Fancy Dress Party

This morning we awoke to find an email from Rachel & David.  Until six months ago they were living in Perth, Western Australia but have returned to the UK and bought a narrowboat (nb Black Velvet).  Rachel is blogging about their life on the cut <link here>.  Their blog address is also on our own blog list. 

Later in the day an email arrived from a fellow Kiwi expat currently living in Liverpool.  Mike & Liz have a boat in France and have written a book about their experiences <link here>.  That makes the 3rd Kiwi couple we know of who have spent some of their life boating in France.

Today we went into Doncaster to have a look around the markets.  I think we visited three different markets.

It must have been a special day because a fancy dress party was in progress

OK, OK, they are Morris Dancers, a distinctly English activity.  Apparently there are a number of expat groups around the world.  Not that I’ve seen any of them!  Jan loves watching them.

I enjoyed looking at the architecture inside the old Corn Market.  The wrought ironwork was particularly interesting.  The lower floor is an indoor market and the upper a cafe and craft market.  To the rear are the meat, poultry and fish markets where Jan bought a selection of Cumberland and Lincolnshire sausages.

We then wandered around the town centre.  As we move between towns we’re noticing more and more that all the shops are starting to look very similar.

There were a couple of interesting things today.  The first was the stall in the mall.  It’s the first time I’ve seen any public advertising for the Brexit Out campaign and the tent appeared to to be drawing considerable interest.

If I were attempting to reduce this issue to a simple question I’d ask “Do you want to be British or European?” 

From our mooring we can see a tangible sign of the decline of the commercial life of the canal.  The large brick building in the middle of the next photo has the words “Canal Depot” in large letters.

It hasn’t be used for canal related activities for many years.  To the left of the white dutch barge is another smaller brick building which has Canal & River Trust on it.  This building is also boarded up.  The moorings are secure behind a locked gate operated by a BW key.