We had a wedding to go to on Saturday 14th August 2021 so we left The Duke safely moored up at it’s home base at Heyford Wharf and Hilary collected an Enterprise rental van from Bicester for a road trip.
We stopped off at the excellent Gloucester Services on the M5 for breakfast. The queue was so long for the breakfast baps that we left with BBQ beef wraps from the Farm Shop, but they were excellent and packed with chunks of beef the size of golf balls!
We made good time and arrived back home in Watchet early on Thursday (12/08/2021) afternoon. We had haircuts and while Hilary visited her nail lady, Vera and Steve went to check out the Esplanade Club.
We enlisted God’s blessing for our venture with Holy Water from Pebbles Tavern.
We noticed that Watchet Cider had adopted famous prostitute Big J.’s image on the pump clip. She was a working girl providing services for sailors when Watchet was a working port in the 1970’s. When a local enquired as to how business was going, Big J had replied “Great. If I had 2 fannies I could open in Williton”! This blurred image probably indicates what it looks like after consuming a few pints of it!
In the afternoon Steve caught up with Cosmo and Jill in the West Somerset Hotel after shopping in the Co-op. On the morning of Friday 13th Vera was keen for a swim in the Bristol Channel at West Beach.
In the evening we took Kevin and Julie for a meal in the thatched roofed Masons Arms pub in Williton. They have done a stirling job in cleaning, maintaining and preparing our house for guests to stay in while we have been on the narrowboat.
The site was being prepared for Watchet Music Festival on August Bank Holiday weekend. Our friend Jill was setting up the lounge area for the artistes and had brought back the white leather sofa required by Sister Sledge on their rider from Lincoln, with her dog Garry lounging on it in the back of the car.
This is the line-up for this year. Steve recommends seeing Dr Meaker if you are going.
We caught up with our good friend Barry on the Esplanade in the afternoon.
On Saturday morning it was Lateral Flow Test for COVID-19 with bacon rolls for breakfast. This was a proviso for wedding guests.
We then jumped into the Peugeot Expert and drove to Langford where Richard and Jill had kindly offered to put us up and their daughter Laura would look after Vera while we were at the wedding. Laura drove us all to the wedding at Congresbury and we were soon heading for the church.
Lizzie was marrying George, who was an army captain, and he had four of his sergeant friends in bearskins at the church door.
After the wedding ceremony and the vicar’s rendition of “I’m forever blowing bubbles” while handing out bubble blowing kits as his recipe for happiness, we walked to The Birches, the Knott family home, for the reception.
Imagine our surprise when the final group photograph was taken by a drone! Single ladies waited to try and catch the bridal bouquet.
A splendid repast was taken in the marquee on the lawn.
It had become a tradition for Steve to provide music for the toilets, as he had done for Abby and Victoria, and now it was Lizzie’s turn. Despite peaking too early on the champagne and having to have a lie down in the evening, Steve kept the CD’s spinning in the conveniences which had an old-style car CD radio player in the central control room.
The weather was better than predicted by the forecasters and a good time was had by all, despite all of the draft beer being consumed in record time.
Thanks for all the past few weeks of your long trip. We have booked a mobile home again at Blue Anchor Bay (Hoburne) site from Sat 9th October. So hopefully be able to come to see you whilst there. My friend Marion will be with me in her car & staying for the week. We thoroughly enjoyed our week last year as I felt safe from Covid where we fed & looked after our selves. Will phone you nearer the time. Looks as though you had a great time away on the narrow boat. Love Betty