Monday 21st June

A bit of a late start – these are becoming all too regular!! We had to go into Kings Cross to go to the Post Office with 42 large envelopes that I’d filled for Breast Cancer UK – there are still another 51 to do! We left Kings Cross (which was such a lovely spot) and headed into the Islington Tunnel. After that the scenery went very much down hill but every now and again we would come across a lovely block of flats. There was so much graffiti around though on buildings (even some of the new blocks of flats) and under bridges. We were very fortunate to come across another boat going our way so we shared the last seven locks with them. There were three men on board so I didn’t have to do very much – thy kept telling me to get back on board – yes sir! We arrived in Limehouse Basin about 4.30pm and went to look at the Thames – it’s awfully wide!! I’m worried about wash from bigger boats – we will have to batten down the hatches in the morning! We are booked in the 7.45am lock and will have three other narrow boats for company up the Thames – so will be a little flotilla. Tonight we had our second visitor. I used to work with Blair about 15 years ago and she now lives in Bow which, as she says, is a hop/skip from Limehouse! We had a lovely evening –it was great to see her again. After Blair had gone we wandered over to the river to look at it in the dark. The view back to Canary Wharf actually took my breath away. Having seen Hong Kong and Shanghai in the dark I was really surprised to see that London now has a similar skyline. I wonder if we will sleep tonight worrying about the tidal Thames tomorrow?!