Tuesday 10th to Sunday 15th June 2008
This week has been a quiet one for us. The dentist was the only worrying excitement and that, thankfully, passed without incident.

Visitors, we’ve had a few. Paul and Dawn and Graham and Sue called in to see us. Paul has a way with jokes and Graham has that rare capacity for a permanent smile and always seeing the funny side of things. I had to lean on V for humour because the hayfever pills this year seem to have gone straight to my brain and I’ve not felt quite right since dosing up against the pollen. To say they are character changing would be an understatement.

Flies are on the up. No idea where they come from but they appear mid afternoon and by dusk they number into the dozens. I’ve taken to spraying the bedroom before we retire in an effort to get an undisturbed night’s sleep but it means vacuuming the bed before diving in because their little carcasses drop everywhere. On the positive side, we haven’t been bitten yet and if I really put my mind to it I suppose I could tie them to a hook and line and see what they can do for me when the fish show up in the evenings.

Meanwhile I shall continue to whack them with rolled up newspapers and finish our new stained glass windows – black lines in red circles.

Having arrived at Kilby Bridge from the County Arms at Blaby we mostly shopped by car thanks to Mike and Jo. These kind peeps (like Mike and Pat) lent us a motor while they headed west. The car meant we could visit others. Imagine Claire and Ter’s faces when we turned up at their house to say we had decided to eat with them instead of making them drive all over the country to find us on some lonely, uninhabited stretch of Leicestershire ‘C’ road.
We completely ignored their cries of “Nothing in the house” because we know how house dwellers live, we know they have fridges and freezers stocked with a year’s supply of goodies that we can only dream of on our poor humble boat. We showed them no mercy and ate like kings on Wednesday.

Another Mike, a resident BW warden at Kilby Bridge, seems to be having a positive effect on the area. One ‘local’ was heard to say that he can’t argue with this one. When he tells you that your 14 days are up then it really is time to move on. Swinging the lead, like they do with the lady that calls once a month, doesn’t work with Mike.

Foxton Waterways Festival 14th and 15th June
They’ve put a lot of effort into this event. Historical snapshots of the Foxton Locks area and site interpretation boards have appeared everywhere. Even horses have joined us, though for how long I couldn’t say. Lifesize, but not made of bronze as they might first seem, they might be a temptation for anyone wanting a garden decoration.

Today it’s the turn of actors in period costume guiding visitors through the locks with their descriptions of how the canal navvies might have suffered and the subsequent life aboard working boats in the pursuit of a living carrying coal from Leicestershire’s coalfields in the north.

One chap in a torn and faded black suit and flat cap had me going for a minute when he confessed he was going to a funeral Saturday afternoon. I advised him to change his jolly red neckerchief before leaving at which he pulled out a black one and went on to say they had lost another navvy in the lock diggings this morning.

Working boats were in abundance too, a couple on the summit entertained the public who can’t resist poking their heads into engine rooms.

The big-wigs were just finishing their opening tour of the locks when we turned up and I was fortunate to capture one of them (an MEP I was told) posing for the newspapers.

Down in the basin we found more working boats and I approached the one most likely to be doing business to make a little purchase, only to be told loo-blue was off.

Moored up at the bottom of the inclined plane was a boat and butty, for all the world looking like it was ready to ascend the lift. If only it was true.

We spotted 40 visiting boats at the event but the crowds were lighter than we had expected for a Saturday lunch time. Perhaps Market Harborough’s carnival was drawing the crowds away.

We called in at MH on the way home and found the carnival in full swing. The town centre was jammed solid, all through-traffic was at a standstill as the decorated lorries processed through the town’s streets.

It’s a shame that the two events at Foxton and Harbro’ picked the same weekend in June.

Incidentally, we were asked by an ‘office blue shirt’ at Foxton’s BW stand how we regarded the Kilby Bridge depot, whether we still used the facilities and would we miss them if the place was radically altered. I think we conveyed our feelings adequately.
But what came as a shock was his belief that the depot was no longer a working BW base. A list of our observations over the past two years should have put that straight.

He seemed surprised that work boats, materials and workshop facilities based at Kilby Bridge (K.B.) were actively supplying maintenance and emergency repair teams along the Leicester Line between Kings Lock and Norton Junction (NJ). And it doesn’t stop at NJ because we’ve seen KB teams and boats working at Braunston Tunnel and much further south on the Northampton Arm.

I can understand why many boaters are worried about the future of KB. But perhaps one of his comments offers a little hope. He raised the question regarding the possibility of attracting boat related businesses to KB to make better use of the wharf and buildings.
Income from new businesses would, hopefully, stave off the axe, prolong the site’s BW presence and continue to provide a safe haven for those anxious about running the gauntlet through Leicester.

On a lighter note, this week has been an interesting one for us. The freedom of a car has meant we could visit church and shops far from the canal and apart from getting used to the traffic again we have found it liberating. There are downsides too, like the speeds other drivers go and their intolerance to our 4mph. Then there’s the tying up at the side of the road, there are so few bollards to throw a rope over that we had to use lamp posts. But worst of all is that car and bus drivers give so little consideration for the wind. They seem oblivious to the effects of wind on roundabouts and I’ve seen them coming down narrow side streets without a thought for our safety, just because the wind was in their favour.