Wow! Another great year. We can’t quite believe that it has now been 4 years since Old Nick was launched. Every day, we thank our lucky stars that we chose Ortomarine to build our boat and we love being part of the ever-growing Ortomarine family. And in that 4 years we have travelled 2,300 miles and operated just under 1,700 locks. I wonder how many calories that expended? And we have just marked the generation of 5MWh of solar – enough energy to toast 445,000 slices of toast! For free!
Looking back, I guess one of the highlights of the year was Electrika 2024, which we managed, in conjunction with Ortomarine and Aquavista. We couldn’t have done it without the drive and energy supplied by Aquavista’s Dave Trivett and his amazing team and the support from Rob & Caroline at Ortomarine. And we are very proud to have won an Inland Waterways Association “Sustainable Boating Award” (see pic at the foot of this blog) for our work on the show. Oddly, we found out about the award just after we had agreed to do Electrika 2025, which will take place at Brinklow Waterside and Marina on July 11th and 12th. Here we go again!
Our cruise this year took us in a very different direction than planned. We set out to explore the East Anglian Waterways – notably, the Nene, Middle Level and Great Ouse, but poor weather and stoppages knocked that idea on the head quite early – although not until after we had already locked down the 17 locks to Northampton, which gives access to the Nene. But they are a lovely flight so it was no hardship to lock back up!
We thus turned our thoughts towards London. It had been some years since we had last been in London, 30+ years, we worked out! So we were well overdue for a visit. The cruise down took us through our old stamping ground, around Bletchley/Stoke Hammond/Soulbury/Leighton Buzzard. We thoroughly enjoyed the cruise through Milton Keynes – this city has really made the most of having the canal running through it, unlike many towns/cities who seem to turn their back on it.
We have had fewer guests this year – quality rather than quantity? We welcomed old acting friend Richard and his good lady Andrea on board for a day trip in late May and then there was a hiatus until the end of June, when we welcomed Nick and Sarah Holmes for a fun weekend – one which is always particularly hard on the liver! We don’t remember going to bed on the Saturday night! Larks!
We popped home for a week mid-July to celebrate our grandson Chester’s 1st birthday. Rather than fiddling about retrieving the car from Brinklow (and returning it) we decided to hire a van (less worry about dog hair!) but struck it lucky as the van was not available when we went to pick it up and we had to “make do” with a Mitsubishi Outlander – with aircon and all. Luxury!
We were only back a few days before we were joined by first-timers Kate & Paul Hansford. Another fun weekend with great weather – and they introduced us to the joys of a Vermouth Spritzer – a refreshing treat on a hot day! We’ll be cracking those out every summer, that’s for sure!
More family time in August. – we met Bruce and Juliet in Limehouse Basin, This visit turned out to be a bit of a disaster as Juliet sprained her ankle rather badly and had to go home – no alcohol involved! We had a lovely day with Mel and Evie and then Bruce and Lenny stayed on for a few days, cruising with us back from Limehouse to Brentford.
Mid-August saw us meeting up with old friends John and Linda Raddon on the Thames, near Marlow (Linda’s birthday) and we also had a visit from dear friends Sue & Paul Rogers with their two dogs, cockapoo Lulu and dachshund Gracie, who struggled with the steps but otherwise seemed to enjoy her first visit. Whilst with us, Paul R worked his passage by tinting our windows. He’s such a perfectionist and we wouldn’t have them done by anyone else. Great job Paul – and thank you so much.
More family at the end of August, when our son George and DIL Beth brought Chester for his first visit to Grandad’s boat. They brought Uncle D with them and stayed overnight at the very handy Premier Inn in Banbury, where we were able to moor right alongside. We had a couple of lovely days with them and Chester enjoyed feeding the ducks.
Our penultimate guests for the year was the Robertsons – Anne and Gray, whom we met at Cropredy Marina for a lovely slow paced weekend of fun and games, with a few locks thrown in for good measure.
Mid September and it was another dash home for the Southampton Boat Show, at which Paul was working for a few days. While there he met Captain Glenn from TV Show Below Decks Sailing Ship, one of our favourite shows.
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And as Paul was working, I took Uncle D out for a nice drive and lunch to celebrate his 88th birthday.
We also met up with Nigel and Sue Fenwick from Narrowboat Tethys at Cropredy and spent a nice evening getting to know each other better. We then met up with fellow Ortomariners, Dave and Roma Jesse for a very convivial lunch in Fenny Compton.
Before we knew it, we were back at Brinklow – in time for the first ever Brinklow Artisan Market, where we had Vloggers Paul & Anthony from the “Narrowboat Life Unlocked” channel on board for tea and a natter.
We started rehearsals for our Christmas show – this year a short pantomime entitled “Dick Whittington and the Brinklow Buccaneers”. I am directing and Paul is playing a Pirate.
