went on some walks, cooked some food, watched some TV, read a couple of books. A thoroughly lazy time.

It was nice to be lazy. We are, after all, retired. We are allowed to be lazy. But I don’t think I am very good at it. I found myself twitching and needing to find urgent tasks. I touched up the paint on the outside of the boat. I cleaned and painted an old windlass, and the “napppy pins” we use to moor up against Armco on the towpath. I found a stately home to visit.

One morning when I woke up, I found an angler set up just in front of the boat, staring at the canal, lost in his own thoughts. He left about 4pm. I don’t think he spoke to anyone. I don’t think he caught any fish. I expect my son would tell me he was being “mindful”. My idea of hell.

So yes it has been a lovely lazy week, at the end of a lovely couple of months travelling on Narrowboat Thuis. But enough now. We have to return to the house for a busy month of May, filled with weddings, reunions and trips. I am looking forward to it.

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The ducklings are back!

Just over a week ago, Mandy and I were commenting that we had not seen any baby birds this year. It is lovely to pootle along on Narrowboat Thuis, watching for the ducklings, goslings, cygnets, cooties and moorhen chicks. I am not sure why moorhen chicks don’t get a cute name like the others.

Well this week the ducklings have started arriving and I have seen new families every day.

This group of ten ducklings were so small we wondered if they had ever been in the water. Mummy duck jumped into the canal in front of us, and one by one the ducklings followed, kicking their legs to try to work out how to stop going in circles.

I learnt something new about ducklings this week. Apparently the mother only lays one egg a day, but does not sit on the nest to incubate them until she has a full set of eggs. That way they all hatch at about the same time. Very clever.

I took Lulu dog for a walk to a bird sanctuary yesterday. The geese were being quite aggressive. I reckon that may be because they also have eggs coming up to hatching. Now we have the ducklings I look forward to seeing the other birds. It is a great time of year for nature and a great time of year to be on a boat.

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Is Nuneaton the saddest town in the UK?

One of the joys of cruising on a Narrowboat is spending time in the places we visit. For instance on this trip I had a fascinating day uncovering the history of Banbury, and a wonderful afternoon immersing myself in the delights of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

So on Wednesday when we were moored near Nuneaton, I hopped on a bus to find out more about the town. I asked the lady sat next to me on the bus what I should see and she laughed. Others around us quickly joined in, and told me that there is nothing to see in Nuneaton anymore, except a statue of George Eliot in the town centre.

Nuneaton used to be a thriving market town. Situated near Coventry and Birmingham, and with good canal, train and road links, it was one of the largest towns in Warwickshire. Originally based around ribbon weaving and coal mining, it was also famous for hat making and leather work (especially shoes). The town centre was largely destroyed by bombing in the Second World War, and was completely redeveloped in the 1960s, with an inner ring road, shopping mall and department stores.

And it has pretty much all gone. The factories and mills have closed. The department stores have gone bust. The beautiful mall is full of boarded up shops. The market is a shell of what it once was. Such a sad town.

But the people I met were friendly and positive. I found a great café for breakfast, and all the locals wanted to talk to me about life on a boat. So, possibly the saddest town but not the saddest people. Good luck to them.

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Is it summer already?

What a great time to be on a Narrowboat. The week with some pretty rough weather, and narrowboats do not like wind. The wind blows the boat sideways and we had to moor up to avoid getting stuck. But by Tuesday we had wall to wall sunshine.

It has been like summer. But better. We wake up to cool crisp mornings. The sun builds through the day and if we moor up at lunchtime, we have a relaxed afternoon in the warmth before the temperature drops again in the evening. In the summer it stays hot all the time and sleeping can be a challenge.

The forecast for the weekend is back to typical April temperatures, but I have enjoyed this week. There are not too many positive sides to climate change but on the canals this is one of them. Spring is the new Summer.

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What is the best name for a Narrowboat?

Our Narrowboat is called “Thuis”. It attracts much comment on the cut, because it is such an unusual name. People try to pronounce it and usually get it wrong. It is actually a Dutch word and means “home”. You pronounce it to rhyme with “house” but beginning with a “t” instead of an “h”. It is a good name but perhaps there are better ones.

