Rowkin Rovings Blog

20^th September 2016

Busy morning as 1 ½ hours of cruising to do; shopping and filling up with water and meeting with our BFF’s W+M who we spent 50 days with at the beginning of our trip.

A little fresh when poking our noses out from under the blankets but Di seemed to have a bee in her bonnet to get going. Cruising back into Birmingham it was past the Cadbury factory again and then a stop at the Sainsbury supermarket for our final food shop.

We find the roof lines of many of the towns and cities of England interesting and they provoke a reminder of Coronation Street. It is not all doom and gloom as a lot of these homes are lovingly cared for. The chimney pots come in all shapes and sizes and have seen some old ones made into great garden ornaments. The center of Birmingham has undergone a remarkable regeneration programme which has carried across to the canals. If you had been in Birmingham in the 1960’s you would find it hard to imagine that it is the same place. The canals were just dumping grounds for rubbish and there was no thought to their preservation. But for those canal enthusiasts, they would have all been filled in by now.

Got into the center of town at 12 midday and went down to the Oozells loop to find Ange d’leau and breast up beside her. It was like putting on and old sock again.

W+M were out doing some shopping so used the time productively doing fun things like emails…….

We caught up with the guys about 1.30pm and spent the afternoon doing canal goss and drinking the bottomless cups of tea. It just felt so natural to be back with these guys. We exchanged gifts which had a lot of fun history and meaning behind them. M had made us the most wonderful patchwork quilt with a special message on the bottom of it about our trip together. It has been a little difficult to get in the message down the bottom.

W had meantime done a fantastic collage of our time together. So many special memories. We will try in the next few days to see if we can put the document on the blog.

There are plans afoot to meet up in a week on our way down to Heathrow and for catching up again in the not too distant future. We celebrated tonight by having an Indian dinner but not the last supper.