A night to remember

Right across the nation, Guy Fawkes Night was severely restricted by the new lockdown. In St Albans, it meant that the normal mega-display in the city's Verulamium Park couldn't go ahead.

(Photos, Herts Advertiser)

But St Albans Cathedral, the organisers of this annual event for more decades than I can remember, were not dismayed. To replace the ticket money they normally take from the thousands who attend, they launched a crowdfund, which raised the money to fund fireworks and charity. And this is what they did.

"Instead of a ticketed event for thousands of people in Verulamium Park, we took inspiration from New York's approach to this year's 4 July celebrations and are planning an aerial display. This display will be visible from doorsteps across the city, without the need for people to leave their homes. We estimate that 55,000 people will be able to see the fireworks in St Albans, due to the positioning of the firing sites. It will also be live streamed on our YouTube channel."

And so it was that the Distill family (minus Jess, who's still in Iceland) stood out in the street at 6:00, wrapped up warm, drinks in hand, and watched the aerial firework display. And we weren't disappointed. Somehow, it felt more special to me than the mega-display in the park has ever done. And they were special! 

Afterwards, we sat around a fire in the garden and Naomi served us sausage and squash stew, washed down with wine or beer, followed by marshmallows toasted on the fire and sandwiched between chocolate biscuits. It was a great time of fun and chat and laughter, and we finally went indoors just in time to see the Ten O'Clock News and hear the good news of the US presidential election. Truly a night to remember!

This is where we came in

"We're leaving the marina today, going back to the house to ride out winter and the big C. Best wishes to all of you out on the cut."

I posted that on Facebook yesterday morning. And here I am twenty-four hours later, sitting at my dining table and looking out at the autumnal garden that seems to be calling out for a little attention.

It'll get it in the spring.

After our Christmas/winter stay in the house last year, we returned to Kantara on March 3rd. My first blog post when I got back started, "We awoke this morning in a very cold boat. 8° cold, in fact. No matter! We're here, come storm or coronavirus!" Shortly after came coronavirus. And lockdown. And we've come back to our house now because of... Lockdown! This is where we came in.

Shortly after I posted that, I read a lovely story from one of the boaters' groups on Facebook.

"A couple of days ago we were mooring up in Leamington. It was blowing a hoolie and I was struggling to pull the boat into the bank. (I'm a 6ft 3, 18 stone ex rugby player). Suddenly this Chinese student appeared; she was about 5ft nothing and couldn't have weighed more than 7 stone. Before I could say anything she grabbed the rope off me  hauled the boat in and held it there whilst we tied up. Then she disappeared as fast as she appeared, before I could even say thank you. I'd been well and truly owned!"

There's not a lot else to say at the moment. The house is in chaos because of us bringing back much of the contents of Kantara and adding it to our stuff  already here, plus Steve and Karolina's stuff, a lot of which is various furniture waiting for their extension to be completed. Ours has never been a tidy house, but this is something else! Jess returns from Iceland in a month's time, and then it'll be really funny! But it's good to be here to sit out the winter and the lockdown.

Be safe, be well, everybody.