Remember folks, it's your votes that count

Day 23, Laleham to Teddington Lock

Nicholson's says something sniffy to the effect that Laleham doesn't embrace the river; doesn't have the waterfront presence of other Thames side towns and villages. Maybe it is bacause I too have not embraced the river, but I thought that it was no bad thing. A brief foray into Laleham for the last Guardian in the local shop left me with the impression of a rather lovely place which reminded me a little of Wivenhoe (I had a job interview at Essex once).

Approaching Kingston Bridge

We set off this morning with the Lucky Ducks still in tow, with the sun shining on us for a change. Realising that we had left it too late, as usual, to give the technically requisite 24 hours' notice to go through Brentford, but hoping nonetheless to get through tonight, I spent the day on the phone trying to get through to them. It was only this evening, long after the tide had passed, and we were tearing our hair out, that I realised that I had been dialling the wrong number all day, having managed to transpose two of the digits. (Apparently the number given in Nicholson's is also wrong).
Having got he right number, thanks to a kind fellow narrow boater, I got through straight away and we should be leaving Teddington at seven tomorrow morning. There is apparently a convocation of Dutch barges (we think Luxemotors) taking place at (we think) St Catherines Dock, and they are all waiting as well - at least, fourteen are, to go out earlier tomorrow. The lock keeper says that all the others have to wait at Kingston tonight. They do make an impressive sight.

So here we are, at Teddington Lock. Famous for being the setting of the legendary Monty Python Fish Slapping Dance, but for me forever associated with Hughie Green and Opportunity Knocks. Every week I wanted to send in our vote on a postcard to Thames Television, Teddington Lock, Middlesex, but for parents who thought that watching ITV at all was a bit infra dig, such participation would have been a vulgarity too far. Not to mention the cost of the stamp. I wonder if today's young Big Brother voters can conceive of postcard-based interactivity.

And so to bed, remembering first to work out how to set the alarm....