Narrowboat Maid of the Mist Blog - June 2010

We hope you enjoy reading about our travels around the British Inland Waterways

1st - Today is a very rainy day, but not to be put off, we set of to visit the Science Museum. I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy this museum as much as the others, but was pleasantly surprised. This image shows the very first Premium Bond selector - ERNIE 1.

It is quite a large museum, so you need to allow at least four or five hours minimum to get round all floors. Not many pictures taken as a lot of the exhibits were behind glass.

3rd - A shopping day today into Kensington High Street. Bought myself a new pair of lightweight walking boots.

7th - You know, we are so loving London. Everywhere we go, we go by bus and if possible go upstairs so that we can get a good view of our journey. Today we travelled to the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is in the same location as the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum.

Having got on the wrong bus, our journey took us longer than expected, so we could not spend as much time in the museum as we would have liked. However, we had a nice lunch in the museum courtyard and had time to view the Asian collections and the medieval rennaisance collection, the latter only being open for viewing since last December and which took 7 years to complete the display. We will go again during this visit to London as it is a fascinating museum.

On our way home we called in at the garden centre and we bought a tree sapling (a Buxus bush - Box bush). This is going to be my new hobby as I am going to turn it into a bonsai tree. As you can imagine this will be a slow process, so I wont expect major results for at least five years.

8th - Cruised back to Kensal Green today just to visit Sainsbury to top up on our shopping before moving into the basin at Paddington. Unfortunately the basin was full so we had to moor back at Little Venice. We still had a night spare at Little Venice, or it may have cost us £25 for overstaying.

9th - Moved into the basin this morning and once settled we took Jack out for a walk to explore the local green spots for his daily exercise. There is a lovely landscaped park at the junction of the Paddington Basin and Regent's Canal. Spent about an hour there enjoying the view away from the hustle and bustle of the basin.

There is a lot of construction going on around the basin which is spoiling the view somewhat from the boat, but I am sure we will enjoy ourselves anyway. Having spoken to a Merchant Estates rep, we have been told that there are to be a lot of changes in the basin over the next 2 years. The canal is being extended and more buildings are going up. The good news is that there will be a lot more visitor moorings available as well as corporate moorings.

See more images of Little Venice and our visits to the museums etc. here .

10th - Today saw us back at the Victoria & Albert Museum and we managed to do the 4th floor European Gallery which shows exhibits from the period 1760 to 1900 and Materials & Techniques, covering architecture, comtemporary glass and other glass. Image shows Tipu's Tiger.

We also managed a quick visit to the newly opened Ceramics Gallery on the 6th floor showing ceramics fromthe period 1450 to 2000+. I don't think I have every seen as many ceramics on display in such a small area. A must to see as it was difficult to take pictures as all exhibits are behind glass on this floor.

12th - Watching a window being replaced in The Point. As you can see this is a very dangerous process. The glass is craned up using suction pads and guided by two men in a basket. Once in place it is sealed from the inside of the building.

There are 10 or 11 floors to this building, making a good drop if this glass falls.

14th - Today the boat was successfuly auditioned for a scene in a Japanese hair wax advert. It was quite fun as the story line is about 4 boys running away from 40 screaming girls - they jump on the boat and Graham speeds away with them (at 4 mph ha ha). The audition took place in Little Venice alongside a traditional working boat. For the purpose of a fast get away, our cruiser stern was apparently more suitable. They may use the working boat as a safety boat.

The actual filming is to be in about 2 weeks, and we assume it will take place again in Little Venice, but how they will deal with the water bus I don't know, as they run every hour.

15th - Having decided not to take our boat out onto the Thames at Limehouse, we couldn't miss out on the seeing what we would have missed, so we took a boat trip from Westminster to Greenwich. The crew members did a commentary so we understood what we were seeing, and very informative and funny it was.

Being senior citizens with a UK Bus Pass, the fare was half price at £13.00 for the two of us.

During the trip we passed the London Eye, MOD, the oldest pub and the newest pub to name but a few. Having started at Westminster Pier, we were right outside Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament (the flag was flying indicating Parliament is in session - whether anyone was in there working, we can but hope).

16th - Our week's mooring at Paddington Basin has now expired, so moved a short way up the Regent's Canal, passed the Zoo and the Chinese Restaurant at Cumberland Basin, and moored alongside some building works. It is a big noisy during the day, but there being no other spaces, we had no choice. I expect the boat will need a wash also by the time we leave as it will be covered in dust.

17th - Had a quiet night despite the building works during the day. A kind boater had left his moorings on the official visitor section and as we had to reverse backwards a few hundred yards, he pulled back into them until we arrived. So we can stay now until next Wednesday.

Opposite our moorings are opposite some houses and as you can see in the image above, one of the properties has a full sized model of a cow on their balcony. It is a source of amusement for the trip boaters.

18th - Today we visited St Paul's Cathedral. Such a beautiful building. Not many stained glass windows though. Only those near the main alter are stained glass.