“Toblerhome” has been moored just up from us in Oxford this week. Other favourites of mine are “NotaYot” on the Staffs and Worcester, and “Flat Bottomed Girl” which I think is on the Leeds & Liverpool.

The most popular Narrowboat names reflect the peace and quiet of boating life. There must be a hundred boats called “Serendipity”, and plenty more called “Moon Shadow”, “Blue Moon” and “Dreamcatcher”. There are also many “Dun” names, reflecting retirement, such as “Dunworkin” and “Dunstressin”.

Then you get the hire boat fleet names. Usually these follow a pattern. For instance Balck Prince use women’s names on all their boats, while College Cruisers names all theirs after Oxford university colleges.

I think the most annoyed owners must be the ones with a boat called “Narrow Escape”. This is quite a clever name, but since the “Narrow Escapes” TV series, it seems very obvious.

Unfortunately it is not easy to change a boat name. Superstition says that if you just change the name and continue using it, Poseidon will come from the depths of the oceans and drag you and the boat down. You can change the name when the boat is out of the water for maintenance, or you have to perform a a ceremony involving chanting to the sea Gods, and casting an ingot with the old name on, into the water. This is what we did when we named our boat “Thuis”.

Have you seen any great boat names on your travels? What is your favourite?

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Is family tree research too intrusive?

Tuesday was a windy, rainy day – not a day to move the Narrowboat. So we moored up in Banbury and I decided to go on an adventure. As part of my family tree research, I have been looking into my great uncle Francis Chase Green-Price. He was a fascinating man, who joined the British Army in the First World War, and then moved to India, as part of the British Empire, eventually reaching the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. This much I knew, but his military records are not online. They are kept in a vault of the British Library. And my adventure was to hop on a train to London to see them.

For many soldiers, records consist of a couple of notes, but for Frank, there was a large folder of around a hundred pages. I spent a very happy afternoon going through all of them and trying to recreate his military life. About thirty years, including both world wars, and working in Britain, India, China, Egypt and Sudan.

Much of the material was factual, such as lists of units he worked in. There was also a very interesting folder of correspondence about his retirement. It was 1946, his role had become redundant and India was about to become independent. The army had recognised this and ordered him to retire. But as with all big organisations there are rules, and paper pushers across India were trying to enforce the rule that he was a few months too young to retire. Eventually common sense prevailed and he returned to the UK.

The folder that was most interesting was a complete set of his annual performance reviews. I could follow his progression through the years and see his strengths and weaknesses. I also learnt a new word. Apparently he was a good “Shikar”, which means he hunted big game in his spare time.

Reading it also made me feel a little awkward. In some HR files somewhere are probably my performance reviews across the years. I am not sure I would want some geeky future family member reading them.

I do enjoy family tree research, and when I am looking at someone from many generations ago, I do not feel any guilt imagining what they were like. But Frank’s son is still alive and am I being too intrusive looking at papers like these, even if they are publicly available to any researcher?

Fortunately most of what I found was positive. Frank appears to have been a quiet, caring officer, who was loved by his soldiers, whether British or Indian. This certainly resonated with me, because when I was working I also had Indian and UK teams.

Sorry Great Uncle Frank for looking through your personal personnel files. But I think you had an interesting life, and you are remembered.

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Does March have the biggest temperature differences?

Living in a house, it is easy to ignore the weather. Central heating and good insulation literally insulate us from it. On a Narrowboat things are somewhat different. This week has given us a good example of that. We have had the most beautiful blue sky days. Great weather for Spring boating.

On Wednesday the temperature on the boat got up to 26°C, even with all the windows open. But overnight the clear skies dropped the temperature to 1°C. I think this must be the greatest daily difference I have seen. In Winter the temperatures stay cold. In Summer they are hot. And in the Autumn they tend to be mild.

It is a special time. I have loved starting the daily cruise with ice on the roof and wrapped in layers and a coat. I have loved shedding the layers as the day goes on. I have loved mooring up early afternoon and taking Lulu Dog for a walk to see fields full of lambs.

It’s a good time of year.

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