Some Forecast....

The dawn didn't relate to last nights starry sky as come daybreak and the rain came down. It cleared by mid day but with no urgent chores to do it was stay aboard for the day.

The news paper head lines have been Doom for the long range weather forecasts with predictions of a 100 yr cold blast arriving as early as November. Well were  all for a white Xmas but a couple of months of white would be sad..

The predictions of a long lasting  Arctic blast will probably not eventuate, anyway any snow will be a change from 35 C days at Xmas back in NZ...

Driving in these conditions will be challenging in a 2wheel drive...

 

 

A day like this and you'd be playing Pocket Billiards all day long....

No doubt tomorrow will bring new predictions...

Nine Till Four......

Wev'e had a bit of a plan of late and now it's all coming together.
We'll be mooring up at Aynho on power from 1st Nov, until end of Feb, still living on the boat. We were originally going to stay on the canal proper just moving as needed but after talking to far wiser people than us being on shore power seems the best option.

So that means we'll have a lot of spare time and the plan has been to find some work to relieve the boredom.
I already had some part time work in Oxford so Leonie got her CV out and about two days ago and now she is employed starting next Monday...nine till four...
Yeh Haa more money for Beer.....

Today has been a good weather day, no rain ,no cold...



And when the sun departed today.....






 The fire was set and inside the warmth soon spread through the boat.....


The sky is clear.....

With plenty of stars promising a fine day tomorrow....


The mist....

 

 

Started to roll in followed by a red glow......


I retraced our route, by bus,  and went to pick up the race tuned Focus. It'll be handy getting us to work...

My brief from the Missus was to remember that apple tree we saw a few days ago and stop the car and get some apples.
This I did with no off road parking on the 70mph stretch, cars missing my arse by inches. Then the tree had been picked of reachable fruit, no smart ass comments, so grabbing the branches pulling them down whilst standing in knee high stinging nettle was the answer. I managed to get a few...


So....

This is the reward... Apple Crumble... with ice cream of course.....

Tomorrow till Monday practice setting the alarm clock.... for Leonie.........

 

What A Difference.....

A Day Makes, yesterday cold and wet but today even though rain was forecast was sunny and mild.
The strong winds had stopped leaving many small tree branches across the ground.

We headed off only intending to travel 3 - 4 miles but made the most of the day and but for 1 mile almost reached our planned destination...

With the sun shining through the tree tops.....

 

It made for  an enjoyable cruise along....

The recent rain has....

 

 Made the paddocks and tow path  very lush again...


We all know about hunting and killing and eradicating the farmers pest... Well now...

 

The "Wabbit" is fighting back....  He missed this time....

On the return from Paris we dropped Dale off  in the  Sommerset county.
While there  we visited the Stourhead Estate....

Owned until 1946 by the Hoare family, Banking, it was then gifted to the National Trust..

Had a look through the family home then took a stroll through....

 

The nice landscaped grounds...  Featuring a man made lake...
Started out fine but by this time the rain was steady....

Imagine on a Monday morning the "Boss" takes you and your wheel barrow and shovel and your "cut lunch" to a spot with an X on the ground and says'''

"start here and dig out a lake. I'll be back in 7 Yrs.....

And when you've dug the lake.....

Just build a nice  little bridge over there.....

The grounds have many Greek Sculptures placed  throughout.....

This Fella....

Hercules stands in the Pantheon.... Reckon by the look of his body he probably had the same for  breakfast as me....

There's several "Grotos" around the lake, this ....

Dude waived... mistook me for Hercules I suppose....

 

Inside this grotto there was.....




A bit going on with the floor design....


Looking across the lake in the misty silence the....

 

Appollo Temple looks over the hundreds of  Rhododendroms.....

And back to the present. Last night the rain fell steadily and this morning it still was so....

 

For the first time in a long while it was on with the wet gear...

Mind you its great.....

 

 Weather for Ducks.....

All moored up with the fire going....  comfy as....

 

Narrow Boat FireflyNZ......

A Bit Fresh......

That's right, the weathers cooled and a fresh wind blowing and drop of rain has brought out the jackets and the beenee...

Headed off in fine cool weather then the rain came so hooked onto the Armco real quick, no need to get soaked, and waited till the rain eased.

