Paddington to Little Venice
1/2 Mile 0Locks.
Tuesday. The good news is that Jayne has made a full recovery after her weekend woes.
Since we arrived in Paddington Jayne's phone has had no reception, and, the battery was going flat after half a day, so we located the nearest '3' shop which was in Baker St W1, printed a map and set off to find it, after about a mile we got there and the phone was fixed in minutes. The noise of city life after spending most of the last 2 1/2 years on a Narrowboat moored mostly in quiet rural locations is ear splitting, the traffic noise and the sirens from ambulance and police vehicles around here goes on 24hrs.
We knew the price of property in London was astronomical, however we were still surprised when we passed an estate/letting agent and looked in the window, the apartments advertised ranged from £850.000 to £1.3 Million and there was one for rent at £1150 a week, yes, a week.
We didn't move today, mainly due to the rain which stayed with us all afternoon.
Wednesday. Nice sunny morning today so at 8.45 we wriggled out of our pontoon mooring at Paddington Basin and cruised the short distance to Little Venice, the area know as Little Venice is the junction where the Regents canal branches off, there are a number of trip boats operating from here, the Island in the middle of the junction is know as Browning island, named after the Poet and Playwright Robert Browning, it appears very popular with Ducks, Coots, Swans and Cormorants due to the ramp for them to walk up out of the water.
The Junction, go left under the blue bridge for Regents canal and right for Paddington Basin
Browning Island
We winded (turned) No Direction at the Junction, reversed back under the bridge to the water point and filled up, we then reversed back along the moorings looking for a gap big enough for us, no luck, so we moored alongside another boat, there was a gap where a 60ft boat had just left but it was 10ft to small for us, the boat in front of this space was Narrowboat 'The Grand Affair' which used to moor close to us at Kings Bromley Marina so when the crew returned we asked nicely and they moved forward enough for us to get in, perfect.
This afternoon I changed the oil and filter on the engine as it is approaching 500 hrs, an easy job just messy, British Waterways (B.W.) used to provide tanks where waste oil could be disposed of safely and there is one at Little Venice, however it is locked, we enquired at the information boat but were told that B.W. no longer provided this service so it will stay onboard until we find somewhere for it.
Access to the front of No Directions engine is easy due to a removable panel.
Our mooring is opposite an expensive fish Restaurant, ( well expensive to us Wetherspoon types, they want £14 for Beer Battered Cod & Mushy peas and that's without chips !!), it's been busy all afternoon and tonight it is packed with diners, what recession ?.
No Cod and Chips here, the Restaurant is just the low building at the front.
We are here for 10 days so I will have to start finding lots of little jobs that need doing onboard.
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