We did the audio tour to avoid waiting an hour and a half for a conducted tour. I am glad we did as the conducted tour was for 1.5 hours and we spent a good 3 hrs in there. For anyone wanting to take full advantage of the buildings you need to climb a number of steps (not for the faint hearted). There were 257 steps up to the Whispering Gallery (inside the bottom of the dome), 119 further steps to the Stone Gallery and another 152 to the Golden Gallery at the top. A total of 528

steps in all. Despite our age and ailments, we braved it to the top.

As you come up from the Crypt, to the left there is a door to the South Transept through which there is a viewing platform giving you a lovely view of the Milenium Bridge and Tate Modern.

As you can imagine, there are a large number of monuments inside the Cathedral, but the most imposing is the one for the Duke of Wellington. The main altar and pulpit lies directly underneath the dome, where you will see the beautiful mosaics. There are a total of three domes.

There has been a cathedral on the same sight for 1,400 years, however the current cathedral has been there for just 300 years and was created by Christopher Wren. There is a very plain and simple monument to Christopher Wren and for those who helped him with the build.

20th - Graham had a surprise visit from Lea today. We are looking after her dog for a while and she told him she was putting her on the train on her own and we were to pick her up from Euston Station. I knew all along she was coming but couldn't tell. We had a lovely dinner together, followed by a stroll along the canal and into The Stables Market in Camden. Lea went back on the 7.30 train a very happy bunny.

23rd - Having spent the last couple of days hovering in Camden, and getting the boat cleaned, today we moved back to Little Venice for the dress rehearsal for the Japanese hair gel advert. It was a great three hours, despite the hiccough with the waterbus, us having been told to moor in their pick up point. I spent most of my time either taking photos (coming soon) or pushing or pulling the boat into position.

The dress rehearsal was not carried out by the 'famous' Japanese actors, but by a group of kids from an acting agency. I believe Sunday is the final day with the proper actors.

After filming, we moved back to Alperton to enable us to top up our shopping at Sainsburys tomorrow, and then we will move to Perivale to the park to enable the dogs to play.

I nearly forgot to tell you, we met George Alagiah, the BBC News Reader. He was doing a news report in Little Venice and we had a brief chat with him whilst we were waiting for our water tank to fill up. You do not realise how difficult it is for these people to do a short news brief. They have to wait for people to pass and noises to stop all the time. A three minute news brief can take up to an hour to do properly.

George Alagiah with Sandy Wetton, our friend from South Africa. Graham cheekily asked if he could take his photo with her as she is a huge fan of his.

25th - Took a bus into Wembley - the journey took 45 minutes longer than necessary as we got on the wrong bus - (right number, right bus stop but wrong direction). Surprisingly there are very few charity shops in this area. We managed to find two and topped up my books. I have so many books now, I will have to set out my stall again and try and sell or exchange them. I may have time in Little Venice tonight. We need to be back there ready for the filming tomorrow. This will be the final shots so we can continue on our cruise to Limehouse when finished. Hopefully we will have an opportunity to say our goodbyes to Sandy.

27th - Last day of filming today. After an initial rehearsal with the stand-ins we did two or three shots with the young japanese actors. Four lovely looking lads as you can see from the image.

The girls were all dressed in red outfits with their hair beautifully done and make up on.

I have to say we have thoroughly enjoyed this experience and would happily do it again. We have been advised that we should register with a number of agencies which we may consider doing.

Finished the day by cruising down to Islington. The official moorings were full, but we found a couple of vacant bollards on the Crown and Manor moorings.

28th - Now at Victoria Park. Not too much trouble getting in, as you are allowed to double berth here.

We intend to spend at least a week here just chilling out. It is a lovely park and we can spend some quality time with the dogs there.

Author: Jean Beven

DNA Structure - Science Museum

Balcony view in Science Museum

Asian Exhibit at the Victoria & Albert Museum - 7th

An exhibit from the Medieval Rennaisance Gallery - Stucco and Gypsum plaster monument of the Marchese Spinetta Malaspina made in 1430. The Marchese was a military commander who died in 1407. The monument was from the Church of San Giovanni in Sacco, Italy - 7th

These instruments were suspended between 2 floors. They are flattened and the instruments are hung individually and evenly from the ceiling of the 4th floor and are displayed in a perfect flat circle.

Just a few of the ceramics on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum 6th floor.

A window being replaced, showing the technical expertise required on the canalside building in Paddington Basin.

Maid of the Mist and a working boat in Little Venice being auditioned for the Japanese advertising film.

Entrance to Maida Vale tunnel.

This is the Whispering Gallery in the dome of St Paul's Cathedral. Two people can hear each other talking from opposite sides of the gallery.

Little Venice moorings and water point.

The film crew getting into position

Graham and the team taking off trying to escape from the girls.

The girls chasing after the boys - as the discerning eye can see, we are actually not going anywhere as the boat is moored.

Moorings at Alperton outside Sainsburys

The girls chasing the boys in the new red outfits.