Day 2 _ Pickled sprouts and Agincourt

An easy but not uneventful day. After a late start we cruised down to Brentford where amazingly there were plenty of visitor moorings free.

The view from our mooring.

We pulled in and a head popped up from the boat behind saying “Are you going out to the Thames?”. We said that we would be tomorrow and he said “Well, I’ll be your lock keeper”. Excellent. We were able to ask a lot of questions about the procedure and got all the answers we needed without going off in search of them. He said “I’ve moved down to moor here close to work while the fuel crisis is on.” “You could be here for years then. “ I said.

Following advice, I did a check over of the boat engine, fluids etc and found that the spare fan belt I thought I had was non existent. Enquiries at a local garage told me of a supplier and enquiries in the magpie and Crown told me how to find them, so I used my trusty bus pass to get to Isleworth and pick one up. Meanwhile Kath waited in the Magpie and Crown watching Andy Murray play tennis. Of course she had to sample the Mordue Blond Bitter on offer. Very nice it was too. When I got back the pub conversation turned to flavours of crisps, a new one being jalapeno and something or other. I asked if anyone had tried cheese and pickled jalapeno sandwiches ( the signature sandwich of Rick). “I can beat that” said the barman “You’re talking to Mr Pickle of Brentford here. Last Christmas I did pickled brussels sprouts with chillis and they went down a storm”. Hmmmm.

Speaking of pubs, it came to our notice that they had a pub quiz in the Brewery Tap down the road, so in the evening after Murray was two sets to love down we abandoned the telly and went there. They had the match on there too as it happens so we saw the famous victory over the French (best since Agincourt).

The quiz was amazingly hard and we did very badly.

Having probs posting pics. WIll try to add them later.