I have a photo of Tiger taken at this point.
He looks teh evil.
I mean, like that girl in front of the burning house.

I would love to share it with you, but it would be so wrong, especially as there is a chance it might escape this board. Trust me, it is a classic though. I'm going to email it to Tiger-Mum.

Watching the lock.

Then off to the second lock, not far away.
Boat about to enter.

Remember how I mentioned A, who it was perhaps best not to pair with Tiger?
Note detail here and below.

Looks very nice, Sundae.

But...

Lovely, Sundae! (Oh, and I think the dude looks like LJ ...)

So, the children wear school uniforms, but are allowed to wear their own coats to school, is that right? It's so easy to see their gang colors. The pink gang is the one I'd be most afraid of.

He's a very bright boy and I really like him.
Just sometimes I do turn my head and grin into my hand.
And other times I feel like turning him upside down and dunking him in a bucket of cold water.

Anyway - child cruelty aside...

We were SO lucky.
The Tessa was crewed by two wonderfully relaxed people. The lady steering was so good she got through locks with only one gate and never touched the sides. I know people in the boating community who could not do that and she did it twice in a row - effortlessly, gracefully - with many staring eyes.

As they came through the second lock they asked if the children would like to walk through their boat! What? A bunch of 20-odd 5-7 year olds you have never even seen before? Wow, that's altruism. And the mark of people with absolutely nothing to hide!

So we did, and they did and the children behaved beautifully. And I am so grateful to them. I know boat-folk are supposed to be friendly, but this was so generous.

After that, hot-foot it back for our rendezvous with Charlie.
A short trip taking us into the Blisworth Tunnel which runs 1.3 miles. On a narrow boat it takes approx one hour, but of course we just dipped into it. It's a popular river boat trip, especially for wedding parties in the summer. You have a bar and a disco and go from a sunny afternoon into pitch black for a while :)

Boarding Charlie.

Clod - yes, school uniform does not include coats at this age.
Although some of them are wearing Bierton School kagouls or fleeces.
I think it becomes uniform after 11 - at least it did when I was at school.
Although these days the girls the older girls mostly throw on jumpers, scarves, hats etc. Coats and jackets are a bit passe.

I'm down with the Pink Crew.
They are horrified at my coatlessness, but they accept that if it snows I do have a pink coat.

Infi & Limey - that is a parent volunteer.
I often get a lift home with his wife - both members of the PTA and she works lunchtimes at school as well as being a parent volunteer reader. Very good people.
There is a further pic of him coming up. He looks like neither, but I had to google Ned Beatty :)

Say Hello!
Here comes the tunnel.

Just to clarify - wedding parties do not use narrow boats like this :)
Obviously more than one type of boat uses this canal.

I took this pic in the dark, pointing and shooting blindly and using the flash.
None of the childer at that end of the boat were spooked anyway, they loved it.
I had an apprehensive girl either side of me, and Mrs M and Mr G had once each. There were screams when they turned the light out (only briefly, but three times) but they were just for the thrill of the noise.

We passed the blacksmith on the way in, but my shot was blurry.
So I took another one on the way back, only to find he had come out to greet us.
It's a real working blacksmith, not a part of the museum, but my photos do make him look a little like a Halloween figure :eek:

Pic and detail

Lock me, Amadeus!

From here we ate lunch by the canalside.
I kept my six on a tight rein - we ate on some steps as the others were there before us and there were no tables left except those right beside the canal. Oh,nononono.

Unfortunately my personal draw meant that I ended up with about 18 children, like some deranged child catcher. Okay - it was mostly children wanting to sit with friends, but I do attract some of the more talkative ones.

Next we went to do some dressing up.
After the earlier refusals (in the museum) I think some children felt left out of the fuss I made of the three who tried things on.
Who had his hand up first and was chosen (probably because of his height)?
Tiger.
I was surprised but very pleased.

Here he is with his fellow volunteer.

And of course after that (not being selected makes things so much more attractive) there were only four children who didn't dress up.

Our group.
And Tiger with another child from my class (who looked very dapper).

These aren't current pictures of course.
We went back in time to get them.

Cute kids. I love the one in the front with his arms crossed and the big grin on his face.

He has bright red hair in colour.
Lovely kid, but has a constant-toxic looking ooze... from his nose of course!

Not to ruin your illusion of course.

Funny thing is, when Mum came to school to see the Nativity last year (when I already had a contract to work with Tiger but was waiting for my CRB) we met him outside, working with a speech therapist.
Mum said something like "Maybe that's [Tiger]. That wouldn't be so bad, he seems... normal." Because she assumed I would be working with a creature that had no skin and a vestigal tail...

These are awesome! I wish we had more canals like this in the US.