Silent Dublin Adventures by Cosmo

So once we were safely moored in Robertstown mum & Auntie Joy set off to an IWAI (Inland Waterways Association Ireland) meeting aka a pub night. Mum was wanting to find out the next information for this years Dublin Rally. The Dublin Rally takes place every year where an organised convoy of boats crosses the River Liffey in Dublin from both The Royal canal & The Grand Canal directions. Mum kind of likens it to doing The Ribble link as you have to book & do a scarey big river bit! Oh gawd!! Better hang on by our claws Daquiri.

But then there is a real bonus this year in that the IWAI is running the 2020BC or 2020 Big Cruise which is a whole host of fabulous boat rallies & events that can be linked together. The aim is to encourage folks out & about onto the waters & to promote the waterways. Not that mum needs any encouragement but she’ll be able to cruise with other boats. We have fallen very lucky that this is on this year. The link is here for 2020BC

So at the pub night the good news is mum managed to pick up this marvellous chart with the dates of all the events on.

The bad news is there’s a major breach on the way into Dublin on The Grand Canal which has now been delayed & is not going to be finished in time. Discussions are being held with Irish Water to find workarounds eg craning all boats out & transporting round or building a temporary route round. But it all sounds quite major expensive & complicated so at this stage we’re not sure what’s happening.

So we have a plan B of not going into Dublin & joining in with events on The Grand Canal & the Barrow first then going out into the Shannon & up onto The Royal canal for August for the Float to the Fleadh event that we’ve already booked & paid for. So the situation & our route at the moment is rather fluid.

But we do have a plan for our next month… we’re going to head to Edenderry for St Patrick’s Day to watch the parade then further along to Tullamore for the Tradfest then back to Edenderry for the Easter Rally. By then we should know the verdict of the Dublin Rally & if it’s not to be we’ll just have to do it next year.

So back to Robertstown. Auntie Joy left us in the middle of the night n the pitch dark to return back to the U.K. so now we’re all totally alone over here but if feels rather good to be so free. We have really fallen in love with this village. It has a great embankment just behind the boat where we’re able to have lots of offlead fun as we’re “contained” as mum calls it. We’ve had mainly beautiful sunny days so spent lots of time on walkies & mum has been able to get back into the swing of things with her google work.

One day we had a mixture of rain & sunshine & we looked out of our window to just catch the most beautiful rainbow.

And another morning we caught a beautiful sunrise. Well mum did out of the window we were still fast asleep.

On Saturday mum decided to abandon us again & she went off on another Dublin adventure. After sussing out the buses by visiting the pub & asking in there I mean any excuse!! She says the info is confusing as it says no buses on Saturdays on some of timetables & on the bus stop anyway she was relieved when one turned up.

After a journey of 1.5hrs & a 17.60 euro return ticket she hopped off at Ha’Penny Bridge right in the centre of The Temple Bar area of Dublin. You’ve guessed it more pubs!

Once she’d partaken in a delicious dish of beef & Guinness stew (where’s ours?!) she was off on another of her crazy ideas. This one is called a Silent Disco. I mean what the feck is the point of that! A disco with silent music. Anyway apparently everyone wears these headphones where they can hear the music & they dance their way round Dublin looking like total prats. But mum assured us it was the most incredible fun tour. God I hope she doesn’t put earphones on us for walkies.

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Should you wish to partake in this silliness the link is here Silent Adventures

Apparently afterall that jigging mum was thirsty so had to go into another pub. Though this one had live music playing so she stayed there killing time before her long bus journey home listening to Wild Rover amongst other tunes . Apparently though she didn’t drink much but only because of wanting a pee on the long bus journey home.

Hopefully that’s the end to her shenanigans. .

oh dear lord no…… how much is a single ferry ticket to England please??!! Look what she’s done to us!!!

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That Sinking Feeling by Cosmo

We stayed about a week at Stonebridge & mum was very happy as she got her bespoke desk built by Cluett Carpentry

Then it was time to brave central London. We fell lucky on the locks & shared the first two with a chilled out Rastafarian & the next six with 2 guys & their 5 month old puppy. We tied up at Angel a couple of days before the festival.

Mum found us a few small green areas for walkies but it was nowhere near as nice as being outside London. Friday evening cemented our dislike of central London. We awoke at about 3am on a real slant. Mum was having trouble staying on the bed & we were sliding on the floor. We didn’t like it & were getting very scared. At 5am mum got up & took us out which was a good move as a bit later we’d have had a right jump to get off. The tilt just got worse & all the stock came crashing down in the boat & crockery slid out of the cupboards smashing mums favourite cup. Daquiri twice tried to jump up on the bed but couldn’t make it due to the tilt & landed in an undignified heap on the floor. At 7am mum gave up & rang the emergency CRT helpline. Luke on the boat in front heard mum & got up to help running water slowly down from the lock above. By now we were on such a tilt we were cms away from taking water onboard.

Eventually the levels came up but went back down again in the afternoon. We couldn’t trade as we had such a gap between the bank & the boat but we were all so tired anyway from lack of sleep! In the evening mum went across for a BBQ organised by St Pancras cruising club & caught up with a few friends. Luke was delivering people by canoe as it was a long walk round!

Sunday the sun shone & we had a good days trading at the festival. Mum even made it into the papers Islington Tribune.

Once we’d packed down as some of the festival boats had moved we were able to move too through the bridge to deeper water which was a good job as the water levels went down again a few days later but we were safe this time.

We had a lovely surprise visit from Helen Marie on Tuesday & she brought us pressies to chew which we were munched through straight away. Thank you HM

We stayed another week at Angel as mum had to catch a  train on Friday to Southampton for her Calendar Club training day. We weren’t impressed when she got us up in the dark at 5am! As mum was out all day we had a doggie walker come in at lunchtime from Daisys Dog Walks We were very well behaved for our doggie walk. Mum came home late & tired.

Saturday she went off to Camden market as this was really her last full day in London.Now I swear to God she should not be allowed out by herself. Just look at the coat she’s bought!! She thinks its hilarious. We’ll have to be seen out with her wearing it no doubt! Sooner she leaves it somewhere we can chew it the better….