Tom Hanks

This morning we have descended from the high point of Oxfordshire to nearer sea level via 9 locks, all with very tough paddle mechanisms needing brute force and a little ignorance. In my ignorance a windlass slipped from the paddle arm whilst under pressure and took a large chunk of skin off my left shin. Lots of blood, hopping about and swearing. Nurse Lynne applied a tourniquet to my throat and an outsize plaster to my shin which at least stemmed the flow of blood and I was able to complete the remaining locks without further injury but more than a little exhaustion. Nearer sea level the wind has dropped considerably and the sun is out, but it still isn't warm. The electric problem we thought we cured remains a problem. I had to light the hob with a match this morning as there was insufficient power to operate the spark thingy. A call to Eddie switched suspicion (sorry) to the immersion heater we were informed we didn't have, but switching " it " off (?) stopped the bedroom TV working. The mystery deepens. We will play with a few more switches tonight and consult Eddie again. I am a great Tom Hanks fan and watched Sleepless in Seattle yet again last night which reminded me of another airline adventure I have yet to share with you. Anyone seen "The terminal"? I once spent 3 days living in  Melbourne airport. I was on stand-by for a BA flight from Melbourne to London which was full, as was the next day's . Plan B by the very helpful BA staff was to get me on a Pan AM flight to England via USA, but again that was full. Literally at the very last minute a seat became available on a BA flight and was allocated to me. In pouring rain I was escorted onto the Tarmac and plane. All aboard assumed I must be a VIP but obviously had major problems putting a name to face. I spent the first 15 minutes of the flight in a toilet towelling myself off and changing into dry clothes, the ones I had been wearing in the terminal for the past few days. Luckily for the guy in the next seat I had some Lynx available. Now for something completely different. Tonight we are moored in Banbury town centre, opposite the Castle Quay shopping centre. I don't expect to be woken by a skylark in the morning. Having tripped over and broken the cat litter tray a few days ago (it was at the bottom of the boat entry steps) we opted to walk to Pets R Us at a nearby shopping complex, except it turned out to be not so close. very near total exhaustion we made it back to Tardis Two with a brand new cat litter tray for a curry tea.

The boat names today are more theme related. A few days ago my blog was titled "Tea for the Tillerman" and today we passed a boat called the same, in the identical colours of the iconic Cat Stevens album. It seemed the name plaques on each side of the hull had been lifted from the album cover, complete with illustrations and the blue surround. It looked awesome. Even better, we passed a black boat named "Imagine",with the words of the John Lennon song etched along the sides on top of music bars. That gets my vote as Best boat.

 I once had a very religious Nigerian accountant work with me who I asked why only the good die young. this was after the deaths of Ayrton Senna, Ronnie Petersen, John Denver and John Lennon. His answer was that God took them before the devil had a chance, which I thought was daft. Next day he gave me wads of paperwork copied from the bible to support his answer. It remains unread to this day.