Made Sommerton Deep lock.....

A grey day.... you can see some ones been fishing floating weed out of the lock entry....


Going going........

Down.....

 

Where's the boy with the spare "Finger" when you need him??....

Peeeeing  along the side of the boat.....

 

Could see the rain was about to return and the wind  had  increased past the comfortable level....

Moored up and these fellas weren't to worried..

So Leonie had spied........







Some Blackberries in the for  Free Help Yourself department......


And so after some Help from me for pudding we had....

 

 

 

 

 

 A Blackberry Sponge....... mine had Ice Cream too......

Because it's chilled a little the last two nights we've had....

 

The "OL" fire going..... bloody good to......

A Petroleum Fix.....

Leonie did the navigating and I steered the race tuned Ford Focus to take a look at the speedway meet at Coventry last Saturday night.
We talked to, earlier in the day, and met at the track our mates from the Tardebigge Flight house, Ann and Fred.
All good we had a look around the pits and there was plenty going on. With 90 odd Formula 1 stock cars alone it promised some great racing.


The World Formula 1 champs were held the weekend before at Kings Lynn and.......

This immaculate car with the World cup was the winning car....

Driven by.....

 

Tom Harris.... only 23yrs old...... beat the best UK and international drivers.

The entry tickets for the champs cost 32 quid per adult...
Ann introduced us to Tom, bloody nice guy. He's driven in NZ before and is going back this coming season for a couple of specific races.....

I've done the speedway photos before but this meeting was a two day meet celebrating 60 years of speedway at Coventry.

So in the pits on display were some big horse power machines used for.....

 

Tractor pulling competition.... Large Hemi motors with huge blowers...... The straps over the blower stop it ending up in the crowd if the motor "Lunches"itself....

They tow a "Sledge" with a weight that moves forward and puts more weight on the tractor. They go forward until they stop. The winner travels the greater distance....

Big "Butterflies" here....


This late model......

Case tractor had the big blower mods....


In the "old days" in NZ speedway.....

 

Exhaust pipes like this were allowed on race cars...... then along came neighbours and OSH.......


This "pulling machine" had.....

 

Five 400 cubic inch Chrysler engines.... all linked and driving through centrifugal clutches.....

They all did some exhibition laps during the night with a couple of the drivers putting the foot down on the straights. They're not made to turn corners so I had my fingers X,d for a stuck throttle... It never happened...

The F1 racing was excellent all night with 1 roll over, a couple of cars through the fence and plenty of contact.
Topped off with great company and the traditional trip to line up at the "Chippy" after the meet it was a bloody good night....

The Sack Trolly.....

With a few more sights to see in Parree we headed toward the building know as Galeries La Fayette which is the No, 1 exclusive shopping destination in Paris.
Entering from the foot path the building is "Flash" with nine stories rising to a spectacular dome roof.


    

All the top brands are on sale and a lot of the shops had a security guard allowing a limited number of shoppers in at one time...... they were mostly AAASSSSHHHOOONNNN and acting like the "Milky Bar Kid" had just announced a new flavour... The prices don't slow them down....

Anyway with nothing that took our fancy on that floor Dale suggested we head up to the 5th floor, kids dept, where she may find some things for the seven grand children.

After a touch of a Christion Dior frock to fit a 6yr old for 800 euro and a look around the Gap shop were jeans or denim jackets for 8yr olds seemed reasonable at 300 euro a piece we decided to head for the brand name we could afford, Macca's on the 4th floor.

Having scoffed some Mcflurries we were almost ready to move on. A women passed wheeling a stack of two wheeled steel trollies when  KKKAAAPPPOOWWW the stack collapsed and a low flying trolley hit Dale on the lower leg.
Panic stations as the women instantly used her cell phone speaking in "Panic French".
We sat Dale on a Maccas "Invalid" chair and didn't have to wait long. First a head of department with assistants then three males with Paramedic, Security, Fireman, badges on their uniforms and carrying a large medical case and wheeling what looked like a sack trolley.

Dale in the chair waiting and the lady "trolley stack collapser" waiting...