We popped home to see the fam again in early November and then jetted off to Gran Canaria at the end of the month for a relaxing week in the sun, which we thoroughly enjoyed. The boys were looked after on the boat by an excellent dog-sitter, who we’d thoroughly recommend. We stayed at the delightful H10 Meloneras Palace in Maspalomas, which we’d highly recommend – particularly if you upgrade to Privilege as we did. Paul’s surprise birthday treat was driving a 400 hp Ferrari 360 F1 round a race track. Suffice to say it was fast! We had a car for the week and explored the interior – mainly up in the mountains. The most amazing switchback roads – also the scariest ever, often with no barriers. And we have done a lot of mountain roads, because we love mountains!
We arrived back to threats from Storm Darragh – which looked as if it might put the kibosh on our planned cruise with Bruce and Juliet in early December and indeed did. We didn’t risk going out, but still had a lovely weekend.
14th December saw the first performance of this year’s Brinklow pantomime, which took place at the Brinklow Marina Christmas Party, so everyone was in the mood. The audience were with us from the very start and we all had an absolute ball. It more than made up for the freezing cold rehearsals, which were – essentially – in a large garden shed with sacking-covered windows! And only rudimentary heating – like using a hair dryer to warm a village hall!
And then – on the 15th – we went away for Christmas – a few days, catching up with friends, a flurry of hair appointments, nail appointments, eye tests etc etc and then we were off to London, where we spent Christmas. We stayed at my brother’s flat in Beckenham and spent Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day at our ex sis-in-law’s. It was a lovely family time. Bruce popped down to Portchester on Christmas Eve to pick up Uncle D and popped in on George, Beth and Chester on his way through.
Whilst at Bruce’s I had been commissioned to give some cooking lessons – the first to our niece Evie, who wanted to learn how to make Sticky Toffee Pudding. I’ve included the recipe below, in case you fancy having a go too! It really is the best! I always cook it in a bundt tin and – my top tip – cake release spray. Your cakes will never stick again! Evie was intrigued to know that dates are the secret to a rich and deeply flavoured STP!
Sticky Toffee Pudding
Ingredients
For the sponge
- 200g/7oz soft dried pitted dates, roughly chopped
- 200ml/7fl oz water from a freshly boiled kettle
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 75g/2½oz unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing
- 2 tbsp black treacle
- 50g/1¾oz dark muscovado sugar
- 2 large free-range eggs, at room temperature
- 150g/5½oz plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
For the sauce
- 150g/5½oz unsalted butter, softened
- 300g/10½oz dark muscovado sugar
- 1 tbsp black treacle
- 200ml/7fl oz double cream, plus more to serve
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4 and lightly grease your dish.
- Put the chopped dates, boiling water and bicarbonate of so raraa into a bowl, stir and then leave for 10 minutes.
- Cream the butter and black treacle together in a stand mixer until well mixed, then add the sugar and mix again, beating out any lumps. Beat in an egg and keep beating – scraping down as necessary – until completely incorporated, then do the same with the other egg. Beating more gently, add the flour and baking powder until you have a smooth, thick batter.
- Using a fork, stir the soaked dates, squishing them a bit, then pour the dates and their liquid into the batter and beat gently to mix in.
- Pour and scrape into your prepared dish or cake tin and bake for 30–35 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Meanwhile, to make the sauce, melt the butter, muscovado sugar and treacle over a very low heat in a heavy-based saucepan. Once the butter’s melted, stir gently until everything else is melted too. Now stir in the cream, then turn up the heat and when it’s bubbling and hot, take it off the heat.
- As soon as it’s out of the oven, prick the cooked sponge pudding all over with a cocktail stick and pour about a quarter of the warm sauce over, easing it to the edges with a spatula so that the sponge is entirely topped with a thick sticky glaze. Put a lid on the remaining sauce in the pan to keep it warm.
- Leave the pudding to stand for 20–30 minutes, then take to the table, with the rest of the sauce in a jug, and cream to serve.
Next was a lesson for nephew Lenny, who wanted to know how to make my famous Bread Pudding. A much simpler task and he made enough to freeze (bearing in mind it was Christmas!).
Whilst in Beckenham, I met up with an ex colleague for New Zealand. By coincidence, her son has a house in Beckenham and they were over for Christmas. We had a lovely catch up – all 12 years of it – in a coffee shop on Beckenham High Street.
We left London after lunch on the 27th – Evie’s 19th birthday, taking Uncle D with us to drop off in Portchester, while we saw in the New Year with George, Beth and Chester. We popped out on NYE to see a friend’s new house in Bedhampton and saw quite a few old friends there, too, which was rather nice. The kids went out, so we had a quiet evening and were already in bed when the NYE was ushered in by copious fireworks and ships’ horns – much to Ted’s ire.
And that was that! 2024 done and dusted. But looking ahead to 2025, we have some outline plans only at this stage – a trip to Manchester and back for the first part of the summer is on the cards (stoppages willing) and then maybe a repeat on the Avon in the later half of the summer. And of course – Electrika is in mid-July, so we have a fair bit of work to do for that. I don’t think we’ll be bored anyway. Here’s to a happy, healthy and successful year for all of us.
