Towed By The Coal Boat

Kensal Green, near Ladbroke Grove Sainsburys, West London

Geese woke the baby and I at night. The next day was slow progress to Denham. The Coal Boat kept getting loads of plastic bags around the prop. Coal Lad can get some of them off with the boat hook, but at Harlesden he had to put on a wet suit and get in to The Cut to clear it. The water comes up to his chest. By the time we got to the North Circular aqueduct it was all tangled up again. 

At Ladbroke Grove I strapped the baby into the sling and stepped off the Coal Boat as we came under the bridge. Baby and I popped to the supermarket for children’s paracetamol. Coal Lad delivered supplies to a boat on the mooring opposite, and then collected baby and me from the towpath outside the supermarket.

The next morning we awoke in Southall and left the boat with Coal Lad. The Doctor drove us all into London to the nursery, childminder and work. On the way we discussed whether to live on the old boat with no engine, (which means no means of charging the batteries, so no electric and no running water,) or the new boat with no heating.

“I’ll buy an electric heater today,” said The Doctor. “We can run it off the shoreline electric at the New Boat’s mooring.”

So that is how and when we decided to move onto The New Boat. When we finished work that day we drove out of London to Hertfordshire, and with a few basic possessions on board, we began to live in The Countryside.

The Countryside, Hertfordshire