They assessed the injury all being very concerned. There was a haematoma on her inner shin area of her right leg.
So I decided to take another photo which caused the "Boss" security man some annoyance and he wanted my camera. Obviously things like this don't happen in La Fayette...
Explaining that Leonie and Myself were with Dale cooled things so they sat her on the "Sack Trolley" put a seat belt around her and we were allowed to follow as they wheeled her up to the 8th floor by the way of out of sight corridors and goods lifts.
Fair go Leonie and me are Pi - - ing ourselves discretly laughing but I dare not take another photo in store.

The medical pack and the trolley with the safety belt......

They had a medical centre with 3 doctors there so after 30 minutes of examination and paper work admitting liability and offers of a Taxi, which was declined, we were out of there with an escort from one of the Security to the front door..
OH and while we were at the medical dept, an employee with a below the elbow amputation walked by. I think the comment was something like " must have been an accident with a plate in the homeware dept".....

Showing the injury at the tube station...

On to have a look from the highest point in Paris....

Using the Funiculare de Montmartre saved the many steps climb...


And at the top is the....

Basilique du Sacre- Coeur.. Catholic Religion.....  there was a fella playing guitar and singing pretty good on the steps, the reason for the crowd....

Next day Dales leg was a bit stiff but she endured the pain, like tough'n up, and we made the journey back to the Eiffel Tower to have a look from the second landing....

Opens at 9.30am so we actually set the alarm to get there early and not queue.
Arrived about 9.42am and joined the queue about 350 people back.....

The day was quite misty which cleared later.....







 But there's some great views....

Champ de Mars in the centre  with the lawns leading to Ecole Militaire......

A great trip Dale...... thanks for the entertainment.....

There's a lot of structural repair work being carried out..... starting to feel its age.....

Had a stroll over the.....

Alexandre 111 bridge... built 1896 - 1900....

 

 

Regarded as the ......

Most ornate and extravagant bridge in Paris....

A great city to visit but be prepared to BLEED........

Think'n Kinky.....

Across the River  Seine there are a lot of bridges and with Paris being the "city of love", apparently, some of the bridges have a reputation.
So off we headed to two particular bridges on the map and when we arrived at the first " Holy Cow"
what's this all about. Bridges of love, romance and proposals.
Na, it's gotta be "Bondage" kinky sorta things going on because every inch of the upper structure is covered......

 

In Padlocks of all shapes and sizes....... Pont de l Archeveche bridge by the Notre - Dame.....


Had a good look around but couldn't see any one in Leather or carrying a whip then got talking to a local who told us....

 

They're "Love Locks " Bro,...... Couples put there name or initials on the lock, fast'n it to the bridge then throw the key in the "Drink".......  Together forever..... Yeah Rite.... Until she finds some one with a "Bigger Whip"......
Tie the key to a piece of nylon I reckon.....

Off to find the other bridge and along the Seine were  several Dutch barge live aboards.
This one had a tidy.....

Barbecue and drinks area on deck.....

Found the next bridge, it's by the Louvre.......

Pont des Arts built 1802 and Paris first steel bridge....

Trying to shoot the perfect photo, is there such a thing, takes patience as there's so many sightseers and.....

 

To take this photo I had to wait like Days, 4minutes anyway, because there  were two males, looked to me like they batted for the same side, who at first I thought we may witness a Suicide Pack or similar but no they were just trying to decide who would go on Top.... Whos initial on the padlock......


Across the road to the Musee du Louvre where.....




They keep the Mona Lisa.......

Didn't go inside but the size and.....

Detail in the building and architecture is amazing.....


Then in the middle of the original courtyard they.....

Build the entrance way to the museum.... Blended in Awesome.......

On wards through the city and passed by this.....




Gallery which was a stunner inside.......

Visited the Hotel des Invalides which was built to house war veterans, old and with injuries, who had served a minimum of 20 yrs......

Commissioned by Louis X1V it was built 1670 - 1676......  must have had a huge labour force.....

Every window in the roof, outer and inner perimeter, has.....

 

Detail like this... all different... and there are dozens of them.....

The building also includes a spectacular dome which beneath lies.....

The Tomb of Napolean 1840......

The building now houses the military museum etc and the largest of 15 courtyards........

Has several old cannons on show........

This one would have taken some effort to move around.......